Trip to Valparai and Athirapally

                                                           
                                                                          

I and my college friends had planned for a perfect weekend gateway to get off from hectic worklife. Our group had been to many hill stations and thought of planning not to yet another mountain drive. .. But searching from net and from many blogs , to enjoy and to have a remembering tour , the hill station is the right choice. So we planned to have our trip to "VALPARAI"  a hill station not much explored situated on the mighty western Ghats , which is 100 Kms drive from Coimbatore city.

Since this tour is not planned much before , we could not get our Journey tickets in train. So planned to take a bus to reach coimbatore and boarded Coimbatore bound bus on April 30 (Thursday) night.

We reached Coimbatore the next day morning at 8.30 . The bus journey really left us a travel sickness !!

Note : The best option is to catch a train route to reach coimbatore as the travelling time is lesser and comfortable.

After getting down at coimbatore , next is to search for our cab , that had been pre-booked at chennai .After searching for a while we found our tempo traveller and everyone got inside. The plan initially was to have our breakfast at coimbatore and then head to valparai , but the driver recommended to have it at "Pollachi" which is enorute. After an hour travel , we reached Pollachi , had stomach filled breakfast .Commenced our Joureny again for a three hour hill climb (Apprx 65 kms from pollachi) to valparai. The steep and sharp curved mountain which we spotted from the foot hills had spooked and excited everyone . On the Foothills was the "Aaliyar Dam" and "Aaliyar park". The Dam view was spectacular but the scorching/Searing heat avoided us to enjoy to a great extent. We took few snaps in the Dam and park and quickly got on to cab. Thought of visiting monkey Falls nearby to Aaliyar dam , but the local people advised that the Falls will be dry and not to waste money there. Taken the expert advise , we skipped the Monkey Falls.

                                                                                  Snap taken at Aaliyar Dam

                                                                         

After a few kilometres drive from Monkey Falls , We come across first Hair pin bend out of the total 40 Hair pin bends. To mention about the curve and steep of this Hills , the valparai has the most number of Hairpin bends compared to other Hill stations like ooty,Kodaikanal. At 10 th Hair pin drive , you could view the striking view of the Aaliyar dam from the top. After 3 hours of scenic enroute and breathtaking visuals , We finally reached Valparai at 2 PM .

                                                                      Scenic Tea Estates Enroute -- Snap 2

We had booked our rooms in Green Hills Hotel and its only the decent one in Valparai. Anyone planning for a trip to valparai , dont plan of going there and book a hotel since hotel are at scarce at this Hill station!!.Do book prior to ur travel date in this hotel.

We were given a room in a property that belongs to Hotel which is half a kilometer drive from the Hotel .. Actually the room that were given to us is a residential type of house having more than 3 or 4 bedrooms.. We were charged 3000 Rs/Day for our whole 12 member gang. Given the comfortablity , the charge is econmoic though.

We refreshed ourselves and planned to visit two places on that day but the time constraints forced us only for a single place. We visited Nirar Dam on that day which is 15 kms from Hotel. The Climate is very pleasant and temperature started to dip consistently . To say , Valparai is not a fully developed Hill station and does not boast places like lake , Park as like other Hill stations. It has many dams , to say exactly it has seven dams altogether and one of it is the Nirar Dam which we visited.

                                                                   Outside our Hotel Room.. All our friends                                                                                                           seems energetic   

                                                                  Breathtaking view of Nirar Dam                    

We finished off our first day visit and returned to Hotel at 7 PM . We played cards , having pranks on each others and had a great night sleep. The Day 2 Plan was to visit "Athirapally Falls" which is on Kerala on Thrissur district which is 100 kms drive from Valparai.

But to a shocking surprise our driver told us to reach Athirapally Falls we need to get the Vehicle permit from Kerala check post and this needs to be bought at pollachi itself .Everyone of our gang were dumb-struck and really dont know how to proceed further. Since we had not got the permit at pollachi , we could not choose the first route option mentioned below

There are two routes to reach Athirapally Falls,

1) Valparai--> Chalakudy-> Athirapally ( 100 Kms)

2) Valparai--> Get down from Valparai Hill to  Pollachi-->Pallakad-->Thrissur--> Chalakudy-->Athirapally ( 170 Kms). 

Note: If u are planning to visit Athirapally visit from Valparai , insist your driver to get vehicle permit in pollachi itself and opt first route.

As the first route is nearly impossible for us , we choose the second option to reach Athirapally Falls

Day 2 :

The next day plan was to get up in the morning at 6 AM to head ourselves to Athirapally Falls. But the cool temperature forced us not to get up from the bed till 7.We freshened ourselves and left the hotel at 8.30 AM.

The first plan to visit Balaji Temple  , a privately owned temple by Karamadai Tea Estates. The temple holds its own charm situated in the midst of tea estates been surrounded on all four sides.  The  modern sculpture works  will be hovering around your minds for a long time. A kilometer walk from from the car parking will get you to this temple. We had a good darshan of Lord Balaji.

                                                                           View of Balaji Temple

After our Darshan at balaji temple , our next mission is to head to "Athirapally Falls" . We started to get down the Valparai Hills and reached Pollachi at 12 PM. Getting down to pollachi was a terrible experience as the cab passed each Hair pin end , one or the other started to vomit. 

Caution :  Its better to have ur stomach empty while driving down the Hills.

At pollachi , we had our Lunch at one of the good Hotel named "Sakthi Hotel" . The food was simply superb  and that too for us who did not have our breakfast in the morning , the lunch at this hotel was like being in a Heaven.

Nearly after three hour drive from pollachi , we reached Athirapally at 3.30 PM. Since the falls will be closed at 5 PM , we made a plan makeover by taking a lodge near to Falls . There are many Hotels/Lodges on the chalakudy--Athirapally road and the place/route was simply fantastic covered by coconut/palm trees on both sides.

Since we had some time , on Day 2 we visited to a lake nearby to lodge which is the tributary of Athirapally Falls. We had a great time in the water for more than an hour. Returned to Lodge for overnight stay at the Lodge

Day 3:

The most important part of the tour is on this day , as we were been waiting for Athirapally falls for more than two days. Read from many blogs and net that this is one of the best falls and everyone of the team were so curious and anxious to have a look how would the falls look alike!

To our pleasant surprise , this is the best falls we have ever seen . Labelled also as "Punnagai Mannan Falls" , the falls look majestic and spellbound . There are two options available in the Falls

1) One is to have bath at the top where the falls intensity will be very less

2) Get down half-a kilometer below to reach where the falls pour from the height of 100 metres.

We opted second option . Even then you could not bath at down , you could take snaps near to this breathtaking shower of mother nature.

                                                   our Gang members caught snapping                                                                                                         with Falls at the backdrop

                                                                            Me and My friends --Snap 2

After taking plenty of photos solo/group with the Falls we packed ourselves to the top where we had a good bath there. After some enjoying moments , we finally closed our trip by heading towards to hote. We vacated the lodge at 12 PM to reach our Chennai bound bus scheduled at 5.30 from Coimbatore.

We all boarded the bus and reached Chennai on Day 4 morning.

All in all ,a complete entertainer for couple of days to a beautiful hill station and to a glorious waterfalls.

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