[Ddrive]

Originally Posted by dhanushmenon

Hey sir... Awesome log as usual.
Had a great time reading through.

On other news, I could not reach you through PM.
Please mail me the snaps you promised to dhzeals@gmail.com

Thanks for reading and thanks for the comments Dhanush.
It was a pleasant surprise bumping on you at Konaseema., Wonderful family !
Yes I have emailed you 3 pictures. Regards.

[Mr.Boss]

Originally Posted by Ddrive

We would like to hear it from you after you make the trip.

Unfortunately couldn't drive to Berijam
There was a big traffic jam at forest checkpost, get caught for about an hour and finally managed to get out of it and escaped to other destination.
Here is the thread

[anand.shankar]

Originally Posted by Ddrive

Thanks for reading and thanks for the comments Dhanush.
It was a pleasant surprise bumping on you at Konaseema., Wonderful family !
Yes I have emailed you 3 pictures. Regards.

Hi,

Digging up an old thread as I am heading to Kodai next month. I was all geared up to cover Berijam untill the point you spoke about the scratches on your car. I am paranoid and suspect a mature stage of OCD when it comes to car, paint and scratches. Does any one know if the roads are still in the same state with plants and foliage sticking out ?

[sdp1975]

Did Bangalore-Dindigul-Batlagundu-Kodaikanal over the weekend . Bangalore-Dindigul is excellent as usual. From Dindigul onwards excellent 2 lane highway with sparse traffic. There's a bypass for Batlagundu that I wasn't aware of earlier. There's a right turn before Batlagundu - the tarmac is freshly laid and the road exits at the "Eden Garden restaurant" after Batlagundu. I didn't see the bypass marked on gmaps. A few broken patches on the ghat roads leading towards Kodaikanal, but overall the roads are excellent throughout.

Berijam lake permits : 150 Local taxi permits per day are issued at DFO Kodai. 25 tourist permits are issued at Moir point. There's a gate about 2 km before Moir point that opens at 8-45 am with a long queue of vehicles waiting at the gate. Then at Moir point , there's a mad rush for the permit counter. The counter opens at 10 am. Overall it's almost impossible to get a permit during peak season/weekdays. The forest dept also has 4 buses that start from Moir point and go to Berijam lake , 150/- per head. The round trip takes about 2 hrs. I didn't get the permit , and looking at the wait queue, didn't wait for the bus either. Taxis charge 1800/- for a Berijam trip.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by sdp1975

There's a bypass for Batlagundu that I wasn't aware of earlier. There's a right turn before Batlagundu - the tarmac is freshly laid and the road exits at the "Eden Garden restaurant" after Batlagundu. I didn't see the bypass marked on gmaps.

Nice catch! Last time I was there, I did not see this bypass marked as exit for the town. Looks like its functional now. Yes its also not marked in Google too. But see the satellite mode. A trail of half completed roads can be seen.

There's a gate about 2 km before Moir point that opens at 8-45 am with a long queue of vehicles waiting at the gate. Then at Moir point , there's a mad rush for the permit counter. The counter opens at 10 am. Overall it's almost impossible to get a permit during peak season/weekdays.

No point taking your own car around these locations. Its a mad rush out there. Easiest is to get a cab attached to the hotel where you would be staying and ask them to arrange for the permits. Its much better that way.

[josebi]

Nice trip log DDrive. Enjoyed reading it!

How I missed this informative post while searching for Kodai info, especially about Berijam during our recent trip in May 2016.

My experience with Berjiam was not very exciting. No one advised me about this forest office near to town where we can collect the permit. I was asked to go to the Berijam Lake entry point to get the permit. It seems only 25 vehicles would be allowed at lake’s gate entrance a day. The plan was to reach forest check post by 7.30 AM, rush towards the Lake’s entrance which is 3 kilometers away from forest check post when it opens at 8AM, stand in the queue to get the forest office permit.

Keeping this in mind, we started early from our stay and by the time we reached around 7.45AM, we could see around 6 vehicles already in queue. We gathered the info that there would be already a queue which might have formed near the lake’s entrance by 8AM itself; my brother-in-law walked 3 kilometers from forest check-post till lakes entrance and found himself at 8th position in the queue. By the time when the punctual forest guard opened the gate, it was at 8.35 AM, many vehicles which were parked behind my car started rushing towards the lakes entrance with utmost indiscipline. Later, understood that most of the people in the queue are agents who are standing on behalf of a tourist to make an extra buck. Finally at 10AM, we were given a form to fill the details including vehicle registration number (we purchased a pen to fill this). This along with an identity card copy is handed over to the forest officer who assumed office by 10AM. After the verification and signature we were asked to give the form to a lady who was collecting cash for the entry and then to another helper who issued the actual permit for the vehicle. He gave permit to 40 vehicles as against 25 which we were told. The sad part is that, as we did not take our family in the morning, had to rush back to our stay, pick them and then to come back before 12PM as they will close the entrance by then. To our bad luck, there was a tree which fell across the road and it took nearly two hours to clear the traffic to reach there before 1 PM.

To people who have travelled the length and breadth of Western Ghats, and for the same reason, for me the lake did not excite much but has some good natural ambiance. No boating or any activities allowed in the lake as it is said to be the source for drinking water. The view points along the route is good and can spent some time there. On the route to Berijam from the entry point, we could see some Indian Gaur which is the high light of the trip.

The process of getting the forest permit and the hardships to reach there looked absurd, but the heavy tourist inflow in Kodai warrants to have some type control like this to be implemented. What we have noticed is that only a handful of the tourists might have come with a permit taken at the Kodai forest office.

