Trek via Paradise - Kodaikanal-Vellagavi-Kumbakarai Trek

It was the 7th September, Saturday and I was at Saranathan College of Engineering attending a wonderful 2 day symposium. After some nice work for the brain, it was time my limbs got some exercise. Siva was the organiser as always and it was planned that Siva would meet up with me at Trichy Bus stand at some time after midnight. It was 4pm. I left the symposium with happy memories and proceeded to find accommodation till midnight. Arunachalan who sat out this trek coz he wanted to be at his home town for Ganesh chaturthi, suggested a place and thus began my walks along Trichy’s streets. I finally found the place but as luck would have it, they refused to accommodate me saying Aruna needed to be with me then for me to stay there. Aruna didn’t know that. I had gone to that particular place for its lower fares, considering I would only stay for some 6 hours. Now that I had nowhere to stay, I called up Siva who was then boarding a bus from CMBT to Trichy and he came up with the idea that I could roam Srirangam or Malaikottai till he reaches Trichy. I chose Srirangam. After an hour’s journey, I reached the famed temple that was teeming with devotees. I was in no mood to walk in that crowd to get a glimpse of the main deity. So, after visiting deities that were less crowded, I ended up resting by a pillar near the food counter and was debating whether or not to get food there. Just then, a familiar face popped up in front of me and gave me a nice surprise! It’s always a great feeling to see old school buddies, especially people whose lunch you seized ;) It was Shabhari and he was staying with relatives in the vicinity. After a nice chat with him and a soda, I bade him goodbye. I had a message from Siva suggesting I go to a net café that was open. I liked the idea and went over to a net café outside the temple and had a nice chat with a couple of college-mates until the owner came over and told me it was closing hours. It was 9.30pm. After leaving the browsing centre, I went to a roadside mess, very hungry and had awesome,hot dosas and idlis. After some more loitering in Srirangam, I boarded a bus to Trichy Central bus stand. It was 11pm. Thus began my several hours wait for Siva’s arrival. Siva’s bus was delayed due to traffic problems and finally arrived at 3.30 am. I had completely gone around the bus stand some 20-30 times, took some midnight self-shots and had no sleep. After his arrival, we wasted no time and boarded a bus to Dindugul and as no seats were available, it was a standing and sleep-as-u-stand journey. The bus stopped a lot due to residents enroute Dindugul stopping the bus to load their farm produce on the top etc., After an hour’s travel, we reached Dindugul. On finding no buses to kodaikanal there, we proceeded to Vatlagundu or Batlagundu as it’s called officially. Another hour went by - this time we sat on the gear box up front. On reaching Vatlagundu, it was tea and bajji time. A bus to kodaikanal came along and another sit-on-the-gearbox journey followed. I slept through most of the journey and when I was awake, magnificent landscape laid itself bare in front of me. Rat-tail falls and various holidays resorts were some stuff I remember seeing during the journey. It was 11am when we reached the kodaikanal bus stop. The bus to Vattakanal,our trek’s base, had already left and we had no choice but to take a car to that place. The driver, Gabriel, wanted to profit a lot and made sure we had his mobile number and insisted we call him up next time we came to kodaikanal. We reached Vattakanal soon enough and started walking down to Dolphin’s nose area. We had a nice hot bread omelette. Dolphin’s nose is a jutting rocky area shaped like the nose of Dolphin and it stands some 6600 feet above ground level. After some snaps there, we took a diversion from the path traversed by tourists and took one that goes to the Vellagavi.

At Dolphin's Nose

Guided by electric poles and horse hooves, we trekked downhill. The mist ahead added a splash of mystery over the enchanting land full of wonderful, totally-WOW scenery. We had some really tasty water from a geyser there. It was really paradisiac. We reached the fair village of Vellagavi at 1pm, an hour and half’s trek. Vellagavi has a lot of temples and the residents consider the land holy ground. There is a signboard asking visitors to the land to remove their footwear. Siva wasn’t sure if we could carry the shoes too. I went in first to confirm. A lady there was filling up her buckets with water. After introduction and enquiry, she said it’s ok to carry shoes and told us to drop by her place for coffee! So packing our shoes into a bag, we proceeded to Vellagavi. She even asked us to stay for lunch. I guess the people of Vellagavi define hospitality. After 30 minutes at Vellagavi, we started our trek downhill to Kumbakarai. It was looking like it was going to rain and I removed my socks, put on my shoes and we started our run. It started raining a lot and we put on our raincoats. We met up with a man and a dog halfway. Siva was calling out to the man to restrain the barking dog and didn’t want to go ahead until he was sure the dog was harmless! The man told us we were 45 mins away and advised us to take left wherever a path branches out and sat there smoking. We went on. I felt uneasy walking just then and pulled out my shoes to find out that my shoes had a bit of sand and little stones and those pesky little nitwits had torn my feet. I slowed down the trek considerably, limping mostly, running where I could, to catch up. We stopped at a stream to get some water and snaps and I had a nice slip there and my jeans got wet. When the odds are bad, brave the odds and they’ll turn good. I kept going, wanting to finish the trek and we met two people going down and they said the stream to Kumbakarai was flooding coz of rain and they took us through another path. After lots of catching up, bison-sighting and panting, we finally emerged out of the trek to place where these men had parked their bikes. It was some minutes past 3.30pm. What smiles we had on our faces!

Look back and smile at the perils passed - Walter Scott :)

An hour and half’s trek downhill was completed in 2 hours with injured feet B-) The guys were workers from Periyakulam which was our destination and offered us a lift. Sadly one of the bikes didn’t start up, thanks to the rains that had now stopped. So it was triples on one bike with the other bike being towed along with a towel held by Siva! :D It was semma amazing and we reached periyakulam soon and had hot coffee there before going to the bus stop. I was totally limping now and we boarded a bus to Madurai from there. We reached Madurai at around 6pm and went to a place to change out of our dripping wet clothes. We then got a bus to maatuthavani bus stop. We ate at a nearby hotel and went bus-hunting. We finally got seats in a bus and set off to Chennai at around 9.15pm. I slept like a log.I bade goodbye to Siva at tambaram at 4am in the morn and reached home soon, filled with memories of limping in the rain at Vellagavi! :D

"Shrouded in mystery, I lie, awaiting to be seen. One day, you shall find me and see me that I am beautiful."- Life