Yercaud, TN on the NH7

"Babies and travel don't mix"- some early advice we received, delivered in somber tones by raccoon eyed parent-friends. I took this particular piece of advice so seriously that it was almost 10 months after Shailee was born that we dared venture on our next road trip. That too completely unplanned (the trip not the baby).
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Jan 26th- Republic Day- came on a Friday this year. A long weekend in a bygone era would have us reaching for the Outlook guide, making our reservations at the best-looking budget hotel weeks in advance, getting the car serviced the week before, getting our good previous nights' sleeps and starting off at the crack of dawn to our preferred destination. This time was completely different- I was working hard the earlier week, and Gautam said he'd ask around about Yercaud, and between the two of us we never quite managed to do anything about it. In the end it was Sonal, baby on lap, who did some huntin' and callin' but we never managed to get any bookings anyway. Assuming the trip was off, me and Gautam slacked out in front of the TV Thursday night, while the lady of the house tended to the bawling baby inside. It was a bit disconcerting to say the least when the bedroom door suddenly opened and Sonal marched out, resolute look in her eyes. "Where are we going tomorrow?"she demanded. "Errrr...Nowhere. Gautam didn't book anyplace in Yercaud....He said he would..." I trailed off as the missus trained her gimlet eye on the hapless younger brother, who shrugged helplessly. That's that, I thought in relief.
Hell no.
"I'm exhausted," she said quietly. "If I don't get a break this weekend..."The unvoiced thought had us two grown up men shivering in our boots, or at least, our ghar ka chappals.
"But sweetie, "I bleated. "Surely you don't want us to go all the way up to Yercaud in winter without a confirmed booking. With a baby, no less?"
Sometimes a raised eyebrow can be a highly persuasive argument. So the next morning we woke up at 6, packed a hurried suitcase, grabbed the guitar, grabbed the baby, put the guitar in the trunk, realised it was still outside, reopened the trunk, replaced baby with guitar and set out for Yercaud, in the Eastern ghats of Tamil Nadu.
(I'm kidding of course; I would NEVER treat my guitar that cavalierly).
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Outlook Traveller informs me that Yercaud, 247 km South of Bangalore on NH7, is often referred to as "the poor man's Ooty". Well obviously concepts of poverty have altered radically since the time that edition was printed, because the Yercaud we saw was every bit as nice as Ooty, and seemingly equally in demand. The first 3 hotels we tried were all full and just as we were giving up, we found a room in one of the cottage-turned-hostelry places that seem to thrive in these hill station towns. We'd decided to stay in Salem (about 31 km away, where we stopped for lunch) in case we didn't get any accommodation up in Yercaud but that proved unnecessary.
One nice thing about this trip was that both Gautam and Sonal have fairly sharpened up their driving skills by now, so we took turns at the wheel- a wonderful feeling when you consider that most of the 66,000 km on my odometer have been done by me alone. It was enjoyable- weird almost- sitting in the back seat playing with Shailee while Gautam drove, with Sonal in the passenger seat providing some much-needed advice for him (and entertainment for me).
By the time we checked into the hotel (I forget the name, it was a generic cottage type thingy and what is it about these small town hoteliers that they have to act all reluctant about letting their rooms out, as if they were doing you, the paying public, a massive favour) it was about 4 pm, so we thought we'd just do the lake that day and save the rest of it for the next day.
Which was a good decision, because the lake was something awesome. We rented a pedalboat(very touristy), dumped Shailee on her uncle's lap (he for some strange reason was going about photographing petals and grasshoppers and cursing my poor Olympus for not being an SLR), and spent a lovely hour pedalling around the lake talking- mostly about our older roadtrips, but sometimes interjecting an anxious comment about whether we'd packed enough diapers.
The sun had set by the time we were done with the lake, and we next headed to a place called Lady's Seat (don't ask). It was one of those generic "points" that you find at any hill station, with a fantastic view and tons of monkeys. The difference was that this place had a couple of bhajji stalls close by as well. I messaged friend Omit (single oh seven) to the effect that "Am sitting on a hilltop breathing crystal clear air overlooking the valley at dusk with a hot chai and steaming onion bhajjis. Best thing is that it was all unplanned as of last night. Sigh- this is the life".
The bhajjis were delicious. We couldn't think of doing dinner after that, but Shailee needed some hot milk so we drove up a hill to this lovely hotel (Grand Palace something) and got a couple of cups filled into her milk bottle. There was a bunch of revellers there (some sales office, from the looks of it) who were feasting their hearts out beside a great big bonfire. We promised ourselves (and the hotel staff, a nice bunch) that we'd stay there the next time we came to visit.
About 9.30, back in our own hotel, we suddenly started feeling hungry (that's the problem with these cold cold places, you're suddenly ravenous without realising it). Our own hole-in-the-wall didn't have a kitchen, and the place next door had already shut down, so we took the car out again and headed to Shevaroy's, a decent hotel near the lake where they serve food pretty much into the early hours. We tried our luck at the reception there, but they were apologetic- the long weekend meant that all rooms were full, we could probably try the next morning. Which we did, since we liked the food so much we returned there for breakfast (and having been kicked out by our spoilsport hotel guys at 9 am the next morning since we had only negotiated for one night). And guess what, they found us a room- much nicer than the old one too.
It had cable, but no SONY. Apparently nobody in semi-rural TN has heard of Sony, so we missed the grand finale of BIGG BOSS (Rahul Roy won, yay!) After unpacking, we all got Ayurvedic massages (much needed to unravel the knots induced by too much city life). In the evening we headed to the Shevaroy cave temple followed by a visit to Pagoda Point, also known as Gent's Point (don't ask). The cave temple was nice, a tribal deity of some sort and someone informed us that the caves extended for hundreds of miles into the mountain. The drive to Pagoda Point in the dusky fog was magnificent and it started drizzling as we approached it. I'd been complaining of how dirty my car had become, so the rain served a double purpose- cleaned the car and lifted our spirits. We chomped on juicy sweet buttas (corn on the cob) as we gaped at the magnificent views and I don't remember feeling so much at peace with myself in a long time.
Time really passes slowly at these hill stations and finding ourselves back at the hotel and only half past six on the clock, I had a brainwave- hit the bar! I have hardly drunk a drop since November and the weather was just perfect. Gautam was willing company and Sonal, always a sport, was in a super mellow mood because of the way the trip had gone so far. So Old Monk and Thums Up for the boys it was (we imagined the crowd at the bar to be a raucous bunch, so Sonal stayed away, initially, joining us just before dinner). It's heavenly to drink slowly in cold weather, with eager waiters supplying free eats, and we chatted about that and this and watched cricket on the TV.
Dinner was Chinese- a poor imitation of it, but we weren't complaining. There are worse things.
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The drive back on Sunday was uneventful, but tiring for myself (since we wanted to reach quickly, I drove most of the way). The traffic getting back into Bangalore was your usual long-weekend-return dense. I was down for a few days after we returned, whether from genuine illness due to the weather change, or just post-trip blues we'll never quite be sure. Anyway, nothing that a few hard days at the office didn't fix.
Some nice things: filling petrol at 50/- (TN is a cool 3/- cheaper); getting a mileage of 15+ for the entire trip; Gautam's driving (which has really improved, except that he sometimes doesn't look where he's going and we once almost ended up on the median); and most of all, Shailee's perfect behaviour throughout (she slept, looked out the windows, babbled and generally behaved exactly as she does at home, only nicer). Gives us some hope for future trips.