Sholyar reservoir

It took Moses 40 long years to find his Promised Land. He went up Mount Nebo to the top of Pisgah, looked over the Promised Land of Israel spread out before him, and died. It took us 40 hairpin bends circling the Annamalai range in Tamil Nadu to reach ours - Valparai. Fortunately we stayed alive to explore it.

The journey to Valparai — a hidden treasure in Coimbatore district — was through a prism of paths, colourful, candid and charming.

It would be unfair to equate this travel experience with that of other hill stations with their viewpoints and malls thronged by glossy colourful tourists. This journey was an elevated discovery of a communion with the sacred vignettes of nature, untouched, unseen and unforgettable.

The late afternoon sun started to get mellow as we reached Pollachi in Coimbatore district and Valparai was around 64km uphill across the ghats.

A bison in Annamalai forest

We lost our way in Pollachi town but soon were on Valparai Road after checking the way with a few locals. Once there, it was a smooth ride.

Beyond the burgeoning crowds of Pollachi it was a trail to a silent land, hidden in the shadows of the Annamalai range.

As we drove up the mountains, the horizon was in perfect sync with the landscape and the pictorial expression of nature’s vastness could be matched only with a world without maps.

The climb was pretty steep and with just a few hairpin bends, we gained a lot of height. But the drive was beautiful and afforded us some gorgeous views of the Aliyar reservoir, blue skies and the green hills around. The view of the dam catchment area was breathtaking.

Athirapally falls

We stopped for a while on the ninth bend, popularly known as Loam’s viewpoint. The most captivating frames of the Western Ghats are best viewed from this bend but we couldn’t wait for long as we were almost stepping on twilight.

We were travelling on the Pollachi-Valparai-Athirapalli-Chalakuddy state highway. The bluish green shades of the waterbodies was an extension of the blue of the sky and spread over a huge area, while the mountainous trail ahead was akin to the curves of an Anaconda and looked magical in the evening light.

Moonlight flooded the hills, tea estates, waterbodies and our cobbled trail ahead by the time our car screeched to a halt on the portico of Deepika’s Guest House, the charming little place we had put up at Valparai. It had an interesting aviary, a patch of garden blossoming in colours, a swing and a dining room with a lovely view of the tea gardens and the hills beyond.

C. Jacobs, the manager of the resort, welcomed us warmly and also gave us information about the local myths, wildlife and places off the beaten path — all adding to our mounting thrill.

We were told that the best way to explore the gorgeous landscape of Valparai was on foot. The splendour of the place was written all over — from the cobwebs of a giant spider to the unnamed roads lost in the woods. The plantations and forests presented a fabric of green that blended with the aquamarine blue and green of the waterbodies cradled within the tea estates. We treaded on rewarding trails on a timeless terrain of gleaming moss while nature rolled out an unearthly pattern of wildflowers in the woods.

A tea garden on the outskirts of Valparai . Pictures by author

Driving and walking in the Manamboly forest stretch every morning was a retrospection of unkempt dreams and latent aspirations. The unique feature of touching the hidden notches of Valparai was like a work of art with an intoxicating familiarity that brewed in our soul and we were unable to alienate from the minute ways this evergreen rain forest grew within us at every wake.

The following day we again explored the rich biodiversity of the land — its plethora of wildlife and birds. It was a rendezvous with the evergreen rain forests that canopied overhead and was privy to our urban existence from a world beyond.

Dry logs housing pretty mushrooms, colourful leaves, tall evergreen trees, rare birds, butterflies and dragonflies welcomed us at every step.

We headed to Seen God and en route stopped at Puduthottam estate where a plethora of flora and fauna greeted us. Seen God offers a wonderful view of the Annamalais and Shola forest. The legend goes that an old man called Velu had seen God from here. Velu it seems still comes to the viewpoint at Seen God or Nalamudi Poonjolai everyday, hopeful of a second rendezvous.

A view of Sholyar dam

I thoroughly believed him because sitting on the edge of the cliff with an enchanting landscape ahead and a flock of great Indian hornbills flying overhead, it felt like God existed somewhere nearby.

Monkey falls, a popular attraction, should ideally be called “Monkey Point” as the falls has totally dried up and the spot is far more popular for the menace of the namesake. At dusk we drove to the Sholyar, Nirar and Aliyar dams. The site we beheld reaffirmed my faith in the divine presence. Fireflies clustered across the catchment area at Sholyar dam looked like a million lamps burning on the curves of the mountains. Some frames just happen without prediction and remain with you for a lifetime — I clutched on to this one like a lifeline.

The mist was everywhere and the rivers and the waterfalls followed us in a chiaroscuro vision of life and eternity.

On our last day in Valparai, we visited Athirapally falls in Vazhacal forest range of Kerala. These forests are denser than the ones in Valparai. The canopy was thick and the entire day was shrouded in a nocturnal blanket. We were rewarded with a plethora of wildlife both on our drive to and fro. The hooting of birds and the calls of unknown beasts were thrilling and penetrated the deep darkness as we drove back — alert, enchanted and intoxicated. The moon was full and smiled down at us through the foliage.

One evening, Jacobs said, “When someone dies and goes to heaven, he comes to Valparai”. I’m not sure whether I’d go to heaven at all, but this land enveloped in cloudy mornings and misty evenings is frozen between the promises of dawn and the mystery of twilight. It is infused with the melodies of birdsong and vignettes of a bohemian heart, entangling the senses deeply with an invisible web around us. Some paths are moonlit, some rain-washed, some offer a divine communion round the corner, while others are meant to be explored. However, all of them lead to but one path that is timeless — and that path leads to Valparai.