Cold

Bangalore
Luckily, it didn't rain at all that night. Seeing the drizzle earlier before we settle down, I was wondering how we would stay dry the whole night, especially when the temperature was dipping. Without much dialogues and discussions, each one of us had found safe and 'comfortable' places to stretch on various boulders.

Thomas and Anoop had again become the wonderful resource persons. Gauging the importance of the heat and light considering the whole night in front of us, they had dragged in a huge wood. The fallen tree was stuck between rocks probably during the previous monsoon.

"half baked - half frozen!"

Probably for the first time, I felt happy to be in the company of a smoker. If not for Thomas who smokes his beedi often, we wouldnt have had a match stick to set fire to the wood! Even though we were all unimaginabily tired and calf muscles were literally withering away after ten hours of trek during the day, none of us realy slept because of the cold. The boulders were getting colder and colder by night and it became almost impossible to even sit on it.

After twenty minutes effort, we managed to set fire to the thick wood which lasted for the whole night. It saved us from elephants (fire keep the elephants away!) and we had some of our colleaugues literally lying down on top of it by the beginning of the next day!

© GP 2007

Helicopter rescue!

Bangalore

Before settling down on the huge rocks, Thomas made one last ditch effort to climb on to the nearby hill to get an idea of the location. He was certain that the Soochipara waterfalls was just nearby, may be just behind the mountain in front of us.

While rest of the team waited down, Thomas and I climbed on to see only many more other mountains ahead of this one! As it got darker, it became important that we climb down at the earliest and figure out how we are going to spend the whole night. It was damp, cold, and dark.

We had ran out out of food except for some bananas and we decided to keep it with us and go for the endurance test. All our muscles were hurting so badly that no one wanted to walk around again looking for dry leaves and wood to set fire.

"It wasn't that bad. We had loads of fun too".

In another 5 minutes, Thomas came back shouting that he had found the trek path!

He saw foot prints. He saw bamboos cut down for ladders by the honey combers. It didn't take another ten minutes for us to come down after checking the route. The thick smell of elephant dung, cold and darkness inside the wood was so scary that we decided not to risk any more and instead settle down on one of those boulders in the middle of the river.

AB was worried about not being able to send a message to his office in Bangalore, Thomas and Anoop was worried about not being able to convey the message to their family that they are safe. My concern was about VT and rest of the team waiting for us at the waterfalls with the jeep to pick us up wondering what had happened to us. Since we had gone into the forest with permission, definitely the forest department will be notified that we are missing, and that the whole area will have thousands of stories about The Blue Yonder team that went for location scouting and got lost in the forest!

Apart from the jokes we were making about VK and Arun coming in a helicopter to save us, that was probably one of the worst nights we ever spent inside the forest.

© GP 2007

In the middle of nowhere!

Bangalore

Don't know if it was my training in disaster management or just sheer common sense, that I had started looking for a safe place to camp by 3.30pm. Even after an hour we trekked according to the information we had and the direction we reconfirmed with Velutha, there was an uneasy feeling about the trek route. It was obvious that not many had trekked this path in recent days.

Decreased light, hovering rain clouds and trumpets of wild elephants from all possible places (later we realised it was the echo because of the huge boulders) didn't give me confidence at all to trek any further. Being the leader of the group, Thomas didn't show much panic, but it was kind of obvious that he was lost when we reached the huge boulders that should ideally lead us to the Soochipara waterfalls.

"where to go?"

It started drizzling and slippery rocks were the last thing we needed at that time. The moment I saw fear in Thomas's face, I decided to take charge of the situation. While climbing from one boulder to another I had noticed couple of places that we could convert as safe shelter.

I wasn't looking at a shelter for the night, but more than that, I just wanted to ensure that we were on a height unreachable to elephants and be on a safe plain where there was no chance of a flash flood hitting us in the middle of the night!

© GP 2007

Velutha

'Velutha' the tribal chief had the most intriguing features I have seen in Kerala. He was very short, had Mongolian features, and few long hairs which couldn't really be called as moustache! His language was a mixture of Malayalam and tribal dialect and was such a great guy for all the warmth he was showing on us. We shared our food and asked him about the route to Soochipara from where we were standing.


Which way? Kalakkapuzha

I still remember the way he was laughing for every single question we asked. Those were really stupid questions, but well we didn't hesitate to ask to get some indigenous knowledge ;)

*Are there elephants here? (Yes of of course!)
*Will they chase you? (He he, They are elephants, they will definitely chase you if you are on its path!)
*What will you do when they chase you?( He He, What do you think I will do? I will run like anyone else!)

