Sometimes you want to relax - and so you book this fantastic
resort which is a 10 hour drive and has numerous in house
facilities and organises tours and treks and all of this in
a 3 day weekend!!! See where i’m going ?
OR...
You live in Bangalore and have got this cute new car and
desperately want to go driving over the weekend (and not
just to MG Road) but aren’t sure you can drive all the way
to Munnar/Goa/Kodai...
God just heard your prayers and made Yercaud pretty much to
rub it in to poor Salemites.
I’ve driven through Salem at different times of the year
and realised this. Its always hot
So Yercaud is even more amazing than in absolute terms :)
Now before you start packing your tennis rackets and pack
off - hang on.
There is nothing - nothing to do there
Well - not nothing - you have the usual list of contrived
tourist ’spots’ and the like - but then for that you’d
rather go see Kodai or Ooty or Coonoor....
Yercaud - I’d say - go there for doing nothing. Cause you’ll
love to be with yourself for a while - and not have to
chase a watch - and not have to tick off a list of things
to do and see. You’ll be able to tell people nothing about
the place (hence poor man’s Ooty???) but you’ll have a good
break if you can tolerate yourself :) You’ll be able to
finish that book you started - when ? Or play scrabble with
your spouse after ages - or walk down a road or path not
really wanting to get anywhere. Yercaud is a good pause in
your life.
The plateau over the Shevaroyan Temple is a very nice place
to get to cause there’s usually not a soul around.
The town’s a little cramped - and the Raja’s seat etc have
decent teaand Bhajji and imaginary views of the Mettur dam
etc (I mean go to Mettur if you really wanna see the dam -
right?).
Not too many options to stay - Sterling’s too much concrete.
I’ve heard the Grange is good. We stayed at Shevaroy’s -
paid a little too much cause we didn’t book in advance. There
is a TTDC hotel - looks clean - next to the ’lake’ (more
like a large pond but quite relaxed).
Try seeing the rains there - it gets all misty and stuff.
Its not really ’cool’ rest of the year - Bangalore is
chillier sometimes.
Take your car and go - 36 or so hairpin bends on the short
35 km drive from Salem are a real pleasure though not the
Himalayas. Also - driving the ’loop’ around the coffee
plantations will kill a day with some breaks.
Its about 240kms from Blore - and the highway upto Salem
is quite good. Leave early in the morning and avoid all the
TN 7:00am rush - get there by 9ish and you could actually
spend a great 2/3 days with very little effort/money spent.