Dear Friends,
Nelliampathy, was the destination for the "Alumni on Wheels" - AOW.
Photos of the tour , please follow the link:
http://picasaweb. google.com/ neelalex/ AlumniOn
We started from Quilon at around 5.30 in the morning and had our breakfast at Wyte Fort, thanks to Anil Jabber for the courtesy. Mukesh joined us for breakfast and was there to see us off to Nelliampathy.
It was all happening in the AC 18 seater luxury bus, as if all of us were going on our very first excursion from school lead by the veteran Vijaykanth. After many piss stops, stops for fuelling and refueling in Beverages Corporation outlets and stacking up provision for the night in the form of whiskies and beers, we reached Nenmara to pick up Velraj (Class of 80) who had traveled all the way from Sivakasi to join the brigade. Pothundy was the next major station en route. There is a dam by the name of Pothundy dam, which supplies water for the rice fields in the surrounding areas, hardly we found any rice fields.
23 hair raising, stomach churning hair pin bends through narrow winding roads with heavy vegetation on either sides take you to Nelliampathy - a place of pristine beauty and salubrious climate, hitherto a serene place far from the inquisitive eye, value for money but priceless as far as your experiences are concerned , famous for its tea, coffee and orange plantations, a quiet and popular hill station in Palakkad district of Kerala at an altitude of 4600 feet to the highest peak of Padagiri at 5200 ft which incidentally was visited by us.
At around 2.30 we reached Hotel ITL where accommodation was arranged and lunch served. A sumptuous lunch followed by a siesta refreshed us to a great extent and by that time the jeeps had arrived to pick us for the ride of our lives, a dream experience, hard to narrate as you have to experience the same to believe it.
All our life we had scorned at Jeeps as clumsy uncomfortable rattlers of little use and rather cacophonic by nature, looked upon with disdain but all this was about to change. Never in our wildest dreams have we ever thought of a journey as thrilling and exhilarating as the one that was about to happen. Little did we know what we had in store as we boarded the Jeeps for our onward climb to Raja's cliff at "Mampara". The were no motorable roads , just a jungle path, rocky and unbelievably steep. The drivers of the jeeps , each one adept in the art of mountain driving maneuvered these jeeps (which would give the hummers a run for their money) dexterously as one false move would make sure the jeeps turns turtle. The amazing ease with which these vehicles climbed the sheer rock face was stunning and literally breath taking or in fact taking your breath away. There were places were these 4 wheel drive jeeps could be seen running on 2 or 3 wheels as such was the terrain rugged and jagged. We clung on to the Jeeps for dear life as we were tossed around like rag dolls during our 1 hr climb. The journey as exciting as we could see the summit and the way to reach it made us to skip a beat or beats. Finally after much tossing we reached the summit to see a picture perfect spectacular and panoramic view of the plains below, Parambikulam Sanctuary to our right and also the Meenkara dam. In the distance we could see the twinkling lights of Pollachi and Coimbatore . The winds were so refreshingly cool that we set up camp there for taking a well deserved rest as our bodies had taken a beating and was aching.
The place was phantasmagoric – no words could capture the beauty of this land , no thoughts could express the feelings, no photos could do justice, so amazing was it , that we were transported to an out of the world experience and took time to recover from the trance and regain our senses to be our normal selves.
We were there for a full hour and darkness was setting in and setting in real fast. With each passing minute the howling winds gathered momentum and the air its chillness and being miles away from civilization an eerie feeling sent a chill down our spine. Darkness was spreading and a pall of gloom fell on us as we had no other option but to take our trip back to ITL. We cowered at the thought of the downhill drive, and our fears were true, the return trip proved to be more stomach-turning and bumpy, as we were plummeting at great speeds to the base station and it was nauseating. Another 1 hour and we reached our lodging and got into a raucous huddle at the experience we experienced and for being in one piece and surely this trip is not for the lesser mortals and the faint hearted.
Jeeps – we 'now' revere them and hold them in high esteem and will do the same for the years to come as they have proved their capabilities beyond doubt to the doubting Thomas's and as Shajootty (Shaji Viswanth Christened by Ajit Sukumaran for his resemblance to Mammotty) put it on that day, we'll pay obeisance whenever we see one, wherever it may be.
In the night we had the barbecue, soft spoken Sydney Sam being the self appointed Chef King , with his inimitable style, calm and composed prepared the marinated chicken (courtesy Whyte Fort) to tease our taste buds (12 chicken : 14 persons – 2 vegetarians) and after usual round of drinks around a cosy campfire, we retired to our rooms for a well deserved good nights sleep at 12pm. John Swamy, dozing away to glory was at his eloquent best in the thick of the night with his soliloquy and that too with the choicest of vocabulary during his deep slumber. The snore brigade was just revving up the engines to have them working on overdrive throughout the night, lest the others sleep.
A good nights sleep did wonders to us and Sunday morning trek started in right earnest at 6am. The drive to "Meenampara" was equally interesting with the morning mist just starting to lift. The winged warblers were at their vocal best as if to set up a reception for the IJHS Alumni. We encountered Sambar deers, a humongous one, Bison’s and an Ibex, positioned on the summit of the hills as if they were keeping a prowling eye on the visitors below. The scene at Meenampara was astonishing – the whole area draped in the lifting morning mist, as the biting cold winds were at its grueling best , blowing you and your blues away. Not able to withstand the pounding, we retreated to the comfort of the Jeeps (Jeeps were turning comfortable) . The trekking which followed was bringing the youth, whatever left in us to the fore as we climbed the rock face with gay abandon taking the cue from Viji who with his infectious vigor was surprisingly agile for his age (he turned 65 during the trip) – too young to be old. Photo sessions followed and after a good 4 hours we returned to our base camp for breakfast, reminiscing the events in chronological order and a well deserved break.
After breakfast, many of us hit the sack, while the few enterprising guys tried their hand at rummy. After lunch, we gathered ourselves from the new found joy of friendship and camaraderie, to troop back to Kollam with the lasting impressions of a tour well organised and meticulously charted out to the minute details by Sajeev Sukumaran, Shaji Viswanath, Ajit Sukumran and Vijayakanth. Thanks guys for the memorable tour that will be etched in our memories as long as time stands.
Regards
Thomas Alexander
