[mpksuhas]

I am not a fan of traveling to any tourist place weekends. More so if the destination is a weekend destination from Bangalore. However, thanks to leave constraints myself and friends faced, had to do just that for a trip to Yercaud.

Yercaud though just 200 odd KM's from Bangalore was a place we had not visited yet mostly since there was nothing much interesting as such. However, those 20 hairpin bends were always a low hanging fruit.

So plan was made to do a two day trip to Yercaud in second week of July. For the sake of burning rubber over twisties, it was decided that we would drive down in two vehicles - my XUV and my friends Creta, though we were just 6 people.

Beautiful twisty roads

[mpksuhas]

16 July 2016

We reach Silk board junction at 06.30 AM, our friends are waiting there already. Without wasting any time we start off by taking BETL.

Traffic was thin by weekend standards and we reach Attibele toll booth by 06:50 AM. It was a non stop drive till Saravana Bhavan at Krishnagiri. Location

Though thanks to early start we were feeling hungry, we delibrately skipped stopping at breakfast options along with Shoolagiri BPCOCO or HPCOCO since we wanted to drive further ahead before traffic builds up.

After a half hour stoppage, we start from Saravana Bhavan at 08:10 AM towards Salem.


Friends Creta




We cross Salem SAIL junction at 09:35 AM. On reaching Salem bye-pass we take left towards Salem city and proceed towards Yercaud road.

Road conditions is good throughout and traffic moderate. Just before ghats start, there is a toll booth. It's 10:00 AM.




Past that ghat road starts










Soon we cross all 20 hairpin bends and reach Yercaud.







We have booked three rooms at Little Castle - House of Gryffindor. Link . Its 10:30 AM when we reach there. ODO reading 226 KMS.

The place is themed based on Harry Potter series, though I don't have much details of the same.


It consists of one bedroom and an attached bathroom each on 3 different floor. Also, there is a common sitting area and kitchen. Kitchen though is kept locked and charged separately in case you want to use.

The place is good if you are travelling as a couple and opt for the ground floor bedroom, or if travelling as a group like us and book the entire cottage. In case you are two people and get any of the bedrooms apart from ground floor it may be bit awkward since apart from the common area below, there are is no place to sit and relax.


View from outside





Main door with view of common area





Ground floor bedroom





View from terrace




There is no parking area inside the compound. However, the lane in front of the cottage is empty and next to a dead end. So no issues in finding out parking space.





We decide to rest for sometime and then start the sightseeing after lunch.

[mpksuhas]

For food we need to go to any restaurants in the town or if informed well in advance, caretaker of cottage will get it from any resturants. Since we were short of time, decided to have food enroute to sightseeing.

Our first stop was at Deerpark. All major tourist locations are situated next to each other here, so its best you park the vehicle at any convinent spot and walk around and cover locations around the lake.

Deer Park

Location


Situated next to lake and boat house, this place is a mini zoo. Though, nothing interesting as such, it was a good place to roam around when sun was beating down.







Lake and boat house as seen from deer park.




We decide to skip boat house since no one was interested in taking a boat in harsh sun.

Anna Park




Lake View park




Next we head to Pagoda point, this is a short drive from the town. Enroute, we decide to stop at Montfort Community School. They allow visitors only during summer vacation time, hence we just take pics from outside and continue on our drive.


Montfort Community School

Location





Pagoda Point

Location

Including the break at school it took around half hour drive to reach Pagoda point from deer park. This is a view point and has a watch tower a small temple and few shops selling snacks. There is sufficient parking space near the point which is just few meters walk from the parking.

View from Pagoda point




We spend around half hour at the view point and decide to start back around 03:50 PM. We had planned to head to Shevaroy temple. For this we decide to head back to town and take SH 563.

SH 563 is called the loop road in Yercaud since it is a circular road of around 32 KM's. This road starts and ends near Anna park at town center next to Lake and deer park.

Here we did a mistake of taking the right arm of the circular road instead of the left one and end up covering entire loop road by mistake.



Loop road

Route

From traffic island near Anna park we take the right arm of the road and drive through the loop road in anticlock direction.

