Skywatch Friday - Jumbos in Munnar!

We stopped on seeing this while on our way to Top Station in Munnar.

A heard of jumbos were having a gala time in the lovely grasslands.

For us it was a great opportunity to see elephants in wilderness. Click on picture to see in larger size.

The overcast sky added to the mystique of the situation.

If you are interested to read more about Munnar in this blog, please click here.

Munnar in Monsoon 2 - Mesmerised at first sight!

Munnar in Monsoon 1 - Going gaga over ghats!

Please share 

We hope this post was interesting, useful and you enjoyed reading it. If yes, please share it among your friends by clicking the buttons on sidebar. Our idea is to share the experiences. Thank you.

Munnar in Monsoon 2 - Mesmerised at first sight!

Munnar in monsoon is mesmerising. This is the second part in this series. We explored Munnar in last week of July, 2014. The first part was covered in this post. 

Monsoon in Munnar 1 - Going gaga over ghats!

Leaving Bodhimettu behind, we drive on. The roads gets excellent. The valley views gets fabulous.

We now realise how beautiful Munnar is in Monsoon. And regret why we never came here earlier in rains.

Cloud kissed Mountains in the horizon provides a perfect backdrop to the green valley in the foreground. The mountains rise sharply. They are conical in shape, their summits covered by thick monsoon clouds. 

The rains have actually made late entry into Munnar. The locals say that rains only started in Munnar in the previous week. We could see that ourselves with the lake which otherwise look beautiful when full is not even half full.

( Please click on the pictures to see them in original size)

The first sight of verdant valleys of Munnar....

The lovely lake. Notice the water level.

Manicured tea gardens with mountains as backdrop

Sometimes, the green expanse gets a white contrast in the form of lovely cascades.

This was a beautiful sight. A tea village with colourful houses in the middle of green valley!

Our journey now gets slower as we stop now and then to click pictures. The valleys now pave way to immaculately maintained tea gardens. The landscape is dotted by huge boulders amidst the manicured tea gardens. The boulders of Munnar makes the terrain interesting. Strewn at random, covered by green, they look as if some one has done landscaping. The green expanse is disturbed  by orange trees with lovely fruits.  We never knew that Orange is grown in these areas. 

Orange trees amidst the tea gardens

Natural landscaping!

We get into the car and start driving on the winding roads. Slight drizzle and mist add to the beauty of our drive. Around the corner, Brinda suddenly notice a lovely waterfalls at distance and we are all excited. We drive closer and this happens to be the beautiful "Chinnakanal Waterfalls". The rains in the last week has made it glorious sight.

Chinnakanal waterfalls @ its glorious best

A panoramic view of the falls as we drove away past and turned on a curve...

The next few KMs of the drive was most exciting. The road gets narrower. Huge boulders on one side with tiny waterfalls cascading from the top and mist filled valley on the left.

A panoramic shot of the boulder with its cascades. Mesmerising!

The vistas on the winding roads are lovely

A lovely drive in the mountains leads us to Munnar town. A small hill town, typical of a tea country. To some extent, Munnar town resembles the town of Nuwara Eliya in Sri Lanka's Hill country, though it lacks the lovely Gregory lake. But that is compensated by two lovely lakes away from the town. We will cover them in future posts.

The entry was like a fantastic prelude to next few days in paradise! 

Travel Tips

a) Munnar is not for some one in a hurry. For that matter any mountain. It has to be savoured slowly.

b) It is worth driving up to Bodhimettu even if you are reaching from other two routes of Udumalpet and Cochin. The vistas are beautiful.

c) Stop and click pictures for memories!

d) The water falls will be at their best in monsoon. Do not expect Chinnakanal in the same glorious best after rains.

e) Roads in Munnar in excellent condition. The best thing to do in Munnar is to drive around. It is an exhilarating experience. 

  

If you want to experience the beauty of monsoon in India, you can check this post on this blog.

Celebrating Indian Monsoon - A list!

Please share 

We hope this post was useful and you enjoyed reading it. If yes, please share it among your friends by clicking the buttons on sidebar. Our idea is to share the experiences. Help us doing it. Thank you.

Munnar in Monsoon 1 - Going gaga over Ghats!

We told you that Munnar is mindblowingly beautiful. We also told you last week that we will come back with details of our recent trip to Munnar. Here we go.....

We are not sure when we visited Munnar last time. If  our memory is correct, it must be 18 years back when we had been just married. Our plans to visit Munnar was always falling through though we had planned it many times. This time we did not want to miss the opportunity to drive in monsoon and experience the paradise ourselves. The other motivation was to drive to magnificent Athirapally falls in monsoon. There we were. Burning the rubber and on the way to Munnar during Eid weekend.

Having driven on the National Highway 47 umpteen times, it has become too familiar an exercise. We left early to avoid the chaos in Hosur, stopping over on the road side for a cup of boiler tea - how we hate the tea prepared elsewhere boiled over and over again, then customary breakfast at Karur opposite bus stand and we reached Theni by 11AM. The roads are excellent.

