Kolli Hills - One day trip !!

It was a third Saturday of the first month of 2020, right after pongal celebrations, even before my alarm rings, I was roused to the crowing sound of the rooster at preciously couple of minutes before 5:00 AM in the morning. After few minutes, I got a call from my travel friend(Pugazh) who has woken up even before me. The plan was to reach Kalappanaickenpatti separately and ride through Kolli hills of Eastern Ghats from there in his bike. I boarded a bus around 5:30 AM at Manickamplayam (at my village) which dropped me in Namakkal at around 6:15 AM. There were two buses waiting which crosses Kalappanaienpatti, one of those buses was directly going to Kolli Kills but I boarded the other one as it started moving. I reached Kalappanaienpatti around 7:00 AM and I was having few conversations with local people while waiting for my friend's arrival. He had touched our meeting point  around 7:45 AM as he had some hick-ups with the route in his journey. Then we started riding through Karavalli and soon we were welcomed by the hills road with Seventy hair pin bends. Neither of us had Jerkins or any winter suites, freezing fresh air made us to shiver little, luckily the Sun was showing some mercy with it's rays often on the route. When we had crossed around fifty plus hair pin bends and spotted a spectacular view. Mountains were almost tightly covered with white moving mists. It was blissful to see such an wonderful view around 8:45 AM . We clicked some snaps and  after spending few minutes there, we started climbing up.

We reached Solakkadu around 9:10 AM and we had a slight breakfast on the way to Semmedu and then we visited Vasalurpatty boat house. It was not pretty impressive. Hence, We didn't do boating there. We just played with touch-me-not plant for a while and clicked some pics. We didn't want to waste time anymore with average places and decided to visit our prime point which is nothing but Agaya Gangai Waterfalls. On the way there, we stopped at Seeku Parai view point, which took our breaths for a while by presenting a wonderful valley view alongside with misty mountains. We spent about 15 minutes there and then we started ridding towards the falls. The crowd was more than expected.

Time was 11:15 AM, printed on the ticket that I bought for forty rupees for two persons. We started going down through a thousand staircases which covers about one Kilometer. This is the only falls that I have seen/visited (I have visited very less places, please bear with me), for which you have to go down rather than climbing up as it is located in a valley surrounded by mountains on all sides. We could hear the sound at a distance when we walked down about 20 minutes. In further 5 minutes, we reached the falls. This was my third visit , but Agaya Gangai Waterfalls never failed to astonish me with its marvelous height and width which allows water to fall from three hundred feet into the river Aiyaru. Because of its height, you will get hitting harder than you think, while you stand under the falls. However it was blissful.

People usually finds difficult while returning from falls as you have to climb up through those steep thousand steps after draining your energy at the water falls. We spent around 30 minutes at the water falls and we clicked some photos and videos. Around 12:05 PM we started returning back from the falls. We didn't stop anywhere, so that we could reach the base point in 30 minutes where the Arapaleeswarar temple is located. This ancient temple was built by the Valvil Ori (One of the last seven patrons of Tamil) around 200BC. We walked around the temple and worshiped the lord Shiva at a distance as we didn't want to wait in the long queue. Soon we came out of the temple and entered into an small hotel to catch our mild lunch and to taste a herbal soup.

Around 1.10 PM we started towards the Masila falls which is located in Ariyur Nadu.I was happy and eager to read the name boards across as they had wonderful Tamil names for the places (vazhavanthi Nadu, Ariyur Nadu etc). We reached Masila falls around 1:40 PM ,we parked our bike and walked inside the small park about 500 meters to reach the falls. We didn't took a shower here. We just witnessed the beauty of the falls for about 20 minutes and clicked some snaps in between. This would be a best spot for a family trip as elderly might feel difficult in climbing down Agaya Gangai falls.