Road passes through coffee estates and road condition is good. Traffic is thin, however road is narrow at many sections. Hence do take care and keep a mental note of wider crossing points in case you encounter any bigger vehicles coming in opposite direction.

Many forums have wrong information that loop road is same as the Yercaud - Salem SH 188. However, that is not correct information.

We came across few trucks and buses enroute. You can find video of a truck which came in opposite direction and how narrow the road is in this link -

Loop road, truck

Few pics of Loop road















By now we made out that we have taken the longer, anticlock direction of loop road to reach Shevaroy temple. Thankfully the scenery kept us occupied and my friends spared me due to that.

Enroute we stopped at Sri Chakra Maha Meru temple.



Sri Chakra Maha Meru temple

Location

This temple is about hundred meters off the loop road. One has to park the car next to loop road and walk to the temple.

Though I am not aware of the religious significance of the temple, it felt like a newly build one. Hence there was nothing much architecturally interesting here.





After a 15 minute stop, we start at 05:00 PM towards Shevaroy temple.


Shevaroy temple

Location

Again, this is couple of KM's off from main road. There are few signboards around the the deviations, hence chance of missing the turn is remote.

Temple is located on top of a hill. Peak of hill is surprisingly flat, hence there is a view point, microwave towers and quiet few shops along with the temple there.

The temple is located below a rock and is almost like a cave. You have to bend down and almost crawl to reach inside the temple.


Temple is the white roof seen on left




View from top of the hill




Shops around the temple




We start off from the temple around 05.50 PM, enroute we saw another temple on the right side. So stopped to have a look.


Sri Rajarajeswari Temple

Location



By now all of us are hungry, it is 06.20 PM when we reach back at Yercaud. We head straight to Saravna Bhavan Elite. This is one of the better restaurants in Yercaud, however it is a veg only place.


Sri Saravana Bhavan Elite


After food we head back to cottage and just sit and talk about our college life. Since none of us were hungry and no one was intrested to go out and half food, me and my friend went out and got take away food for rest. I am not able to recollect name of the restaurant we went to, however it is located here.


View of valley from our cottage

[mpksuhas]

Day 2 - 17 July 2016

After a repeat breakfast at Saravana Bhavan we have a late start at 10.00 AM. Our first destination is Ladies seat

Ladies seat

Location


Parking area



This seems to be a very popular game at Yercaud. At every tourist spot here, there were couple of shops with baloon shooting and archery. Since this is located next to footpaths we were worried if pellets were going to hit us.



Ladies seat viewpoint. Since its a sunday, the place was already crowded and thanks to mist, we were not able to see anything.





Next to ladies seat is gents seat.


Gents seat

Location

Its just walkable distance from ladies seat, hence we left car at parking itself. Entry tickets and parking tickets are common for lady's seat, gents seat and Rose garden.


Path from lady's seat to gents seat.




The pink platform on top left side is the gents seat view point.







View from gents seat




An example of tragic planning in our country. A well designed parking lot is empty while vehicles are parked on road side since the approach to parking lot is not made.





Rose Garden

Location





We start from Rose garden towards Bangalore around 11:50 PM

[mpksuhas]

Return

The ghat road looks enticing





We reach foot of hills by 12:45 PM and Salem by 1:00 PM.


We decide to have lunch at Salem and proceed ahead. We stop at Sri Annapoorna at Salem for lunch.

Would recommend this place for anyone planning. Location.

After lunch we start at 02:00 PM and drive to Bangalore with a bio-break at Shoolagiri Saravana Bhavan for around 15 mins.

Darks clouds are visible as we near Shoolagiri




And Bangalore welcomes us back with rain



We reach Silk board junction by 05.10 PM.

Total ODO reading 520 KMs.

[mpksuhas]

Epilogue

• For those who keep an eye on fuel quality. I guess its best to fill up at COCO in Bangalore - Salem section.
• Shops at Yercaud closes early. Hence plan your dinner by around 08.00 PM
• There is another route for reaching Bangalore - Salem highway from Yercaud by taking Loop road - Nagalur road. I wanted to try this route, however since there was drizzle around the time we visited in night I dropped the plan. I guess TBHPian Ddrive has taken this route few months back.
• Keep an eye for vehicles flouting rules and ending up in your lane in ghat sections.
• Watch out for suicidal two wheelers around Salem.

