Kalladi, Swargakunnu Trek in June 2008

It was on a Wednesday morning, I walked into the office and found my colleagues Hari and Kiran who were in a serious discussion about a trekking trip which we were planning for a longtime but could not go due to many silly reasons…. , well we decided about different places but nothing really worked out as the season was too bad. Then all of a sudden Hari suggested about going to trekking near Vellarimala and I was quick to support that as our pervious trek to Vellarimala was a very exciting one, so looking back at those memories we made a quick decision to go for this trek.

The team for the trek was decided quickly and its members were Tony, Hari, Shaiju, Kiran, Anand, Ashton and myself. It was an exciting moment for Ashton and Kiran as they were going to do their first trekking in life :-)

I was looking for our old guide Siby and Karunan, who were nice to us in the last trek, however found that Siby had gone to Gulf and Karunan chettan cannot do trekking as he has got problem with his legs. It was a bit disappointing but then we went for Josetten ( that’s what people call him with love) to help us in trekking to kalladi. He suggested to start the trek form muttappanpuzha to swargakunnu and then to kalladi mountains and then finish it on Vayanad. We were excited about trekking in those terrains as they are very challenging and exciting… However, our decision to go with Jose chettan proved disastrous and I will explain that in the last portion of the blog.. I do not want to put bad things first

Kiran booked bus tickets to thamaraserry as jose chettan insisted us to arrive there, and I could not find why he told us so, any way as we were not clear about the starting place Kiran went ahead and booked tickets in KSRTC bus starting at 9.00 in the evening… , All set the team headed to the Majestic bus stand on Friday evening (13-Jun-2008) and there started the FUN… we had to wait for the bus till 9:30 pm and as no bus came we began wondering what was happening and then, we discovered that the Ticket booked was for 9.00 hrs… , well that’s the MORNING bus (If you know the general railway timings), what a tragedy and we all feel so down and ashamed.. Something so stupid which normaly should not have happened from an experienced heavy weight team.. any way we managed to get a bus to Mysore and arrived at the Mysore bus stand around 10:30 pm. Surprisingly we could not board on to any bus which was going to Kerala as all of them were fully packed and many people were waiting for the bus were getting impatient and making lot of chaos there. We quickly realized that we will not get any bus and time was running out. So with the smart help of Hari, he found a city taxi person in Mysore and arranged a taxi which costed Rs.7 /KM . Somehow we started from Mysore around 3:30 am in the morning in a sumo and reached Kerala around 6:30 am and Jose chettan was calling all time to make sure we are on our way.. I guess he was too suspicious that we may cancel our trip…


Waiting at Mysore bus stand

While crossing Kalpetta, Jose chettan was asking should they come near to Adivaram to pick us or not. I said go to go ahead. So we got dropped at Adivaram at 7:46 am in morning. After a few mins , we saw Jose chettan coming in a Jeep with another person called Presey, who we learned later was a professional photographer. We all boarded his vehicle and started to the base camp.. and a little later I found that we were on the same way when we traveled to Vellarimala, YES we were going to the same place.. any way we had couple of stops as Jose chettan wanted to buy kappa, beef etc..

Finally we reached at Muthappanpuzha, 3kms off Anakkampoyil in Kozhikode district.We had a nice but light breakfast in one of the h ouses there. We had a kind of vattayappam made from pumpkin which was quite tasty. Everyon e was too hungry really wanted to have some heavy food but Jose chettan t o our surprise told us t hat this is all he has got and promised food will come later.


Ammachi made nice appam

After the break fast Josettan insisted to give him all the money including forest entry fees, although I did not like this behaviour, but still I gave him all the money as I did not want to spoil the mood in the beginning itself.


Count the money &&&& Nonsense unlimited

After a brief and useless suggestions and guidelines from our great guide which made absolutely no sense to anybody, we started for the trekking. We first went towards the Kalladi Bridge. This is the route which goes up besides the church in Muthappanpuzha , our bags were left in the jeep and we were walking , the rain had already started and we all draped ourselves with plastics covers to escape from the rain , but still we all got drenched due to the heavy downpour. After a 10 mins walk we stopped in front of Ramettan house, who will be coming with us as an assistant to Josettan, however later we found that Ramettan was more knowledgeable and sensible and all the team members had a common opinion that Josettan should have been his assistant.


