Travelogue of a sabarimala trip-2014 We started from calicut on 7th december at around 11.30 from calicut. The group comprised of 48 people, age ranging from 13 years to 50 plus. From calicut we took the chamravattom route to reach tripayar near trichur ; we had a quick bath there in the river adjacent to the temple, had our food at one of the ayappa seva sangam rest pavilion and proceeded to paravoor, our next stop ; After the temple visit at paravoor, we stopped at tripunithara (in cochin) where we had our supper at a hall of the ayyappa seva sangam; We reached kottayam at around 12 midnight and stayed at the kottayam tamil brahmana samooham building near thirunakkara temple ; They have rooms as well as A/C dormitories. After visiting various temples near kottayam – we left for sabarimala the same day (day 2) Sabarimala routes The main routes to reach sabarimala are 1)reach pampa by road (vehicle) and from there climb to the sabarimala ayyapan temple (known as sanidhanam) 2) from ERUMELI via AZHUTHA- karimala to pampa (by walking) (forest route) 3) From vandiperiyar – via uppupara (forest route) OUR ROUTE Towards sannidhanam we took off from azhutha and our return trip was via the uppupara route. TOWARDS SANNIDHANAM ERUMELI After leaving kottayam, our first stop was Erumeli. Erumeli is famous for its “petta thullal” , a ritual dance performed by all the swamis as part of the sabarimala pilgrimage; petta thulal is kind of a free form group dance , There are no hard and fast rules about the movements; Various people follow dancing styles ranging from jeetendra’s jumping jack to Michael jackson’s break dance to amitabh bachans 2 step dance; The swami’s wear tribal masks smear each other with colors and just dance. They start off as a procession from small sastha temple, dancing and end at the bigger dharma sastha temple; There are people with drums available for hire, if you don’t have drummers in your group; Luckily we had expert drummers nirmal and Krishna gopal in our group; From erumeli we left for AZHUTHA AZHUTHA. We reached AZHUTHA in the evening and camped at a small house on the main road. The house owner also runs a small hotel. The next day morning after a bath in the Azhutha River we started our ascent from Azhutha River Given below is an image which will give the readers an idea of the route from azhutha to pamba By vehicle 1. Erumeli 2. Perur Thodu 3. Kaalaketi First days trek 4. Azhutha 5. Azhutha River 6. Kallidumkunnu 7. Inchipparakota 8. Mukkuzhi Second days trek 9. Karivalam Thodu 10. Karimalai 11. Periya AnaVattam 12. Seriya AnaVattam 13. Pampa Nadi The first stage is the steep climb from azhutha river (point 5 ) to Kallidumkunnu (point 6). It took me about 2 hours to reach point 6 with various stops in between to catch my breath. The terrain is rocky with roots of huge trees creating natural steps for the climb;Initially gautam helped me on this climb and later hari ,sooraj and kalidasan were my companions; On the way are various resting points with a small refreshment stall selling biscuits, water, soda and other small refreshments. They also sell water melon and other juices. Interesting information was they don’t sell pineapple, because elephants are attracted to pineapple. We were all given the glucovita bolts – which was very helpful in regaining energy. The path is through the forest and the canopy of the trees provides a natural protection from direct sunlight. The first day trek ended at puthuserri thavalam – which is a forest camp, between point 8 and point 9. The camp has trenches on all sides to prevent animals from entering. We stayed in a huge tent, which had a small tea stall and facility for cooking. We had a feast that night and enjoyed the first proper sleep after we left Calicut. Second days trek The second days trek was the ascent of karimala. By this time, kalidasan (kali) had become my trekking partner. We were later joined by hari, sooraj ,karam and “nana” swamy. The second day’ treak ended at pamba. We stayed at the ayyappa seva sangham . Third day trek The third day was the trek to sanidhanam ; As usual , kali was there with me and later gopi joined. The ascent was steep and the concreted path was more difficult than the natural rocky paths through the forest. Since we had booked through the virtual queue, the length of the trek was shorter once we finished the ascent. After the temple visit, we assembled in one of the travancore devasom hall Final trek The final trek was our return journey from sannidhanam -> uppupara -> satram by foot and from satram to vandiperiyar by jeep. This trek starts with a steep climb and descent of a hill through the forest. The first hill leads to a second one which at its summit is full of grass ; Uppupara was our first destination ; At uppupara we had our breakfast and took a break of about 1 hour; From uppupara starts the long walk of about 7 kilometers towards satram ; The scenery is breathtaking ; The end of this trek is one steep descent and after that is the satram camp. Total trek was about 45 kilometers; I would like to thank ramesh sir for informing me about this trip; Happy to have met a whole lot of new people; I would also like to thank my leg for being cooperative through the whole trek, my knee and knee cap for helping me out on the descents and my shoulders for bearing the weight of my bags and irumudi kettu ;
Posted on: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 16:32:10 +0000
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