Kolli Hills and Yercaud - April 29th, 30th and May 1st 2017

After asking all our friends, to join us for a trip for the long weekend since May 1st was a holiday, and when they all said they can't join, me and my colleague Siva decided to go, be it just two of us. And we decided that we will go to Kolli Hills and Yercaud, choosing it from few other available options. Without any planning, we simply started off.

Day 1, April 29th: (Drive to Kolli Hills and Stay overnight)

We had decided to start from his place in HSR Layout at 6 AM, and we kept the time. We started at 6 exactly, took a shortcut to reach Hosur Road where our long journey began. Though it was early in the morning, there was considerable traffic. After the toll just after the fly over ended, there was no much traffic anywhere, except at each and every toll - where vehicles lined up to almost a km! We stopped at A2B which is about 15 km before Krishnagiri, around 7:15 AM for breakfast. This was also crowded, but we got our order within 10 mins of wait in the queue, and with a glass of hot and tasty filter coffee, we started our drive again.

We stopped in between to fill up the tank, 60 km before to Salem. Apart from this, we gave only a couple more breaks for just 2 minutes, near the tolls (We were getting thirsty very soon since it was hot) The sun was high up now, and we were waiting to reach the hills, thinking it would be much better there. Taking the Namakkal highway from Salem, and after about 35 km, we took a deviation to Kolli Hills road. Another 20 km drive in the country side road, which hardly had any vehicles took us to the base of the hills. It was around 11:30 AM when we started to climb uphill.

There are a total of 70 U-pin cuts, that you need to drive through to the hilltop. The view on the side of the road was getting better with every turn of the road. We decided to stop near 26th U-pin cut for taking pics, and also for a break. After about half an hour of taking pics (like around 10 times back and forth on the bike on the same road to get the perfect shot :-P) , we finally realized that we should start the drive again since we would be going to a lot other better places to take pics :-P

Road to Kolli Hills

Road to Kolli Hills

After another small break near what seemed an open view on the hills somewhere in between, we reached Kolli hills without stopping anywhere else. The drive up was amazing, swifting through those curvy beds and those U pin cuts. It's so damn true that this place is known as biker's paradise.

Reaching the hills, we had to first look out for an accommodation. We checked a few hotels, and finally took the rooms at Arrow Mansion, which was the best of all we had inquired. We kept our bags, freshened up quickly and went for the hotel, which was very near to our room (The only big one at that place). We ordered 2 meals, since both of us were damn hungry. They served simple meals on Banana leaf- curry, papad, rice, sambar, rasam and butter milk. Food was tasty and we ate to our full, and we started on our bikes again, heading toward the boat house road. We did not really wanted to go to boat house, but we just wanted to explore the place, since we had to go to sunset point in evening and we had enough time till then.

The town on the top of the hills

The town on the top of the hills

We crossed boat house, and we drove ahead for about 4 km. We didn't find anything though, but the roads were good. There were many small villages on the way with just 10-15 houses. We returned back, and went to a park near the boat house, since there was no where else to go for the day. We settled there, and we took a lot of pics yet again, and then it was 4:45 PM and we decided to go to Sunset point - Seeku Parai View point and we started our bike again.

There was only 1 family at this view point, and it was a surprise for us. We thought it will be buzzing with people. Anyway, that was a good thing and we spent a while there. It was raining somewhere in the plains, at a distance, and we could see the cloud move away from us. It was not even close to sunset, and it was completely cloudy. Knowing that we wouldn't get to see sunset, we decided to head to another place. We took some chocolates in a shop there (which was the only shop near the view point) and having a few pieces, we decided to go to our hotel.

View from Sunset point

View from Sunset Point

View from Sunset Point

Coming back, we didn't want to go to our room, because it was just 6 PM and we would be bored. So we thought we will go on the temple road (We had plans of visiting the temple and falls the next day) We thought we will just drive for some distance on that road and come back. This road was also nice, and we had to go up and down a few small hillocks. We were thus able to see the sun going behind the hill at one point. We stopped there, until the sun went down our sight, and we started the ride again. It was now getting colder and colder, and we drove for about 6 km. It was now getting dark, and the roads were totally deserted. We thus thought it was better for us to head back and took a U turn.

View of sunset, as seen on the way to temple

We came back to room at 7 PM. We watched TV for a while, and at 8 PM, we went to the same hotel to have dinner. We had idly and dosa which tasted good, and we took a short walk before going to sleep. The weather was cool and pleasant, and not much people were seen outside. It looked like the town was already asleep. We were also tired, and we went back to our rooms and slept.

Day 2, April 30th: (Kolli Hills temple, Drive to Yercaud)

We were in no hurry, and thus we never kept alarm. I woke up lazily at 8 AM, took bath and got ready quickly. We went to hotel at 9:30 AM for breakfast (the same hotel, since it was too good) We then left at 10 AM, first to Vayalus View point - as called by the locals. (May be it's supposed to be 'Wireless' view point, since there is a huge tower at that place - not sure though :-P). We were said that this view point will offer a view on a different side of the hills, and thus we headed there, on the same boat house road. After asking for directions from a lot of people, we reached there after a 15 km drive. There were no people at all, and only a few goats were grazing. This was a view toward South, totally different from the one we went yesterday for sunset (It was towards the north side). We took a few pics, and then we started again towards Arpaleshwar temple. It was sunny already, and we reached temple after 45 minutes of drive.

