It was October 25 ,we planned for our first trip to God’s own country . One of
my friends had come to Coimbatore from Bengaluru. Our plan was to visit
Nelliyampathy. We four from Coimbatore met him at railway station and without spending
much time headed to Ukkadam bus stand and took bus to Palakkad. We reached
Palakkad by 8 AM. After having breakfast we are supposed to get bus to Nemmara.
We got the bus to Nemmara after 10 mins. It was almost 45 mins journey from Palakkad to
Nemmara. From Nemmara Nelliyampathy is nearly 26 kms.
In Nemmara, there were some private taxies owned by localities. there we got to know that to enter into Nelliyampathy we have to get permission from forest department and the day was a holiday. It was totally
disappointment for us. We started searching for other possible locations around
palakkad. Finally we got an idea to visit forest department office. We found
the office after searching for some time. We were sad to see its locked doors. We
went up to the first floor. Thank god!!! Somebody was there in the office at
first floor. We enquired about the permissions to visit Nelliyampathy. He told
no need to get permission for most of the places!!!. We went back to private taxi stand and hired a
jeep for 1400rs , the driver new little bit of Tamil ,we managed with our
broken Tamil. Then we started our trip to Nelliyampathy.
Pothundi dam is 9 kms from Nemmara town on the foothills of Nelliyampathy. We thought
we can visit the dam while returning. The Ghat road winds up its way to the
nelliyampathy from Pothindi. It was most scenic and lush green since it was
post monsoon. There were many water falls on the way. We stopped at many falls
and took some snaps. we also found a Lion tailed Macaque.
The Nelliyampatthy hills is around 1500 meters high. The first place we visited in Nelliyampathy was Seetharkundu view point. It is believed that Rama , Seetha and Lakshmana of the epic Ramayana had lived in the place and seetha used to offer worship with the water from a small stream. We could not see the view since it was full of mist. There were some beautiful tea plantations
around Seetharkundu. We had some nice tea in a shop nearby. It was awesome in
that chill.
Then we visited Mampara view point. It is a nice trek
through thick vegetation to the big rock. From here we can see the hills around
and Pothundi dam below. There was a small lake on the big rock. The water was
very cold.
After Visiting Mampara peak, we started descending the
hills. Soon we reached Pothundi dam. It was a small irrigational dam at the
foothills of Nelliyampathy. There were some goats grazing at the Dam. We took
one of the lambs in our hands and took some snaps.
We reached Nemmara around 4 PM and had our lunch at a small
hotel. The food was too bad. After having lunch we took a bus to Palakkad. From
Palakkad we got bus to Coimbatore. The trip
was awesome, only problem we had was food.. L
