Yelagiri Trekk

This was one of my more memorable trips for a couple of reasons
1) We took a train instead of bus to reach the destination (there by gaining on time and speed )
2) Trekking was the only thing we wanted to do ..( I love trekking in the woods )

The Journey
============
We had to catch the 6.30 am "Lalbagh express" from Bangalore station.Our destination was "Jolarpettai" and from there a one hour ride to "Yelagiri" hills.
It was great to get up early in morning and (4.30 am ;-) ) and reach the station on time(around 5.30 am)


This train has no sleeper seats ( its a 6 hr journey to chennai ).. but one needed to reserve tickets in advance to get a confirmed seat.

The journey was quiet comfortable although I close my eyes as soon as the train left Bangalore station and opened just before we reached Jolarpettai ) .From there we got a direct bus to Yelagiri hills at 9.15 am.

A couple of things i observed in the bus

a) therez always a seat reserved for the conductor (who most often than not insists that no one occupies it )

b) the bus fare are very very low( thats a hallmark in tamilnadu ) like for a 40 km trip to yelagiri we were charged Rs 8 per head.

Yelagiri Hills
============
We got down at the "punganoor lake" which is also called Yelagiri lake.

This is at the central point in the city.
We figured we would have to go to "Mangalam"(3-4 km from this point ) and then from Mangalam have a 4 km trek to "swamy malay" hill top(Our destination).
We could have taken a bus to Mangalam but heck we have come here to trek so we decided to hike our way to the place.

The road was quiet empty and we were surrounded by small hillocks.Though it was sunny and quiet warm but the weather was quiet cool (Yellagiri is a hill station)
We found many trek paths but we weren't sure were they would lead and since we didn't know the place well ( we didn't know from where the trek to swami malay starts or in that case where is swamy malay hill ) we decided to be honest and stick to the road.


We kept on walking walking and walking with very few folks comming out on the road.
In fact we reached Mangalam village and kept on walking until ,seeing the surroundings badri got a doubt if we were indeed on the right path.



It was 10.30 am ,almost 1 1/2 hr of hike , we decided to check with one of the locals about SWAMI MALAY.
We were quite shaken to know that we had already missed the trekk starting point + we would have to have enough water with ourselves.
Each of us had one ...that would be enough we thought ...and retracked some portion of our hike to reach the starting point of the trekk



The Beginning
==========
The sun was beating down on us but luckily we have the breeze to keep us high.
We were quiet tired when we reached the beginning of the path but decided to carry on.


Our destination was a small mobile tower at top of a hill.
Here u could see a faint image of the tower on the left side of the cloud( try zooming the image)

Easy damn easy ..it would take 30-40 min to reach there and be back ..I thought.We decided even if we couldn't find a trek path we would go for a direct SUMMIT ASSAULT (Aka Mount Everest)

We recharged ourselves with few gulps of water and some candy bars (Kit-kat to be precise ).The breeze was not very stiff but enough to refresh us and being surrounded by hills from all the sides enthuised the adventurer within us.

Set Sail !!!! We began our trek.

The TREK
==========
The watch showed 11.00 am .Still lots of time ..i thought.
On the way we found a weird tree with a cave like opening in its trunk.

Inquisitively i went inside it to find the whole tree quiet hollow and a strem of spiders ( not the fat one the lean ones )rushing towards me ;-)Now i didnt want any of those crazy thing to get inside my shirt or pant( for obvious reasons ;-) ) We jumped out the trunk and continued on our way to the summit.

It was a very exhilarating trek and when ever we had to choose between two path divergence we choose the one that took us higher ....Latter we found out we took a totally new path and kind of unexplore way ( YE!!! WE discovered a new path ;-) )

Making our way thru the shrubs and rocks we came accross a small village.There were wierd figures draw on the rocks ...and also a temple dedicade to the Snake Lord.

Dang!!! I always wanted to hold a King Cobra in the wild( thats one of the items in my bucket list ;-) ) .Will this be my lucky day i thought ;-) ... not sure badri had the same enthu about that though ;-)

The trekk path itself was a mix of stright paths and steps


We kept marking our paths on our way just in case we get lost we could have some way to retrack our way back.
As we treked thru the steps the breeze brought with it melodies from parrots and koyal(Eudynamys Scolopacea).Probably they were excited on seeing new visitors.

Hop Hop a black goat jumped in front of us and gave us a wierd stare....like "what kind of species are they ".....it kept maay maayiing ;-) signaling its folks some where in the woods.We race towards it and it immediatly vanished in the bushes.
Phew!! its gone we thought.Who would want to mess with a goat that too in this wood.As soon as we crossed a few more steps the goat jumped back behind us and again gave us that "WHO THE HELL ..." stare .We were getting quiet tired from climbing the steps and thought the best would be to ignore it.

