You can combine this place with other places near Pollachi and Valparai which are listed below. I suggest you to stay in Topslip treetop for a night and there are plenty of other options apart from treetops. See the activities and options below. Particularly the elephant camp and the trekking was a wonderful experience you don't want to miss. In the reception there is a white board in which the forest officers write down the sighting of various animals including Tiger in nearby areas. See the photo. Also see the photo which says for reservations call "04259 238360". Visit my other post on Pollachi for the nearby places and my photos. Topslip checkin time is 12PM and checkout is by 10AM itself.
Distance from Pollachi: 67 Kms
Distance from Valparai: 54 Kms
Activities in Topslip
Trekking and bird watching - Walk inside the forest with the guide
They have three different programs. Easy - 3 hours, Medium - 5 hours and daylong trek. Visit the main reception office for booking. You need to be there early in morning i.e. before 7AM to start the trekking. They take you through the forest. There is a "watch tower" on your way where some stay in night to observe the animals in night. See the photo below.
It is really amazing to walk through the forest. You need to be really silent while walking.
Sometimes you might see elephants, but the guide will help you and be with you always. You can also see lots of birds. If you carry a good camera, you can shoot many pics on the way.
Tour of Herbal plants
There is a place where they grow all different Herbal plants. If you are interested, please visit. See the photos below to know how this place looks like.
Elephant Camp - Kolikamudhi Elephant camp
If you take the safari, they take you inside the forest and goto the elephant camp. This place is amazingly beautiful. The landscape is so mesmerising, surrounded by hills and the camp is in the middle. Charges are Rs.120 per head and they need minimum 25 people to start the safari.
Stay in Treetop or other suites
See the brochure which has the complete list of suites where you can stay. But for booking, you need to call that number shown in the photo below.
No room service or anything.
Power supply was there and water heater was working.
For coffee, tea, snacks and any other food you need to walk or drive 500mtrs from the treetop to the nearby restaurant. So better stock enough snacks.
Very basic place.
It is very cold during night.
If you getup early morning, you can see deers grazing just below your treetop. Sometimes they say you can see leopards as well !!! Some or inside the forest as well. like "Ambuli illam" and you need to reach this place before dark as elephants might come on your way late night. But remember except the tree top which is slightly better, other places are very basic. We stayed in Ambuli Illam which is inside the forest, but you need to drive inside before dark. As you dont want to see the elephants face to face.. neither they want to !!! :-) Yeah... better avoid going late to this place. But remember this place is very very basic again.
For various other suites and options for stay refer to the brochure below. Depends on what you want to do, you have stay options. Incase if you want to observe the animals during night, you have a watchtower. But better to check in reception about the options available to you.
Food
If you stay in topslip, there is only one option for the food and this is close to the main reception office. Food is very basic. Buy and carry water bottles and snacks from here to your
treetop as there is no room service.
First let me start with some very useful photos which captures the information
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| Refer to the number listed for reservations. Also see the animal sightings details |
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| Topslip Brochure Page 1 |
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| Topslip Brochure Page 2 |
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| Topslip Bus Timings from Pollachi |
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| Topslip Forest officials contact |
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| Topslip Main Reception Office |
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| Topslip Safari Details |
Photos of Tree Top and Trekking
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| Tree Top in Topslip |
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| Treetop in Topslip |
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| Just below the treetop.... |
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| Note the geyser in treetop |
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| View from Treetop in Topslip |
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| Canteen in Topslip |
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| View of the treetop |
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| Treetop in night.... bit scary to walkdown.... |
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| Way to Treetop in Topslip |
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| Inside the Treetop in topslip |
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| Treetop in Topslip |
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| Support for the Treetop in Topslip |
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| View of the door and nearby Treetop in Topslip |
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| Treetop in Topslip |
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| Food and medicines for Elephants in Elephant camp Topslip |
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| List of 8 Elphant names and their food details (in Tamil language) |
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| Parasitic plants on Tree - Topslip, during the Trekking |
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| Notice the different colors of the trees and the beautiful landscape.... Elephant Camp Topslip |
