Tour Members - Karthik, Sathish Raja, Sankar Ganesh, TP
Dates - 21 and 22 July 2018
Chennai - Tenkasi - Courtallam - Senkottai - Tenkasi - Chennai
This is another trip to Courtallam - ever fresh and refreshing place, any number of times you go.
Day-1
We reached Tenkasi by 9:45 AM, train delaed by almost 2 hours. Sankar had arranged our accommodation at the circuit house through his contacts. This is very close to main falls - a walk of 5-10 mins. We had breakfast in a roadside restaurant - quite common in these localities and checked in to the rooms.
We visited Shenbaga Devi temple and waterfalls. None are allowed to take bath here as the water is used for drinking water in Courtallam. We took some permissions and reached this waterfalls with a guide with many clauses like no plastic, no bathing in the waterfalls and many more. We tasted the running water and it was more than the best water one gets to taste. We took bath in the running stream, little down stream with guidance. We spent around an hour here and refreshed so much in the running stream. We trekked up to see the Shenbega Devi waterfalls and enjoyed seeing it running full !
We came down by 3 PM and were very very very hungry. Hot hot - freshly prepared parottas, kuska and spicy chalna were fed upon - the Courtallam hot parottas are not to be missed after taking the bath!
We walked upto Main falls and it was a visual treat to see running on almost full breadth. We took couple of pictures and reached the room as we decided to come to bath in main falls late evening. After taking some rest - for couple of hours, around 5:30, we started to Five falls. We took an auto to Five falls and reached there by 6:15 PM. The falls was bustling with the white like water and the crowd was quite less compared to any other season. May be, all the falls were closed for more than a week because of heavy rains and recently open to public. We bathed, bathed, bathed and bathed in five falls for more than an hour. The chill water, the breeze and night fall were amazing and gave a great mood to bath forever!
We returned back to Courtallam by 8:30 and had dinner at Annapoorna mess - the garlic dosa and idles were quite good. We went back to the room, took some rest and left to enjoy the mighty main falls by 11 PM. We spent time in beautiful dark sky, some bright stars and the fiery water. The waterfalls was quite crowded even in midnight. We then followed up with a late night dinner as the bathing made us hungry.
Day-2
The plan for the day to goto some remote waterfalls where the crowd shall be less. We had nice breakfast at Hotel Annapurna mess near the main falls. We then visited, Lord Kutralanathar at the Kutralanathar temple near to Main falls. The main deity of Lord shiva is called Kuttralanathar and the Goddess Parvathy is called Kuzhalvoi Mozhiammai. It is said the main deity of Linga was formed by Sage Agasthya to see the Parvathy-Shiva marriage from South.
We also visited Chitra sabhai - one of the Pancha Sabhas of Lord Shiva. The Chitra Sabhai is located near the parking area of main falls. It is around 500m from the main temple. The Chitra Sabhai is a hall of pictures and displays a beautiful painting of Lord Natraja. The interiors of the temple is decked with beautiful murals, depicting images from the Indian epics and history. The place is mesmerizing. They charge an entrance ticket of Rs.10 per person, camera and mobiles are not allowed.
A localite joined with us and helped us go to a private water falls - Arunpandian waterfalls inside an estate near the Gundaru dam. Gundaru dam is located next to Sengottai. This dam is around 7 kms from Sengottai. We got down from our auto. We then hired a jeep - on a steep rocky terrain. There are other falls in this area, which people go by walk or by jeep.
The one we reached is called as private falls - Arunpandian waterfalls inside a private estate. The jeep is operated by a person - Ravi. We reached there around 11:30 and got into the waterfalls. This waterfalls is not so crowded, however, people who like to have some personal time prefer to pay and come here, like what we did. Looks like they charge Rs.1800 for the jeep and waterfall - per group. We spent a lot of time as the crowd was lesser here. Normally, it is a said, one group is allowed to take bath only 45 minutes. However, we had good fun enjoying here for more than 2 hours. There is a small pool of water as well, where kids spend time. There is a small shop which prepared non-veg items on demand and gives is fresh. They also do bread toasts, eggs and noodles.
We took the jeep back and reached Senkottai by 3:30 PM. For veggies, we had meals at the popular Mani Iyer Manis cafe. The food is ok. The non-veggies had their meal at Border.
