A day on the lap of Brahmagiri.. The much awaited journey started on 7th morning from Alwaye. Train was at 8.30AM. We were nine of us, four left on 6th night itself, and, two of us already got in the train from Ernakulum south and reserved seats for us too. We were heading to Calicut, to one of the members house for lunch. It was around 1 PM when we landed in Calicut, next we had to take a bus from Calicut to Thamarassery and another one from there to Poonor. We reached in his home at 3.30pm and had a very delicious lunch. It was almost like feast for our hungry stomach. Jithu and Anup stored as much as they could. We said bye to his family and started our journey back to Thamarassery to take bus to Manathavady. It was school leaving time and I didn’t understand why all the kids were looking at us. It was evening and a working day too, bus was almost full but we managed to get in, unfortunately didn’t get any seat but it was good that all could stand together and spent some funny moments. We were having a nice journey when the bus started climbing the Ghat road, we could feel the change in climate and many monkeys were watching on us on the roadsides, also witnessed a beautiful sunset. There are around 12 sharp bends on the road and at last we crossed the border of Calicut, now we are in Wayanadu, the land of paddy fields and beautiful forests. The bus was expected to reach in Manathavady at 7PM, but it reached there at 8.10PM!! We need to take another bus from Manathavady to Thirunelli; last bus was at 8.20PM, bad luck!!! Due to a strike in Kannur, the bus was cancelled. We actually trapped!! We need to get in Thirunelli to start our trekking as early as possible in the next morning. So we decided to take a jeep from Manathavady to Thirunelli, the road is through dense forest and there are chances of meeting with Elephants on the road. Nobody was ready to take us but finally we got one, cost around 900 rupees. We all got in the jeep and i took the side seat at the back, with a hope to see elephants!! We already had many experience travelling by jeep, so me and Jithu started hanging at back. It was very refreshing the cold wind was touching on our face as the jeep runs. Later Rafi joined with us, on the way we spotted a spotted deer. It was quick jump across the jeep and we could see her blowing eyes in jeep’s headlights, she stood still near tree and watched us and ran away into the darkness of the jungle. That was enough for us, everything got its beauty and charm everything is important so seeing a deer in its own habitat is very precious sight for us. But it was not the end!! Driver was rolling the Jeep very carefully especially on every turn because there could be a gentle giant in the shadow of darkness. We too were hoping to see one. When the driver said we are about reach we left our desire to see the black beauty of the forest, expecting that we can meet her on tomorrows trekking. But!! Suddenly the driver stopped the Jeep!! We all opened our eyes with wonder!! Everyone was murmuring!! Elephant!! Elephant!! Yes!! The one we waited for the most is just in front of us!! Freddy, the city babbler in our group got frozen. Yes there is the gentle giant with mud on his back watching us! He was alone and with two big tusks. He stopped suddenly and started approaching us. We got into the jeep and started blowing the horn and racing the jeep. He stood like that for two minutes, finally he turned back and our driver fled the jeep from him. Freddy was still frozen, and he was in utter silent ha ha. We had a wonderful night there, it was fearful but adventurous, loved it. We reached in Thirunelly at 11PM and took one room for all of us. It was a nice night there, it was very cold outside. All slept around 1 am, sharing the experience and making fun out of Freddy. Z..z..z..z.. :D Next day morning, a very cold Saturday in the middle of Thirunelly, I got up at 4.30am with song from Thirunelly temple. I had a plan to visit the temple. It was a nice ambience in the temple, not much rush so I could see my Krishna very well. Later I had a chat with the guard in the temple. I told him that we came for the trekking so he advised to go as early as possible, came back and woke all my sleepy friends. Jithu was shouting, I interrupted his nice sleep. No way, we had to get ready by 8.30am. Everyone got up and had a bath in the icy cold water and had tasty Dosa, Idly and chutney from a local shop. The forest office was about 500 meters away from our stay and reached there and got the entrance ticket and cleared all formalities. We got assigned a guide for our trekking, Rajendran, he was 19 years old and stopped his study at 10th. I didn’t ask much more about it but I knew the reason... Rajendran was so fast most of us couldn’t walk with him. He knows the forest and he does the same