Travelogue – The ESCAPE ROAD Trek

Preface:
To be honest this trek was not in the TBD of my trekking list. I barely had heard about this and when I did not want one of the long weekends to be wasted in the cozy malls and shopping lanes of Bangalore, I decided to be a part of this trek. Called the ESCAPE ROAD TREK, or the Kodaikanal to Munar Trek, was the one which got few of my friends and me occupied.
We gathered at Shantinagar bus stop (or BMTC), at around 7.30 PM.  Bus was at 9.07pm and we wanted to be there much before to distribute the things amongst ourselves.  Few of us had light dinner at Kadamba – inside BMTC and few refrained from eating.
The bus started from BMTC by 10pm (not sure why did he wait for so long).

 
Chapter 1:  When two soul-mates Met.

 
We reached Kodaikanal at 6.30 AM. Weather was beautiful (needless to say, It is KODAIKANAL  afterall!!) We found Meenakshi Bhavan - a typical south Indian vegerarian hotel , all painted green in and out. We decided to get freshened up there while we waited for Kodai Mani – the Guide and Raksha –another friend who was to join us from Chennai. There was not enough food for 13 people, hence the restaurant guy made us wait for long and finally we had our breakfast by 11 AM. Raksha joined us in the mean while; however Kodai Mani was not yet in the scene.
Finally, the Guide Veluswamy reached the place instead of Kodai Mani, where the minibus and we were waiting. We started our drive from Kodaikanal to Poondi.  It was panoramic to see the sparsely crowded villages and brownish-red hay carpeting the coniferous forest.  Freshly grown carrots were being washed, collected in the gunny bags and were getting loaded to the trucks. It was so tempting to eat such luscious orange carrots but we were not as lucky since we didn’t stop to buy some,
We reached Poondi at 2 PM. Veluswamy gave us 2 options of trekking. 1. An 8 hour difficult trek and 2. A 6 hour moderate. No points for guessing, yes we took up the 8 hour one.
About 4kms from Poondi was a small waterfall where we took played in water and had our lunch. It was beautiful to see the spectrum of colors beneath the water, which formed an inverted rainbow. We started from the water fall after lunch.  Then again started the hay carpeted beautiful orange-red forest. We walked our way and found the first Bison leg, which a carnivore would have had and left behind.  We continued our trek into the woods. Veluswamy showed us a Giant Indian Squirrel jumping from tree to tree and we also heard wild hens. It started getting darker and the trail till then was just fine. Then the trek started getting tougher with less / no light and confusing stretch. At times Veluswamy himself lost his path, he didn’t even have a good torch, hence afraid to lose Veluswamy who was ahead and since I had a good head lamp, I followed him everywhere he went. Sometimes we had to return back the same way(not a very long distance though). Some paths were thorny, narrow and dangerous. We had to literally crawl at places and at places the cliff was really scary.

It was about 10pm when we were pretty tired and took a pit-stop since Raksha was feeling giddy. It was then, we saw the orange moon. It looked as though someone had lit a light on the sky. All of us had no idea how long would it take more since Veluswamy told its an 8 hour  trek and it was already past 8 hrs.

This was also the time when Siva met  his soulmate Kishore, just like how Harry Met Sally. He held his hands and walked with him all through the trek. He declared it so loud that all of us laughed to our hearts content forgetting the long trek.

It was still getting harder with dead ends and cliffs welcoming our way, when I heard a scream. My heart almost came to my mouth, but it was Raksha who screamed like that trying to avoid a fall. Added to that Vinay got inspired seeing the orange moon and started his Mohini(ghost) stories to scare me to death.
We reached the peak by 12am and rested for a while. It was again the same carpeted area and was so nice to sit and relax there. Veluswamy confirmed it was another 10 mins walk, which gave us so much relief. We found a shrine along the way and took photos to prove our valery 
We reached the watch tower in 30 minutes and moon behind the watch tower looked fantabulous. Jyothimani, Veluswamys younger brother welcomed us and the hot campfire was such a prize for the 25k trek.
We had MTR ready to eat (!!! Trust me you wont be anymore ready to eat if you eat that) bisibele bhath and rajma chawal. My toungue, stomach and nose didn’t welcome its intake and I reluctantly wasted a lot of it. We crashed to bed(sorry sleeping mats or sleeping mates accrodng to Dinesh) at 2am. It was very cold and we were happy to hit the bags after a long trek.
Siva and Kishore were more than happy to have found their soulmates at this trek.

Chapter 2: The making of Payasam.    

