Sojourn: Trichy – Thekkady – Gavi – Vagamon

Every holiday to me is usually different and memorable however when I sit back and think there has always been one place that has been coming to my mind all the time (Rohtang Pass) and now I am sure there is one more added to it that would stay close to my heart. This trip to Thekkady and Gavi will stay forever due to various reasons.

Day 0: Chennai –Trichy - Srirangam

06:30 AM: Left Chennai (Adyar)

08:30 AM: Stopped at Dindivanam for breakfast at Highway foods (App. 4.5 Kms before Dindivanam)

09:00 AM: Left to Srirangam

11:15 AM: Reached Srirangam. Not many option of hotels available and hence proceeded back to Trichy. We had kept a backup plan ready

12:45 AM: After much circling around Trichy city we managed to find the hotel we wanted to go in to. We stayed at Hotel Ramya’s located near the Central bus stand. It indeed was a very nice hotel to stay. Beware of the power cuts in these places before checking in to any hotel

Rested for sometime post lunch and started our visit to temples in the evening around 04:45 PM. Best way to visit these places is by Bus or Auto as you can never take your car in these areas. Our hotel person warned us and we took a bus as there were buses every 2 minutes to go to Rock Fort temple. From there on we took an auto to Srirangam and only while travelling by those roads we realised we had taken a wiser decision of not taking the car with us. Since it was a Saturday the Srirangam temple was overly crowded, however managed to get darshan at all places. Returned to the hotel around 10:30 PM and retired for the day. I should not forget to mention here that the city is absolutely lively at the night times. Toll from Chennai –Trichy (NH 45): Rs 220

View of Srirangam temple from Rock Fort

Day 1: Trichy - Thekkady

09:20 AM: Departed from Trichy

Highway between Trichy and Dindigul

10:30 AM: Reached Dindigul

Dindigul to Theni took about 2:15 minutes due to bad road condition between Dindigul and Bathalagundu.

12:15 PM: Took at break at Theni for 15 minutes

Enroute to Kumily

01:20 PM: Reached Kumily and had lunch at Hotel Arya Bhavan (It was Ok food). Reached our resort at about 02:20 PM and took rest for a while. In the evening went for a stroll around the place and retired for the day

Day 2: Gavi

Gavi is a part of the Periyar Tiger Reserve which is known for its pristine beauty. This was planned well in advance and we took the jeep provided by the eco tourism department instead of driving on own. This was a much awaited trip for us. My husband wanted to do the overnight stay at jungle, however me and my aversion for Leeches said I will not stay until I get a feel of what it is to trek inside a jungle. So as per plan, the jeep picked us from the resort at 05:30 AM and the drive was about 40 Odd Kms passing through some villages and the last 20 Kms inside the forest reserve. We travelled in an open jeep and it was an awesome experience. This place apparently is restricted to 100 permits a day and hence the human population was very less. It was a crowded day because of the long weekend. (Even that 100 is crowded in such places)

We drove through some of the less driven paths and did spot few animals. Though they were at a distance, it was an amazing feel to see animals in their HOME, in their natural habitat. With slight drizzles during the drive it was all the more fabulous.

Through the forests of Gavi

The beautiful roads leading to Gavi

Elephant in its natural habitat

The invisible roads enroute Gavi

We reached the eco tourism lodge from where all the programs start. We had a nice breakfast arranged by the hotel and once done, a guide was allotted for us. We were little particular that we did not want to club along with anyone, as no one there seemed interested in a long trek and eventually we found out that except us no one there went for the 3 hour trek.

I was excited; however the thought of Leeches in those moist forest areas scared the hell out of me. Though they are the most harmless creatures the thought of them sitting on me was psyching and I feared about these creatures much ahead of my trip. God knows why they exist in this eco system.

Just before our trek was about to commence our guide asked us to put on the Leech socks and we were ready to start our trek. It was an exciting moment because of the thought that I was going to go in to the forest, in to the wild and it will only be the 3 of us. That feeling was awesome, but somewhere in my heart and mind the leech factor was dominating. I took the courage to see what worst could happen.

The trek started through some of the most beautiful grasslands that I would have only seen through a distance otherwise, and went on to some of the dense areas of the jungle, in to the wild, in to a place where there is only nature and you. You don’t see humans, there are only animals, birds, streams, greens and of course different shades of them. Thankfully for me most of the path was dry because of no rains, however the moment we started entering the areas where there is no sunlight, I started feeling so creepy. I bent down to see many many of those tiny creatures climbing on my shoes happily, and the worst was the more you stand in one place the more get on to you. I was completely psyched out at the sight of different sized Leeches climbing on all directions and I should say my Guide was patient enough in shooing out each one of them before they could reach up to my pants.

