Yercaud - Day 1 - The Journey

5th Feb 2011

I, brother, mom and dad left Bangalore early in bro’s car to Yercaud. We drove some, had breakfast at A Kamath restaurant and then drove more.
What beautiful roads! As we entered Tamil Nad, they only better.
Some views presented kilometer long stretches of continuous road ahead and were worth photographing.

These toll gates make a lot of money. They collect 20, 30 or 60 rupees at each gate and there were some 10 of these gates on our way.

I slept some and read Somerset Maugham’s Cakes & Ale alternately until the uphill climb began.
And then I was ready with my camera, clicking away to the annoyance of my whole family.

Monkeys!

We found them all along the climb. Comfortably ensconced on the parapet, on the branch of a tree, on the road, gaping at passing cars, hoping for those inside to throw them some food. We had to slow down sometimes for fear one of them might dart across the road suddenly.
On our way down, 2 days later, early in the morning, we saw some 50 monkeys huddled together closely in one big ball. Before I could take a picture, our car had passed them. What a rare sight it was!

There are 20 hair pin bends. And at each bend you see a marking of the count on a rock or the parapet by the road.

Bamboo is one of the photogenic trees on my list. The others being coconut, Devdar and the Pine.
This one was lovely. What with sunlight falling on the leaves and turning them golden green, special effects and all!

Mountains in layers.

Can’t help thinking about Kedarnath where we saw 6 or 7 of them one behind the other.

And the coffee estates made me think of Coorg.

That’s the thing about Nature. The same mountains, the same rivers, but you cannot have enough of them.

And we reached Hotel Tamil Nadu. Our room cost 1000 rupees a day and there was hot water available all the time. It’s right next to the lake. Recommend it.

Our balcony ‘pretended’ to look out to the lake. I mean there was a lot of weedy ground under the balcony, after that a street and then the lake.

Since it was very sunny, everyone rested in the room for the noon.
After some resting, I set out alone, ambling about, hoping to find some work for my camera.
I bought a hat for myself (my second hat after the first one in Goa), and a cap for my dad.
I was surprised to see pine in the vicinity. I thought they were to be found only in the northern mountains.

I had to position myself and my camera strategically so I could picture this part of the hillside and leave out the debris around it.

We had lunch in hotel Malar (a ‘pure veg’ hotel – my father was very particular).
We had south Indian meals and ‘Vatthal Kozhumbu’ was very good.

After lunch we went for a short drive when I took more pictures which will follow…