Two of us had managed to fight through the ugly turn of events that led to almost 5 guys opting out of the plan at the last minute. My plan toowas to explore the tribal hamlets of Shenbagathoppu by following a stream that comes to the dam. But wih just two, this was going to be tough. So, I switched to plan B at the last minute and decided to climb Kottaimalai and then proceed to Shenbagathoppu via a tribal trail midway. Looking at the way my friend was struggling with the steepness of the climb, I took a shortcut that took me straight into the jungle and this turned out to be rather excitin with all its wonderful views. After almost 40 minutes, I found a slipper inside the forest and when we walked towards it,we were out of the jungle within 5 minutes and back in the familiar Kottaimalai trail.After verifying with my maps, I found that this 45 minutes of pleasant walking had saved us almost an hour of a gruelling climb that had taken us almost 90 minutes of sweating. We soon reached thepeak and after a brief stay there, we sttarted our climb down. We took the trail to the dam and though the trail was like a road for the first ten minutes or so, soon, it changed into a perfect trek trail, like the one I had seen in Nagalapuram in a trek with CTC. The only difference was that there were plenty of thorns and we were always treated with plenty of pricks. Soon, we encountered a water stream and when we took a detour and followed it, we found a small but beautiful waterfalls! I am pretty sure that the place will be awesome in the rainy season and I am waiting to do a trek at that time :) We could not spend much time there thanks to some yellow jackets that were kinda giving us warning fly-bys. So, we fled the place fast andhit the trail again. After some time, we found a lake in the middle of the mountain...No words to explain the beauty of this place! It was surrounded by hills on all the sides and it looked really enchanting.
There was ample water in it and this surely made me sure of my third trek to this place...A perfect campsite, I would say. We took a few photos and resumed our trek and soon, we found a skull. I am not sure whether it is that of a horse or a cow but it was really a welcome sight in the trek. Within another 15 minutes or so, we reached the peak of another hill and we could see the dam below us with all its beauty. This is when the real fun started! The trail had disappeared into the bushes and I understood that there was no trail after that(a fact confirmed with the tribals whom I met later) and if we had to get down, we would have to fight our way through those merciless thorns and a steep slope.We kept descending and this was the only time in my 8 years of trekking experience that I had to struggle with these much thorns. For every step I took, I got at least one or two thorn prick. We even had to crawl on the ground and walk on four legs to get down at times. Some how, we reached a place from where the base of that hill was just some 50 meters or so. But, this is when we faced a serious problem. There was no way we were going to get down that 50 meters of almost 90 degree vertical slope without proper equipments. Even if we managed to get down safe(which was highly unlikely) we would have to either swim for some distance in the dam orwalk for some 2 kilomters in an even worse looking bushy landscape. So, we decided to climb up and look for another way. This was when we saw some tourists in the dam. We shouted for help and they too shouted in return but they were of the opinion that someone was drowning in the dam and inspite of trying to signal them, they quickly fled thescene. Cheated, we resumed out climb up. Now, we saw an electric post and we follwed the current wire for some time. Now we were faced with another situation. There was a 25 meter climb and my friend was too tired to climb it. Suddenly, I saw some oat poop lying there and I could see some goats on the top of that rockface. They were moving fast, so I decided to leave my friend(I promised him that I will be back soon after finding the trail). Adrenalin was pumping heavily and I quickly made a dash across that rockface within 10 seconds(my friend later told me that I resembled a lizard while doing that). I then shouted for help and was damn happy to hear someone.I asked him to wait saying that we were lost. He said something like "Aaaan...seri paa...seekram vaa..nan aadu otnum". So, I went back and somehow managed to make my friend climb that rock face. We then followed his voice and soon met a tribal man. He laughed when I showed him my GPS and then said that there was no trail there and even they consider it as risky. He then spoke well with us for some ten minutes and then showed us the direction. We thanked him and proceeded along that way, and we saw some strange looking tribal setups. I am still trying to find out what they are. Then we saw a good footpath and within 10 steps...we were there at the dam! Yipee. We had made it!!! All thanks to that shepherd :)The dam was really beautiful and looked awesome. Here we found another family. We asked them the way to Padavedu village and they told us that it was a long way and asked us to go back in the way we had come. Arunachalan laughed like hell and explained to him the way we had come. They all had a good laugh and gave us a look. I deeply believe that they felt that we were plain stupids by that look they gave us. We walked for some time along the road that leads to Padavedu and saw some tribal hamlets there. Pretty soon, we found an auto there. For forty bucks, he dropped us at Padavedu and from there, we proceeded to Parvathamalai for a devotional trip. Jawadhu-Mission Accomplished :)Hoping to do a part 3 in the monsoon season.
