Trekkers, “odd men out” among the pilgrims: Velliangiri Trek

 

My last major trek was to Rupin pass in the Himalayas in October 2021, and in early 2022, Hari and I did Kurinjal and Tapteshwar betta treks in smaller groups and Merthi gudda with the larger team. You can read those experiences in my earlier posts (https://balutreks-balachandra.blogspot.com/). Velliangiri was in our bucket list for a long time. Yatish and Pratap had done it earlier, but Pratap volunteered to come again. We decided to go there on the last weekend of April 2022, just before the peaks are closed for public.

Velliangiri mountains are a part of the Nilgiri biosphere reserve, in the western ghats of Coimbatore district of Tamil Nādu. They are highly revered seven hills and are referred to as “Southern Kailash”. Swayambhu (self-created) Shiva on top of the mountain is believed to be blessing his devotees. The seven hills signify seven chakras in the body.  They have altitudes ranging from 520 - 1840 meters.

There are several legends about Velliangiri. I wish to share a few prominent ones here:

1.    There was a woman who wanted to marry only Lord Shiva. She had setup a timeline for Lord Shiva to come to her, and if not, she would kill herself. On knowing this, the Lord Shiva came in search of her, but he couldn’t reach in time due to a conspiracy. The woman killed herself and is believed to be standing as Kanyakumari, at a distance from here. Depressed at this, the Lord Shiva needed a place to dissolve his grief. He climbed the Velliangiri hills and spent some considerable time there.

2.     Lord Vishnu worshipped lord Shiva here and requested to show the cosmic dance, “Ananda Tandava”. Shiva, just like he had done for the w sages Patanjali and Vyaghrapada, danced for Vishnu on the Velliangiri peaks.

3.      Vayu Bhaghvan (Wind God) and Adiseshan (the giant serpent) had a dispute about who is superior. To prove his superiority adiseshan encircled the Kailasam and Vayu tried to remove this embrace by creating a twister (santamarutham). Because of the twister, 8 kodumudigal (parts) fell from Kailasam into 8 different places which are Thirugonamalai (Trincomalee), Thirukalahasti, Thiruchiramalai, Thiruenkoimalai, Velliangiri, Neerthagiri, Ratnagiri, and Swethagiri or Thirupangeeli in different parts of India.

Though Hari was clear about five people going for the trek in his car, I wanted to see if the bigger group was interested and posted in the WhatsApp group. As there were no more takers, five of us, Hari, Pratap, Renu, Vishal, and I, went by my car. We formed a separate WhatsApp group, where Pratap shared things to carry, and Hari shared the schedule. I started from my home in my Ford Fusion (16 year old horse!) at 15:00 on Friday, 29^th April 2022 and picked up Pratap and Renu near the NICE road toll start, Vishal on the NICE road and Hari at electronic city shortly after the end of the NICE road. It was around 16:00 by the time we were all together and proceeded further. The road was good, and we stopped around 21:00 for some food in a hotel on the way. I took idly (a bit sour, possibly due to the season and the time of the day) and pudi dosa (roast). These things created a havoc in my stomach later! We reached the base of Velliangiri at 11:30 pm, and immediately proceeded towards theo temple, the start of the trek (ideally, we should have rested for some time). The temple is in a place called Poondi, and hosts shrines of Ganesha, Shiva nd Parvathi, known and Manonmani.

At Poondi temple

Hari, Vishal, and Renu went to collect the cane poles that were sold there, while Pratap and I waited, and it was 12 in the midnight when we started climbing. The trail is mostly steps (more than thousand), some easy and some very steep. The havoc in the stomach made me to throw up a couple of times initially, after which though I felt light, I felt quite weak and was slowed down. Pratap was very fast, and Vishal went to catch him, not to be seen till we reached the top. Hari, Renu and I were together, visited the shrines in the earlier peaks and maintained a slow pace. A description of the seven hills oh Velliangiri mountains and their specialty can be browsed in the following link: https://www.aanmeegam.in/en/velliangiri-hills-andavar-temple/.

There were thousands of pilgrims around as it was the last day before the shrines were closed for public. Most were barefoot, and some looking at us strangely as we were wearing hiking shoes. Couple of them even said in Tamil that it is not good to step on the holy hills with shoes!

There were shops all along, selling glucose, cucumber, pineapple, watermelon, and lemon juice/soda. We tried some, refreshing ourselves. I had clearly dehydrated due to vomiting. It was around 6:00 in the morning by the time we reached the top. The view all around was breathtaking! After spending some time around clicking pictures, we removed our shoes and got in the queue for the darshan of the holy lord. It took more than an hour to finish the darshan. There is ~ 6 feet wide cave with five lingas that fare swyambhu c( self formed).  After finishing the darshan we met Pratap and Vishal around 8:00, and after that they sped down and vanished again! We came down slowly enjoying the view around. Later it became very sunny and hot. Feet were sour in the shoes and each step downwards was painful. Close to the base, I was fully dehydrated, and an old lady selling buttermilk came as a savior!

Lord shiva at the top as Swayambhu Panchalingas

Full team: With Hari, Pratap, Vishal and Renu

It was about 12 by the time we reached Poondi. Some devotees were distributing food, and we enjoyed delicious puliogare and curd rice. With this the energy was regained, though the feet were sour. My shoe sole had come off in the rough, rocky terrain. From here we went straight to Isha foundation at Coimbatore and clicked some pictures in front of the Adiyogi bust. That evening, after lot of searching, we found hotel Vijai Paradise in Saibaba colony at Coimbatore. We stayed in two rooms here. After a good rest, we started early in the morning for Bangalore, eating delicious breakfast near Dharmapuri on the way. After dropping Hari, Vishal, Renu and Pratap at their respective places, I reached home at 12:40.

