Trek turned into a vacation

This was a long planned trek, that some of us decided to do.

Plan A:
Start from Chennai and reach Kodai.
Meet the District forest officer (DFO) and get permission for the trek to Top station
Start the trek midday and trek for atleast 12 km the first day to reach a place between Berijam lake and Top station.
Camp here in a guset house/ abandoned house or in a tent.
Next day trek for another 20 odd km and reach top station.
Some how reach ernakulam to take the train back.

Step 1 was executed perfectly (well more or less). But step 2 itself came with a catch. DFO was not going to be in the office that very day. We tried to beg and plead to all the other officials to give us permission to go for this trek. We had heard that DFO was very keen on giving trek permissions, however other officials were really reluctant. We almost felt like taking their snaps and posting them on the blog. They were extremely rude and wouldn't even consider giving us permission. Then we tried to ask for a permission to take a jeep to the Berijam lake. It was around 10:30 am and they said time for such a permission is over. Turns out, to give those permissions there is exactly one person and he was not going to be around as well.

Plan B:

Go to Kaunji (a small village near Kodai) and start the trek from there to Berijam (that route does not require permission apparently). But Alas, the bus to Kaunji would have taken us there pretty late. At the bus station Plan C sprung up.

Plan C:

(suggested by a random person on the bus depot called Patrick)

Take the bus to a village nearby called Kookal.
Stay there over night in a gusehouse.
Go for a nearby trek the next day
Return to Kodai late evening.


With no great motive left for going to Kaunji, we all agreed upon this random suggestion. We decided that if we find the village too bad, we will simply take a bus to Kaunji (which one can get after 5-6 km of walk on a bus road). Fair enough.

The place called Kookal however turned out to be a great discovery. Hardly anybody except villagers were there. The lake in Kookal, called Kookal lake for obvious reasons, was really beautiful. I'll upload some snaps. So let me not waste words over describing the lake. The gueshouse we were put up in (by Joe, a friend of Patrick) was on the property of Sandoor maharaja (who comes from a royal family). There was a lovely fireplace, a neat varanda, a huge farm around and many many dogs there. We with rather ease let alone our trekking mood and quickly got into the mood of enjoying a relaxed holiday. For whole of 24 hours did nothing but sat around, chatted and kept feeling good about life in general :).

We spent quiet some time sitting next to the fireplace and also around the lake.

To add some more about Kookal, its a place where you can just go and relax. You will not see or hear a living soul if you wish not to. Its a place you can go for complete relaxation. It being very less popular, you can enjoy such a scenic place without too many tourists ruining your day. So if you ever end up in Kodai and want to take off to a remote village of Tamilnadu away from crowd, Kookal is the place for you.

Go explore.

Kookal