22nd Dec 2017, 5 pm:

Somewhere between Kurangini and Kolukkumalai,

The Mist had started settling down on the route. We were in the middle of a strenuous long ascent, winding hairpin curves as the destination refused to arrive. I cursed inwardly at my choice of the backpack as it was slowing me down, draining my energy levels. I could feel my heart beating rapidly as the exhaustion made my Walk robotic, trying to cover as much as distance possible without stopping. There is a thing about the mountains. It’s never really possible to tell the accurate time based on the environment. So when we thought it was getting dark, It was in reality just 5 pm. Getting stuck in the forest, trekking in the torchlight was never an option. One of my friends was chugging along at full tilt and we were all repeatedly asking her the whereabouts whether the trail led to a clearing. The walk through the hairpin bends of the forest although tiring, makes your trekking soul a free bird released into the wild admiring the beauty of the jungle.

An hour ago:

We 14 of us had set out towards the highest tea plantation in the world, Kolukkumalai. As you make the ascent, you are surrounded by the stunning picturesque ranges of mountains. The zig-zag path is clearly visible and it is as if the mountains are ever on the move. The nature of this trail is of unspeakable beauty in every sense. The 10th person finally reached the Onti Mara (the midpoint of the trek). We had just finished having our packed lunch. Now we had a dilemma. Whether to wait for the remaining 4 people to catch up and proceed as a whole group or to get divided as it would not be fair on the whole group to trudge through the forests late into the night. We chose the latter option. It would have taken more than an hour to have lunch and leave the place. We still had roughly 50% of the trek left. The light was already fading and the rest 9 of us had set off at a blistering pace.

6.30pm:

Our leading personnel gave a resounding shout that the lights of the tea estate were visible. We were ecstatic as the trek had taken a pounding at our senses. We were enchanted by the beauty of the estate environment although it was almost dark and we could hardly see our footing. The first thing we did was to get rid of our backpacks and have the world famous organic tea. Adding to the flavor was that the tea was produced at the highest organic plantation in the world.

Kolukkumalai stands at a height of 7130 feet above sea level. The trek is incomplete without a visit to the tea factory where the whole process of preparing tea is thoroughly explained. Tea grows best at higher altitudes and although personally, I am not big on tea, I managed to gulp more than 5 cups within the duration of the stay there.

10:30pm:

An important update- Our remaining friends from the group arrive with their share of the ordeal of trekking in the dark forests. We still had enough energy for stargazing in the night sky. Millions of stars were visible, otherwise rendered invisible by light pollution in our great metropolitan cities. A few people even captured the scene on their camera. We lied down with arms outstretched gazing at the night sky adorned with millions of twinkling lights. The moment of tranquility and stillness was memorable.

23rd Dec 2017, 5:30 am

Kolukkumalai is famous for its sunrise and the icing on the cake was that the point was hardly 200 meters from our camping site. We witnessed the fiery Golden Rays of the sun and it was a spectacle to behold. The clouds had not moved an inch and the golden rays transcended their shine across the pearly white clouds.

8.30am:

We started our second leg of the walk with the mountains. Our destination was the Meesapulimala peak which stands tall at 2640 meters above sea level. The brilliant white clouds formed a stunning backdrop to the magnificent mountains chain. We could not go to the entire length of the peak as the Kerala side forest officers did not allow us.

2 pm:

We began our descent to Bodinayakanur through Suryanelli by Jeep as we didn’t see the merit of doing the descent. The Jeep ride was an out of the world experience as the driver rumbled on through rocks of all sizes.

6.40pm:

We boarded the TNSTC bus back to Bengaluru. Our journey had started on Friday in the same TNSTC bus and it was only fitting that we ended it the same way.