Princess of Hill stations

Kodaikanal : 

 So finally it happened.... trip to the place which was suppose to be part of a tour 10 years ago as part of honeymoon. And ironically we could go there to celebrate 10 years of togetherness.  

 "Kodaikanal is a city in the hills of the Dindigul district in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. Its name in the Tamil language means "The Gift of the Forest". Kodaikanal is referred to as the "Princess of Hill stations" and has a long history as a retreat and popular tourist destination.

Kodaikanal was established in 1845 as a refuge from the high temperatures and tropical diseases of the plains. Much of the local economy is based on the hospitality industry serving tourism. The earliest residents of Kodaikanal were the Palaiyar tribal people. The earliest specific references to Kodaikanal and the Palani Hills are found in Tamil Sangam literature of the early Common era. Modern Kodaikanal was established by American Christian missionaries and British bureaucrats in 1845, as a refuge from the high temperatures and tropical diseases of the plains. In the 20th century a few elite Indians came to realise the value of this enchanting hill station and started relocating here.

The town of Kodaikanal sits on a plateau above the southern escarpment of the upper Palani Hills at 2,133 metres (6,998 ft), between the Parappar and Gundar Valleys. These hills form the eastward spur of the Western Ghats on the Western side of South India. It has an irregular basin as its heartland, the centre of which is now Kodaikanal Lake a 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) circumference man made lake."

Day 1(29/1/17) :

 As we prefer a early morning start to our trips, we started from home at 5:15 AM.  City was yet to wake up and we reached silk board in no-time and took deviation towards Hosur. Even on this road we had few trucks to deal with and road condition was excellent.  Sun was just showing up in the horizon. We stopped for breakfast at Sarvana Bhavan near Krishnagiri at 6:45 AM.

 We started our journey after refueling ourselves, road was in excellent condition, didnt realise how fast we were covering distance. We took deviation at Dindigul towards Kamarajar Sagar Dam. From here road condition became bad, we had a narrow village road then it turned to mud road and finally to no road. 

  But surroundings were nice and  green and we passed through some plush green plantation on our way to the dam.

Once we reached the dam catchment area all the bad roads were forgotten by just a glance at the sheer beauty of this hidden place. We spent some time here clicking photos and enjoying the vast emptiness of this place. 

Kamarajar Sagar Dam

It was past mid noon and we left from here and started our journey and after a lunch break at Meenakshi Bhavan (Pattiveerampalli) we started climbing the ghat section to reach our destination. On the way we stopped at Dum Dum view point. This is suppose to be view point for a waterfall. But there was no water to fall. 

Dum Dum Viewpoint 

After a quick stop here were continued climbing and stopped at Silver Cascade water fall just before the Kodai town. 

Silver Cascade Waterfall

Fresh Fruits and Vegetables on sale 

We reached Club Mahindra, Kodaikanal at 3:15 PM and checked in.  We had some tea and took some rest. Evening was spent by going for a walk in the town and doing some shopping.

Once we returned to the resort, had an early dinner and went to bed for much deserved sleep after a long day.

Day 2(30/1/17) :

Our day began at 6:30 AM with the best sunrise i have ever seen.  You can not explain the feeling of waking up to a scene like this, it has to be experienced.

Clicked some pictures of this wonderful display of light and color. A hot cup of tea for such a morning was just perfect.

After the sunrise, the valley was covered with dense fog and it traveled fast towards the resort and covered the area in no time. And once it went past the place looked fresher than ever.

A wonderful breakfast got us going.

We went out to explore the Kodaikanal town at around 9:30 AM. As the resort was located near most of the attractions of this hill town we decided to walk. We visited Bryant Park first, an average park but a vast land filled with greenery and giant trees never the less  (Wish they had maintained it bit better).

Bryant Park

We got out of the park and entered the Kodai lake area, park and the lake are adjacent to  each other.  Being a week day there were not many people both in park and lake. We decided to skip the boating and walked around the lake.

Kodai Lake

From the lake we went to Coaker's walk. This place gives a wonderful view of the valley below the hill (when it is not covered with fog). We walked the entire stretch.

Coaker's Walk

After about 8 KMs of walking since morning, we had lunch at Muncheeze. Did some shopping at Potters Shed and returned to resort at 2:15 PM.  Took some rest for an hour. At 3:30 PM we left for Dolphin Nose point and could not see anything as the entire area was covered with thick fog.  From here we went to Fairy falls. This falls is situated inside the  premises of Horticulture research station. Another fall with literally no water.

Fairy Falls

On our way back stopped at Liril falls (named so as this place was used in Liril soap advertisement), one more falls with very little water.

Liril Falls

We returned to resort at 5:30 PM and enjoyed the chill weather of this cold hill station. Had a wonderful dinner and called it day by 9:00 PM.

Day 3(31/1/17) :

Woke up at 6:15 AM to watch the sunrise, today it was less dramatic partially because fog had already covered the valley  and may be because we already knew what to expect after yesterday's sunrise.

