Nilgiri Mountain Railway – Go for a Joy Ride on this heritage train

The Nilgiri Mountain Railway, one of the oldest mountain railways in India connects Mettupalayam to the hill station of Ooty. The entire journey is a spectacle in itself as this rack railway system chugs along the slopes of the Nilgiri Hills of Southern India.


During my recent trip to the Nilgiris, I decided to revive some of my childhood memories by going on a joy ride in this heritage train.


The initial plan was to go from Ooty right up to Mettupalayam, but since the services from Coonoor to Mettupalayam were temporarily closed, me and my friends ended up going only from Ooty to Coonoor on this toy train.

 
We arrived at the Ooty railway station at 11:00 am, stood in the ticket counter for about 30 minutes and got ourselves general class tickets that cost about three rupees per head.


First class tickets that cost seventy five rupees per head are also available on this train, but since the number of first class seats are very limited, they got sold out very quickly.


This entire heritage train has about 5 compartments and out of which one is first class and the rest are all general compartments. There are no rest rooms on the train.


The train, from the inside, is really like a toy train, and tall people like me will find the seats pretty cramped. Hence, I renounced my seat and preferred to stand for the entire journey that lasted about an hour.


Since I was standing, I could easily get down at all the railway stations that came enroute from Udagamandalam and Coonoor. These stations were Lovedale, Ketty, Aruvankadu and Wellington.


These stations were quite different from the ones at Ooty and Coonoor. They were relatively calm and peaceful and only a few people could be seen standing on the platform. Also, the large pine trees that surround these stations make for a very serene experience.

 
The journey in itself was great. The bridges, the tall pine trees, the lovely hill views, the terraced plantations, the wild flowers and the overall feeling of chugging along through such pristine beauty is a fabulous experience.


Upon reaching Coonoor, me and my friends reached an unanimous decision that we would wait for a while and do a photo shoot of this heritage train during its next journey.


So, off we went on a short climb on the railway track to set ourselves up on a nice curve from where we could get decent photographs of the entire train.


The wait was fairly short before the train left on its next trip and started climbing up from Coonoor to Ooty. Soon, the photo shoot was over and all of us left as a happy bunch to explore the other parts of Coonoor.

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Monsoon Camping by Emerald Lake in the Nilgiri Mountains

As a thumb rule, I prefer trekking over camping in the monsoons, but this time around I decided to buck my preferences and go on a monsoon camping trip to the Nilgiri Mountains. And boy was it a fabulous experience.


Our campsite was beside the Emerald Lake, that is one of the eight lakes that make up the lake ecosystem of Red Hills. The Red Hills belt is situated about 20 kilometres from the popular hill station of Ooty in Tamil Nadu, India.

 
So four of us in a car with all our camping equipment land just after lunch on a Saturday afternoon at Emerald Lake. One cannot camp at all places here as it falls under the purview of the Emerald Dam.


The only place where camping is allowed is near the ‘Surukku Palam’ or shrunken bridge that connects both sides of the Emerald Lake.


And since this part of the Nilgiris had received very less rainfall this year, we could take our car right onto the lake bed and near our camp site.


In a short while, we had set up our tents and laid out our sleeping bags inside. The next thing on our agenda was to collect enough firewood to set up a camp fire to allow us to cook our food and to keep us warm in the night.


Once we were all settled, we took out our photography gear and decided to capture the view of the misty hills, the tea estates, the lake and the houses on the slopes. And all this was visible right from our campsite.

 
During this entire setup, we kept getting intermittent rains, but they hardly deterred us from having our share of fun.


Luckily for us, the rains let off as darkness set in and we could cook our dinner without any worry. Dinner consisted of boiled eggs, atta maggi, groundnuts and bread and cheese. It was a simple, but sumptuous affair.


After dinner, what followed was our traditional jinga-la-la dance around the camp fire and then some time was spent staring at the stars that somehow managed to make their way through the monsoon clouds above.

 
Soon, the excitement got over and tiredness set in. All of us were well tucked into our respective sleeping bags much before 10 pm. Soon, it started raining and the temperatures started plummeting, but all of us slept peacefully.


