Valparai - The green carpet with great flora & fauna

[subbarp]

Drawing inspiration from the travelogue 'Verdant Valparai', headed out last Saturday (11th Aug). Calling it 'The Green Carpet' based on the views that greeted us.






Occassionally, waterfalls break the green tinge



Sometimes its the great twisty, winding, excellently laid out roads.



And if you thought, its just the greens, roads and waterfalls, you are mistaken. Mist is a feared entity particularly at night when driving gets tricky. During the day, it presents with some awesome sights.


can you forget the fauna ?
Nilgiri Tahr making its appearance somewhere between the 9/40 and 11/40 hairpin bend.

[subbarp]

Continuing on, the Nilgiri Tahr modelled before us and presented great photo opportunity.





After some more twists and turns,



we reach the upper part and complete the hairpin bends. Ahoy! this beautiful old style post office came as a surprise.



Enough of travelling now. We have travelled about 450+ Km from Bangalore, time for some rest. Sign boards greet us and lead us to our destination.





Time for some rest.

[drkakkilaya]

Beautiful pics. Know what, I took a drive to Valprai and athirapally from Coimbatore on 12th sunday . Even I got to see the nilgiri tahr at the same spot, just before hairpin 10.
If u spotted a black Mahindra thar that probably be me :-)
Preparing the write up and photos ll post soon.

[subbarp]

After driving for 450+ km, of course (albeit with a break at Salem), we require some of this.



Now time for some local sight seeing; No Qutub Minar or Taj Mahal here but you have the beautiful views, birds and more. Views from the Sinnadorai bungalow.









Lets now we head out of the bungalow. And we soon encounter the Bison family.




End of a long day...


Day-2: Full of birding action.

Malabar Whisting Thrush greets us first. Its drizling as well and that adds to the charm.


Whistle for us please!


and now we head out - Hornbill, Pied Bushchat, Woodpecker, Pigeon with an Orange uniform, red whiskered bulbul, Scarlet Minivet, bay backed shrike are all waiting to greet us.

[scopriobharath]

Nice travellogue and pics. I too had been to valpari last year but my pics are nowhere near yours. Your pics are outstanding.

Which Car did you take?

[subbarp]

Originally Posted by scopriobharath

Nice travellogue and pics. I too had been to valpari last year but my pics are nowhere near yours. Your pics are outstanding.

Which Car did you take?

Thanks, took my 2006 Corolla with 57K. Had recently prepared it with an all tyres change for the first time.

Continuing on from my post, we are looking out for some birds. We go through some winding tea estates where people are already at work.


We drive down the areas to the tea factories and enroute encounter lots of birds.

The rare hornbill.


followed by the ever so colorful woodpecker. Never knew or imagined its so colorful.


The peacock/peafowl family.


The Red Whiskered Bulbul.


The pigeon with orange uniform.


Pied Bushchat.


now ready for a flight


A walk around the bungalow presents us with the following:

The pair of parakeets


Scarlet Minivet


Unknown birds, someone please help me with their names, sorry birdies not to recognize you!

Unnamed birdie (1)



Unnamed birdie (2)



Unnamed birdie (3)


Some more birds feeling left out. Langur, LTM - the rare Lion Tailed Macaque feel left out, so another post is due.

[skdking]

The unnamed bird (2) appears to be Coucal.

Wonderful presentation. Kudos to you.

[subbarp]

Concluding part of the travelogue to present LTM(next 2 photographs) and the Langur(the last photograph).







Logistics:

Distance of about 470+ km covered from home in Bangalore to Sinna Dorai bungalow in Valparai. Travelled with kids, so planned to break the journey.
Left Saturday 4:30 PM and reached Salem after 8PM - there was some 1 way traffic that day near Hosur due to some issue, that held us back for some time.

Checked in at Cenneys Gateway hotel, Salem. Steep for a night's stay, they claim its a 3 star property and it proved to be that and more. Good place. It is just a few minutes drive away from the NH and easy to spot, so not an issue.

Left Salem on Sunday and covered the next 150km at a brisk pace - great roads. Made the mistake of doing the Coimbatore bypass when we had a slightly different route to Pollachi. Coimbatore bypass is required for going to Kerala, for Pollachi, there is a separate route avoiding all the construction mess on the Coimbatore bypass. Anyways..

