Kollimalai (Kolli Hills) Trip

Peak summer.. no nearby places are good to visit by now. Already visited Ooty and Kodaikanal, Places in Kerala, they are somewhat unique, so not interested really. Asked some of my friends, they are hesitant to go to anyplace, fearing that there won't be any good to see at this time. Might be they are right, but how that will soothe my itch :-) Google-ji show me mercy ..... all of a sudden I remembered the plan which I had thought last year to go to Puliancholai and Pachaimalai near Tiruchi. Aha, I found a blog about Kollimalai the other side of Pachaimalai, seems to have lot more attractions. Thats it ... I am in the game ..

Saturday morning 3.50 AM, as usual got a departing ceremony by my street dogs. Within 15 mins reached Silkboard junction, continued towards Hosur. This is one of the busy roads I ever saw. Infected by heavy vehicles, not at all good for two wheelers. I wonder how my friends are commuting to office daily through this road. Not only traffic, due to the fly over construction and dust, this place looks like Swargaloga (Heaven) always. After Hosur, roads are excellent, you don't need to go inside any towns on the way, all towns can be avoided by traveling over the bridges along the way. Just before Dharmapuri you will spot Adyar Anandha Bhavan(A2B) hotel in the right side of the road, this is the best place to have food. Reached Salem by 8.50AM, journey continues towards Rasipuram - Kalappanayakkan patti. After 8 Kms from KN Patti, you will reach downhills of Kollimalai. Have a break here under the mango trees, and cool down your engine too. Here starts the zig-zag journey.

Totally 70 hairpin bends, 1200/1300 meters above MSL. I have never seen 70 hairpin bends in any of my previous travels, but this one is not difficult to negotiate as well. When climbing up you will find a view point, where you can see the downhills very clearly. There is a small town on top of the hill called Chemmedu(Red mound, not Redmond .. ha ha) , for stay we need to go another 3 Kms. I don't want to repeat every details already available in internet here, please go through the following wiki page,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolli_Hills.
I don't see much tourists, other then local gangs who just come there to spend their day and escape from their wives torture :-) This place is definitely not like Ooty or any other hill station, which are highly infected by tourists. Only problem here is finding a decent lodge with good service. There are some lodges but the service is totally worse. Nobody seems promoting the tourism good, things are happening just for sake. I met Manimaran, who seems really well understood the problem and now builds an accommodation there with all facilities. Hopefully it will be ready by this April end. There are numerous trekking routes, he planned to provide the tourists with all the guidance they need for trekking and site seeings.

Reached the lodge by 1 PM. Have got no time, just started with my guide Elango. We planned to go to the waterfall first, it is 11 Kms from Chemmedu, you need to stop the vehicle in Arapaleeswarar temple, this is lord Siva temple, built by king Valvil Ori. After climbing down 1300+ steps you will reach the waterfall, it is called Aaagaya Gangai (Ganga from the sky), looking at the top of the fall I concluded that the name is a perfect match. Water is so cool, if you want to bath you need to swim across the poll which is of 7 Meters minimum, there is one more way in which you need to jump across rocks, monsoon time there is no way to reach the fall. We need to just stay away and see the majestic view!! I believe it is falling from the height of 90+ meters. People who does not know swimming can bath in the pool with caution, just stay in the start of the pool. Even if you use mugs for bathing you will feel the same as the bath in fall. Really the water was so refreshing.

We started climbing up, after 100 steps, you will find a way in the left side, jump across the side wall and get inside the forests. There is a trekking trial with yellow & red arrow marks which leads to Pampatti Siddhar Kugai(The cave in which Snake charming Sage stayed). 30 Mins of trek you will reach a rock, in white paint they have written the name in Tamil, opposite to that writeup you will find the cave, in which only one can go inside at a time, beware of bats. Just to satisfy our curiosity we trekked further down another 30 mins, and the route does not end there, people said it leads further down to another cave called Agasthiar Kugai. Sun is almost about to leave, so we planned to return back, return journey until the concrete steps took us another 50 mins or so. Actually we were climbing fast, this trek is not recommended for people who are not physically fit. After reaching top we had bath one more time in another fall which is near to the temple. The temple is too old and structures are not changed a bit. We had a soup there called Aatukal Soup which is made up from a root of some tree, it does 100% resembles the Goat leg soup. You can get bananas(some unique variety), Pineapple, Guava and honey here.

There are some temples on the way, as we had no time we rushed back to lodge. Night was with moderate temperature and heavy winds whooping around. Manimaran asked me to stay near the lake with a camp fire, I said no, because I had no one to talk, thought it would be boring. There is a local guy who prepared Chicken biriyani (an excellent preparation) for dinner. After dinner I moved to lodge and slept at around 11.50 PM. Next day morning my guide Elango came to room around 9AM, we first visited an artificial lake made for boating, it is not impressive anyway. Botanical garden, which is not opened for tourists yet. Inside the garden there is route getting ready for a view point, dont miss it when you go. Its really worth to see. We comeback to another place called Seekuparai, there is a view point and fire watch tower. It is an excellent view point. But these view points are not really thrilling, because it is reachable by road. Unless you trek and see it you won't realize the beauty of it.

