Skip to main content

Yercaud - a scintillating tour (3)

On the third day our plan was to visit Cauvery peak. Our guide told us that this place is some half an hour journey from our place and has a scenic beauty. After taking a quick breakfast we started our day. We were told that a day at the cauvery peak including lunch and coffee is charged at Rs.500 per head while only going around would be Rs.100. The path to cauvery peak was an off beaten and enjoyable too. 
First place was visit was Shri Chakra Mahameru temple. This looked like newly built temple. Godess  Lalitha Thiripurasundari is the mail deity. She was in her full alangaram when we were there. After worshipping we went around the temple, it is well maintained. Mahameru chakra structure is in the middle and seems to be one of the largest chakra installed anywhere. The other Gods - Shiva, Vishnu, Bramma take their places around the temple.
We continued our drive through the coffee estates to reach the Cauvery peak. There is the MSP plantations and our drive in to their estate takes us to the peak. This provides a scenic view. We were asked to pay Rs.300 there and were given a cup of coffee with biscuits. At this place is the tent house for visiting groups to stay and fire camps. Though highly priced entrance fees our trip inside the coffee plantations area was a memorable one. We took the return with trip with in an hour from there.
We went back to Venkateswara for lunch. Went to the nearby town market to buy local produce like banana, orange and pepper. Then to home made chocolates.
Then reached our house of stay. The rest of the evening went in taking a stroll around the house. The power cut today was for a long time so we had to cut short our dinner to a glass of milk and went to sleep. Without electricity the heater couldn't go resulting in a long chill night. 
Sunday morning saw us packing to head back.
On our downward journey to Salem we bought some plants from the nursery and drove all the way to Kandhasramam.
Unfortunately missed the dharshan of Lord Muruga since temple closed early this morning due to marghazi month.
We hit the NH straight to make it to Chennai before the evening traffic dawns. Had an early lunch at the outskirts of Salem. Again, though a small restaurant offered us good food and friendly service which was heavenly to us (who had skipped our breakfast).
All in all a fantastic journey. Until our next one,.. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Anjaneyar Temple - Gerugambakkam, Porur

 Very recently we came to know about the Anjaneyar temple built by actor Arjun is at Gerugambakkam. On a Sunday evening we drove towards this place. We need to detour from the Kundrathur main road to reach this temple and from then on we need to face a rough and patchy road. In just 5 minutes one can reach the temple. A small residential street leads to the temple. Very near it one could see few small stalls mushroomed up to sell pooja items. The vehicles have to be parked in the street near the temple gates. First is the corridor were few trees are seen.  On taking left is the entrance to the temple and you can see the Lord Anjaneyar much ahead. Here too are few trees uniformly spaced out. There is a coconut farm adjacent to this temple. There is a shelter above Lord Anjaneyar, but for that it is a open air temple. Facing Lord Anjaneyar and to the left and right corner are two shrines - one for Lord Ganesh and the other for Lord Anjaneyar's - Lord Rama, Lord Lakshmana and God...

Beach - Marakkanam

Born in the coastal area one realises the beauty of the beach only in instances where you have to stay away from your place for a long time or a person from non-coastal area appreciates the beach and call you lucky for coastal nativity. When Tsunami occurred, we are sure no one wanted to live in a coastal region. Having said that, over the weekend we went on a drive while resulted in experiencing the beach, back waters and the canal in Marakanam, roughly 120 kms from Chennai and 20 kms from Puducherry. Suddenly on a Saturday morning we decided to make a short trip to Marakanam where our friend has a farm house and called us in for a visit. After completing the weekend chores and a quick lunch, we started the drive towards Marakanam. We took the Chennai by-pass route to Vandaloor and then to ECR, crossing Mahabalipuram to reach the small town of Marakanam within 2 hrs. Numerous prawn Hatcheries in this place occupy the seashore. There seems to be around 53  Hatcheries in this stretc...

ECR Chennai - a Spiritual Trial

Pachai mamalai pol meni pavalavai kamala chenkan Achuta mararere ayar tham kozhute ennum. Echsuvai thavira yan poi indiralogam alum Achsuvai perinum vendean arangama nagarulanea. The East Coast Road in Chennai in known for the numerous resorts, hotels and other locations of entertainment. How about we take a spiritual trial on the same road for a change? This is what we did this weekend on a half day journey. Our first destination was Thiruvidanthai - around 30 kms from the city. The Nithyakalyana Perumal temple is an ancient one. Being near Mahabalipuram area its obvious builders were the Pallavas. Being a weekend there was a big queue of devotees till the entrance near the gopuram. Due to renovation on account of kumbabishen scheduled in near future we were allowed to workship only the urchaver instead of the moolavar. Perumal provided darshan in full floweral alangaram. Coming out after the darshan strong aroma of tamaraind rice pulled us towards...