 |
| The mist rising up the mountains |
 |
| The spectacular clouds or fog from our room |
 |
| Sun set |
 |
| Gossamer light clouds! |
 |
| See the vehicles climbing the mountain road |
Tired as we were after Hogennakal, it was a long drive to Salem city. This was the first time in the steel city made famous by SAIL. It looks like a pretty big city and all around we encountered Tamil men with macho moustaches dressed in white shirts on two wheelers. It seems like a dress code there :). But, we proceeded on course to Yercaud, which is 20 kms. of narrow and steep hair-pin bends. Luckily, the roads are beautifully maintained in Tamil Nadu and the views are awesome on the mountains. We reached around 5.30ish to our resort. This was Sterling Resort and the rooms are perched right on the mountain. You open your door, and the views are stunning! We really did not need to venture out anywhere for the scenic spots. It was right there in our room. We caught the sunset when we reached. This room had a microwave and a tea kettle and some dishes compared to the spartan one at Yelagiri. The restaurant starts at 7.30 in the evening, and their service is damn slow! We were hungry, and again no stores where one could even buy beer. So, we went out bought maggi, eggs, and milk. And ate a dinner of maggi cooked in the microwave. It tasted so delicious! The dampener — no mobile network or internet connectivity.
The view next morning was extraordinary from our room. We did not go trekking because we were satisfied gazing at the beautifully misty mountains. We took a sightseeing tour arranged by the resort, which took us to the usual temples, boat club, Montfort school routine. I loved the tour of the perfumery they took us to, and we ended up buying quite a few perfumes too! We came back real hungry and cursed the slow restaurant service, but the Goan fish curry and parathas were yummy or, maybe we were too hungry :).
Evening, we enjoyed some more of the view. We also visited some horticulture nursery and bought some plants for our garden back home. Hope that most of them thrive. Gautam had found a bunch of rabbits and was satisfied for hours by gazing at them or feeding them leaves. We also played TT with Sid and each other. And again had a dinner of maggi :-). Our breakfast of boiled eggs with nutella bread and coffee was also rustled with the help of our microwave.
The next morning, we start back for Bangalore. At 6 in the morning, the fog was so dense, it felt like we were in an airplane and were looking at the clouds below. We saw the fog float around, hit the mountains, retreat and move forward. It was kind of hypnotic to watch these natural patterns. At 9, we leave this place and head back home.
My vote — Must see place if you stay closeby.
Rachna says 
Leave a reply to bbsearchingself Cancel reply