Towards Hanging bridge &&&& Great Ramettan

Once we reached a little further the jeep stopped and we took our entire luggage and paid the jeep and got rid of him even as he tried to milk money from us.We headed towards the hanging bridge over Muthappanpuzha and it was too wild as the rain was continuously hitting those areas for some time. The sound of water was fearsome and the rain was not at all stopping. It was a clear sign in the beginning that, the trek is not going to be an easy one here.

Soon we reached the hanging bridge and it looked spoiled in the rain and the logs looked weak and many of the nails on them had already gone making it a bit dangerous to walk upon…and the thought of Kiran crossing the bridge could be a real challenge to the poor bridge as it was not designed for people like him :-) :-)


The hanging bridge &&&& Wild Muthappanpuzha &&&& Crossing the Bridge

We had crossed the bridge and then slowly started climbing towards Swargakkunnu , on way we found many people to be living here , but felt very sorry for them as their agriculture is not doing well. Most of the aracnut and coconut trees are deceased and the farmers there are doing bad. We had crossed many houses however, we could not find any people around except we found one person on top of Swargakkunnu, who was there watching his plantation from elephant attacks.


Swargakkunnu &&&& Aracnut trees

Leeches were everywhere and many of us are badly bitten by them and the rain became so heavy that we decided to get into an abandoned house on top of Swargakkunnu and stayed there for a while. All of us were busy with removing leeches and spraying legs with salt so that we can keep away those suckers.. , mean time Pressey realized that he lost his mobile, but luckily he got it back from the trail.


Waiting for prey &&&& In my sox

After a half an hour stay there, we started towards the Kalladi forest range, although it was around 1:00 pm. It was getting real dark and we were rushing towards the point for the night stay so that we can relax and prepare the place before its too late.Kiran got too tired by this time, but was determined to continue..


Down but.... &&&& Should i do this..

After an hour of walking in the rain and through the dense forest we reached our the point to stay in the night , which was a cave near to a stream. We quickly found that elephants had done a lot of damage to the place and there was a lot of work need to be done before making it good for us to occupy. Ramattan was quick on his job and he tried to clean the place and put things right there.


Preparing the nest

Myself and Shaiju were quick to get to the stream and others slowly got into as they could not resist the site of water coming from top impacting on the rocks down.. , the water was so clean any one would love to jump on. We had few beers and a couple of bottles of Rum, so finally the drinks started pouring and the PARTY was on………


Lets party &&&& looking at who

We spent almost 2 to 3 hrs in the water and finally we had to come out as the rain had become very heavy and we could not be in the stream as we felt it could be bit dangerous as the water may come quick at any time and were on slope too. After a nice bath we all felt damn hungry and wanted to eat something.Josettan quickly started preparing tapioca and chicken curry, well I must admit he is very good cook and was very interested in making food and serving.

Josettan busy &&&& Hary!, do not steal:-)

We had a nice meal and started trying to squeeze into the small place but we realized that we will not fit into the place, but decided even if we could put our head somewhere down, it could be enough.. , In the night nobody could eat and it was raining heavily outside and sound of the water splashing down near to the cave was too loud. We had the FM radio which was playing Tamil and Malayalam songs and listening to it, most of them started sleeping. I could not sleep in the night as the rocks were hard down and although I had a sleeping bag it was too tough to sleep on top of the hard rock with sharp edges. Somehow the night passed and in the morning we planned to climb up the Kalladi Mountain. In the morning I had a nice talk with Pressey, who is an event photographer and was narrating his works to me..He was also telling he has a resort near to Manathavadi and he rents it out for 2k per night.. Well, I must pay a visit to that place sometime as a bamboo house near to a stream was quite interesting and fascinating to me.


Pressey
After a quick breakfast containing rice and beef, we started climbing the Kalladi Mountain and soon we crossed Calicut border and were in Wynad district. The mountains here are lush green with dense forest and everywhere we could see streams were coming down. There was water everywhere and almost the entire route was blocked either by white water or trees which had fallen down due to heavy rains and wind. Our walking was too slow as the rain and wind were making every step too difficult. The Leeches were behind our blood and they were having nice bloody meal from all of us. It was getting too difficult to remove them and sometime we just allowed them to suck our blood. At that time most of us cursed ourselves for making such a bad decision to trek in a rainy season and I will say no one should do such a mistake as the forest is not forgiving and the mist and the wind made visibility poor as a result of which we could not have the view of the valleys and depth.


