Finally we stepped out of TamilNadu!! Went to Talakona - Eco Forest for the weekend. It is near Tirupathi. It was Dheeru's [my 16 month old son] first outing, so I was a liitle bit edgy. Thanks to my friends at office, things fell in place and by saturday afternoon, we were vroomingg across thiruvalur, puthur, chandragiri..and reached a wet thalakona forest. Talakona does not have any shops, so if you want to buy anything plan it before and stock it.
Surprisingly the government guest house accommodation was very neat and clean. The food needs to be ordered at a local hotel [it is better that you don't actually see the kitchen], they bring it to the rooms. The guest house by itself doesn't have cooking options. The food was typical Andhra - lot of kaaram. On sunday, we set out to tackle the waterfalls - a 2 km difficult trek. With a kid in tow, it becomes all the more difficult. Caution: The place is full of aggressive monkeys. Any sign of plastic cover is sure to get a friendly attack from one of those ever watchful vaanara padais. The waterfalls was a scenic sight. But when compared to kutralam, the water was less [inspite of the rains] but was very forceful. . So don't have high expectations. Next we decided to hit the Forest dept' Eco-tourism division. I opted out of it because Dheeru was sound asleep. The team came back after an hour and half, by then Dheeru got up and we were ready to go for it. The canopy walk was long and good - it cut across some awesome trees with medicinal value. Boating was a farce, it was some huge swimming pool kind. Didn't go for it. The forest dept guesthouses were different - hut kind of structures. Saw some siddha college students take a study tour inside the forests. Atleast their educational tours have some meaning unlike our engg. educational tours to Ooty, Kodaikanal and Goa.
Left the place around 3.30 p.m and reached chennai at 8.30 p.m. Had dinner in Jain Motel in Poonamallee [ actually very good food and ambiance for a roadside motel..would love to go back there]...Guess overall a nice experience. But not one of those great places you want to go again and again.
Our organizer - Ranjith's blog on Talakona visit.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
Got to check it out sometime. How far is it ?
some 200 kms from chennai...
u got some photos on it? sounds like a nice place. can it be comfortable as a one day trip?
cool place to visit.. is veg food available or is it better to prepare food before leaving??
The Mad Jammer: I shall upload the photos soon. One trip is little bit stretching..the accommodation is good. So you might as well stay.
Karthi: Veg food is available. We went with little kids, so packed food for them.
Sounds interesting but I know how mentally exhausting it is to take a trip with a baby along. I think that itself takes courage to go forward with.
Wonderful post about Talakona Waterfalls. Thanks for sharing this wonderful post in this blog. Loved to read this blog. It is a nice place to visit as a weekend trip for one day. Want to travel from Nagercoil to Chennai book your bus tickets in advance.
Post a Comment