KODAIKANAL TRAVEL WALK

One fine day, as I was scrolling through the endless and sometimes mindless barrage of pictures and posts on Instagram, I came across a beautiful quote that has stuck with me through the years.

“If we were meant to stay in one place, we would have roots instead of feet. – Rachel Wolchin”

A quote that reminded me of my passion for photography.

Like many millennial's I started photography as a hobby from a very young age. Little did I know that this hobby of mine would soon turn into a passion and take me on journeys through the world – far and wide. In the month of October, I went on an arranged, one Weekend Travel Walk to Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu. Kodaikanal is a popular hill station in South India. It was organized by a Facebook Group called Chennai Weekend Clickers (CWC) – a photographer’s community based out of Chennai. They arrange weekend Photo walks around Chennai and Travel Walks throughout the country. The group consists of people from all walks of life. They are working professionals on the weekdays and become budding photographers on the weekends.

We were a group of 15 photographers in total, starting our trip at Perugulathur at 10:30 PM. We travelled in cars and had meals at highway pit stops at night. A bunch of great people accompanied me in the car. We had a great time discussing our interests, childhood etc. At 6.30am, we looked out the window and realized it was a morning covered in mist. It felt like a scene out of a movie. We stopped the car and clicked some pictures (obviously!!) After a sumptuous breakfast at Eden Garden, Batlagundu (great place for breakfast, by the way – a must visit 4/5) we continued our journey to the princess of the hills. There were a lot a picturesque scenes, a photographer’s delight. We reached our hotel at around 11.30 am. The location of the hotel was extraordinary. After a long road trip, the views and the mist were mesmerizing. After a picturesque photo session, we had lunch and a peaceful siesta. We then continued our journey to Mannavanur known as the Hidden Gem. I now have display pictures which will definitely last a few months thanks to the beautiful locations: P Definitely Insta –worthy. We did a short trek in the Rajmalai National Park. We had a Tibetan Dinner and returned to our hotel.

I woke the next day to the chirping of birds and the snore of my friends. All the budding photographers were talented in a multitude of photography techniques. We started our trip to Poomparai Village. Mid way we stopped at Guna Caves. The village was entirely covered in mist. We saw little kids playing in the village. We convinced a little kid to be our model for the day. Definitely wasn’t camera shy. Seeing their friend posing like a movie star, all the other kids started asking us to click their pictures. It was a fun filled day and we enjoyed ourselves to our heart’s content. At around 5pm, with heavy hearts, we headed back to the city, back to Chennai.

Kodaikanal is a famous hill station in southern India. Had it not been for the CWC, I would never have found such hidden gems. What started as a trip with a group of strangers, ended up being a fun filled learning weekend with each sharing their own techniques. A bunch of strangers brought together by the love of photography. I still go on travel walks, meeting different people and the journey continues……

Being in such a large group, we had to share expenses equally. We used an app called Split – Split group bills which is free and extremely user friendly. You can easily add people by sharing the link so that they can share their expense and view the transactions. In the end, it generates the total amount owed by everyone.