Kalladi forest

After a difficult and slow climb towards the top we reached the mountain peak around 11:30 am. All of a sudden we lost our way and there was no visible trail towards anywhere. Both Ramettan and Josettan were panicking and they were searching in all directions for a clear route. Rain was heavy and leeches were now biting all parts of our body, we were so tired of removing them and just let them do consume our blood. It was very clear to everyone that if we had to stay there for an hour or so, we would be in deep trouble. By that time Ramettan decided to go in a direction which he thought must lead to a stream down and probably we could find a route. Soon the bet paid off and we were able to see the estate route although the route is submerged in water. Well we all got so relived by the fact that now we can actually get rid of the leeches finally.


900 route
The place we reached at that time is called Thollayiram or nine hundred (900), well it’s a funny name, but Ramettan confirmed its called so. Now we were almost 6 km away from the road, where we could probably get a jeep or bus. Everyone was tired, however, Shaiju, Ramettan and myself decided not to take rest so walked ahead of everyone.


Cardomn valleys &&&& Again Cardomn

We had walked around 6 km and reached the Mepaadi to Mundakaii road . We were quick to get to the river down and took a quick bath and removed leeches from our legs. By that time the leeches had done a nasty work on our skins and Shaiju and myself were bleeding like anything.

We went to a nearby tea shop and had nice podi chaya (powder tea), soon rest of the team reached. We took a bus to Kalpetta from there and then managed to get a bus to Mysore but most of us had to stand throughout the journey.


Winners &&&& Too tired

Some interesting Points

Place Name : Swargakunnu, Kalladi mountains , thollayiram
Dist. from Bangalore : 310 KM
Route : Bangalore - Mysore - Batheri - Adviaram - Anakkampoyil -
Muthappanpuzha

Idle time for visit : Oct- Dec, Jan - Mar
Bad times : May - August and any rainy weather
What to look for : Lush green forest , natural and untouched routes, wild streams,
breath taking views from top of kalladi mountains

Difficulty level : Medium

Forest permission : Need to take permission from Thamaraserry. However with the help of a
local or guide this can be managed :

Transport : Bus to Adivaram or Thamaraserry, from their bus or jeep to Anakkampoyil

Person to contact: Ramettan, Siby , Karunan ( 09495369067).

Just reach Muthappanpuzha town and then ask for a local guide. I will not recommend to go to Josettan as he could make you spend a lot of money without any reasons.

Idle budget

• Bus to Adivaram (KSRTC) : Rs.330 per head
• Jeep to Muthappanpuzha : Rs.50 per head
• Bus to Muthappanpuzha : Rs.10 per head
• Guide Charge : Rs. 1500 for 2 days trekking (Entire group)
• Food cost : Max Rs. 200 (3 times) per person

WARNING!

The budget given on top is the max some will likely to spend if everything goes normal. I just wanted to give you the cost incurred by us as we got fooled by our guide Josettan

Charges by Josettan

Trekking cost per person including food: Rs.700 per head
Forest permission fee : Rs.100 per head
Jeep charge : Rs.800

He just served us food only twice for one day and for breakfast gave some rice cakes and hot tea water. On top of that when I asked to show the permission he said he will take it later, what a funny answer as I learned from his assistant that there is no real need to take permissions, I know very well that Jose pocketed that money and he will never give that to forest people. I got so surprised how a person can cheat us like that……. Too sad especially he being a keralite, who are known for their honesty.

Can you believe we got charged Rs. 800/- just to drop us from Adivaram to Muthappanpuzha ( hardly 12 km) , infact I told Josettan initially that we can come to Muthappanpuzha as I know the route. But mysteriously he insisted that we should come to Thamarassery and take a jeep. But later we found that he and his friend wanted to make money of out that and their intention became clear.

What Josettan did was cook 2 times and then just walked with us 2 days , that's all. And he charged Rs.700/- per head from us. I must tell you that in our last Vellarimala trekking , our guide Siby charged only Rs. 800/- for the entire team consisting of 6 people. And compared to Vellarimala, this trekking was nothing, however our man Mr. Jose charged us a lot, we will never forget.

However it was a very eventful trek and despite of all those bad events, everyone was quite happy with the effort and enjoyed every bit of it.