Athirapally

I was having the impression that the WCTC vacation would go without visiting any place.Having shown my angry face on my friend on friday(18th June) evening for reasons I never knew(probably frustration for not going out anywhere much),I was convinced that this hols would go as boring as any other holidays.But,I was wrong.Moonar being the initial place for our visit,we ended up finalising on Athirapally falls(or Chalakudy falls as we knew initially!..It was later that we realised that both meant the same location) for our visit on Monday(21st June).

Referred to as the Niagara of India,the Athirapally Falls is situated 150kms from Coimbatore.

Coimbatore-Ukkadam check post-Valparai-Malakkiparai -Sholayar-Peringalkuthu Dam -Vazhachal-Athirapalli.

The roads were perfect till the start of the hilly region;called as the entry point to the falls.Reaching the entry point of Athirapally Falls,which was 34kms from the falls' view,the road was not so good for some 5 kms.After that we had a smooth ride.

The entire river was fenced.We stopped at a place where we found we could have access to river water beyond the fence through an opening in it.We played in the river for nearly 2 hrs.Water in the river was cold and we found it drinkable.

We continued our ride up the hill for some 20 min.Getting an entry ticket for the falls we reached to view the highest point of the falls.We could never go really nearer to the falls due to protective fencing.Frustration crept into us as we felt Rs.105( 5 per person for 6 of us and 25 per bike for 3 bikes)had gone waste.Thanks to my friend who saw the board "This way for a full view of the falls".We went down the hill and found ourselves awestruck!

A video of the Athirapally Falls taken by us :)

Then I knew why this place was preferred by many directors for shooting movies.Nature at its beauty!The river fell down the rocks as two sources of Waterfalls.Standing near the foot of the falls one could get drenched easily within seconds.The force with which it fell threw water drops all over us that even made taking snaps difficult.Down,the Chalakudy river branched into two(as you can see in the video) and in one of those river branches we had played.

P.S: *The song "Enna satham" from "Punnagai Mannan" was shot here.

*Director Maniratnam has a special fascination for this place.Raavanan was almost entirely shot here.Other movies as "DilSe","Guru","Iruvar" and "Kannathil Muthamittal" have songs shot here.