1st June 2010, 13:51
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| BHPian  | "Fly the coop" to kolli malai aka kolli hills Prelude: After our Tonnur lake escapade for a day; we have been searching for an another spot to explore; One fine day I get a call from Brraj aka Rajeev and he says “100 hairpin bends and waterfalls above it!! wanna go”. I was itching to go to this place; one fine day I see Mr. lalus (travel master) thread on kolli malai. Immediately on the phone to people and we need to go! period. We all co-ordinated, planned for about a week; asked around and decided sunday as a good time to “Fly the coop” from bustling city towards Kolli malai. Nestled between the Pachamalai and Kalrayan hill ranges of the Eastern Ghats in South India, Kolli Hills (or Kollimalai, in Tamil) is indeed a remarkable spot. Unlike man-made Ooty and Kodai, Kolli Hills is traditional hill country, the land of friendly tribes. Formed in the shape of an open square, these hills were also known as Chathuragiri, literally meaning square-shaped hills. Its altitude was about 1315 mts above mean sea level.  Brilliant day  What a time to drive  Brilliant drive So May 30th the day to travel I get a call from Chikku at 4:25 am says I am on my way. Next I call Rajeev he says ready to rock and roll. Me and my wife, meet Chikku aka model; head towards hosur road regular meeting point after the electronic city fly-over to see Rajeev waiting and Rocky bhai missing. Then arrives a half brown and white truck at around 5:15am. Corsa love was missing probably he got delayed or decided not to join dunno know actually.  Nice scenery all round  My car i just love it!! Decide to meet near A2b krishnagiri for breakfast for us and our pet machines. But to our dismay A2b is yet to open at 6:15 for breakfast but serving only coffee at 15/.- each which is probably 4/- next to my office We decide we shall have breakfast in salem and duly reach without much of a hassle around 8:30 and had breakfast at sangeetha hotel (laluji we missed apoorva hotel). We head towards kolli malai after some regular snapping sessions en-route to realise Mr lalus directions were wrong (probably he got confused while putting up the travelogue)  road that greeted us  CAR IMAGES  CAR IMAGES with brilliant background   Chikku playing catch up with us in his zen so he is missing in these snaps We reach the foothills after going through couple of small towns to see a board of Kolli malai. Me and Rajeev head first and we did about 20 brilliant hairpin bends and waited for chikku and Rocky to join us. We were able to manage decent speeds and were surprised the way i10 was moving. The road winds through 13 miles (brilliant 79 hairpin bends) of beautiful scenery and thick forests, where you could pause just to take in the fresh mountain air, or just stop and stare at the monkeys, mongooses or squirrels that frolic on the hillsides. We continued the drive up the hill that took us to Solakkadu, the main town here, which is also one of the highest points in the hill. THE BEST PART IS We could literally smell rubber whenever we stopped for a break.  State highways were also pretty good  Board showing the hills of Kolli TO CONTINUE........ Last edited by raj.barcode : 1st June 2010 at 13:59. |
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1st June 2010, 14:18
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| BHPian | From here it was about 8 miles towards ancient temple and the falls. To our surprise the top of the hill is full of cultivated land with Chitharathai (galanga the lesser), Athimaduram (Jamaica liquorice), Karpooravalli (Coleus aromaticus), Thoothuvalai (Trilobatum), Kizhanelli (Phyllanthus amarus) and a host of other herbs. But irony is there is not even one good hotel for lunch/dinner. We started to climb down 1054 steps to the falls at around 11:30 to see loads of people already bathing and decide to join. It was super fun; what a brilliant massage the water gave us. Played for about 45 minutes and headed back up the steep climb of 1054 steps . The ladies were surely cursing us for getting us there only while climbing back though they enjoyed the rest of the trip.;  BRRAJ, Rocky80 and his girl climbing down  Varsha and chikku going down  Steep steps was a treat while climbing up right ladies   Nice scenery  Model posing  Model to be that gym sessions are surely helping uhh!!!   