Visiting the hills .. contd

I have not been to many hill stations. But among those places I have visited, Coakers walk will be deemed my #1 favourite spot without a doubt. Coakers walk is a long stretch of a walking path running along the edge of a hill where you get a good view of the valley.The view from the walkway is just amazing and you can drink every bit of the scenery present in front of you leisurely without any hassle. The walkway was like this five years ago

                                          *** I lost the picture I took last time. This one is borrowed from tripadvisor

but that is not the case anymore.We were shocked to find most of the walkway space now occupied(littered!) with stalls. Talk about how to spoil a perfect place with consumerism and commercialization! I felt totally robbed off an amazing experience and that seemed to be the general theme for all of Kodaikanal now.

I said in my previous post that it had started raining when we were walking in coaker's walk area. It was only a mild drizzle at first and we enjoyed a light drench while taking in the scenery like this row of trees in a distant hill 

or spot another row of trees perched on top of a hill still further

But soon the droplets were big and started raining continously. The numerous stalls came in handy in a way..we bought caps and shawls from a winterwear shop and an empty stall nearby helped us escape the rain. A quick chat with a shop owner let us believe that the rain would soon stop as it had happened often the previous days. The rain stopped for a while and we hopped into the car and started driving towards the lake. I loved cycling around the Kodaikanal lake in my last trip.It was a two hours well spent in my life and I had been dotting on to do just the same thing this time too but no, the rain Gods had different plans.

When we got down in the lake and paid parking fee and started walking towards the lake and the heavens opened. We went to the lake house to find some respite but it was jam packed. It only took us a minute to decide and we hopped back in the car and started climbing down the hills well earlier than we planned.To be honest we were happy to get out of that swarming crowd of tourists and traffic let alone the rain.

Without realizing it, I had taken many pictures of a number of variety of trees all through the day.We even had a fun game of trying to identify any of them.My mom rightly identified this to be 'malai vadhanarayan' tree(Delonix elata). 

These trees are suffering the effects of soil erosion but note how deep their root system going into the ground

This majestic one could be seen on the way to Guna caves. It was definitely well above 100 feet in height and stood solitaire- it was a view to behold

How about this one which is present to the left of the pillar rock view point..?I have seen this tree with full of leaves the last time I went but it looks totally different when devoid of leaves

I love it more in close up

While taking a look at its root, we found a small stream of water(can't say it was clean water) flowing nearby its root

and this pretty wild flower was seen blooming a little further

When I was cycling around the lake last time,I was surprised to see the tree whose flower I was named after.I had never seen the tree in my life till then though I know it characteristics.It had been planted and maintained by Kodaikanal widlife dept and it was very young so we never saw any flowers in it.I had wanted to see the tree this time and see whether any flowers had come but as I said before we never got to even walk around the lake.

But fret not, I identified a close relative of the said tree in the Coaker's walk area and it was bearing pink flowers.This particular tree was much older and already in many knots..

I think it is best to wind up the post on our trip with this lest I might go on and on. It was an interesting one day trip braving both the extremes-weatherwise. I do not regret making this trip on a long weekend but if there is a next time I would plan well and choose a time when there would less crowd like a mid weekday or extreme winter when it would be off season.All other times I would happily pass the option to visit until the government officials do something to make it a place worthwhile visiting in Summer. I think it is time to start exploring other exotic and less famous hill stations.