The Leech socks we wore:

Nice stream amidst the trekking

The guide had with him a big packet of salt and he put on a whole lot of them and smeared them on my shoes to make sure they don’t come up more, and they didn’t. I was happy and suddenly he turned and asked me to stand for a moment and was taking off a huge one from my shirt and I thought for a moment why did I even start on this trek knowing about these stupid creatures. There were thousands and thousands of them and they were not only on the ground but jumping on you from leaves and branches when you brushed against them.

Our trek guide smearing a whole lot of salt on my shoes

After some creepy moments looking at them, I kind of got used to them and I had a stick in my hand to keep shooing them everytime they tried to climb on me. That was the most beautiful trek I have ever taken so far. I always used to watch this programme on Discovery called “I shouldn’t be alive” and used to wonder why people don’t find their way out. If at all we were lost there without our guide and was still alive, I would have been talking in the same programme may beJ. We were in the middle of nowhere, inside forests, and all the sides looked similar. There were no designated paths as such and we were climbing 3 different hills and covered 8 Kms in that 3 hours climbing up and down those hills and traversing through those moist deciduous forest areas. Thankfully we did not encounter any animal, else am sure I wouldn’t have been writing this blog. Only towards the end of the trek we heard from the guide that the government has not provided any safety measures in Gavi as they have done in Thekkady and the incidents he shared with us got chills down my nerves.

The view of the hundreds of square Kms of the forest reserve

This beautifully camouflaged frog on our path

The dense forests of the Periyar Tiger Reserve

This is what our people can do to destroy nature. Felt very upset hearing that lot of animals consume these and die eventually

The giant malabar Squirrel

The biggest Spider I have ever come across. A bite from this would make you bed ridden for atleast 3 days

I found myself in a very emotional mindset after the trek, because I realised that we are nothing in front of nature. It is so beautiful, it changes you, it makes you think and I truly enjoyed every moment of those 3 hours and it would be etched in my memory forever.

And after that beautiful trek, I made up my mind and promised my husband that I would go with him for a Jungle camping programme soon.

Post the trek we were given some cool drinks and then had an awesome Kerala lunch. We did a small boating in the Gavi lake which did not interest us anymore. We loved the wild, and this was nothing.

The small falls near Gavi Lake. Elephants come here to drink water

Before we left Gavi, our guide took us on a small walk uphill to a point from where Sabarimala is seen. The picture might not be too clear as it was very hazy.

After such an adventurous day we returned back to our resort around 06:30 PM with memories of those wonderful moments that felt like a dream.

Day 3: Thekkady – Vagamon

Vagamon was one place I didn’t want to miss as I had read loads about the place. I definitely do not repent going there. It was a great drive through sprawling tea estates on all sides and through proper village roads. It was about a 70KM drive from Thekkady and the roads were good as well. We drove through via Elappara. Returned from Vagamon via Kattapanna and except for about 2 – 3 kms of very bad roads, rest of the journey was amazing.

View of the sprawling meadows at Vagamon

True to what is being told about Vagamon that place is a sheer beauty with meadows sprawling till where eyes can see. I was wondering how beautiful nature is that it can form such beautiful mounds of meadows of different sizes. Except for the fact that we went on a holiday and it was overly crowded, it was a wonderful experience to be enjoying those meadows where the weather seems to be changing constantly. One moment it started to rain and the other moment there was sun already out and it just goes on and on.

Vagamon has to be experienced. It is definitely a visual treat.

Day 3: Boating at Periyar Tiger reserve

Since we just wanted this day to be at leisure we just thought we would go to the PTR for some boating. It was good and we did spot a lot of variety of birds of which I do not know names, however sharing some pictures.

Post the boating, went for a nice spa at the resort and it was heavenly especially that my body was aching after the trek.

Day 4/Day 5: Thekkady – Pondicherry

This drive back from Thekkady was a breeze. We took a small diversion from Bathalagundu to Dindigul via Kodai road and it was much faster than the other road. Reached Pondicherry around evening and checked in to our resort. We decided on Pondy while returning as we could take a day off there before coming to Chennai.

View of the Big Beach resort