Outside Le Meridien Hotel, Chennai...CTCians wait while time moves. We had to wait nearly 2hours before starting.
People from Chennai, B'lore, Kodai all met at the Meenakshi Bhavan Hotel, Kodai.
"Kodai" Mani made us wait another 1 hour before he arrived, ultimately.
"Kodai" Mani, our guide.
Kukkal Lake
"J" Mohan saved the plastic pot from its suicide.. :P
Here we go..
Entering the shola..
The canopy from inside the shola..
Just as we hit the grassland from the shola..
Selvam, co-guide no. 1
Near the temple atop the hill, see the cliff drop. OMG!!
Sibin here..
We took a break for lunch near the temple as you can see at the right top.
Sugarcane, "stolen" by Mohan from the temple. I am sure the people who gifted the cane for the deity would feel proud thinking their offering has been "accepted" by God! :D
Neelima, posing for the click
Relax..
Noel
"Saettai" Manoj
Getting ready to move towards the camping spot, which is the best sight.
Collecting firewood for the campfire.
Vikram here, with firewood.
Selvam, co-guide-1 at the left and Edwin, co-guide-2 to the right.
Could you spot the trekkers making a beeline?
If you could spot a small green patch to the mid-left of this picture, you have spotted the camping site and you could also see the trekkers moving towards the site.
Vikram and his silhouette. Vikram, Balaji, Tara and myself did not go ahead until we saw sunset from a point higher than the campsite.
The organisers, Balaji and Tara
First arrival at the campsite
Tent-1 up....
...while we waited to see the sunset.
We too reached the camping site soon enough.
A view from the camping site...we came to the site from the highest point you see in this picture and from beyond that.
Koushik, with the Bison skull found from near the camp site.
Dusk..
Campfire!
Radhika a.k.a "Theethaai"(courtesy: Manoj) feeding the fire.. :)
Soup is getting ready by the side. :)
"Special" Maggi, getting ready. :)
Day break..Day-2
I do not know how many cared to do this...brushing the teeth! :P
Breakfast..but many missed it. Ash-flavoured bread.
The Group
Packing up for the challenging trek Day-2. Day-1 trek was nothing, going by any standards of CTC.
After the CTCians left the camp site..CTC maintains a strict policy of no-litter, as you can see.
A stream starts from the shola-grassland complex, which shows the critical importance of the complex. We filled our bottles before we started the risky downhill trek.
Trek, Day-2 starts.
The drop was threatening..
Sure it could be realised now!
Could you spot someone standing near the right-bottom corner?
Edwin, co-guide-2
We went downhill to reach the other hill as you see now, near the waterfall visible.
Sammy here..we reached the stream after much slides through the grass. A group of around 10, incl self, missed the trail. But Mohan, Surya, Balaji helped us reach the stream safe.
The water was ice-cold...but, we braved the chilly water too!
THE real challenge was this tough climb. Though there was a path, it was continuously uphill. Kudos to the first-timers who managed this climb too.
Kukkal village(Hope the name of the village is right!)
Landscape of the village
Off we go...towards the vehicle, at the end of trek. We were served a briyani which was awesome.