I looked at my watch .It was 12.30 am. What!! i thought we could have finished our trek by 111.40 am but we are still going on and on and on.


no sign of the end of steps nor of the tower......"Shall we go back" ..i thought nooo!! having come so far no point going back.
since we had to catch a bus back to Jolarpetti at 400 pm and also since we didn't know where /what /how we can get the bus form Yelagiri we decided that no matter what we would go one for another 30 min and at 1.pm we would turn back.

we rested for some time ...gulped in more water and finished up our food reserves ...OK!!no more breaks for another 30 min .... At least lets try to reach as close as possible to the summit..
we started climbing the endless stairs again.
Sanke or bear i was in no mood to look out for them.

The view was getting amazing and i knew we were moving towards the top but how far ....?
My whole of the shirt was soaked with sweat and now due ot the sweat i was felling more thirsty and hungry.

I knew the return jurney would be quick but a bit risky as one wrong foot on the steep would hurrle me down into the bushes...Anyways thats the headache when
we retun Now we must reach the top .....else how will i ever have a go at mount everest ( this is alos one of the items in my bucket list ;-) )


Then all of sudden the steps stopped and ended on a huge rock ....wherez the further path ? we jumped over the rock and look around.
BINGO!!! a wonderful wonderful view of the landscape greeted us up.Words could not explain it.we saw three layes of hills one after another and in between the hill
on which we were and adjacent hill there was a deep gorge filled in mist .The trees with colorful leave were dancing to the symphony of the bird's chirps.

The cool breeze crashed into our warm and sweaty faces so as to wipe out any tiredness and invite us to join the celebration.

It was as if the breeze was inviting me to fly ....and there we saw our destination ...rigt in front of us... the mobile tower as if saying .."U got mee "

Benath it was a small temple dedicated to lord shiva.

We went inside the temple( it was cave like ) and after offering our obeyance the priest guided us to a near by view point ... a samll ladder on top of a big rock

We climebd this ladder ( this wasnt easy the ladder is not placed properly ) and our view broadened .The vast view of trees on covering the hills as if they were hiding some thing .

We rested for some time on the rocks and enjoyed the absoulte solitude and calmness ....there was a deep connection between us and the forest deep below... for a moment

.Any ways after a well deserved rest we started our jouney back

The Descent
============
The descent was quicker and easy though it was quiet dangerous at some places.The time was 1.30 pm and we were getting thirsty.With no more water left ,we thought of buying some water bottles at the village.We reached the base of the hill by 2.00 pm and franatically searched for any shops or kiosks for water ... but alas no one had water.Upon asking the local we were told that there was a bus for Jolarpet at 3.00pm for a near by point (1-2 km ) ...we decided to walk to that point and hope fully we would find some shop that sold water bottles.

We walked and walked and found a couple of kiosks .But Water was not there.
We reached the point from where we could board the bus ..it was 2.45 pm and we were still looking for drinking water.Badri notice a "YELAGIRI SUPER MARKET ".
Atlast !!! we though a super market SHOULD have water bottles or atleast some cool drink or juice.
We entered the super market( it was a very small room...donno why it was called a super market).The fellow inside said" Sorry saar water bottle ,cool drinks ella "
aghrrrr!!!! how do people cope up with this .... i thought.With no other option we waited for the bus near a kiosk beneath a tree still thirsty.

The WORLD'S BEST COFFEE
======================
Thirsty and tired we waited for the bus to arrive.It was 3.15 pm now.No sign of the bus and we were becoming more tired just waiting for the bus.A small kid was playing with a bottle
of water and i felt very pained when he just threww the water away on the ground ;-) .....
None of the kiosks were even serving Tea ...I was quiet desparte to get some liquid into my dry mouth ...and then it happened....An oldlady entered into the kiosk with a can of milk and gave coffee to a couple of local guys ....Dang!!!!we asked for 2 cups of Tea but Tea wasnt there in the menu ...so we agreed to have coffee ...
and believe me folks that was the best coffee I ever had or will ever have.... i mean it wasnt so much about the quality of the coffee but the milk and coffee was like an oasis in a barren hot desert.temporarily i went into a temporary trance ;-) enjoying every sip that i took.I went for another cup of coffee ,totally refreshed.

The bus atlas arrived at 4.00 pm.

We hopped into the bus ..reached jolarpetti by 5.15 pm and caught the "Lalbagh Express" to Bangalore at 6.55 pm.We reached Bangalore by 9.19 pm and by 11.00 pm we were
back in our rooms tired but fully excited and mesmerized by the whole trip.We crashed into our beds for a wonderful lazy and deep sleep.

For pics

Yellagiri