Trip to Valparai: A Travelogue


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Re: A trip to Valparai: A Travelogue

@autosafari

You are absolutely right. Parambikulam and Topslip are also great places to visit. They were on our list.

But we did not go there these places because of time constraint. My wife had to go to work on Friday so we returned on Thursday :(

This time we also visited athirapally which is in Kerala and around 60kms of thick pure forest. God save those whose car breakdown there.

We will try and go there next time.
 
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Re: A trip to Valparai: A Travelogue

@Highway Ranger Thanks for cool wallpapers.You have made my day.No words dude.Very beautiful place.Will surely go there in future.
 
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Re: A trip to Valparai: A Travelogue

Valparai - Day 1

Reached Valparai around 5/5:30 pm on a cool Sunday evening. Stopped at the entrance of the town and just looked around. We could see some hotels like Hotel Green Hill, Hotel Treat, Krishna lodge, etc. Just by looking at them from afar, we decided we will not stay there and planned to go down some 12/15 kms to a resort called waterfalls, which is costly (around 3500rs and need to pay for food which is also expensive – so we were told by some friends).

Before leaving Bangalore, I had contacted one guy, Frank, who runs a homestay called Misty Creek. I thought I will call him and find out if his home stay was any better than the hotels that we saw.

Since only BSNL and Vodofone has coverage, found a coin booth and called him up. He came down in his Bullet and told us just to see his place before we take any decision. So we followed him to his place, checked the rooms and were happy. The room had 2 double cots, and had a superb view through the huge windows and door. And they had car parking. So we took it.

They offered us tasty home cooked food, made to order and the best part is they were delivered on the dot. The rates were very reasonable.

We just had coffee, sat in the room and enjoyed the view.



Later had dinner there.
 
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Re: A trip to Valparai: A Travelogue

Valparai - Day 2

We had coffee at 6:30 am, breakfast at 7:45 and left for Sholayar dam. The route to sholayar dam was very scenic. So we stopped in many places en route to sink in the unspoiled natural beauty.


Sholayar dam is the second highest dam in Asia and is around 20 odd kms from Valparai.

From there we left for Athirapilly Falls which is around 70 kms through dense forest. This forest is infested with Elephants, Leopards, Sloth Bear, Bison, Lion tailed Monkeys, wild squirrels and wild Mongoose. The road through the forest was really very bad. But some of the views were really out of this world. Too bad, it was raining on and off, so I could not capture most of the wonderful scenes which were one of its kind.



In some places, we just stopped the car at the edge of the mountain and rolled down the window and were seeing them. I was thinking that on the return trip, we can get out and take pictures.

After around 50 odd kms down the forest we reached a place called Vazhachal we reached this place around 1:45 pm and had lunch in a small place. There is also a boating place nearby. But it was closed as they were expecting the dam to be opened any time. Vazhachal also has a waterfall worth seeing.


There is also a place where you can get into the river. We left for Athirapilly falls which is around 8 kms down the road.

On the way there was a beautiful falls called Charpa waterfalls which is on the road side.




We went to Athirapilly falls spend some time there.



We have to go down a rocky path all the way down if we want to take a bath. We didn’t go down as it was getting late.

We started back around 4:45 pm and passed Vazhachal and all was well till around 5 pm. Then the hell broke loose and it started raining heavily by then we had reached the dense forest range and it was pitch dark. Another strange phenomena here was that in spite of the heavy rains there was a thick fog/mist and the visibility was near zero. Now if I use the high beam I see only a white sheet in front of the car and when I turn off the head lights and use the fog lamp, I realized that fog lights in Manza is only a decorative sales pitch and serves no purpose. So used the low beam at the lowest setting and was driving through highly dense forest on a really bad ghat road that was really not there anymore, hidden due to the water logging, dense fog and heavy rain. Imagine driving 50 odd kms in your first and second gear hoping not to go off the road and fall into the deep ravine on one side. My wife was sitting on the edge of her seat with her head glued to the windshield. It was one hell of a scary drive. Due to the rain the wild animals were not on the road. We reached the forest checkpost at around 8:45 pm.

Reached Misty Creak around 9:30 pm and the folks there had our dinner ready and there ended the 2nd day
 
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Re: A trip to Valparai: A Travelogue

@ vishwas

There are some hotels (more like the lodges near majestic) in Valparai. There are a very few places with car park in valparai.

Luckly we found a place called Misty Creek which has car park (though open) and has a fantastic view of the tea estate. The rates were normal and they also serve decent home cooked food to order, delivered on time. The owner is Frank Benny and is a good guy who himself is a wild life freak. They also have a website and he is also on the facebook.

Manza looks good only in certain angles and I always try to take pictures in those angles when possible :) Any way thanks. More than the looks the car is really great for driving and comfort. While returning we were racing with a Jetta neck to neck, both of us doing 130 to 140 climbing up to 160 at times. And the race was on from more than 40 kms till we reached Salem. I never felt out of control even for a second.
Thanks for the information Highway Ranger.I am planning to visit Valparai,Top Slip(Visited before but did not have time to see all places :(

Thats a nice speed you have got there
 
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We could have gone higher if the roads permit. 160 was on a straight road with no other traffic ahead and jetta and manza were going side by side. It was for a short stretch around one km or so.
 
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Excellent Pics Highway Ranger,

You have got a wonderful machine to rock the roads.

On the way to Sabrimalai in 2009, I too took bath at Monkey falls, that was a fantastic falls with less crowd, as per name of waterfalls the monkeys will be more, but it doesn't give any trouble to People.


Keep Rocking with your Powerful Beauty[thumbsup]
 

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