New year at Kolukkumalai - 2018

Pristine, timeless, ancient, mysterious, unaffected. These were some of the words that came to my mind while I took in the sights, seated on the very edge of a huge boulder that jutted out of the hill we were currently on. Satish and I blissfully observed our fellow teammates leisurely but steadily make their way up the trail to join us for a short break after trekking non-stop since the lunch point. This wasn't an endurance trek after all.

To be on this piece of rock deep inside a UNESCO world heritage site and reserved forest was nothing short of incredible. Our guide, Mr. Velu, was a joyful, happy-go-lucky person who was always ready to help and assist us whenever the need arose. We had started the trek pretty late in the day; well actually, incredibly late. This was due to the relaxed and easy going attitude of our van driver coupled with multiple breaks taken on the highway overnight. It was an hour past noon by the time we had gotten all the food packets, tents, and other miscellaneous items distributed and had begun our ascent from the base.

Information board at the base

Marking at the start of the trail head

After the rest of the team got to the viewpoint, took pictures, and adequately rested themselves, we decided that it was time to start moving as dusk was fast approaching; the forest gets dark lickety-split owing to the cover of thick, green canopy overhead. To further slow down our progress, we were getting into dense vegetation from open grassland as the night progressed, rather than away from it. We managed to arrive at an undesignated campsite judiciously just after nightfall; a locked, dilapidated hut that stood on a flat muddy square that had a hosepipe in the backyard. For the uninitiated, in the mountains water doesn't have any classification. It was a picturesque campsite, but an easy water point for wild animals too, our guide remarked jokingly.

The square patch where we pitched our tents with the hut behind

 enchanting views at the campsite

The hill we hiked up on day 1

We enjoyed a few rounds of primarily memory games, joked around for a while, pitched our tents, and then settled to feast on piping hot Chapatis served with sambar and pickles. The temperature had dropped drastically since we'd settled down at this campsite and the delectable fusion of shivering cold bodies and smoking hot food was absolute nirvana. Fireflies flit around aimlessly and cast a magical spell on the campsite that was straight out of a fairytale. Somewhere around midnight, the cloudy sky cleared up, and Lo and behold! The observable universe enveloped by the dark silhouette of the mountains was on high definition display; and if this doesn't excite the primal regions of your brain, I don't know what will! I thanked all my stars for taking the decision to sleep outside and bear witness to this scintillating show. Not so much after what was about to unfold within the next hour.

It was close to 2 in the morning. Velu sir, Sanath, and I were the only ones who opted to take a room at the billion star hotel rather than in the cramped up tents devoid of any squiggle room. My proclivity towards the billion star bed originates at the very beginning of my outdoor days and has remained the same regardless of the weather. Unable to sleep due to the biting cold along with being terribly underdressed for the occasion, I was abstracted from my surroundings when all of a sudden I hear a hoarse call emanating from the foliage a few meters away. The sound was loud enough to frighten me (coz I probably was the only one awake? ), and it kept coming repeatedly from the same direction. I was frozen solid for the first 3 calls after which I picked up the courage to wake up Velu sir and ask him what animal it belonged to. He woke up with a start, listened to the call once, very nonchalantly told me it was that of a deer and went back to sleep in an instant. Well, I guess that's how good you get at it once you've got 17 years' worth of wilderness experience behind you.

Lining up for breakfast

The following day we woke up to arresting views of the mountain range in front of us, a part of which had the distinction of hosting the worlds highest organic tea estate. Velu sir and I narrated the experience with the deer to those who were too passed out to notice. They listened to our story with great intent. We were running late and so, briskly went about dismantling the tents and packing our bags after a mini yoga (courtesy, Yogini Manisha) and photo session. Besides, we wanted to allow as much time possible to bathe in one of the freshwater pools that we were to hit on the trail today.

How big do they get?

Pointy peaks with airplane contrails

The picturesque excursion on day 2

En route to the lunch point

Lunch/bathing/rest point

We got to the pool just in time for lunch; or a nap; or a refreshing swim, whatever ones idea of being rejuvenated meant, you get the idea. As per Raj's accurate description earlier in the day, this point consisted of 3 consecutive pools, each cascading into the next in a step fashion. Our time was spent taking photos, swimming, and napping while lunch was being readied.

Our trek for the second part of the day was classified as difficult, and it very well was, as we had to trek untiringly to Kolukkumalai peak and onwards to the tea estate, where we planned to camp for the night. However, due to certain issues with the trail, we couldn't make it to our desired campsite, and it was almost midnight now with many of us desperately needing a break. So, we decided to settle down at a water point few kilometers before the peak and celebrate the new year there. We rang in the new year with cake cutting accompanied by song and dance.

cutting the cake with a machete, trekker style

It was half-past one in the morning and the team was deciding to go ahead to the peak to camp there. Ahmed and I were completely worn out for different reasons and decided to opt out of this section of the trek and hike down to the start point the next day. So we picked up a tent from the group, bid them adieu, and assembled it a few meters ahead of the water point (lest a thirsty wild animal came along). A hundred thoughts and couple of fantasies later, I woke up to the first sunrise of 2018. REM sleep has been out of the agenda of my brain for quite a few treks now. It was arrestingly quiet at the campsite, us being the only two souls out here, and being one with the tune of the forest is absolutely magical.

Captivating views during our descent

Arecanut plantation

Ahmed and I got back to the parking spot by noon, located our van, and started for Bodimettu in Kerala where we had to pick our team up. We had an ample amount of time to sleep once we got there, and were rejuvenated once we rejoined the others later in the evening. The ride back to Bangalore was uneventful, except for the fact that our driver was dreadfully slow at it, again!! We all got off at our respective drop-off points and bid goodbye to each other, contented to have made new friends and memories for life.