One of
our friends was from Vellore. He knew that there was a small zoo and
waterfalls nearby. It was on the edge of a forest area. We are
taking about the Amirthi Zoo and waterfalls. That sparked an idea
about a bike tours through Javadhu hills. This hill range is
part of Eastern Ghats starting from Vellore district, thirvanamalai
district to dharamapuri district.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javadi_Hills
Our plan
was to reach Amirthi and sightsee Zoo. Then travel up the hill road
through Nimiyampattu and reach Jamunamarathur. Next day have a nice
splash at Bheema falls and start to yelagiri. We wanted to travel
only through the hilly roads and chose to travel the roads not
travelled.. a road though vasanthapuram village and climb down
Javadu hills , reach Andiappanur and the climb up yelagiri hills..
We did reach yelagiri as planned, but wanted to know what happened on
the way.. keep reading.
Day – 1
It was
late March 2013. We two friends started from Chennai at 6.30 am in 1
bike. We were fearing a harsh sun but it was pleasant surprise to
have a cloudy morning. We will be meeting our Vellore friend at
Kanamangalam some 25 from Vellore on Vellore - Thiruvanamalai route.
He was riding his Honda Unicorn. So 3 friends and on 2 bikes. Our
biking friend was very excited as it was his first long drive on his
new Pulsar and managed to touch 101 km speed at one point. We reached
Kanamangalam through NH4 up to Arcot and diverting to Kanamagalam
some 27 kms for Arcot on SH 129. We filled fuel for bike and
fuelled our wallets at Arcot and zipped to Kanamangalam on neatly
laid out road.
We two
from Chennai reach by 9.30 am while our Vellore friend who is
supposed to be reach early from nearby Vellore reach only at 10.00
am. We found a 'ok' kind of restaurant at Kanamanagalam, filled
our own fuel tank that is, breakfast, packed 3 biriyani for lunch and
asked our way to Amirthi Zoo. The road nearing the zoo went through
tall shady trees and reached the forest check post. There we bought
tickets for zoo entry and forest entry.
The zoo
was a small one, hardly 15 to 20 cages, wild birds, 1 snake cage ,
crocodile, porcupine and 2 foxes. It was very difficult to tell if
it was a fox or a stray dog. A huge herd of deer was maintained in a
separate area of zoo. However one animal was not in cage , in fact
we have to be inside a cage to escape from them.. Monkeys. Monkeys
were everywhere. They were trying to snatch food which is
understandable. but they were also snatching the water bottle and
drink from it. A peacock started dancing with wings fully fanned
out... remember, I mentioned it was a cloudy day. The splendid
colours of blue and green shades and gentle dancing gestures were a
treat to our eyes. Our lensman captured the entire action in motion.
At
Amirthi Zoo
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| Deers Everywhere |
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| Angry Bird |
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| Walking beauty |
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| Peacock in Splendour |
We continued on the same road to
Jamunamaratur. We travelled past a village and we were expecting the
road ahead to be a motorable trail or a the best a broken hill road
to Jamunamarathur. So we planned to have lunch some were on the way
and reach Jamunamarathur before night fall. It was our another
pleasant surprise of the day. The road was neatly paved ghat road
winding through a valley and raising through the top of Javadu hill
range. There were many hair pin bends. The road was deserted and
never say any vehicle pass us. We felt the experience was thrilling
not knowing what is in store for us in the later part of the day.
On route to Nimiyambattu
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| Riding our way |
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| from down the Valley |
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| to the Hills above |
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| to view the Valley below |
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| through the winding roads |
We reach a road junction. On the right the road continued. Straight ahead and on
the right it was dirt track. We checked with the local villagers.
They were eager to guide us as they seldom get such visitors to their
place. We learned that it was Nimiyampattu. They directed us to
continue on the tarred road. We stopped at some scenic places and
took snaps. Kept riding on. I observed that we climbed a hill and
started descending it. There were many sudden sharp curves. Long
stretch of winding road all along deserted. Then, we started seeing people and passed few village and reach what seemed like a town. There
was a Main street and some shops. Read the shop sign board, and to
our surprise it read 'Jamanamarthur'. The time was 2.40 pm.
