Talerock Personal Account

My husband and I travelled to Valparai for an extended child-free weekend in the mountains. I hadn’t been to the hills in ages and hadn’t travelled without my son for a while. We were already in Kochi and were travelling to Valparai via Coimbatore.

Sitting in an AC bus, looking out on the busy roads, I didn’t know what awaited me at the end of the six hour road trip. I only knew that we would be driving down (or up) to Valparai from Coimbatore with a friend.

I knew we were going to this new ‘eco-lodge’ or something similar. An inn, newly built, on top of this hill amidst tea plantation and virgin nature. I knew it was a remote location—but that’s all I knew. I had only seen pictures of the place before. As I had travelled to mountains intermittently, a road trip itself wasn’t new. I thought this would be just like any other trip to the hills in southern India.

How wrong was I.

We took a little over two hours from Coimbatore to the property in Valparai, called Talerock Inn. The drive is something to be impressed with. Well-maintained wide roads, turns clearly marked, vehicles that follow traffic rules (to an extent)—after living with perennially broken Bangalore roads, I was happily surprised to have this well-maintained infrastructure. Anyone who likes to drive would love to cruise on these roads canopied with multitude of greens.

The ascent to mountains begin after the Azhiyar area. The last hour of the road trip is slow, and uphill. The final check point was at Aanamalai check post after which the winding roads with hairpin bends, and beautiful vistas of the valley were my constant companions.

And so was the cool breeze. After the humid heat of Kochi and Coimbatore, the drop in temperature was pleasantly soothing. As we neared our destination, I was mesmerized by the low-lying mist and the animals who are the actual natives of the area. I saw a Nilgiri Tahr family, a whole bunch of monkeys, a few birds that I don’t know the name of…I was so engrossed with the beauty of nature, for the first time in a long time I ‘turned off’ my phone voluntarily.

After the long winding road uphill—at the end of 29^th hairpin turn—which I thoroughly enjoyed, we reached the last stretch of stony offroad to get to Talerock Inn. It was like I had stepped into a different time and world. The name itself is a punned name for Valparai; val is tail and parai is rock or hill in Tamil.

With the green hills and the late afternoon mist settling in for the duration, the property looks like a quaint but modern house in the middle of nowhere. Which is what it actually is. There is tea plantation on three sides of the property with one side pure jungle. Something rustled among that thick foliage, prompting the caretakers and stewards to ask us to get inside—we might be lucky enough to see either an elephant or a tiger.

Although that wasn’t to be.

The mist had settled in, so at about 3 in the afternoon, it looked like we were going to retire for the day. We did walk to the watering hole, which is the source of water for Talerock Inn as well as a meeting ground for the pachyderms of the area.

We got the first room at the ground floor—I later found out it didn’t matter which room I had stayed in all of them are the same—the view from which was absolutely breath-taking. I felt fresh with every lungful of air that I breathed in. This despite having travelled for more than eight hours.

Towards the evening, after having checked in and rested in the deck chair outside my rooms, watching the mist move in and around, I was given the tour of the property: the dining area, lounge, kitchen and the open deck. My favourite spot was the book nook with the big Buddha to oversee those titles. I just wish I had small ottoman or a footstool to sit in that nook. With piping hot tea or coffee to sip on.

Because it is an inn, a homestay sort of place, the menu is wholesome and fulfilling . It was amazing chickpea curry with rice and roti. Just thinking about it is making my mouth water again. Then there was the dessert—simple vermicelli payasam. I don’t know if it was the chill in the air, or the fact that I had skipped lunch, but that was one of the most amazing dinners I had had in a long time.

We went to sleep shortly after and woke up at 5.30 to witness the sunrise the next morning. The sun was playing a bit of peekaboo with the clouds and the mist, but by 6 am, the sun was in its majesty. And I walked out to the tea plantation for a fun walk and climb. I stayed there for two nights and two days and I feel I should have taken more time.

I could write more about that place…and how I felt at peace with the constantly climate and nature there, but then I would be doing injustice to the place itself. As Talerock Inn’s tagline says, go there to ‘experience the unseen.’