[ampere]

Originally Posted by josebi

The process of getting the forest permit and the hardships to reach there looked absurd, but the heavy tourist inflow in Kodai warrants to have some type control like this to be implemented. What we have noticed is that only a handful of the tourists might have come with a permit taken at the Kodai forest office.

The best way to enjoy this part of Kodai is not to drive. You should let know your plan to the hotel where you stay. Ask them to arrange for a cab and the permit. Many hotels help out. So that way you sit in the cab and enjoy the road.

[vdm295]

Lovely narration with those amazing picture of your trip to Berijam lake.

Originally Posted by naveenroy

Awesome trip log! Brought back a lot of memories - I'd studied in Kodai for 8 years or so and have some fond memories of the place. We have often travelled to Berijam as part of our school activities. In those days, there was a decent road - with absolutely zero traffic and tourists. Good to see the pics!!

As a matter of fact even I have studied in kodai for six years and have been to Berijam lake a few times. Have always had a special liking towards Kodai as I had spent some of the best times in my life.

[Syed_Munazzir]

Nice post Ddrive and nice pictures too ! Enjoyed reading it.

I have visited kodaikanal on three occasions. But, managed to visit Berijam lake only once. Agreed with you that it is a very scenic spot. Reading your post helped me recall the memories of my trip.

The road from Kodai town towards the lake is very narrow which can lead to traffic jams. We were stuck in one such jam for almost an hour while on our way back from the lake.

[Ddrive]

Originally Posted by sdp1975

There's a bypass for Batlagundu that I wasn't aware of earlier. There's a right turn before Batlagundu - the tarmac is freshly laid and the road exits at the "Eden Garden restaurant" after Batlagundu. I didn't see the bypass marked on gmaps.

Originally Posted by ampere

Nice catch! Last time I was there, I did not see this bypass marked as exit for the town. Looks like its functional now. Yes its also not marked in Google too. But see the satellite mode. A trail of half completed roads can be seen.

Thanks SDP & Ampere. See below the link to my earlier post on Tbhp about this bypass. We were able to sneak in once through a cycle-gap, but the next time when we went it was blocked Hope they open it soon, it saves a lot of time.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...ml#post3954717

Originally Posted by josebi

Nice trip log DDrive. Enjoyed reading it!

Thanks Josebi, and thanks for the update too.

Originally Posted by vdm295

Lovely narration with those amazing picture of your trip to Berijam lake.

Thank you vdm295.

Originally Posted by Syed_Munazzir

Nice post Ddrive and nice pictures too ! Enjoyed reading it.

Thank you Syed.

[gadadhar]

Thanks for providing details on the permit to Berijam, I was assuming it as a long process with greasing of palms. BTW I have travelled on the Topstation Kodaikanal route way back in 1985 (during my school days) with my parents and few other folks in a old Standard van. I remember we encountered wildlife on couple of occasions and few place where van refused to climb.

[raju2512]

The best option is take the van operated by Forest Dept. Took the longer trip which costs about Rs.250 per person. We went beyond Berijam lake (other vehicles not allowed beyond the lake) on the Munnar road for a few kms and reached Manavanur. The return was by the same route and it took around 5 hrs. The driver was very knowledgeable and shared a lot of info about the range the wild life. This route was built by British as an escape route to Cochin and has many forks. If you take the wrong one you will end up in Kodai again

[gadadhar]

Originally Posted by raju2512

The best option is take the van operated by Forest Dept. Took the longer trip which costs about Rs.250 per person. We went beyond Berijam lake (other vehicles not allowed beyond the lake) on the Munnar road for a few kms and reached Manavanur. The return was by the same route and it took around 5 hrs. The driver was very knowledgeable and shared a lot of info about the range the wild life. This route was built by British as an escape route to Cochin and has many forks. If you take the wrong one you will end up in Kodai again

That sounds interesting though you will miss the fun of driving. Where is the starting point for the Forest Dept Van and Is it a round trip.

[raju2512]

Originally Posted by gadadhar

That sounds interesting though you will miss the fun of driving. Where is the starting point for the Forest Dept Van and Is it a round trip.

It starts from the Moir point check post. The shorter trip has more than one 1 trip per day depending on the crowd. The longer trip starts around 9.30 am and 1 or 2 van are used based on crowd

[jaganm]

We visited Kodai this past weekend. Berijam was going to be one of the highlights. This travelogue made it very easy. I was told by my Airbnb host that the weekend will be crowded, so I tried the first time on the second day(Friday). I reached the place at 7:45, already around 2-3 people were waiting. Around 8:00, the office people came in and stuck a notice that due to heavy rain, the trees had fallen and no permits would be issued today. Disappointed, I went back and we took a trip to Mannavanur instead.

The next day, I reached at 7:30 itself to find many of the same people waiting. The crowd started building around 8:00 and we were left waiting for the forest officer to come to take a call on whether the vehicles would be allowed. 3-4 of us tourists were waiting but a line formed behind us formed entirely of local taxi officials. The guy giving the form went directly to them. When we tried to tell them we were first, we were shouted down. I persisted and was able to talk to the person and get the form (#17) but the other couple of guys were unsuccessful in the first lot. Once the form was given, we filled it out and waited.

Ultimately, the other 2 tourists managed to convince the guard and went inside under the "VIP" quota. They somehow got the form inside and obtained the permit. For the rest of us, they let us in batches of 5 and I was ultimately able to get the permit at 9:15.


The trip was quite uneventful save for a tree fall that made the entire convoy wait for almost 30 minutes. The place is quite beautiful and untouched, though to be honest, we felt Mannavanur is a better bet.