Nimiyambattu to Jamunamarathur
Nimiyambattu to Jamunamarathur
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| Blossoms of Nimiyampattu |
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| onlooking at the strangers |
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| Alayamgayam Range |
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| Against the Alayamgayam range |
We have planned for night halt there
but we reached by lunch time. So we decided to lighten our back
packs. That is to eat the 3 hot biriniyi pack we have been carrying
since morning. It was small picnic town on the hill. There was a
boating lake with not much water level for boating. There was a
rundown park where only stray dogs visited. We had no option, but sat
under a shady tree, quickly started eating the delicious biriyani
under constant stare of the dogs. Those dogs too had their surprise
of the day when we started throwing the leftover meat and bones. They
all waved their tails thankfully. Quite understandable, as it was
their treat of their life. After all who could have treated them with
biriyani in such a remote town. After lunch my brain started to
work, I was wondering why we have not travelled through a forest
trail but through a well laid road and suddenly realised that we
should have went straight head at the Nimiyampattu junction. It was
the trail we were planning to travel, but instead took the well laid
road.
Now that we had all time on the
earth, had quick discussion. We were eager to see the Bheema
waterfall. We rode for a 1 km on a paved path hardly enough for a
person to walk. Again this time the path was deserted and local
people gazed at us. I though it as not a good sign. I expected to see
people with hair and clothes all wet, happy faces coming back from
the water fall. I was preparing for it hit us. water falls? where was
it.. We have been having a pleasant surprises and it was time for a
rude one. A local told us until last week it was at least a trickle.
We could have been glad if we just get our feet wet... it was all
dried up. There was a forest watch tower nearby. We took some
pictures of the distant hill ranges and started back on the narrow
path.
View from the top of forest watch
tower at Bheema waterfalls.
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| Wild dry jungle |
We reach back Jamnunamaratur by 3.30
pm. We had nothing left to do here, felt bored . Our smart friend
from Vellore has insisted to carry on. We had so much daylight left
and we dared ourselves to start the second leg of our journey. It
was actually meant for next day. We started from Jamunamartur towards
Alangayam. The road went through a dense dry shrub forest. There was
occasional two wheeler passed by even a route bus from Vaniambadi to
Polur passed by. We crossed the gate of IIA. Indian institute of
Astrophysics. Yes, it is situated in Kavalur in amidst a dense forest
area. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vainu_Bappu_Observatory.
It has a observatory telescope tower. We checked with the gatekeeper.
These days they are not allowing the public for security reasons. We
took some close up pictures with Observatory tower and
moved on.. Read on.. we will be also taking some long shots pictures with the observatory
Near Kavalur Observatory
Near Kavalur Observatory
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| Kavalur Observatory tower |
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| Waiting from me to finish snapping |
After a while the thick overgrowth
on the both sides of the path turned in to hill slope. Hill slope
raising on one side and rolling down on over the other side. We have
been riding through turns after turns on the hilly slope. We should
have travel at least 30 kms in that jungle path so far. We got
glimpse of setting sun and it was around 5.30 pm. I suddenly felt...
hey ! are we heading in the right direction ?!. Why? Because, We
should have taken a dirt trail/road downhill to Andiappanur by now
but we were yet to see it. Our hearts sunk to our foots for a
moment. We stopped on a road turning overlooking the valley below
with Andiappanur dam in view. The scenery was nice by our moods were
not. Our smart friend from Vellore frantically checked if something
can be worked out from the GPS on his i-phone.. There was a reason
for some joy. The real 'Smart' phone was able to picked up whatever
little signal it could gather and showed us where we are. It clearly
showed us we are in middle of nowhere. It showed that the diversion
we were expecting has pass way back nearly half way from where we
started near Kavalur. At this time of the day when night fall is in
next hour and not knowing where we were, we were stared at each
other, feeling lost and sick.
