Ooty to Dubare

lb_uk

Hi to all
Can you help regarding travel between Ooty and Dubare Elephant Camp. We are staying (My son and I) in Ooty for 2 nights 15th & 16th Feb and we would like to get to the Dubare Elephant Camp at around noon on the 17th. Is this achievable if we leave 6-7am and by want mode of transport would you suggest.
Another option is to find a similar camp/sanctuary closer to Ooty so any suggestions would be welcome.
Thanks

pmvelu

Hi,

From Ooty, the route you need to take is : Ooty-Pykara-Bandipur-Mudumalai-Mysore-Hunsur-Dubare Elephant camp.

By Bus:-

1) You could take a direct bus Ooty - Mysore (160kms) - 4 Hours
2) Once you reach the last stop (Mysore Suburb Bus stand), You need to Board Madikeri / Mangalore Bound bus . You need to get down at Kushal Nagara Stop(90 kms - 3 hours ) . (Kushal Nagara is just 25 kms before Madikeri(Mercara)). From here you could take an Auto Or Taxi to the Dubare Camp (Around 15 kms).
3) It's better if you could reach the Camp before 10 am as the main purpose is observing / being with the elephant , Feeding /bathing for the day and I suppose for every Adult it's 300rs for the day (Without food)

By Car:-

If you prefer car (if you would like to save time and avoid changing buses) , then more or less it would be the same route but you could take "Ring Road" ( A byepass which Runs around the Mysore City) and you Could to take a "Left" after Hunsur to reach this camp (No Need to touch Kushal Nagara) -- You could save around 30 km + in this way. Anyway you could assume 250 km - One Way

General :-
1) Not Sure whether you would like to observe / Play with Elephants for the Whole Day as that's what Dupare camp is meant for.
2) If you like to try out Elephant Safari in the forests OR try out a Jeep Safari in the forests sighting Elephants, then Bandipur Might me more ideal to you (It's just 60 kms from ooty on the ooty - Mysore Road) OR Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary (70 kms from ooty on the ooty - mysore road) and these trips, you could very well make out in Bus.

Any Further questions , feel free to post.

Hope this is of some help
Regards
Velu

lb_uk

Thankyou for the information, Ideally we wanted to experience the close contact with the elephants at Dubare, but I had not expected it to take such a long time to get there. We may have to change our plans and either visit one of your suggested park areas or leave Ooty a day earlier so we can stay overnight at Dubare.
Thanks again

Piotr77

pmvelu: Great post I just packing my backpack and tonight I will on the way to India (2 -nd time).
I have no time to make more reaserches and If you will answer on the few question you will be very helpful:
We (4 persons) will be traveling through the following places : Cochin - Backwaters - Munar (maybe) - Cochin - Mysore - Hampi (...). We really want to come close to the elephats but we have not so much time and we are traveling with quite small budget (18 -20 Eur per day/person). I found that accommodation in Dumbar is 1900 Rs per night. It is to much for us.

Can you tell me (in details) if we are able to make one day trip to Dubare without staying there for night? For example from Mysore? Or to which place we should go from Mysore (in 1 day) to see elphants (feed them, ride, wash etc..)
We will be in Mysore only for 1 or 2 days between 8.01 - 12.01 (not sure exactly yet)

__________________
Piotr

www.ulatowski.pl

pmvelu

Hi Piotr,

Yes, You could do very well visit Dubare Elephant Camp for a Day trip from Mysore.

An Early Start from Mysore Suburb bus stand (Buses frequency is so high in Mysore - Madikeri Route) will take you to Kushal Nagara as I mentioned earlier. From there Hire a Auto Or Car to reach Dubare Camp.While returning back to mysore, you could try out "Cauvery Nishadhama" Around 11 kms from the Dubare camp (On the Road back to Kushal Nagara) where you could see a small island formed by River Cauvery with "Loads of bamboo tree" and this place is scenic and has a small Zoo with few deers and also option of Short "Elephant safari". Once you are done, you could get back to KushalNagara and get an Auto to Visit Golden Temple & Dera Sey Monastery(Basically Tibetan Settlements) which are around 9 kms from Kushal nagara and the only mode is Car Or Auto. After completing the Tibetan Camp Visit you could get back to Koppa (A Bus-Stop in Kushalnagara- Mysore Road) and Board the bus way back to Mysore. And if you are interested to roam in & around Mysore the following write-up may help.
1. Mysore Palace (You could Avoid the Jagmohan Museum which is just behind the palace inside the same complex - It's not so impressive when compaed to the palace) - 1 1/2 to 2 Hours is Enough to view- 2 km from Suburb bus stand

