Weekend outing to Jungle Retreat

Last saturday we went to Jungle retreat, Ooty downhills to enjoy our weekend.
We started our journey at 6 o'clock in the morning and took a break in Cafe coffee day at Mysore Road. We were so hungry and ate spinach sandwitches (Ajay's favourite) alongwith caffee and pastry. It was raining heavily and was difficult to drive but Tanay is very safe driver and without any halt we reached to Jungle Retreat by 11:30 am. On the way, we saw many fields of sunflowers which were looking so beautiful. We took some pics in the field.
Jungle retreat is a beatiful resort with the raw beauty of Jungle. They don't serve food in the rooms to avoid the food smell in the rooms as it can attract rats and snakes in the cottage. We liked the concept which ensures all the guests of the resort to meet in the common area where food was served. There is also arrangement of games like pool table, carrom, cards and foose ball. Kids enjoyed their time playing fooseball. The food was awesome and a combination of continental and thai, as they had many foreigner guests in the resort. Specially thai potato and grilled vegies were awesome. We also enjoyed chinese noodles at lunch. After reaching back to cottage we four played Cobra (a game of cards) where Ajay won and later me and Tanay took a nap, whereas kids went out for a stroll. Ruth (the resort manager) informed us about the animals living in the resort like deer, pigs, goats, dogs, cats, porcupines, venomous and non-venomous snakes etc. When I woke up by 6 o'clock, I was really scared as kids were still not in the cottage. I woke up Tanay who informed that kids came to cottage twice and went back to enjoy the weather and place. Kids were again back in 5 min and so excited as they saw goats and deers just outside our cottage. Deers were running and looking so beautiful. Kids also took us to the other side of Resort to show some more deers. We saw some snake whole on the way. Ajay played with Bones and Gunda ( the two dogs) who were very friendly. (Ajay is very fond of animals especially dogs).
We freshen up and went for some tea and coffee in the common area where we met some other guests too. Tanay and I also played carrom and foose ball with kids. We came back to our cottage after dinner. Everybody was so tired but still played another game of cards. Manas also read a novel at night which he borrowed from Ruth. It rained whole night and we were not able to see the mountains (the view outside our cottage), as they were hidden behind clouds in the morning. Deers were again back outside our cottage for grazing. It was a beautiful morning. We had our breakfast and ready to drive back and suddenly got message from Souvik that Bridge near Nanjangud is cracked and traffic is diverted through some village. We started our drive at 12 noon and reached back home by 6:30 due to the diversion. It was pathetic road and Tanay had driven 30 km extra on way back. He was so tired but still it was nice outing. Here are some pics
http://picasaweb.google.com/tanaymanika/JungleRetreat#