Agasthyakoodam Trip – Part 2

മലയാളത്തിൽ വായിക്കൂ

Those who have not read the first part can read it here – Agasthakoodam Trip – Part 1

I thought to go to Agasthyakoodam several times after the trip in 2002 but got cancelled due to various reasons. I tried several times during my college days also. Due to some or the other reason, the travel never happened. That’s when my uncle’s call came in 2014. It was with the news that Agasthyakoodam booking started online that year. The bookings started 2 days after the call. I think it was on January 14th. I booked the ticket for all on the 14th morning itself. The date was from february 1st to 3rd. Three were in that trip. My uncle, Uncle Prasanth and me. Uncle Prashant is a person who travels at least three times a year. He was there on our first trip as well. When the booking went online, the ten-person rule got changed. That’s why we got tickets for three people. After some days of booking the ticket, I got my first job. Only thing I asked to my office management was I needed leave to go to Agasthyakoodam. They agreed. My uncle and Uncle Prasanth reached my home the day before we left.

We started early morning in my car. After parking the car at Nedumangad, we entered in the Bonakad bus at 5 pm. After reaching Boncaud, we went to the office of the forest department. There was a small canteen there. We had our breakfast from there and collected our parcelled lunch also. About a hundred people were there. The opportunity to climb Agasthyakoodam is for a maximum of one hundred people a day. All the extra plastic covers we had in our hand at the time of checking were kept there. Those were the precautions to avoid polluting the forest. Alcohol was also not allowed and that too was being examined. After the checking, the walk started at eight o’clock. Except that the narrow path at the beginning got a bit widened up, everything else was the same as before; as in our 2002 trip. We took bath from the same waterfall. Since it was February, the water was scarce there. We also had our lunch from there. Prashant uncle had Coca-Cola and Snickers(Chocolate bar) in his hand. On the way forward, the sugar in the cola helped to change the fatigue quickly and well. The reason we had sneakers was to reduce appetite. Two men from Bonakadu then joined us with belongings on their heads and hands – our guides. As they were from the same region, climbing the hill was quite easy for them with all the loads in their head and hands. The rice and goods they delivered became the food we got when we reached Athirumala. They all went ahead because of our slow walk. The three of us walked slowly by enjoying the forest.

We reached Athirumala by about 2:30 PM. In the previous trip, we completed the total trip in 2 days. Now we took 3 days. There was enough crowd mainly because of both set of people-those who had finished the Agasthyakoodam climb and those who had just come up there to climb. In addition to the old concrete building, there were temporary sheds. We prepared to sleep by spreading our mat in one of the sheds. There was a reason not to stay in the concrete building. The building was in such a state of disrepair that it could collapse at any moment. Yet there were a few people inside who planned to sleep there in the night.

We fell asleep due to fatigue. In the evening, after having a cup of black tea and booking dinner, we walked around there. Bathrooms and toilets were built this time and hence there was no need to pollute the forest. I saw a few people drinking alcohol on one side. They might be people with a hold on the higher authorities or else they should have been caught in the checking at Bonakad itself. We went to bed after having dinner early.

I woke up at midnight after hearing the roar of the wind. The wind was blowing so hard. It was not affecting the inside of the tent, but the tent was shaking violently. I was a bit scared. But that fear did not last. Somehow I fell asleep again.

We woke up early in the morning. We got ready to go after a bath and breakfast. It was very foggy and cold in the morning. Last time it was normal weather. We started walking through that flog. It was foggy enough to not see anyone 30 meters away. We had a fear for the elephants when walked through the fog. There were fresh elephant dungs throughout the path. We continued our walk and finally reached Pongalappara. No visibility was there as well. Normally one can see almost the entire distance to climb. The walk continued after the meal. Strong winds and fog reduced our speed. Even though it was not raining, the clothes and the camera were soaked with water from the fog. The climb through the dwarf trees was a bit difficult. The snow was falling and the whole floor was slushy and slippery. We climbed by holding each tree and reached the starting point of the last climbs. I took off my shoes, hid it in one place and started climbing. Plastic and iron ropes were fixed in all climbs this time. With the strong push of wind we reached the top of Agasthyakoodam.

Those who climbed before us were carrying a lot of luggage. It was all about the offerings to Sage Agastya. They all removed the old flower garlands and turmeric powder from the idol and anointed it and offered new flower garlands. They also made prasadam(Food for the idol) with some fruits. We also got a share of the same. It was so delicious. After sitting for about half an hour, we started climbing down. I wiped water on the the wet camera and put it in my bag. We struggled lot on the slippery path and reached Athirumala. We had porridge and fell asleep. It was foggy in the evening along with strong winds. We had dinner early and went to bed. The wind was as strong as last night. In the dim light the tent could be seen swinging around and the heavy sound of the wind blowing on the tarpaulin sheet. But we slept really well.

The weather was clear when I wake up in the morning. After having breakfast, we parcelled our lunch and started going down the hill. We went very slowly. In-between my uncle’s foot slipped on a descent. He fell down and did one or two turns in the descent. But luckily nothing bad happened. My shoes were broken. It was soaked in the fog water on the previous day. When we came to Bonakad, there were no buses available immediately to go back. We sat there for a while. Then we saw a man who climbed with us coming back in the car. We got into it and he dropped us at a place Vithura. We got bus from there and reached Nedumangad. They both went to Kottarakkara (Uncle Prashant) and Kottayam (My Uncle) respectively by bus. Thinking that I would have to go to the office tomorrow, I took the car and went back home.

(To be continued…)

മലയാളത്തിൽ വായിക്കൂ

Those who have not read the first part can read it here – Agasthakoodam Trip – Part 1