We don’t think too much of Ooty itself but it’s the road leading to it that makes visiting the area worthwhile. The terraced tea plantations are definitely worth to see.

Terraced Tea Plantations

In Ooty, which is a highly elevated town, we feel cold again after a long time of warm temperatures. We find a nice spot on the lake, an abandoned guesthouse with a garden, where we want to set up our tent.

Lake View from our Camp Site

We wait to see if anyone is coming so we can ask permission to camp. After several hours a car arrives with three men inside. One of the men is friendly and tells us it’s a government’s guesthouse and that he has to call his boss to ask if it is ok that we camp here. His boss allows us to stay but before setting up our tent, we want to go for some food. The man wants us to stay and offers to go to the grocery himself. We give him a shopping list and he leaves for the shop. After a few minutes he is back but without any groceries. Out of nowhere he says we have to pay 300 rupees to set up the tent. We say we don’t want to pay because there are no facilities here and we could take a room for that money. The mood of the man changes, and he says we can’t expect to stay on a public domain for free. The man looks scary and we want to go as fast as we can. The man asks us for 10 rupees, because we were 'allowed' to sit here. We laugh and drive away. Then we think of the gate at the beginning of the driveway to the guesthouse, maybe he closed it? (that would explain what he had done because it certainly wasn’t shopping) Fortunately, the gate stands open and we look around for a place to sleep. Ooty is a little bit too busy for us, so we decide to drive to our next destination.

36 Hair Pin Bends to Reach Ooty

More info on www.wijzijnweg.org