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| Topslip Elephant Camp |
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| On the way to Topslip, View of Aliyar Reservoir from 1/40th of Haripin bend |
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| View of the Aliyar Reservoir, see the hairpin bends down.... Wov... !!! |
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| On the way to Topslip |
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| On the way to Topslip |
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| You get to see these beautiful (but scary) view during Trekking in Topslip |
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| Elephant feeding in Camp |
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| Watch Tower inside the forest, you get to see while trekking. You can stay as well in night with a guide it seems |
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| Aliyar Dam |
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| So beautiful.... |
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| List of Elephants and their photo, their Age, their weight.... Wov...well maintained |
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| Wov, how beautiful .. I remember the film "Kumki" in Tamil |
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| During the trekking, we spot this... Elephant was here sometime back.. we are lucky to escape from seeing elephant face to face !!! |
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| Topslip Trekking |
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| Topslip Trekking |
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| Topslip Herbal Plants Park |
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| Oops, it is very scary to get down and walk to the restaurant in evening. We see many deers.... but it is possible to see leopard as well it seems !!! What ? !!!!! |
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| After seeing us on the our vehicle, they running away.. we are heading towards the canteen for dinner |
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| Wov, what a beautiful view of the road from the top .... on the way to Topslip |
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| Tea factory on the way to Topslip |
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| Sorry for the broken up photo... see the below photo as well .... list of herbal oils in shop near the canteen |
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| See the above photo first ... list of herbal oils sold at a shop near Topslip canteen |
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| Topslip Herbal plants park |
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| Topslip Herbal plants park |
.JPG "Topslip Treetop") |
| View from the Treetop in Topslip |
.JPG "Topslip Trekking") |
| Many deers .... during the trekking |
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| Very beautiful .... during the trekking |
Hope you enjoyed this. Please post your comments below.
Nearby Places that you can plan
Note: See my blog on "Pollachi, Valparai and nearby Places" as wellhttp://myjourneysinindia.blogspot.com/2014/06/pollachi-and-valparai.html
Pollachi
Aliyar dam and Aliyar reservoir
Monkey falls
Thirumoorthy hills and Thirumoorthy Falls
Lots of windmills on your way
Valparai
Balaji Temple (nothing great about it, except for a beautiful temple)
Siddhi vinayaka temple (nothing great, except for a beautiful temple)
Nallamudi poonjolai (you get a good view from here)
Koolangal river or Koolangal Aaru (pebble river) (See the photos and decide)
Parambikulam
Upper Neerar, Lower Neerar and Parambikulam Teak tree can also be planned if you have time. Distance to Parambikulam from Pollachi is about 55Kms.
Dear Thanigai Murugan, Thank you for such a detailed informative post. This informations and photos are really very useful. I had visited 15 years back all these places and stayed 3 days in the Traveller Guest house inside the forest with our team, one more team of people from Discovery channel to record Bear's life and The great actor Late.Thiru.Sivaji Ganesan. All those memories are unforgotable. Those days to visit and stay we need to get lot of permission letters, etc. We went deep inside there - one place - Kerala - Tamilnadu border- a big dam(sorry I forgot the name) its big dam almost looks like sea and rare animals are found near to that. Did u visited that place? Mother nature's one of the gift to us.
ReplyDeleteThank you once again for such a good information with beautiful photos. Hope to see more places...
Thanks a lot Srinivas and happy to know you liked this post.
ReplyDeleteHi, could you please elaborate more about Ambuli illam, ive decided to stay along with my family for 2nights, is that a good idea or any suggestions.
ReplyDeleteHi Ambuli illam is not good and it is very basic. If you are a bachelor you may adjust, but not for family. It is just inside the forest and that is it. We found too many spiders there. So i wont suggest.
DeleteTry the tree house which is good.
thank you so much, but we booked already by calling the pollachi FD number provided by you, is that possible to change, We are 6in numbers, 3 couples. Which will be the best accommodation there, they asked us to pay the amount after reaching there.
DeleteHi you can still check if they have tree house available which is good. We stayed only in tree house and ambuli so don't know about other options listed in that brochure page 2. So once you reach ask for better options.
DeleteHi you can still check if they have tree house available which is good. We stayed only in tree house and ambuli so don't know about other options listed in that brochure page 2. So once you reach ask for better options.
DeleteTopslip is an awesome place to visit. Well written about this place. Thanks for sharing about this lovely place. It really helps to plan for trips. If anyone wants to visit this place then book your bus tickets in Evacay Bus.
ReplyDelete