Even the Rains couldn't stop us...

I was super excited about my first ever trek in Munnar but at the same time also extremely apprehensive about whether I would actually be able to go through with it. I do enjoy a tad of adventure in everything I do. But seriously, this was the real deal. I didn’t even know if I had the stamina to walk long distances, let alone trek! But one thing I had decided was that I was going to give it my best shot, try to enjoy it and come back triumphant.

For those who don’t know much about Munnar, it is one of the most picturesque locations in Kerala. Munnar is at an elevation of about 2200 metres above MSL and is mainly a tea country. It is also a wild life sanctuary for those fleet footed nearly extinct Nilgiri Tahr. These gently undulating hills also turn a sea of violet once every 12 years with the rare blooming of ‘Neela Kurinji” (Strobolanthus).

Day 1
I was told that the vehicle would pick me up at 6 am. Considering that I was home on holidays, I hadn’t really seen those wee hours of the morning. Surprisingly, I was all packed and ready to go by 05:30. You can imagine how excited I was.
It had just been a few hours since we had departed Kochi, the scenery was spectacular. It was nothing like the city and it was almost like we had reached a different place altogether. This place, it was a breath of fresh air. Well, not for too long really. The winding roads and the uphill climb were causing all this exotic scenery to revolve in my head. We pulled over and I purged my stomach of the breakfast that I had had that morning. Yes, I threw up and it was disgusting. My stomach behaved itself for another two hours but the only question on my mind was “Are we there yet?” Thankfully, by noon, we arrived at Suryanelli. A blanket of thick mist covered this beautiful town even at midday and the weather was simply perfect, albeit the incessant drizzle.
My empty stomach welcomed the so called ‘light’ lunch and we geared up for our first trek of the trip. We pulled up our leech socks (whose worth I would only realize on the day I decided not to wear it) and grabbed a few bottles of water and started our trek. During our climb, we covered a distance of 8 kms uphill from Chinnakanal to the camp site at Suryanelli. It was almost impossible to traverse the steep descents without any support. I managed to grab on to the elephant grass (rightly called so, visibly much taller than I was) for support unaware of how sharp they were.

going down...

We then made our way across what the guides called a ‘bridge’. It only looked like a sad excuse for one to me. It was simply three wobbly eucalyptus trunks laid down with a flimsy metal wire between two standing trees on either side to hold on to. Luckily, we managed to get through to the other side safely.

The 'Bridge'

During the last leg of the trek, we noticed Das, our driver, waving out to us. Boy, were we glad to see him!! That last stretch was indeed the easiest. We binged on the snacks especially the local peanut ‘chikkis’ that Das brought us and were back on our feet with renewed vigour. A little while later, we could see the road. The guides assured us that we would be at the camp in no time. Clearly, we differed in our sense of distances. I’m positive we walked more than 2 kms till we finally reached our destination. With the camp staff cheering us on, I think we almost sprinted towards the camp. The camp overlooked the idyllic shola grasslands and provided a magnificent view. After lazing around and whiling away sometime, I took a refreshing shower and gorged my dinner. That night I slept like a baby.


Day 2
The next morning, after a game of key punching we packed our bags for our next trek. I was told that we would be taking a downhill route to Anaerangal. We began the trek on the road but took a route that landed us on giant rocks. The previous nights’ rains had caused the rocks to become very slippery. We slid down the rocks, which I thought was a very innovative way of getting past them. We watched the mist gracefully lift, slowly revealing the splendid scenery.

before we started slipping and sliding..

We then carefully made our way downhill to the Muduvan Tribal colony. We had brought a few sweets to give the local children to coax them to take pictures with us. They took the sweets all right. But literally headed for the hills thereafter.

And then there were none..

One tribal accompanied us to our next road interception as the area we were going to cross was known for its wild elephant population. He wore a lungi, flip flops and carried an umbrella. I must admit we felt a little stupid in all our trekking gear at that point of time. To me, he certainly didn’t look like he could save us from the elephants but I liked how confident he was. We managed to reach Anaerangal an hour later and as luck would have it with no elephant encounters on the way.

