Kurudi Hills and Ponnuthu

Well, completely for trekkers’ fun, the Kurudi hills cover the entire area that diversely stretches from Saibaba Kovil – Mettupalayam… Not precisely monitored though, they slope down near Karamadai leaving way for the Nilgiris to stretch over… I am sure this is the least popular hike or trek spot in Coimbatore with a patterned admonishing from villagers nearby…

The hills stay a lot away from the critically menacing pollution furthermore a finer ambience that potentially locates it the best spot to worship, trek and discover… The range houses many unnamed temples still with some well liked and frequented… Frankly, I don’t think a lot of people come around to visit temples here except to those of the villagers from both sides of the foothills… It’s in point of fact a very confusing hill range which would possibly appear to change shapes right from start until the end… Quite logical on detailed scrutiny… The Kurudi hills start from Kaundampalayam, which could seem like its united and with no gaps and narrow ridges… Further west, it would welcome you with cut edges, longer peaks separating with not broader gaps though… the unbelievably true fact is that every separated smaller hill has a route to each other, used by villagers at the foothills for years now… Kurudi hills also come along when you travel to Anaikatti, yeah, because the square back of Veerapandi is Chinnathadagam… both reasonably compact villages with chiefly tribes… Other villages you should know are kovanur, velliangadu and tholampalayam… however these are deeply locative towards the forests and you can’t trip there because I’ve heard my friends coming back with a big access denial… A parallel road from Velliangadu routes to other wilder side of the hill that could take you to Anaikatti and beyond…

Now, temples… as I know there’s one good temple you need to must visit… It’s Ponnuthu Mariamman Temple which is open throughout the year yet with restricted access when it comes to moving further uphill… You won’t find much transport and movement across the way to the temple again, with just a mini bus from NarasimhanaiackkenPalayam…Once you get to the foothills, its better to go uphill and as conventional the priest would scare you about wildlife… To be safely tripping, take a step ahead to return well before 5:00 PM in the evening… The hill tribes live uphill in caves, where they come down seasonally to sell honey and hill vegetated herbs to the village of Kurudampalayam… Trek sources and those residing near foothills spoke to us with big information… strange but shocking… The tribes dance and celebrate a festival uphill on days of Ammavasai and Pournami… It meant something auspicious to them and hell a lot of people downhill noticed the fire burning on the hills plainly resembling street lights on a long view….

Some friends of mine tried talking to the tribes where they told stories about how they cross hills to reach on lines of safety… Literally crossing a hill in between is what they do… Taking the route from Jambukandi Village, this squarely is to the northeast of Anaikatti and quite the inter-state border… Jambukandi is grounded by sugarcane fields with an inclined north leading to Kinnakorai, a village that marks the branded origin of Bhavani river… A natural lawn for wildlife, Jambukandi can’t contain any larger groups of settlements excepting farmers who own lands…

The Ponnuthu Mariamman temple has its own big story…Its purely matchless with the pride of placing the Amman inside a cave that’s all time dark… All you’ll see is the spring inside the cave which showers never-endingly over the Goddess… The temple priest told us the waters are no way seasonal and keep pouring right through the year… Villages’ downhill experience water scarcity in summer though… That doesn’t stop Ponnuthu from providing exceptionally tastier water alongside finer medicinal qualities; now here I have to translate so that you’ll vividly comprehend… Ponnuthu could be split to Pon & uthu.. Pon is GOLD & Uthu is spring in the regional language, tamil (தமிழ்) finally making it GOLDEN SPRING or பொன் ஊத்து… You’ll notice the weather gradually changing upon climbing… Could be chill, perilously swampy and clouds would ruthlessly engulf you if it’s in and around monsoon…

Draw a safe trip uphill and make safer return with cautious planning else then I am sorry if that should end detrimentally worse..

Anaikatti ghat roads and beyond

Photos All through the way from Mankarai- Anaikatti and beyond, the inter-state border.. I clicked these with just a mobile phone while on the bike... Reasonably good, some blurred though... it cant work too professional for a hiker, a lot tinier than what a high resolution device could possibly provide... Anyways I was not all prepared for the ride... we drove uphill with literally nothing to kinda strategically photograph... quite a bad miss yet oddly comforting .

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…