This trip happened in August 2009. We wanted a break then. So we four guys planned to gather a Friday and go Thekkady. Sen and I had never gone to Thekkady before. Some of the colleagues who had gone Thekkady, discouraged us saying there is nothing to see except for that boat ride. As we had just two days at our disposal, (we couldn't make a long-route trip) we chose Thekkady.
With the help of google map we planned the route via Thoodupuzha, Moolamattam Idukki(to visit the Idukki dam) and reach Thekkady by afternoon. Spend till Sunday afternoon in Thekkady and visit Raamakkalmedu and head back Ernakulam.
Arun, as against the herd, is very punctual. He made us wake early on that Saturday and so, started the trip as planned. We reached Moolamattam earlier than we thought and had
our breakfast there. When asked for places in proximity, worth visiting, the hotel guy suggested the power station there and Wagamon; which he said is 15kms drive. As we had a full day at our disposal, we were privileged to make those visits. We visited the power station, but the guards didn't let us in, as special permissions are to be obtained to be in. All we saw was a long tunnel from outside which they say, leads to a seven storeyed building. They say its a sight to be seen. Huh, we thought we would do all these kind of special permissions some other day and come back, visit later. We then turned to Wagamon. The road was very narrow... just enough for two cars to pass by carefully. It was very foggy, leading to limited vision(our fog lamps were switched on full time). But I felt thrill driving through such hills in fog(I really like driving:-) ). This was a bus route and I had to do a lot of steering too and fro to let a bus pass by, at a turn. The bus driver too struggled a bit.
There were many small waterfalls in between where we stopped and posed for snaps. But suddenly we began noticing that its already past 20kms(as against the 15km theory of our hotel guy). I feared if we have lost the way and hence stopped by a passer-by and confirmed that we were in the right course. And we also learned that we were in the shortest path from Moolamattam and its no less than 40kms!!! Had we knew this, we wouldn't have diverted to Wagamon.. :-)... But the sights in between were very picturesque and need a very special mention. A landslide on the way made us wait for a while, by when we walked around and had a good feel of the place.
We reached Wagamon before noon. Wagamon is a small village with a beautiful panorama of completely shaven green hills. We spent more than an hour there and drove to a near by pine forest. Spent close to an hour there and steered to Kattapana. The route was flanked by scenic tea plantations. Slight drizzle coupled with fog slowed down our pace.
Reaching Kattappana we turned to Idukki to visit the dam; to conform to the plan we had chalked out earlier. It started raining heavily when we reached the gate of the dam. As vehicles are not allowed inside the premises, we parked our car in the compound just outside the dam and stayed inside till it stopped raining.
This dam is a real giant. No doubt why its the largest arch dam in India(Some say its the largest in Asia). Only twice a year(during onam and new year), this dam is opened for public... You can go atop then... One of the police men guarding the premises was very vociferous on the dam, explaining even the history and construction of the dam.
We later visited the associated Cheruthoni dam and left for Kumily. Half way, on reaching Kattappana we stopped for filling fuel and checking the tyre pressure. An inexperienced boy checked the tyre pressure and damaged the valve. When you fill air in a tubeless tyre, with high pressure in the pump, if you jerk the valve with a good physical force, chances are high that you break that sealing with the valve and the rim. We had to wait an hour to get it repaired.
When we reached Kumily it was almost 8... While Sujith and Sen hopped around to find a good stay, Arun and I happened to meet a forest guard who invited us to his office to explain the places we could visit.
He suggested doing a trekking into the deep forest rather than going for the usual boat ride and sightseeing. We too thought that's exciting than the usual chore.
As it was off season, we got a good room cheaply, which otherwise, goes for more than double of what we paid . We had dosa and chammanthi from a thattu kada and settled down in our room.
