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Published: August 23rd 2016
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This Road trip was from Cochin in Kerala to Madurai in Tamil Nadu. Cochin has a railway station , a domestic & international airport having good connectivity to different cities. It is a major city of Kerala and one of the important gateway to start you Kerala tour, as it is well connected to different cities of Kerala.
We reached Cochin in the evening and stayed there overnight. This trip was in the Month of July (The rainy season), however the climate was pleasant with some drizzling. The schedule of coming day was a 12 Hours’ drive - 400 Kms with some pit-stops. It was 400 Kms as we had to cover different places, otherwise one can reach Madurai through the highway which is a drive of 6 - 7Hours.
After a delicious breakfast at the hotel, we checked out and started the tour. To cover this route , you need to have your own vehicle as it does not have a good frequency of Public Transport. The first stop was Athirapally Waterfalls ,around 70Kms from Cochin, a part of Chalakudy river which Falls from a height of 80 Feet and is one of the largest waterfalls in the
State of Kerala. Lot of Tourist visit this falls while they travel from Munnar to Cochin. The entry ticket costs Rs. 20 Per Head and for the Vehicle the charge is Rs. 20 if it’s a small one . The walkway from the Entry gate to the falls is approximately 1km(Not Sure). The Premises also has washrooms (Which can be used without any charge), there are small food joints outside the Gate, serving some snacks. The view of the falls from upside is magnificent and delight to one’s eyes. We also saw some children bathing under the falls and wondered how they made it there. If one wants to enjoy the beauty of the falls thoroughly then they can also book their stay at the resort which has great views of the falls, just adjacent to the entry gate. Staying overnight is a good idea if you want to spend your time in solitude. The area has very few hotels which are not close to the Falls. A day trip from Cochin is a great Idea. After spending an Hour enjoying the beauty of the falls and the river, we returned to the car and headed towards our next stop
which was Valparai. There are two more waterfalls in this area Cherpa (A small one, touching the road) and Vazachal falls (Similar to Athirapally) but we did not stop at these, as we had to head towards our next destination. The 2Hours drive from Athirapally - Valparai and Valparai itself was the highlight of the trip. The check post is just outside the the Vazachal Falls and is the entry point into the Forest. After finishing the formalities at the check post we headed towards the Forest (The Vazachal Forest, I Guess!). The road is a little narrow and steep, foliage immensely healthy at some parts of the jungle, which made the place quite dark. There was no traffic on this road! Which was really amusing and guess what! no Mobile Network as well, So you are free from Phone calls and Messages for at Least 2Hrs. The entire route had sign boards saying animals crossing road , especially Elephants which was interesting. I was in dilemma whether I wanted to "actually" see the Elephants or not, as there would not have been any space left if they crossed our way. The area was distant and I could not figure
out what my mood was during this 2hrs drive. Every time I sighted the Fresh Elephant dung on the road, I thought they were somewhere around and that was a really thrilling (Now , this might sound ridiculous that sighting someone's Poop Made me feel thrilling :D) There was a point from where we could see the entire forest. I tried to capture some good pictures of the beauty of forest but could not make it. There is a check Post at the Entry of Valparai same as the one at Vazachal. Valparai is a Hill station and is located in the Anaimalai Hills range of western Ghats. The Officers checked our documents and let us in. After crossing the check post we stopped at a local Shop which sold Flavored Tea (Chocolate, Ginger , Cinnamon, Cardomom etc), Fresh Honey and also a sweet which was made of Ginger which was really strong and Tangy.
The best part of Valparai, are the Tea Plantations which are stunning and the drive in between the plantations. The road is covered with Plantations on both the sides. If Valparai is the only destination you are planning to visit,then Coimbatore airport and Railway
Station is the closest one (Around 100Kms) . Ooty and Kodaikanal are famous hill stations in this region, but Valparai has its own charm and climate is Crisp. Valparai town does not have any great accommodation facilities and restaurants. All one can find, are small homestays, may be 2 – 3 Budgeted hotels and restaurant serving South Indian Meals and I love these Meals J . We stopped here for having our lunch (Meals What they call it). The food was authentic and flavorsome. This place is a heaven for Nature Lovers and far from the pollution which other cities / places have.
Our destination for night stay was Madurai, as we had to visit the Famous Meenakshi Temple, the next morning. From Valparai we headed to Pollachi 65Kms away, the journey started down the Hill leisurely. The interesting part of the drive was there were 40 Precipitous Hairpin Bends which we had to cross. Every bend had a Sign board saying “now you have crossed 39/40, 38/40… and so on. Once we reached half the way, we could see the Pollachi town from up the hill. Water bodies at Monkey Falls and Aliyar Dam are also
seen en route and are close to Pollachi. This part of the trip concluded around 4PM and we crossed Pollachi. There was nothing scenic enroute till Madurai , just the normal small towns. We stopped at a restaurant to have coffee and Freshen Up, which was close to Palani, the restaurant said they were Pure Vegetarian High class restaurant (I wondered what did “high class” mean!). As we moved closed to Madurai we sighted a Temple on top of a hill dedicated to Lord Murugan in the town of Palani. It had stairs and also a ropeway for people who could not climb up the hill. It was dark and the illumination on the hill looked amazing. Madurai was another 100 – 120 Kms from Here and we were scheduled to reach within 2 ½ Hrs . It rained heavily when we reached Madurai and finding the hotel, which we booked became a difficult task. We had booked a hotel which was close to the Temple’s North Gate as next day we had to leave for the temple at 0700Hrs in the morning, to avoid long queues.
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