Then the turn of events were all for
good. We were seriously discussing if we can turn back to find the
diversion downhill that we have missed. Our best surprise of the day
came when 2 local people came riding on the way from opposite
direction. I immediately felt relived, for that I know if people are
coming in opposite direction there is road to reach some destination
where people live and possibly nearby. We have been travelling this
path for nearly 2 hours but never found a soul. But they came when we
most wanted them. They stopped wondering what on earth these
strangers are doing at this part of the world. They told that there
is no road downhill to Andiappanur. Either we need to proceed further
to Pudur nadu or turn back to Kavalur. They advice us to turn back to
and follow them. They could accompany us until Vasanthapuram. We
were hesitant to turn back. They simply rode away thinking if we were
really in our senses. One thing was clear, there was no path or
trail that the local people know of downhill to Andiappanur. Blame it
all on Google map and me to have believed it.
The next surprise was immediately
following, 3 young guys came in a bike going towards Kavalur. They
stopped ,but were not so surprised to see us. They could have felt
that we young guys are seek adventure and stopped to have fun at this
scenic place. They advised that we can reach Pudurnadu some 30 to 35
kms away and from there to Tirupatur another 35 kms. Local were
always right in that they directed us away for non existed path here
or unused trails at Nimiyampattu earlier that day.
We are talking about travelling
around 70 through forest road and the time by now was around 6.00 pm.
I was thinking if it was wise to turn back which would by only be 40
kms through the jungle road. Again our smart friend from Vellore
took the call. We will proceed towards Pudur nadu. Yes, he was
right. Otherwise, we could have missed the best sceneries we were yet
to see. I had complete sense of relief as I knew where I was going
and I far it is. I took to Pulsar and lead in front to set the phase.
The path continued on the hill slope where at one point the slope was
facing east. The magnificent view of the forest landscape down the
slope and at the horizon the observatory tower of IIA was visible.
We realised the distance we have travelled through that jungle. It
was hard for us to believe that we had started an unplanned journey,
got lost, got saved and still riding on to find the unknown path
ahead in the jungle.
We were watching it again...
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| what is the white speck on the horizon? |
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| Long shot with the observatory.. hardly visible |
A short
distance from there the path took a complete turn and now the slope
is facing entirely westwards. What a scenery! There could have been
many traveller like us who have traveller this path. But I wonder
how many of them would have been in the time of the day, observing a
gracious sunset from the top of the hill with view of Andiappanur
dam below and distant view of Yelagiri hills. It was most the scenic
place in the entire route. We stood there for some time, excited
about our luck of getting to see this scene after much unrest just an
half hour back. And to count it was another surprise of the day never
the less not the last one.
Sunset View atop Javadu hill
range facing Yelagiri.
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I was waiting for our guys to follow
and did not seem to appear at the end of the road. I turned back,
passed our local men carrying the huge pig on their shoulders and
travelled further and found them slowly approaching. I asked our guys
to keep faster phase to reach in time to find a lodgings at
Tirupatur. I also informed our friend that we will come across some
people carrying a huge swine and, ask them how far this the Pudur
nadu. Our friends asked then and they advised it is just 15 mins
from here. It encouraged them and so we started to ride our bikes
briskly.
Further down road there was a
diversion. We were wondering which way to take. The next surprised
hit us in few minutes. Another biker in passed by. We asked him which
way is Pudur nadu and down to Tirupatur. He said he going the same
direction and asked us to follow. By now it was twilight and almost
dark. We had to use the headlights and indicators lamps to signal the
turning. The local biker ahead of us frequently checked if we were
following him. As he should have been used to that road, he
maintained a fast phase. I was comfortable in following him, but our
smart friend from Vellore has no option but to keep phase, or get
lost again. Every now and then he had slightly turned back and
checked if we were following. The night insects were hitting all over
our face. We could have tasted few bites of insects. But, no insect
bites. Some landed directly in our mouths. We could have followed him
for 30 to 40 minute and reached a small village road junction. Our
pilot biker signalled a right turn and went ahead even faster into
darkness as if he was going slower for us to follow. Local people
were waiting at a bus stop. I briefly paused to checked with them how
far Tirupatur is. Few of them early came forward and said in the
range of 30 to 35 kms. The time was 5 past 7. Then I knew we were at
a reachable distant from our destination at the end of the day –
Tirupattur.