every day. I was okay, but most of the city guys couldn’t touch him, so asked him to slow down. There was a road built for the purpose of forest department and actually he took us on that way. Soon we could see the foot print of an elephant which might have passed just before us!! It was fun and hard. We came across lot of small streams and the Papanasini stream. It is considered to be sacred so I drank some water from the stream; it was so tasty and delicious, pure for sure We climbed for about two hours and reached near the watch tower built by the forest department for observation. It was very tall and we climbed onto that. Wow!! It was amazing the beauty of nature; we can see the faraway view of Thirunelly temple and the village. But the peak was again far ahead of us. The road ends here, but it actually go to Pakshipathalam, an ancient cave where the Munis used to pray and also you can see varieties of birds but now it is not allowed to visit due to some activities by the visitors. So from here we have to trek on grass lands. Most of us were tired; it was wrong decision that we didn’t take any food with us. Anyway we managed with freshly available water. After a short break, we started climbing, this time it was through the grass lands and much more steep than before. Rafi, Freddy and Ashiquee, left us and Rajendran, they were in hurry to reach the peak. After some time Talal and Anup gave up and found a little shadow on the grass lands, till that time I was carrying two bags, I left the bags with them and got my back free. Now it was easy for me, I was almost like running; I don’t know what energy I got in body, I was in deep sense of happiness like always when I am with nature. It wasn’t as easy as we saw; the peak was going away from us as we climb. But finally we made it!! Yes!! We are here, where there is only the sky and Chembra peak above us! It was the result of our hard trek and determination. It took almost 1 hour to get on the top. The view was a breath taking one! One side the Thirunelly village and Kudak village in Karnataka on the other. The marvellous view of Shola forest and hills, border that divides Kerala and Karnataka felt like a jeep path, it is not allowed to cross that mark and the other side is controlled by the Karnataka government. Spent some beautiful time there, no rush of modern life just me my friends and my nature. It was wonderful. I started to climb down before them. They were in photo shoot, but I love to shoot it with my eyes and to store it in my memories. It was easy for me to climb down, took only 15-20 minutes to get down, Talal and Anup were waiting there near the watch tower, joined with them and took a short break and pumped a bottle of water. While were standing there we heard the sound of a waterfall somewhere in the shola forest. We decided to find it before others climb down. It was on the same route to Pakshipathalam. Sun was on our head, talking to each other about the beauty of this place, we didn’t care looking down, suddenly we heard a noise on the floor, and it was just near us in between the small shrubs, a beautiful fat Snake! It had beautiful black colour and yellow lines all over it. We shocked little bit and waited to see his movement, just looked on us and went his way. We were in a doubt whether to go ahead or not but we decided to go, after some hundred meters we found it, the water fall, but now it is a small stream, not much water, anyway it was cool and refreshing. I took some water in the bottle and poured it on my head!! Cool! It just made my head cooler!! Felt very fresh! We spent ten or fifteen minutes there and got back to the watch tower, by the time rest of them joined with us. Freddy and Azeem wanted to go to that water fall, they left and after few minutes we heard loud noise and they both were running like in 100 meter race, while running they were looking back and laughing. They heard the sound of something running out of the jungle, we all thought it is an elephant but it was a herd of spotted deer’s. It was nice to the deer’s, just coming out from shola and hiding into the other, they were about 6 or 7 and a baby too. After the short break we decided to go back. Getting down was much easier than climbing up. On the way we saw few birds like, babbler, scarlet minivet and the hornbill. We arrived at the base camp at 3 pm and all were hungry, had spicy lunch with Rajendran and said bye to him. Bus for departure was at 5.15 pm, Priyadarshini came at 4.45 pm and we all got in. It was the time to say good bye to Brahmagiri, we could see her behind us, within this time I fell in love with her and I think she too. I was feeling so sad to leave her alone there...But I was saying it again and again... “This is not the end, this is just the beginning”.
Posted on: Sat, 09 Aug 2014 05:33:31 +0000