It was a vacation time for my kids and as usual promised to take them on a holiday and started planning for various options since early March. As I was literally bored of travelling to Nilgiris and Kodaikanal, though my family feels at home in Kodaikanal, I started looking out for some other options such as North East, Lakshwadeep, Sri Lanka and Valparai. As I started researching these options I was drawn deep into my work commitments and my planning took a back seat but there was a pressure from my kids as to where they would spend their vacation. As I was losing time, I took the nearest option and found Valparai would be the place for a quick vacation and started researching about the place.
Valparai is a pollution free heavenly land, located 3,500 feet above the sea level on the Anamalai mountain range Valparai does not mean only a single town. It stands majestically with Green Spread Mountains and forest all around. The 64-km drive from Pollachi to Valparai is itself an exotic experience,en route is the Anamalai Tiger Reserve (Indira Gandhi Wild Life) Sanctuary where Tiger, Panther, lion-tailed macaque, Nilgiri Ghai, the common langur, Malabar giant squirrel, elephant, gaur, spotted deer, Sambar, barking
deer and wild boar reside.
As one enters Valparai one can visit the Aliyar, Sholayar and Nirar dams and the tunnels bored into the mountains and canals to harness the water from Parambikulam, Aliyar, Nirar, Sholaiyar.
I quickly learned that there were no Hotels in Valparai to accomodate family but there were good number of Home stay options and some the tea estates rented out their Bungalows for the travellers. Just as I was finalising the schedules, the ever exaggerating Sun TV channel aired out a documentary on the delicate issues of encounters between Man and the Wild. There were stories being aired about Leopards entering the town to hunt dogs and ended up hunting people and the Elephant menace where a herd of pachyderms killed a man. This made me more curious about the place and had secretly determined to visit this place but faced a stiff resistance from my better half. Somehow I managed to convince her that I would not adventure much and ensured that we can stay indoors after 6 pm.
Considering the safety factor, I decided to stay in one of the Bungalows rented out by the Tea Estates and narrowed down on two of them, one was the Glendale Waterfall Tea Estate and the Stanmore Bungalows. Each of these Estates has atleast three to five Bungalows at different location. I had booked my Bungalow at WoodBriar Group managing the Stanmore Estates. The Woodbriar group or Tea Estates of India Limited as they are officially known, has four Bungalows one at Stanmore a really beautiful but slightly expensive one, located at around 5km from Valparai Town, the Monica Bungalow at Monica, the WoodHouse Mansion located almost in the woods, the Villa Fairwinds just 1 km away from the town on the top of a small hill. I opted for the Villa Fairwinds due to it's proximity to the town.
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| Villa Fair Winds |
The plan was to leave Bangalore at night, plan a halt at Coimbatore and then proceed to Valparai after having visited the places like Aliyar Dam, TopSlip and Parambikulam but the plan was never to happen as I was stuck with my work and left office at around 11.00 pm. However we decided to leave early morning at 5.00 pm and we stuck to the plan. We decided to take the Bangalore-Hosur-Krishnagiri-Salem-Perundurai-Utthukuli-Kangeyam-Udamalai-Anamalai Road and though we had to stop at places asking for directions, this was the best road rather than going through Avinashi Road.
The drive was an excellent one and we reached Udumalai by lunch and spent some time in Anamalai watching the Anamalai Resorvoir. We started off from Anamalai to Valparai via the Parambikulam road but someone on the way said we were in the wrong direction. We returned all the way back to Anamalai and reached Aliyar Dam on the foot hills of Valparai. Later I learnt we were earlier on the right route.
On having reached the foothills of Valparai, you have a big arch welcoming you to Anamalai Tiger Reserve with a toll gate and the office of the Forest Officer. This is just a stone's throw away from the Aliyar Dam. Just a word of mention Aliyar dam is the location where the movie Suryavamsham/SuryaVansh was shot.
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| Aliyar Dam |
We need to pay a toll ticket of Rs.30 and the forest officials present a list of cards detailing various home stays. The forest officials were kind of disappointed in us that we had already booked a bungalow and we started with a word of strict advise from the Forest Officer not to stop the vehicle in between for photographs or any such reason else we would be levied a fine of Rs.1500. As the evening was fast approaching we took the advise seriously.
As we began ascending the hills I could feel being pumped up and could sight some birds of rare kind such as the Great Horn Bill, the Red Whiskered Bulbul amidst the song of the cuckoo bird. Though I was tempted to take my camera and get down for a few minutes, I was concerned to move my family to safety before venturing out.
As we reached Valparai and with some guidance from the localite reached the Villa Fair Winds Bungalow locally known as Nalla Chattu Bungalow. The Bungalow was a massive and the estate Manager John had welcomed us along with the chefs Ravi and Shivraj. As we were exploring the massive hall, living room and our bedrooms we were treated to hot Pakodas along with some great Tea.
The Villa Fair Wind had three big bedrooms with attached toilets and we were lost as a small group of 8 people.
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| Ravi (Chef), Self, John and Shivraj (Chef ) |