First sight of water what a relief  Brilliant waterscape  Different shots  Different Shots   Us enjoying In water  cars shots while getting down the hills  cars shots while getting down the hills  Scenery from the hills We start back and decide to have evening snack at a2b near salem. We get to a2b and the gluttons in us woke up and polished what was ordered in less than 15 minutes the order goes like this for 6 people 5 Khara baths 3 Masala dosas 1 onion dosas I vada sambar 3 pani puris 1 masala puri 1 dahi puri 2 juices And 5 coffees We parted from there already planned another trip. I was like wow these set of people are good, I love to travel so they do too… lol !!! we reached home with rain welcoming us back to bangalore by around 8:00 pm Brilliant day, brilliant place and amazing company we need to do this more; often guys!!!! P. S Thanks to Chikku for photos Route guide ( taken from Lalujis thread and corrected in a couple of places) Home, Bangalore Elevated Flyover Start Elevated Flyover Toll Booth Toll Booth,Attibele, Bangalore Exit Krishnagiri Toll Booth Thopur Toll Booth Omalur Toll Booth Salem Salem From salem head towards Madurai road; get on the flyover and take right towards Rasipuram (Take Left Turn from NH7 to Rasipuram) we really got confused here so asked about 10 people before taking a right turn For rasipuram take left (Rasipuram, Take Right Turn to SH79 we got confused here) Entrance arch to Kolli Hills Check Post Sholakad, Check Post / Toll Booth (Rs 10/-) Petrol Pump, Turn Left Kolli Hills Resort Take left Turn Temple Parking Lot. (Rs 30/-) P.S Have corrected a couple of places otherwise the route by Laluji is perfect. Last edited by raj.barcode : 1st June 2010 at 14:19. |
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1st June 2010, 15:08
| #3 |
| BHPian  Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Bangalore
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1st June 2010, 15:27
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1st June 2010, 15:41
| #5 |
| Newbie Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: BANGALORE
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1st June 2010, 15:54
| #6 |
| BHPian  | Good Pics Chikku and Brilliant write up Sriraj, missed this one but had another drive  . Did a 100KM drive in the Elantra on Saturday.Varsha: Welcome aboard. Last edited by Hurrycane12 : 1st June 2010 at 15:55. |
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1st June 2010, 16:52
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| Senior - BHPian  | |
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1st June 2010, 18:00
| #8 |
| BHPian  | Hey raj.barcode, I guess you had great fun. It’s always special when you have friends along.  Where you guys tailing reach other on the drive from BLR to Kolhi or just meeting at one point after driving for a while? just curious about the drive that's why I asked this question. |
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1st June 2010, 18:20
| #9 | |
| Senior - BHPian  Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bangalore
Posts: 6,552
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| Quote:
You got confused because you did not read the log correctly.  It was mentioned you had to be on NH7, and 20km away from Salem. So when you called me I had found that you are confused about the flyover and told you to take right. That right turn on the fly over was not mentioned because, NH7 continues curving on to the right and the small straight road ahead to Chennai is not NH7. I had mentioned the distances in the log here. http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/1896064-post37.html So from Salem if you had continued on NH7, as mentioned in the log, in another 20 km you would have got the left to Rasipuram. Rasipuram is on the left of NH7. To clarify it all let me put in the map.  000.0 -- Salem 020.3 -- Take Left Turn from NH7 to Rasipuram(4Km more) 023.8 -- Rasipuram, Take Right Turn to SH79 026.5 -- Take Right from SH79 Turn to SH95 Go further 18kms on SH95 and turn left 044.5 -- Take Left Turn from SH95 to Kolli Hills peace....Last edited by laluks : 1st June 2010 at 18:26. | |
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1st June 2010, 20:15
| #10 | |
| BHPian | Quote:
apologies to travel guru | |
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1st June 2010, 20:31
| #11 | |
| Senior - BHPian  Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: City of seven islands.
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 My wife makes another classic stuff when she takes photos of me. She'll ask a question like, why is the flash not coming on? When I start to answer in a serious mood with my face all contorted, I see a brilliant dazzle from my camera! | |
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1st June 2010, 20:36
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| BHPian  Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Bangalore
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1st June 2010, 21:36
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2nd June 2010, 00:20
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2nd June 2010, 12:29
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