The road then had some sharp turns
and went downhill. A short distance down the road my headlight
struck a milestone, read Tirupattur 31 kms. Local people were more
accurate this time as they did not need to encourage us. We were at a
reachable distance on a better road. It was wide enough for public
bus traffic.
In the dark the sharp curve seemed
to be sharper. At each slight turns we had to go by sense of sound
as good as we use our sense of light to find any on coming vehicle.
I was not used of night driving in Ghat road for that matter even
driving at ghat road. So, I did not wanted to miss our sincere
pilot biker ahead. I started to increase the phase to catch him. He
could have though that is his task was done as he placed us in the
road up to Tirupattur and reassumed to his usual phase. It was much
difficult to reach him as was I was on my own to judge the twists and
turns of the ghat road in the dark. At last I manage to get the
sight of the tail lamp of our Pilot in one of the straight stretches.
From that point on I know that I cannot afford to lost sight of the
pilot's tail lamp. At every turn I made sure to keep enough phase to
be able to see his tail lamp vanish in the darkness on the next turn.
I was simply judging the turnings ahead only by sight of the tail
lamp. The turning is in the direction the tail lamp turned and
sharpness of the turn by the way it was leaning. There were numerous
hair pin bends and sharp, possibly dangerous curves. I was
negotiating all of them with a lesser effort following our pilot.
However keeping phase to have a sight of him ahead was in itself was
a challenge though, I was thoroughly enjoying this new experience.
If it was difficult for me keep up to speed with our pilot, I could
not imagine how our smart friends from Vellore following me could
have 'taillamped' my bike with our another friend on the pillion.
Now thinking about it, If I had travelling on my own in that dark
night it would have easily took 1 hour to travel down that 25 kms
down hill.
At one of the hair pin bends the
plains ahead was visible in full view. The lights of Tirpattur town
were visible at distance. I could see the downhill was not far from
there, so stopped enjoy the view and thankfully let go our Pilot tail
lamp vanish down the road. I sat on the side wall and waited for our
friend to reach. A route bus to Pudur nadu came working its way up
that hair pin bend. I thought about the people waiting at the road
junction at Pudur nadu. They had another 40 mins to get their bus.
Our friends managed to reach after 5 mins. We all sat down and
enjoyed the view of lighted town in the dark. We were again excited
to be in a situation, we never expected to be in. We ate whatever
snacks were left and emptied the water cans. Time and again our smart
friend proved himself by giving timely ideas. He suggested that we
all watching night show of the new Tamil comedy movie release that
very day.
We started from there, I took to
piloting our friends through rest of the downhill, this time to match
their phase. Rest of the journey was through village roads then we
hit a state highway, reached Tirupattur. Time was 8.10 pm. The time
we decided to proceed towards Tirpattur and till we reach there it
was around 3 hours and nearly 70 kms. We have travelled a entire
range of Javadu hill east to west through 100 kms of jungle road. We
have planned to reach Vaniambadi next day but ended up at Tirupattur.
All that was left for that day was to find a lodgings, have dinner
and watch the new release movie. We did all that. The surprises
never let us go that entire day. There were another 2 to follow. One
was the nice dinner we had at a small roadside hotel. The taste was
worth mentioning. We never expect it to be so tasty from a mediocre
looking hotel like that one. It was a great treat for us after a
exciting travelling all the day. What a way to end a day. This was
about the movie. We were all unabatedly laughing away at the movie.
Another unexpected surprise at the very of the day. When we all
crashed to bed it was 1.30 am next day. We were all simply too tried
to even pondering over the thoughts on how eventful this day was?