Considering the conflicting answers he gave us for the directions, these were straight forward answers :)

I still remember how much he was laughing seeing me jumping (falling!) into water after seeing a snake moving swiftly between my legs. He continued to laugh through out our interaction.

Later that night, when we got stuck in the forest and wondering how to spend the night, all his laughter made sense to us! He was basically laughing at our stupidity of exploring an area that we didn't know at all!

© GP 2007

The adventure begins

Fort Cochin

By the time we got permission papers from the forest department and assistance of the VSS (Vana Samrakshana Samiti - Forest Protection Committee), it was already late to start the descend from Meenmutty. With packed food for six of us and enough water and our small backpacks, we were literally running down the narrow trek paths. Except for AB and Ravi, all of us were comfortable with the terrain as we had trekked that route until the second level of the falls, several times.

Except for the 'snack stop' and lunch break we hardly stopped anywhere. The idea was to cover the distance in 'one-go' and check out the details later on a revisit. If we had to follow the previous days experience, we were sure that we would never complete the distance on time. It was quite difficult not to stop and record some of the breathtaking images in the rain forest.

With the ambiguity in which people responded to the distance and route, we should have expected enough trouble. Instead we trekked along trusting on Thomas's knowledge of the terrain (at the least half the distance we covered was familiar to Thomas as he had gone many times to Nilambur).

The previous day, when we started asking forest dwellers as well as some of the tribals who worked with the forest department on clearing fire lines about the route and distance to be covered between Meenmutty and Soochipara, they mentioned about "4-6-8-10 hours and some even said, "Ayyo, Saarey, there is no way you can reach there!"

Only when we crossed paths covered by elephant dung (as fresh as it can be!) and heard bamboos being crushed within few meters away, did we think that we might not actually "reach there" :)

We did reach the distance half-way by around 130pm; some of us took bath in the cold stream and had the sumptuous lunch of rice flakes, kappa and coconut chutney(obviously Thomas's wife was very resourceful!). Then we met the tribal chief "Velutha" from the "Kattunaikar" community and his children who were fishing in the "kalakkpuzha".(That was the first time I was seeing some one fishing using darts and bamboo blowpipes!).

Respecting their privacy, we didn't take any pictures at all but did click away like mad at the scenery and Ravi especially had some 300 jpegs within 4 hours of trek!

© GP 2007

Meenmutty to Soochipara

Fort Cochin
Meenmutty is literally inside a rain forest region and only adventure seekers could be seen moving in this area. Popular amongst domestic tourists as well as locals, the other famous waterfall 'Soochipara', is quite easy to reach because of the concrete steps the DTPC (District Tourism Promotion Council) had constructed!.

Difficult terrain and tougher ways to reach such destinations seemed to have been the flavour of the season for us. So we hardly went to trek to Soochipara waterfalls.

So when Thomas suggested that we trek down Meenmutty waterfalls and then climb up the Soochipara waterfalls through the thick rain forests, we were hooked on to the idea. Climbing down one of the steepest waterfalls and then hiking to the other one seemed quite suitable for the kind of fun we were looking for.

Since we had only two days during the weekend to explore, we decided to skip the Nilambur trek for some other time and do the Meenmutty-Soochipara trek instead.

Who would have thought that this was going to be an unforgettable adventure of a lifetime!


(Pic taken from the top fall. there are two more falls before it joins
the 'kalakkapuzha')

© GP 2007

Meenmutty waterfalls

Fort Cochin

It was while trekking down Meenmutty waterfalls that we met Thomas "Chettan". Similar to some of our earlier "findings", Thomas was one of those experiences that made our work interesting day by day.

Living on the fringes of the forest, there wasn't a path that Thomas didn't know. From running to stop the forest fires set by miscreants or to help the excise department to chase the illicit liquor brewers, or to help those who got lost looking for the waterfalls, Thomas was all over the place.

During one of our regular treks, he mentioned about the forest track leading from Wayanad to Nilambur. We weren't sure about the geography of the area, but still was surprised to hear that one could actually walk through the forests to Nilambur from Wayanad within less than 6 hours! Considering the fact that it takes around 4 hours by road through the mountain roads in a four wheeler, I was longing to trek this route.

I kept on going back to Meenmutty on my own as well as with some of my friends and guests from Bangalore. The adventure actually starts from the approach road from Ooty road itself. The one km drive through the plantation in a jeep itself is an experience. Later, the short walk through the tea estate ends up on the cliff with a breath-taking view of the rain forests below.

In the sultry Cochin, I wish I were there in Meenmutty overlooking the rain forests! Still can feel the cool breeze on my face.

Even the refreshing spring that quenched our thirst many times!

© GP 2007