So let’s head further deep into the town with more scenic, beautiful, less popular areas… If you travel towards Mettupalayam, you’ll find a road on the left leading to Karamadai, with an inclined west unveiling Velliangadu which finds it way side from thriving vegetation and entirely engulfing hill range.. Oh…The roads are narrower and a lot riskier than what you could probably imagine… Upon the hills, there are several smaller roads that could take you to the tribal hamlets that reside over the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border….Koppanari is a tribal village that houses around ten to fifteen houses to where you can travel from Velliangadu or a small diversion that comes from Palamalai… its quite an unsafe road to drive or trek further… But yes, if you’re successful, you’ll reach Koppanari and other streams which on crossing could you take you to Anaikatti or Sholayur…
With smarter simplification, things could be best understood… You can take roads that come from Velliangadu to Mulli where you’ll stop by a farm and then tribal villages… Moving a little left forested area covers the land…Alright lets move straight to find things on a wider aspect… it almost looks like a highway yet you shouldn’t expect roads to be broad with good traffic … Its restricted with large wild animal movement with safety time tagged well before 5:00 pm in the evening…The Mulli road can also lead to Geddai dam that is on the right with roads to Kundha and Athikadavu Main supplying water to the north western areas of Coimbatore including within limits of Mettupalayam and Anaikatti… There’s a place called Keel Mannar with very less people around and a lot of wildlife… the place always has cool breeze around and mountains cause good rain here and there if you’re on a trek inside the forest… So there it cuts on a diversion that leads to Tholampalayam village… It’s very small and largely tribal with very less people coming down to city for education…From Deep inside; it’s not easy to travel to the mainland…… Children on education, from the areas of Tholampalayam have a life time problem… Once you check the map out you’ll know how bad they suffer… From Tholampalayam, all they need to do is travel towards Anaikatti for schooling… Routes won’t map from Tholampalayam to Anaikatti, instead they run straight to Sholayur, Kerala, with a further redirection to the Tamil nadu state for Anaikatti… Where routing this isn’t all that simpler because a stream runs across the states with children waiting longer hours for just a crossing... With significantly consuming a lot of time in travel, kids eventually lose interest to study… A newspaper today came out with information that kids start early to 6:00 am to go to school… Seems they also encounter elephants and wolves round their village… Endangering lives, parents don’t allow children to pursue education... Sources say that construction is on the move for the roads directing to Anaikatti which cuts the movement to Kerala…
Something that would stop you near Tholampalayam could be the “Palamalai Ranganathar temple"… The temple could look quite unvisited and deserted… Yeah its true… Well, unlike other hill temples it’s restricted because you wont find any human settlements just beyond a place called Kovanur... it’s the one last village you can see holding habitation…Once you move afar the spot, bet what it is damn scary… With cooler yet noisy winds you’ll cry your eyes out…. And in monsoons mist could be over hills and you’ll hear the winds telling you “ Aren’t you getting ready for the rain?” With stronger winds warning you over and over again on passing bends… Once you move to the temple, visit it; come back on time cos it can’t be all sweet… You’ll have bad times too… come downhill on time; you’re not safe until then… Plan your trip with a lot of care and liberal doses of safety…
Well, what I am writing now could not best be an article that jots things and tells what you’ll literally find in Attapadi… I am writing a travelogue kinda thing alongside all interesting information that are quite true with no exaggerated statements… So let’s start traveling…
Attapadi is a rich Nilgiri Biosphere reserve valley…It could possibly look like a gorge if you view from a higher altitude and yeah it is because with all surrounding thicker, lush vegetative mountain ranges… So Attapadi is a deserted village almost trenched between the hills… Yeah there’s something more to go geographical… The village oddly houses diverse tribal settlements that a lot more different with quite into talking neither of the languages… The forest officers instituted a hills development project with an apparent design to exceptionally enhance wildlife and how to best preserve forests… Now then I don’t really think you can get into the area effortlessly…looks like its completely closed down.…I heard my friend telling me this.. But, you don’t have to go envisioning all these before you successfully enter trekking area here…
So the travel begins just about here… So start moving further from Mankarai where you’ll get to see the forest check post at the end… A way later you’ll find massive mountains; looks like something’s ready to engulf and swallow you with the height… Wow… Should appear astonishing if you take a look at the right side… a hill range stretching wide from the Nilgiri division… May be they’ll look a lot drier than what you’ll see on the other side and those near Attapadi… Okay… Driving straight through the road, you won’t be bored out of what comes around… An hour later you’ll reach Anaikatti and finally the interstate border with SACON and that immediately follows is Sholayur- a very sensitive place which you can’t conclude where it belongs… Its could be singing Evanescence’s “somewhere I belong”… Just a joke with no much laugh cracker in it… Back… But Sholayur Yeah, is Kerala , you’ll see people comprehending Tamil, though… A big time starter… narrower roads commence with riskier paths to drive….
Reaching all above the bends, you’ll surpass Pudur; a village grounding no more than 15 houses with a big full stop to electricity… And then comes Kottathara … with a Goat farm and a high school…including a reasonably good population… predominantly tribes and keralites… Big news for chocolate lovers… A few miles east of Attapadi you’ll see a Cadbury Cocoa Nursery built in the banks of the river… but its restricted I guess… I never got a chance to visit … It was a big bomb… you’ll be in Attapadi in just a ten minutes time from there…
Once you reach, make sure you bath in the river before you start hiking or trekking… Try talking to the people and I am sure you’ll find people traveling to Velliangiri temple from there… We whilst trekking spoke to a man that went to Velliangiri temple on regularity… It was quite short on just 2 hours with one hill to cross in between… Well I’ve never trekked that place but I heard one of my friends telling stories … Seems like its quite shorter because once you start moving from the hill route in Attapadi, the end leads to the seventh hill of Velliangiri… sounds stunning yet scary… Not all that easy with a lot of potential swamps and worse muddy areas…
Remember one thing Attapadi houses hell a lot of leeches… and that’s the reason behind its name… Attai or அட்டை in Tamil and Malayalam plainly mean Leech… A blood sucking endangering insect species… Beware when you walk uphill… This is what you’ll get to hear from your Guide or a forest official… Many inhabitants would tell this as well… When you get to meet a small accident with the leech it’ll suck almost a litre of your blood… And it means you need to be hospitalized… nastiest insect that wouldn’t cause pain while its sucking...You’ll die out of pain when you’re trying to take the insect out of your skin… Be brave and I am sure you could see half the skin alongside the leech… Cos it sticks so well and pulls the upper skin with a big force… Okay I am not scaring you anymore…
All you should need is undisputed guts with an active grit taking you a lot far positive than what you could possibly envision when it comes to trek and travel discovery… Ensure that you get to enjoy every discovery you make with a constraint on soaring intoxication…
Have a great yet safe trek ahead…
