Walking with the clouds

Every trip to Valparai is etched in memory not only because of the place, but also because of the people whom I went with! The train journey to Coimbatore was coloured with a game called Mafia. It involved only talking and a lot of talking and that is what we did best :P We had planned to spend friday night at our friends' place at Udumalpet (kukgraamam :P), but thanks to Indian railways, we could reach their place only around 3 on Sat morning.

Udumalpet is located at the foot hills of the Western Ghats. It's close to cold climate and blooming trees made me fall in love with the place immediately. Our friends' places were awesome! We started to Valparai on a Tempo Traveller, after 2 hours of sleep, mango juice and a lot of kuzhi paniyaarams :D We didn't get to see much of Udumalpet, but I guess it is one of those places which made Bharathiyar sing 'Kaani nilam vendum Parashakthi'.

We started our climb to Valparai accompanied by Pasanga movie and a lot of ribbing. The road rises up steeply from a dam called Aaliyaar. The complete view of the dam from the 9th hair pin bend was as good as flying with a Hawk! We stopped at Monkey falls, a small waterfall which didn't exceed our expectations. It might look good at the end of the monsoon. A little higher, and we were greeted by thick fog and heavy rain, which made us forget Chennai altogether. A few hundred gear shifts, breath taking views and 42 hair pins later, we found ourselves at Balaji temple which lies just before Valparai. Probably, a holy beginning to an unforgettable trip.

We checked in at Green Hills hotel around 12. After having our lunch there, headed out to some "sight seeing" :) Valparai, being a reserved forest area, is not a well developed tourist place. So, where ever we went, we were the only tourists around there. The first on the list was a place called Nallamudi Poonjolai. It is a view point lying around 10km from Valparai town. From here, we could see vales and falls and peaks, all of which makes you forget everything. Had there been an option, I would have stayed there for the rest of my life :D We were trying to capture the scenic beauty with our eyes and cameras, when it happened...

Winds carried with them clouds from far away. We could see heavy rains heading staright at us. Given the fact that we were the only tourists there, we wanted to head back to the safety of our vehicle. As always, we chose not to :D There was a small room by the side, which gave us shelter. The clouds completely covered the view & what was once green and huge with water flowing everywhere was just white smoke now. Basically, it was beauty beyond words. We played in the rain like children from the Sahara! To sum it up, as someone once said, 'aayiram figurea paatha maari irunthathu' :P

After stopping for a brief interval at Niraar dam, we headed over to Chinnakalaar falls. It is a small waterfall, which lies after a lot of greenery, a city of leeches and a broken hanging bridge (like that in Indiana Jones :D). Sometimes people say loneliness is the best gift to a city mind. We just got that. Imagine a 1km trek through leech laden forest followed by a bath in the icy waters of the Chinnakalaar falls, with no one around. It rejuvenated us further. Although, we got a few leech "bites", it was nevertheless interesting. It was eerie being alone after a point, and we were worried about flash floods. The place was too slippery and few of us fell down here and there, none hurt though, it was rather funny :D Mr.P's heroic leech removal technique rid us of the leeches we acquainted with on the way back.. We started back to the hotel after a cup of hot black tea and few chappatis. I don't know when & where I slept :P

The next morning we visited Sholayar dam, a visually deceptive place. The shores ran deep and far, but we couldn't know how far as there was no reference to compare the depth. The stones we tried to throw from the road hardly reached the water. Only after we saw a few people at a distance, we could gauge the depth and distance of the waterline! We walked all the way down to the water to take snaps again :D The climb back was exhausting and Mr.D would have fainted if it had been a few metres more :P

Driving west for a few minutes more, we reached Kerala border and headed to Athirampally on a route that was soon to become an unforgettable piece of geography. Hills on both sides covered in a sheet of green flora, young waterfalls from the recent rains on the walls of the ghat road, much needed loneliness, grey clouds all over, occasional drizzle, the cold breeze, and everything pristine there is, wrote a tale of travel which is unforgettable! Of all the scary places in the lonely road, the half constructed bridge, with water logging was the worst! The ride was funny with all the ribbing, especially Mr.YYYYYYY's confession :D In the last leg of the route, we stopped for sometime by a lake and started throwing stones into the water as usual to see who throws the longest, a competition that started in Sholayar (and ya, I won as usual - given that this is my blog :P) At the end of the route was a small falls which was a treat to our eyes in more than one way :D

Finally, we reached Athirampally, a beautiful place :P This place has 2 main attractions, a walk down the steep hill to see the foot of the falls, and dips and dances upstream of the falls. At first, we went to the foot of the falls and took a lot (yes! a lot) of photos. Kisses of the cold mist from the falls was more than rejuvenating. I didn't take the dip upstream as it was far too crowded for me to step in :P This place was more majestic than lonely.

From Athirampally, we headed over to one of our friend's place near Ernakulam. We attacked the mango juice, jack fruit and banana fry like a group of Piranhas :D A huge garden had a variety of intriguing flora only `God's own country` can offer. After bidding adieu, we started back to chennai in Chennai mail. Well.. the way back was quite pleasing to the eyes :D

And that's that! A lot of travel, teasing, eating, photos, fun, rain & "sight seeing" made the trip, something we want to head for again!