Evening, we reached back the room by 4 PM, checked out and bought dinner from Vinayaga mess near the new bus stand. After all food, Vinayaga mess stands out for their quality of chutneys and the dosa fill-ins. Reached back Chennai so tired after all the water bashing on the falls! And ready for next year too .... !
Dates - 21 and 22 July 2018
Chennai - Tenkasi - Courtallam - Senkottai - Tenkasi - Chennai
This is another trip to Courtallam - ever fresh and refreshing place, any number of times you go.
Day-1
We reached Tenkasi by 9:45 AM, train delaed by almost 2 hours. Sankar had arranged our accommodation at the circuit house through his contacts. This is very close to main falls - a walk of 5-10 mins. We had breakfast in a roadside restaurant - quite common in these localities and checked in to the rooms.
We visited Shenbaga Devi temple and waterfalls. None are allowed to take bath here as the water is used for drinking water in Courtallam. We took some permissions and reached this waterfalls with a guide with many clauses like no plastic, no bathing in the waterfalls and many more. We tasted the running water and it was more than the best water one gets to taste. We took bath in the running stream, little down stream with guidance. We spent around an hour here and refreshed so much in the running stream. We trekked up to see the Shenbega Devi waterfalls and enjoyed seeing it running full !
We came down by 3 PM and were very very very hungry. Hot hot - freshly prepared parottas, kuska and spicy chalna were fed upon - the Courtallam hot parottas are not to be missed after taking the bath!
We walked upto Main falls and it was a visual treat to see running on almost full breadth. We took couple of pictures and reached the room as we decided to come to bath in main falls late evening. After taking some rest - for couple of hours, around 5:30, we started to Five falls. We took an auto to Five falls and reached there by 6:15 PM. The falls was bustling with the white like water and the crowd was quite less compared to any other season. May be, all the falls were closed for more than a week because of heavy rains and recently open to public. We bathed, bathed, bathed and bathed in five falls for more than an hour. The chill water, the breeze and night fall were amazing and gave a great mood to bath forever!
 |
| Main falls |
Day-2
The plan for the day to goto some remote waterfalls where the crowd shall be less. We had nice breakfast at Hotel Annapurna mess near the main falls. We then visited, Lord Kutralanathar at the Kutralanathar temple near to Main falls. The main deity of Lord shiva is called Kuttralanathar and the Goddess Parvathy is called Kuzhalvoi Mozhiammai. It is said the main deity of Linga was formed by Sage Agasthya to see the Parvathy-Shiva marriage from South.
We also visited Chitra sabhai - one of the Pancha Sabhas of Lord Shiva. The Chitra Sabhai is located near the parking area of main falls. It is around 500m from the main temple. The Chitra Sabhai is a hall of pictures and displays a beautiful painting of Lord Natraja. The interiors of the temple is decked with beautiful murals, depicting images from the Indian epics and history. The place is mesmerizing. They charge an entrance ticket of Rs.10 per person, camera and mobiles are not allowed.
A localite joined with us and helped us go to a private water falls - Arunpandian waterfalls inside an estate near the Gundaru dam. Gundaru dam is located next to Sengottai. This dam is around 7 kms from Sengottai. We got down from our auto. We then hired a jeep - on a steep rocky terrain. There are other falls in this area, which people go by walk or by jeep.
The one we reached is called as private falls - Arunpandian waterfalls inside a private estate. The jeep is operated by a person - Ravi. We reached there around 11:30 and got into the waterfalls. This waterfalls is not so crowded, however, people who like to have some personal time prefer to pay and come here, like what we did. Looks like they charge Rs.1800 for the jeep and waterfall - per group. We spent a lot of time as the crowd was lesser here. Normally, it is a said, one group is allowed to take bath only 45 minutes. However, we had good fun enjoying here for more than 2 hours. There is a small pool of water as well, where kids spend time. There is a small shop which prepared non-veg items on demand and gives is fresh. They also do bread toasts, eggs and noodles.
We took the jeep back and reached Senkottai by 3:30 PM. For veggies, we had meals at the popular Mani Iyer Manis cafe. The food is ok. The non-veggies had their meal at Border.
Evening, we reached back the room by 4 PM, checked out and bought dinner from Vinayaga mess near the new bus stand. After all food, Vinayaga mess stands out for their quality of chutneys and the dosa fill-ins. Reached back Chennai so tired after all the water bashing on the falls! And ready for next year too .... !
Good one Karthik!
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