The streams of Vellagavi - An exploratory trek

"Keep running straight anna", I screamed on the phone. "Do not turn, I can see you", Deepak and I were simultaneously running towards the bus to Dindigul that had already started moving. Finally, Ranjith anna saw us and we three hopped into the bus. We spent about an hour talking about college and I kept hoping that none of my college faculty were in that bus by any chance. 

The next morning, we woke up at Dindigul from where we boarded a bus to Kodaikanal. We had selected this place for our trek just the previous noon. En route Kodaikanal, we saw the Rat-tail falls in a pretty dried up state. I was excited that it would be a perfect opportunity to trek to its top but this happiness was shortlived as we soon realised that it was the golden-orange rays of the early morning sun that had caused this illusion. After some discussions on whether to proceed to Perumalmalai or Vellagavi, we settled for the latter as I had encountered some beautiful streams on the way the previous time and it looked like a prospective place for future treks.

After having our breakfast at a roadside restaurant, we started hiking towards Vattakanal through a village shortcut. We had to cross the now abandoned Hindustan Unilever factory that was shut down in 2001 due to high levels of mercury pollution. I recommend that you read the full story here. After a brief trek inside the woods, we came to the Vattakanal falls and Pambar falls which is frequented by couples who give poses from the top of either of the falls. We also encountered two snakes on the way.

We then did a road-hike to Pillar rocks and Guna caves through the Kodaikanal Golf Course. We were not very impressed by both the places and the monkeys on the prowl made us retreat from there as soon as possible. Also, it was so crowded and some places looked a lot like the famed Ranganathan Street of T-Nagar. The return, we felt was a lot faster, partly due to the drizzles that brought the temperature down. 

We were now back at Vattakanal and we silently sneaked into the Vellagavi trail without catching the attention of any tourist present there. Now, this part of the trail from Vattakanal(Dolphin's Nose) to Vellagavi is not very great barring the views and one or two water points in the trail. So we proceeded at a pretty good pace and reached Vellagavi by evening.

There was some temple festival happening at Vellagavi and the loudspeakers were playing blaring music. So, we spent a few minutes in the village and quickly went to the outskirts of the village where we camped in a small open ground. Two villagers helped us in pitching our tent improvised from tarpaulin. They also asked us if we needed food but we politely declined as Deepak had brought bread for that night's dinner. We didn't want to disturb them or the festival as they have a lot of age-old traditions(Consider this-footwear is prohibited inside the village). The weather looked umpromising as we heard thunder and saw flashes of lightning around us. It was also beginning to rain so we went and took shelter inside our tent. We could see the clouds rolling in towards Vellagavi. We started to open our food covers when we realised what Deepak had actually meant by "Neraya bread irukku". There were about 15 slices of bread that was supposedly our evening snack, dinner and the next day's breakfast. This was way too less by even my standards! Luckily, we had a few apples, oranges and other fruits so we somehow managed that night. 

Just when we started to fall asleep inside our sleeping bags under the warmth and protection of our tent, the tent gave away. The villagers had used some sticks and rocks to pitch the tent and this couldn't bear the wind that had started to blow. So, we had to pitch the tent again and this time, we made sure that we used a lot of rope. I stepped in with my knowledge of knots and camping that I had learnt in my early trekking days. We made sure that we used plenty of rope in the proper way in tying guidelines so that the tent wouldn't give away to the winds.

When we got into our tent, we found a blanket worm crawling near my sleeping bag. I prayed that I shouldn't wake up the next day with bad itches on my body and dozed off inside my warm sleeping bag.

The next day, we woke up pretty early and saw the sun rise from a nearby farm whose owner had been gracious enough to show aroud the place. We got back and woke up Ranjith anna from his slumber. After packing our bags and bidding adeau to the villagers, we resumed our trek. We were now heading downhill to Kumbakarai. To avoid the Forest dept. officials and heavy water flow at the Kumbakarai falls, we had to take a small diversion at the end of the trail and get out through a different route. I knew this thanks to my previous trek here when two local villagers had showed me the way. However, I didn't remember where this diversion was, so I checked with some people and proceeded. Now, this was the trek that I was very eager about. There are plenty of streams and springs on the way and I trekked more along the streams rather than the usual trekking trail. And man! It paid off. We discovered a lot of fabulous falls hidden from the regular trekkers who always trekked on the well beaten path.

"Do not go where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave the trail."

We even saw a small cliff where the entire rock stretch was covered in small blue flowers. In one particular place, we just turned and ran as Deepak spotted a big wasp nest. We took plenty of breaks and stopped and took photographs wherever we wanted to. It had taken me a little more than an hour during my previous trek here but this time, thanks to all the exploration and the fun in water, we spent close to five and a half hours on the same trek! After nearing the exit point, we had some doubt as to whether we had crossed the diversion so we backtracked about 20 minutes of trekking. Except that, this time we were running to save time! When we neared the stream where I had met the villagers the last time, I called up an auto-driver to verify the trail directions(for the diversion that would save us from the Forest Dept personnel and the floods at Kumbakarai). He asked us to proceed right from where there would be an ascent. We proceeded and after some gruelling ascent, we founf ourselves climbing a nearby mountain. I was pretty sure that it wasn't remotely associated to the real trail so I went back down to try and get some help. Luckily, I found a group of ladies who were on their way back from Vellagavi after the festival. They showed us the directions and even gave me some water and black coffee. 

My team had also descended by now and we proceeded to walk towards the exit. We later found the diversion and I was shell shocked on seeing it. The auto driver had asked us to turn right near an "odai"(the Tamil equivalent of a stream) with a big "paarai"(a rock). All that was present in this direction was a small one foot piece of stone and the sound of some stream in the vicinity. I didn't know if I had to laugh or feel angry. We had spent about 90 minutes running up and down the mountains all because of the wrong landmarks! But looking back at it now, it was fun :)

We then caught a bus to Dindigul where we went in search of the famous Dindigul Thalapakatti restaurant. This restaurant has numerous branches in Chennai and has an awesome ambience at almost every branch. Shockingly, the parent branch in Dindigul was a small cramped room that had about 8 or 9 tables. People were waiting in a line outside. Even the taste wasn't particularly good and the service was also poor. Almost everyone who was seated there had to change their order as most of them were out of stock. Even the food had to brought from across the road. I wish the administraion paid some attention to this parent branch as well.

That night, after some mad crowd rush at the Trichy bus stand thanks to the extended weekend, we somehow got into a bus towards Chennai. The best part-it was an AC bus that had no AC!