Our marriage anniversary was on 21st November which was Monday this year. The day went very dull with my hubby coming late from office after 8.30 p.m and me waiting for him :(....in order to celebrate the anniversary he planned a trip to Yercaud last weekend. Another couple from his office joined us in the celebration.
Yercaud is a small 'developing' hill station nestled amidst Shevaroy Hills in Tamilnadu state. I mentioned 'developing' because there are a host of things yet to be properly developed to metamorphose Yercuad into a full-blown hill station like Ooty. Only at 230 kilometres distance from Bangalore, indisputably, this is the next popular tourist destination in the making, among weekend revellers, after Ooty. It takes only about 4 hours through NH44 to reach Yercaud.Apart from the last leg of the journey when you need to swerve your car through the steep road of the hills, the road from Bangalore to Yercaud is smooth and trouble free. There are one or two pit stops at McD and Cafe Coffee Day where you may unwind and relax for a while on the way.
There are 20 narrow hairpin bends, properly guarded with railings, winding up to almost 2000 meters in altitude to Yercaud. Driving through the steep treacherous roads with gorges on both sides calls for some skill in the driver, and my husband seems to have mastered the art well within 2 years of driving experience. We started around 10 o'clock in the morning and reached Yercaud by 2.30 pm. In between we took a break at McD for 40 minutes.
We put up at a resort called Regent Hill Park side owned by Mr. Visu Kaliyappa.Built way back in 1861; the resort was originally a home of a British administrator. Now renovated into a resort, Mr. Kaliyappa has tried to retain the old English look and feel of the place. The switchboards as well as decoration of the rooms exude an impression of antiquity. The spacious lavish bathrooms of 400 sqft recreate the ambiance of the royal British life style. Mr. Kaliyappa himself was quite hospitable and took utmost care to treat his guests with satisfaction. However, I was a bit put off by the frequent load shedding and that the generator was turned on manually. Post-midnight when the staff members went to sleep and there was no one to regulate the generator, the entire resort plunged into darkness due to load shedding, leaving us in pitch-dark for the whole night. But the weather being salubrious as it was heavily raining outside, we didn’t feel the absence of ceiling fans. Oh yes, the resort is yet to accommodate an air-conditioning facility. Some snapshots of the resort are below:
We went to Yercaud amidst rain. The sky was overcast and it was continuously drizzling the day we arrived there. Mr. Visu got a fulsome lunch prepared for us - fried rice and chicken as per our request. The meal was good. During lunch in the beautifully ornate dining room, one thing came to our notice....Mr. Visu has an impressive collection of recipe books. From Italian to Mexican, he has an entire encyclopaedia on cooking at his disposal. What was more exciting was those books were available for reading to his guests. Taking advantage of the moment, I chanced to peek into a handful of books and took down some recipes.
We chose to spend the evening at the resort itself due to incessant downpour outside. We ordered onion pakoda, tea and coffee as evening snacks to spike up our chat session. At dinner was served Kerala paratha and chicken curry. It was a lovely evening spent with friends and we enjoyed a lot.
Next morning the sky was looking clear with the sun smiling from behind the wisp of cloud. We ventured out finally to do some sightseeing. First we went to Lady's seat which provides a bird's eye view of the luscious plains spread below. The panorama viewable from Lady's seat was of scenic beauty, but if you find a troop of monkeys keeping a watch on your every movement and waiting for a chance to seize food items from your hands, it's unnerving and I got scared the way one monkey, perched on a barricade, was sizing up my husband as he got his hand inside the backpack to take camera and related accessories out. I apprehended that it might snatch our expensive DSLR camera mistaking it for a piece of eatable. We didn’t linger around long and preferred to leave within 15 minutes.
Next morning the sky was looking clear with the sun smiling from behind the wisp of cloud. We ventured out finally to do some sightseeing. First we went to Lady's seat which provides a bird's eye view of the luscious plains spread below. The panorama viewable from Lady's seat was of scenic beauty, but if you find a troop of monkeys keeping a watch on your every movement and waiting for a chance to seize food items from your hands, it's unnerving and I got scared the way one monkey, perched on a barricade, was sizing up my husband as he got his hand inside the backpack to take camera and related accessories out. I apprehended that it might snatch our expensive DSLR camera mistaking it for a piece of eatable. We didn’t linger around long and preferred to leave within 15 minutes.
Next we went to Kiliyur Falls which in the itinerary was suggested as a must visit. The ideal time to visit this falls is during or just after the monsoon because the falls remains dry otherwise. It is a 300 feet high waterfall with a beautiful view in the backdrop. You have to clamber about 300 steps down to reach the base of the waterfall. The stairs are properly cemented and supported with balustrades. Being careless by nature, I wore 1 inch high heels to the waterfall, and after the up and down climb, every nerve and muscles of my legs were strung to a breaking point. My sedentary life style has atrophied the stamina and agility of my body and that I realized with every step I took back and forth. My legs were trembling from sudden exhaustion once we reached the foot of the falls and I had to halt after every 15 steps climb to catch my breath on our way up. The muscles of my legs are still sore all over :(.....But yes, the breathtaking beauty of the falls cascading down in ripples made up for all the exertion taken. The sight was overwhelming.
The to and fro journey of the falls left us all sapped and gasping. So we returned to our resort for freshening up. Since we had done a heavy breakfast with idlis and masala dosas, we ordered only chicken sandwiches for lunch.We left the resort finally around 3.30 p.m planning to take a quick boat ride in Yercaud Lake before starting out for Bangalore. Yercaud Lake is a beautiful lake against a fascinating green backdrop of lush woods. 60 ft deep this lake is a natural lake unlike the ones in Kodaikanal and Ooty which are man-made. There are two kinds of boating options available. You may hire either paddling boats or rowing boats. We opted for rowing boats because we were too tired to paddle boats on our own. Moreover, rowing boats were safer and more comfortable because a rower pulls the oars for you, leaving you to enjoy nature at its best.
Since except my hubby, none of us in the group knew swimming, we wrapped ourselves in life jackets praying to the almighty to keep our boat safe from capsizal. It scared the hell out of me when the boat was in the middle of the lake, the rower stood up to capture our snaps and the boat was swaying sideways in heavy wind. Finally, after a chilling 20 minutes ride across the lake, we set off for Bangalore.