The next thing we realized was it was a cloudy and nippy morning outside our tents. After finishing our morning ablutions, we proceeded to re-light the camp fire that was doused in the heavy rains in the night. And as soon as we had a decent fire going, we made ourselves a hearty breakfast.


After breakfast, we packed all our equipment, collected all our trash and headed off to our next destination. Overall, a great monsoon camping experience in the Nilgiri mountains for all of us.

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Steam Engine in front of Coonoor Railway Station

It is the steam engines of the ‘Mountain Railways of India’ that have led to their inclusion in the UNESCO world heritage sites.


The Himalayan railway of West Bengal and the Nilgiri railway of Tamil Nadu are the most famous ones.


In this case, I spotted a steam locomotive from the 19th century in front of the Coonoor railway station. It was just this one piece in what looked like an open museum.

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Kodanad: Jayalalithaa’s Home in the Nilgiri Mountains

Kodanad is one of the most scenic spots in the Nilgiris with scintillating 220 degree views, tall and dense pine forests, beautifully green tea estates and a pleasant nip in the air. It is situated about 20 kilometres from Kotagiri, the oldest hill station in the Nilgiri Mountains of Tamil Nadu.


What is also special about Kodanad is that it is the home of AIADMK chief and ex-chief minister of Tamil Nadu, Ms. Jayalalithaa.


Jayalalithaa owns close to 1.600 acres of pristine land here. In fact, most of the tea estates and forest area fall under her property. A palatial bungalow situated on one corner is Jayalalithaa’s summer home and relaxing centre. Locals say that her property is so huge that it has nine different gates to enter from, though only extremely important people are allowed even with prior appointments.


This is where Ms. Jayalalitha comes to relax and get stress-free. In fact, when I was a couple of weeks back, I saw a lot of policemen patrol the area and on asking them, I found out that amma (Ms. Jayalalitha) was indeed present there.


My driver and local guide told me that Ms. Jayalalitha comes here to undergo Ayurvedic and medical treatments. They also mentioned that the tea grown in the Kodanad estates are of superior quality and most of it is exported to the international market.


Even if someone parks their car here just to do some sightseeing, the security guards come rushing in. That is how tight the security cover is.


But, even though the security is very tight here, one should definitely visit Kodanad for the splendid views it offers and for a walk through the misty tea estates.

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Kodanad’s 220 degree view of the Nilgiri Mountains

This is one of the most spectacular places in the Nilgiri Mountains. A 220 degree view is just the icing on the cake.


Kodanad view point is situated about 18 kilometres from Kotagiri, the oldest hill station in the Nilgiris. It should be about 40 kilometres from Ooty.


The locals of the Nilgiris suggest that Kodanad offers much superior views when compared to the one from Dodda Betta near Ooty or any of the view points at Ooty, Coonoor or Kotagiri. And once you reach Kodanad, you will tend to agree with them.


One has to cross waves of tea estates and pine trees to reach the Kodanad view point. In fact, there are 3 different view points at Kodanad and decent infrastructure has been provided to reach all the three of them.


And all three of them provide un-paralleled views of the lower Bhavani Sagar Reservoir, the waves of the Nilgiri ranges, the flat villages below, the Moyar river and the surrounding forest cover.


Unfortunately, for me, I don’t have a wide-angle or a fisheye lens and couldn’t capture the entire panorama, but I did try my level best to capture the misty view in my 17-40 lens.

 
The best time to admire the view here is during sunrise and up to 3 pm in the evening. After 3 pm, the view tends to get misty as it has in the pictures above.


Apart from admiring the view at the three view points here, one can also trek down the hills to the flat below. If you start at sunrise, you can reach the flat below by noon and return by sunset. The return climb can be slightly taxing though.


In fact, one of the more adventurous treks begins here and follows the course of the Moyar river and ends in at the Mudumalai wildlife sanctuary. This trek is supposed to take about 3-4 days and is on my ‘TO DO Treks in the Western Ghats’ list.

 
Overall, this is a spectacular place and is a must visit place. So, if you are headed to the Nilgiris, do remember to add this place to your list.

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