Trying to be a hill station...but a long way to go. Review on Yeracaud

Our aim was to get out of Bangalore for the weekend. We decided on Yercaud because:

· It’s supposed to be about a 4 hour drive from Bangalore

· There’s the Killiyur falls to chill out in.

· Yercaud is about 4500 Ft above sea level = cool weather.

· It’s not as “touristy” as Ooty or Kodai

Here’s what happened. We hired a Tata Sumo for about 8 of us. It took us about 5 ½ hours to reach there. Well, when we finally reached there, it didn’t exactly look like a peaceful hill station. Agreed, the drive up the hill was pretty ok, but the town center is pretty crowded. The lake that sits in the middle of the town is murky and is filled with water-hyacinths at the periphery.

We decided to head for the falls as pictures of the falls depicted a 300ft grand splash. I was prepared to hear that the falls had reduced to a trickle because it was in the month of April, but was in for a rude shock when we heard that the falls were completely dry. Dismayed, we decided to look at the only other water body - the lake.

Several pedal and row boats are available for hire. The prices range from about Rs75-Rs 100 for 4 seater pedal boats per half hour. At the center of the lake, there’s a moody fountain that goes on and off on it’s own. We pedaled our boats right up to the fountain under its spray to make up for the lack of the water-falls!

We then headed for the “Ladies Seat”, which is a view point. I didn’t bother checking the counterparts –“Gents and Children’s Seats”. The view is good, but not great. After walking aimlessly, we decided to relax at the Sterling Resort. It’s quite a structure, terraced over the slopes of the hill, with lots of levels.

On the way back we stopped by a Medicinal Herb Factory that was set up by the Singh family. Which Singh, I don’t remember. But they did have quite a variety of herbs that had interesting smells and tastes. The nice lady will show you around the garden and then demonstrate all their concoctions and brews to cure all illnesses. This exercise will go on for about 1 ½ hours. Beware though, she will end the demo with “Shall I make a separate bill or a combined bill?” with the expectations that the gullible city-dwellers would fall for the elixir-of-life ploy and buy all her brews!

To sum it up, Yercaud is not worth a long journey. It is certainly a God-send for the town of Salem, which is about 30 Km away. But it’s just about 1-2 degrees cooler than Bangalore, and is hence not worth the 5 hour journey. Hill stations are meant to be visited in the summer months, but the weather here just sapped us of our energy and we skipped the other tourist traps in Yercaud. You could however go to Yercaud if:

· You wish to do some trekking in the woods

· You take up a quiet room in a resort and spend a few days in retrospection

· You run out of places to visit

· The great road from Bangalore to Dharmapuri

......................and ofcourse, if it's winter, I heard it gets pretty cool and misty!