Road trip to Vaalparai

Ever since I saw the pictures of Vaalparai taken by one of my ex-colleagues - Gopi - who took the trip by his bike :O , I wanted to see the place through my own eyes, instead of some other camera lens.

Vaalparai silently sneaked into my 'high-priority' list of places which I wanted to see this year. But I did not want to visit the place by Bus/Taxi. Just like Gopi, I wanted to drive down & enjoy the pristine beauty. Now, my wish got fulfilled.

We took the road trip to Vaalparai in October 2011 in our Honda City. Vaalparai was worth every bit of effort. The town is a picturesque tea estate nestled on top of a hill in TamilNadu-Kerala border. It is kind of a valley & hence not so cold as Ooty/Kodai. But the beauty is just breathtaking. To reach vaalparai from Bangalore, we took the NH7 and first touched Salem.

After Salem, we stopped at my Uncle's place at Dharapuram & took the State Highway to Pollachi. This road has large no. of windmills spread on both sides of the road. TamilNadu generates highest wind power in India & the Coimbatore/Tiruppur districts apparently have a lot of windmills. It is definitely a sight worth watching, esp. if you are a offbeat traveller.

From Pollachi, to reach Vaalparai you have to cross 40 hair pin bends. Yes, you heard it right. Its 40 :) The journey takes 2-3 hours, longer if you are driving in the night since there are no lights on the road. But the road feels quite safe, so nothing to worry.

At Vaalparai, there are a no. of regular sight-seeing places. But Kalyan, Aparna & I hit the tea estate straight. We trekked for about 2 hours not getting tired of the tea plantation. We even took a small dip in ice cold water in a 'shimmering babbling brook'. It was so refreshing. If you love water, you should definitely try it!!

Other than tea estates, the places to see in & around Vaalparai are: Aliyar Dam, Sholayar Dam, Balaji temple at Karumalai, Monkey Falls & Vellamalai Tunnel. There are quite a few places to stay at Vaalparai - Lodges like Green Valley Hills/Woodhouse near the bus stand as well as individual tea estate bungalows like Stanmore & Glendale Bungalow.