The wildlife trekking journey in the year 2013 was not really great for us visiting only two places and few unsuccessful plans put us in deep misery. When we discussed for our upcoming trip we are aware that it’s been 7months since we hiked and this is the vast gap in falcon’s trekking history.
Of course we had lot of plans and place for the year’s first trip.We decided to visit somewhere we never been before eventually Meghamalai was chosen. Meghamalai is a hill station near Theni reached via Chinnamannur. It is a place of natural beauty dotted with cardamom plantations and tea estates. The entire mountain is private owned property hence this place is not tourism friendly.
We boarder Pandian express from Egmore, Chennai with 8 member team. It was 5am the next day we arrived at Dindugal. A local MCT carried us to Chinnamannur where we finished our breakfast. Earlier, we had planned to travel via local transport due to road condition towards Meghamalai is very bad, hiring private vehicle may cost huge. Knowing less than a 5 government buses plying to this place with scheduled non-frequent period we planned for 10am bus unfortunately it was diverted to a different route forcing us to wait for the next bus scheduled 12noon. In order to kill the time we wandered the streets of Chinnamannur as far as covering nearly 2kms. The nearby tea shop was saving us from being exhausted; we also bought some short eats to consume during the ~4 hour travel. We are well prepared to start our journey. Here comes our busJ we accommodated ourselves in our pre-booked seats. I would say a bullock cart was modified with steel beams, seats and an engine to replicate a bus. Yes what you imagine is right, such a worst condition. I really appreciate the driver for having control on this vehicle. We felt like the entire route was allotted only for this bus as we could barely see any vehicles passing by this road proving the hill station is very inaccessible. Once we reached it was late noon hence we first decided to have our meal as there are only two hotels available. Being a tourism free hill station the hotel did not have a ready meal, so we had to wait for them to cook. Meantime we walked to a nearby lake to take bath but the lake’s cleanliness bothered us to avoid the same. After our meal we headed to our government cottage opposite facing mountains. We refreshed ourselves and sighted a nearby dam that evening. The temperature keeps dropping as the sunsets. An unknown driver of our neighbouring room advised us to collect the logs from surroundings to set a camp fire. We kept occupied by clicking pictures, collecting logs etc… That night passed…
Megamalai
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| megamalai highwavys |
In Eravangalar Dam
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megamalai tourist places like Manalar, Venniyar and Iravangalaru dams, Megamalai estate and Maharajamettu, where tourists view vast catchments of Thekkadi dam, Magarajothi hill of Sri Iyyappan temple and a bird's eye view of Theni district.
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Day 2, our vision can’t penetrate the misty morning, skin cannot bare the cold breeze but still we managed to go out and feel the wonderful environment. Breaking the fast at nearby hotel we get on the SUV we hired locally to sight some dams located at this place. We spent there till noon and then returning to our room. Not much can come close to that feeling when you spot an animal in the wild, especially when you’re not expecting it. Yes!! We should be lucky to spot the herd of elephants when we halted for tea. Thanks to those local people who informed us. We were very thrilled, jumping to different locations to get a clear picture until it disappeared into the dense forest. Reaching our home stay before sunset we played cricket utilizing the space in front of our cottage. The fun we experienced here was matchless. Later that night we dined and crashed into the bed little early as we had to visit Vattaparai next day before dawn to sight some animals.
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On the way to Maharaja mettu
Here comes our 3rd and last day, as I said we woke up early and headed to Vattaparai believing we may sight some faunas. It was unfortunate that we spotted nil. The landscape was really incredible. It was such a peaceful place in earth with virgin mountains, no tourist attraction, less populated, very remote and completely disconnected from the city adding more beauty. Wondering why this place is called Meghamalai? We saw the misty clouds kissing the peak of the mountains thus giving us the answer. It was overall a great experience for all of us and the natural gorgeousness was more than what we expected. We left the terrain with lots of memories that we could proudly cherish in future.
Meghamalai is a Virgin forest ,Hidden paradise with scenic locations. Meghamalai is a unusual tourist spot. All over the year the weather remains cool. The best months to visit are October, November, December,
January, February, March, April and May.
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