After a long time, I went on a 3-day trip. I traveled with my chittapa, and it was a fun-filled adventure and a brand-new experience. We started from Chennai by train to Coimbatore and reached Kovai on Friday morning. From there, we took a bus to Pollachi, which was a 60-minute journey. The weather was so perfect—drizzling, with a cold breeze, and most importantly, a pollution-free environment.
From Pollachi, we took another bus to Sethumadai, our destination! The scenery changed completely—lots of greenery, no traffic, and it felt like heaven on earth. We reached my aunt’s home around 8:30 AM. The village was absolutely marvelous, surrounded by mountains on all four sides. It was green everywhere—a peaceful and pleasant retreat from the noisy city life.
My uncle has a passion for pets, and his house was full of roosters and hens. Compared to the busy city sounds, waking up to the clucking of hens and crowing roosters felt much nicer!
We got ready, had a delicious homemade breakfast, and started our journey to a nearby river. It was just a 10-minute ride from my aunt’s house to Aanapari River. The river was a beautiful sight—so pure and serene. We spent some time watching the river flow, enjoying the view while munching on sweet and spicy mangoes. After that, we went for a ride up to Sarkarpathi, the entrance to the Sarkarpathi Wildlife Reserve.
It was raining lightly, and the weather was just awesome! My chittapa and I took his new Apache 150cc bike and returned home to refresh ourselves. Later, we set out to Aaliyar Dam, which was a 40-minute ride by bike. The dam, built between 1959 and 1969, is located at the foothills of Valparai in the Anamalai Hills of the Western Ghats. My chittapa reminded me that scenes from the old Tamil movie Kadhalikka Neramillai were shot near Aaliyar (in a bungalow nearby).
We even visited an aquarium, and I got to taste fried dam fish for the first time! We returned home later that evening, spent some time chatting with my aunt, uncle, and cousins, and finally went to bed. But sleep didn’t last long because the roosters started crowing at the top of their voices. It was nice at first, but after a while, it got a little irritating!
The next morning, we headed to Topslip, which is about 800 feet above sea level in the Anamalai Mountain Range. It was a beautiful place. Though it was sunny, the weather stayed cool enough to enjoy our visit. We spotted deer, wild pigs, monkeys, and elephant dung (haha!). We spent a couple of hours walking around, taking photos, and enjoying nature before returning home.
In the afternoon, we went back to Sarkarpathi Wildlife Reserve for another visit. That evening, we had the most thrilling experience—watching a live cockfight!
The next day, we had to leave for a wedding in Coimbatore. We started from Sethumadai to Pollachi, then took another bus from Pollachi to Coimbatore. After attending the wedding, there was an unexpected change in plans—we decided to go to Madurai! The journey from Coimbatore to Madurai was a bit boring and tiring. The weather got worse as we traveled, and by the time we reached Madurai, we were completely exhausted. We attended the function in Madurai and finally started back around 9:30 PM.
The next day, we arrived in Chennai, bringing our adventure to an end. It was a long, exciting, and fun-filled trip—Chennai-Coimbatore-Pollachi-Sethumadai-Aaliyar-Topslip-Sethumadai-Pollachi-Coimbatore-Madurai-Chennai!
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