I've always traveled to and through remote places in all my trips, but since the jeep has come in, life's gotten even more interesting. Off-beat trails are now a norm and every jeep trip feels incomplete if the 4x4 low range gearbox doesn't see any action.
After the family trip to Sakleshpur, it was time for all the boys to head out to Yercaud for an overnight trip. Although, I had not been to Yercaud until now, what I had heard about the place was nothing great and so it always got skipped from our travel list. It seemed like a typical hill station with a lake and a couple of view points, which honestly we wouldn't care much about. But this trip was going to be different, we weren't going as tourists, but rather as adventurists in search of a good trail.
The jeeper buddies from Salem helped in arranging a reasonable dorm style accommodation which had some open area in case we wanted to camp out. Since we were a big group, we had the whole place to ourselves which was good. There were a couple of trails planned so that we could have some fun with the jeeps and there was a camp out dinner as well.
In spite of some minor technical difficulties on the way, we all made it in one piece and all machines were still running as we climbed the twisty ghats to get to the top. We reached post lunch and quickly headed out to our first trail, which unfortunately didn't really materialize since we didn't get the permission to go in.
But that didn't dampen our spirits, we managed to find another spot where we happily crawled over some rocky obstacles to make it to a hill top for a photo opportunity.
The evening was filled with some music and laughter as the whole group sat together and discussed a lot of jeep stuff. We also had a rather unusual "ice-breaking" session by our sooper admin KVK, nobody can ever forget that!
Next day began with a drive up through mountains but was briefly interrupted by a sensational recovery that had to be done for one of the jeeps. Sometimes, jeepers underestimate the power bestowed upon them by the jeeps and that can lead to some serious situations both on-road and off-road. Anyway, after the successful recovery of the vehicle, we all had a hearty laugh about what mistakes to avoid.
Next up we were all on a rather off-beat trail that leads to a waterfall and this time we made sure we had the required permissions etc.
The trail hadn't been used in a while and was full with overgrown vegetation all around. It wasn't a very difficult trail since it was mostly dry, but had it rained, it would have transformed into something totally different. We were back around lunch time and by now it was also time for us to head back.
Our friends from Salem made sure that our way back was more interesting than the way up. It was through some really scenic track which had zero traffic, more so because there wasn't a road to begin with. It was like one of those estate trails with just gravel at most places. Good thing was we bypassed Salem completely and exited out somewhere on the highway towards Bangalore. Rest of the journey was pretty uneventful, but we had loads of memories to take back and most importantly it changed my perception about what Yercaud had to offer. Just goes to show that life's completely different when you drive a jeep!
After the family trip to Sakleshpur, it was time for all the boys to head out to Yercaud for an overnight trip. Although, I had not been to Yercaud until now, what I had heard about the place was nothing great and so it always got skipped from our travel list. It seemed like a typical hill station with a lake and a couple of view points, which honestly we wouldn't care much about. But this trip was going to be different, we weren't going as tourists, but rather as adventurists in search of a good trail.
The jeeper buddies from Salem helped in arranging a reasonable dorm style accommodation which had some open area in case we wanted to camp out. Since we were a big group, we had the whole place to ourselves which was good. There were a couple of trails planned so that we could have some fun with the jeeps and there was a camp out dinner as well.
In spite of some minor technical difficulties on the way, we all made it in one piece and all machines were still running as we climbed the twisty ghats to get to the top. We reached post lunch and quickly headed out to our first trail, which unfortunately didn't really materialize since we didn't get the permission to go in.
But that didn't dampen our spirits, we managed to find another spot where we happily crawled over some rocky obstacles to make it to a hill top for a photo opportunity.
The evening was filled with some music and laughter as the whole group sat together and discussed a lot of jeep stuff. We also had a rather unusual "ice-breaking" session by our sooper admin KVK, nobody can ever forget that!
Next day began with a drive up through mountains but was briefly interrupted by a sensational recovery that had to be done for one of the jeeps. Sometimes, jeepers underestimate the power bestowed upon them by the jeeps and that can lead to some serious situations both on-road and off-road. Anyway, after the successful recovery of the vehicle, we all had a hearty laugh about what mistakes to avoid.
Next up we were all on a rather off-beat trail that leads to a waterfall and this time we made sure we had the required permissions etc.
The trail hadn't been used in a while and was full with overgrown vegetation all around. It wasn't a very difficult trail since it was mostly dry, but had it rained, it would have transformed into something totally different. We were back around lunch time and by now it was also time for us to head back.
Our friends from Salem made sure that our way back was more interesting than the way up. It was through some really scenic track which had zero traffic, more so because there wasn't a road to begin with. It was like one of those estate trails with just gravel at most places. Good thing was we bypassed Salem completely and exited out somewhere on the highway towards Bangalore. Rest of the journey was pretty uneventful, but we had loads of memories to take back and most importantly it changed my perception about what Yercaud had to offer. Just goes to show that life's completely different when you drive a jeep!
PS: The non-watermarked pics are from the JoB FB group and copyrights belong to their respective owners.
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