We finished our breakfast and checked out of the resort at 9:30 AM. We stopped at Dolphin Nose Point to try our luck today, and indeed we had a better view today with no fog covering the valley.

Dolphin Nose point

After a quick stop we left from here and stopped next at Pillar Rock at 10:00 AM. This is one more view point of another valley around this hill station. 

Pillar Rock

We left from here and reached our next point Guna Caves in 5 mins. Here you have to walk through a pine tree forest for about 700 mts to reach a point for one more view point of another valley. But more interesting bit here is the natural arrangement of a lot of roots on the way to the view point.

Guna Caves

When we were leaving from here, we got a call from Club Mahindra to inform that they missed a couple of food items when they gave us the final bill and requested us to pay the balance. We informed them that we will be back there later to pay the dues.

From here we drove through some real narrow and bad roads inside a thick pine tree forest for about 28 KMs to reach Mannavanur Lake at 12:30 PM (You do not get proper mobile connection on this route, so download offline maps).  On the way we stopped at a place which gives you a bird's view of Poomparai village. This village is famous for locally grown spices.

Poomparai village view point

You have to walk almost a KM to reach the Mannavanur lake in this remote location. Today we hardly had any people here and that made this place even more beautiful. We clicked a lot of photos and spent almost an hour here.

Mannavanur Lake

It was getting very hot as it was mid noon and we were hungry too, so we decided to leave from here and return to Kodai town. We had our lunch at Astoria. Had heard a lot of about this hotel in internet, but we found the lunch to be just ordinary. We enjoyed a glass of cold buttermilk there on this hot afternoon. Post lunch we went back to Club Mahindra, paid the pending amount and checked in to Sterling's Kodai by Valley at 4:15 PM. 

After being Club Mahindra which had valley view, this place looked way below interesting and it did not give the feeling of being in a hill station. But all that disappointment faded away once we went for dinner and saw the spread available for buffet. We ate till we cant have any more and spent next one hour walking to digest that food. Waited for the clock to turn 12:00 AM, wished each other a Happy anniversary and went to bed.

Day 4(1/2/17) :

We woke up around 6:30 AM and our morning was spent answering phone calls from family and friends who wanted to wish us on the occasion. Then we feasted on a wide spread of delicious food served for breakfast.

  We got ready and left resort at 10:00 AM to Bear Shola Falls.  You have to drive through some narrow lanes and park your car and walk almost half a KM to reach the falls. And we only got to see some wet stones in the name of the falls here, how disappointing.

Bear Shola Falls

Here we met a couple from Australia, Greg And Karen who also had come to see the falls with high expectations just like us.  We struck a conversation and learnt that both are world wide travelers for more than 25 years. They had no plans for the day, so we offered them to join us as we were heading towards Berijam Lake. They were happy to tag along. When we were walking back to the car, we saw a Brown Fish Owl high up on the tree. Greg being an avid bird watcher immediately spotted it and identified the bird.

Brown Fish Owl

We left from here at 11:00 AM and stopped at Moir's point on our way to Berijam Lake at 11:30 AM. This is one more view point which gives you a wonderful view of the valley below. Here we were informed that no private vehicle was allowed beyond Moir's point with out permit, so we had to wait for safari vehicle to reach the lake. We had some snack and tea and spent time conversing about our travel experiences. Eventually at 1:30 PM our safari vehicle was ready to ferry us to lake.

We stopped on our way at Silent Valley view point, cap fly point, Berijam Lake view point and we finally arrived at the lake itself. It takes about 45 mins to reach the lake. On the way we also spotted Niligiri Langoors.

Silent Valley view point

Cap Fly point (name comes at its very windy here)

Nilgiri Langoors

Berijam Lake

This lake is in the heart of this thick forest and since it is not open for public, lake area is clean and well maintained. This safari route was once upon a time route to Munnar from Kodaikanal.  We spent about 45 mins here enjoying the calmness and returned back to Moir's point at 3:20 PM. From here we headed back to Kodaikanal, dropped the Aussies at their hotel. We had our late lunch at Domino's and returned to resort by 5:00 PM. Our day ended with a wonderful dinner to celebrate the special day.

Day 5(2/2/17) :

We woke up at around 7:00 AM and both were feeling uneasy. May be something we ate the previous night was not right. We ate very little for breakfast and then checked out of the hotel after settling our bills at 9:45 AM. Our destination for the day was Meghamalai. 
We drove slow as we were not feeling well and stopped multiple times on the way. Around 12:00 PM we crossed Theni and we missed the road and went through narrow village roads. We stopped at a grape field and bought some grapes and also some locally grown fruits. These grapes are famously called as paneer grapes and used in manufacturing wines. The best grapes i have ever eaten, so missing the road was worth it. 
We reached the bottom of the Meghamalai hill at 12:50 PM, we stopped at the forest check post and called the manager at Briar tea Bungalow where we had booked accommodation for next 2 days. He informed us that it should take us another 3 hours to reach the bungalow. We were surprised as it is just 35 KMs of distance. However we asked him to keep some lunch ready and started from there. What followed after this is nightmare of a road. Road was dug up in all places, some parts were being reconstructed. We had to drive very carefully to avoid damage to the car. We had to stop and wait for road to clear because of work, got stuck in mud and had to be pushed, hit under body multiple times and finally reached resort at 4:15 PM. A 35 KM drive took us 3.5 hours.

