Jean Johnson

Unveiling The Princess Of Hills

29 Sep, 2023

Poondi → kilavarai → Kadavarai → Mannavanur → Polur → Cumbum

Hi Travellers,

The question I often get asked is “Why do you prefer riding a motorcycle?”. I know mere words can’t fully convey the answer to the question. The sound of the engine, the wind in the hair, the dance with the curves of the road, the adventure, the uncertainty, the closeness to nature and the FREEDOM . This is why I prefer motorcycle. This time to enjoy the freedom we are visiting Poondi, a peaceful farming village residing in the outskirts of Kodaikanal and some less crowded places near it like Mannavanur, Polur etc

DAY 1 : THE BEGINNING

After filling up our royal enfield motorcycle with petrol, Me and my friend Arshal started the journey at 4:00 am from Alamcode, the usual starting location of most of our trips. The peacefulness and the beauty of early morning ride need to be experienced to the fullest. We reached Valanjanganam Water Falls at 7:45 am. We bought a cup of coffee from a street vendor and drank it in front of the waterfall. Even when I am writing this blog I can still feel vividly the memory rushing back to me. After spending some time, we resumed our journey. The plan is to reach Kodaikanal through the Cumbum - Theni route.

While travelling thorugh the Kodaikanal forest route, my beloved motorbike began to exhibit some issues and while riding a hairpin bend, my bike eventually came to a halt. After 30 minutes of struggle my friend managed to start the bike but the issue is, if he take his hands off the throttle, the bike will halt again. He told me that he will ride my bike and only stop when he finds a motorbike workshop. After saying that he took off with my bike, but little did he know, the key to his bike was with him and he already left and I got stranded in the forest road with no signal. I decided to push the heavy royal Enfield through the uphill hairpin. It was very difficult because the bike is really heavy. After pushing it for about 15 mins I finally managed to get a mobile signal. I called him immediately and conveyed that he had forgotten to hand over his bike's key before setting off on his own adventure 😂. 20 mins have gone, after that my friend came back on a stranger's scooter who was was kind enough to offer him a lift. We went back to the workshop to fix my bike so that we can resume our journey.

Because of the bike issue we were behind on the schedule. To have some delicious maggie, we stopped near the Kodaikanal waterfall. Many small stalls were there near the waterfalls area which sells food items, drinks, colorful apparels etc. If you are going through this area its a suitable place to stop and spend some time before continuing the journey. After riding for few more hours we reached Palani view point. The time is now 6:00 pm and the sky was getting more and more majestic with golden color, the view it offered was spectacular. There was a small shop situated at the view point, so we decided to have a tea. We are getting close to our final destination, the realization elevated the joy in our heart. The view, the tea, the days to come all of these were contributing to our immense joy.

Riding through the forest area in the golden hour in low temperature made us forget about all the troubles we faced that day. I just got lost in the moment. The journey ahead was very peaceful and mesmerizing. I cant remember the exact location but while riding through one of the hairpin curve we stopped because we could see the colorful kodaikanal town. It was like lots of small cubed building stacked together. After taking some pictures we continued our journey. The road to Poondi is secluded pathway with a tranquil ambience. while riding through a curve we had a close encounter with two wild gaur on the road side. It was getting dark and the weather was getting colder. Our stay was changed to another location at the last moment and we had to cross Poondi in order to reach the new accommodation. Finally at 7:30 pm, we reached our stay at kilavarai.

Our friend Midhun from Bangalore had already reached the stay before us. He already bought the food for the night. The room was neat, since it is night we didn't get to see the view in front of the stay. Since it is a temporary stay, next day we had to find another place to spend the night. Kilavarai had low light pollution and most of the places were powered by solar energy. As a result of low light pollution the stunning beauty of the night sky was revealed to us. Also we were accompanied by a dog and her puppies 🐶🐶. The ending of day 1 was the reward we got for facing and overcoming the challenges. It was worth it

DAY 2: Poondi

The morning view from our stay was truly magnificent, the layered farm fields in front of us were full of vibrant green, and the cold weather made the morning even more enchanting. We decided to explore the village and the different farms ,also we needed to find a breakfast spot. On the way you will be able to see beautiful fields and each field had something to offer. Some fields have isolated small huts in the center, and some have one tree in the middle, and you can encounter wandering horses and donkeys along the way. Lots of diverse things were present in the area, we literally stopped at lots of places to immerse ourselves in the beauty it presented. Finally, we reached a place called Kadavarai. After Kadavarai lies Kurinjimala Sanctuary, the locals told us that we can't go to that place without the forest officer's permission. We found a small restaurant at Kadavarai, had our breakfast there which consists of idli ,vada and tea.

