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Published: October 15th 2015
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Being in a hectic city like New Delhi, I always had a wish to visit South India and know their culture better. Then, I started with the endmost states ie. Tamilnadu and Kerala. I wanted some adventure and also to get into nature. I have already made a trip to Munnar, in this regard. Now, I chose Valparai. This is another attraction in Tamilnadu for its vast tea estates. I made my plan for 5 days as usual. I googled out places near Valparai, none attracted me like Athirapally, so it was added. Now, I booked hotel rooms and cab for my journey.
So, the itinerary goes like this: 1
st day land at Coimbatore , to Topslip, Stay at Topslip.
2
nd day- Topslip sightseeing, overnight drive to Valparai (stay at Valparai)
3
rd day- Valparai sightseeing, stay at Valparai
4
th day- To athirapally, sightseeing, Stay at Athirapally
5
th day- Athirappally to Coimbatore
My close lads Ankush and Devsingh joined me at the last moment. Our adventurous tour began. We landed at the Coimbatore Airport. at the parking our driver was waiting for us with his Qualis. He gave a grin to us and we moved. Coimbatore
is a big city, i must say. No wonder why it is a hub of industrialists and tourists. With travelled through bid lanes of Coimbatore towards Topslip. As we neared Topslip the place become cooler and cooler. We went through Sethumadai (this place still needs some development) to reach the Anaimalai Tiger Reserve Entrance. We paid for us and our camera. We drove through a deep forest. Devsingh was very much excited as it is his first tour to South India. He used to stop the car several times to take pictures which I guess made driver piss off. But, he did not tell anything. No one knew tamil or Malayalam, but I could manage some Malayalam with last visit. The driver kept telling about the place half in English and half in hindi. We enjoyed his hindi though it was not perfect. We reached Topslip after a small check post. The area was so much cool. We parked our vehicle. There were many safaris and trekking available. We chose elephant safari which was scheduled to 11.00am-2.00pm. elephant ride was first experience for all of us. So, we enjoyed a lot. After the ride we went to the eatery to
have some food as we were starving. Then we asked the officer for our accommodation. He gave a big list out of which we chose the tree hut. It was good to stay, but gets scary at night. All the evening that day we spent in uploading pics in our laptop, roaming on the main lane after 7 we were not allowed to roam around.
The next day- we booked 2 trips to the jungle, one is short trekking and other’s Eco trip van safari. For the short trekking trip, a guide leaded us. He took us to deep in jungle. We walked here and there. There was a scaring quietness in the forest. Any sound from around gave a death fearing. The guide kept saying about tigers, wild animals, wild flowers and birds. He kept telling his stories all the way. At 2 we came back from a 2 hour trekking. Having done with lunch we moved to ther other safari. We had to wait a while as it was meant for 25 people. After gathering 25 people, our van moved into Parambikulam forest. Another exciting and thrilling experience. here, our guide point out a place which was stinking, saying that last night a tiger would had killed an animal and left the waste. We became cautious. But, all we saw was some wild birds, rabbits, bats and wild boars. We came back from our trip at 5 o’clock and immediately headed towards Valparai.
We came through the narrow roads of a small village. Our driver stopped at Aliyar dam. He said it is main attraction before going to Valparai. So, we got down to see the dam. There was a huge park at the entrance, through which we climbed many steps.. oh God.. to reach the top. The view was amazing. there we saw a lake in between a range of mountains.
After clicking many pictures we moved towards Valparai. In just 1 or 2 kms, we reached a fall called Monkey falls. we realised why it is called so. Ankush stepped from the vehicle to click photos of the monkeys when a naughty one hopped towards him which made me scared. Then, we ran towards the falls. we clicked many pictures being careful of not getting our clothes wet.
Spending 1 hour there we moved to Valparai. the drive was smooth and comfortable except the hairpins bends which made our head spin. After the 40
th bend we reached Valparai. it’s a beautiful green place. But, the city area is not much convincing. We headed straight towards our hotel- Green hill Hotel as it was late night already. The room was clean and good for us. We directly jumped onto the bed as we were so much tired.
The next morning we planned to go to Balaji Temple in Valparai. the place was so much quiet. By the time we reached there, we saw a pujari getting ready for the arthi. So, we joined him. After getting the Prasad we came out and sat for a while at the premise. The temple was neatly managed. Anyone would like to stay for a while to see the beauty of the temple and the surrounding nature. We wanted to visit Sholay dam and Chinna kallar waterfalls but, our driver said they both are in different directions and would take more time so to choose either one. So, we decided to go Chinnakallar waterfalls. It took us nearly an hour to reach the waterfalls. We had to park our vehicle and step down to reach the waterfalls. We were so much happy to visit this waterfall. It was an amazing view. We started jumping and screaming and got off our shirts to jump into the water. It was so cold. Our driver was looking and laughing at us. We came to the bank to change our clothes. People around us were laughing at us too as we shivered and screamed out of cold. Once we were finished changing we moved to our vehicle and headed forward. From there we came to Nirar dam. It was quite an old dam (i guess). There was less water. But the scenery from the place was great. Having spend our half an hour there we headed back to our hotel. The room boy got us hot tea, as soon as we reached, which was so much relaxing. We spent the remaining hours at hotel room only.
The next day we travelled to Athirapally. On the way we stopped at Sholayar dam. The dam was so much long. we finished our lays packet here and moved forward. We witnessed the whole nature unbounded in this way. The deep forests covered with mists. Wow. We had to pay at check post at Tamilnadu- Kerala border. Then a huge deep dark forest welcomed us. It was bit scaring but was thrilling experience. we reached Athirapally nearly afternoon. We had our lunch at a local eatery and moved to our resort- Riverok Villas. The resort was surrounded by a park of trees and plants. After checking in we went out to visit Athirapally falls, which was at a walkable distance. We took our camera and headed to falls. we heard the sound of the waterfalls from way far. It thrilled us. When we saw the falls we went mad. It was just breathtaking. What a scene it was. A huge waterfall. We stepped down to it. As we were nearing it, our heart started beating faster and faster. It looks amazing from close. The whole trip was made worth with this falls. we spent as time as possible till the keeper whistled to move out. Having saved the picture of the falls we came back and spent our night talking about the whole trip.
The next day- we packed our bags back to Coimbatore. on way we had a glimpse of Vazhachal Falls. its an another beautiful witness of nature. We stopped for a while and then moved forward. we took the same route via Valparai to reach Coimbatore (not adding the Topslip).
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aarav
aarav
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thanks for writing detailed report...you may please post contact info of driver also which may be useful for travellers