Day 7

July 8th

The day started at 4 AM when we reached a sleepy little hill station Valparai (in tamil nadu) close to Kerala border from Pollachi. The night was chilly, the bus stand was shabby and we were waiting for our next bus to Malakapara from where in turn we would get another bus for Athirapilly.

Now one would wonder why taking so much trouble?

It was because our purpose, of visiting the places where Raavan was shot, had not been served. Due to All India Bandh, our plan had to be changed, we went to Munnar-Kodaikanal, etc, and so we took so much trouble to enter back into Kerala's Chalakudy region from Tamil Nadu.

Fortunately we were on the right track. Also accidentally we had got the chance to explore this beautiful border Western Ghat region of Tamil Nadu-Kerala which was interspersed throughout with Tea garden all around. 

The beauty cant be described with words. Unfortunately our camera battery had died downa nd so we  couldn't even take the pics. We reached Malakapara by 7 AM and fromw here we immediately got the bus for Chalakudy.

Journey Through the Forests

We came across the Sholaiar Dam and the thick  Sholayar forest range, with the Chalakudy river flowing all along. The entire route was interspersed with numerous big and small waterfalls, notable ones being Vazhachal falls, Athirapilly falls etc. We had a stopover at Athirapilly falls

 and took some pics after charging the camera for some time. This is the same falls where large no. of films like Guru, Raavan, Kuchh na Kaho, etc have been shot extensively.

Unpleasant Events
Around the same time several unpleasant things happened, Apurv lost his wallet with all the money, ATM cards;  we got call from friends in Bhadravati that it'll be better if we return back by the next day's noon to avoid complications; I was  feeling ill  due to lack of proper sleep/proper food after spending 3 nights in bus/bus stand; Bisen's stomach was upset; Aayush's also needed medical attention due to his kidney problem and so I and Bisen decided to return back to Bhadravati. But Aayush and Apurv wanted to touch Kanyakaumari (I had gone there with family in 2003 so I wasn't interested). So after reaching the Chalakudy town, we got divided into 2 groups

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