The Ride To Athirapally, Vazhachal and Sholayar.

This was a great trip with my friend Prashant Sagar.. He lives in Angamali, however agreed to meet me at Chalakudi where we were supposed to turn to Athirapally..
I've had to start from Palakkad very early in the mornin.. I started out at 6 am.. Palakkad Thrissur is the worst stretch of road i've ever been on, particularly the region from Vadakkanchery to Mannuthy.. Not only are the roads narrow, its so full of potholes that driving in difficult. On top of that its a high traffic area with trucks and Volvo buses coming at full speed on the wrong side.. So generally i dread going by bike through the route.. Its about 76 km and took 1hr 45 min.. Not bad considering the state of road.
Anyhow, it was early morning, so comparitively less traffic and had a uneventful ride to Thrissur.. From Thrissur we have this excellent super highway.. Riding is pure pleasure on this stretch from thrissur upto kalamasseri.. So about 30km till Chalakudi and i was speeding at about 90 kmph.. My heart did jump once when i saw a police patrol car parked by side.. Fortunately they were checking trucks..
On reaching chalakudi, met up with my friend and we decided to journey upto Athirapally via potta which turned out to be a roundabout journey.. Anyway its 32km till athirapally, roads are good, traffic is ok amd slowly the terrain was getting hilly..
About 15km into journey we reached the gates of Thumburmuzhi dam and garden. There is a small entry fee and for camera also. The garden is well kept and manicured.. We walked the steps towards the water. Its was exquisite site. The water in the catchment area was shallow, upto waist deep . There were numerous large rocks projecting out of water and some under water rock too.. So you can actualy hop across these rocks all along the catchment area if you're nimble footed and careful enough not to slip over slippery rocks under water..
We jumped across the rocks hopping across one rock to another. I had to be extra careful as i had a camera in one hand... It really felt adventurous and exciting.. Best part of it was there were numerous girls on the trip who were slipping and slipping and falling off onto water.. I guess it'd be difficult to jump across rocks if you'r wearing churidar n all.. All togethor a very good experience..
We soon moved off from there to our original destination athirapally.. The way was really getting hilly but the roads were good and scenery was getting better too. On the way we saw Adventure Park.. It didnt look so enticing so we went off on our way.. Half an hour later after some hair pin bends we reached the gate of Athirapally water falls.. We had to climb up some wooden (actually concrete ) stairway to reach there.. That affords a view from the side. It was breathtakingly beautiful... You can also go down along the sides through a long, paved tortous route to be directly in front, although a bit off of this amazing two waterfalls.. Kinda felt out of breath.. There were rocks jutting out from there and there was water spray everywhere.. Kinda overcrowded. It was a photographers delight. I took many photos.. Worst part was the climb upwards. I was exhausted and literally panting.. Again the best thing that made the whole thing worthwhile was the presence of innumerable girls..
Eventually we reached up at the gate. It was 1pm. We went to nearby Ktdc hotel for lunch. Egg fried rice. Twas ok.. From there we set out to Vazhachal waterfalls.
Again we had to take ticket. This one turned out to be a low key waterfall.. A series of small waterfalls. Somewhat beautiful.. Took some photos.. Weren't many people there too..
From there we decided to go to Sholayar dam.. It was 40km away and it was 2.30pm already. The route was through forest. The guards at checkpost checked us and our bike for alcohol. Even petrol tank too. We were told to return before dark..
And so we started with an eye on watch.. It was an uphill road..Soon the route was fully forested and scenery was getting really beautiful with views and hairpin bends. The roads keep getting worse and worse... There were only a few vehicles on the road.. The bumpy ride sure takes the fun out of the scenery. We were busy negotiating the hairpins and loose rocks in bumpy road to admire the scenery... Soon yo reached the base of dam where we were told that dam was closed and not open to visitors.. Disappointed, we had to turn back after taking some photos of the dam view from outside..
The road back was downhill. It was much easier. We just had to avoid the bumps.. Reached Athirapally by 5.30.. From there we sped towards Chalakudy. It was 6.30
when we reached Chalakudi.. We parted and i had to make the long trip back to Palakkad by night. My worst nightmare.. Anyway i drove slowly, had dinner on the way, somehow managed the Mannuthy-Vadakenchery stretch and reached home by 9.30pm.. A very satisfying journey.. Sweet memories..