A Trip to Blue Mountains

Even though, I had gone for several road trips in the past six months; I have been delinquent in posting any of the details in the blog. Let me do this on a LIFO basis. The most recent trip was the one to Nilgiris. I was changing jobs and had one week for myself. So, I went to Palakkad and the very next day started the journey to Ooty. We had planned for a two day trip covering Coonnoor on the way and then travelling to Ooty. We started on 27th April 2011 at around 6:00 a.m from Palakkad. We had a brief sojourn at Coimabore (Annapoorna, People’s park) for breakfast bringing a sense of déjà vu. However, let me tell you this; the food and the cost for that sincerely did not bring any nostalgia. Back on the road by 8:30 a.m; the traffic was in full swing and it took us more time than what was anticipated to come out of city limits. The road is not great and we passed through Karamadai and finally reached Metupalayam. Last time when I drove to Ooty in Dec 09; the Coonnoor road was closed because of land slides. This time there were no hassles and promptly took the left turn (NH 67) after Metupalayam. The ghat sections start almost immediately. It is approximately 50 km from Metupalayam to Ooty. One can see couple of Petrol bunks at this point prominently displaying sign boards stating fuel costs more in the hills and asking travelers to top up their vehicles. I did not heed their advice and ended up filling in Ooty. It only costs more by 30 paise or so from the normal rates down hills. Coming from Bangalore; I felt that it was not too huge a difference. Last time; when I went to Ooty; I learnt more about driving a diesel car in steep roads and high altitudes. This time, I was prepared and no incidents happened. The uphill journey was slow because of the numerous trucks and buses and overtaking them is an ordeal. Liitle did I know that I would be at the receiving end in the downhill journey. We reached Coonoor around 10:00 a.m. We saw Sim’s park and decided to go there later after covering Dolphin’s nose and Lamb’s rocks viewpoints. The directions were confusing to the say the least and the roads were as narrow as it comes (and with some hair pin bends to boot). We struck a deal with a guide who agreed to take us to these places at a nominal charge of Rs. 150. I was more comfortable now as I needed to concentrate on maze of a road alone and not the directions. Our guide took us to Dolphins’ nose first and there was no mist which gave us an excellent view. He told us that this particular view point is shaped like the nose of a dolphin and from the opposite Kodanad view point in Koatgiri; it will be even more pronounced. Our next stop was Lamb’s rock view point and here you can see the hills profiled like a women lying down. The mist was coming up and we were just able to see the hills. I was curious to know why it was called Lamb’s rock (as the previous view point had some connection with a dolphin but I did not find anything related to a lamb over here).

View from Lamb's Rock Viewpoint (Sleeping Lady)

Sign Depicting Lamb's Rock

Our guide was kind enough (and knowledgeable also. I don’t think he pulled a fast one on this) to explain that the view point was discovered during the British raj with an officer named Lamb and hence named after him. We had a brief stop also at the Singara team estate and clicked merrily. The next stop was at Sim’s park and I felt this park was much more natural with an inclined landscape when compared to the Botanical gardens in Ooty. One of the specialties of this garden is the presence of rare Rudraksh tree.

We stopped for lunch at a north Indian dhaba near Sim’s park. The menu card showed North Indian thalis of three kind and south Indian thali. We all ordered separate types of thalis and ended up getting the same food with roti, chaval and sabji. The dhal and sambhar was very much the same. We had blocked one cottage at Hotel Lake View near the Ooty lake. Last time also we had stayed at the same place and it is highly recommended. The tariff for a cottage is around Rs. 2000 and an extra bed costs around Rs. 300. In the evening we visited the lake and after that decided to retire for the day.
We started around 7:00 am to Pykara. We stopped at shooting medu for the obvious reason of taking photos. We decided to skip Kalhatty falls and did a quick round of Pykara. We reached our hotel around 9:30 a.m and had breakfast at the restaurant. We checked out from hotel at 10:30 a.m (Check in time is 12:00 p.m and check out time is 11:00 a.m). The next destination was the botanical gardens. We completed one quick circle around the garden. My mother bought a shawl with Toda embroidery. We decided to buy some flowers (the everlasting ones) and the home made chocolates. We were back on the road by 12:00 p.m. I had to drive behind two buses in the downhill stretch. There were lot of honkings and I witnessed some reckless driving by cab drivers like “undertaking” at hair pin bends. We had lunch at Metupalayam and reached home by 4:00 p.m. Not bad for a unplanned trip.

