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Originally Posted by hvkumar  It is normally a good road, although am not sure about its current condition. |
Still a very good road, as of December end.
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Originally Posted by hvkumar The ghat road is fine but there are around 30 hairpin bends so you may want to avoid driving after dark. Road is totally safe. |
40 hairpin bends. You need to make sure you're up the ghat by about 5 pm, which means that you need to reach Aliyar Dam at the foot of the ghats by about 3 pm.
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Originally Posted by hvkumar In case you want to reduce travelling distance a little, you can turn off NH47 at Avinashi, go to Tiruppur and thereon to Pollachi, but I will recommend the NH47 itself sinc eit is fast and in good shape. You do not have to enter Coimbatore city, take the Coimbatore bypass and watch out for the left turn off to Pollachi. |
This is recommended - please stick to NH 47 and turn off somewhere down the byepass.
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Originally Posted by hvkumar There are some hotels in Valparai, but I do not know any. Ideally, you should stay in a tea estate bungalow - heard there are some there for hire. There is relaly nothing muchy to do at Valparai, except for some view points here an there but teh tea estates are splendid - at Malakkiparai 25 kms away are the highest-yielding tea estates in India. |
Hotel Green View at Valparai is the ONLY hotel available, and you wouldnt want to stay there as the rooms are just an extension of the bar.
Contact Zakkie (Speedzak on the forum) and he will give you the numbers of the tea estate where we stayed. They have different bunglows at the tea estates to cater to most budgets. These estates are run by Parry Agro, and the food is first class. The estate bunglows are at Sholayar Dam. There is also the Anamalais Club just outside Valparai.
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Originally Posted by hvkumar In case you want to have a good day outing, drive on another 50 kms on teh Chalakudy road - this is the best reserve forests and shola jungles you will see in the Western Ghat region - although I must caution you that it is also infested with elephants (at night) and there are no facilities. If you take this road, you can visit Athirampalli waterfalls and Vazhachchaal, which are great. |
Highly recommended, but the "road" is in bad shape. Check out the Kerala Meet report here (we visited the same places):
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/showthread.php?t=20228 (Rumble in the Jungle - Report)
Since you're on holiday may I suggest that you do Bangalore-Mysore-Gundlupet-Masinagudi-Ooty-Coimbatore-Pollachi instead of the boring and dry NH 47? Or at least take the Sathy (Satyamangalam) route to Coimbatore.