Nelliyampathy

This is my first extensively dedicated blog, and am doing this bcoz I want to show u guys a place in Kerala most people haven't heard of much, or seen much............circumscribed by beautiful hillocks and dams, inundated by tea plantations and callow forests, this place is where every adventure loving man seeks to go.........yes, am talking about the silently mystifying Nelliyampathy...........

There is one more reason that am incline

d to do this and that's bcoz when I googled "Nelliyampathy", not much results came out that gave information about where the place is or how it can be reached.....so sad!!

So, I will start by mentioning about the trip we went to Nelliyampathy in Nov'07......I was doing my b-tech in Kottayam, Kerala at that time and was staying along with 11 other pals in a PG. We started on a Thursday night at around 12:00 am in a traveler and reached Pothundi dam at the foothills of Nelliyampathy. We took the route from Kottayam to Muvattupuzha, Chalakudi , Alathur and Pothundi Dam which took around 4 hours. This place is a very silent one, we could hear only the sound of the water

falling off from the reservoir.

As we had a little bit

tiresome, 4-hour long trip, we slept-off in the traveler. It was around 6 in the morning when I

woke up and the sight in front of me was truly mind-blowing....as dawn was just starting to fall upon the sky, it was like the nature had changed its colour from the serene green to the exotic blue.....(you can see the first photo at the top). After freshening up, we started on our way up the hill towards Nelliyampathy. We

were expecting bumpy

roads but it was just smooth all the way, Kerala government has done a good job regarding that. About half an hour later we were in Nelliyampathy. The place is famous for its ravaging beauty of the

steep hills. There are many

suicide points here, I don't remember their names .......and the best part is you can actually watch clouds floating at the same level where you are standing, its like the hills are kissing the sky. Well the first place we went was just great, we had to walk along a narrow path and at the end we could see something in white colour. What we saw when we reached that point

was the open sky, and down below some 3000 meters the lush green land lied, stretching across the horizon.

Well there are many resorts here, where you can stay for two three days and visit all the places nearby. If you are talking about Nelliyampathy, you should not forget to mention about the top-most point over there. Its a 14km up the hill drive, only 4-wheel drive powered vehicles can take that route. You can hire a jeep from the town, the driver can tell you about the place. Its about 4000 mtrs above msl. The route is very rocky and at times you should get down the jeep,

so that it can drive up the way. Sometimes, the driver said that, wild boars may come on the way. When you reach the top, you can almost have the view of half of pallakad district, some 6 dams, clouds floating just before you............its just amazing. After we came back from this place, we had our lunch from a house. We had asked them before to prepare lunch for 10 people. The thing is there is no proper restaurant over there to have food.

Then, we went to a place called Sithakund, its another suicide point, a hill, and if you climb down the hill, there is a huge cave that you can see. It was an adventurous experience for us. We met a local who took us down the hill to the cave. The place is full of leaches, so you should take care of your own blood, or by the time you watch your foot, all the blood might have gone.................huh, was that a bit over-board???

After this, we started our journey back to Kottayam and reached there at night

Well, this is all I can tell about the trip and the place. Its a must see place for adventure seekers. Also, you can have campfire , trekking sort of things here, if you plan accordingly. Any information you need about the place, feel free to contact me....

Writing off

Patruni.......