Adiyogi

Garmin output

"Mini Tiffin"

I had done earlier three Shabarimalai pilgrimages barefoot, and it was a bit odd going trekking on a holy hill with shoes on. Nevertheless, I feel that if your conscience is clear, there is no sin. Velliangiri remains fresh in the memory for the beautiful, divine nature, and for the problems I had 😊. Thanks to Hari and my teammates for the support.

Trek to beautiful Netravati Peak

It was quite some time since we went with the larger group. My last three treks to Kurinjal, Tapteshwar Betta and Vellaingiri were all in smaller groups, and I was keen to go with the full team. It was Chinese New Year holiday, and thirteen of us trekked Netravati peak in Kuduremukha range on Saturday, 28^th January. For me, this was fourth trek in this range, Kuduremukha, Kurinjal and Mehti kan gudda being the other three (description can be found in my earlier blog posts https://balutreks-balachandra.blogspot.com/).

I had talked to Hari before coming back to India and we had decided the date. Earlier he said we will go to Gangadikal in the same range, but later dropped the ideaa because it was too simple. Netravati was a lesser known trail, getting popular now. Some of the members of the trek group were eager, while some others were reluctant and needed persuasion to find time from their busy schedule. Finally, it was Hari, Yatish, Chetan, Pramod senior and Pramod junior, Sujith, Gururaj, Arun Kashi, Pratap, Chinmay, Shashank, his brother Shreyas and I who joined the trek.

For those unfamiliar, Netravati is one of the peaks at an elevation of 1520 meters in the Kuduremukha range and is the birthplace of river Netravati which flows from the western ghats in Chikamagalur to Dharmasthala and to Mangalore. The range is also the birthplace of two other rivers Tunga and Bhadra, and this known as Ganga moola. The base camp is same for the four Kuduremukha treks mentioned before, a town called Samse near Kalasa.

Once gain it was for Hari to do all the planning: choosing the place, booking the homestay and the vehicle. He circulated a list of things to carry, and the pickup points in the WhatsApp group.

The vehicle started from electronic city around 22:00, and picked people at Nayandanahalli, Laggere and Goragunte palya. I got a drop to Laggere by my son, Bhargav, who had done couple of treks with us before, but couldn’t join this time due to a planned run on the weekend. It was almost 00.20 by the time all got into the Force traveler. The driver, Sachin, was an expert, and we didn’t realize how the distance of 310 kms was covered. After reaching Samse, the tempo went through a very rough road to the Homestay called Riveredge (http://riveredgekudremukh.website2.me/). It was 6:50 by the time we reached. This was certainly one of the best homestays we had been to, with all of us having individual beds, nice bathrooms, scenic surroundings, and very delicious food. The owners Shrinik Kumar and his sister Shylaja were very hospitable.

Ready to travel!

Riveredge homestay

River in front of teh homestay

Breakfast

Ready to go!

At the start of the trek

We started freshening up, had tea/coffee, and gathered for breakfast at 8:00. The breakfast of neerdosa, chutney, poha and masala goli bhajji was yummy. We also gave our tiffin boxes to pack puliogare for lunch. We got ready by 8:30 and left for the base by the Mahindra open truck. The journey was like a roller coaster ride! Hari got the forest permission (Rs 500/- per head, Rs 300/- each for the two cameras and Rs 1000/- for the guide).  The vehicle took us to the base that was quite far. We reached by 9:20 and the guide, Lakshman joined us there. We started walking through a trail of thick canopy. In about 10 minutes we reached a waterfall known as Abhale falls. It was very scenic all around. We spent some time there and proceeded further. The trail was beautiful through thick Shola Forest. Around 10:30, we reached another small waterfall on Netravati where we spent some more time. Once we started from here, the forest trail opened into grasslands and started becoming steeper. It was 11:30 by the time we reached on top, and the 360 degree view was breathtaking. There were many other trekkers on the peak. We met a senior guide called Narayan who explained things around. We could see the birthplace of Netravati in a distance to where entry was prohibited. We could also see among other peaks, Kuduremukha. App on Pratap’s mobile captured the names of shows some of the peaks around. This can be seen in teh photo attached.

At Abhale falls

 

View of Kuduremukha

Narayan explaining

At the top

After a lot of photography at the top, we started descending by 12:10, and reached the Netravati River side by 13:15. Here we settled for lunch and had the packed puliogare with boiled eggs brought by Shashank. After spending good time here, we started coming down at 14:40, reached the base, caught the truck, and came back to the homestay by 16:00. Some of went to the river in front of the homestay for bath. I took a quick dip in the cold water and came out, while others enjoyed some natural jacuzzi.

Natural jacuzzi

Evening snacks

Racket tailed drongo

Bblack backed wagtail

That evening we had refreshing bhaji with coffee, and later gathered for a campfire with a lively Karaoke session. It was interesting to see our driver Sachin also sing. The homestay makes only vegetarian food, but teh owner had ordered non vegetarian dishes for us from outside.

Next morning, the home stay owner played beautiful flute misic on his system and the atmosphere all around was divine! Birds chirping made it more enjoyable. Around 8:30, we had breakfast of paddus and left for Bangalore by 9:30. We stopped on the way for a sumptuous lunch. Later for some time, we played antakshari on the vehicle and then got dropped at our respective spots.

The Netravati trek was a great opportunity to be in the pristine western ghat trails once again and was a refreshing experience. Thanks to Hari for immaculate planning and to the team for a great company. I have earlier given the homestay website's address, though which people can book for stay at Riveredge. Some people come there just to enjoy the serene nature.