April 13 - Bandipur - Coimbatore.

Bandipur - Ooty - Conoor - Coimbatore.

Got up at 5:00 am for a morning game drive at 6:15. We will be leaving right after we come back and have breakfast.

We saw a tiger this morning, walking majestically across the road and then vanishing into the bushes. The driver tried to look for it to come out and various strategic places but no luck. It looked like its belly was full and so probably had laid down somewhere in the bushes.

We also saw Sambar and some very large herds of spotted deer and various bird life. It was much more vibrant this morning than last evening.

Came back and had breakfast, coffee has been good all through the trip but this place has the best coffee to date.

Finished packing and checked out.

The road to Ooty is beautiful mountainous roads most of the way, rather slow going but very enjoyable.

Arrived in Ooty around 11:30 and had coffee and then lunch and proceeded on to the train station to catch the "toy train" to Conoor.
The train was totally full but well organized and left on time. Very much enjoyed the ride and the gorgeous scenery of course. We arrived around 2:15 and Manilal met us on the platform. He had driven the car and our luggage from Ooty to Conoor.



The drive from Conoor to Coimbatore had the same mountainous roads first of the way and then flattened out as we neared Coimbatore.

Checked in at the Residency, I am pretty sure I stayed at this hotel when I traveled on business but that was a long time back and nothing looked familiar.

Rested and had dinner at Chin Chin the in-house Chinese restaurant, the food was fabulous as I remember Indianized Chinese food was growing up.

Retired for the night around 10;00 PM, looking forward to sleeping in late (7:30).