To get over a potential feeling of ennui and to recharge our batteries, Shataparna and I decided burn some fuel over the weekend. We quickly zeroed in on Yercaud, which was like 260Kms from Bangalore. Foremost was that, we could complete this in 2 days, and still feel satisfied and also the fact that Club Mahindra had a resort which we could use off the shelf, helped. Armed with a small suitcase, a camera and a tripod we set off at 6:30 AM on Saturday. I will spare the gory details of irrational driving on NH7, and jump straight to the fact that we reached our destination, Yercaud at around 12:30 PM. Well, I take back some of that, I think its worth mentioning the number of hair-pin bends we took driving up-hill Yercaud.
All said and done, we checked into Lake Forest Resort in Yercaud, which is build upon a plantation and a colonial bunglow build in the late nineteenth century. The interesting point is that, its an eco-friendly resort which prides itself in maintaining the fragile balance with the ecology in the precincts of the plantation.
Our room was styled in vintage with antiques from the raj-era. Even the menu card ( above ) was vintage! Surrounded by oakwood, pine, orange and lime trees, it was quite an appeal on the senses. After a quick lunch followed by a siesta, we attempted to explore the sleepy hill station. The Yercaud lake, which was barely 200m away is a man-made lake, much smaller compared to its cousins in Ooty or Kodai. Nevertheless, given the number of visitors are much lesser, and the lake was clean, its quite quaint in its own way. One could rent out row or paddle boats to criss-cross the lake while getting some serious exercise ( for folks like us !! ) in the bargain.
We decided to check out some of the more happening places around the lake ( read - the vendors and the hawkers ! ) and defer the boating to the next day. Rest of the evening was spent in exploring 'downtown' Yercaud and planning for next day's travel. After a quite dinner at the resort, we hit the sack, with expectations for the next day !
The next day started lazy with an authentic dose of english breakfast. After shaking off some initial complacency we started off to visit few key points in the must-see circuit for Yercaud. Shevaroy temple, located at 5200 ft above sea level and pagoda point were what we could muster up to. Sevaroy temple, named after the sevaroy peaks surrounding Yercaud, with its residing deity of Shiva and Kauveri is the preferred worship for the villages and hamlets around Yercaud. Incidentally, the drive to the temple reminded us of Frost, more so for the woods and less for the sleep !!! At the top most point in Yercaud, amongst broken beer and crushed aquifina bottles, we swallowed dollops of fresh O2, laced with hilly spices and were amply blessed by Lord Sevaroy !
The other significant place of interest was pagoda point about 4Km from the Yercaud lake. Just another of the vantage points which housed a temple, with 3 pagodas around it. After conducting extensive photo sessions we decided to head back to the resort for lunch. True to its nature, the clouds exploded to shower rains on us as we reached the resort, transforming Yercaud from a sleepy hill station to misty romantic overtones. It was indeed a sight to behold and experience with the smell of rain soaked earth with a dash of coffee and vanilla.
True to our bengali spirit of upholding the sacred tradition of taking a sunday siesta, we decided to have a quick nap after lunch before we headed out to paddle around lake yercaud. While we took turns at paddling and steering the rudder, the sky was darkening with threatening dark clouds looming above the lake. How we wished it would rain again !! Before our wishes came true, the allotted 30 minutes of the rental time elapsed and we were back on the docks, drinking some more coffee and waiting for the rains to come down.
With that, our short but extremely memorable trip laced with leisure and sinful indulgence came to an end, and we decided to check out and drive back to Bangalore. In passing reference we must mention that, the folks at the Lake Forest resort were extremely helpful and accommodating to make our stay at Yercaud very memorable.
