This time I went for treks near Palghat. This is a town in Kerala, very close to the Tamilnadu-Kerala border. Unlike my last trek, I am going to describe this one in detail, because our camera abandoned us just when we entered the forest. The pictures can't do the talking, so I have to. Those of you who wish to trek or even those who wish to know how much we freaked out read on.
We reached Palghat junction around 4:30am. You get a bus very close to the junction that leaves for Pollachi at 5:00am. (There are buses every 20-30 minutes). We managed to get in. This bus should take not more than 1 hour to reach Pollachi (ticket Rs. 25/-). But it stops quiet often in between (crosses the Tamilnadu-Kerala border) to reach Pollachi,Tamilnadu at 7:00am.
Our trek route was to start from Parambikulam wild life sanctuary, situated in Kerala. We planned to do the two days tram way trek (offered by Parambikulam santuary Rs 1225/- per person)(which later got changed to another route etc... however, we did start from Parambikulam). There is a bus that takes you from Pollachi to Parambikulam, but that leaves in the morning at 6:00. Having missed the bus we had to talk our way with the taxis to reach Parambikulam. That was a nightmare. Of course there is no meter and prices were obnoxiously high. We got offers from 800/- to 1800/-. And nothing less. The way to Parambikulam was quiet long (so didn't feel badly cheated till we came back by bus with the ticket for Rs 40/-) and after crossing the first check post (where the forest area officially starts) the road was even winding. We halted at 3-4 posts. We went past Top slip (here is where we came back the second day for the trek). On the last check post a guide joined us whose infinite abilities to put us in situations we realised much later. Lets call him X. So the trek started finally from Parambikulam area. This trek usually is supposed to start at 9:30. But we were already late by one and a half hour. So X took us from a short cut. That I must confess was one of the good decisions X took. For the rest we count ourselves to be lucky and bestowed with immense presence of mind that in spite of X we managed two great days of trekking. :)
Tram way trek is a really easy trek if you don't mind simply walking for hours.
The short cut we took had a few obstacles because we had to cross river and some broken bridges. But overall I will rate it like 3/10 for the hardness. They say that probability of seeing wild life here is high. But we experienced otherwise. That may be because we started our trek late.
The part of the trek before we stopped for a quick lunch in a village was very uneventful. It seemed more so, with having to hear X's monologues in broken english about some leaves and some barks of trees (which did not interest any of us). However, I must stress the walk along the river was amazingly beautiful. River was flowing along with us. You really have to be there to feel vulnerable to the wild, thrilled, excited, expectant, disappointed and happy at the same time. This gush of all kinds of thoughts and emotions is what one needs every once in a while to drain our heads of all the clogged up thoughts I guess. We saw lots of pug marks of tiger. We also saw porcupine hair. Every time any trace of wild life gave a strange sensation. Once you have been there it may be easy for you to imagine how animals must feel around humans in the jungle of concrete. I think we should really send our children for such treks for them to appreciate the nature and to avoid turning them into adamant grown ups with no regard for the nature and other species. Its this whole animal kingdom that humans have completely encroached upon. To see them, we have to go into the wild. If it wasn't for the humans, the animal sterilisation was out of question. We multiply like rats and then kill dogs on the street. Who really is minority? Whose rights should one protected? Questions all debatable but avoided by the majority, the humans!! Talk about the rights of minority!! Anyways, going back to the trek. (Evidently coming back and meeting same old people brings back all the muck of thoughts. Its very clear I am writing this post after whole of a week and mind has already become polluted.)
After lunch two forest officers also joined us. They spotted a crocodile on the other side of the river. I have never been happy to spot a crocodile in my life!!! That was the first wild animal we saw and it made us kind of content. We saw a couple of monkeys, a Lion-tailed Macaque, a langur and then a bit ahead an Indian Gaur grazing away in the distant fields. (I kept calling them bisons, but X insisted that there are no bisons in India. But when he spotted them before all of us, he said aloud, "Many Many bisons" and guess what?? the Indian Gaur got offended and vanished into jungles. Thats mr. X for you!! Anyways, I will call them bisons but do remember there are no bisons in India, they are Indian Gaur) The trek ended around 5:30. All along except for two breaks we were walking. We covered about 22 kilometers. It was not hard at all. The best part of the first day, was however still to come.
