Thinking about travelling during the Covid-19 pandemic was a tough call always, with your inner voice telling you whether its ethical enough to travel for leisure purpose when the world is suffering, is it safe enough for people around you, if you expose yourself to the potential infection during your travel and is it logical enough to travel, where the sudden lockdowns were the new norms and you might get stuck during your travel, because of the lockdown imposed on the state where you are travelling.
But all in all, one must remember the fact that, the life must go on, and so is the passion to travel and explore. So, we decided to begin our travel journey, when we saw the 1st wave of Covid-19 died down in India. We took careful and calculated decision by choosing the places where we travel and how we travel to avoid the issues and maintain the Covid appropriate behavior as much as possible.
So, here we were, set out on our short journey on our bike from Bengaluru to Kotagiri Hillstation which is situated in Tamilnadu, over 2 days. Our sole aim was to get out of our monotonous WFH life, atleast for a day or two and spend some time out on the road travelling. We wanted a short route and a new place which we haven't visited so far, where we came across Kotagiri Hillstation which was in our bucket list when we previously visited Coonoor/Ooty but couldn't visit back in 2017.
So, here is the short photo blog on our journey to Kotagiri Hillstation, which we did during Feb 2021. We also love to document our journey, so that it will be useful for others to plan in similar way and improvise on our itinerary.
Brief Itinerary:
Day - 1: Bike Ride from Bengaluru -> Kotagiri
Distance b/w Bengaluru -> Kotagiri: 360kms (7hrs 30mins) ride.
Route taken: Bengaluru -> Hosur -> Dharampuri -> Mettur -> Sathyamangalam -> Kotagiri.
Our stay was pre-booked at Green Nest Resort, which is in Kotagiri, right in the middle of the Kotagiri Tea estates, on the route towards Ooty.
We started our journey at around 6:30am from Bengaluru, on the Hosur -> Dharampuri highway and deviated towards Mettur (famous for Mettur dam) and then the dense forests patch of Sathyamangalam, which was beautiful yet challenging ride. We took the e-pass to enter the Tamilandu (covid e-pass) and eventually reached Kotagiri by 3pm in the afternoon for a late lunch at the resort.
We couldn't explore Kotagiri town and also couldn't visit Kodanad View point which is the main attraction of Kotagiri, due to late evening heavy rain which continued all the way till next day too (due to a cyclone in the bay of bengal). But we were lucky enough to be right in the middle of Kotagiri Tea estates, so we spent a good time exploring the Tea estates around the resort to content ourselves.
Day - 2: Return bike ride from Kotagiri to Bengaluru
The rains continued to lash the next day as well, ending any chance for us to visit Kodanad View point or explore the Kotagiri town. But we were happy and content that, we got an opportunity to ride and reach beautiful town of Kotagiri and spend some time amidst the lush green Tea estates of Kotagiri.
And we learned that, the rains were very heavy around Ooty and Bandipur side, the route through which, we intended to ride back home to Bengaluru.
So, we decided to take the same route from which we came from for our return journey, via Sathyamangalam -> Mettur -> Dharampuri -> Hosur -> Bengaluru. We reached back Bengaluru by 7pm, with memories of our 2 day journey to Kotagiri.
Places to Visit around Kotagiri:
Kodanad View point (18kms/35mins)
Catherine Waterfalls (10kms/20mins)
Sundatty Waterfalls (15kms/30mins)
Visit to Ooty from Kotagiri (30kms/1hr)
Visit to Coonoor from Kotagiri (20kms/35mins)
Stay details:
Green Nest Resort, Kotagiri.
Our stay in Kotagiri was in Green Nest Resort, which is nestled amidst the tea Plantations of Kotagiri. The resort was well located atleast 5-6 kms inside from the main Kotagiri -> Ooty road and the entire 5-6kms route is between the Tea Plantations.
The resort check-in process was very smooth and the rooms were clean and neat. The surrounding of the resort was a best place to walk around, there was a short trek also to reach a higher ground from where the sunset views would be mesmerizing along with the view of entire Tea Plantations.
The resort is a perfect stay option especially for the families, since there were couple of play areas of kids, a walking park for all age groups and a nice restaurant with multiple cuisine options. And great thing was the short walks around the resort and quiet atmosphere away from the town or city life.
Contact details for booking the homestay:
For more detailed information or itinerary on Bike trips or Trekking in Karnataka or other awesome places in India, please contact HillTrotters@gmail.com or visit our Facebook page "HillTrotters", also subscribe to us on YouTube channel with "HillTrotters Travelogues".
Please contact HillTrotters@gmail.com for any suggestions or travel related queries.
With Thanks,
HillTrotters Team