Visiting the hills

Well what a difference five years could make..the last time we went to Kodaikanal we rejoiced,we oohhed and aahhed and explored each and every spot leisurely and basked in the cool breeze that was always blowing,roamed and shopped around in our own pace and most importantly there was a manageable size of tourist crowd at that time.This time around everything was just to the contrary thanks to the increasing number of tourists and the government failing to address the crowd control problem.

We could be at fault in selecting a long weekend to visit the hills but after our visit we have heard many others complaining that even weekdays are like this in Kodaikanal these recent years.

While last time there were times when we were the only ones on the road...

this time we had to inch along everywhere with a long line of vehicles in front and back of us

but that did not mean we did not have fun.The traffic gave us an opportunity to get out of the car and have a leisure walk in the hill roads making one of my longtime wishes come true

after mastering the art of walking in the slopes, we started to click the distant buildings that were visible afar from the top

We saw many monkeys bothering the tourists but these two were content to chat with each other

then we saw this pit of plastic wares confiscated from tourist cars on the way to Berijam lake..

there were these new vegetation being planned along hill slopes to compensate for the fallen trees

We did not visit the Berijam lake as it was said to run dry in Summer months.Even the silver falls had only a single thread of water falling on

After a short stop at the guna caves we went straight to the Pillar rocks which we had been eagerly waiting to visit again. After lunch the weather changed and the Sun bid us goodbye to moody clouds setting a good backdrop for viewing the pillar rocks.

if you really zoom well,you can see a cross in one of the pillar rocks

which proves the fact that the top of the rocks were once accessible but now totally closed for obvious safety reasons

Then the next spot we enjoyed(walking) was the Coaker's walk route, from where you can see the distant hills and the faraway plains beyond the hills clearly 

by this time the climate had changed and it started raining but thankfully we had some  shade in nearby to escape ..

(to be continued)...