Friday 8 March 2013

Munnar, nature all around


Our Kerala travel started with Munnar. We started very early from Bangalore around 3:50 AM on 2nd Feb and reached Munnar around 2 PM. We covered a total distance of 521 kms which included 3 short ten minutes break.

  The route that we took was like (bangalore to munnar)
Bangalore-->Hosur-->Salem-->Dindigul-->Theni-->Munnar.
This road it tolled and you need to pay toll tax at five points.

  Since most of the road is NH7, so driving was easy. In some places the roads were little narrow but good and motorable.


Road from Theni to Munnar
  After reaching Munnar city centre at 2 PM, both of us were dead hungry. The hotel we had booked through makemytrip was another 3 kilometres. Since lunch time was almost up so we decided to have our lunch and then proceed to hotel check in. We went to a small roadside restaurant and had chicken biriyani. The only remaining item on the menu was chicken biriyani. With Rs 100 a plate,the quantity was enough for two people..... lucky that we did not ordered for 2 plates :)

  Munnar city center is little crowded and concentrated. Hotels there are cheap but since we wanted so stay a little closer to nature so we chose hotel "Munnar Rock" which is a little far from the city centre. And as we had our own car Sparky with us, so commutation was never a headache.


Munnar Rock Hotel
  The peak time for Kerala visit is Nov-Jan end. Hotels and all other services will charge you more at that time. Anytime apart from that, things will be cheaper. Hotel Munnar Rock was good. They charged Rs 1140 per day. They had well ventilated rooms and really big bath rooms... The bad thing is that the path leading to the hotel entrance is very steep. So car parking can be a little challenging. The hotel attendents were also courteous and mostly from Bengal. You need to order your lunch and dinner a few hours before as they will buy raw material and specifically cook what you ordered. There is also an advantage of staying here. There is an office just opposite to the hotel that sells ticket for Kathakali and Kalarippayattu (traditonal martial art). They have daily shows in the evening at a hall very near to the hotel. Ticket price is Rs 200 for each show per person.

  We had the whole after noon free so we thought of visitng Attukal Falls that same day. From our hotel Attukal Falls was within 1.5 kilometres. Since it was dry season the falls was almost dry. There is a small tea shop just near to Attukal Falls owned by Mr Moses, a really nice and jovial person. After we had tea, he chatted with us for sometime and showed us his spice garden. There were so many types of spices growing.... cardamon, black pepper, nutmeg...... we had never been to any spice garden before so this gesture of his was really generous. A big "thank you" Mr Moses.


Attukal Falls

Mr. Moses
  While driving back we saw many bulbuls, drongo 's and sunbirds happily chirping and flying. A few birds also posed for us :)


Oriental Magpie Robin

Unknown bird

Bulbul

  There was a long list of places to be seen the nest day. That included:

  Mattupetty Dam and Lake
  Echo point
  Kundala Lake
  Top Station
  Eravikulam National Park

  We started early as usual around 7:10 AM. Our first stop was Mattupetty lake. When we reached the lake there was no tourists or buses so early in the morning. It is a very big lake and looks very beautiful. We clicked to our heart's content. Boating facilities are available for tourists.


Mattupetty Dam
  We crossed the dam for our next destination Echo Point. Echo Point is near to Matupetty lake. Echo Point is a lovely place.... the water in the lake so tranquil and reflections on the water so clear. But people have made this place so dirty. There was litter all around.


Echo Point

Echo Point
  Between Mutupetty and Echo Point there is a place called Cattle Point that falls on the way. Though it is not a tourist place, the place looks beautiful and we got down from our car to take a few snaps.


Cattle Point
  From Echo Point we headed for Kundala Lake . For entering Kundala lake we had to cross over a dam. Since the dam is narrow, only two cars are allowed to cross at each time. There are two people posted on each end of the dam who coordinate this traffic flow.


Kundala Lake Dam

Kundala Lake

Kundala Lake

Gift shop at Kundala Lake
  From Kundala we went to Top Station. We kept the car at car parking and had to walk around 500 metres to reach the point. The view is stunning from here and one can get a birds eyeview of Theni city. By the way Top Station is in Tamil Nadu.


Way to Top Station

Top Station
  From there we agin retraced our way back to Munnar. When we reached Matupetty Dam again, this time it was full of tourists and vehicles. We were lucky to have seen this place early the day else with so many people around it would have been difficult to get decent shots.

  Our last destination was Eravikulam National Park. The park is famous for nilgiri tahr. Previously nilgiri tahr were found all across the Nilgiris but now Eravikulam National Park is their last resort. The park is generally closed for few months every year, mostly from Feb to April end for calving. We got to know from the local drivers that today was the last day before the park closes the season. From  next day onwards the park will be closed for calving.

