Ooty is a place I always wanted to visit from a long time. I heard from my parents that we all had been there when we were kids, which I fail to recall. I had heard a lot about ooty and the ever beautiful botanical garden. Thanks to the people at Nataraja gurukula, they asked us to come along for a recce near their campus in Kalhatti which is 18 kms away from the ooty town. 11 of us in total made up the team and not to forget Drona-Mala maam’s pet. Four of us-Shankar, Muneilgappa sir, Mala maam with Drona and myself in my truck started a day early while the rest of the team traveled by bus that night. Friday morning we hit Mysore road and headed towards Ooty via Bandipur and Mudumalai range. It was noon time, so we hardly had any surprises, we didn’t spot any animals.
Driving on the ghat section was just amazing. We took the short route uphill as the gurukula campus is located near the 9th hair pin bend. The route is so steep, the vehicle's engine was crying to pull us up. But the curves were so tempting to drive again and again. Sadly the route happened to be a very short one, probably a distance of 8 kms and then we were there at the 9th hair pin bend. Even though the sun was burning our skins, the cool breeze chose to give us some reprieve. The weather was as good as Bangalore's, very pleasant. Evening we happened to visit Raman's house at Akoni village, the care taker of Kalhatti campus. An evening walk was much desired, so Raman took us around on a jeep track. A lot of elephant dung was seen through out, we were just hoping to spot a few wild elephants. Instead we saw Bisons, that too huge ones. We mistook them for elephants; forgive the distance they were at. Munielgappa sir confirmed to me that they were bisons. Curse our luck, I didn't carry my telephoto lens, and he didn't carry the binoculars. We never expected to spot wild animals as it was just an evening walk in the country side but returned in disappointment. We retired for the night in a tent which kept us warm in the night.
Saturday early morning I happened to go to thalaikunda to pick up the rest of the team coming by bus. I happily stood near the check post waiting. Ooty showed me that it is no way like Bangalore. It was so damn cold, I was literally freezing standing in open. The bus came down and we all headed to the campus. We went for a stroll to Krishna Kumar's estate which is close by. En-route we crossed kalhatti water falls. Its summer so we got very little water to see, 
or rather very insignificant. We Proceeded further to Krishna Kumar estate where we happened to go around the vast estate which is beautifully maintained. Apparently he does allow people to camp in his estate. A few of them went up the hill to check out possible recce routes. They saw a huge water fall on the face of a hill which was quiet far off. The name which we came to know by the locals as Sollur water falls. Planning was done to start off at day break as we didn't know the terrain, the route, possible time taken, possible threats by wild animals and various other factors. Come what may we thought of returning to Gurukula even if we had to navigate in the night. I was carrying my GPS just in case if we got lost so that we could track back our route.
Early morning we all got ready and 10 of us were all set to leave for a recce to Sollur water falls. As we had no plans of spending the night in the jungle, few of us carried rucksacks with water, food and some warm clothing. At day break we set foot and hit the jeep track which would take us to one of the hill tops from where we would start off into the jungle. The warm up was good enough on the track. Once we were on top of the hill, the planning of the route was to be made. We had to cross a valley, get on to a ridge of a hill and yet again get into the valley of the water fall from where we had to climb up along the valley to reach the Sollur water falls. Distance wasn't easy to gauge cause of the hilly region. We already had covered 2.5 kms. Munielgappa sir and Vivek took the lead. The forest resembled a bed of thorny shrubs. No where could we find a foot trail, but the wild animals had made a lot of paths criss crossing. This helped us in getting down into the valley. Yet again we found a lot of elephant and bison dung. We were only hoping that we could spot a few. The training at the obstacle course came handy for all of us. Sometimes, duck walking, sometimes crawling, crossing the twigs, using creepers as ropes to swing across. Most of all, it was our rucksacks which came in handy. They were used as shields to get through the thorny bushes. Huge boulders and wonderful rock faces were found at different locations suitable for climbing and rappelling. I wish we could do it soon.
Since it was summer, we could cross some of the dried or semi-dried streams easily. At places, we had to struggle crossing through the black slush. You step on it and your foot goes down half feet under dirtying your boots. Very few open places were found from where we could figure out the direction we are heading and the direction we were supposed to go. Continuing further we happened to go down and reached the first valley. Close to 2 hours were spent in getting down this slope which meant we were slow, blame it on the thorny shrubs.
On the first ridge, we traversed to reach the end. Once we were there, we could spot the water fall. 
