Day II & Day III: Nature and Scenic Beauty of Valpari

After a great start at Parambikulam Forest, we were of to Valparai. We stopped at Aanaimalai for lunch and here is where we had the best Parota ever. The milestones showed us only the distance to Valparai and not the time that would take us to get there. The roads were good and we reached the foot of a hill and here is where we noticed that the 60Km drive has 40 hair pin curves. Though it was time taking, the views from up above was breath taking. We crossed through Alyaar Dam and when we were at Loam's View, the huge dam looked like a long line.

 Alyaar Dam

View from Loam's View

We stopped at Monkey falls, we did not have the time to have fun in the water. It was just a small break.

The best part of the drive was the "mist covering area". As and when we were going up the hill the weather got cooler. It was about 5 PM and we were still going up. The light was reducing rapidly , we turned on the car lights and there were many more hair pins to cover. After some time it was bright again. We actually entered the mist covering area. Once we were a little away from it we could see the region and it was very fascinating.

 After few curves we were back in to the mist covering region. When we were out of it, we entered a region which had either side of the ghat covered with never ending tea plantations.

We halted at Valparai for the night. Hunted for a room to stay and then a nice veg place for dinner, we got both without much of searching as the town was a small place. At the room Shankar was bleeding non stop from between his toes and he had not seen it nor felt the pain. We assumed that a leech was responsible for that.

We guys wanted some adventure and went out for a drive at night in the lonely slopes of Valparai. People there had told us that if we were lucky we could see leopards, and every now and then the leopards come to the town. Arvind wanted to see them, and he convinced Shuaib and all of us left off on a long drive on the ghats. We got to see a wild hare (rabbit).

Seeing the scenic beauty of Valparai was not sufficient for us, next day morning we were off to see more. We visited the Sholayer Dam, Nirar Dam,  Karl Max Statue and Loam's View. We left Valparai early in the morning, when it still was drizzling. The roads were all washed and the lush tea plantations looked like a green velvet cloth spread across the hills. Both the Dams were huge and the reservoir that they had created was a must watch landscape. Even at 10 AM it was like how it was at 7 AM. The weather was splendid. Nirar was the 5th dam that we saw on the trip, and the others were Parambikulam Dam, Alyaar Dam, Sholayer Dam and a small dam in Parambikulam forest. Other than the last Dam the others were really huge dams and the we all were allowed to enter only upto a mark, except for Nirar dam. Here we were allowed to go anywhere and we went right in middle of the dam and we could see the channels. We could also go down the dam. There were hardly any people in and around the dam. So we got a Great view of the entire place. On our way we got to see an elephant too.

 Sholayer Dam

Nirar Dam

 

Nirar Dam reservoir

We came across a small falls and it was time for a small break and from here on it was drive, drive and only drive. We were back to namma Bengaluru by 9:30 PM.

Valparai at its best

Click here to catch Day I and day II action.