Kolukkumalai Part 1 : When disappointments turned to excitements

 Kolukkumalai, its been two years I have gone there but the name still brings smile on my face and glow in my eyes. A hilly Hamlet in the Border of Tamilnadu and Kerala with World's highest tea estate, famous for it's beautiful sunrise and cloud blanketed valleys, and that was also the year and season of Neelakurinji bloom, which happens once in 12 years. Along with all these what made our trip even more Beautiful was that all the disappointments turned to exciting events . The name itself will bring those beautiful memories with all the scenes flashing in front of my eyes. 

 Me, Jay along with Jaswanth and his friends had reached Marayur the previous day, after a long journey from Hyderabad. The whole trip was Jaswanth's plan but trek to Kolukkumalai was my plan. I actually wanted to trek from Kurangani, but that route was banned due to a major fire accident happened that year, so left with only option, to trek from Suryanelli via tea estates which is also accessible via jeep ride. While the remaining gang chose Jeep, me and Jay chose to trek. So we started early than them. Our plan was to go in bus till Munnar, from there to Suryanelli in jeep and from suryanelli trek to Kolukkumalai. 

The day started with a big disappointment. It was around 5 am, still dark and cold, when me and Jay, with our backpacks, were rushing along the narrow lanes towards the bus stand to catch the first bus. Alas, the bus had just left and the next bus was only after 90 minutes. We stood there in dispair looking towards the road. Only tea shops were opened by then. Munnar is around 40 km south of Marayur. We sat beside the road thinking, what a bad start we had. By then, we did not know that our disappointment of missing the bus will turn into a roller coaster ride until we asked for a lift till Munnar.

That person who gave us lift was a middle aged man, with a dhothie and vibhoodi but he drove the car through the ghat roads with an unimaginable speed and ease.

This was our first surprise that ended us near another surprise, which was a huge beautiful waterfall amidst tea estate, which would have missed if we had gone in bus. Also we would have missed our first lift experience with strangers and interaction with the locals of the place who were warm and helpful. And also we reached earlier than with the bus. He dropped us beyond Munnar, only a few kms before Suryanelli. He guided us how to go till suryanelli and he left in the other route to visit his Elaichi farm .

We stood there for a moment, delightfully, enjoying the fresh breath of the morning, sat near the waterfall, had our breakfast, spent sometime with the workers cutting the tea leaves and we left towards Suryanelli. It was just 3kms and so we were playfully walking on the roads admiring the colorful flowers and breathing the fresh air. After a while we took a share auto and reached suryanelli  the starting point of the trek, around 9am.

Another disappointment was they were allowing only jeeps but we wanted to trek. The checkpost was crowded and busy, we somehow managed to get into the trail. From that moment, things have turned out even more beautiful as the day passed.

First we walked through the jeep trail, it showed 7kms in the map, it was actually a road that local people use for transit. After a while, we got bored walking on the road, so we decided to take shortcuts through the tea estate.

We does not know the exact route, the only thing we knew was that we need to go in the north east direction to reach the peak. we did not find anyone to ask for the route. Finally we spotted a house, kids were playing there, they gave us the directions.

Smart children who guided us

We followed their directions. It seemed like only we two of us were on the trail and the whole estate was for us to explore. As the tea estate is only of shrubs, we could see the whole range of estate, also the roads, so there was no worry of getting lost. We took a small break at a temple on the way, that had tall eucalyptus trees around, filling the air with its essence. As the kids said, we need to go to the other side of the hill, cross the hill and then climb it to reach kolukkumalai. 

Tea flower

Trails winding through the tea plantations

The air there was filled with Eucalyptus smell

Jay having his morning snack

We were not in a hurry, so leisurely hiked, crossed few streams, sat here and there enjoying the views, now we were completely off the jeep trail. We walked and walked and walked , it seemed never ending.we spotted the porcupine spines. Hills are beautiful and are patterned with bright colored tea shrubs on the lower slopes and dark colored tall trees at the upper level. As we climbed higher and higher, the whole estate seemed beautiful and it was getting colder. After a while, we connected to the jeep trail. we thought of going to sunset point first and then go to the camping site. In the map we could spot the sunset point just above us, also able to hear the voices of people, so instead of taking jeep trail we decided to climb up, but it was full of leeches and we couldnt find a way up too. so we had to come back and take the jeep trail.

After a long exciting day, our happiness was limitless on reaching the sunset point. It was a small strip at the top of the hill with valleys on both the sides. It was foggy and no scope to see sunset but it was a mesmerising moment as the fog was  touching us, moving fast and passing to the other side of the valley. 

One side was the tea estate through which have come and on the slopes there were beautiful neelakkurinjis. I descended the slope a bit to go near the flowers. 

The tea plantations through which have climbed

Neelakurinji

 The other side was a deep valley filled with fog.  As the fog started clearing we had a glimpse of a huge rocky mountain. It was a spellbounding sight. but the fog covered it immediately.

 
We sat there waiting for the fog to clear. People have come and gone but we waited. Finally after a long wait, Mother Nature had attended our wish and the fog cleared off completely, uncovering the Majestic beauty. There was no one except us and mountains. That moment was ecstatic, we were jumping like kids with overwhelming happiness.

admiring the beauty around while we were waiting for the fog to clear

Photo can never justify what we see in real

 Now the fog cleared completely that we could see the neelakurinjis even in the other side of the valley.

That purple patch was Neelakurinji flowers

 We thought that was the end of the surprises for the day . But no. As we started walking towards our campsite, it began to rain, we got drenched completely. Rain stopped after a while. It was becoming colder, and completely white with fog, the wind hustled through the trees and the valley that is right beside us was not visible. We could hardly see anything around. It felt dreamy to walk through the fog. It was around 6pm by the time we reached our campsite.

Our friends did not reach still. We were totally drenched in rain and were trembling with cold, we had some hot snacks, which was also our lunch. As the rain stopped and fog cleared, we thought of exploring the place. We were too excited that we would never seem to settle for the day. There we reached a view point , we could see nothing but the clouds, like a blanket covering the whole valley. And the sky was sparkling with the lightnings.

That place also had Neelakurinjis. The Dusk had made them more enchanting.

We reached the campsite from there, meanwhile our friends have reached, we had a stomachful meals and spent sometime at campfire, had some fun dance ,watching the lightenings and hearing the thunderstorms.

It was just one day of our life, the most memorable, that led us through the beautiful events and  immersed us in the gorgeous grace of life