Trek to Velliangiri hills

Velliangiri 7th Hill

In the Month of April-2009, we had a first time opportunity to trek Velliangiri hills. I was so apprehensive with many questions to myself- will I be able to climb such a tall mountain? Whether the mountain has riskiest cliffs? Will my foot bear the barefoot walking? Somehow I decided to climb the hills. Believe it - I enjoyed the climbing and after climbing down, I decided to come again to get the lovely experience. Great Experience!!!!!

My kids relaxing at end of 1st hill.

We climbed in a group of around 10 guys including my both kids( 10 years & 13 years). Everyone was carrying some food and 1 small bottle of water. Except us others all have travelled many times and they advised not to take more water( only a small bottle is enough). We can refill the water from mountain creaks in several places.

Fetching water from creeks

We started climbing around 8:30 AM in the morning. My friends told me there are 7 hills. But I could not distinguish the hills except for th 7th one( where the Deity presides). My guess is that the distance would be almost same as Tirupati except that the steps are not proper here. I think Tirupati would have been in the same state several years back. But the steps( and the way) in this hill will remain the same since the area comes under the Forest department. I too wish the same so as the ecosystem will not get spoiled.

The difference between normal trekking and here is that we need to walk barefooted. In certain days you need to face a huge crowd also. Anyway this gives us a great experience.

The first hill was very steep, but shaded with trees and good steps made with stones. At the end there is a Ganesha temple. Everyone offer Puja here and continues up. There are some shops here where very good lemon soda available and also some snacks like biscuits. All over the way we could find similar shops in 5 to 6 places. One can also get good stream water at this point.

Rough terrain

At least in 3 to 4 places we have water source where the water can be refilled. The second hill to 6th hill has mostly sandy ways and some places have steps carved out. At the end of 6th hill one can reach a small Pond with crystal clear chill water. However our devotees change this to murky water often by taking bath here. I was told that all the wild animals come here for drinking water when there is no crowd.

Holy pool

After having a brief relaxation, our group started to climb again. The 7th hill was almost bare without any trees all our way. However I can see trees on other side of the same hill where the wild animals dwell. I was little bit anxious of this hill - whether is it possible complete till the top or will I slip somewhere. But the Lord Velliangiri provided all confidence and strength to make it comfortable. We reached the top around 4:00 PM. The group seniors performed Puja for the Thorana Vaayil Ganesha( Ganesha under Arch way - the rocks formed as an arch above Ganesha). No pundits available here. One has to do puja self only.

Thorana Vaayil Ganesha

After that we can climb down to the other side where the Lord Velliangiiri Nathar presides. Here a pandit(poojari) available who would also not allow you to any photographs. He sells lot of Thaayathu( Magical strings). Now your mission accomplished here.

Lord Velliangiri

Now there is another way to climb down which is a shorter way down(difficult climb up this way). AT the foot of this hill we had our dinner( at 5:00PM). Then all started climbing down.

At this point onwards the team splits and the younger and strong guys climbed down faster and old guys like me were trailing back. My son and other guys reached down by 7:00( they reached in 2.5 hours approximately) while we reached around 8:30 PM. Climbing down in the dark is really a challenge. There are many small stones and you may always end up stamping it and get hurt. Your thighs, joints will be worst affected. But believe me - all these will be cured in a week's time. You would start longing for next trip!

See more photos in http://www.flickr.com/photos/27324862@N04/

Rock Fort Temple, Trichy

As part of our vacation at Trichy (Tamilnadu, India), we had full day sight seeing around Trichy. We employed a cab. After going to other places during the day we went to Rock Fort in the evening.

We reached rock fort around 5:30 PM evening. This is also the right time to visit this place. This is because the biggest attraction here is the Ganesh temple at the top of the rock and rock will be very hot during the day. So it is always comfortable to visit during the evenings or early morning. Most of us would prefer evening since getting up early would be always not comfortable. There is not much evidence to a fort other than some walls and arch. Actually there is a big Siva temple called as Thayumanavar temple (possible English translation might be Motherly God?).

Even though the rock is located almost at the north end of the city, it is a central place for all shopping and city bus stand (Chatram bus stand) is very near. Those who are staying near the central bus stand or Tiruchi Junction railway station can always take a bus to reach this place. Going to this temple in the evening followed by shopping in the nearby roads ( NSB Road, Saalai Road, Gandhi Market etc... all are very near). However I haven’t seen a good parking area nearby. Our driver parked in some place and was standing nearby to guard the same. Moreover it was a Sunday and many shops were closed and we are able to park.

As you step into the entrance crowded with petty shops and shopping crowd, you will see a small Ganesh temple called as Manicka Vinayagar. There is a footwear room available before going to this temple. Either you can leave the footwear here or you can climb up to find another one after few steps. After worshipping Lord Ganesh we need to buy entrance ticket for Rock top Ganesh temple ( Rs.2/- per head and Rs.20/- for Camera)we can climb up the steps. First you would reach Siva temple. The security at the bottom of the rock gave me milk can and requested me to carry till the Siva temple. I thought for a moment and then decided that God has given me an opportunity serve him and took the milk can.

