Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Kodaikanal hill station

Kodaikanal is one of the famous hill stations in southern India. Located at an altitude of 2500 metres on upper Palani hills of western ghats, the place offers scenic view of mountains,waterfalls,lakes,flora etc.

The place is famous for an unique flower called as 'Kurunji' that blossoms once in 12 years. The last time it was in 1994.


The trip to Kodaikanal hill station was arranged for 3 days by our bank's Sports & recreation club. We , around sixty members started from Chennai on 25.08.2005 night by train 'Pandian express'. Early morning , after travelling for seven hours, we got down at a small station called 'Kodai road'. After taking tea & breakfast, we got into two buses to start further 80KM journey to the hill station.


The morning weather was very cool & fine and we travelled through a line of mountains. In between we saw a huge waterfalls called Dum /Dum falls. The falls is completely inaccessible to reach & we could satisfy ourselves watching the falls from a distance . My binoculors was handy to watch the falls and all surrounding coconut gardens spread accross the valley.


Just before reaching the hill staion, we saw another water falls called as 'Silver cascade'. After spending half an hour there, we went the Tourism corporation's hotel. Our sports club organised well for arranging accomodation,food and sight seeing facilities.
On the first day we visited few places only: Pine tree forest, Steep valley point (around 7000 ft. down) called as failed Lover's point, Guna caves earlier known as Devil's kitchen (as may lost their lives there by committing suicides or accidentally). Now the place is sealed with fence with warning sign boards and a memorial was constructed there. At the end of the day,we went to the famous 'Kurunji Andavar' temple. Inside the temple compund, we saw the 'Kurunji tree'. On the wall backside a number 1994 was written indicating that it blossomed in the year 1994. So next time it will be in 2006.
Next day morning , we went to the other places : Green valley, Kodai Lake , museum,Bryant park & Coakers walk. Green valley is excellent , with clouds floating beneath. We could see Vagai river faraway and sunshined peaks. The Kodai lake is very beautiful ,Star-shaped with a circumference of 6 Kilometres. People were boating, horseriding and biking. I preferred biking around & horse riding. Bryant park is good with different kinds of flowers. At the end of the day , we went to Coakers walk. This place was told to be the best in Kodaikanal and one can spend more time walking on the path built just beside the valley, watching clouds passing by, the greenery down the valley etc.


On the last day we left Kodaikanal to visit another place 'Palani'. The place is famous for a temple on top of a hill and one can reach there by cable car/winch only.From there we travelled to 'Dindigul' railway station to catch the train back to Chennai.



1. Silver Cascade water falls. It comes 6 KM before on way to Kodaikanal.

2. Silver cascade -2

3. Pillar Rock Gardens - 1


4. Pillar Rock gardens -2

5. Green valley


6. Near Green Valley -2


7. Lake View


8. Kodai Lake

9. Near Museum


10. Coakers walk

11. Coakers walk -2

12. at a village while returning back from Kodaikanal

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Wonderful blog & good post.Its really helpful for me, awaiting for more new post. Keep Blogging!











Kodaikanal Tour Packages from Chennai