Vayalus View Point

View form the view point

A small village while driving back from view point to Temple road

Near temple

Temple was too crowded, and we didn't like this fact. We visited the temple - which didn't take much time in-spite of the crowd. We decided to go to Mini falls, which was just next to the temple and then to Akasha ganga falls. But seeing that there was hardly any water there, and considering the fact that it was too hot to climb down and up 1300 steps to Akasha Ganga falls, we thought it was not worth a visit. We thus headed back to hotel, deciding to check out and start for Yercaud.

Arpaleshwara temple

Arpaleshwara Temple

Mini falls, behind the temple

fresh pineapple treat, on the way back to hotel

It was 12 PM when we reached hotel, and we took rest for 30 minutes before we packed up and checked out. After having lunch at the same hotel again, we started our drive at 1:45 PM to Yercaud. It was about 110 km in all. 30 km till downhills and then another 80 km via Salem. We took a break after reaching the downhills, and put on the map to our destination. We had another 2 hours of drive left, and it was 2:30 PM - Sun was right above and it was too hot, unlike the cool and awesome weather at hilltop. We drove the same way back till Salem, and then entered the city to take Yercaud main road. Yercaud also has 20 U-pin cuts. When we started ascending the hill, it was around 4:30 PM. It was drizzling and thus the weather had turned out awesome. We wanted to stop and enjoy, but we also wanted to reach soon and check for hotels to stay, since we had not booked one. It was Sunday evening, and there were a lot of vehicles leaving the hill station, and we were glad that they were all going. We reached the town at 5:30 PM, and there were still a lot of people!

We didn't go to the city, which was 3 km from the Boat House. We decided to look out here once, sicne there were a lot of hotels here too, and after seeing a few, we managed to get a decent one. We inquired the hotel guy about the places to see, who gave us info about all the places to see in Yercaud. With the time we had in our hand, we decided to visit the Yercaud highest point - Servarayan temple for the day. We quickly freshened up and started the drive.

It was raining, and we stopped for 2 minutes in between, and we started again, ignoring the rain. As we drove uphill, the view was getting better and better. It was an awesome road to take pics, but we couldn't take out the camera since it was raining. We thus went up without stopping anywhere.

This highest point was was more like an open ground, allowing a view on all sides. There were many people, but because the place was big, they were all spreaded across different points. It was a very good place. We went to the bajji shop, but the demand for bajji was so high that we had to wait for a few minutes before we got what we wanted. We thus went for roasted corn, churumuri, and then came back to bajji, and savored them hot in the rain. In a while, rain stopped completely, and the view was getting clear off the clouds. It was now time to take out the camera, and we spent the next 20 minutes, taking pics :-P (Siva wasn't exhausted of his poses and ideas) It got dark in a while, and we started back to our hotel.

Rainy weather at Yercaud Top

View of Yercaud city from Yercaud top

View form Yercaud top

Yercaud top

Yercaud Top

It was a 6 km drive and we reached the town around Boat House. We still had time and without any other option, we went to boat house and sat there in front of the lake for a while. It was dark, and we could see the lights of the vehicles reflecting in the wavy waters of the lake. It was 7:30 and we were not hungry at all (We had had a lot of Bajji's!) We decided to go back to hotel and comeback later for dinner, since there were a lot of mosquitoes in that park and we couldn't bear it. We thus went back to hotel. I passed time seeing the pics on camera and watching TV for a while. We then went out at 8:30 PM, had dinner at a nearby hotel and came back. I slept the moment I laid down in my room.

Boat house

Day 3, 1st May: (Yercaud sight seeing and drive back to Bengaluru)

We had to wake up early and go for sunrise, and we had kept alarm at 5 AM. But none of us woke up. With great difficulty, we woke up at 6, and got freshened up quickly and we started toward Pagoda point. Sun was already up - we were too late. But the early morning haze was good, and the road also was too good. We went to the view point, and while returning, we stopped for pics. After about 20 minutes of photo session, we started again towards the town. We were hungry and wanted to have breakfast before heading to our next destination. We thus had breakfast in one of the hotels there, and we headed towards Manjukuttai View point.

View from Pagoda point

View from Pagoda point

Way back from Pagoda point to Boat house

This one was a little far, and also much better compared to the previous one. This was an ideal spot for sun rise. There is a well built platform to climb up for a better view. It was just 9 AM, but it was already too sunny. Initially we had decided to go to Yercaud top again to take some more pics, but we decided it would get too hot and would make us tired. Also, there were a lot of pics already, and we decided to chuck the plan of revisiting the Yercaud Top. We thus headed to our hotel.

On the way to Manjukuttai View point

View from Manjukuttai View point

We took rest and we checked out, and started the drive at 12 PM. Weather was cool, and even the drive downhill was good. The more and more we descended, the hotter it became. We reached Salem and then headed towards Bengaluru Highway. It was close to 1:30 PM and we were hungry. We found a good hotel on the side and we stopped for lunch.

I wanted to drive for a while and took the driver seat, and drove for about 70 km. It was too sunny, and we thought of taking a break. We had lime juice at the road side, and we started again - handing over the bike back to him. Our bums were gone, and we were too desperate to get to Bengaluru. After another break at Krishnagiri Toll, and a last one at Karnataka border, we finally reached his house at HSR at 4:15 PM.

Before and After!

What a drive was that, close to 800 km in 3 days! Though we were tired, it was a great one. Even the expenses were too cheap than we had expected (2600/person). Even the places we went was ideal for the season, and I don't think any other choice would have been a better one!