Weekend Getaways

It was our 8th wedding anniversary on the 16th Jan 2011 and fortunately for us the day was a Sunday which meant an outdoor was possible. Not having thought about it earlier........(i should accept i forgot as with every husband) had to do some last minute planning on the location which would be convenient for a drive and also allows to get a bit cozy. While searching for hilltops, beaches, I hit upon this place which is tucked in the not so steeps of Servarayan range in the Eastern Ghats. Not knowing that other than Ooty and Kodaikanal, Tamilnadu also had one more hill station to offer, I took a fancy to this place and planned to hit the road on Saturday 15th Jan 2011.

Both I and Bharti got up at 5:30 am and while she managed the morning tea, I quickly got into packing our stuff for the travel. Been a travel bug all my life, a nice 30 minutes was enough for me to pack for four of us which includes our 2 sons. Kids were ready by 7:00 and around 7:35 we drove out of our apartment. The weather was overcast and my car thermostat showed 15 degrees. The route we planned was Hosur -> Krishnagiri -> Dharmapuri -> Salem -> Yercaud which was almost 252 kms.

Within 900 meters, we reached Bommanahalli from where we took the road leading to Hosur. The best part of this road trip is that it is a one straight drive all the way to Salem. There is not even a remotest possibility of getting lost. We went below the new flyover at the Bommanahalli which takes you direct from the Central Silk Board junction to Electronic City. Within 20 minutes we reached Electronic City where towards the right hand side you cannot miss the Infosys building. Another 8 kms and you reach the Attibele flyover. The entire stretch of road till Hosur is lined with petrol pumps where we stopped on one of them to re-fuel. It is advised to carry cash as most of the petrol pumps do not accept cards. You reach the first toll gate at Attibele where you need to pay a tool of 20/- for a single trip and 35/- for a return. Since we had not planned our return journey time, we stuck to the single toll. Till Hosur there was absolutely no traffic and we could do a 100 kmph. En-route to Krishnagiri which is close to a 52 kms drive, we stopped at the Krishna inn which is a pure veg restaurant. We love this place as service is fast and you also have other options in Café Coffee Day and McDonalds (coming soon). We left the place at 8:45am to continue with rest of the journey. Within the next 5-6 kms, you would also find A2B (Ananda Adyar Bhavan) which is also a pure veg restaurant. If you have kids, this is a better place to stopover as there is a children play area which can keep the kids busy and charged before carrying on with the long drive. End of Krishnagiri there is another toll booth to pay for 25/- for a single journey. We continued to Dharmagiri which is an approximate 66 kms. From Dharmagiri, Salem is another 115 kms drive. The entire stretch of road from Hosur to Salem is a paradise. Between Dharmagiri to Salem, I could touch 160 kms for a brief period on my Esteem. The new tubeless tyres have been doing magic on my esteem which used to quiver before touching 140 even.

Roughly 50 kms before Salem, you need to pay a huge toll of 66/- for one way. Another toll booth just before reaching Salem will leave another dent in your wallet by 53/-. Once you reach Salem, keep to the left from first signal and continue keeping to your left. From the main city, Yercaud is 30 kms of which 21 kms is the Ghats. Though the Ghats are not that high (950 meters above sea level), you still have close to 20 hair pin curves. The last time I had hit such curves was my road trip to Kodaikanal. The Ghats section was an amazing view to the eyes. Kids had fun with lots of monkeys all through the way.

We reached Yercaud at 11:30 am and my initial instincts about the place was not that impressive. This was a very small town with almost no restaurants or picnic spots. The only resort that was visible was the GRT Nature Trails which was on the way to the town, a 3 kms away from the TTDC resort.

As we had not done any advance booking for our boarding, we decided to scan through the nearby places and depending on convenience, book an accommodation which provides us with the required distance from the daily crowd at the same time is convenient for sightseeing. To be frank this place does not offer anything for sightseeing. This is a place for honeymooners just to be within themselves.
Finding food is another big deal here as there are not many restaurants. For the afternoon we found ourselves within a local mess which was decently clean and had a good crowd. This was after we went to Lake Resort which offered a buffet for 250/- with absolutely nothing great to offer. The mess was a decent bargain of 300/- where we had full meals served on banana leaf with chicken, fish and loads of curds. Amazingly the curd was very sweet unlike curd that you get all over Tamilnadu.

For the night, been a night before our anniversary we went to the Salem Rocks restaurant which is a part of GRT Nature Trails. Though the dinner place is not that great, the outside ambience specially the skywalk over the ridge gives you a spectacular view of the valley. This place also has a small pub which can accommodate close to 20 people maximum. We spend time with a few drinks and starters and then we hit Sherocks which is another upscale restaurant with lot of choices and cheaper than Salem Rocks.

I would suggest Sherocks, Salem Rocks for upscale restaurants and Selvam (the mess), Paradise and Rangeela for cheaper options. All these places are cuddled nearby the lake which is the only center spot to this otherwise small sleepy town. Most of the cottages / resorts provide decent lodging between 500/- to 750/- during non-season time and an increase of 300/- during season times. Best times to visit Yercaud are during March to May and Sep to Nov.

If you are the types who would like to carry your own liquor and enjoy it within your room or have an affair with the nature during early night, I would suggest you to make purchase from the wine shop which is nearby the lake. Any shopping make sure you do it by 6:00 pm as most of the shops go to sleep. We packed our dinner from the Sherocks and used the balcony of our room as the dining area. I requested the chief at the Sherocks to get a nice packing done as we were devoid of any cutlery at our disposal. I should admit the packing was so good that we easily had our dinner without any plates and spoon. I always wonder why my kids do have a good meal when the setting is very rustic and guess this has again to do with my genes. Bharti, who is very careful with what she eats, too goes overboard. Dinner was around 11:00 pm and after putting kids to sleep we stayed at the balcony till 12:30 kissing each other for our anniversary. It was the first time, where I have actually seen mist sail around me.

The next day we got up at 6:00 am and took a brisk walk to a nearby tea shop for a hot cup of tea. I could feel the chill because as soon as I got my hot cup of tea which I normally would allow to rest for a few minutes was washed down. We sighted lot of birds of which the Heron, Kingfisher and Wagtail were quite in numbers. Once kids woke up and we all got ready, we hit the lake side which a boating facility and other entertainment for kids and adults. Though there was a decent crowd, the place is very cheap compared to other such tourist places that we have been elsewhere in India. A nearby park with few not so wild animals entertained the kids. My junior had a good time feeding all the goats around. By the time we finished the lake side, it was around noon where after getting ourselves a few bottles of juice, cola and some chocolates, we started our return journey back to Bangalore. Since there was no more of stopping anywhere, we made a one stop return journey all the way to Bangalore. The one stop on the way back was at the Café Coffee Day outlet at the Krishna Inn near Krishnagiri. We reached back home at 5:00 pm feeling all good about the lovely trip.

Summary:
Total Distance from Bangalore to Yercaud: 252 kms
Fuel Expense: 3000/- @ 64/- per litre
Toll: 328/- both ways
Hotel: 500
Meals & Refreshments: 2700/- round about
Miscellaneous: 400