It was 2:00 PM when we started our journey to the next notable place of our trip which is Masi Periasamy temple and it is located on top of the hill. You can't ride till the end, there is a place to park our vehicles and have to walk through the hills from there. We parked our bike. There was a paddy field next to the parking spot on the way to temple.What a colorful evening that was! Few men and women were working on the paddy fields. Couple of them were making sure the mud level is equal across the field and few were planting the paddy seedling. Ofcourse it will tempt you to get into the paddy fields and plant along with them if you are new to those. We captured videos and clicked photos. I remembered one of my friend who wanted to plant paddy seedling, but we didn't have our friend with us, but atleast thought of sharing those lovely pictures and videos. After spending sometime we walked further into the hills. It was a moderate 25 minutes walk which took us to the temple finally. The clouds were coming closer and tiny rain droplet touched us too. It was a small beautiful temple surrounded by wonderful mountain views which gave more divine feeling. We didn't want to get into rains like our other trip , So We started walking back. On the way, we took some photos and spent sometime on the big rocks in the middle. Also we stopped at a shop with a thought to taste the herbal soup again. The taste was better than the previous one. We also spent sometime looking at the paddy fields again while coming down. The time was around 03.30 PM when we were at the parking spot back. Some people were having the food they brought with them and very few even cooking there.

Our next spot in list was Ettukai Amman temple hidden inside the forest having pond in-front of it. It was beautiful and pleasant hill temple. We spent sometime there. Time was around 4:20 PM in watch but it looked like late evening. Hence we decide to return to home and started riding our bike towards Solakkadu. It was just 4:30 PM but we were surprised by the climate. It was so chill and white smokey mists were slapping our faces. We couldn't even see the roads clearly. That was a breathtaking ride for some distance. We stopped our bike for 10 minutes at Namma Aruvi falls. The falls was dry but the place had a wonderful view point. Then we reached Solakkadu, then to Kalappanaickenpatti and finally our respective homes.

Kolli hills would be perfect one day trip place if you are near by. Definitely you can make it as Two days if you are coming from a long distance or visiting with a family. Agaya Gangai falls entry timing is 6:00 AM to 4:00 PM and Masila falls entry timing is 6:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Agaya Gangai falls is the prime spot which will astonish you. I believe, comparatively the overall cost should be cheaper than other places, hence keep an eye if you love trips.

Overall it was a perfect beautiful one day trip. I would say, don't ever think visiting Kolli hills at January it is unseasonal. I am sure that, still, it is a very good option.

வளைந்து வளைந்து செல்லும்

கொண்டை ஊசி வளைவுகளும் !

மலை முகடுகளை முத்தமிட்டு

செல்லும் வெண் மேகமும் !

ஆயிரம் படிக்கட்டுகள் கீழிறங்கி

அன்னார்ந்து பார்க்க வைக்கும்

ஆகாய கங்கையின் உயரமும் !

தரையை தொடும் முன் காற்றால்

அள்ளி தெளிக்கப்படும் அதன் சாரலும் !

இடியெனே விழும் அதன் ஆற்றலும்

சற்றும் ஓயாத அதன் ஓசையும் !

அமைதியை உள்ளத்தில் பரப்பும்

சில மலை கோயில்களும் !

சத்தமில்லாமல் வழிந்தோடும்

மாசிலா அருவியின் வனப்பும்!

விழியை விழுங்கும் நெல் வயல்களும்

சமமான சேற்று நிலத்தின் செறிவும்

நாற்று நடும் நங்கயரின் நளினமும் !

சற்று கடினமான மலை பாதைகளும்

கண்ணில் அகப்படா சிறிய மழைத்துளிகளும்

தோகை விரித்தாடும் மயிலின் அழகும் !

மாலையை வரவேற்கும் குளிர் காற்றும்

பார்வையை மறைத்து கன்னத்தை

அறைந்து செல்லும் மேக கூட்டங்களும் !

நறுமண பொருள்கள் நிறைந்த கடை வீதிகளும்

எங்கும் கிடைக்கின்ற மூலிகை வடிசாறும் !

எழில் கொஞ்சும் எங்கள் 

கொல்லி மலை தை மாதத்தில் !

- செல்வா