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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In Eravangalar Dam
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| megamalai eravangalar dam |
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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| megamalai highwavys |
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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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