After having lunch in my friends house, I parted my guide. Now I joined with Manimaran and Selvam who is a local guy done his MA in Psychology and now a farmer, we started climbing down at around 1.30PM. Bought some rice over there which is called Type2 (Bran is not removed), Pineapples and Honey. In the middle I stopped in A2B, at 10.45PM reached home safe by 10.45 PM. It was just two days, I can't believe it. I know I had missed lots of places, by next time I will plan for 4/5 days, so that I can explore Kolli hills better.

Route & Distance chart:

Some interesting facts about Kolli:

If you stand under the Jack fruit tree, you will feel the drizzles .. it is actually an insect which extracts the water from the tree and spits :-) People cultivate pepper under these trees, they grow better then the one cultivated in other places due to the constant spraying of water.

Seeni Kolli (Killer of sweetness) is just part of a plant, once consumed will disable your taste buds which senses the sugar temporarily.

Mekedattu the Destination

Have you ever noticed the amount of smoke exhausted from auto rickshaws in Bangalore ? Probably you are! I had never seen that much amount of smoke in Heavy trucks and JCBs on the way to Hosur road. Emission test norms are only for poor motor cyclists. To delay cardiopulmonary diseases like pneumonia and to increase your blood oxygen level is to visit Mekedattu, a place filled with fresh air. I really lost the counts of how many times I had visited this place, but it is not less then ten times for sure. Had visited this place in all seasons, have seen almost all faces of Mekedattu. For me this is one of the ideal place for any one to spend his day in peace and happiness.

Roughly eighty Kms from Bangalore, 33 Kms from Kanakapura, an ideal weekend gateway. Roads are very nice except the one located inside Kanakapura. Remembering a Tamil movie scene, in which one guy keeps on failing in 10th grade for more then 3 times, his father explains to his friends about his son's greatness like, "Avan padithan(past), padikiran(present) and Padippan(future), he is laying a strong foundation .. It is very similar to Kanakapura road work as well. Anyway after Kanakapura roads are really good, so no worries. But I never miss Thattai Idli(Flat Idli) and Green gram dhal chatni in Kanakapura hotels. After 20Kms from Kanakapura the landscape changes from plain lands to mountains, after 30kms you will find yourself inside a small ghat road which will last for 2 kms. Thats all, you will be in plains again, this place is called Sangaman(Confluence), where river Kaveri and Arakavarhi merges here. Its better to start early from Bangalore, and be first to reach, if you do so you can enjoy the river in silence. Total travelling time would be 2 to 3 Hours. On the way you will never miss a board named "Way to Chunchi falls", most of the summer it will be dry, worth visiting monsoon times.

If you go by rainy season you might fail to realize how dangerous the river is, the surface of the river will be completely covered by water and the uneven shaped rocks will be hidden inside it. Nature does not have any mercy to whom does not respect the rules of it, if you violate the rules of nature, and wanted to be too adventurous please find some other place. There are many predecessors who tried and failed, you can see their names in boards :-( Hopefully we are going there to get some peace, but not permanent peace !! Because of the rocks on the way, this place has lots of swirls and currents. Don't underestimate the force of the water, though you know swimming. It is completely different if you go by summer, you can see the naked rocks everywhere, and water level dips to 4 to 6 feets in most of the places and its very ideal for waterplay activities.



After crossing the river in Sangama, in the other bank you will find a Jeep trial which leads to a place called Mekedattu. The distance is almost 4/5 Kms. Most prefer to walk to that place, but Jeep/Mini bus service is available. So whats special in Mekedattu ? If you walk on that trail you will notice the river flows between two mountains, which just looks like a canyon. One early morning walk in this trail I had seen a deer, few mongooses and a fox. At one place the distance between two banks of the river is just 20 feet. Thats why its called Mekedattu, in Kannada language Meke->Goat, Dattu->Jump, locals meant that a goat can jump across the great Kaveri river at this point. This place will be good if you visit by rainy season, enormous amount of water gushes through this ravine, an awesome view!! You will never miss to wonder the smoothness of the rocks here, they are polished by water. There is a round hole in the rock which is of 10 feet, good enough to push a man inside it.

Jeep trial does not stop in Mekedattu, so where does it lead to ? There is a fishing camp which is another 25 mins of walk from Mekedattu, most of them who visit here would be foreign nationals, I came to know that per day stay in this camp costs around 8000 INRs, I am not 100% sure about this, please verify it yourself. On the way to fishing camp there is a way(right turn) leads to the downhills, in which you will find a nice beach. It seems this place is used by the Fishing camp visitors. You can get an awesome view of the river here. I could spot elephant dung everywhere in this spot, mostly they are active here during nighttime. I don't know how many tourists have explored this place, but I hope it is not polluted as like the river near Sangama. Be aware of broken glass in Sangama, tourist come here just to drink and break the bottles in the river. I really don't understand why the government has not even put a single board about littering. Whenever I go there I will try to find the broken glass pieces on my way and take them out of river, I can not do much.

One time I had started from Bangalore with some of friends by 12.20AM and reached Mekedattu by 3AM. Just we slept in the river for some time, Sorry I have no words to explain that, please try yourselves !!