Driving from Gudalur to Ooty

Needle Rock, Gudalur.
Driving from Gudalur to Ooty can be fun if you have a big car.  Even big cars are vulnerable to elephant attacks so take your biggest and sturdiest car to take you across the forest to Ooty.  You can stop Upper Gudalur for a while and take photographs of the scenic mosque and church there.  When you proceed beyond the forest checkpost, you reach Wilson Plantations a government of Tamil Nadu estate of shoal trees.  The needle rock viewpoint is also at this point but the rock is always crowded with children and parents.  The next landmarks are the Chinese Hill and the Frog hill viewpoint.  Very soon you reach Naduvattom town with many teashops and bank branches.  They also have a bus station and police depot here.  Go beyond the horse statues and the temples behind them and you reach Food Day restaurant with a lot of parking options.  This is also suitable place for taking your selfies.  I had lunch at Nest Restaurant on a scenic hill and had dysentery on the next day.  So avoid it like the plague.  After the Malabar teashop, yo reach Pykara Hills where many Tamil movies were shot.  There is a dam and bridge here which are also very photogenic.  In addition, there is a cute little cabinsize church and a township called Indu.  A government factory making photo films created this township but films are no more important as CDs and digital cameras have taken their place.  The change is not visible in the Hindustan Photo Film township and one wonders why this has not become a ghost town.  There is a lodge called Rehman Rooms here and also a government guest called HPF with a stylish restaurant attached.  There is chocolate museum further up in the road with very beautiful valley views around.  Yes, you can have more selfies here.  The next town is called Finger Post and it has a government Museum, the Woodside school and a ‘Yummy’ restaurant.  The big Indian business of Tata have their private hostel in this locality and it is called ‘Ratan Tata Holiday Home’. Another two kilometres takes you to Ooty and you can stay in one of the many hotels in HP-Indu township itself to escape from the mad traffic of Ooty city.