Weekend Getaway from Bangalore

YELAGIRI - An Unexplored Haven

Day 01:
Most effective of all plans is the last minute plan. I have realised this more than once. Everyone in our gang wanted a break from work. But there was always that one person who would not like the place suggested. So finally I thought of pressurising people to agree to a resort at the least. So Friday evening, we brought up the resort plan. As usual, some did not agree. After a plethora of suggestions and negotiations, some one got the spark " Yelagiri".

Pic Courtesy:RB

That was it. Before even people got the chance to have second thoughts, a zoom car was booked. The plan was so sudden and so unbelievable that one of our friends, who was in Chennai, agreed to come directly to Yelagiri on one condition: " Send me the proof that the car has been booked". Once that was done, people who were initially planning to drink brought their plan a notch down, and we started searching online for places to stay. Looked like , last minute plans have a drawback, all the good hotels were sold out. So,we decided to search for a place after reaching Yelagiri.

The most tedious task for girls going for a trip is to wake up the boys on time and to keep reminding them about the plan. By 11:30, our friends came with a brand new I 20 Zoom car and five of us started on our way to a place, 150km away. The road till Hosur was crowded and it took us almost an hour to come out of the traffic.Occasional pitstops to take unlimited photos, a well maintained wide clean stretch of road , a lunch break at Anand Bavan( most delicious and filling Thali with more than 10 sides)- this was the jist of the travel till Jolarpett.

Our Chennai friend had planned to reach Jolarpett by train and from there to Yelagiri by bus. Since the station was close to our route and the train was expected to reach by 4:30p.m , we agreed to pick him up. Jolarpett railway station was a junction but it looked quite small, less crowded, a lot peaceful as compared to the other Junctions I had been to.  We ended up waiting for almost an hour.

Pic Courtesy : RB

The drive to Yelagiri from Jolarpett was short and scenic. There were twelve hairpins from the foot of the hill to Yelagiri. The road was wide enough to accommodate two lane traffic. But, the hairpins were too sharp requiring the full concentration of the person driving the car.  First task in our hand was to find a place to stay. We drove along the town looking for a clean and affordable place. When we had checked online the previous day, Marigold- Sterling Hotel had amazing reviews and was sold out. Still, we decided to take a chance - there might be last minute cancellations so what if we got lucky.

As it turned out to be, we were not lucky. Next we checked at Nila Palace that had villas and for two rooms, they were charging 14000 bucks. When we told that we were looking for rooms within 3000 bucks, they directed us to the Yelagiri town. That was how we got Golden Nest - with triple sharing rooms rated at 1500 bucks. The place was decent and well maintained with a  small supermarket just outside the hotel( you can buy whatever you want from there) and a small restaurant adjoining it.

We checked in by 6:45p.m with the plan of going for a Musical fountain Show in a near by Nature Park(500 m away from our hotel). By the time we got to the Park by 7:30 p.m, the show had been done with and people were streaming out of the park. We strolled through the small town for a while munching snacks and came back to Golden Nest for a delicious and cheap dinner. 

You would not see the real beauty of a place, till you had gone for a night ride. So we drove to one of the viewpoints along the hairpin curves.  It was really dark with no streetlights on the road. There was no sound other than the constant howling of the chilly wind. The view from there was mind blowing- the town beneath the Hills was glittering like a black sky full of bright stars. After spending almost an hour talking under the stars, we came back to the hotel. I could just remember my head hitting the pillow, we were all fast asleep within minutes.

Day 02:

Pic Courtesy: Soumya

We got up by 6 hoping to catch the sunrise from top of the The Swamimalai Hills. We reached the foot of the hills by 6:45 a.m. It took us hardly 15 minutes by car to reach this place.  We started our trek to the top of the hills by 7 a.m after a quick tea. At the foot of the hills (Mangalam Village) lived a community with closely built houses just an arms distance away from each other.The houses were tiny and tidy , built of concrete and painted in vibrant colours. The ground between the houses were paved by concrete. Every house could serve as a perfect muse to any photographer . Agriculture seemed to be the staple of people there with acres of cultivated land behind the housing colony. Dogs, Pigs, Hens, Cows..it totally encompassed the essence of a village.

The narrow path between the fields took us to the bottom of the hills. The air was fresh, the breeze was cool, sun was still hiding behind the clouds- it was the perfect start to a beautiful day. The climb to the top was rough -   Some of us were not at all prepared - we were wearing slippers which slowed our pace. There were stretches of steps made of rock interspersed by clear gravelled way. Occasionally we climbed up rocks, jumped across  low lying trees , took breaks to catch our breath and posed for photos.

Pic Courtesy: Soumya

Finally after an hour and a half we reached the top of the hill. It was cold and beautiful. There was a small temple and some villagers who had crossed us on our way to the top, were sitting there with fruits and lime juice. It felt rejuvenating having these refreshments after a very rigorous cardio- that too at a very very cheap price. The view from the top was amazing- miles and miles of greenery all around, mountains and trees and the clear blue sky - I felt I could touch the sky. There was a rock on top of the mountain and we had to climb up an iron ladder to reach on top of it.

I was so scared of heights and my mind was battling two opposing thoughts- whether to climb or not. I kept thinking whether I would be missing an opportunity to fight out my fear. Finally, I let the fear run away and took the plunge. It was even cooler at the top.The wind was getting stronger, our camera bag almost flew away. There were railings around the rock to protect us from flying off. More and more people started climbing up that rock, so we decided to come down.

After spending close to an hour at the zenith, we started trekking back to the village. This was when the muscles started giving up and we realised the after effects of our sedentary lifestyle. On our way down, we met a girl whose ankle got twisted. Her boyfriend was the most considerate man I have ever met. Half the time, he carried her piggyback and remaining time , other people( including some of our guyfriends) acted as supports so that she dint have to put effort on her ankle. This delayed our descent. When we reached the foothill, we met a typical hardworking family. The lady of the house and the kid were sitting on the side of the path to the hills selling mangoes, buttermilk and other fruits. The man of the house was ploughing the field- a sight I had not seen in the past 20 years of my life. I was touched by the sheer hard work put in to make the ends meet.

Pic Courtesy:RB

We reached the hotel by 11 a.m, hungry and tired. The breakfast counter was almost closing. With the limited options, we ate king sized meals. We were supposed to check out at 1p.m giving us just an hour to freshen up and pack our bags. Most of us took a quick nap in that time and our hosts were gracious enough to extend the checkout time by an hour. After we checked out, we decided to try out a Play Arena called " Funville". This was just opposite our hotel so we walked across.

The pamphlets lying outside boasted of several activities like GTV, Water Zorbing, Shooting, Archery, Zip lining, Go Karting etc. We were all excited and fully charged up- there was a Go Kart race in our minds. As soon as we got to the place, our energy level plummeted. The place was very small- GTV did not have any tracks, there was just one Kart and one small track for Go- Karting , the lake for boating was a small pond . One of the guys tried GTV  and three people tried Go Karting. The only activity that we all loved was shooting  targets. We got 10 shots each to bring 10 bottles down that too for 50 bucks. Some of us tried a hand at this over and over again.

We started our trip back to Bangalore by 4p.m. Dropped our Chennai friend at the railway station, took a teak break on the way(at a small hotel which charged 25bucks for a small cup of tea) - Inspite of all this, we reached Bangalore by 7:30 p.m. This marked the end of yet another - Trip to Remember.