nov 4 2011
Hi friends If you want walk through midst,clouds and fog,Meesapulimala 2650m is the one of the most beautiful and adventurous place in southern Kerala is right trek for you.This beautiful hilly area, surrounded by the thick forest and thick shrubs is well-known for the adventurous trekking and its own wildlife.This place is very near to Munnar, and is one of the best place in Munnar for trekking lovers.
MEESAPULIMALA is the second highest peak in Kerala after "Anamudi'.My friends who had been to Munnar had told me how beautiful the place is.Though i was a kind of nature trekking lover i didn go any treeking places but some of my friends arslan,akshay,shivaprasad(G N) suggested to go off to one of memorable "awesomocity" Meesapulimala trek which i didn heard till that time, i think you also might not hear this place.
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| dam view near munnar |
So @bangalore we are 7 in number me,arslan,akshay,shivaprasad,sharat,manjoor,ali had planned to go Meesapulimaal.The route we took was bangalore->mysore->coimbatore->udumalpet->munnar->meesapulimal. It was 3 day trip which includes 1 day trek of distance 15km .As our plan we left bangalore at 6pm to mysore,we were at mysore around 9pm.we had light dinner at mysore then headed to coimbatore in rajahamsa.next day early morning at 5.30am we were at coimbatore.ya here comes warm up trek from one bus stand to another to find bus to udumalpet because in kerala you will find rare persons who knows english or hindi and also there were no direct buses from coimbatore to udumalpet so by somehow we managed to get bus to Okkadu where we got bus to udumalpet.Luckily we found a bus to munnar at udumalpet around 9.30am because rare bus facility,next bus at 1pm .we were at munnar around 4pm.
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| going to take bus to munnar at udumalpetai |
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@ munnar we called our guide sarwan(the jeep man whom we contacted earlier about trek and permission of forest officer),he took us to forest officer.As our plan we needed to trek 15km distance to top of hill and tent there and retun back next day but this didn happen wen we enquired forest officer about it, he didn allow us to get into forest so we are asked to take the packages from forest department.the package we took is one day trek which includes guide with no meals,there are many packages but they are costly,so we planned for halt in munnar but its too costly in munnar to ladge so we needed some place for tent ,sarwan took us to private tour company(forgot the name) by somehow talking we settled for 200 per head/day for tent hence it is advisable to take permission from forest department before only.
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| camping place |
One should have contact of forest officer or any local guide before plan of trek.The camping was an much awaited place to be, with the organizers having taken care of everything. Table, chair, tents,toilets, coffee & tea arranged with snacks and camp fire.we had sound rainy sleep in tents.
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| tea plantation at munnar |
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| way to munnar |
Next morning the jeep man sarwan took us to Rodo Valley, from this point only the actual trek start which is about 30km(not sure) from munnar.The jeeps are very costly, we paid 5k for 250km(overall 2 days).we were at Rodo Valley at 10am and started trek through forest along with guide from forest department,for that they charged 300 per head.The trek path has two phases one is forest and other being hills.The forest trek path is somewhat easy in beginning but as your further steps you will find it diffficult because of slopes of hills.during the forest treking we are slow down by leeches so must take care of leeches.
Rain attacked us once we finished first phase,so next phase being hills we trekked in rain,midst and fog which was awesome which was the path includes up and down of hills and Elephant dung was all over there during,and also we found bones of tiger.There were around 8 hills between ,9th is the meesapulimal.In trekall hills average slopes except 2nd or 3rd which made us to take lot restings in between.One must buy energy boosters like chacolates etc.we can see and walk through fog,midst all around us .
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| @ top of meesapulimal |
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| @top |
You cant find a person 10m far from you it was awesome first time experince for all of us thats y we called it as awesomocity.So yeah, finally we were almost near the peak, after all 8 hills we were at top .
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| stream on the way |
The temperature at top is very low around freezing point so take warm cloths.So to descent there is other path which is easier but we didn go because guide was confused about path due to lot of midst and he also made us to trek 2km extra so we returned in same path of ascent. Guide is must for this trek because path is confusing(no correct path) one might difficult to find.
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| through forest |
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| crossing stream betweeen hills |
Totally its 30km trek which takes 3-4 hours of ascent and 2-3 hours descent depending on ur stamina.so Going through 'Silent Valley', a picture-perfect tea plantation area, we treked the second highest peak in Kerala, rising to a height of 2650 mtrs and got into our tent had a sound rainy sleep.
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| trek hills |
I can call this trek as fullll fog and midst covered trek.3rd day morning we woke up at 6 and walked around tea plants,according to our guide these tea plants are the highest in the world.In between munnar and camp,we found a dam(didn remember name) and a boating place.After this, we did some shopping at one of the local shops,tea powder and home made chacolates, had lunch in one of the restaurants and headed back for the bus.Though i couldnt not explain everything but this trek somewhat dangerous you must be carefull wen you are top because its almost 90 degree slope.
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| fog covering the hills |
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It is advisable to take bags with less weight. One can not explain real experience of fog and midst so he only should experince that.IF YOU EXPERIANCE THE TREK ONCE I AM SURE YOU WILL FEEL LIKE DO THIS TREK AGAIN AND AGAIN.
So total our expenditure per head was 3.5K,i think this will be the minimum expenditure.
