A nostalgic drive to Meghamalai

Join Date: Oct 2005

Location: Bangalore

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Some trips are done for nostalgia and this 1 fell successful that category. We archetypal visited Meghamalai successful the November of 2013 and wanted to rekindle aged memories. We had large memories of the spot and our stay. It offered a bully drive, immoderate unspoilt scenery, a enactment with a presumption and bully food.

What we had successful our caput erstwhile we acceptable out. We were going to beryllium 3 cars, a Hilux, a Creta NLine and a Fortuner.

The Old Sandriver Cottage with our Thar (2013)

The furry person (2013)

Ready and cautious (2013)

The 2 pictures beneath are astatine the aforesaid place. The Thar successful 2013 and the Hilux successful 2024

Thar connected a bridge. Notice beverage successful the background

More dense today

The postulation connected a Friday was expectedly atrocious arsenic the Creta and Hilux drove toward Salem. We decided to interruption travel astatine Salem and alternatively of catching up connected sleep, went astir eating astatine 12 midnight astatine the 24 hr cafe astatine Grand Estancia, each the clip promising that we would commencement aboriginal the adjacent day.

The happening with drives is that someway everything falls successful spot to marque the thrust imaginable and we did support our committedness of starting early. Roads were deserted and we made accelerated progress. Both the cars were comparatively young with respective odometers nether 2 1000 kilometers. They got a bully workout and besides presented america with plentifulness of photograph opportunities.

Traversing the plains

We had meal astatine Vedasundar, the section hospitality was apical notch and the nutrient was delicious. Thereafter it was a consecutive thrust to Dindigul and past onto the Theni agelong which connected that time was deserted. The thrust went creaseless and we deed Chinamannur. After labouring with conveyance checks and immoderate emphatic caput shaking speech astatine the wood cheque post, we were connected the ascent to our enactment successful the hills. This thrust needless to accidental was the highlight. Got to "Sandriver cottage" which was our spot of enactment and we were successful for a shock. The spot didn't look acquainted adjacent though we had precise wide memories of the place. The histrion was missing, truthful was the Malabar elephantine squirrel. I kept asking the caretaker successful breached Tamil astir the histrion and the squirrel and helium had a comic look connected his face. After overmuch deliberation and discussion, we got to cognize that the archetypal bungalow was elsewhere and this was different bungalow renamed arsenic the earlier one. All this was done for logistical convenience arsenic they wanted the enactment options grouped unneurotic and my dreamy nostalgia of sharing meals with the squirrel came crashing down. But the contiguous bungalow was precise bully and overlooked the water and the beverage gardens and had each the bully bits of a plantation bungalow. We rapidly made ourselves comfy arsenic we waited for different person to articulation us.

The 3 car convoy

After a drizzle

Such places person a comic mode of making grown men bash anserine things arsenic we kept moving astir for pictures, heard stories of animals successful disbelief and were truthful gluttonous that it gave the navigator immoderate creases of interest connected his different creaseless forehead. We spent overmuch of the day staring astatine the immense expanse of beverage and forests done precocious powered binoculars and saw thing but the clouds and past adjusted the camera controls to sprout accelerated moving mammals and managed to lone drawback a lumbering peacock that looked quizzically astatine our enthusiasm. Took the Hilux retired and went astir connected the beverage plot trails and had a bully clip snaring pictures. The upwind was sublime. We had a small drizzle with the mist playing fell and seek, making it an enjoyable excursion.

A postcard setting

Soothing to the eye

A cupful of tea

Good views

dwarfed by the trees

Picturesque

The caretaker was afloat of enthusiasm and regaled america with stories of his encounters successful the estate. A truly touching infinitesimal was erstwhile the navigator saw our photos from the ID proofs submitted and instantly remembered that we had travel earlier galore years agone and came by to spot us. That felt incredible. A genuinely bully infinitesimal erstwhile Pushparaj amazed america with his smile. He was the navigator who had been astatine the earlier bungalow successful 2013 and was present doing work astatine the newer one.

Wet drive

Covered successful mist

Fortuner disecting beverage gardens

A beauteous entrance

One has to transverse this to get to the bungalow. Makes for a bully stop.

Wondering what to marque of it all

God's painting

Very fewer places tin clasp its quality aft a decennary without taking a deed from tourism. I indispensable admit that this spot looked adjacent amended than erstwhile I archetypal saw it acknowledgment to the strict enforcement of nary integrative and precise small enactment options.

But it was a world cheque arsenic we got retired of the checkpost. There was integrative thrown everywhere, arsenic if celebrating the state of nary penalty, aft the excruiciating trouble of keeping a elevation presumption clean. Sigh! We person a batch to bash to forestall this onshore from becoming a ample trash can.

Last edited by megazoid : 9th September 2024 astatine 19:06.