The next morning we reached Thekkady before 9. Thekkady is hardly 4km drive from Kumily. We paid for the trekking programme and the guard led us to a room where we put a special socks to protect from leeches. We were made to fill some statutory forms detailing our residence, contact and whom to contact in emergency as a precaution. We crossed the river on a bamboo raft along with the guard and stepped into the real forest. This is true excitement.... When you go deeper inside you feel as if you are on some NatGeo show of some dense forest. This forest is very dense. You have to leap across the fallen logs... tame the leading branches... with cobwebs clinging on your face.. Its real thrill. Occasionally we stop to shrug off the leeches that bind to our cloths...
We saw wild turkeys, giant squirrels and many birds that we had never seen. Lion tailed monkeys were a feast to watch. They make frightening sound when they are together. The guard explained the different behavior of different animals. According to him, bears are the most dangerous, for they attack human even if unprovoked. Tiger... he says is manageable.. as there are distances where a tiger doesn't come and attack. Even if this distance is breached, generally a tiger tries to avoid human rather than confronting as in the case of bears... Herd of wild buffaloes should always be avoided by not stepping on their way. Elephants, according to him are generally calm, unless you pose a threat to them. Lone elephants isolated from the herd is the most dangerous according to him.
We were warned about such a lone elephant wandering around, since a group that trekked the last day had spotted one. When we reached a marsh, the guard noticed a fresh footprint of an elephant; and with the number of footprints he quickly concluded that its off that loner.
We now, wanted to see that... the guard asked us to be quiet and he walked a little further leaving us there... later he asked us to join him and said that the elephant has gone deeper in..... or may be he wanted to avoid the elephant.. :-(.... Further up the hill we met a group of trekkers who had come from Europe. They were on Tiger Trail; a 3-4 day stay-in-jungle programme where you go deeper inside.
Trekking further, we saw a large herd of wild buffaloes from a close range resting calmly on a hilltop. All of us were still eager, though we had come a long way inside... no one of us felt tired... We kept on walking and reached the riverside... sat on the rocks there getting rid of the glued leeches... Sad...the guard said we will go no further now, as the allotted time was way over and has to report back... our trekking has ended by now and have to go back.. So after resting for a while we walked back to the station by a different route; but an easier one... While coming back, apart from monkeys I saw a long snake.. but by the time I called everyone it had fast vanished. We were lucky to have a guard like him. The usual 4 hr trek was stretched to 7-8 hr by him. He too was keen on us, as we were against the usual bunch he gets to handle, who after doing some, slow down and hesitate to do any further.
Trekking is the thing to do in Thekkady if you are physically good. We all decided we would come back again sometime in December/January to do a longer trekking deeper inside(nothing happened yet though..)... :-( . They say December to May is the best season to do trekking in Thekkady, as with no rains then, you stand a good chance to see animals. With all small marsh/water inlets dried up inside the dense, animals stay close to the river.
After the trek we left for our hotel, as we din't have much time with us to spend. Earlier, I had noted a detailed map of Idukki in the corridor of our hotel. We studied the map and thought we would take an unorthodox route to Cochin after doing Ramakkalmedu. Sen took a photo of the map, when I penned down the places on that special route we are going to explore.
We checked out of the hotel and sped to Ramakkalmedu... Ramakkalmedu is a border village with comparatively sparse flora. When you reach atop the hills there, you realize what its famous for.. strong winds.. as if it would fly you. We struggled well to beat the wind.. the cameras would shake.. or atleast you fear that it would fly off your hand.. :-)
You get a glimpse of Tamilnadu from the hilltop there and its a very drastic geographical change... with no hills.. just plain land.. and really sparse greenery.
It had already hit dusk when we were done with Ramakkalmedu. We then drove to Nedumkandam and headed north by the state highway to Pooppara. We turned left near Pooppara towards Rajakkad. We felt the way very isolated as we dint get to see any street light... any human settlement... just the woods and the road ahead flashed to us by the headlight.
Everything changed nearing rajakkad.. we started hitting the gutters... closed shops... (it was very late then).
