Munnar Trip

Places : Veerapandi ,Thekkady , Munnar
People : Mega , Senthilbabu , vijayan, Yogendiran , Varathu , Durai.
Date : 26-28 Aug 2005

The Trip to Munnar was pending for a long time and finally it materialised.

Places we had visited :

1. Veerapandi
2. Thekkady
3. Lockheart Gap , Munnar
4. Anayirannkal , Munnar
5. Eravikulam National Park , Munnar
6. Rajamalai , Munnar
7. Maatupetty Dam , Munnar
8. Kundala Dam, Munnar
9. Photo point , Munnar
10. Echo Point, Munnar
11. Honey Bee Tree , Munnar
12. Marayoor Wildlife Sanctuary
13. Chinnar Wildlife Santuary

Veerapandi :

Veerapandi was one place which I had never thought would be so much beautiful. This is one place where you can see that even TamilNadu is green and not dry like what you see in Northern tamilnadu.



Any such green field with huge mountains as backdrop is a good candidate for a nice photo.



We were able to see a shooting for a TV Serial also going on nearby.



Thekkady :

Nothing needs to be said about Thekkady . It is well known all over India .



We were in Thekkady during the Krishna Jayanthi day , and hence were able to see a procession on the streets.



Munnar :

We reached Munnar from Thekkady . On the way we crossed Kambam , Kambamettu , Nedunkandam , idumbancholai , Pooparai.
In pooparai , we bought lots of spices , milagu , pattai etc .. as this was the place where it was grown.

LockHeart Gap :

This is a place in the roads leading to munnar .But a good place with a nice view point and lots of mist.



Anayirankal :

This is a place which literally means "where elephants come down" . They do so to drink water.
We had a look at this place from the van and it was really a beautiful place. A Must see place.



Since the only good hotel in the Munnar town was very crowded , we packed our lunch. and decided to eat on the way .



Eravikulam National ParK:

Eravikulam National Park is a wildlife sanctuary , a famous one.
I think probably this is one of the rare wildlife sanctuaries completely enveloped in mist.



Nothing except us and mist.



Rajamalai :

Rajamalai is the only place where you can see the "Varayadu" or the Nilgiri Tahr in the wild. This is the natural habitat for the varayadu .
Though we were not able see the animals very close , we were able to see them moving on the top of the mountain . We were able to see them on the top of the mountain in the below picture.



Maatupetty Dam

Mattupetty is famous for the dam and for the Indo-Swiss cattle project going on here. We visited the dam alone.
The view from the Maatupetty dam was breathtaking as you can see below. Places like this do exist in India.



We went for a speed boating at Maatupetty dam and we were able to see elephants during our boating.



With elephants as the backdrop .



Kundala Dam

Some distance from the Maatupetty dam is the kundala dam. This one also has a good boating center where you can hire row boats and learn rowing or do rowing , whichever you can . We learnt rowing. :-)



Photo Point :

Photo point is a tea garden which is famous for its views and in the way the place looks in photos. Really this was a very good place to be photographed. I think we would have taken a minimum of 20 Photos here.

Me in Photo point :



Somehow I believe that in the below photo we all of us were the ones who spoiled it :-). If you remove all of us from the photo ,it would have been a great photo.



Echo Point :

Echo Point as the name implies will return in echo whatever you said. A Nice place to spend some time.



HoneyBee Tree :

Honey bee tree is the tree where there were lots of "then koodus" . I donno the reason why they are only in this tree and not in any other tree nearby. The big black lumps you see in the below photo are the "then koodu's".



After this we had to proceed to Tamilnadu thru Udumalapet. The climb down was good with lots of waterfalls and streams everywhere.

One of the waterfalls.



Marayoor Sandalwood Forest:

Marayoor is a village in kerala where you would be able to see natural sandalwood forest. We were able to see sandalwood forests on the road. The first question that may arise in your mind is that if they are natural forests , how are they protecting it. The Forest Office employs "Watchers" who take turns to keep vigil on the trees. When we stopped in the village for sightseeing , a villager immediately approached us and took us around the place. Then we came to know that he himself was a watcher and he was just seeing that we do not do any damage to the trees.

Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary:

The Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary is situated on the border of Tamilnadu and Kerala. We were told that we wouled be able to see Elephants crossing in the evening.
As we were going forward , we were able to see a herd of Elephants crossing the road. Our van driver stopped the van well in front and for a little time we stayed inside the van. Due to a sudden curiosity , I took the camera ,opened the door and ran towards the elephants. From a distacne of 20 feet , I took a snap of them crossing. While trying to take the next shot , I was able to see in the viewfinder that the master of the herd , the biggest elephant of the herd had looked at me suspiciously and started running towards me , with the sole intention of throwing me around :-) .I clicked another photo and ran back towards the van without looking back. Below is the photo I took while the elephant had started chasing me.



Meanwhile the elephant stopped on hearing the electronic music which was played by our van when it was in reverse gear. It waited for some more time for us to cross it. It would have really played with us if we had crossed it that time. Luckily it changed its mind and went on its way.

Amaravathy Dam:

The Amaravathy dam was initially in our plans and we had enough time to see it at the end of the day. But bcos of the physical and emotional strain we experienced while the elephant chased me , we proceeded to chennai without seeing Amaravathy.

Cheers
Megarajan