So we went to the Siva temple first. Usually many devotees would distribute banana fruit here. But this time we did not get any even though I could see some evidence of being distributed. Looks like we were late! After that we started climbing towards Rock Top Ganesh.
Immediately after the Siva temple, we can see a rock cut cave (carved during Mahendravarma Pallava period, ~800 AD). Finally we can reach the top of the rock where Lord Ganesh presides. We need to walk on steps carved out of rock. The view of Tiruchi City or the River Cauvery or Srirangam temple is awesome!

We spend good amount time sitting in the rocks and relaxing. However we did not go for shopping or dinner, since we were very much tired because of extensive travel to other places in the morning. So we did that next day.

The total steps are also only 200. So don’t worry to climb. An evening here is a great experience.

Ooty during summer-2008

Ooty is a nice hill station to visit in summer. One would really feel the cool climate. In the month of April you need sweater in the early mornings and late evenings. Last summer we decided to spend a 3 day vacation in Sterling Fern hill resort.
I choose this resort simply because I own a timeshare here. The resort can be rated Ok. The exterior ambiance is really good and is located far from the madding crowds of Ooty down town and this makes this an excellent place for relaxing. However the interiors look very ordinary and you can still manage. The room service I felt was good. However I was disappointed with front desk and travel desk. I felt the response from them very much un-enthusiastic. The food is a big disappointment – The cost is very high and the taste is very poor. Most of the time we cooked or gone to restaurants in the market.
We started on a Thursday (3rd April) night from Bangalore. We took a KSRTC Rajahamsa bus. The bus started 2 hours late, however reached Ooty early in the morning (8:00 AM). I feel this is the best mode of transport to Ooty. KSRTC has lot of Rajahamsa and Mayura (AC) services to Ooty and Connoor starting everyday night and reaches Ooty in the morning. The other way could be to take a train till Coimbatore and take a bus from Coimbatore to Ooty. But this takes more time and additionally you need to manage the crowd at the Coimbatore bus stand. Further it takes 4 hours to reach Ooty. But it takes around only 8 hours via Mysore. The roads are repaired now (except in some stretch near Bandipur. So you can also have a happy drive with your car. On return journey we took a KSRTC Rajahamsa bus at 11:00 AM on Monday and reached Majestic around 7:30 PM. On the way we had lunch in restaurant in the outskirts of Gudalur and was good. The journey was nice. The bus did not stop in between and reached Bangalore in time
The most enjoyable thing you can do here is to trek between the resort and the Bus stand. You need climb down the valley in front of the resort. You can see lot of carrot fields and also a stream at the bottom of the valley. You can again climb up and walk through some lanes to reach the bus stand. This would take around 20 minutes. Plums trees also would be a common sight in this way.
We had lunch in different restaurants every day. On the 1st day we went to ‘Blue hills’ restaurant which is a non-vegetarian kerala style restaurant. The food is economical and taste is okay. This is similar to any kerala style restaurants you would have come across in Bangalore. Vegetarian lunch was good in ‘Durga’ restaurant near to the Botanical garden. There is one more restaurant which has a good vegetarian and north Indian menu which is bit expensive than other restaurants. All these restaurants are clustered near the ‘Charring Cross’. We had nice lunch in these restaurants
We cooked for breakfast and dinner. We made Uppumas and bought vadas from room service. We cooked noodles, chapattis for the dinner. We bought some bananas, plums from the market. We also had different egg dishes- boiled, scrambled…
We tried shopping in the market road. We bought Ooty chocolates in different shops in market road. I really don’t know which the best one is. We bought some Tea from Doddabedda Tea factory when we visited the same. We also bought some Cashew nuts which are very cheap compared to Bangalore (Rs.300/- against Rs.500/- in Bangalore). I thing the cashew nuts are from Panrutti. It should be much cheaper here. So don’t miss next time you visit Pondicherry or Tiruchi.
We did not go for any sight seeing this time since we had seen all the places during our earlier visit. However we went to Doddabedda and the tea factory. Views from Doddabedda are really good. I want to go to Avalanche. But all the taxi drivers were hesitant and demanded a very high amount. They also advised that the road is very bad and can’t drive cars, only Jeeps or SUVs can be driven. So I dropped the idea. I also want to try trekking in the Lovdale. But the guide were demanding an exorbitant amount of Rs.300/- per head which would cost Rs.1200/- for our family of 4 for simply walking for 2 hours. So I had to drop this idea also.
Overall Ooty is a nice getaway for Bangaloreans.

My Ooty visit in Summer-2008 -photos

RE: My Coorg travel1

Coorg is as nice as other hill stations. I had very short and limited glimpse of Coorg. We were on a official training to Coorg in 3rd week of October-2006. The stay was only 1.5 days starting from 15th morning till 16th noon. Our movement was limited to the Club Mahindra premises for all the time. I could see the actual Coorg only while traveling in the Bus. A glance of the landscape inside the resort is really awesome

My Coorg travel

 

Will post the details in next message

I will share my travel experiences in this Blog. Please read them, use them and enjoy