Our Yercaud Trip

Dear Readers,


Welcome to my blog!!


This is a small run through of our trip to Yercaud  during 22nd to 24th, Sept 2011.

This was our first road trip outside bangalore on self drive. The plan was to start early morning on 22nd which was postponed because of the late news from Vibhu's school that he has his "farmers dance" at school and finally we started around 1:00PM from Bangalore. It was a 231Kms drive from Bangalore till Yercaud (which was around 22kms from the Salem town). We covered this journey in 5 Hrs and were there @ Yercaud around 6PM. Finding our destination "Lake Forest Hotel" was not tough, as it was located very close to the Yercaud Lake.

The  first glimpse of Lake Forest Hotel was enough to tell that our trip was going to be wonderful. The whole resort is given a retro look and feel. The ethnic collection of lamp-shades and  wooden furniture was adding to the grandeur  of the place. Calm and serene environment reinstated the feeling that holidays are to laze around and relax. "RELAX" is the key word if you are visiting Yercaud because there are not too many exotic locations to look around. Everything and every where you may want to go is with in 5-6 kms of radius. The main motto to come down to Yercaud is that - "You want to slow down after a hectic day-to-day life".

The first day @ Yercaud started with relaxation. As it gets dark very early on hills, we decided to enjoy the resort and take some rest so that we can start afresh next morning. And we went on exploring the resort. The resort is built on a hill and there was zig-zag paths climbing down leading to different rooms. On the way there were some oldies nicely placed giving an aesthetic look to the whole environment.

The rooms were equally beautiful. The apt colors and the wooden furniture added warmth to the feel of the whole room. On the walls there was space created to display some antiques. A special mention about that resting chair in the right corner (top) which actually gave a feeling that we were there to relax. The only blip to the whole thing was the TV that was hanging out from the wall. Probably it was not meant to be there but was added on the  demand from the customers.

You can see some of them from our room here in these photos. The lamp-shades, the vases and the wall tiles added beauty to the whole environment of the room. It was in fact a luxury in midst of some traditional looks. 

Vibhu was instantly charged up as usual and started with his activities, as I got busy clicking some photos and Seema started unwinding herself. Soon after some rest we went for our dinner. We  had some food packed with us, but after seeing the resort we decided to go with the food at resort's cafeteria, and we didn't regret it. 


The food was another plus to the resort as you can see in the photos down. You can see vibhu enjoying the soup and Seema busy with the sizzlers.

After the dinner, Seema and Vibhu were busy exploring the resort. They found a small activity room very close to the cafeteria. They started playing carom followed by a game of chess (you can see Seema and Vibhu invloved in the game of chess in the adjecent photo) while I was back to clicking photos in and around the area.



The next day, we got up early around 7:00 AM and went for morning tea. The weather outside was chilly. Seema and Vibhu had to wrap themselves in multiple layers of clothing. After the breakfast we went around and found more attractions.

Later that day after the breakfast, we went to see local attractions of Yercaud. As mentioned earlier all the view points were very close and drive-able we literally appreciated our decision to driving down to here in our Santro-Zing. We went around Yercaud Lake and then to Pagoda point. On the way back to the resort we did some Dirt Biking. 

Yercaud Lake: This is the first thing one sees, as you enter the Yercaud town, is this placid lake in a wonderful surrounding of hills and natural shoals. Also a beautifully landscaped garden on one bank. It has boating facility. This lake is the only natural lake among all the hill station lakes  in the South.

Vibhu enjoying sweetcorn @ Pagoda Point

Pagoda Point : This lies on the Eastern side of the Yercaud hills and is also known as Pyramid Point. One good thing you can do, if you can is hiring cycles, which is easily available and go cycling to the Pagoda point, which is 3 to 4 km from the Yercaud town. It seemed fun to us, but we left it for next time, after we build up some stamina :)

Dirt Biking: This was available @ Grange Resort which is on the way back to the Yercaud Town from the Pagoda point. This was our first hand experience with dirt biking. Those who want to try it as knowing normal bike driving is very different from dirt biking.  Be very cautious and follow all the directions given by the instructor properly. Vibhu was very much impressed and wanted to do it independently. Luckily, they had a small one suitable for vibhu and hence this became vibhu's first motor biking experience. Even after 2 rounds vibhu wanted to go for more round but we decided to comeback next day (which never happened as next day the route was blocked. 


In the evening we visited Shevaroy Temple and then to Lady's Seat for viewing the sunset which was our next very memorable experience @ yercaud.

Seema @ Shevaroy Point

Solitary Tree @ Shevaroy Temple

Shevaroy Temple: It is Situated atop Servaroyan hill, the annual festival of Lord Servaroyan is celebrated in May every year. The temple is a beautiful, narrow and dark cave having the God Servarayan and the Goddess Kaveri inside, which are believed as the deities of the Shevaroy Hills and Cauvery River. The Shevarayan is a flat-topped hill with a plateau. The view from the summit on all sides is magnificent, one looks down on a mass of mountains and hills far and near, with the plains spread out like a map between the Shevaroys and the nearest hills. Besides, the drive to Shevaroy Temple was very scenic and the view from this point is also worth watching !! Photos inside temple is prohibited and hence not there.


Lady's Seat : Lady's Seat is a natural rock formation in the form of a seat where reportedly a white English Lady of yeaster years spent her evenings viewing the magnificent panorama before ones eyes. There is a sheer drop of about 200 feet at this point into a private estate in the valley below. One of the best thing that We felt during the complete trip was the mesmerizing view of sunset from the Lady's Seat. Vibhu forced us to get a photograph clicked from a professional photographer there. (Not that he was interested in his photography but because he had a instant photo printer and vibhu wanted to experience his photo getting developed on it. We came to know about this we saw him running around the instrument after the click). Anyways, it turned out to be a wonderful decision and the photo really came out amazingly beautiful. The camera-man was a nice guy and he clicked us some more photos by replacing our memory card in his DSLR so that we get the soft copy of the same.

Enticing Sunset @ Lady's Seat Point

Seema posing with the Sun in her hand
(Clicked by a professional)

Seema as silhouette with sunset in background
(Clicked by me)

Evening was back at the hotel. We first played Carom and then TT for sometime. Vibhu had some time again on jumping sheet, Climbing bars and swings. By the time we reached our room, we were tired and slept early. Next morning (Saturday) was our checkout day. We again went to Shevaroy hill in the morning and then to Kiliyur waterfall. 

Kiliyur Waterfall: Kiliyur waterfall was 3 Kms away from the town. Before checking out of the hotel, we decided to visit Killiyur waterfalls. We had to climb down about 500 stairs (at least that is the number it felt like), and when we came back, we were completely exhausted. The waterfall is beautiful, but go there only if you have been exercising for some time:).


This was our last excursion in this Yercaud trip. We freshened up at the resort and had some light snacks at the cafeteria before moving out. We earlier had a plan of going for boating in Yercaud lake after the checkout, but then dismissed it because of afternoon sun. So, we decided finally to bid Adios to Yercaud and to start our journey back to Namma Bengaluru, with memories flooding our minds and rejuvenating freshness of the cool breeze crossing our face as we started climbing down the hill, with our heart planning for comimg back to Yercaud sometime again very soon.


For more photos on our trip, please Click Here .




With Love,
Akshaya