The 40 Hairpin Bends

Forty numbered, signposted hairpins between Aliyar and Valparai. It's the most photographed thing in the district, and the reason people who've driven it once come back. You'll often see elephants, gaur and macaques right from the road.

The road

The ghat road starts at Aliyar, down on the hot, dry plains, and climbs up to Valparai at about 1,067 metres. Every hairpin is numbered and signposted, one to forty. That's why people count them — and why the drive itself has become the attraction, not just the way to get there.

It's a properly engineered mountain road, not a track — two lanes, tarred, with the bends stacked up the face of the hill. From the right pull-in, you can look down and see the road you were on twenty minutes ago, three levels below you.

What you see on the way up

Aliyar reservoir sits at the bottom, and you can see it for the first several bends, getting smaller as you climb. Around the halfway point, the vegetation changes — dry scrub gives way to evergreen forest. The temperature drops, and the first tea bushes appear near the top.

The road runs through the Anamalai Tiger Reserve. You can spot lion-tailed macaques, bonnet macaques, gaur and elephants from the road, most often in the early morning and late afternoon. Monkey Falls is right at the roadside on the way up.

Driving it

Plan for an hour and a half to two hours from Pollachi — the bends themselves take about an hour. It takes longer than the distance suggests, and there's no way to hurry it that's worth trying.

If anyone in the car gets travel sick, this road will find out. Sit them up front, keep the windows open, and eat before Aliyar, not after. Our drivers do this road most days and know exactly where to stop.

The rules that matter

Don't feed the monkeys. That's why the troops near the road have turned aggressive, and in some spots it's actually against the law. Keep food out of sight when your windows are down.

If you meet an elephant on the road, stay in the vehicle. Don't sound the horn — just give it room to move away. These estate and forest roads are its roads too. Your driver will handle it. The most useful thing you can do is stay quiet and stay seated.