Undiscovered Routes of Western Ghats- Karamadai-Tholampalayam-Palamalai-(Koppanari & tribal settlements)-Sholayur

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…

Attapadi

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…

Anaikatti- A way to pure bliss and extreme adventuring

I can’t end the hunt just here…. Got a long way to go with Anaikatti and far west that could connect Attapadi and Mannarkad…….Anaikatti; yeah a place that possibly offers everything a trekker wants…. You’ll notice wild animals to herbs that heal with wider species of birds to watch… A few miles west to Anaikatti, all you can see is the Salim Ali Center for Ornithology and natural history… it’s the place where ornithologists and conservationists research on birds and rare animal species… The university is bordered by both the Nilgiris and the hills of attapadi; to what lies exactly behind the Attapadi Hill range is something that you should be familiar with… Guess what the range connects Siruvani Dam- Velliangiri Hills and the Silent valley… I’ve heard a lot of trekkers saying jaw dropping routes in the hill range… The Western Ghats have a unique feature where it never appears broken and continues to nest vivid routes from end to end…

So all you need to do is kick start the journey by moving from kanuvai and taking a steep left… When you continue, something that possibly fills your eyes could be houses on the left and brick baking factories on the right… Further west, the hills get thicker and less distant… So it means you are almost near Mankarai… the forest department check post… You’ll hear settlements telling you scary stories about elephants ravaging their farms… So this could incorporate some kind of fear inside you; nevertheless there are many trekking this place every year… wash your fears and get ready to bathe in the beauty of Anaikatti …

Yeah…The best place to trek and hike through the year with best support from the forest guides… Well one vital thing you need to be cautious about is the elephants… Just those… They won’t harm you where they don’t possess a natural instinct to trouble humans… So once you reach mankarai, its almost done.. Say a big gud bye to the city cos it ends just there… You’ll feel the warm welcome from the people in the Ashram and tribes at the foothills…Don't forget to visit the Arsha Vidya Gurukulam in Anaikatti.. Its an Ashram that was first started by Swami Dayananda Saraswti; A lot of children study there because the school masters in teaching vedic cults and almost every best Sanskrit scholar would be one coming out of this school...

If you’re moving further west, then I bet it needs a seriously brave mindset… SACON or Salim Ali center comes next… its in the tip of the inter state border with fine air transforming into howling winds in the monsoons;such a nature friendly area…Remember you can't visit the area easily..Yeah its of course a core reserve... After all, it has the richest forests... You’ll feel like you’re wrapped in the hands of mother nature… Quite apt for bird watching, trekking, wildlife inventions and what not…Well, hopefully clear with all information here, I am done...

I am writing about Attapadi in the next post with a lot neater elaboration that could be even more interesting...

Siruvani – View from kerala...

Well, not all the same… Unleashing views of the siruvani forest reserves from Kerala; the other richly forested side could be a lot more interesting and apprehensible to trekkers and travel analysts… With years of preserving nature, the Singappara forest area tending to Siruvani cascade and that finally transforms into a river and serves water to the entire Coimbatore city; developing with a keen rationality to technology and science…

So, from Kerala things are altogether different… You get to enjoy the beauty of Mother Nature with Nilgiri Biosphere reserves on a panorama… It can be breath taking with all rights to go trekking with less strenuous paths and farther ideas to move towards reserves that house some of the best medicinal herbs and plants… animals you can see are literally lots…besides it’s the rarest spot which has the vastest species for bird watching… I bet it’s a treat and could serve a great sphere for ornithologists…. Sources say that there are no larger groups of trekkers and analysts flooding the locative mapping by tagging it the richest ground for bird discoveries with lesser nature lovers accessing it every year… You’ll find records telling you there are around 44 new birds discovered until now… Remember one important line… It isn’t that easy if you want to go deep down the forests to camp or trek… Huh… Yeah… you should get procedures done which aren’t simpler but YES with a lot more possible access to what needs to be operated on over the Tamil Nadu side… I’ve told you already … Siruvani in Tamil Nadu is a drinking water supply… So you can’t get in with all ease… It’s a core protected spot…

Further east, when you head from Mannarkad to Palakkayam, all you’ll find are the hills with thick vegetation on two sides with a narrower road in between… It could be quite intimidating if its summer because you’ll halt with a brake on notice of a semi wild animal… contrary to what happens in hill areas it isn’t a BIG danger if you see a lone male elephant on the roads walking towards you… however they depend largely on hill slopes and not roads furthermore a keen sense to humans that come nearby so that they move way…

So you’ll reach Singappara Forest reserves once heading miles east from Mannarkad… driving through the thick forests, you should be getting a letter signed from the forest officials if you want to stay overnight.. The forest officials would direct you to the Pattiyar Bungalow… It does look like a Cottage and quite don’t except things to be luxurious and a more of a RESORT… just a small three roomed cottage with power for strictly three hours a day; chief dependence on solar power… So if its summer, things are favorable... if not, it could be quite not OKAY… Nevertheless, there are always winds blowing towards the cottage and this should keep the place cooler and nature near…

Once you decide to visit the Siruvani Dam, make it earlier in the morning so that you don’t miss the conveyance that comes until a restricted area… For now, I’ve heard people saying that the cottage is closed because there are ideas for renovation… Even then, its OKAY… taking a one day trip is all the more prudent and fine if you want to visit the dam and less forested areas… I’m not sure what possibly applies on a procedure for trekking inside the forest for three or four days… Procedures are changed for now… Lot of reasons; truly for ensuring lesser exploiting of forests and also to maintain a richer reserve is what tops the list…

Anyways don’t forget one major view… From the Siruvani dam, if there’s no much mist, you’ll get a spectacular look at the Coimbatore City...