Megamalai - Once more !

Trip members: Karthik, Sanjeev, Milan, Suresh Sir and sir

Trip date:  12 Dec - 14 Dec 2025

Trip Plan : Chennai - Dindigul - Megamalai - Dindigul - Chennai

This trip was planned to enjoy Megamalai at its best cold winter. This was planned for 8-9 people and several had to drop off owing to different circumstances.

Megamalai is one of the underrated hill stations; known for his calm and serene surroundings, far from commercial exploitation. The stay possibilities are very limited, couple of government guest houses and only one estate bungalow - Woodbriars.

Day-1

We started by VB early morning from Tambaram and got down at Dindigul. Our rented 'cab' arrived on time to pick us and we were off towards the cloud mountains aka Megamalai! Enroute, we stopped to buy some fruits, snacks and essentials at Theni.

About Megamalai

Megamalai is at an elevation of ~1500m above SL; ~130 kms from Dindigul, 56 kms from Theni; ghat roads of 37 kms starting from Chinnamanur. The hill station is bounded by tea and cardomom estates all around - enroute and everywhere. The humidity changes as we climb few hairpin bends post clearing security gate and foothills. One can expect few spotted dear and may be elephants and bisons by the dawn and dusk enroute. The checkposts are closed 6 PM to 6 AM as wildlife movements are high during the dark.

Woodbriar Cottages

We reached the cottage around 12 noon; checked in swiftly and stretched for sometime. We had booked a cottage at Woodbriars around 2 months in advance. This is present after crossing Upper Manalar reservoir. The cottage costs include 3 meals a day with coffee/tea. Extra food items and campfire are available on demand on payment basis - the package is per person that includes all these. The rooms are super clean, big cots, dining area, plenty of place to walk around in the estates and very good possibility of sighting wildlife. 

Enroute, the tea estates, highwavys, I.B guest houses, Pechiamman mess were all reminiscent of my glorious past visits to these cloud enveloped hills. The roads are well laid, super smooth and absolutely zero hassles.

Maharaja Metu

Around 4:30 PM, we decided to go around and were told that all possible roads would be close by 5 PM. We reached  the highest motorable place - Maharaja Metu; enjoying the beauty all the route. This is almost a 7 kms pleasant scenic ride from Woodbriar Cottage to Maharaj Metu. From this last spot, sprawling hills of estates, the last village and Iravangalar Dam are noticeable sights. If not for the time, we can walk for 10 mins through the estate and enjoy the view point as well; as it was late, we were not allowed and we decided to come next day.

Upper and Lower Manalar

We also stopped at Upper and Lower Manalar dams for few minutes to enjoy the sunset scenes and the chills cprawling in every minute.

As we enjoyed the sunset view from Lower Manalar, we also sipped the local teat at Senthil shop - one of the two operational shops of Megamalai. We waited for one our trip members from Madurai to join and he came in around 6:30 PM. We returned back to the cottage on the cold evening; getting colder and colder.

What else on a cold evening, than asking for camp fire and sitting around; rocking back memories and gossips! A pleasant evening slowly turned out to a cold night.

Day-2

6 AM - so many bird sounds - the natural alarm and the sunrise made us feel fresh and breathe fresh! We had our tea, captured the nature around us on our natural and digital eyes and started for a morning trek with our guide.

The footprints and evidences

Around 7 AM, we started the trek and understood that a bunch of elephants had entered the property in the night, ransacksed the fences and lot of flower pots. We were so much there but did not see! We saw elephants footprints right behind our cottage in plenty and we absolutely ended up not being an witness.

The Morning Trail

But, this set the tone to go behind the fresh elephant dungs on our morning trail. So many type of birds chirping, our morning walk was blissful. We climbing tea estates, hillocks and went down steep slopes thorugh the estates and walked by the upper manalar reservoir. This is exactly how one refreshes the lungs once in a while! 

Returned back to the room, refreshed and a feast of breakfast - idlies, dosas, pongal and few local non-veg dishes as well. One more joined our trip by then! We then relaxed for a while, just enjoying the nature around and waited for a jeep tour in tea estates and dam views.

Offroading

The jeep arrived by noon and we were off to a offroad trip! We travelled through tea estates and small villages; often sighting a water body - a lake, a river or a dam and some grand views.

The View point

Now, we stopped at Maharaja Metu and covered the view point as well - walking up the estate and visiting Meghamalai Top View Point. There is a minimal entry fee of Rs.10 per person collected. The views are quite good from this point.

We, then, heard about the elephants being sighted at Lower Manalar - yes, these were the same ones that tried to meet us the previous night but we neglected! Now, we just want to ensure we meet them and off we go the lower Manalar!

The JUMBOs!

A herd of Elephant family - a Tusker, a mother and a kid were grazing in a small island at Lower Manalar! We did spend a good time sighting it.

We did stop by a water letout near Highways and spent sometime chitchatting.

Reached back to the cottage for a great lunch around 2:30 PM. We took some rest and walked around lazily in the evening.

Back at the cottage around 8 PM, there were several noises - termed as Leopard - lights reflecting off the eyes. That was enough for us to not exit the cottage and had a sound sleep!

Day 3

Next day morning, a lazy start, sighting lot of colourful birds, superb breakfast and start back!

We checked out around 11 AM and started the journey back to Dindigul. We drove back and sighted few more elephants around Higwavys and further down!

 

We reached back Dindigul and went to Kumbakarai waterfalls. There was good amount of water for a great refreshing splash. We reached Dindigul around 3 PM and survived will all our snacks till then! 

Returned to Chennai on the Tejas express and safe home!