  We reached the park at 1 PM. The ticket counter was closed as the counter staffs were having their lunch hours. After buying the tickets one needs to wait for his/her turn to get into the park bus that will take you to the place where the tahrs are. It is roughly 4 KM from the boarding point. Private vehicles are not allowed.

  It was very hot and there was a long queue at the ticket counter. Our rough calculation told us that it would take at least 1.5 hours of waiting to get a bus. So we had to drop the plan, because we were supposed to reach Periyar before sundown. Surely next time, when we visit Munnar, we will visit this park.

  So our trip of heaven's garden, Munnar, was over. We headed for Periyar through Devikulam. Devikulam is an ever green landscape of undulating tea gardens. And the rest of the road to Periyar was equally pictursque.


Tea Garden

Tea Garden at Devikulam

Fisheye Tea Garden

Top Station

Way to Periyar

Black Pepper Tree

43 comments:

  1. Wonderful coverage of your Munnar sojourn.

    www.rajniranjandas.blogspot.in

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  2. your shots make the beauty more beautiful!
    Wonderful.

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  3. what a wonderful place,perfectly captured

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  4. A beautiful place, wonderfully captured........

    Debnature
    Kenfolios

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  5. Those are really great pictures. And good use of the light.

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    1. Thank you...we are glad that you liked the photos

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  6. What lovely pictures. Really amazing.

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    1. Thank you so much...indeed Munnar is beautiful!

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  7. Munnar, a lovely place indeed for a nature admirer like me.. Wonderful pictures.. Thanks for sharing :)

    http://sushlaventulip06.blogspot.com/

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    1. Thank you so much.. :)
      Munnar is indeed a beautiul place

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  8. The Echo Point shot is simply out of this world. But the colors are looking a bit too overprocessed in my Mac's monitor, not sure if I need to re-calibrate

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    1. Thank you Arnab...the Echo Point pic is a little more saturated :)

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  9. Awesome shots... Loved the echo point pic and kundala lake pic, epic shots...

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    1. Thank you so so much for the lovely comment :)

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  10. Your write up helps me a lot as I am travelling tomorrow i.e 30 May 2013, can you let me know breakfast and lunch points?

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    1. Have a fantastic trip Somasekhar.
      We packed our food. So won't be much helpful there. But we can suggest something. In fact, we tried this as well. you can visit http://www.mapmyindia.com/ and try the "Directions" tab. It acts as google map, but then you can ask it to show restaurants on the way. You might have already tried this. :)

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  11. your pictures are so beautiful! we missed matupetty when we went there..here's the link to my post on munnar:

    http://thetimesofmanyphases.blogspot.in/2013/06/truly-gods-own-country-munnar-kerala.html

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  12. Thanks for the post. Looks awesome. I really admire the pictures ( quality and the sharpness). Would you mind telling us which camera was used to capture these mind blowing images?.

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  13. @manishbluerose
    We are glad to know that you liked the pictures on the blog.
    All the pictures were taken by Canon 550D.

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  14. Ankur and Soma

    Thanks for sharing these beautiful pictures of Munnar. Can I know what time is best for visit Munnar and also tell about some good hotels.

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  15. Awesome photos...

    Vijay Bhardwaj

    If you planning for visit Munnar, then the best time for visit munnar is October to February for enjoying various attractions and honeymooning in Munnar. March to May is good time to explore Munnar and visiting tea estates. While monsoon months should be preferably avoided as the area receives heavy rainfall, bringing an abrupt halt to normal life.

    And about hotels, I will suggest to you a holiday company namely RPC Holidays which provides online hotel booking, you can choose any hotel from the following:

    Grand Plaza
    Bell Vista Resort
    Hill View
    Tea Castle Resort
    Le Celestium
    Blu Haze Resort and Spa
    Silver Tips Munnar
    T & U Leisure Hotel
    Las Palmas

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  16. Amazing captures ... nice pics

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  17. Awesome blog, very informative... Fantastic shots, specially the Tea garden, Top Station and Way to Periyar are jus splendid...

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  18. Replies
    1. Thank you very much Deepesh for stopping by.. :)

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  19. I must say... Awesome photos... :)

    https://tektriphy.wordpress.com/2014/03/21/fact-file-munnar/

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  20. Hi Ankur ,

    In these images you have described your passion, experience of capturing moments in camera !

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    Replies
    1. Thanks a lot Javed and its truly wonderful to know you liked the clicks. Thank you.

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  21. What a wonderful post.. thanks for sharing..

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  22. Hi,
    Nice post. I'd like to pass on a small tip tip to people who are interested in going to Kerala. If you're in the vicinity of Munnar, do not miss this little gem of a destination named Kolukkumalai, one of the world's highest organic tea plantations. The road to the hill is an offroading adventure that is sure to jolt you out of your reverie.

    Read and view a few of my photographers here: https://www.travelbagtales.com/road-to-kolukkumalai/


    -Rahul

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