Sights in The Western Ghats
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Doddabetta Lookout
This is it: the highest point (2633m) of the Nilgiris and one of the best viewpoints around, assuming, as usual, the day is clear. It’s about 10km out of town; go early for better chances of a mist-free view. Any Kotagiri buses will drop you here.
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B
Thread Garden
Your appreciation of the Thread Garden rests on your love of irony and kitsch. If that threshold is low, you’ll be disappointed. If it’s decent, you may, if you’re in a good mood, enjoy the ‘miracle’ (official description and just slight hyperbole) that is 150 species of ‘plants’ from around the world meticulously re-created using ‘hand-wound’ thread. The technique was perfected by Keralan artist Anthony Joseph and the work took 50 craftspeople 12 years to complete, which is either very impressive or kinda sad.
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C
Tribal Research Centre Museum
It’s hard to say why you should love this museum more: for its decently executed exhibits on Nilgiri and Andaman tribal groups, or the decomposing corpses of badly stuffed local wildlife, including a rotting mongoose that just arrived from hell’s deepest pit and a ‘python’ apparently made from several socks, a blanket and those googly eyes you buy at the local crafts store. OK: seriously, the artefacts are fantastic – you may never get the chance to hold a Stone Age bow in your life again – and descriptions of the tribes are good, if written by anthropologists with no filter from academia to normal English. The guides are either researchers who can give you an enthusias…
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D
St Stephen’s Church
Perched above the town centre, the immaculate St Stephen’s Church, built in 1829, is the oldest church in the Nilgiris. Throughout its history, St Stephens has racially shifted from hosting an exclusively British congregation to an Anglo-Indian orphanage to falling under the auspices of the Church of South India. Look out for lovely stained glass, huge wooden beams hauled by elephant from the palace of Tipu Sultan some 120km away, and the sometimes kitschy, sometimes touching, slabs and plaques donated by colonial-era churchgoers. In the quiet, overgrown cemetery you’ll find headstones commemorating many an Ooty Brit, including the wife and daughter of John Sullivan, th…
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Park
In the foothills of the Nilgiris, this 321-sq-km park is like a classical Indian landscape painting given life sans trash: thin, spindly trees and light-slotted leaves concealing spotted chital deer and slow herds of gaur (Indian bison). Somewhere in the hills are tigers, although you’re very lucky if you spot one.
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E
Botanical Gardens
Established in 1848, these lovely gardens are a living gallery of the natural fauna of the Nilgiris. Look out for a fossilised tree trunk believed to be around 20 million years old, and on busy days, roughly 20 million Indian tourists.
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F
Jolly World
Jolly World is an amusement park between the lake and the bus stand with stalls, sideshows, rides and all the good stuff to keep kids occupied. For grown-up kids there's a go-kart track. It's busy on weekends when families invade Ooty.
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Sim’s Park
In Upper Coonoor, the 12-hectare Sim’s Park is a peaceful oasis of manicured lawns and more than 1000 plant species, including magnolia, tree ferns and camellia. Buses heading to Kotagiri can drop you here.
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G
Centenary Rose Park
With its terraced lawns and colourful flowerbeds – best between May and July – this terraced rose garden is a pleasant place for a stroll. There are good views over Ooty from the hilltop location.
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Chettiar Park
Chettiar Park is about 1.5km uphill from town on the way to the Kurinji Andavar Temple. It is small, pretty and landscaped. It gets crowded with school groups and canoodling couples.
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Bryant Park
Near the start of Coaker’s Walk is Bryant Park, landscaped and stocked by the British officer after whom it’s named.
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Guernsey Tea Factory
At the Guernsey Tea Factory take a short guided tour of the fragrant processing plant.
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