Where we ended our trek that day was a place right in the middle of the forest. We were shown our house for the night and it was nothing more than a few sheets of asbestos put together by forest department to make it into a hut. They have maintained it really well, but there's hardly anything to maintain. (couple of wooden cots and thats all!!) There is no electricity there. They have small lamps that work on solar power. We dumped our luggage there and whined to the two officers that we haven't seen enough of wild. After a few minutes of incessant whining they took pity on us and took us to the nearby grazing fields where a lot of bisons and wild elephants can be spotted. But as luck may have it, we didn't spot any. We were pretty hungry by the time it was sunset. We were escorted to the river bank nearby where they were also going to cook food for us. It was almost sunset. We were in the middle of the forest, bang next to a flowing river. And the dark sky kept falling upon us. If this doesn't give you a endorphin rush what would?
After the sunset we sat in the dark, seeing the sky become darker. We chatted happily about that day and the day to come. After the dinner we were escorted back to the hut and we didn't know when sleep took over us.
We woke up early enough to start the way back. We were to walk back along the same road and were hoping that the forest officer's jeep comes by and we are taken back as soon as possible and we do another trek instead of walking on the same route. The fact that X was quiet sure the jeep wouldn't come, we were kind of sure that it will. And it did. So we were at Parambikulam early around 9:00 am. Fortunately, a bus that goes to Pollachi was about to leave. We hopped in and got down at top slip. And guess what?? Along the way we saw 3 elephants in the wild!!! My god, didn't we wait for this for one whole day? Why was it to happen in a bus with 20 other people to witness what we so craved to witness?? Anyway, we were quiet thrilled to say the least. This is where we left our dear friend X behind. At top slip, we enquired about a trek and the time for a bus to go back to Pollachi. We also wanted to experience elephant ride. So plan of action got decided.
We do a 4 hours trek to Mount Stuart (totally Rs 150/-, real cheap.) Come back, do the elephant ride (totally Rs. 400/-) and then wait for the bus back (Rs 20/- per person). That trek was the most awesome experience. We saw bisons like 10 feet away. Though most of them were scared of us, our guide told us that their leader will not be. We went closer and saw the leader of the bisons staring right into us. That was one hell of an experience. After a brief face off, we of course backed off. A few minutes ahead and couple of sambars zoomed passed us!! This must be the closest I came to see wild life. Our guide that day was so awesome. He would suddenly go out of the way and pluck some mushrooms and give us to eat!! I was like, does this guy want to kill us with poisonous mushrooms or something?? But I didn't know that mushroom can taste sweet till I had those. He also made us take a detour and showed us a lovely waterfall. We even sat under it, getting totally drenched.
This trek made us realise how a good guide can make a whole big difference. Specially after Mr. X, we were head over heels in love with our second guide.
This trek was not all that tough but what we saw stunned us sufficiently enough.
There is only so much one can go on describing though. The rest, you have to go ahead and expereince. I have given you pointers. Parambikulam and Top slip. Now all you need to do is, pick yourselves up and go trekking!!
Some do's and don'ts
1. To catch the morning bus from Pollachi to Parambikulam, reach pollachi from Coimbatore rather than Palghat (its closer and more accessible from Coimbatore)
2. Avoid taking a taxi from pollachi to Parambikulam/Top slip as far as possible. 3. Buy batteries before you reach Pollachi (specially if you need to use Duracell)
4. There are no mosquitoes in the jungle!! No need to carry repellents/creams.
5. Chances of leeches catching you is high, when it rains or while morning dew is on the grass. We tried Odomos. If you apply Odomos on your legs, leeches do not climb.
6. Carry salt. It works like poison on leeches.
7. There is a SBI ATM on the Palghat station. (platform 1) This may help, just in case!
8. Get your numbers right in Tamil. That may be a great help.
9. Thank your stars if X isn't your guide.
We reached Palghat junction around 4:30am. You get a bus very close to the junction that leaves for Pollachi at 5:00am. (There are buses every 20-30 minutes). We managed to get in. This bus should take not more than 1 hour to reach Pollachi (ticket Rs. 25/-). But it stops quiet often in between (crosses the Tamilnadu-Kerala border) to reach Pollachi,Tamilnadu at 7:00am.