Day – 2
Sun has
risen long before we rose. We started out with a slow phase. We had a
Bruch. It was in good looking restaurant. The goodness was only
about looks but taste was quite mediocre. We could not expect
everyday to be as exciting as the day before. We refilled our tummies
and it is time to refill the fuel tanks. The destination was
Yelagiri. None us have already visited Yelagiri. But the excitement
was muted as the road was main road. We reach foothill by 1.30 pm
started riding up the Yelagiri ghat road, stopped at some of the Hair
pin bends overlooking Vaniambadi and shot the usual shots.
Snaps at Elagiri road
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Yelagiri road starts
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Reach the
top to find it not resembled a hill station. We had only few things
to do, Boating at Yelagiri and sightseeing Eco park. Boating fun as
always. We decided to explore rest of the Yelagiri hills, travelled
along a road where it ended at a Temple. We took some snaps and
returned back. We were feeling hungry and found a road side tea
stall. Hot bondas were been fried there.. It was so tasty and fresh
, each of us ate so many of them, which we last count. The stall
owner was smart enough that she kept count for all three of us. We
had tea and wanted to pay, she said something less than Rs 50. We
only wanted to reward her for her smartness and not out of our
fondness to bondas, helped ourselves with more bonda's to rounded off
to Rs 50. One memorable thing at Yelagiri was eating countless
bondas.. The next thing left was to visit Eco park. The park was
nice, small and well kept. We quickly went around the park, though I
was interested in capturing our friends in good light. Yes, evening
sun shine was giving some nice lighting for some good snaps.
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| The Lake view |
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| view from lake |
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| men at boat |
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| peddling away |
At the
garden
It was
6.00 pm and still some day light was left. We started to ride down
hill. I don’t want to struggle in the dark, riding through the ghat
road. I don’t wanted to repeat adventure we had one day before.
Our friend from Vellore allowed me to ride his bike downhill. It was
a real thrill riding the bike through the hair pin bends. I did not
had to accelerate, I simply kept changing the gears and the bike
went rolling down the sloping road on its own. I felt like a bike
racer when leaned at each hairpin bend maintaining the speed. Our
friend at the pillion was equally cooperating to lean and rise at
every curve. The same phase continued till Ambur.
One last
important thing was left to be done as part of the Journey. Tasting
Biriyani at Ambur Star Biriyani. This was part of the original plan
and original plan was part of me. Our smart friend from Vellore had
one part to play, to eat as many biriyani plates as he could. The
famous biriyani restaurant had branches at Chennai were we used to
eat and wonder how it will taste at the original Star Biriyani. It
was our chance to eat from the horse's mouth. But before that finding
the horse's mouth amidst so many other black sheep’s was challenge
in itself. A tip to the readers. Look out for IRCTC symbol on the
sign board. Only Original Star has IRCTC symbol on its sign board. We
found Star biriyani opposite to Ambur railway station. It was not
much crowded. All of us slowly relished mutton biriyani and chicken
fry. Finished off with Mukkan pada, which simply melted away in the
mouth. I packed a biriyani to home. The final touch came with a
sweet beda. We had a
chat with the a restaurant staff , asked why Star Biriyani at
Chennai does not taste good as in Ambur, he simply said it because of
water used in Ambur and Chennai were different. It did not sound
like a good enough reason. We depart of our homes at 8.30 pm. Our
smart friend left to Vellore. The NH4 had lesser traffic during that
night. we zipped through NH 4 and reached Chennai at 12.30 am
A word to
travellers wanted to take this route. This route is good for 1 day
trip starting from Vellore to Tirupattur. Travelling after monsoons
is better to have splash at Bheema Falls. You can find a small petrol
pump at Jamunamaratur. Useful to refill if required. The route : Vellore – Amirthi –
Nimiyambattu – Jamunamaratur (Bheema falls) – Kavalur –
Vasanthapuram – Pudur nadu – Tirupattur ( 120 Kms )
Cast &
Crew
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| from left the Vellore guy and the other Chennai Guy |
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