Our eyes were delighted to see the first glimpse. The height of the water fall was very evident cause we were still at a great distance away but could still spot the splendid view. It was close to 9:30 AM and we hadn't eaten anything as yet. Breakfast packets were out. Bread, jam, cheese, paratas, pooris, eggs, ooty apples, oranges, dry fruits, tetra pack fruit drinks, butter milk packs. It was like we were having a party up there. Our hike started again, we had to reach the other side of the ridge which was easy cause of the grassy patch. Then we descended to the valley. The sound of water gushing in the stream was heard. The first encounter with the stream was good, but slightly disappointed me due to the colour of the water, it was muddy. Criss crossing the stream was the only option many a times as we could not climb out of the valley. At times we had to climb many boulders which were located in between the streams, our rock climbing techniques helped us here. The right side of the stream had the same thorny shrubs, thus we stuck to the left side to climb up instead.
En-route we saw many small water falls which was indeed a spectacular vision. At times some of the water falls which were of a good height were very deceiving to our eyes, wondering if it was the Sollur water falls but each time we had some more distance to go. We continued climbing and then we spotted a huge water fall hidden behind trees. Only when we reached near the falls we were able to see the height at which the water was falling. It was easily more than 150 feet high. Without a second thought all of us got into the water. The force and pressure at which water was falling was like falling rocks. It was like a good massage which refreshed us. Later we proceeded to have lunch and then we split up into 3 teams to go back. The reason was to find out other possible easy routes.
Alpha team which included Momili mam, Prarthana, Shoba and shankar went up the hill to reach the top of the hill, from where they were supposed to head towards Sollur village and then to gurukula. The Bravo team included Munielgappa sir, Abhishek and Vivek who were to descend down the hill along left side of the stream. The Charlie team included Sam, Rupendra and then me who were supposed to descend along the right side of the stream. Bravo and Charlie were to rendezvous down the hill in an open valley and then proceed towards road head to reach Gurukula.
We had no time to spare as we had to reach Gurukula before night fall. We had torches for navigating in the night, but we never carried warm clothes, tents and sleeping bags to stay over night. Exchanging greetings we all split up into teams and then proceeded in the decided directions. Since we were split up, I would give you details only about the Charlie team and try to fill in some details of the Alpha and Bravo as well.
It was just a few minutes since we started our return journey and then we heard thunderstorms. It wasn't a good sign at all as we were walking in the path of the stream. Little water is enough to wet the normal rocks and make them slippery. Imagine our plight as we were 
walking on those smooth rock surfaces and to our dismay it started raining. There was zero grip. We were literally crawling many a times on all our fours which seldom helped. We could neither take the right or the left of the stream as we were in a deep valley. Sam and I decided to continue further down. Both of us were slipping almost every step. At one point I was almost going to fall 10 feet down from a boulder had the branch which I held snapped completely. Luckily I could hold myself and stay put. That is when we firmly decided to move out on the side of the stream as originally planned. We managed to make it to the right side of the stream and a while later found a foot trail along the grassy patch. We took that route to walk down hill.
Bravo team also decided to cross the stream and then move on to the right side of the stream as they could not proceed further as planned. We happened to meet much before descending the hill. Our rendezvous point changed mid way. Both the teams ran down the hill and made it to the valley in time, thanks to the open grasslands. Yet another stream was crossed and then we started climbing the hill opposite to us. A while later we were on the road at the 33rd hair pin bend much before the night fall. Almost 6 more kilometers uphill was left. None of us had the patience to climb that distance. A passing truck filled with a touring team was flagged down who agreed to drop us to our destination. Through out, they were singing and dancing. Abhisek, Sam and Vivek too joined them and rejoiced. It was a perfect ending of a day long trek. The route taken by Alpha team was considered to be the easiest as they approached the Sollur village and then returned to gurukula avoiding all the thorny bushes. 
On day 5 we left for Gopalaswamy betta at noon. Once we crossed the ghat section and entered the Mudumalai 
forest range, it greeted us with heavy downpour. Driving in such heavy rain was simply superb. I couldn't enjoy it for long as the heavy rains were concentrated in a small area and we were moving away. But the pleasant weather made us feel good. A few peacocks and deer were spotted en-route. While ascending the Gopalaswamy betta, we happened to spot an elephant family far away. We could see two huge elephants and two babies walking. Thanks to Munielgappa sir for spotting them. Mala mam knew the peishkar of the temple on top. He was kind enough to accommodate us for the night and arranged for dinner. We could feel the chill weather literally here even though it was supposed to be summer.
Early morning, Munielgappa sir, Shankar and I went for a morning walk along with Drona. We 
spotted a lot of deer gazing very close to the temple. Looking at Drona, the deer were wondering what kind of a strange animal it was which was never seen around before. He in fact helped us to have a better look at them as the deer stood staring at him out of curiousity. We kept moving from one hill top to the other looking for some more wild animals. We reached the top of a hill from where we couldn't move further as there was a vast valley ahead. The forest area stretched that far till our eyes could cover them. It was too tempting for a trek in that forest. But since we had no permission from the Forest Dept. we chose to return. A few more wild buffaloes were seen. We returned to the temple and then headed back home.