2. Karanji Nature Park (A beautiful place Next to Mysore Zoo) with butterfly Park and Boating in the Karanji laks (all in the same complex) - Around 6 km from suburb bus stand - 1 1/2 - 2 Hours is required to see this and you need to walk a km to see Butterly park but it's worth a visit

3. A View of Mysore City from Chamundi hills (After 6pm) - 18km from Mysore City Bus stand - Very well you could try the city bus Or newly introduced Volvo Bus too . Frequency is hourly once
4. Ranganathittu bird Sanctuary (18 kms from Mysore ) -- This place is good to watch Birds BUT Now it's OFF-SEASON. Just Avoid this.I went around August & september and so many birds and my next 2 trips around November , NOT even a single bird, Just the Boat ride is there in the Crocodile infested Sanctuary Waters.
5.Somanathpura (Around 40 kms from Mysore) - Excellent Hoysala Style De-funct temple(Under Archelogical Survey of India) but architecture wise this is too good. --- If you have already visited Belur & Halebidu , You could ignore this place as it's almost same look-alike and relatively small atleast when compared to Belur - (If you want to try bus , you need to get Bannur bus(35 kms - Road is Excellent) from City bus stand and travel the last 7 kms in Share-Van OR Private bus which has already 250% occupancy rate and the road is so so so pathetic for this 7 kms stretch.) . if you could afford, Car is better.
5. KRS Dam (19 kms from Mysore City bus stand) - A Garden & a Dam with fountain show in the evening . But you could not have the view of the Dam water. -- Depends on your interests AS this place is sort of ok . - (From City bus stand, you could take the Government bus to this place)

Hope this helps & If you need any other info or More info, feel free to post .

P.S:- If you could plan a week-day , (1),(2),(3) & (5) you will feel much much better. In the Week-ends , Loads of Tourists buses (right from School ,College upto general tourists) will be thronging especially Palace, Karanchi & KRS Dam
Regards
Velu

Piotr77

You are great Valu.
Just one more thing - You wrote "From there Hire a Auto Or Car to reach Dubare" - you mean to find a car with a driver? But where? In a kind of rental agency or you rather think to take a Taxi or to find somebody with a car and ask to pick me up there (and offer money for it)?
I usually moved from city to city in India only by buses or trains, I’ve never rent a car. So please don't laugh because of my question.

ashokm

Sorry if this is slightly off-topic, I was in Ooty two weeks ago, and just wanted to comment on the condition of the roads within the town is - ATROCIOUS! Some places are so bad and potholes so big, I had to really get out of the car, had a good look around to see how deep the pothole could be (they were waterlogged) and ask the locals if its safe to drive thru - it was brutal!

I was told They have started fixing them and there are some major plans to upgrade the roads, but one need to wait and see!

pmvelu

Hi Piotr,
From Indian context, Hiring Car Means "Hiring with a Car Driver" except in big rental companies like Hertz etc in metropolitan
cities. And Apart from Rental agencies, in each and every City or Small town you could see a "Taxi Stand"( Group of rental cars and it's drivers waiting for their customers with No Real office as such for them) and 90% of time this "Taxi Stand" will be within 100 metre radius of Bus Stand / Market Area (Usually "with Meters" Or Rupees / Km for this many kms / hours kind of Package). As this is the second time for you in India , You might know about and could try Auto (Three tyre Vehicle) which are abundant in Kushal Nagara (Which too are with meters but rarey used and package is worked out for so many kms for so many hours) Or Just ask for Taxi Stand and you could work out for a Package with the Driver out there.

And I am sure there are "Car Rental Agencies" too in Kushal Nagara but I do not have any contact numbers or Recommendations on the same.Sorry about that.

Cheers
Velu

pmvelu

Hi Ib_uk,

I forget to tell the other option which might be of much interest to you.

There is 1 Elephant Camp near to ooty too. The name is "Theppakadu Elephant Camp" . To Reach here, you need to travel via Masinagudi and 7 kms before Mudumalai, you could find this place (and Car might be the only option Or else you need to catch a bus to mudumalai and hire a Auto to this place). Here too, there is option of observing / participate in few things related to Elephants and at evening , "Trained Elephants" Will perform pooja to a temple out there. By giving some money you could try out your hands in all acitivites. No Fixed price / package like Dubare .But for Accomodations, you could try out Many a resorts around Masinagudi OR Bokkapuram Or Mudumalai which are within 10 kms radius from this camp.

BUT please double-check in "Tamilnadu Tourism" office in Charring Cross ,Ooty(They will a complete picture on this place) before trying out this as I visited this place few years back !

Cheers
Velu

lb_uk

pmvelu, thank you for the advice. I have looked at the Tamil Nadu Tourist website and this camp will give us an alternative option to Dubare.