Unwinding at Nelliyampathy-Top slip !!

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.



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.....

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 !





















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 !










Day 3 : 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 !!!

Trip to Nambikovil - Kalakkad

On April 16, along with my wife, daughter and few relatives, happened to visit Nambikovil near Kalakkad. This is around 45-50 kms from Tirunelveli.

Nambikovil is a hill temple for Lord Narayana, with a very good stream of running water over the rocks around. The river is called Nambiyaru. Many people do a trek to the temple on the hills. The nearest village to this hill is Tirukkrungudi. Nambikoil is 4-5 kms trek from the village of Thirukkurungudi. A jeep ride costs around Rs.600-700 on a normal day. On any festive day, the jeeps do a trip for Rs.50 per head. The ride includes to and fro the hill back to Tirukkrungudi.

The ride is on the bumpy rocks and sand. There is no road enroute to the hill temple. Once we take this bumpy trek of 20-25 mins to the top, we get a sight of the rumbling waters ! The ride is worth it and take a dip on the running water. As we do a trek still ahead, there is a location of stagnant water, which varies in depth from a feet to 20 ! The water is so pure and tasty. What else ? Take a good bath, walk to the temple, few feet away from the waters and trek/drive back !

Trip to Delhi-Agra with Rick

Trip dates : 05-06 Dec-2010

Rick McClure and myself boarded the SpiceJet 19:30 hours flight to New Delhi. We stayed at Hotel Airport Inn at Mahipalpur - ~5kms from I.G.I.A. We spent almost an hour to get the prepaid taxi at the Airport counter (No other transport means available at midnight at the domestic terminal).

Day -1:

Next morning, we started around 6:45 to Agra (Horrible Tata Indigo cab !) We had Aloo Paratha as breakfast on a roadside Dhabha. The food was much better than most of the star hotels in Chennai ! Reached Agra around 11:45 and visited the beautiful Akbar Tomb, Sikandara. We almost spent 1 hour there admiring the architecture. The Acoustics of the tomb was amazing as the sound traveled across the 5 tiers - 44 rooms - voice traversing through pillars !!


Next, the 5 km ride to Taj Mahal took almost 2.5 hours. We went through the West gate with help of a guide; which was relatively quicker to get in - 45 mins of queue. The East gate (main gate) has a queue of people in thousands ! And, there you go ! The B E A U T Y !! One has to see it to believe it.. !!!! Massive, White, Gorgeous, Breath-stopping, (whatever adjectives known can be added) ... We took lot of photographs and admired the beauty of it. The guide explained lot of things to us, which otherwise, would have missed it. (I too can be a guide now :-) ).










After spending 3 worthy hours, we slowly came out. We did not do INTO Taj, a looooooong queue was there .. mind .. it was Saturday ! We had lunch/dinner at Agra at 5PM and then started back one of the longest, tiresome, terrible, aweful 6 hours of journey back to Delhi.

After having a nice sleep and Aloo parathas as breakfast at the hotel, we started the Delhi TOUR.

Day-2:

Qutub-Minar, Lotus Temple, India Gate, Vijay Path (Parliament house, Rastrapathi Bhavan, Office of the president) and Indira Gandhi House were the places that we visited.

Qutub-minar is one the important places of the Mughal Dynasty. The Minar was amazing to watch. The history around the place was well written and interesting to know. The remains of the places around the Minar are well maintained. Next, we drove to Lotus Temple. It was Sunday, the queue to enter Lotus temple looked really long, and we took couple of pictures from outside and moved on the have Lunch. We searched for a place to have the lunch almost for one hour. The driver was well-aware that he does not know restaurants/hotels in "Delhi" ! Atlast, we had some good food and visited India Gate. The driver drove us towards Vijay Path - the road connecting the Rastrapathi Bhavan (President house) and India gate. This is the road, where the Republic day and Independence Day celebrations are held !


We then visited Indira Gandhi's house at No.1, Safdarjung Road; the place where she was assassinated.

Had Pani puri and bought some sweets for the team and boarded back to Chennai !!!

A trip to Tada falls

The wettest day of life ... A trip to Tada falls ..

Trip team -> Karthik, Santha, Selva, Viswa, Karthikeyan and Dhanasekar.
Trip route -> Chennai - NH5 - Gummidipoondi - Tada - Tada falls.
Trip date -> 1 day -> 17th July 2010.

A one-day trip was planned to visit Tada falls on bikes. We heard that bikes are most preferred for this particular route and destination. Moreover, Dhana had visited the same place a couple of weeks back and ensuring bike rides are the best to reach this place.

We started around 05:30 AM in the morning after everyone met at Koyembedu bus stand. A straight drive towards Red hills and then taking NH-5 from there-on. The route was simply good for the roads were smooth and especially thanks to the overnight rains that made the trip a no-dust one all-through the way !

About an hour and 15 minutes, we reached Tada town on NH-5. From this place, we need to take a left turn for the Tada falls. Next comes, a small town - Varadhapalayam. We had our hunger breaked down here and proceed towards Tada falls, which is immediate left after the Varadhapalayam town.

One needs to walk for a kilometre before immersing in water. We entered the falls around 8 AM and spent almost an hour in the 5-feet fresh water. Thanks to a group of monkeys engaging our group for sometime ! Then, we trekked towards the "Tada falls", which is almost a km uphill -> a really good scenic walk, where water flows all the way from the falls. At couple of places, we were tempted to take bath, but, we preferred to walk to the top before the crowd pouches in. We reached the awesome place and only we 6 of us were there to enjoy the nature. We were there for almost more than 2 hours enjoying the waters ! The trek towards the falls was fully over the of rocks - one does not need skill for it but just go and climb !