 
We woke up at around 7 in the morning, to find hot coffee /  tea waiting for us. Life is so content when you get your cuppa early morning.  Revathy  called me for a morning walk, but Dinesh gestured me towards Daison and Siva who were walking outside with Aquafiina and Sprite bottles. I understood the gesture and stayed back at the IB :P
We started our 12k trek at 11 am and the grassland was very beautiful with yellow-green grass. A tiny green tree snake welcomed us at the entrance. We walked about 3km and found a small pond. The water was so cold and sweet, it felt like heaven. We fetched enough water, suddenly veluswamy beckoned us to follow him quietly. We saw a herd of Bisons about 200m. Vinay and Deepak walked towards them in one way, Daison and Yash from the other. I followed Daison and Yash to see the herd from closer. We saw them from about another 50m distance, when they all ran away from there.
We went atop and started cooking there. At 3000m above sea level, the view was marvelous with mist covered mountains and valleys all around. After  serving the first round of soup in the water bottles, we started cooking rice too. I found there was not enough rice for all, so went to soak some more rice. I poured the contents of a small packet only to realize that the second time what I poured was not rice but sugar. We had cashews and raisins and what more! a yummy kheer/pudding was prepared from Dinesh’s Idea.
We cleared the place and trekked back. Found two more green tree snakes on the way.  Veluswamy spotted another  Bison raring just  above a green hut. Yash, Daison, Dinesh and I ran to death to see the Bison from close. It  was really close. Say 6-8m away from us. But when the noise increased, even that ran away from us. On enquiring Veluswamy about the green hut, he said it costed  Rs 2500 per day. It looked tidy and beautiful from outside. But we could not afford at that point of time.
We reached the  IB back by 6.30 and for our surprise, there was another group present there where we were supposed to be. The guy who was with them told in Malayalam,(to the ones who knew Malayalam among us), to leave the place since we did not have permission to stay or even enter the forest. We didn’t have a place to stay and it was too late to trek back…BING!!!! Guess where we got to stay??? Yess, the same green hut. They allowed us to stay there only cos we were 5 girls in the group 

We cooked magi for dinner and had he same there. We had a lot of fun. Guys  teasing us of  sharing the same blanket, kicking session after hitting the sleeping bags and loud, rhythmic snores.
Thus the story of Making Payasam out of Rice became a legend.

Chapter 3: Shhhhhh!!!!!!! Humans

 
We woke up by 6.30 and some were still sleeping. Dinesh made real nice hot tea, but unfortunately , the sub-collectors gang which refuge us  had used our cups, we had to drink it directly from the vessels. Revathy and I decked ourselves with the yellow flowers too. We saw a black monkey which sat there for enough time as though it was asked to pose.

Started from the Green Hut, we went back to the IB and found that the sub-collectors gang  was gone. We cooked rice, Onion sabji and daal. This much needed lunch was followed by Doodh ka alwa made using desi Ghee – courtesy Dinesh.
We started our trek back at 12.30am. that was the same way we came until the hay carpeted area, when veluswamy broke the news that the tigers are seen most of the times at this stretch where we sat the first day (night as Siva says – it  was his 'first night' trek :P)
We found a lot of porcupine thorns too. The trail back was very nice. The ascend and descend was so steep and repeated so long.
When we reached Kovilur – the village the expression on our face  was priceless. We saw a normal human habitation after 3 days. We were all happy but scared that humans will run away from us, hence we had to say SHHHHH HUMANS!!!

Chapter 4: Trivia of the return journey..

The bus from Kovilur was at 5.15 and we had just reached Kovilur at 4.45. we had our tea/coffee and got into the bus. From Kovilur, bus left to Munnar, though the driver was fast, the roads were so curvy, surrounded by tea estates all around. Such hairpin curves churned our stomach..
We reached Munnar and had our dinner at Saravana Bhavan. It was difficult to make it to the 11.15pm bus from Coimbatore. We got a bus from Munnar to Udumal pet, which we reached by 11.30om.
From UdumalPet, we got into a bus which took us to Cimbatore. We reached Coimbatore and got into another bus which went to salem. By 5.30 we reached salem and bid bye to Raksha who had to go to Chennai. 
We got into Bangalore bus from salem at 5.30 am. The bus stopped for breakfast at some place and we were freaked out when a grape seller got into the bus. After 3 days of grape diet, none us would have had bough grapes  even for free.

We all reached Bangalore by 11 and had to hibernate back to the routine Monday morning mode.

Altogether this trek topped the best treks list and left behind a lot of sweet memories.

Gallery:

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3