Our trek route was to start from Parambikulam wild life sanctuary, situated in Kerala. We planned to do the two days tram way trek (offered by Parambikulam santuary Rs 1225/- per person)(which later got changed to another route etc... however, we did start from Parambikulam). There is a bus that takes you from Pollachi to Parambikulam, but that leaves in the morning at 6:00. Having missed the bus we had to talk our way with the taxis to reach Parambikulam. That was a nightmare. Of course there is no meter and prices were obnoxiously high. We got offers from 800/- to 1800/-. And nothing less. The way to Parambikulam was quiet long (so didn't feel badly cheated till we came back by bus with the ticket for Rs 40/-) and after crossing the first check post (where the forest area officially starts) the road was even winding. We halted at 3-4 posts. We went past Top slip (here is where we came back the second day for the trek). On the last check post a guide joined us whose infinite abilities to put us in situations we realised much later. Lets call him X. So the trek started finally from Parambikulam area. This trek usually is supposed to start at 9:30. But we were already late by one and a half hour. So X took us from a short cut. That I must confess was one of the good decisions X took. For the rest we count ourselves to be lucky and bestowed with immense presence of mind that in spite of X we managed two great days of trekking. :)
Tram way trek is a really easy trek if you don't mind simply walking for hours.
The short cut we took had a few obstacles because we had to cross river and some broken bridges. But overall I will rate it like 3/10 for the hardness. They say that probability of seeing wild life here is high. But we experienced otherwise. That may be because we started our trek late.
The part of the trek before we stopped for a quick lunch in a village was very uneventful. It seemed more so, with having to hear X's monologues in broken english about some leaves and some barks of trees (which did not interest any of us). However, I must stress the walk along the river was amazingly beautiful. River was flowing along with us. You really have to be there to feel vulnerable to the wild, thrilled, excited, expectant, disappointed and happy at the same time. This gush of all kinds of thoughts and emotions is what one needs every once in a while to drain our heads of all the clogged up thoughts I guess. We saw lots of pug marks of tiger. We also saw porcupine hair. Every time any trace of wild life gave a strange sensation. Once you have been there it may be easy for you to imagine how animals must feel around humans in the jungle of concrete. I think we should really send our children for such treks for them to appreciate the nature and to avoid turning them into adamant grown ups with no regard for the nature and other species. Its this whole animal kingdom that humans have completely encroached upon. To see them, we have to go into the wild. If it wasn't for the humans, the animal sterilisation was out of question. We multiply like rats and then kill dogs on the street. Who really is minority? Whose rights should one protected? Questions all debatable but avoided by the majority, the humans!! Talk about the rights of minority!! Anyways, going back to the trek. (Evidently coming back and meeting same old people brings back all the muck of thoughts. Its very clear I am writing this post after whole of a week and mind has already become polluted.)
After lunch two forest officers also joined us. They spotted a crocodile on the other side of the river. I have never been happy to spot a crocodile in my life!!! That was the first wild animal we saw and it made us kind of content. We saw a couple of monkeys, a Lion-tailed Macaque, a langur and then a bit ahead an Indian Gaur grazing away in the distant fields. (I kept calling them bisons, but X insisted that there are no bisons in India. But when he spotted them before all of us, he said aloud, "Many Many bisons" and guess what?? the Indian Gaur got offended and vanished into jungles. Thats mr. X for you!! Anyways, I will call them bisons but do remember there are no bisons in India, they are Indian Gaur) The trek ended around 5:30. All along except for two breaks we were walking. We covered about 22 kilometers. It was not hard at all. The best part of the first day, was however still to come.
Where we ended our trek that day was a place right in the middle of the forest. We were shown our house for the night and it was nothing more than a few sheets of asbestos put together by forest department to make it into a hut. They have maintained it really well, but there's hardly anything to maintain. (couple of wooden cots and thats all!!) There is no electricity there. They have small lamps that work on solar power. We dumped our luggage there and whined to the two officers that we haven't seen enough of wild. After a few minutes of incessant whining they took pity on us and took us to the nearby grazing fields where a lot of bisons and wild elephants can be spotted. But as luck may have it, we didn't spot any. We were pretty hungry by the time it was sunset. We were escorted to the river bank nearby where they were also going to cook food for us. It was almost sunset. We were in the middle of the forest, bang next to a flowing river. And the dark sky kept falling upon us. If this doesn't give you a endorphin rush what would?