There was ample water in it and this surely made me sure of my third trek to this place...A perfect campsite, I would say. We took a few photos and resumed our trek and soon, we found a skull. I am not sure whether it is that of a horse or a cow but it was really a welcome sight in the trek. Within another 15 minutes or so, we reached the peak of another hill and we could see the dam below us with all its beauty. This is when the real fun started! The trail had disappeared into the bushes and I understood that there was no trail after that(a fact confirmed with the tribals whom I met later) and if we had to get down, we would have to fight our way through those merciless thorns and a steep slope.We kept descending and this was the only time in my 8 years of trekking experience that I had to struggle with these much thorns. For every step I took, I got at least one or two thorn prick. We even had to crawl on the ground and walk on four legs to get down at times. Some how, we reached a place from where the base of that hill was just some 50 meters or so. But, this is when we faced a serious problem. There was no way we were going to get down that 50 meters of almost 90 degree vertical slope without proper equipments. Even if we managed to get down safe(which was highly unlikely) we would have to either swim for some distance in the dam orwalk for some 2 kilomters in an even worse looking bushy landscape. So, we decided to climb up and look for another way. This was when we saw some tourists in the dam. We shouted for help and they too shouted in return but they were of the opinion that someone was drowning in the dam and inspite of trying to signal them, they quickly fled thescene. Cheated, we resumed out climb up. Now, we saw an electric post and we follwed the current wire for some time. Now we were faced with another situation. There was a 25 meter climb and my friend was too tired to climb it. Suddenly, I saw some oat poop lying there and I could see some goats on the top of that rockface. They were moving fast, so I decided to leave my friend(I promised him that I will be back soon after finding the trail). Adrenalin was pumping heavily and I quickly made a dash across that rockface within 10 seconds(my friend later told me that I resembled a lizard while doing that). I then shouted for help and was damn happy to hear someone.I asked him to wait saying that we were lost. He said something like "Aaaan...seri paa...seekram vaa..nan aadu otnum". So, I went back and somehow managed to make my friend climb that rock face. We then followed his voice and soon met a tribal man. He laughed when I showed him my GPS and then said that there was no trail there and even they consider it as risky. He then spoke well with us for some ten minutes and then showed us the direction. We thanked him and proceeded along that way, and we saw some strange looking tribal setups. I am still trying to find out what they are. Then we saw a good footpath and within 10 steps...we were there at the dam! Yipee. We had made it!!! All thanks to that shepherd :)The dam was really beautiful and looked awesome. Here we found another family. We asked them the way to Padavedu village and they told us that it was a long way and asked us to go back in the way we had come. Arunachalan laughed like hell and explained to him the way we had come. They all had a good laugh and gave us a look. I deeply believe that they felt that we were plain stupids by that look they gave us. We walked for some time along the road that leads to Padavedu and saw some tribal hamlets there. Pretty soon, we found an auto there. For forty bucks, he dropped us at Padavedu and from there, we proceeded to Parvathamalai for a devotional trip. Jawadhu-Mission Accomplished :)Hoping to do a part 3 in the monsoon season.
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