Early Morning as we know is the best time for meditation as well as to start a day early but for me waking up before sunrise always was a challenge and many a times, I have started my whole day activities late because of my laziness…The only time when I wake up early and that too before the Sun rises is when I plan to visit and explore a new place.
Thus, on a particular morning in February 2023 I woke up at around 3 am to dress up along with my family members of Three to board a Mahindra Jeep waiting below in the parking lot of my hotel in Munnar. It was time to start a 20 km drive through Tea Gardens of Munnar via a village called Suryanelli in Kerala-Tamil Nadu border.
The place where we were travelling to is the highest point in the world where tea plantation happens and through the beautiful landscapes reached to a place called Kolukkumalai for watching mesmerizing sunrise.
Though the drive was initially good, the last seven km stretch was back breaking since the road was broken and full of boulders, but the driving skill of the driver was superb.
The tea estate management, we were told doesn’t want too many vehicles to pass through their plantations and hence they are not serious to build a proper road and only provides limited permissions to the jeeps for tourism purpose and hence it is very important for the tourists to book vehicles beforehand or else they may not get the opportunity to visit the place and mis out on the lovely scenery as well as sunrise from there.
We reached it just a few minutes before sunrise, and I must say it was a heavenly sunrise we could see and enjoy. The hill ranges of western ghats, the greenery of manmade tea plantations on its slope and the cloud formation in and around really was mind blowing and was a dream come true.
We stayed at the place for around an hour or two and later had a hot tea nearby before travelling back to our hotel which was approx. One hour’s drive since our hotel was on the outskirts of Munnar town and not very far from Suryanelli but the people travelling from or to Munnar may require more time.
We paid INR 4000.00 for this trip and made our booking through our hotel itself and as we know all hotels in Munnar have these booking facilities and one must plan it in advance so that they don’t miss out on this opportunity.
Kolukkumalai was a place which was way beyond our imagination, and we always try to explore places like these wherever we travel since these are hidden gems and are slowly coming into limelight of tourism.
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