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A little toy train treks at 33 km per hour across
plains, plantations and forest clad hills to the blissful town of
Ooty, hidden deep in the folds of the Nilgiri hills.
Apinkish mauve haze
envelopes the rolling hills like a Roerich painting awash with blue
giving them their ancient name: Nilgiris-the Blue Mountains.
Try to get there like we
did- aboard the little train that puffs its solitary way up from
Mettupalayam at the foot of the mountains to Ooty. But don’t go
looking around for a toy train here-the Ooty rack is the only metre
gauge mountain railway in India. Work began on this marvel of
engineering by borrowing from Swiss technology, under Lord Wenlock,
the then Governor of Madras. The first passenger train was pushed,
not pulled up these mountains in 1898. It was later sold to the
Indian government in 1903 for 235,000 pounds. However, the train ran
from Mettupalayam only up to Coonoor. The extension up to Ooty came
around 1908.
The Nilgiri Express
leaves at dawn moving around the base of the Nilgiris. With luck on
our side, we could get window seats. Looking out we notice rack bars
in between the railways. This is called the rack and pinion system
and provides for extra adhesion required to draw the train load over
the steep Nilgiris. The 46 kilometer journey took about four and a
half hours. The ride lodges itself in one’s mind with its
kaleidoscopic scenes of coffee and tea plantations, green fields
dotted with red tiled roofs and quaint wayside stations.
Around Ooty
The Botanical Gardens, a
favourite with the tourist, was begun under the eagle eye of a Mr.
Johnson, from the Kew Gardens, who brought with him all that he
possibly could on the boat from England, fruit trees included. The
rich red soil had no equal elsewhere and anything planted here
prospered.
The legacy of the old
days lingers. Stepping into the Ooty Club is like boarding a Time
Machine to Victorian England: the card table in the Rummy Room; the
Bar brimming with hunting trophies (preserved by Vannigan, the
Mysore-based world famous taxidermist); famed pictures of the Ooty
Hunt and the one and only Billiard Room where the rules of snooker
were framed. Of course, an unblinking portrait of Sullivan, the
founder of Ooty, keeps a watchful eye on all proceedings.
Dhotta Betta peak rises
to 8,000 feet-the highest point in the Deccan and one the starting
point for the hunt with horse-and-hound across forty acres of Wenlock
Down. Once upon a time the place was teeming with wildlife but
hunting wiped out almost anything that moved.
If you prefer the hills
in winter, the off season, there are few tourists, fewer intrusions
and quiet walks when these wind-swept places will open their hidden
charms. If lady Luck smiles on you, you might just get a glimpse of
the wild Nilgiri tahr-the curious descendant of the ibex. Otherwise
you can be assured of a warm greeting from a chorus of birds. A
symphony overflowing the woods.
Watch out as you round a
corner-you will be surprised as a brood of grey jungle fowl dart
across the road. An unfortunate habit that has done little for its
preservation.
In the abundance of
green, the hardy gorse and the wattle, screened from view and lost to
the casual observer is a wealth of avifauna. Tarry awhile, listen to
the cherry call of the whiskered hill bulbul emerging from every
bush, every thicket. Restlessly it flits from twig to branch in
search of insects or wild fruits leaving in its wake a memory of
music all its own.
If you wish to satiate
your olfactory senses, go to the nearby eucalyptus oil-extraction
plant-one of the many that dot the hills. Or you could go paddle your
own canoe!
INFORMATION
Ooty is connected by a
narrow gauge line from Mettupalayam which serves as the railhead for
mainline trains.
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