Post Pollachi, it took us about 3 hours, no not because of the roads - they were great. We took a lot of breaks to savour the scenary. One can do this stretch in just under 2 hours.

Overall Bangalore to Valparai would be 10 hours including all the usual breaks.

On the return, we did Valparai-Palani (night stay)-Oddanchatiram-Vedasandur-Karur-Salem-Bangalore. Valparai-Palani was about 3 hours. Palani-Bangalore took us about 7 hours.

Attaching a few photos from Palani to wrap up.

Winch to the temple:


Stairs to the temple:

[parsh]

Lovely landscapes, birds and animals captures. Thanks for sharing. Unnamed birdie (2) is definitely Bhardwaj as called in India or Greater Coucal as it is called in English.

[unk9ja]

Nice travelogue and great pics. Can you share the rates for the accommodation at Sinna Dorai's,

[subbarp]

Originally Posted by unk9ja

Nice travelogue and great pics. Can you share the rates for the accommodation at Sinna Dorai's,

It was 6.5k/day inclusive of food.

[libranof1987]

Ah, what can I say about this place! Spent 3 wonderful whole days in June and were possibly the most well spent.

Nice collection of pics!

Did you get a chance to visit the tea factory? We couldn't because it just wouldn't stop raining! I see quite some sunshine in your pics; how was the overall weather?

Missed going to the temple though.

Originally Posted by unk9ja

Nice travelogue and great pics. Can you share the rates for the accommodation at Sinna Dorai's,

Originally Posted by subbarp

It was 6.5k/day inclusive of food.

Are you sure? A friend just enquired a few days back and he was quoted 8k/day/couple. When we went in June, we spent 6.5/day.

[cool_dube]

Neat travelogue with some good photographs. Thanks for sharing.

The photo of the hornbill is reason enough for me to plan a trip to this place

Some queries...

Originally Posted by subbarp

Made the mistake of doing the Coimbatore bypass when we had a slightly different route to Pollachi. Coimbatore bypass is required for going to Kerala, for Pollachi, there is a separate route avoiding all the construction mess on the Coimbatore bypass.

Isn't there an exit on the Coimbatore bypass for Pollachi? I remember seeing one long back. If not, where do you go off NH47 for Pollachi? Are you talking about the Perundurai - Kangayam - Dharapuram - Pollachi route? This is what I usually take (of course, from Dharapuram I go to Udumalpettai) for my Munnar jaunts.

Originally Posted by subbarp

On the return, we did Valparai-Palani (night stay)-Oddanchatiram-Vedasandur-Karur-Salem-Bangalore.

What route did you take for Valparai - Palani? Was it via Pollachi again?
Also, how is the Oddanchatiram-Vedasandur-Karur stretch?

[unk9ja]

Are you sure? A friend just enquired a few days back and he was quoted 8k/day/couple. When we went in June, we spent 6.5/day.[/quote]

The website says 8k/couple/day. Just checked yesterday.

[subbarp]

Originally Posted by libranof1987

Ah, what can I say about this place! Spent 3 wonderful whole days in June and were possibly the most well spent..

Absolutely

Originally Posted by libranof1987

Nice collection of pics!..

thanks

Originally Posted by libranof1987

Did you get a chance to visit the tea factory? We couldn't because it just wouldn't stop raining! I see quite some sunshine in your pics; how was the overall weather?

Yes we did. WE went to the older and smaller tea factory pretty close to Valparai (on the Valparai Athirapally route through the Parry's property).

WE had tried visiting the much larger (apparently 2nd largest in Asia) and fully automated factory (Mayura) on Monday but apparently these factories are closed on Mondays, so dropped the plan and went to the closer one on Tuesday.

Weather played hide & seek. It was bright sunny and then misty and raining. I clicked a lot more but couldn't get it properly due to poor light, these are the ones where light was good.

Originally Posted by libranof1987

Are you sure? A friend just enquired a few days back and he was quoted 8k/day/couple. When we went in June, we spent 6.5/day.

Rates could be dynamic depending on occupancy/other factors I am not aware of, another thing is we had called them for reservations almost a couple of months back before the travel.