We returned to our stay and packed our bags. Now all that's left is to find another place to stay, The one we were staying was already booked by someone, and they would be arriving today, so we needed to vacate. Note: Poondi is a village area, and there are not many luxury stays in Poondi. After speaking to many people we finally found a single tent, because all the other accommodations were already booked since it was a weekend. There was a small shed owned by the person who provided us the tent, After locking our luggage inside the shed, we started to roam around. The place we were staying was really nice. it's in Polur. From our tent we can see the hills with waterfalls and below us there were some garlic and some other fields, it was really quiet and peaceful.

Once all was in order, we headed out to visit Mannavanur. One of my friend would be arriving there at noon. We reached Mannavanur Lake viewpoint entrance at 1 pm, The location was very beautiful and refreshing. The Mannavanur lake was very beautiful, the surrounding greenery,escalated the beauty of the place. We decided to walk along the perimeter of the lake so that we could get away from the crowd and finally we found a peaceful area. The lake had an echoing effect, if you whistle or clap it would bounce back in reverberation. We took rest in front of the large lake with the lake shore covered in small grass bed, it was a perfect place to regain our energy, the peacefulness the place gave us was truly refreshing, The gentle rustling of the grasses due to the cold breeze, the serene beauty of the Mannavanur lake, surrounding lush greenery and distant mountains, everything left as in awe.

We exited the lake at around 2:30 pm and had lunch at the “mess and cafe” restaurant which was near the exit gate. Our friend Govind reached Mannavanur after we had finished our lunch. With him joining us, we became a gang of four members in total. Next, we decided to visit Mannavanur sheep farm, which is famous in Poondi. After getting the tickets, we parked our bikes and started to check out the beautiful grazing field. We visited the rabbit farm before entering into the vast field. They got rabbits of different breeds and different sizes. some of them were very big, while some were just babies.

We spotted two herds of sheep. One was in an enclosed field within the sheep farm, and the other was in the forest outskirts, where tourists were not allowed to enter. We were able to get close-up encounters with the sheep. The grass fields in the grazing area were so vibrant green in color. We sat down on the field, facing the grazing field in the forest border and took some rest. At around 4:15 pm the shepherd will guide the big herd of sheep from the forest, back to their stable. So we decided to wait there at the small fence gate through which the sheep were going to enter the sheep farm. Trust me when I say this, It was an experience watching the sheep obediently following the shepherd and the surrounding views were spectacular which added extra beauty to the scene. I could watch that scene over and over again. The experience was exponentially rewarding.

After having a great time in Mannavanur we headed back to our tent stay and reached the there at around 5:30 pm. Four of us are going to spend the night in that single tent. It was on a hill top and we need to face the cold freezing night. We found ourselves quite unprepared for this adventure. But somehow we managed to get some sleep and it was indeed a memory to remember for a long time.

Day 4: The END

After waking up from the tent, we were greeted by amazing views, the hills that bathed in the soft morning sunlight, cascading waterfalls, the green fields everything was full of life. It was a visual symphony. but it was coming to an end , its time for us to start our return journey. We departed our stay around 9:30 am. Later,we stopped at Kodaikanal observatory and had our breakfast from a small street shop, and also purchase some fresh carrots. The area was getting crowded, so after having the bread and omelet we continued our journey. We had a plan to eat authentic dindigul thalapakaty biryani, for that we took a short deviation and reach Dindigul just to eat the biriyani and drink masala cola. Both of them were delicious, the biriyani taste was new to me, I really liked it and I would definetly recommend it to you.

After fulfilling our cravings, we continued our journey to Cumbum. The reason why we stopped here was to visit the vineyard. Cumbum is famous for the grapes it produces. It was my first time visiting a vineyard and I was not sure what to expect. We were allowed to walk inside it, at the end of the field there was a shop which was selling freshly made grape juice. Because of the good taste we all drank an extra cup of grape juice. After capturing some photos we continued our final stretch of the journey. And the next day, we reached our homes by 1:30 am.

Numerous things went wrong during our journey, from my rear brake malfuctioning on a down hill stretch, struggles in finding a suitable accommodation, having unexpeceted bike issues etc, but we managed to conquer these challenges. These travel and these incidents reminds me that life is full of unpredictable twists and turns, uncontrollable things can happen in our life at anytime and how we react to them defines the true and pure essence of the journey.

As this chapter comes to an end, I am left with excitement of what lies on the next page of my travel story.

THE END

Uncharted Kodaikanal(Youtube shorts)