Grampians

Grampians, a western Victoria District, is a very beautiful place having diverse walk tracks, parks, lookouts and stunning scenic spots.

In the cool breeze and the temperature touches down 11 degree, we have started on Monday Morning. Having lunch at Halls Gap around 1 PM, we collected few details on tourist spots from information centre and planned our first trip to The Pinnacle. We parked our coach at Wonderland car park and took a walk through Great Canyon, Cool Chamber and Silent Street. Finally, we reached The Pinnacle with empty water bottles. We took totally 3 hours return trip. After tea refreshments, we spent our evening at Lake Bellfield. It is surrounded by mountains in three sides and the Embankment runs a length of 0.7 KM.

Tired out of first day, we relaxed at our Cottage in “Halls Gap Valley Lodge” with beer and music. My suggestion is to take accommodation here if you are visiting Grampians. Kangaroos and Emus might cross your door steps.

A very fresh and sunny morning on second day, we started towards McKenzie Falls. On the way, we hop out at Boroka Lookout and Reed Lookout to glimpse the beauty of Halls Gap and its ranges. It was nearly 300 steps to reach McKenzie Falls base. Believe me, it’s gorgeous. Then, we headed towards Brambuk National Park and Culture Centre and spent an hour there. After lunch, we reached Mt Williams, highest peak in Grampians. It was too hard to walk for 2 KM from the car park in elevated road on hill. Believe me, it’s amazing and wonderful view of Grampians.

Then our clock ticked to start towards Melbourne.

The 7 Golden Days

Have you read “Did I catch the train?”

14-June-2009

It had been a long time nearly 7 months; I met my friends and relatives, tasted my mom’s food and heard my dad’s advice. Besides my busy schedule, as well as UAT of my application, I came down to Madurai to attend my friend’s marriage. She is Preethy, one of the 5 members in Microsoft Project. I met some of my class mates there.

Next day, I travelled to Tirunelveli to my uncle’s house to meet my cousin and her children. My brother and sister-in-law, who returned from their kanyakumari trip, joined us. After having lunch, we started towards my village “Sambavar Vadakarai”. Even today, we are paying Rs. 40/- as electrical charge, no water pump, no television, red stone flooring, etc., quite enjoyable. My sister-in-law, who visited for the first time, felt happy about our heritage. The interesting scene was there in our group 2 mothers-in-law and 2 daughters-in-law. My Sister-in-law — My Mom — My Grand Mother (my dad’s mom).

During our second day, we travelled to Kutralum, showered in five falls and visited my dad’s paternal aunt’s house and had lunch (feast) in my mom’s maternal aunt’s house. I snored for few minutes, latter we packed for Madurai.

Wednesday, my brother’s parents-in-law arrived to our house. We visited Meenakshi Amman Temple, which looked elegant after renovated for ‘Kumba Abishegam’.

Following day, I woke up around 3 AM on Thursday and dressed up with my new T-shirt for ‘homam’ (Ganapathy homam and Sudersana Homam). All 9 types of grains and herbal sticks had been kindling the agni. That day evening, everybody left for their home town except me, my parents and my granny.

Friday, I visited IMS and my guru, Balsu sir. More changes reflected in that office. On the first weekend, the day I had to leave for Kolkata. I felt very sad, missing something and afraid about my parents that do feel the same. While I was waving hands through the window, I saw my mom’s smiling face and drenching heart with waving hands.

In the hot Chennai, my sister-in-law prepared vadai, adai, idli, dosai, 2 varieties of chutney and sambar. It was a huge breakfast. Between my break fast and my heavy lunch, she provided a glass full of juice as well. Around 4 PM, we picked 70D to our uncle’s house at Koratoor. We left at 9:30 PM after dinner.

22-June-2009

We had a very sound sleep, woke up around 7 AM. My brother was having his second shift and my sister-in-law got permission from her leader to reach office by 1 PM. My flight time was 2:25 PM. We reached airport at 1:35 PM and boarded into the flight around 2:15 PM. I thought it might take another 6 months to come there.

3 Fantastic days

It was 2 months; I stayed at home in weekends. This weekend I spend time with shopping and eating.

Day 1 (Muthal naal Indru) – You won’t believe that I watched PM hoisted our flag in television. I went to Esplanade and had lunch at Madras Tiffen Centre.

Day 2 – I went to DP Park to have my lunch at Udupi Home. Then, I went to Esplanade, and Maidan. There, I just did some window shopping at West Side and Pantaloons.

Day 3 – Obviously, there is no difference in my Sunday schedule. I had my SimCAT 6. Then, I had dosas as my lunch. And I did shopping (not window shopping) at City Centre. Since, I’ve to buy new clothes for me while attending my brother’s marriage. I bought 1 Formal Shirt and trouser and 1 T-shirt and Jeans. For night, we had our dinner with Rice and Lady’s Finger fry. Arun came from Chennai after 1 week holiday. Had chat with him till 12.30 and gone to sleep.