Cup of Joy

I write this post at the aftermath of the Great Indian Run Chase in the WC quarterfinal. I think this is an apt time to bring out the poker player in me. A great poker player (also a reasonably good leg spinner) had predicted the tie between India and England. So, what do I see in my crystal ball for the semi- finals and finals? For that, I need to go back to the league games and do some number crunching. After all, it is all about making educated guesses. I always wanted India to play Australia in the QF. The reason is two-fold. 1. Go for the jugular against the world champions when they have not cranked up to their top speed 2. Once you defeat the world champions; all the other battles will become relatively easy (World T20 2007 semi-finals). I am sure half of the population are aware and would have advocated the above mentioned theory. However, there is more into it. As Harsha Bhogle states in the WC post-match show;, “Statistics are like mini-skirts; they reveal more than they hide”. So, what is the most revealing statistic between India and Australia in a knock-out game. We all know about Johannesburg in 2003 WC Final. We need to go back to circa 1998; the inaugural ICC Knock Out (Rechristened as Champions Trophy later) in Dhaka. The tournament was between the 8 top teams (actually 9 as Zimbabwe and New Zealand played a qualifier where Alistair Campbell’s hundred was overshadowed by Chris Harris’s pyrotechnics) starting at a quarterfinal level. The opponents for India in the QF were none other than Australia captained by Steve Waugh. Remember that the year was 1998: the year in which Sachin had already scored 7 international hundreds against Australia. Sachin scored141 and took 4 wickets in that match and India won comfortably. The next ICC knock out was in Kenya in the year 2000. India had a new look team in the aftermath of the match fixing scandal. The team had a certain Yuvraj Singh (picked from U 19 level after stellar performance in the age group world cup in Sri Lanka) and a tear away fast bowler named Zaheer Khan who was talked in inner circles as a bowler who could bowl toe crushers at will (as he demonstrated against the minnows Kenya in the qualifying match).The rest as they say was history. India squandered a wining position after batting first. They lost wickets in heaps at the back end as well as the front end. Sandwiched between these collapses was a magnificent counter attacking 83 from Yuvraj Singh. Then there was that bowl to get rid of Steve Waugh. The aussie skipper was flabbergasted that an Indian bowler could bowl such an in swinging Yorker. The days of Vegan vegetarian India fast bowlers were clearly over. So statistically, Indi always had the wood against Australia in Quarterfinals and clearly I was not at all surprised with the effort yesterday and those two tyros who have become the veterans today stole the limelight after 11 years.

So, the first SF is between India and Pakistan and the statistical analysis is a no brainer. Pakistan has never won against India in a world cup match. So, it is safe to assume the passage to Final (whatever happens Pakistan simply don’t have the firepower in the batting department to overcome India). The other Quarterfinalists are more interesting. I am backing South Africa and England to come up trumps to the semifinal stage. Yes, I am predicting that England will win against Sri Lanka with the all the odds stacked against them. England has also got the better against South Africa in the last two years. Their ODI record against the proteas in the last two years is simply enviable and it includes home and away series win for the Poms. So, the final would be between two teams who have provided the maximum TRP ratings in this world cup and the last time these two teams met; the result was a tie after a roller coaster ride for 100 overs. My prediction for the winner; all I can say is that let the better team on the day wins. God save the Queen (and also the men in blue)…