On the way back, "Hydrophilic" Viswa took couple of baths as he felt he was "hot" ;-). We trekked down and again reached back Varadhapalayam. We were deperately hungry and ate almost all possible hot idlis upto neck and started the drive back home.

"The wettest day" started after starting from Tada town. Rain poured like water from bucket once we started from Tada. We took shelter in a bus stop and waited for the rain to stop. After almost an hour long wait, we decided that it may not stop and started the ride hoping the rain may not be there after some kms, which was wrong, as we were drenched and left swimming until we reached Ashok Pillar !!!






Surely, Tada falls is a good one-day spot for relaxing !

Trip to Wayanad

Trip No.4 after joining Aricent !
Trip team -> Karthik, Santha, Selva, Viswa, Logesh, Arun Prabhu, Vickram and Dhanasekar.
Trip route -> Chennai - Kozhikode - Wayanad - Kozhikode - Chennai.
Trip dates -> 3 days -> 02nd April 2010 04th April 2010.

Cottage booked at Kalpetta -> Diamond cottage and cab was a tempo traveller from Kozhikode (Calicut).

Preview: Reached Calicut from Chennai by Mangalore express. This reached at 04:00AM. We went for a trip for the sake of going irrelevant of climate ! The climate in Wayand during this month was really unpleasant :-(

Day 1: Calicut to Wayand - a ride of 74 kms. We preferred not to spend time on the way and directly went to cottage. After typical Kerala breakfast of Aapam, Puutu and Kadali curry, we proceeded to Kuruva Islands. This is a set of natural Island-like creation by Kabini river. At places, we had knee-height of water and we were already perfectly ready because all were in shorts ! (Some R/D by me during planning ;-)). We did have some good time and due to the unpleasant weather, it turned out to be not so good experience. Then, returned back to cottage.


Day 2 : Planned for Chembra peak trekking. It is a 3.5km trek uphill until 1st hill and there is a small pond in heart-shape at the top of the first hill. We had to pay Rs.500 for the trek accompanied by a boy. As the climate again was not so worthy, we had to sweat our way up and down. Then, had a lunch at Meppadi and proceeded to Meenmutty falls ! On the way, we stopped at Kanthanpara falls, where water was very less. If there would have been good flow of water, this also would have been a heavenly place for bathing. MEENMUTTY FALLS, is THE place to visit in Wayanad. Not suggested for older people, as it involves a 1.9km trek downhill, aided by tree trunks and roots, rocks and military ropes !! Beware.. it is not a free walk. It is worth the effort and risks taken to see this place. It looks like milk oozing on a mountain from a height of 60-70 m. One shall surely forget all the pains on seeing this falls view ! Again, the uphil walk too is little tiresome and alas ! get back to cottage after 2 awesome treks in the day !

Note :: Trek-expert Vickram simply rubbed salt on everyone saying these 2 cannot be considered as trekking ... :-(
Day 3 : Edakkal caves -> Again a small interesting climb on rocks and caves. Good time killer ! Then, we did purchase of tea, coffee, small momentos and spices ! Back to Calicut ...


Calicut sunset is a worth watch and then took the Mangalore express back to Chennai .... Wayanad - not a place to visit in summer, but could be a heaven in other seasons !!

Trip to Munnar

Trip team - Karthik, Santha, Selva, Viswa and Karthikeyan.
Trip route - Chennai - Madurai - Munnar - Madurai - Chennai.
Trip dates - 3 days - 19th Sept 2009 to 21st Sept 2009.

Day 1: From Madurai, took a Toyota Qualis to Munnar. We spent few minutes in BodiMet as the climate was near perfect ! On the way the Munnar, the views and falls are simply exquisite. As usual, the tour guide was Mr.Selvakumar ! as he had visited Munnar once ... Selva managed to get a very good cottage on the Cochin route - around 6 kms from Munnar town. The search for the cottage was worth as it was pretty decent and managed to bargain at get it good price (as per us !). However, we used a guide to locate the cottage for 100 bucks !

Sight seeing started after having the brunch at Saravana bhavan (not the actual brand !), but good. We proceeded straight to Rajamalai (Eravikulam National park) and the 1km trek to see the Nigiri Tahr was really good as the climate was superb ! Then, we planned to visit Pothamedu on the way to the cottage. Pothamedu could have been too simple provided the climate is not amusing. But, the climate the made Pothamedu look like a paradise ! It was worth it as we spent rest of the evening there in the tea estate.


Day 2:

Next day, after the brunch at same place, we proceeded to the Mattupetty dam. We had an exhilarating speed boat ride at the dam. Again, the climate was too good and we spent close to 2 hours around the dam amazed at the beauty of nature. Then, proceeded to Echo point. Again, the beauty became most beautiful. It was too tough to resist a boat ride and we proceeded with the inner wish for the ride .... Then, went to Kundalay dam. Again, the beauty was breath-taking. However, we did not opt for 3rd boat ride and preferred just the visit and returned. On the way back, visited a garden after Mattupatty dam and then to cottage.


We preferred to go back by one of the five's advice to walk for a kilometre and completely got drenched by the instant heavy rain - which continued for the next couple of hours.

Day 3 :

The last day was quite simple and preferred to visit the Blossom Park. Then, started downhill and the rain that came down like a bucket of water was amazing ! Fortunate that the earlier 2 days had no rains in day time, we were able to feel Munnar.

On the way back, visited the Vaigai dam and then to Madurai railway station to get back to Chennai.