Part 1 - The search for a holiday location
Only three more days to go for the school vacation to be over. Still I have not gone for a holiday with my kids and family.
Where to go? Only two full days available.
Munnar, Kodai, Ooty all ruled out either due to the distance or the place has become tooo familiar.
Sometime, during a trip to munnar had heard about Vagamon. Searched the net for Vagamon. Got some pics. Wow nice.
Yes I have fixed this.
But where to stay. Caman google man. yeah some phone numbers propped up. Dial it. Some say resort is under renovation. Some say sky high prices. Some say nice packages. Which to chose from? By instict chose the one where the guy was so courteous in his talks.
The resorts name was "The Vagamon Heights". Called up him again and he was offering, Stay, food, horse riding, fishing, trekking + boating @ 4000 per family (2 adults and 2 kids). Seems quite interesting. We booked 2 rooms as we were 4 adults and 2 kids. Got some discounts as peak season was over.
So another chance for me to drive through the hills amidst natural flora and fauna.
The journey
Come friday morning and as is the usual habit, started the journey 1 hr late than what was planned originally. We hit the road by 6.30 am. The twisties of MC road (Main Central road) were enough to charge me up. But I was not doing high speeds just to avoid travel sickness for those on board.
The MC Road
We reached Ranni at about 8.45am. Decided to have breakfast here. By about 9.15 we left this place. Next point was Erumeli - which is one of the synonyms of religious harmony. The mosque at erumeli is visible from quite a distance and as we approach the junction we could see the ayyappa temple also.
From Erumeli we proceeded to Kanjirappally, but soon found out that we were climbing some ghats. The drive, the roads and the scenary was so superb that I did not even bothered to stop for enquiring the route. After climbing the ghats for some 30 kms, I got a call from the resort guy and enquired about where I am. When I told him that I am climbing a ghat, he told me that I have lost route and now I have to turn left from Mundakkayam. Thanked for the call and continued enjoying the journey through these ghats. Stopped at 2 - 3 spots for some photo shoot and to enjoy the cool breeze.
After some time reached Kuttikanam. Kuttikanam - Elappara route also is awesome. A must drive route for all the driving enthusiasts. The greenery just got better due to rains which started some 1 week ago.
A photostop at kuttikkanam
Had a stop at elappara to climb a small hill and rejuvenate any fatigue, if present. following two snaps taken from this hill
Till elappara it was the typical kerala ghats. From Elappara we have to take a deviation to vagamon. Believe me this road is different. It is a sort of a valley. No hill to climb, but really winding roads amidst the green blanket covered mountains. Still cherish the memory of driving through this lane.
Soon we reached vagamon after complete driving pleasure and enjoying thoroughly almost all the route covered. .
Thanks to my innovative googling to find out the shortest route available and help from some of the friends due to which I travelled through the longest route possible covering almost all the hills which I was not supposed to take
.
We travelled a distance of 230 Kms.
The route was
Thiruvananthapuram > Ayoor > Anchal > Punalur > Pathanamthitta > Ranni > Erumeli > Mundakkayam > Kuttikkanam > Elappara > Vagamon.
Still we were pondering on how the resort will be.