[pjay_in]

I covered my trip from Chennai to Yercaud in another thread. You can read it here:

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...st-2007-a.html

This is its sequel, just to share some pics taken during our three-day stay at Yercaud.

Three days? In Yercaud? What would you do? Well, that's actually the point. There is nothing much to do than recharge your batteries. Just take in what nature has to offer, and forget about the mundane affairs of your busy work-life.

Not much of a travelogue this, just a few snaps with their descriptions.. But i will start with a prologue.

The usual sight seeing spots in Yercaud are Lady's Seat (where you can have a good view of Salem and the whole valley, Gent's Seat, Children's Seat (funny names, though it wasn't meant to be so. The British had given Lady's Seat it's name for some reason, and later our unimaginative local administrators didn't have any trouble naming the next two view points that they built - Gent's Seat and Children's Seat!), the Lake, Kiliyur Falls, Shevaroy Temple, Pagoda point etc. We didn't go upto the Kiliyur falls because of the baby, but went as far as our car took us.

All the view points, including Pagoda point, offer excellent views. And Shevaroys temple is on top of probably the highest hill in Yercaud - that's pretty high, at about 1500 metres. Our visit was on Monday through Thursday, and being weekdays we found all these spots almost deserted. That's what made our trip many times more enjoyable than a trip to Ooty or Kodai - there was a total absence of tourists and touts.

The place is peppered with Perfumeries. They make all kinds of oils and perfumes out of the medicinal plants that they grow in and around Yercaud. Each perfumery may have its own special product, but generally the range covered perfumes, massage/inhalation oils and beauty products. Following Akroy's recommendation in another thread, We visited Bhavani Singh's factory (it's his house) and it was rewarding. Bought stuff worth about 1.5 k, because we were so impressed with his demonstration.

One experience that doesn't find mention in most Yercaud trip reports is the drive around Loop Road. I didn't know much about it, but just wanted to visit Cauvery Peak and take the loop road back to Yercaud. We expected Cauvery Peak to be what it sounded to be. But it wasn't. There was no peak there, it was just the name of a small place, maybe a village or a plantation.

However, the drive round the loop road was the most memorable experience in our Yercaud trip. The loop road starts at the lake, goes around the hills for about 36 kilometres (my rough memory) through rich coffee plantations and some naturally wooded areas, and tgakes you back to the lake, about 50 metres from where you started. I couldn't take many pics on the loop road because my battery was down, but believe me, this road needs to be tried once. Great scenery, great drive on the winding roads, and the roads are ok.

One evening our cottage in Sterling Resort was covered by thick fog that came up from the valley as we watched. Thrilled, we decided to take a trip around the town. So we clambered up the steps all the way up to the carpark (this was the difficult part of staying at Sterling). Visibility was almost zero, we could see only a few metres ahead. We got into our car and took a round (just went till the lake and came back by another route). It was a terrific experience, driving slowly in this white sea of fog not able to see anything till it came within reach. It was a great experience, the whole town was blanketed by thick fog. And it got dark by the time we returned to our resort. (We wouldn't have taken this risk on a ghat road - the road from sterling to the lake was a safe one).


So, here we go with the photos. I can't share all, but trust some nice ones will do.

The road to Shevaroy temple:



The last stretch up:




The Shevaroy Temple: You can see my car parked in the distance, and the view point on the left. The temple itself doesn't look like one, but the deity resides in a cave within the temple. I wasn't allowed to take a photo of the cave.





Our chariot, parked near Shevaroy's temple:


On the way back.. there were these small, beautiful flowers and bougainvillea everywhere.



Yercaud Lake:


View from Sterling carpark at sunset:


Monkeys near Lady's Seat:


Yercaud is full of beautiful roads like this, amid coffee plantations. This one, on way to Pagoda point:


The canopy above: typical montane flora



Pagoda point view point (note the total absence of tourists)



A village seen from Pagoda point. Here I decided to test my camera's optical and digital zoom capabilities. This one is without zoom:



With a little bit of zoom:



This must be about 8x optical zoom:


And this is at 12x optical zoom, the maximum on my camera:


Maximum? Jost hold on a bit, we still have digital zoom. So here is a combined zoom of 33x:


And here is THE maximum of my camera, 48x. Just compare this with the initial, no-zoom pic!




And finally, one of the many perfumeries that dot the place. This one is near the Rajarajeswari temple. Only the board is shown. The shop is to the left of the photo.



That's all for now! Sorry again for another photo-heavy thread!

regards
Jay

[pjay_in]

Just adding some more pics, at random:



















Thanks,
Jay

[-GT-]

The pics are really good; but they are so large it takes quite some time even in broadband!

By the way, the zoom is pretty good in your camera. I normally avoid the digital zoom completely; but I see that even 48x digi zoom is pretty good without much of pixelization.

[Nitin]

Beautiful pics!
I remember my trip to Yercaud,way back in 1995. I was so in love with the serene atmosphere.. Living right in the middle of a wildlife sactuary..