[trtraj]

"Appa (Dad) we get holidays, go to kodaikanl pa."



This was the request from my kids and decided to take the drive by clubbing the Dec 24th so that we get 4 days.

Me and wifey decided to start as early as possible from home (Chennai)

Day - 1

Started exactly by 6:30 AM and drove till Palur near trichy and stopped for breakfast, I planned to visit a friends place in Pattiveeranpatti so we took the road which connects directly from dindigul to Batalagundu,
The road was really bad in shape since the four lane work is going on still. Then we picked up Biriyani from Batalagundu branch of Dindigul Thalappakatti

Had lunch @ friends place and drove to his village and we started our actual trip and reached kodai by 6:45 PM

This was probably the best season which i have had ever between Oct-Dec, Wow, its amazing the memories are still green,

Visiting the valley view on december with less fog is of course a gift, And we had that with pleasure,

After 517 kms from chennai we reached kodaikanal and accommodated in Happy valley (a stay place)

Day -2

We decided to visit Berijam Lake, so went to forest officer's office to get permission

The forest officer can be met at forest office which is in the entrance of the kodaikanal (much before the first Indian oil fuel station)

You might need a Govt ID to get the permission and fill the form and pay 150 rs (this tokens were sold for more than 500 rupees earlier by agents)

Once you get the permission form with all the passenger details (name, Age) and vehicle numbers you are ready to visit

This lake is 22kms away from kodaikanal, take the road which goes to Observatory and drive with care, This roads are mostly good enough (as per forest standard) with little blind turns where i personally drove very slow and avoided honking (I had spotted several Bisons here during summer)


I was told that Britishers used this place as an escape route a century ago.

The lake is beautiful place and this time you cannot go and get down near the lake bed as its fenced now until the last stop.



Once you get down from the car you can walk for 300 meters to reach the lake bed where you find lot of pine trees and water lilies inside lake,

We roamed a little and decided to come back to kodaikanal.

Had lunch at Hill top restaurant (IMHO this place is the best) and then kids were asking for horse ride.

Drove till the Kodai lake and parked vehicle and took horse ride for both of them, one wanted in black horse and other in white so, spoke to two vendors and took the ride (the ride costs are displayed on the roadside)

After horse ride took a dashing car for kids (Though not a big track) and back to Happy valley (stay place)

Day -3

We wanted to rest as much as possible so we made it as a very lazy day, woke up by 9:00 and then decided to roam around, We took an option of boating first since kids were insisting a lot on it.

Reached boat house before 9:30 and took pedal boat for 100 Rupees (for 30 minutes) and spent the time out there

Then we thought we will also go to Bryant Park before lunch.

Went to bryant park with camera and i was like "oh there is no flowers to shoot"

they said during Dec you find less flowers only.

So after that i could see flowers, flowers, and flowers, The Nature looks beautiful ever.

















After shooting till 13:30 we went for lunch (once again in Hilltop restaurant)

We were about to go to the stay place to take rest, so that the next day driving would be tired less. but, a thick fog cloud changed our decision, yeah, we started to drive once again on the way to berijam to enjoy the clouds. We did so and we came back to stay

I decided to fill the fuel for next day in Indianoil station and did so.

Note : Indianoil Kodaikanal operates 6:00 AM to ~ 11:00 PM

Day - 4

Kids were sleeping, me and wife woke up before 6:00 and started our journey back to chennai sharp 6:39 AM

Wife was little sick and hence drove very slow and took 1hr 45 minutes to reach the base (batalagundu). Had tea to refresh and we continued our journey to home

Decided to drive through Kodai road since the other road was bad

Reached Trichy by 10:30 AM and had breakfast @ Sangeeta (near busstand) This is probably my favorite in trichy for tasty food.

Started from trichy by 11:05 AM and reach tambaram by 14:05

The whole trip was superb and Kodaikanal is new for me everytime i go there (been there more than 15 times)

Overall drive - 1107 kms
FE - 14.85 (on my Figo TDCI) overall and now clocked 17550 Kms in 12 months 6 days
Accommodation : 1200 per day
Food cost - very nominal

Cheers
Thilak

[viggienomad]

Useful info about getting Forest Dept permission for Berijam Lake visit. You haven't mentioned about your ride! Please let us know the vehicle that took you there!

Also, where is this Happy Valley (hotel?). Haven't heard about it before.

[vnabhi]

Originally Posted by viggienomad

Useful info about getting Forest Dept permission for Berijam Lake visit. You haven't mentioned about your ride! Please let us know the vehicle that took you there!

The last 5 lines indicate the ride and the FE.

@trtraj--Nice pictures and thanks for sharing. You got a good FE, especially on ghat roads.

[Chillout]

Nice short and crisp travelogue..Looks like quite a few Team - Bhpians traveled during the December holidays. We were too tired to travel a long distance and chose Yelagiri. We were in for a surprise, as it turned out to be great short holiday. We were there only for 3 days but enjoyed every bit of it. The weather was very pleasant and we stayed in a nice villa which had all the amenities and power backup.

http://midvalleyresidence.com/

If you are in a group of two to three families I would definitely recommend this place. Initially we were skeptical as there were no reviews in TripAdvisor, but we also did not have any other option as other accommodation were fully occupied.

BTW the total trip distance was 450 kms and I got a mileage of 16 with my Fiesta 1.6.

[mjothi]

Short and sweet trip log.

I was also there in Kodai on 24th Dec.

The climate was very good and shiny whole day. But we could have a good view of the pillar rock, it was little foggy. You are really lucky

[trtraj]

Thanks All, Infact i was thinking about chilling in the hotel room and only idea was berijam and lake boating. Yeah, we were lucky, my wife could see the pillar rock for the first time after 4 trips