Since we reached the camp ahead of time, we decided to play a few games. However, the rain played spoilsport and we called it a day. We had successfully completed our second trek. Just when we were about to retire for the night, the elephants decided to pay us a visit. Fortunately, our guides burnt crackers and Das (to the rescue!!) chased after them with the jeep. Too terrified to even come out of our tents, we missed all the nights’ action.

Day 3
The next day, we started our trek at the Anaerangal dam and made our way through the well manicured tea plantation. Although the climb was tough, it was really worth it.

through the planations.

We entered the cardamom plantations with our local guide, Jayan stopping at almost every plant to give us its specifics. It was nice to see his enthusiasm, but we were only too happy when he finally finished with his discourse. We enjoyed a quick lunch with the plantation labourers.

lunch at the plantations..

It was good fun listening to the girls and the labourers exchange pleasantries. The girls were trying out the few words of Tamil that they had learnt and found it very amusing to hear the labourers reply in the little English that they knew. We proceeded to the Shanthanpara camp. During the steep climb, we wondered how the camp staff and the guides actually managed to lug all the camp stuff to the site considering the fact that there was no jeep route (all hail the Kalypso supermen!!).
That night the guides decided to scare us a little with their story of ‘Elizabeth’ the friendly ghost who apparently regularly visited the camp site. It was pretty clear the story was bogus, but I must say we were a little creeped out when we saw moving shadows outside our tents at midnight.

Day 4
We were already told that the trek on the fourth day would be the longest and toughest of all the treks. After leaving the camp site at 08:30, we walked for about 5 kms on the road before we finally reached Chaturangapara, where we would be trekking.

Strategizing ..

The climbs were very steep and the winds were against us. Along the way, two blood sucking leeches decided to tag along with me. This is when we tried a very interesting way to get rid of the leeches - tickling them. And it worked!! This trek was indeed the most challenging. But once we reached the summit, it was just brilliant.

its all about the grip.

We were actually walking on the border of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The topographic contrast between the two states was evident and the view was out of this world. Moving down was a whole lot easier because the winds were literally throwing us that way. It was near impossibility to go down together so we divided ourselves into groups of three. The groups locked hands and were accompanied by the guides one by one. I’ve got to say, these guides are insane. We were cribbing about climbing up once and these guys climbed up and down thrice. Their energy was insane. Hats off to them!! ( you know who you are, go on give yourselves a pat!)
We treated ourselves to a well deserved lunch and continued to our Chaturangapara camp site. Once there, we tried our hands at fishing. Sadly, the fish weren’t very interested to be a part of our dinner platter. Thereafter, we lit a camp fire. The landlord’s children presented before us the traditional art forms of Kerala, only that the sword was substituted with a spoon and the shield with a vessel lid. The performance was definitely entertaining. It was then decided to have a dance off between the girls and the guides. I really don’t know who deserved to win but the night was definitely a lot of fun. An honorable mention goes to Das, whose break dance performance was the highlight of the night.



Day 5
As this was a last day, we loaded all our stuff into the mini-van, bade goodbye to all the camp staff and left for what would be our final trek. We had to take a couple of deviations, since last nights storm had uprooted trees, blocking our beaten path.The trek lasted only 45 minutes and seemed like child’s play to us now. After the trek, we boarded the vehicles and left for Kochi. I was adviced to sit on a newspaper to prevent myself from throwing up (I successfully managed to bust that myth by the way). The journey took us about 5 hours, which we spent relaxing (read: sleeping).


From stopping to pluck wild fruits to take back to camp to singing all the way to keep us going, every aspect of this trip will be etched in my memory forever. Despite all the sweating and panting and weariness, we managed to enjoy every moment of the trek and surprise ourselves each day. This was indeed the experience of a lifetime. Not only did I complete the trek and thoroughly enjoy myself all along, I brought back a whole lot of wonderful memories. Well, apart from leech bites and the cuts on my hand courtesy the elephant grass. But then again, I guess that’s what a REAL trek is all about, right?