We were disappointed with Theni and its surroundings which are generally green. The rains were absent and the fields were still brown. We could now see the mountains in the horizon.

Kannan Devan Hill ranges in the horizon as we drive through Theni

From Theni, we now deviated towards Bodinayakanur from where we started climbing to Munnar on Bodi ghat.

As we moved closer to the ghat road, we were excited as we had heard about lovely vistas when we climb it. We were not disappointed. The road was fantastic to start with. Winding road but not too many hairpin bends like you find in Valparai. Once we left behind the plains and started climbing, the landscape turned out beautiful. What surprised us was the height of these mountains. They are big and beautiful - obviously when you have tallest mountain of South India amongst them. The scenery started turning greener and stunning as we climbed to Munnar. At the border check post in the village of Bodi Mettu, you will get the first feel of what is in store in Munnar. It was a wow experience as you enter the paradise!

Let the pictures take over now. This is just like a trailer..... Click on them to see in original size.

We start the climb now.....beyond those peaks!

The ghat road......winding all the way up!

As you climb, you will have magnificent landscape to enjoy

The mountains are huge

The first look of the the valley. Munnar is still few miles away.

The peaks - reaching the sky!

Meadows on the hills

It became foggy and we could see glimpses of the greenery on the hills. Notice the tapering peak....

The first view of Munnar valley from Bodimettu. Stunning indeed!

Let us stop here.

Munnar can also be reached via Tiruppur - Udumalpet ghat road. This route is very picturesque. Especially in monsoon. You will be passing through Chinnar Wildlife sanctuary and Marayoor sandal wood forests. We thought we will do this on the way back. But since we were going to Athirapally falls and returning via Valparai, we missed this. Look at these pictures of the ghat road from Udumalpet from Jaseem Hamza. (Check out his pictures in this link Jaseem Hamza in Panoramio and his facebook page Jaseem Hamza on Facebook )

Amazing vistas! 

Rain drenched ghat road

A river gently flowing down the hills

Downstream sight of Thoovanam waterfalls in Chinnar Wildlife sanctuary 

Thoovanam waterfalls in Chinnar wildlife sanctuary

A waterfall on the ghat

Cloud covered hills with cascades  as seen from the road!

A stream flowing.....

Different hues of green!!

Another excuse for us to drive Munnar next time!

Travel Tips

Route from Bangalore

Bangalore - Salem - Dindigul - Theni - Bodinayakanur - Munnar (520 KMs and 10 hours with breaks)
or
Bangalore - Salem - Tirupur - Udumalpet - Munnar (475 KMs and 9.30 Hours with breaks)

Our suggestion - Go by one route and return through the other.

Road conditions

Excellent throughout. On the ghat road, you will find some bad patches and narrow roads. Nothing to worry as such.

Eating joints

Bangalore - Dindigul has many restaurants on the road for Breakfast and Lunch. If you happen to reach Dindiual at lunch time, then you should savour the famous Dindigul biryani at Thalappakatti (http://www.thalappakatti.com/)

Coming up next - First vistas of Munnar - Mindblowingly beautiful!

Do you want to experience Indian monsoon at its glorious best? Here is a list for you to do. Click on this post in this blog below.

Celebrating Indian Monsoon - A List!

Please Share the post

If you enjoyed reading this post, please take a moment to click on buttons on left sidebar and share it with your friends! Thank you.

If you need help, please write to us by using the contact form on the right side bar. Happy to help.

Skywatch Friday - A view from the Top Station, Munnar

We were in Munnar last week.

Munnar in monsoon is mindblowingly beautiful.

One of the "Must see' places in Munnar is the "Top Station" on the Kerala - Tamil Nadu border in South India.

As the same suggests, it is one of the highest points of Kannan Devan Hill ranges @ 6170 feet. It used to be the highest station on the Kundala valley railway - now defunct - built by British to transport tea chest from hills to railway station in Bodinayakanur.  It overlooks a breathtakingly beautiful valley giving you a 180 degree view.

We went there in the afternoon. The fog was rising up. The sun was still shining. The shadow play on the hills was already on.

We clicked this picture. We liked the contrast of red roof of a building - a church - with surrounding green.

The blue sky with white clouds completed the frame. Click on the picture to see it in original size.

We urge you to go to Munnar now when it is raining. It is green everywhere disturbed only by the white cascades flowing from the mountains.

We will come back with detailed posts on our experience in Munnar. Stay tuned.

If you are interested to experience Indian monsoon in all its glory, here is the list for you. Please click on the link below.

Celebrating Indian Monsoon - A List!

For other posts in Skywatch Friday series, please click here.

Skywatch Friday

Please Share the post

If you enjoyed reading this post, please take a moment to click on buttons on left sidebar and share it with your friends! Thank you.

If you need help, please write to us by using the contact form on the right side bar. Happy to help.