Once we reached the resort we asked the manager why we were not informed about the bad roads when we did our booking. Biggest risk during the entire drive was road was deserted with no vehicle movement except for the road construction vehicles and workers and there was no mobile signal. So in case of emergency we had no where to go. Manager did not like what we said, we had an heated argument, and he informed that if we are not happy we could leave back and he would refund the booking amount. It was close to 5:00 PM, and we could not have made that 35 KM stretch before dark, but we didnt want to stay in the resort after that argument. We decided to leave from there, drove a couple of KMs and parked near a church and decided to spend the night in the car. After an hour or so Bungalow manager called us again and apologized and asked us to return back. We returned to bungalow at around 7:00 PM, had dinner around 10:00 PM and ended one of the horrible days.
As i write this, meghamalai.com has come up with this warning message, this was not available when i planned this trip.

Meghamalai : 

"Meghamalai, popularly called High Wavy Mountains, is a cool and misty mountain range situated in the Western Ghats in Theni district, Tamil Nadu. It is a place of natural beauty dotted with cardamom plantations and tea estates. The place is situated at an elevation of 1,500 m above sea level and it is rich in flora and fauna. This area, now mostly planted with tea, includes Cloudlands, Highwavys and Manalaar estates, the access to which is now largely restricted. It still includes large untouched remnants of evergreen forest.

In Tamil it is known as" Paccha Kumachi" meaning "Green Peaks" High Wavys'is locally referred to as Meghamalai- meaning hills covered with clouds.The word 'High Wavys', used since the late 1920's invariably has been derived to describe the high undulating range of hills and mountains, steep and precipitous as seen from the plains.Geographically High Wavys' forms part of the Varushanad Range of hills, a part of the Western Ghats. Probably the earliest reference of High Wavys'is in the British Imperial Gazetteer Maps which dates back to 1920."

Some Facts about Meghamalai :

1) No ATM, Bank, Petrol station or medical shop here, minimum distance to any such facility is 40 KMs.
2) Only cash payments are accepted .
3) Only 4500 people live on this hill, mostly tea plantation workers.
4) As there lack of human resources, tea plucking is done using machines.
5) Evenings are very cold here.
6) There is just 1 grocery store and you can only buy what is available there, so carry everything you need. 

Day 6(3/2/17) :

Briar tea bungalow

We woke up at 5:30 AM, had a coffee and got ready. Plan was to visit a couple of places early in the morning. After seeing the road condition in the tea estate, didnt want to drive on those roads, so had hired a jeep for this morning visit.  Jeep arrive a bit late and we started at 7:45 AM. After driving for an hour to cover just 10 KMs, we arrived at a point from where we had go hiking to reach our first point Vattaparai.  This is TN- Kerala border and from here you get to see Thekady forest. If you are lucky, you will have some wildlife sighting here.  We got to see great horn bills fly across the forest in the far. We enjoyed the cold and fresh breeze in this open area for some time and clicked some photos.

Vattaparai

We started walking back to the point where our jeep was parked. On the way our guide Jagan was speaking to us about the hardship they have to go through living in a remote location like this and have to  spend a day in travel for any basic necessity like bank, fuel, medicine or buying clothes (all of this is 40 KMs away).
From here we went to see a falls called Oothutheri Falls.  This is one secret falls hid inside the tea estates and not accessible for public. ( Even a google search for this falls will not fetch you anything). You have to walk through stones on the edge of the flowing water to see this small but wonderful falls. Tree grown on the walking path gives you a feeling that you are entering a cave. Finally we were happy to see a falls with some water, that too crystal clear water. 

Oothutheri falls

We returned back to bungalow at 11:45 AM and had a brunch. Rest of the day was spent clicking some birds around the bungalow.

In the evening AGM of tea estate ( Belliyappa ) visited us and we spent some time chatting about life in a tea estate where he has spent 30 years. Our dinner also had a surprise, a cake baked for us to celebrate the anniversary ( which was 2 days ago). After the dinner we went to bed early as it was cold outside and we also had to start our journey the next morning.

Day 7(4/2/17) :

We woke up at 6:00 AM as we had to start early to return home. We had settled our bills previous night itself. We freshened up, had breakfast and left from resort at 8:00 AM. We knew what to expect in terms of road condition now, so no surprises here. We took 3 hours to climb down the hill and were glad that the car is still in one piece. From here road condition was excellent ( any road would feel excellent after the meghamalai road). We stopped for a coffee at Hotel ABM, Theni. Our lunch was at Sivamurugan, Kannur. We had a relaxed drive with very little traffic and stopped for a tea at A2B, Dharmapuri.  We reached silkboard junction at 7:45 PM and reached home by 9:00 PM.