Yercaud...The Jewel of the South...a.k.a "The poor man's Ooty"

As you sit on the hillside, or lie prone under the trees of the forest, or sprawl wet-legged on the shingly beach of a mountain stream, the great door, that does not look like a door, opens.
Stephen Graham - The Gentle art of Tramping (1926).

 


For the incessant "roadie" in me, staying back for 2 weekends in a row at Bangalore wasn't what I had planned for, but then...all in good time I guess!!!

I had decided to make the most of the next weekend, by taking off to Yercaud. Located in Tamil Nadu, about 30 km away, along with my colleagues at work we planned at end of office hours. All bags packed, war gear in tow - Cameras, back packs, booze and abundance of motivation for a drive all night, off we went. The six of us, had decided to have great fun, since Yercaud had quite a bit to offer. Getting out of Bangalore onto the Hosur-Salem highway was a nightmare as usual, with traffic driving me nuts.

We had an awesome dinner at a typical Punjabi Dhaba, just after Hosur. We knew we were in for a fun trip, when Shivajee got us in splits after he went into the ladies rest room, with the girls almost walking in, in tow. Hilarious to say the least!!!

Rotis, Dal fry, Punjabi Chicken & Chettinadu Chicken and Egg Burji was what we all agreed upon. Food was absolutely fantastic, as was the setting - typically "khatiyas" to sit and eat.

Off we headed at the stroke of midnight, with a couple of stops for Chai en route. Shamsu provided the entertainment, having us in splits with his typical "Mallu" accent, Gangnam dance steps, and his amazing singing skills.We reached Yercaud at 3.30 am after an absolutely amazing drive of more than 25 km uphill. Yercaud is about 5000 feet with 20+ lethal hairpin bends. And driving at 2 am, with the city lights of Salem far below was fab. We could feel the weather change at every foot we climbed uphill. After what was an exciting drive, we finally reached Yercaud, and managed to trace our resort, after 30 minutes of being lost in the hills. Off to bed at 4.30 am, everyone was waiting for the fun to unfold the next day.

We were up at 9 am, the girls got up earlier. It was pretty cold in the morning, and all of us were desperate to grab some nice hot chai/coffee and be out in the sun. After a shower and some good breakfast - idlis, pongal, vadas with Chutney and Sambhar, we set off to explore the city. We went up Pagoda Point, enjoyed the view there, climbed trees, and walked around for a long time. What was nice to know was that even at 41, I was able to beat the youngsters at climbing trees, an art perfected when I was a kid, as I climbed up trees in the neighbourhood to pluck guavas and other fruit!

After lunch, at a nice, simple restaurant, we headed back to the resort to grab some shut eye, before we got ready to spend the night over drinks, good food and star gazing. I was going to attempt my first tries at capturing the night sky and the city lights of Salem, several thousand feet below. The evening was spent over vodka, snacks, food, music, dance and several hilarious incidents that unfolded. The sunset at Pagoda Point was awesome, with the sunset and twilight taking the peace and calm to the next level. Nirvana!!!

Bottom line, getting your colleagues and team to bond is such an important thing...and as a people manager, I know the value of what it means. But this I will blog on a more serious and separate note.

The next morning, was spent some great breakfast, similar to the previous day's, and then heading out to the Ornamental Lake, in Yercaud town. The team had great fun in the pedal boats, splashing water on one another. We then headed to Kiliyur falls. It was a very steep descent into a valley, and in 30 minutes time we got a wonderful view of the falls. After several photos of the waterfalls and tea pictures, we started our ascent, which by no means was an easy climb. I did pretty well for a 41 year old to get to the summit, and waited a good 20 minutes before the youngsters arrived. After catching our breath, we then headed off to a restaurant called the Forest Lake, which is what Yercaud means. The setting was perfect; it was a British Raj era venue, high ceiling, period wooden furniture, and a wonderful valley as a view. After a nice Chinese meal of Fried rice, Schezwan chicken, we headed back to the resort and get prepared for our return journey. En route Bangalore, as we came down the hill, we stopped to take a few pictures of Salem. Starting off at 9 pm, we reached Bangalore at 1 am, and after dropping everyone off, I crept into bed, and couldn't sleep for a couple of hours, recollecting the wonderful memories of what was another excellent team outing!