Lokee

Valparai is a heavenly place situated 90 km from Coimbatore in Western ghats. It is a picturesque landscape with scenic beauty. Key places of interests are:

• Top Slip (national park)
• Anamalai Wildlife sanctuary
• Aliyar Dam
• Monkey Falls
• Sholayar Dam
• View Points
• Balaji Temple
• Athirapally Falls

and You could see grass hills, private tea estates and amiable people all over.

We (a team of 4) started our journey from Chennai on a Friday evening. We took Blue Mountain Express and reached Coimbatore early morning. We hired a cab and headed to Pollachi enjoying the chilly weather and clicking the adorable dawn. We went to the hotel and refreshed ourselves.

We started off the day visiting Aliyar Dam and then spent few hours rejuvenating under the ice cold waterfall.One noteworthy fact about Valaparai is that it is not as overcrowded as Ooty is. We went to Sholayar Dam but were not permitted to get inside. Recos will really help here. It was already 2 PM so we huddled to decide visiting Athirapally (local crew call it "punagai mannan" falls). And the interesting thing is you should either stay at hills or get down before 3 PM as it fogs after that making driving a tedious task. Due to lack of planning and time constraint, we ended spending another one hour or two in private tea estates and in Balaji temple aborting Athirapally plans.

We didn't realize that we were mercilessly attacked by leeches in Tea estates until that night :) We were virtually donating blood in the Tea estate :). I inquired my friend who visits this place frequently and he then shared the fact that we need special boots to prevent leech bites. The tea estate employees drape themselves with sacks to prevent leech bites. The attention-grabbing information is that leech when gets onto our body spreads an anti-coagulant serum to prevent blood clotting and injects its own anesthetic to make bites painless. The leech gorges itself until it has had its fill. Looks like leech is making use of its 32 brains more efficiently than I do. We climbed down clicking shots in the view points and reached hotel in Pollachi.

The next day, we checked out of hotel and went to top slip queuing up ourselves for an elephant ride. The cottages on top slips are awesome. We were told that we can sight bisons, elephants and tigers from cottages. How fascinating would it be to stay in a forest @ night! I think the next time I visit this place I should stay at these cottages than at hotels in Pollachi / Valparai. We waited there for two hours and we were picturing the lustrous green grass land. We thought of getting into Anamalai sanctuary but we were not permitted to travel in TN registered vehicle :( We returned to Coimbatore and attended friend's marriage.

It was a wonderful, calm, peaceful weekend and a lustrous green feast to eyes. For people who appreciate solitude and admire nature, this place is a "must see" in lifetime. You will register calm and peaceful days in your life for sure visiting Valparai. I wish I visit this heavenly place sometime soon!!!