Road Trip to Valparai-Athirapally-chalakudy

On 3rd april with much excitement I embarked on a road trip to Kerala. Little did I know then that the next three days would turn out to be the best days of my life. On this three days I covered 2000 kms, negotiated 100's of hairpin bends, Spotted animals which are hardly seen in any other part of world and did so many adventurous stuffs which I had never even dreamt of.

 This blog is all about my trip from day 1 to day 3. I know, I cannot do justice in a page to what I experienced in the few days I was on road, But I will try my best here to make readers understand the feel of it. 

Why Kerala?

Initially there was a tossup between Rameswaram and Kerala, But the beautiful mountains lured me to make decision in favour of Kerala. With its scenic mountains, Curvaceous but smooth roads,moderate climate, Kerala is a perfect getaway from Chennai's scorching heat. 

Why Road Trip? 

 I always wanted to do something adventurous, A bike ride can be adventurous in itself, because you never know when one would get stranded in the middle of Highway with tyre punctured. Plus I always wanted to go to these places in my RE. So there wasn't any second thoughts on this one.

Day 1 - Chennai - Salem- Coimbatore:

With all my provisions  neatly packed in my backpack, I started at 4:00 AM from my house and picked up accomplice near guindy.

Stop near dindivanam

The plan was to start early morning from chennai, reach salem around 11, take a detour to friend's house for a couple of hours break and then start to Coimbatore during evening. We were quite conscious about not travelling during noon because the heat gets quite unbearable in this part of world. 

Everything went according to plan, We reached salem on time, then went on to meet college friend of mine and spent the noon in his house reminiscing about college days.

As dusk settled in we started our journey, Racing through the empty roads we reached coimbatore in three hours and halted for the night in some random hotel near Coimbatore Railway station.

Day 2: The plan was to reach the top slip and spot a tiger.

We started early morning from our room and took friends car to reach the destination(two wheelers arent allowed in the route). Topslip is located about 800 ft above sea level and 80 kms from coimbatore, The road that lead to Topslip was quite bumpy and that was one moment where i felt as though I was in Kolathur. On reaching Kerala checkpost we had to leave behind our car, and get into a govt owned tourister which took us into deep forest, The driver stopped vehicle whenever he spotted animal, The three hours ride would have been  more adventurous had we spotted a tiger. But nonetheless we had fun

Day 3: The best day of our Trip.

Valparai- athirapally- Chalakudy.

We wokeup at 5.30 in the morning and started our march towards Valparai. The journey towards valparai was quite challenging, the road was treacherous. We had to negotiate far too many hairpen bends to reach the place. The problem  we faced driving towards valparai was we wanted to stop every few minutes, Surrounded by coffee estates on bothsides, Valparai was breathtakingly beautiful. In our brief stay in Valparai we took as many snaps as possible. At 11, we decided to bid adieu to Valparai and filled tank before starting to Athirapally.(as the  the nearest bunk was 100 kms away.) 

Valparai plantation

After riding through the deserted roads we stopped by sholayur dam, The sholayur dam can be quite a spot if filled with water but unfortunately we chose the wrong time as there was hardly any water. Still the dam looked quite beautiful. Then we moved few kilometers from dam to reach kerala checkpost where the rangers did comprehensive check of our bag and gave a notebook  and asked me to write my name and bike number. 

Beautiful sholayur dam

Enter Athirapally forest, The route is open only during morning to evening. The 65 km dense forest has the highest tiger and elephant population in the country, This is the place where the elephant migration happens. The forest can be covered in 3 hours, But the three hours was eons to me. The reason why rangers write down people's name is, to conduct rescue operation if in case they went missing.

My Deivam Royal Enfield

Photographer's paradise

Sholayur - Athirapally route

peek into the woods

The 65 km ride sent chills down my spine, Elephant's turd was everywhere. whenever there was a bend, I tilted my head so widly to check if there was any animal on the road.  The ride was the most adventurous I had ever been on. At the end of the stretch It was a mixed feeling for me, On one hand I was quite relieved that I came across the forest unscathed, On the other I was sad that the adventure had come to an end.

Having reached athirapally, We took few minutes rest at the falls and then started to chalakudy. The drive through chalakudy was super fun. The roads were simply the best I have drove on(akin to the one you see in F1 racing). After driving all through the day we finally halted in Thrissur.