After a long break on travel because of COVID, the first trip in COVID era started with Kodaikanal.
Day-1 - Pitstop!
The plan was to drive early morning from Chennai and check-in either in Trichy or Dindigul, work for the day and then proceed to Kodaikanal the following day early morning. We started from Chennai around 4:30 AM. The NH was quite free and we could do a good distance than expected by around 7 AM - closer to Trichy. We stopped at the Ashwin's on the highway for breakfast and had a feast south Indian breakfast. We decided that we can reach Dindigul by the time we need to connect for work and booked a hotel with Wi-Fi and spacious rooms.
We booked Hotel Chenduran Park and checked in around 10:30 AM. The rooms were spacious and decent Wi-Fi connectivity. We worked across the day until 8 PM and then ended the day with a very tasty and homely food in a small vegetarian mess - parottas and dosai varieties.
Day-2 - Kodai entry!
We started around 5 AM from Dindigul on the Saturday morning. Our stay plan was to avoid hotels in the heart of Kodai and stay in a remote place at the far end of Dolphin nose. We stopped for breakfast around 7 AM before climbing the hills. The morning dew and the golden rays made the hill ride a very enjoyable one. First trip after a break and on the hills by the dawn was an amazing feel. We did stop by the famous view points - Manjalaru Dam view point and the Dum Dum rock view point. Having visited Kodai several times and going after more than 5 years was nostalgic and great reminder of past memories. These view points are a great stop to see the plains and dam views on one side and the major hills to ride on the other.
The day plan was to visit the filmy circuit covering the most popular scenic views before doing a check in at Dolphin nose point. However, with COVID guidelines for tourists still on, most of the popular view points were closed completely including the access roads to them. We had no choice but to visit the rural and remote villages of Kodaikanal - which are far beautiful than one can imagine. We did have a plan to visit all of them; however not on Day-1. With these restrictions in place, we decided to finish this remote circuit covering the thick pine forests, Poombarai, Kookal and Mannavanur.
We climbed down the pine forest enroute and the thick forests challenging any sunlight to enter in; made sure we unpack our winter wears and shoes. We spent quite a bit of time and started towards Mannavanur. We are habituated to reach the far point first and cover inward from thereon.
Poombarai View point - Mannavanur
First destination was Mannavanur - Mannavanur is around 35 kms from Kodai lake and would take around 1.5 hours to reach - the whole route is very scenic and interesting the drive. First we stopped at Poombarai view point - an absolute heavenly view! Trust me, this is one of the best hill villages view one can get! Very colourful village amidst sprawling green gigantic hills around and blessed with blue sky and some clouds! We spent some time in a café nearby sipping a hot lemon tea and enjoying the view!
Mannavanur hosts a research centre for sheep and rabbits and scenic landscape includes the Mannavanur lake and green cover around. One needs to walk 4-5 mins from the parking lot to have a great view of Mannavanur lake; this is a great place to spend time with nature. We walked around and spent close to 30 minutes sitting there and enjoying the nature. Quite a scene!
We then visited the sheep/rabbit research center. Kids may like going around seeing this place.
Kookal
Next, we drove to Kookal - Kookal is around 8 kms from the road connecting Poombarai and Mannavanur. From Kodai lake, first comes Poombarai, then the intersection point - riding right takes one to Kookal and straight road takes you to Mannavanur. Kookal route is very beautiful and need to be driven carefully - steep curves and climb ups/downs. Kookal also hosts a beautiful lake. There is a waterfall that is quite beautiful, but requires an half-day exclusively to go and come back. There are no shops in Kookal for snacking or food. Poombarai is bigger town and has a couple of local hotels.
Poombarai
After spending some time in Kookal, we went to Poombarai. Poombarai is a valley village surrounded by tall mountains on all sides. We had good at a local eatery, very special for parottas and great non-veg food with local flavour. My friends had a great time here :-)
We then started our drive towards our stay. We reached Dolphin nose point parking area after some hiccups in traffic on the narrow roads. We checked in at the most remotest rooms possible in the locality by the edge of the hills. Only drawback at the location is on food - very few food joints and limited options. The weather went below 7-8 degrees and the chillness sunk in along with the darkness. We enjoyed every bit of the chillness after a very long time. We did a night walk around along with dinner and slipped under the rugs.
Day-3 - Dolphin Nose, Waterfalls
Actual plan was a trek to Vellagavi - however there were clouds all around and it cannot be done on 1 day. We decided to just trek till Dolphin nose and return back. Meanwhile, the morning view was a bliss - sunrise by the clouds and hills; and a herd of Indian Bison by the parking area just made it more eventful and memorable.
The climb down to Dolphin nose point is quite steep on the roots of centuries old trees and rocks. By the time we reached Dolphin nose around 7:30 AM, it started pouring down heavily. We spent some time under the temporary roof of a small shop sipping some lemon soda. As the rain relaxed, we started back to climb up to our rooms. We had some great avocado milkshake and sandwiches - Avocados are popular in Vellagavi and it is brought uphill with ponies.
Vattakanal waterfalls
We reached back our room in 1 hour and took some break. We had some food like Maggi and walked for 2 kms to the Vattakanal falls. We climbed down the Vattakanal waterfalls to reach some interesting point where we can immerse ourselves for few moments in the bone chilling water. We spent close to an hour in the waterfall area and walked back to the room. Rest of the evening was more into relaxing and chit chatting.
Day-4 - Login!
Monday Morning, we checked out of Dolphin nose area and visited few view points that were open at Kodaikanal like Green valley view point (popularly called Suicide point), Lake view and Fairy falls.
Local sighting
Post that we had nice breakfast at Hotel Astoria and checked in at Hostel - Trippr. This hostel is located quite remotely in Kodaikanal - close to 8 kms away - through bad roads/no roads. One needs a good high clearance vehicle to reach this place. Tata Nexon was powerful and sturdy enough to take us through these roads without a doubt.
Rest 2 days were more of work and early morning walk around the Kodai lake and so on - Day 4 and 5.
Then, Day-6, we started back to plains early morning, reached Trichy around 10 AM, logged in for work, visited few temples in the evening - return back to home.
We all returned safe and secure; and optimistically more trips to follow!
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