Bunch of colleagues in our office casually started to discuss about going out a small trip in the week end for a long time and the D-day was finally fixed as May 9th 2015 without any finalization of the place. As we started to scout for places nearby Chennai with short travel this place, Parvathamalai was coined by some one. The next step is obvious many of us landed on google for the images, route, infra , blog etc etc.The result was negative from many and few had a "cat on wall" stand. But all credit goes to our friend's mother who has recently visited the place ,so we actually considered her as our inspiring figure to start the journey. When there were oscillations on the plan, next jumped in our Trek lead Sampath and Perumal / Elango who firmed that there is no change in the plan. Once again we confirmed the participation's and the trip plan was charted with Things to buy / bring etc.
The plan is like below.
Friday- leave Office 6.00 PM
- Dinner En route 8.00 Pm
- Reach Foot Hills 11.00 Pm
- Start 11.30
Saturday- Reach Hill top 3.30 Am
- Rest in Hill top till 5.30 AM
- Return back to foot hills 8.30 AM
- Break fast and return to Chennai.
It was Friday evening and still our friends were puzzled if were on the plan.Luckily we were able to start by 6.15 PM as planned but were unlucky as we could not beat the traffic from DLF to sriperumpudur which caused a slight lag. We started with 10 Persons in 3 cars. As planned had our dinner in the kancheepuram and reached polur around 11.00 PM.
The roads were emtpy and no one were awake to enquire about the exact place to reach the Thenmathimagalam which is the foot hills of the paruvathamalai. There is also another route to hill through Kadaladi( which is actually shorter in distance). We stopped at couple of places to enquire and managed to move on .
As we reached the Thenmathimagalam the foot hills it had a deserted look with few shops in closed state , bunch of stray dogs, low light village street lamps.
We parked our cars and shifted to our casual cloth and many preferred to be on barefoot considering this as a spiritual trek. Seeing our cars getting parked and people getting ready we saw one of the teashops owner coming out, we strike a conversation with him, he again boosted us with lot of tips and also provided sticks which will help you to climb and also very helpful especially when you come back. Had a cup of tea and started our journey.
It was 12:02 AM and it was pitch dark. We carried head lamp, torches , backpack and started moving.
The first couple of kilometers has a cement road and small stairs that is easy to climb. We had Un invited guests in our group. They are these dogs. Actually there were quite a few number of stray dogs at the foot hills , but as we started to move on there were actually three dogs that started following us, it would be perfect to tell it started guiding us. One was in the Front , another in the middle and third one was at the tail end. Actually we were under the impression that they are following us for some food. But it was not the case they simply followed us.
As we completed the cement road and the stairs, we started reaching the next phase of the climb, which is full of bolder and hard rocks. Climbing in the night under the moon light was a very unique experience. we need to be very careful as we walk but the beauty is the barefoot really helped to hold firm for each step. We took couple of breaks and started moving. En route we stopped in the small shops for some water, soda and lime juices. It was around 2.00 Am now and we have already taken 2 breaks.
The wind was actually getting cold and every one were actually feeling the fragrance of the herbal forest surrounded by us,but the little moon light was beating the dark night and exposed us the beauty around us to bare minimum. Completing this phase 2 of the climb by finishing this boulders will help you to conquer the 3/4 distance of the route to the hill.Until now in spite of the steep climb we don't have any other risk.
It almost takes another 1.30 hour to complete this and at the end of 3-4 hours we will be almost in the last leg, in which we need to climb the steepest hill and the final one. We will be climbing on the hill called as "Kaddaparai Hill". Now as we see in the picture we need to climb the hill with the help of the iron rods which are being put inside the hard rock and that is the only grip that you have to hold and the climb is like 75degree steep. When we were thinking of how to climb this steep rocks few of our friends were half and were providing the instructions and guidance to move on this. The whole group was climbing slowly and supporting every one who were lagging and had some fear on crossing the obstacles. After we crossed this we took a break on the rocks and most of them were sharing the experience how it was and the cold breeze helped us to cool down mentally and physically. Now we were able to see the hilltop and it was just 50 Mt's away but we need to reach the place by crossing the small metal bridge that was put for the grip. It was a easy walk but the other side had a deep valley.
There was a huge relief from every one and was huge sense of accomplishments. As it was still dark , we were not able to enjoy the beauty around. Every one went inside the temple to offer the prayer and it is now around 5.20 AM and we planned to rest for next 45 Min's before we head back to the return journey.
Every one agreed, considering the hot sun which hits early in the summer and also to avoid the burns to our barefoot friends.
It is already 6.00 Am in the morning and the time was running short as we need to head back by beating the heat in this summer. We enjoyed the silence over there, the mist that were like a " white e" below our height,the holy spiritual vibrations on the hill top. Had a chit chat for few Min's and once again we started back to the foot hills.
we were wondering how to cross the tough climb that was the "Kadappari Hill'' and we escorted by couple of experience climbers who just become friends and they navigated us through a new route and it had multiple iron ladders to move down.We were threatened by our fore fathers ,",monkeys" in this ladder. But a loaf of bread were enough to divert their attention and move down.
It was around 6.30 Am and every one were starting to move down and all were surprised on the path that we have crossed. There were heavy boulders, sharp rocks, cliffs and after seeing this tough path every one felt huge accomplishments. As we started moving down there were few shops which were open and we sat along the route to have small quick tea and refill our stomach to have enough energy to reach down.
After a hour of walk we were reaching the stairs then the cement road and were in the foot hills. The last leg tested every one with scorching heat and our legs were very soar.
We found shade at the end of this stairs and we planned to take rest for few Min's as still few of our people were en route and joining us back one by one. As we were taking rest we turned back saw the hill that we actually climbed and came back.
Seeing the peak that we climbed and route we crossed actually feel ever one as a great journey. The last leg to reach our parking area started and most of us were running to find a shade and switch on the car a/c for the rest.
We all boarded our cars with a great feeling and every one were eager to comeback once again. Leaving few notes that would be help full if any one plans in the future.
Things to carry:
1. Torch Light
2. 1 Bed sheet / Bedspread
3. Carry Enough water bottle's ( Minimum 2 Lt's) else you will paying 40 Rs/ Litre of water.
4. Few energy bars
Time to visit.
1. Any week end is good.
2. Crowd will be there during Full moon / No moon.
