Weekend Getaway..

Rossi barges in a day in advance - we are going to Yercaud, wanna join? Why the hell not? Yes, we are game. Thats how my plans generally get made, unlike the preferences of the high command. All set, lets go!

First weekend getaway.. no real planning.. just a quick research on the net for accommodation, and we had hit the road already. Rossi had some last minute delays and decided to come with us instead of the rest of his gang. Took around an hour to struggle through Bangalore EC traffic followed by a super cruise from Hosur till Salem on NH7.. Wonderful road for a perfect drive - all thanks to the TN government! Just kept to the left in Salem and in no time we were going from 400m to 1400m above MSL on the Yercaud Road [Map].

Reached late evening.. had some trouble finding the resort in the dark.. hilly roads.. no street lights.. or neon signs.. but managed to home in - Grange Resort. Rooms were a delight, better than expected. Night outside was cold.. clear sky with brightest collection of stars we had seen in a long long time. Already dark, decided to crash early in hope to wake up early. Yes, we needed blankets to keep warm inside the room too.

We are not used to waking up early, so we did not! :D It was quite eight past something, may be nine-ish, when we decided to rise and shine.. mostly because breakfast had a limited time slot. Expectations were beaten.. food - though simple - was superb! Yummy English toasts with butter, and delicious idli-wada-sambhar. We were now realizing the beauty of the place - surrounded by coffee estate, the rooms were right in the middle. Lush green all around tempted us so much that we took to an after-breakfast morning walk through the estate enjoying the much missing vegetation in Bangalore. The estate also had an in-house coffee pod extraction machine.. Great to have a first hand view of the process before the aroma entices our olfactory system!

Time to catch up with the rest of the gang. Met over lunch.. chatted.. planned for the day.. started with Pagoda point.. and soon realized that sight-seeing is not adding much value to the trip.. geared up for ATV ride? Quite a costly affair considering the time and span of the ride. As not many fancied the ride, decided to head for the nearby Kaliyur falls. Theres not much of a pathway to reach the falls.. mostly single person track.. with quite a few steep steps.. and vegetation.. but the destination was worth it! Common with all water spots in India, you find men doing the best they can - getting wet, shouting and showing off in their own special ways.. which mostly works out as a deterrent for normal people to go for these spots! :)

Spent some time clicking and wrapped up for dinner in the town at Shevaroys. Pretty decent place, but more brick-n-cement and commercialized.. Yercaud is a place to enjoy natural beauty.. and unless you are in the lap of nature, you are definitely missing something. Lights on, and so are the drinks before we called it a day. Interesting things happened over the drinks at the Inn where the Gang was.. and we learnt about that the next day. No, I am not discussing those here! ;)

Wakie-wakie! Time to go.. Decided to check out the Grand Palace hotel atop a hill on our way back which caught our attention when we came in and as we were running around the town. Seemed like a good place, with nice view.. decent bar - Clound9.. definitely worth a consideration if you have a budget. No trip is complete without plants for the house! Nurseries offer amazing deals on saplings and small potted plants that we had to do major shuffling of stuff in the boot to make room for the new species!

Ride back home was not that interesting.. I guess the desire to stay back at the resort for couple of more days was still high.. hard choices are there to be made, and we were back from the mesmerizing place.. A definite weekend getaway for now on.. Lets hope we hit it again soon..