This being sabrimala season, there were people taking bath, chanting prayers, I was taken aback at the amount of people, decided not take bath under that falls, rather it was not possible. On the way to temple, there is a galli, which was like banana chips assembly line. There was piles and piles of raw bananas and one guy stuffing raw bananas into a slicing machine, the slices where falling into big frying pan. Chips were being made fresh and heaps of them everywhere. Every shop was making banana chips and selling Tirunelveli halwas.
Around 7am vacated our rooms and went towards pappanasam, it was another 40kms drive into the mountains. While driving I found my steering wheel was not stable, was feeling something wrong, that is when one person walking on the road noticed that one of the front tyres was gone flat. We immediately parked the car to the roadside, got our tools out and stepney tire stepped in to rescue us in continuing our journey.
On the way to hills we stopped for the breakfast, we stuffed ourselves with Idli/Porry/Vadas/Sambar and bill came to only 56rs/- for 2 people, can you imagine that, anywhere in Bangalore it would have easily cost us minimum 300/- bucks. We reached the entrance of Tiger reserve forest area. To our disappointment Tiger census was in progress and place had been closed. Just when we thought we have to return back, we were called back and informed that census got completed just today and that they received orders to let people. Man that was relief. As we drove further up into the hills, the fields gave way to beautiful tree covered valleys. We could view into the valley and there was river flowing by. We drove through the winding roads, at one point, the view opened up into a big valley and we could see the papanasam Hydroelectric power stations with the huge pipes running down from other side of the mountains.
We reached to the top till the point where the roads where motor able, after that we had to walk for about half a kilometer to get the first view of the Kaarayaar Dam. The view was most beautiful ever, surrounded by green topped mountains all around and the mighty dam being only the manmade structure looked very small and not so mighty after all holding the water back.
As we go up the western Ghats, at every nook and corner there is some or other falls, I found it really beautiful place. Mountains, stretches of glistening water tucked between mountains, the mist hanging, and this concrete structure was a delightful scene.
After having lunch at Samy’s home, we started our journey back. Since my friend had a flight back home today, we had to return on Sunday itself. Left Tenkasi at around 5:30pm, stopped for couple of T breaks and at Dindigul for DMB, finally we reached Bangalore around 3:00am. My friend took the flight and reached Delhi. After nearly 1400kms of driving, nearly 900kms during night, overall I felt it to be very enriching trip. I am still feeling fresh and trip ready again J Though I have tried to re account my experiences of the trip…the actually feeling of driving, soft nature fresh air brushing while the sceneries rushing on either sides, the curiosity of seeing different places, different food gave us the desired rejuvenation.