Dates - April 22,23 and 24.
Tripmates - Karthik, Vednath, Lakshminarayana, Chandu (Vednath friend from B'lore) and Varadharajan and Selvakumar from Coimbatore.
A different and a new group for me to a trip. Most of the guys planned for the trip missed out from the planned 6-8 members ! The month of April is not always a good time to visit mother nature, but, luckily, the previous day rained and continued to drizzle the rest of the trip, making it a very unforgettable trip in life. We hired a Innova from Coimbatore and drove after relaxing in the morning to Meenkulathi amman temple. This temple is situated at Pallassana (Palakkad) on the way to Nemmara. This is located on the parallel road to Nelliyampathy towards Nemmara. After a darshan at the temple with dhoti's, we spent some time around the temple tank and started towards Nelliyampathy.
Day 2 : Started around 9 AM to Seetharkundu - the suicide point. We had missed this in our earlier trip because of time constraint. I believe this is the longest range of suicide point in the world. Anywhere near to this, works ! :-) ... Its a long trek for people who want to trek; else a spectacular view point. Many people were walking towards a waterfalls which was a little distant for us. This place is inside the Poabs tea plantation area. Again, a worthy trek and couple of glasses of butter milk energised us !
First, we stopped at Pothundi dam. We had bought lunch on the way and had the same after walking around the dam. After that, we stopped on the way on the hills in a falls. We drenched ourselves in the water and snapping lot of pictures on the misty hills of Nelliyampathy.
Mayiladumpara was such a nice view point. We drove to Puliyampara and stayed at ITL Dormitory. Compared to the earlier visit to Nelliampathy in 2009, this time the place of Puliyampara looked much better with lots of cottages. We thought that we should not have booked earlier at a comparatively higher rate. We paid 2.5k for a 8-bed dormitory. People get better offers and options when we reach and enquire. Beware !
After relaxing for some time, around 6PM, we went for the forest jeep ride (Rs.600 for 2 hours - 6-7 people). The timing was near perfect; started at bright sun, witnessed the sunset shortly, and drove to the top by dark and had a great firework show towards the end. After the bustling red sun set, we went all through to the top and saw one of the best we can see with our eyes. Crores and crores of firebugs in the forest lit the dark forest like a X-Mas tree ! Amazing treat to eyes it was ! Every photo and video of this can only be taken with our eyes and not with the cameras ! Such an amazing light Concert ! Worth the drive from Chennai !! Came back and had a good rest overnight.....
After a dilemma of where to go, because of the uncertainty over the availability of stay in TopSlip, we decided to give it a shot. By the time we reached Aanamalai, my collegue Rameshkumar had made sure we get proper guest house in Topslip. Thanks a ton to him, that we have a great time at TopSlip. After check-in, we got into the Pollachi-Parambikulam Govt. bus and traveled to Parambikulam. The bus was almost full but the ride was worth it. We saw herds and herds of Indian Bisons, monkeys, wild boars and deer. The scenery was ultimate paradise on the whole with water flowing, dams and green, greener and greenish surroundings - thanks to the spell of rain in April. Stayed overnight awake in-between to see some animals around us, but no luck. Slept few hours and ready for the early morning trek !
Citing a black scorpion near the cot set the rest of the day for us !! 05:30 and ready for the trek. Stopped our vehicle near the Parambikulam - Kerala Check post and got off the road for a trek to a water falls. We walked up a hill and sited the tomb of Hugo Wood, IFS, founder of TopSlip. Then, started the downward trek to the falls - the route was little slippery and was almost single rock. Was not a easy one at all ! The silence of the forest was so original and the sounds of some birds at times was also scary ! Reached the falls and had a shower - herbally enriched shower ! Beware of Leeches !We trekked back and sighted the Sarkarpathy water tunnel to Aliyar dam. We also had some cactus fruit on the trek - pink jelly like fruit; whose spikes cannot be operated with even surgical knifes !
Reached back to the cottage, packed out and reached out to Aathu parai - a famous shooting spot. Back to Coimbatore for lunch and train to Chennai ........ great weather was the biggest companion for the three days ....
Highlights - Nelliyampathy light show by firebugs and morning trek in the forest to the water falls in Top slip !!!