Hi Friends,
Yesterday i made a trip to Vedanthangal back to chennai with my family.
Packed some lunch and started at Chintadripet (residence)by 10:30am, had only 2 points left in the fuel meter, hence wanted to fill it asap, but unfortunately, no HP pump on the left driving side from LIC to Guindy. I found lot of BP pumps ( didn't want to fill there as i couldn't use my Cr-card as it had HP tie-up)
Reached guindy by 11:00am,asked to tank full (cost Rs.2000) filled in 31lts @ 69.xx(not sure)Left pump by 11:15 am after filling in air ( 31psi for all the 4 wheels ) kept driving at steady pace between 50 - 80 till chengelpet and thereafter constantly on 90's.
Went past the right turn at padalam junction ( as there were no clear directions ), after going about 5 kms, checked with the road side vendors and came to know this.( if someone is going to this place, ensure that you take the right turn at karunguzhi or padalam junction)
Had to take a different route through villages and reached vedanthangal by 1:30pm , heard there were monkey trouble inside( not really as i saw just 1 monkey ) , so finished the lunch and entered the site by 2:00pm.
There is nothing much to do inside except to watch, there's a path way for a km or so, where one can walk and watch the birds at a distance, Binoculars are essential, as you cannot enjoy watching the birds at a distance.(felt bad that we didn't get one)
There is a small tower built by the authorities which has a telescope (or something like that), which was fixed focussing at one point, where one has to wait his turn to watch through it for 1 or 2 minutes, there was a crowd already and we waited for 10 mins for our turn and observed through it (which was ok)
Climbed down and just walked through the path way and sat at a bench that was provided to watch from a little distance than the pathway.
Spent 1hour watching the birds(egrets, pelicans, spoon billed herons, etc )and started from there by 3pm.
Checked with the locals there for the route to a temple nearby and came to know it is on the return route to chennai.
Melmalai Vayavoor (Lord Balaji Temple) is 12kms from vedanthangal located on a hillock. It is a vaisnavite temple dedicated to Lord Balaji, and is also called Sri Ramanuja Yoga vanam (as Sri ramanujar visited this temple and did dhyana and yogam)
This temple has a history that Lord Balaji had shown his form in Ratha to Garuda( on his penance ), also there's a history that Anjaneya who carried the Sanjeevi parvatha on the order of Lord Rama, rested in this mountain, but he wasn't able to rest the parvatha on the mountain ( and hence, malai vayavoor (meaning cannot keep mountain down)
This temple has steps and has a motorable road till near the temple which can be reached within 10 minutes (slow drive)
Reached there by 3:30pm and had to wait for Darshan till 4;10pm(as the temple is open from evening 4pm to 7pm).
Took 30 minutes for Darshan and started back at 4:45pm.
On the route of driving in the same direction to chennai there was another newly built temple ( called ramanujar yoga vanam, amruthapuri) which was also a vaishnavite temple which had very rare form of Lord Ganesha (9 grahas in the statue of Lord ganesha from head to toe and on his back Lord Narasimha)
It was very peacefull inside the temple as there was no one at all,we had to rush as it was getting late (planned to have some coffee, but decided otherwise)
Started by 5:15pm and hit the Chennai - Tiruchi Highway ( it showed Chennai 69 km ), kept driving at a constant speed of 90 and touching 60 occasionally.
It took nearly 2 1/2 hrs to reach chennai and by the time we reached home it was 8pm.Had a nice coffee and relaxed for sometime.
All in all it was a good trip and an experience
ALTO K10 VXI Dhantenan - Let's Go
