2,3 Feb 2008 A writeup on our experience at a clif at the eastern side of the Western Ghats, near munnar, a Hill station In Kerala, South India..
It was bitter cold,We were a large team, of round 20, waiting for the sunrise, with our tripods and camera ready, We had a bit of confussion on the location of the sun's appearence, it came out behind a hill, morfing the entire scene, blue red, yellow and white flowers painted all around the green valley......read more
It was Mr. Amruth (http://www.idukki.info) who called me to attend a trekking program by Youth Hostels at Munnar. I have been to Munnar several times and this was the 6th time. My usual plan at Munnar will be a sight visit and a friend visit (VijayD, Periyavarai Estate). But this time, my plans were bounded by the group’s plan. It was like meet at Munnar town by 31st afternoon and move together to a place 30 kms away, near Yellapetty, stay there for a night and return by 1st afternoon.
I was at Bangalore on 30th. I got a bus from Bangalore which took me to Eranakulam by 5 am (A Big City in Kerala), and from here I got a Munnar KSRTC bus at 6 AM. The ticket charge was 80 Rs, it was chilling cold, and the fellows sitting just ahead of me kept the window shutters open, further increasing the chillness. By around 10 .30 the bus reached Munnar. I was a bit worried on what to do as my Vodafone mobile was not working. The customer care idiots told that the proof of my mobile got rejected with out any reason / warning (after 3 years) even though my number (9946471305 – So please friends, I will not be available in this number, those street beggars have disconnected it for no reason) had another 1 year of validity and a 100 Rs Balance. At that second I thought , let the Vodafone beggars take by balance- I am not going to look into the mattor. I got a new BSNL (That is the best in terms of service, And has a good coverage everywhere.) Number.
I knew Amruth was trying to contact me for a long time. I called him from an STD booth nearby and got connected, and took a deep breath (I never knew where to reach for the trekking program- only Amruth knew it) . We synchronized our locations and met at the town. Now we were a group of four , Myself, Amruth, Amruths father Valsan and Navneeth (A friend of ours from Coimbatore who came to enjoy the beauty of Kerala).
The trekking program will start only by 2 PM and so we had enough time to make a short walk around Munnar. We took a cut road from town and moved beside the river and tea plantations and finally reaching the head works dam. Now it was almost half past 1, we had our lunch and reached at a spot near the old bus stand. Here we had a few paper works and another 15 joined our team (See last for the team list).
By 3 we left Munnar town heading along the Kodai (Kodaikanal Hill Station Tamilnadu) road, passing Mattupetty dam, photo point and the Kundala dam (First Arch Dam). I took almost 1 hour to reach Yellapetty , a place 26 kms away from Munnar beautiful with green tea plantations and huge grey rocky hills of Meshapulimala and Kolukkumala. We had a coffee from the local tea shop and started walking along the estate roads.
We moved along the tea plantations of the Yellapetty estate for half an hour. The roadside was picturesque with vegetable plantations and houses of the estate workers. (I was a bit late to know that, I was at Yellapaetty and so I had to wait for another day to meet my friend Vijay who is working at Yellapetty estate). It was beautiful.
It was almost the borders of forest and was getting dark, and the path was too steep. A few elderly members of the team found it so hard to move up. We had a plan to trek to the top of a hill by evening, but we were a bit slow and late thus forced to cancel that plan and move to a small house . We had a birds eye view of the decan plateau and the towns of Bodinelloor and many. My backside was surrounded by a few tall hills.
I sat on stone and watched the cities getting lighten up preparing the night. I could see the distant town of Bodinaikannur as if blended well with the stars of the night sky. By 8 we had a camp fire dinner and a self introduction program. By 10 everyone went into their sleeping bags and tents enjoying the chilling cold. We (4 of us) sat on that stone for some time, talking about the locations nearby and new trekking tracks and mapping. I thought to enjoy the chillness to the extreme and so just sat there without any covering for the upper body. I heard a few members asking to each other why / how the hell, this fellow is sitting like this. After a few hours of discussion, we all were in our sleeping bags.
I told Amruth to wake me up by 5 am to get shoot photo of the sunrise (I wake up late usually), and he did. Soon we were busy setting up the tripods and camera to get the best sun rise. We waited eagerly for the sun, questioning each other about its beauty and appearance. We had to wait for almost an hour to see the sun, rising behind one of the hills nearby instead of the horizon , even then we were able to make up a few beautiful shots the blue and red and yellow and white flowers spotted all over the green carpets.
It was time for the next trek, This time it was trekking on top of a hill nearby. It was a small one, but from the top we had a very fantastic view…plantations of TamilNadu..big rocky hills…tea plantations and more. It was awesome. We (At least a few of us) never felt to move back. Everyone was busy making as much as photographs as they can. But we had no unlimited time, which forced us to go back to the camp and return to Yelapetty via a forest road and move back to Munnar.
Vijay, Vinu and Family (dassvj@gmail.com), Munnar Amruth Raj V (amruthrajv@gmail.com), Thodupuzha. Achudandandan (Chief Minister, Kerala) For his try to bring back the face of Munnar.
Our Team
Amruth Raj V (amruthrajv@gmail.com), Thodupuzha Valson, Thodupuzha Navneeth Krishnan, Coimbatore. George Joseph (George@peermade.info)
Full Team
James Paul, Thodupuzha Prathapan P (pprathapan@yahoo.com) Antony Augustine, Alapuzha Lalu CK, Thodupuzha Saby Joseph, Thodupuzha Tomy Zachariah,Ezhukumvayal, Idukki Joeph CM,Thodupuzha Unni KE,Thodupuzha (unnivenmani@gmail.com) Joseph PM,Thodupuzha Anilkumar CK, Kozhipode