Tourist department map of Yercaud

[Rudra Sen]

Mod note: Thread moved from Assembly Line to Travelogues. Thanks for sharing.

[Syed_Munazzir]

Indeed a good weekend getaway from Bangalore.

A nice write up Suhas and good pictures to accompany it. Brought back memories of my weekend trip to this place last year.

[concorde24]

Originally Posted by mpksuhas

Enroute we stopped at Sri Chakra Maha Meru temple.

Though I am not aware of the religious significance of the temple, it felt like a newly build one. Hence there was nothing much architecturally interesting here.

Nice travelogue and excellent pics. Srichakra Maha meru temple is the world's largest Sri-chakra temple as per the Aalayamkanden website.

http://aalayamkanden.blogspot.in/201...-mahameru.html

Significance of architecture is that it is constructed as a shape of Meru hill but will resemble a chakra when seen from top.


Did you manage to visit Killiyur falls? It is a nice place to spend time as well.

[Teesh@BHP]

Sweet write up.

I had recently been there myself.
Check this out, I had also taken a picture at this very same location

Originally Posted by mpksuhas

Attachment 1544517

[param22k]

Nice travelogue!

I can never forget my trip to Yercaud last year. The GPS took us on some dilapidated road inside Salem National Park. The road was so bad that I had to engage 4L a number of time to move the truck forward. We were wondering how everyone from Bangalore was managing weekend trips in hatchbacks through such a jungle route when, with the GPS showing only 15 kms to Yercaud, the road just disappeared. A local passing by on a motorcycle then told us to turn back. All I understood in between his Tamil were the words "danger" and "go back". We had to drive to the plains and take another route to Yercaud from a place called Kadiakuddam (I'm not sure if I have the name right). Our friend in Bangalore had told us about the 20 hairpin turns. We kept waiting for them but they never came. My wife came really close to strangulating me that day! In hindsight though, it was quite an adventure. :-)

[NPV]

Suhas - thanks for another signature Wanderlust Travelogue with all the usual good elements like details and the pictures

It's been a few years since we visited Yercaud, probably time to go sometime soon

I think you've visited most of the places in and around Yercaud, probably missed just the Kiliyur falls.

[concorde24]

Originally Posted by param22k

Nice travelogue!

The road was so bad that I had to engage 4L a number of time to move the truck forward. We were wondering how everyone from Bangalore was managing weekend trips in hatchbacks through such a jungle route when, with the GPS showing only 15 kms to Yercaud, the road just disappeared.

HI Param22k, AFAIK there are two routes to get to Yercaud -
1) From Salem (20 hairpin bend, for people coming from Bangalore) which reaches close to GRT nature trails in yercaud
2) via Kuppanur/Pagoda point and it is closer for the people coming from Chennai (bye-pass Salem).

Both routes are well marked and they are not an issue for normal hatchback definitely. I guess you might have ended up in an alternative route taken by Gmaps which might be a regular route.

[arun_josie]

Nice write-up and beautiful pics, Suhas.
For the return journey, you could have tried Kuppanur - Harur - Karimangalam, this is a nice stretch as well.

Originally Posted by param22k

Nice travelogue!

I can never forget my trip to Yercaud last year. The GPS took us on some dilapidated road inside Salem National Park.

Originally Posted by concorde24

HI Param22k, AFAIK there are two routes to get to Yercaud -
1) From Salem (20 hairpin bend, for people coming from Bangalore) which reaches close to GRT nature trails in yercaud
2) via Kuppanur/Pagoda point and it is closer for the people coming from Chennai (bye-pass Salem).

Both routes are well marked and they are not an issue for normal hatchback definitely. I guess you might have ended up in an alternative route taken by Gmaps which might be a regular route.

There is another route via Kadayampatti, this is not a recommended route but sometimes GPS suggests this route. You will have to take a left after crossing thoppur, this will help to bypass Salem. I think this is the one param22k would have taken.

[gadadhar]

Good one Suhas. Its been long since my last to trip to Yercaud, looks like your travelogue has provided the trigger.