Quite often we plan and go to so called exotic and
extravagant places, yet we fail to discover and see great gems of places that
are right next to our backyard. Palamalai, some 25 Km from my hometown
Coimbatore is one such beautiful place. Visited only by some regulars of the
temple, not many in Coimbatore visit this place, if at all they have even heard
about this place. Palamalai is a quaint little village atop a hill about 25 km
from Coimbatore, and is known more for its temple - Arulmigu Palamalai
Aranganadhar Thirukkovil, (A Perumal (Vishnu) Temple) than its hilly locale. I
have heard that the route was bad, but when I had visited – June 2011, the road
was freshly laid, and was in best shape. The road can take you right upto the
temple and you need not walk any further.
The route is as follows : Coimbatore ==> Mettupalayam road ==> Periayanayakan pirivu ==> Kovanur ==> Palamalai
After Kovanur, there doesn’t seem to be any human
inhabitation and the roads are completely empty and peaceful. The road atop the
hills is very good and even had a few hair pin bends on the way. After some 6/7
Km of winding hill roads amidst some scenic views, I reached the Top of the
hill.
Route from coimbatore to Palamalai:
View Larger Map
The top of the hill reveals the large temple, nearby tea
shops, and a few boys playing cricket with a bunch cut coconut tree branches. At the top, you get fooled that the entire
place is just about the single Temple which forms the central pivot of the place,
though it is true, there is also an entire village that came after a ride down
the road a further 1 Km. However we rather parked our bike at the temple and
walked about on our foot to discover more.
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| Farmyards along the way |
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| Road near kovanur |
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| Farther from Kovanur |
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| Snapped En-route |
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| Empty road stretch |
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| Hair pin bend no 1 |
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| Viewpoint along the way |
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| Cricket alongside temple |
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| Bike parking area..! |
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| Path to Theppakkulam.. |
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The Theppakkulam
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| Near the theppakkulam |
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| House along side the village |
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| Lake near the village |
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| MGR's midday meal hut |
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| Whers my Midday meal...! |
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| village backyard |
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| yet another viewpoint |
We enquired a few villagers around.
We heard that there is a Temple pond / ‘Theppakkulam’ once you go down a small
path behind the temple. A walk down this path for about a Km took us to this
rather deserted and beautiful theppakkulam amidst thick cover of trees. We
further ventured ahead towards the villages and small settlements and were
surprised to find a beautiful lake alongside as well. The settlements were completely
serene with hardly any one around to be seen. There was even a small elementary
school with barely 10 students, we saw more of them infact queuing up for the
free midday food than any class at all. A complete roundabout walk around the
village lead us back to the main temple. A brief visit inside the temple gave a
glimpse about the its history, where all we could find was that the temple was
quite old and full of stories, hinting that it would be a must visit place for
any ardent temple visitor. Further walk lead us to few more view points for our
cameras. The local tea shop nearby served hot and spicy ‘black ginger tea’ (sukku
kaapi !) which went just right with the Ragi thattu vada. This was the only
place I have seen Ragi vada which tasted very good indeed.
After spending about 2.5 hours exploring the place we
started back having spent one of our most satisfied and peaceful time of our
lives.