After the sunset we sat in the dark, seeing the sky become darker. We chatted happily about that day and the day to come. After the dinner we were escorted back to the hut and we didn't know when sleep took over us.
We woke up early enough to start the way back. We were to walk back along the same road and were hoping that the forest officer's jeep comes by and we are taken back as soon as possible and we do another trek instead of walking on the same route. The fact that X was quiet sure the jeep wouldn't come, we were kind of sure that it will. And it did. So we were at Parambikulam early around 9:00 am. Fortunately, a bus that goes to Pollachi was about to leave. We hopped in and got down at top slip. And guess what?? Along the way we saw 3 elephants in the wild!!! My god, didn't we wait for this for one whole day? Why was it to happen in a bus with 20 other people to witness what we so craved to witness?? Anyway, we were quiet thrilled to say the least. This is where we left our dear friend X behind. At top slip, we enquired about a trek and the time for a bus to go back to Pollachi. We also wanted to experience elephant ride. So plan of action got decided.
We do a 4 hours trek to Mount Stuart (totally Rs 150/-, real cheap.) Come back, do the elephant ride (totally Rs. 400/-) and then wait for the bus back (Rs 20/- per person). That trek was the most awesome experience. We saw bisons like 10 feet away. Though most of them were scared of us, our guide told us that their leader will not be. We went closer and saw the leader of the bisons staring right into us. That was one hell of an experience. After a brief face off, we of course backed off. A few minutes ahead and couple of sambars zoomed passed us!! This must be the closest I came to see wild life. Our guide that day was so awesome. He would suddenly go out of the way and pluck some mushrooms and give us to eat!! I was like, does this guy want to kill us with poisonous mushrooms or something?? But I didn't know that mushroom can taste sweet till I had those. He also made us take a detour and showed us a lovely waterfall. We even sat under it, getting totally drenched.
This trek made us realise how a good guide can make a whole big difference. Specially after Mr. X, we were head over heels in love with our second guide.
This trek was not all that tough but what we saw stunned us sufficiently enough.
There is only so much one can go on describing though. The rest, you have to go ahead and expereince. I have given you pointers. Parambikulam and Top slip. Now all you need to do is, pick yourselves up and go trekking!!
Some do's and don'ts
1. To catch the morning bus from Pollachi to Parambikulam, reach pollachi from Coimbatore rather than Palghat (its closer and more accessible from Coimbatore)
2. Avoid taking a taxi from pollachi to Parambikulam/Top slip as far as possible. 3. Buy batteries before you reach Pollachi (specially if you need to use Duracell)
4. There are no mosquitoes in the jungle!! No need to carry repellents/creams.
5. Chances of leeches catching you is high, when it rains or while morning dew is on the grass. We tried Odomos. If you apply Odomos on your legs, leeches do not climb.
6. Carry salt. It works like poison on leeches.
7. There is a SBI ATM on the Palghat station. (platform 1) This may help, just in case!
8. Get your numbers right in Tamil. That may be a great help.
9. Thank your stars if X isn't your guide.
Comments
you have mentioned that the Sanctuary charges you Rs.1225/- for trekking, do you pay this money in forest office? Pls clarify.
rgds,
Nathan
Yes, you pay the money after having reached there. You will be stopped at one of the forest office posts and made to pay in Kerala region.
Thanks for stopping by and hope it helps.
http://www.simplymalayalees.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=519
Discussion includes details of
- The name Palakkad and how it was derived
- The climate of the Palakkad district
- Geographical facts like Palakkad being the second district in Kerala, not having a seacoast.
- Palakkad district has Kerala’s longest river flowing through.
- Hyder Ali fort in palakkad built in the late 1770s
- A list of the important tourist attractions of Palakkad
We want to trek only the mount stuart stretch.How do we get there.Any info would be greatly helpful.We plan to go thr in Jan first week.
-Varun