Conoor: Another quaint hill station around 320 km from Bangalore. We were looking for a quick weekend getaway and chose Coonoor, a sort of not so touristy, yet beautiful hill station. Coonoor is hardly 20 km away from the more better known and hence commercial hill station, Ooty.

Our plan was thus: Spend a quite couple of days in Coonoor, then take the chugging train to Ooty and then catch our return bus from there.

We booked our stay in a homestay: Bison County. It’s around 5kms away from main Coonoor town. We took a bus from Bangalore, which dropped us early morning in Coonoor. Took a local bus, which dropped us right at the gate of the homestay.

We went in and made ourselves comfortable. The hosts were really gracious and welcoming.

 

View from balcony of room
Lawn area, part of the homestay

The homestay also had a few really picturesque birds. I got to photography, which took sometime.

After spending some time relaxing in the house, we stepped out. There was a lake and dam which was around a 4km walk. We leisurely started walking up the hills. The scenery was just too beautiful.

All along the way, there were variety of birds chirping and flying around. I had a busy time with my camera all the way.

The way till the dam was quite deserted and took us into the forest. We were in 2 minds towards the end, whether to go back or head further. When we reached the place we understood that we wouldn’t have lost much if we headed back. The lake was completely dug up and there was no water in the lake. Some development work was going on.

We headed back.

The next day we covered the more touristy areas of Coonoor: Sim’s park, few view points. We then headed to the station and got a ticket to Ooty. It is a small train which is declared a World Heritage Item. This train takes you through the beautiful hills giving you some spectacular views of the mountains and drops you at Ooty.

We reached Ooty around evening. We anyways did not plan to spend much time here. We walked along, got us some Ooty homemade chocolates, had dinner, and boarded the bus back to Bangalore.