Yercaud

Posted by Nbhat

Visited Yercaud on 19th and 20th of July. After the Yelagiri experience I had convinced myself to not to set too high expectations. Especially considering that we were visiting during off-season. But did not repent on Som's choice. Yercaud situated on Shevroy hills close to Salem is approximately 1500 ft above sea level. We started by 7:00 AM and managed to reach around 12:30 PM despite taking multiple breaks.
We could not manage a home stay as we always do. But after checking out couple of options and nice south Indian meal settled for recently opened small lodging place.

From Yercaud

After small nap moved to see Botanical Garden maintained by Botanical Survey of India. To our disappointment it was closed on all Saturday and Sunday. I had read that it is closed on Sunday and we wanted to check this out first so that we wont miss it. I was very eager to see insect eating plants. It also boasts a third largest orachidarium in India. Next we visited Pagoda Point, Ladies Seat, Gents Seat. Best part was the hot Bajjis available almost all the places. Bajjis with onion rings spread on them and masala powder sprinkled tasted awesome with instant chutney made out of curry powder and oil. That was the best part of this trip! We had Chilli Bajji( Shimla Mirch or Muluga in the local lingo) and banana bajji(made out of raw bananas). Every point is accessible from the centrer, big lake.

From Yercaud

We spent the evening discussing about the upcoming confidence vote and things to do next day. Had a nice dinner at Star Holidays full of Dosa and Parotha. Looked like we were the first ones to get up early based on the vehicles outside our lodging place. First we visited the Kiliyur falls. The road is narrow and there is a watching point after 3 km travel. There was a small well laid road next to the watching point there was also a small sign indicating no vehicles on that road. But that looked as if vandals had put that sign. We ignored that sign and took that road only to repent later on. The road was narrow, has sharp turns and at point really long slope. We had to struggle to come up that slope. There was very little room at the end of the slope to take a U turn. From the place we parked the vehicle it was around km trek to the falls. It was not worth the anxiety we had gone through thinking about going back. May be we had parked the vehicle at watch point we would have enjoyed falls better.

Next stop was Rose garden it was a treat and I managed few of my best macro photographs. Then we went for a boating ride, dont know why they charge 10 bucks for the camera during boat ride. Had some more Bajjis and skipped the dear park, Anna park, aqurium rtc. It was time to start to go back home.

From Yercaud

For information on How to get there and Things to see check out "Yercaud on wknd.in"

Things to Do :

• Take a boat ride on the lake. One has the option to choose peddle or row boat. Make sure you have the energy peddle for 1/2 an hour before you take one.
• To reach Killiyur falls one has to trek around 1 km in uneasy terrains.
• In the morning go birding at Rose garden. Its larger than expected and saw many birds and herd chirping of the birds.
• 52 weekend gateways by Outlook suggests going for night walk to ladies and watching mettur dam from the telescope available there. Avaialability of telescope might be based on your luck !
  
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Stay and Food:
There lot of options for stay and food for every budget. We ate south Indian food. But there are a number of multi cuisine restaurants. For a simple south indian meal go to Star Holiday. Lake forest has European options.

Yercaud