Anurag Jain - My travelogues and Adventures

Yercaud, Hogenakkal Falls

Jul 7-8, 2007

Yercaud (aka Yercad, Yerkad)

Hogenakkal Waterfalls

Salem/Krishnagiri/Hosur

This was a dream trip which turned out to be absolutely perfect one. Haven't had a better trip before or since then! Started for Yercaud on Saturday morning (around 6 o clock) with nice monsoon weather (only clouds, no rain). The Hosur road is done very nicely. More than the smoothness of the road, the whole route is extremely scenic. Stopped at a number of places for views. Had breakfast at Krishnagiri. Just before reaching Salem, spotted a small board on the left that said Salem airport. Now, I knew that Salem airport was not functional yet as we (Deccan) had been trying to start Bangalore-Salem and Chennai-Salem flights for sometime now. In any case, as soon as we passed that board, I stopped, turned around and decided to go see the airport. It we very close to the main road (maybe 200 meters). Unfortunately, the doors were closed even though it looked like there was a whole bunch of staff/families living inside the airport colony area. Reached Salem, crowded place, filled gas. Weather had gotten even better by now! Just after Salem, the ascent to Yercaud started. And surprisingly, the road quality remained as good as it was in the plains. That enhanced the fun. Soon there were great views of the plains. We stopped at many places for photos, generally going up a bit in the woods. By 1200 hrs we reached Yercaud. Went straight to Sterling Resorts (near Lady's Seat), but decided to explore more places to stay. Since a few tourist attractions are available nearby, explored the same. Those included Lady's seat, Rose Garden. From the telescope at Lady's Seat, you get a great view of the Mettur town. After this, went to check out Hotel Shevaroys, but then got reminded of Grange Resort about which I had read on the Net before leaving for Yercaud. Grange actually has quite a history: The actual Grange (by the resort) is one of the oldest buildings in Yercaud (built in 1920s) by the then Salem's Disctrict Collector MD Cockburn. So headed to Grange (Resort), liked it immediately. Unpacked, had lunch there which was really well prepared! Headed out to explore Yercaud. First stop Kiliyur Falls. Since I had not done adequate research (and which I later read), it wasn't a good idea to take car all the way to the end of road. It was rather narrow and could have been difficult if there were any vehicles coming from the other direction. Parked the car, walked 25 meters or so when the road ended with a closed gate to some private road/estate. By the side of the gate, there was a signboard to the right pointing way to waterfalls. We went down on the mountain on the trekking slope. But soon, we found it a little too steep. Moreover, as there were'nt any other people around, we decided to not go further into the jungle and came back to the top. Back to Yercaud, we planned to goto Kottachedu Teak Forest. We never really got to know if we reached this place, but we did pass through some thick teak forestations. Not knowing local language can be quite tough sometimes! Even though we didn't decidedly reach our destination, it provided a lot of photo opps. We got down into a dry river which was very scenic with a lot of boulders. Came back to the town by nightfall. Power was out. Picked up some drinks from a small shop, went to Lady's seat. Parked car just outside Sterling from where we could see whole Mettur town lights. The wind was real fierce while we made merry over a coupla drinks.

Next morning, got up early and started for Shrvarayan temple. The route was extremely scenic, and very hilly with narrow road and hairpin bends. Temple is located on the top of a hill, and its a huge flat area with some communication setup for nearby Bauxite Mines (MALCO/Vedanta). The thing I remember most about this place is the wind. Never in my life have I experienced such wind velocity. Car was almost shaking with wind's impact, and at few times it was impossible for us to even stand! On the way back to town, decided to goto Tipperary View Point. After asking a lot of people (there weren't many around early morning!), we finally reached a lane where we had to park our car, walk a little bit and finally we reached the view point and it sure was nice (Till date, though, I am not sure if it was Tipperary point!). On the way back to Grange, we passed by Monfort school as well. Had breakfast at resort, and then tried to go see The Grange building which is located next to resort. However, as soon as we were in the vicinity of the real Grange, there were a lot of dogs barking. So, we decided to call it quits and came back to resort. Vacated the room and left. Went to the Yercaud lake for boating. Bumped into Gunjan's IBM colleague Arti. After boating it was already 12:00 hrs and time to leave for Hogenakkal Falls.

As we drove towards Hogenakkal, I remembered Suresh the boatman. He's the guy who had showed me around on my last trip to Hogenakkal. Since he had got decent business through my travelouge where I had published his number, he had been in touch with me since then. He'd call me once in a while and we'd talk in some broken Hindi/english languages to convey our points. Once, he even sent me a lot of waterfalls pictures by post inviting me to visit as the water was in full flow. Anyhow, as luck would have it, while approaching Hogenakkal from Yercaud, I happened to check my SMS inbox and surprise! there was a message from Suresh the previous night inviting us to visit the waterfalls!! What a coincidence. As soon as we reached Hogenakkal (at around 1530 hrs), called Suresh. He came to the car stand itself to receive us. And from there on, we were in his safe hands knowing fully well that we'd get the best tour possible. He sure gave us the tour of our life. First we walked a bit and descended to the downstream of the falls from where we started coracle ride. On the way, some kids were jumping from hills into the water for 10 Rs! They'd jump and then swim to you to receive the reward for their daredevilry. Reached the other shore we got down and had to walk again, this time climb up the hill to reach the level of the waterfalls. And then we were in coracle again, ready to goto the head of the majestic Hogenakkal waterfalls. As an aside, Hogenakkal means Smoking/Misty rocks. And they sure are that. And more! Back to the narrative. So, we were on the way to heads of the falls. From a distance we could see a lot of mist on the horizon and we thought it was some kind of wind activity on river cauvery. But onky when we neared the Falls did we realize that we were almost on the head of the falls and the mist was the atomization of the water falling many meters down, all this just a few feet ahead of us! Near the head of falls, got down from the coracle, stood on the rock formations in the water. We could now clearly see the whole waterfalls from the top. Hogenakkal falls are a series of waterfalls (maybe 20-30) which all align together in a shoehorn shape. It was quite a sight. Even in my last trip, I had not been to the head of the falls, so it was really spectacular. Then Suresh insisted that I go forward with him. While I didn't think of that as a great idea, I had full confidence in our boatman. So while Gunjan screamed for me not to go :), I started walking with Suresh and in few feet's distance I was standing at the cliff of the waterfalls, water rushing past my feet! A small slip, and I would be a part of the water-fall! I sat down the tree stub that was precariously perched on the waterfall cliff. This was a great photo-op. So Suresh clicked away! Time to go back to non-heroic life. So, came back to coracle, and we started our ride back to the other side of waterfalls. Once there, much against my wishes, and much in accordance with Gunjan's wishes, I had to get a massage done (Forgot to tell you that apart from being a boatman, Suresh is also an expert masseur). So there I was, more of a public spectacle than anything else, all the time gritting my teeth at the sheer unwelcome aspect of the situation, while monkeys around left no stone unturned in poking fun at me. Never mind. Finally I was done, and yes it (the massage) felt good! It was getting a little dark (18:30 hrs), so decided to say bye to Suresh and his brother and left for Bangalore. Took a shortcut which didn't turn out to be good decision as the road was in terrible condition. Reached home by 23:00 hrs.

A perfect trip!

Recommendations:

Yercaud: Should go for an idyllic weekend. Summers probably better time to go.

Hogenakkal: Must visit. Preferably during/post monsoons (Jul-Oct)

YERCAUD