Travel StoriesIt is a beautiful mountain in the Ponmudi hills of the Thiruvananthapuram district. It is also called Varayaattumudi. It is a very tough trekking route and about a 14 km walk in both directions. There is another way to the top which will take more distance and time. It is through Mankayam. We chose the shorter path. After Iravikulam in Kerala, Varayattumotta is the place where you can see the Nilgiri tahrs. Their presence is the reason for this name – Nilgiri tahr is named as “Varayaadu” in Malayalam and “Motta” means hill in Malayalam. But like the Nilgiri tahrs of Iravikulam, the ones in Varayaattumotta are not used to being friendly with humans. Once they sense our presence, they will run away and hide.
Hari was the first to tell me about this trek. A whatsApp group was also created. Me, Harishankar, Aravind, Anu Krishnan and Rakesh have planned to go. The booking had to be made at Ponmudi. Hari took up the bookings as he used to have occasional trips to Ponmudi. We all decided to go on Saturday, April 27, 2019. There were 2 reasons why I was ready for this journey. One is a keen interest in wildlife photography. A desire to take a wild photograph of the Nilgiri tahrs. The pictures of Iravikulam’s Nilgiri tahrs do not have a wild feel to them. Two – I have heard that it is a good trekking route. So wanted to experience that as well.
And then the day arrived. We reached the checkpoint at the beginning of Ponmudi on our bikes at around seven in the morning. We had our breakfast from home. Anu reached Ponmudi and had the food and by then the guides came. There were two of them. A little distance went again on the bike. The guides were in the front and we were in the back. After a short distance along the main road leading to the top of Ponmudi, we entered a concreted route. After about a kilometre uphill, the bikes were parked at the roadside. I had my Nikon D750 camera and Sigma 150-600mm tele lens handy for photography. Besides this, the bag had a good weight as it contained food and water. I was having a small pride that I climbed the Agasthyakoodam hills many times and it was around 20 kilometres on a side. Now here it was just 7 kilometres to one side. Within the first kilometre, all that pride was drained away by the sweat.
We started climbing at eight o’clock. In the beginning, we expected a slightly easier route and we were wrong. A tough climb at the beginning itself and dense forest. Even though it was summer, the majesty of the forest was not lacking much. Only the bushes were dry here and there. After about the first half of a kilometre I started getting tired from the climb and the weight of the bag. My speed reduced and ended up in the last position. Seeing my trouble, one of the guides took the camera and lens from my bag and put it in his bag and started climbing. It was a big help. I thanked him a lot. After climbing about one kilometre, we all rested for a while. One can imagine the intensity of the climb when everyone was squeezing their cloths to dry them from sweat. Because of the toughness of the climb, I even forgot that I took a camera with me. We continued walking again. The guides reminded us several times that there are chances of elephant sightings. So we climbed the mountain without making much noise.
We saw the ruins of a building by about 10:45 am. It was the remains of an old temple. By then everyone was hungry and tired. We had our lunch there itself. Leeches were disturbing us a lot. The salt kept in hand and rubbing salt water on shoes resisted their attack to some extent. The last few distance was through very dense forest were we couldn’t even see the sun in many areas. Rest the journey continued after food. The guide showed a sight when we came up through the side of a big tree. A cat’s-eye snake lies on a nearby rotten log. It was a quite big one. It was lying down without trying to run away from us. When I observed, I realised that something was wrong about its health. But there were no injuries. I went closer and took a couple of photos. It was trying to bite me but that action was very slow because of its tiredness. The climb continued without bothering it too much.
After the thick forest, we entered straight in to the meadows. A long stretch of grassland without a single shade of tree. We had to walk through the scorching heat of the sun quite a long distance. The intensity of the climb has decreased a little. Mountains which we had to climb were spread out ahead. A plant similar to palm tree was found there in abundance. Many had green berries. The guides said that those were edible. All ripe fruits went to our bellies. There was nothing else to eat. We all started the trek without much understanding of this route. We reduced the water consumption a lot. There were no water streams nearby to collect water if the stock ran out. It was also a reason to use water sparingly.
At the end of the walk, we reached the valley of Varayaattumotta. As soon as we saw the mountain standing overhead, everyone lost their excitement. After sitting in the valley for a while, we all decided to climb again and so the steep ascent began. The road was very narrow and there was no space for two people to walk in parallel. Also, if one is not careful, he may fall down from the steep mountain. We climbed very carefully and when reached half way, took rest a little again. Now came the last climb. After climbing through the grass and rocks, we conquered Varyattumota. The disappointment of not being able to see the Nilgiri tahrs disappeared with the view from the top. There was this spectacular view of the mountains. Everyone rested at a place covered with trees on top of the hill. The tiredness because of the heat and the climb so far was relieved. We spent the time there by talking to the guides. They shared many of their experiences.
Though less in number, these are pure wild Nilgiti tahrs. Generally shy, they are not very keen on human intimacy. That is why it is not possible to see them up close while climbing the mountain. If you’re lucky, you can see them walking in long distance. But as soon as they realise our presence, they run and hide. The sight of them speeding down the steep cliffs cannot be seen without holding your breath. Such a sight was once seen from Iravikulam. They use this special ability to escape from enemies. Most enemies cannot climb such cliffs. It is a skill given by nature for survival.
We started our descend by 2pm. Hari got some health issues while we were coming down from the top of the hill. He was unable to walk even a single step due to the dizziness. We all feared a bit. We all were standing on a hill in the middle of deep jungle. The path was too slippery even if we took at-most care on walking. The width of the path was also too less that only one can walk at a time. Hari wasn’t getting any better even after we waited for some time. The guides arrived with the help. They said, they can help him to climb down the steep and reach the immediate valley. We would get some level place once we reached the valley. They held Hari from two sides and climbed down at an unimaginable speed. Even we took more time to reach the valley by walking ourselves. By that time our water bottles got empty. The guides filled them from the nearby stream. Hari drank a lot of water and slept there itself. The guides went to the starting location of the trek to get some help to carry Hari to the bottom. We five were left alone in the mid of the dense forest.
We all also took a nap because of the tiredness. We had our food by 11 AM. After that we didn’t have any food except the berries that we got from the forest. Everyone woke-up by 5PM . Hari was perfectly healthy after the sleep and was ready to walk down. After some time, the guides were back with two men. But there was no need of it then.Hari started climbing down his own. Forest is not a safe place in the evening. It is the hunting time of animals. For our luck, we didn’t see any animals. After some time, we heard the sound of crackers. Guides told that it might be to make elephants afraid. It was 6:30PM and was totally dark in the middle of the forest. We continued our walk only with the help of mobile phone torch light. We couldn’t even identify if an elephant stood near-by. When we reached the bottom, one person was there in the middle of the jungle. He was sitting there after making the elephants frightened by crackers and sent them back to the forest. By seven o’clock we arrived at the bike parking. We gave a small cash gift to the guides and the other two guys for all the help they offered.
I never did a trek that hard to date after that. A trip to Agasthyakoodam is another manner. This trek is hard when the distance is counted. I will go there once again and will see the Nilgiri tahrs in their habitat.
