Sometimes you visit a place with huge expectations and it turns out a damp squib and then there are places which take you by complete surprise. I have been lucky enough to have visited 2 places of the latter kind in recent past. One is Bithoor , a small town near Kanpur and the second which we visited weekend before last is Yelagiri. Bithoor might still sound familiar to people who took their History lessons seriously :) , but Yelagiri is a place not many people had heard of even in Bangalore.
Anyway, so it was Anir's idea to get away from the hustle-bustle of Bangalore for some time and after much research we planned to go to Yelagiri, a small hill town near Salem in Tamilnadu, around 180 km from Bangalore. We packed an overnight bag, despite thinking we might come back the same evening, and decided to leave by 8 am on sat. As expected, we left only after 9. The road after Hosur is sooooo good and the drive was awsome. Anir can vouch for it.We reached Yelagiri by 12 and were suddenly transported to another world. There is certain calm about this place, which soothes your nerves instantaneously. No sooner than we had reached this place, we decided to stay the night. The place we had booked is a resort named Zeenath Taj, named after owner's wife. What can be more romantic than that,awwwwwww !!!!!!!
There is nothing to do in this idyllic place and that's the whole charm of the place. Total area of hills is about 30 sqkm. There were very few vehicles on the road and we could just stroll along. There is a tourist information centre,where we went to get some more information and met some guys there who told about their plans. You can even hire bicycles for Rs 30 an hour and go around the town. It's a good idea to carry umbrellas,we didn't have any so had to take the car everywhere.
There is nothing to do in this idyllic place and that's the whole charm of the place. Total area of hills is about 30 sqkm. There were very few vehicles on the road and we could just stroll along. There is a tourist information centre,where we went to get some more information and met some guys there who told about their plans. You can even hire bicycles for Rs 30 an hour and go around the town. It's a good idea to carry umbrellas,we didn't have any so had to take the car everywhere.
There is man-made lake and a nature park in the main city which is Athanavur. We strolled around the lake soaking in the nature and later did some boating. Mist suddenly engulfs you and you don't know where you are going and then equally suddenly it clears. Entry ticket to lake is Rs 3 per head. No wonder we felt we were in heaven :)
Nature Park opposite the lake is another attraction. It has a sound light show too, in the evening which we decided to give a miss.There is another park and lake in Nilavoor, albeit much smaller. We returned to the resort in the evening. Rooms in this resort are basic. There is no room service, no phones in room. Only tea is served in your room and you have to go and tell them to bring it. But you don't feel like staying indoors( We left India-Srilanka T20 match, that too when Yuvraj was batting, to go out for dinner and walk). There is variety of flora and fauna around the cottage and we saw some birds which we had never seen before and butterflies. Food was quite homely and nice with veg and non-veg options.
This place is perfect for letting go. You can imagine how it must be when someone like Anir gets up before 7 am and wants to go for a morning walk. Our efforts of exploring the whole resort were thwarted by some dogs, who thought we were trespassing their territory. Total area is around 11 acres. We met the owner during breakfast. He is a nice old man who took our feedback. Attendants here feed you as if you were guests at their own home, but sometimes can get too nosy. One guy tried to sell us homemade honey, which we didn't take.Well all good things come to an end and it was time to go back. We left at around 10:30 and were home by 1:30. Will remember this trip for quite some time to come.
We are off to Pondicherry tomorrow and will write about it once we are back.
