Day 2: Meghamalai - Thekkady

The original plan for the day was see some local places in meghamalai in the morning, head down to thekkady for the evening boat ride and reach idukki for the nights stay. But it wasnt to be. We went to bed early at around 9PM and got up at around 5AM with no mood to ride. In the end started at around 6AM. We had enquired the previous night about visiting nearby places and the people there suggested Vattaparai and maharaja dam. The former being nearby and with better roads than the latter. So we decided with Vattaparai. It was pouring cats and dogs as usual and couldnt take any pictures due to the heavy fog and darkness. We dint get to see much either due to fog, basically its a place to view wildlife, there is a small road which has to be trekked. We were in no mood to trek nor would it have been fruitful as we could only see probably 6-10ft in front of us. Disappointed we turned back. The roads where a experience in themselves though.

We returned around close to 9AM and enquired when breakfast will be ready at the only eatery there and it wasnt gonna be soon.


We returned to our room to rest and pack and be ready to leave. The room with a view.


The place we stayed. I was shivering from the cold and rain and the camera did not have image stabilisation lol i'm getting bored of rain now.


Meghamalai has bus service !!


Breakfast atlast !! Idly for ram.. and many omelette for me..




I wish i lived on this street.


Went about checking out the "town".






The guy who runs the eatery and helped us book the room. His name is Murugan, he can be reached at 09442781748.


By the time we started it was 12PM, we were only 40kms away from Thekkady and planned to make it for the last ferry ride which was at 4PM though everyone said it wasnt possible.


We wanted to make it to thekkady as fast as possible and it was raining as usual so dint take any pictures. But as soon as we crossed over to the TN side the rain stopped and it was becoming hot(relatively) !! So we decided to strip down..


The place we stopped to strip down..


Pretty roads..


All packed up and ready to leave. Took 40mins..


Another view..


Bu-bye Meghamalai.


Butter smooth roads after Meghamalai.


On the way to Thekkady.. getting down from meghamalai took more time than we anticipated. It was already close to 4PM..








Kumily !!


Thekkady..


We reached Thekkady to find that the last ferry to visit the Periyar lake inside the Periyar tiger sanctuary had filled up and we would have to wait till tomorrow. Ram had already seen the place many times before and did not want to waste time here but this was my first trip here so i did not wanna miss anything. We found a place nearby to stay so that we could catch the ferry next morning and officially our plan was delayed by a day. Bored. We tried to while away time by going up and down the Ghat roads.



A simple video of the ghat roads we covered.


We still had time so got ourselves a ayurvedic massage at a local massage parlour. Felt refreshed, had dinner and went to bed early as usual.

Day 3 teaser..


To be continued..

So, you guys couldn't see much in Meghamalai, except for the bad roads, and in return got the kerala body massage. Waiting for Day 3 log.

The Thekkady picture is nice and the video too.

We actually rode to all places but cudn't see anything coz of fog plus downpour

Kerala body massage was a pain reliever and we felt very refreshed at morning rather than the night after the massage.

Your could contact Mr. Habeeb @ 09656584929 for accommodation, transportation, sight seeing, medicinal massage and almost everything in thekkady.

how much distance is that vellaimalai tunnel from chennai and what is route

Good Pics "Yellowspunk" . Yummy idli chutney. Whenever i am home i hate when every sunday mum makes idly chutney but i miss it when away from home. Latest count 3 months. Keep posting and Ride safe

630 Kms from chennai to Valparai and fifteen Kms from Valparai to vellamalai tunnel. Chennai-vellore-krishnagiri-salem-erode-tirupur-pollachi-Valparai is the route!

Great going guys.. You captured almost everything that stays only in my memory and not my camera's . But why KE isn't Kerala abrevated as "KL"?

Thanx yuv. Human memory always captures and cherish the moments lively than the cameras! Perhaps he should had chosen the first two alphabets just like that unintentionally.

You know what, my initial reaction looking at the title was "OMG where is KE in India or did they get to cross the sea or did they have bifocated a new state (KE) from midnight ". So after all this is the lollu of the LOL

WTF is this a Real Picture?...

Yes sir! Slow shutter speeds for waterfalls and fast shutter speeds for a lemon dropping in a glass of water. Use any advanced P&S cam or a DSLR and you'll love the results!

hahaha.. message was gooood yea rain and mist ruined the views.. but then we went for the rain and mist in the first place..
Thanks dude.. nothings like yours ! Pro-photographer !

i hate idly too.. its so boring ! that is why i had omelette my name is sriram dude.. anyway thanks

hahaha.. that is the advantage of a point and shoot ! i dint know kerala was abbreviated to KL.. why is it KL??? Karnataka is KA.. TN/AP first two letters.. so thought it was KE..

pah.. touch panitaya ! haha..

hahahahaha... so bored eh?

yea man.. show shutter speed and big aperture. captured with my P&S.

You are too kind on me, for the Pro-photographer word .

Small correction; generally it should be shutter speeds slower than 1 sec and smaller aperture. Bigger aperture lets in more light which will overexpose if you are in manual mode, and increases shutter speed if in A mode. Only DSLRs will allow you to take shots with slower shutter speeds in day time as you can make the aperture as small as f32. Where as in case of P&S, the smaller aperture is only f8. The flowing affect can be achieved with P&S only when there is very little light, especially just after and before night.

This is why you are called as Pro-Photographer!

I meant shutter speed and aperture number.. the dslr pix were shaken since it dint have IS and the bridge was wobbly. i took this in shutter priority, it did come out a bit overexposed but nothing that PS cant handle !

P.S. We were riding in mist and rain so it wasnt exactly broad day light. You will notice the highlight is blown, i cropped to reduce the blown area.
P.S.S. You are more than a pro photographer, you are a pro photographer teacher !