Kodai lake to Pillar Rock - A Cycling Trip

At last after a lot of confusions & dilemma we finalized Kodaikanal to be a Nice place to trek within tamilnadu. And we choose the very less visited & the little known mount perumal as our Spot. Our Regular group of Nirmal, Harish , Saravana ,Keerthi met at Egmore, boarded the train towards Madurai, got a Cab reached the Kodaikanal from Kodai road. The drive from Kodai road to Kodai kanal was really a pleasant experience. The Day 1 Past on with some regular sight seeing and stuff like that, the Day 2 we headed towards the Mount Perumal in great anticipation, like all our plans this time also it was a Flop as trekking in Kodaikanal forest needs a Valid permit from a Range Office which we didn’t have.
Upset with this twist, we headed back towards the Kodai lake, on reaching the Lake we Had a Thought why don’t we try Cycling from KODAI LAKE to PILLAR ROCK. Everybody was happy with the idea and we enquired with a cycle rental shop regarding this, but the old man denied to give cycle to us because it will take 3 hours to cover this 8+8 kms. After lot of convincing and paying some advance the old man accepted for that…We happily took the cycle and got ready for the ride into the Ghat road. We posed to a nice snap and pedaled our way into the road

Yes that's our group Posing

The initial stretch of 200 to 300 meter was in a clean flat surface and we were asked to take a left turn that was impossibly inclined to pedal a cycle thru. With the mathematical knowledge I have it must be at least 50degree inclined, so we climbed thru the road with our cycles, crossed that inclined road and pedaled our cycles towards our Destination PILLAR ROCK . Not even a Kilometer covered everybody was gasping for breath and suddenly the cycling towards the Pillar rock seemed almost impossible with the stamina we had.

Ooops Was Extremely Tired

Keerthi was finding the cycle too small to drive, I was finding it too big to drive, Saravana (Our groups Own MJ ) was blaming for his wrong choice of cycle, Nirmal(Our Group’s own “mirchi SHIVA”) as usual commenting “ Machi avanghalala mudiyalanu ninaikiren”, Harish and Rakesh were still enthusiastic . So together as a tean we didn’t want to give it up.So again we continued pedaling upwards in the ghat road with great difficulty and sheer determnination.After crossing another 1.5 Km we took a break.

Aiyo Mudiyala da

After that the road was too inclined to pedal the cycle so again we had to walk upwards for another 500 meters.

Completed 2 KM

Yes we have completed our 2 km mark and it took almost 35 minutes for us to just cover this 2 km. From there it was only a downhill for another 2 Km which was quiet easy and was a really fun going downhill in a cycle, but we needed to be more careful about the vehicles speeding up in our opposite side. So we are now halfway Thru and was eager to cover the balance 4 km

Completed 4 Kms

Another 2 km was covered in a considerable time and we were left with only 2 km to cover. Our bodies were literally crying to stop proceeding. Only when trying such exciting and adventurous trips into wild we realize how our physique is weakened by our lifestyle habits.

Yes only 2 More to go

After a break we headed towards our destination with tiredness and more anticipation but the final stretch towards the pillar really killed our energy and tested our physical strength. Everyone was too tired and we took a final break before we headed towards the Pillar rock

Having our Final Break

At last after a huge effort, sweat, pedaling, we reached the pillar rock our planned summit .We parked our cycles there, took some snacks and had a cold drink,only then everybody were able to relax.But everybody was happy that we have reached our destination after a grueling and a tiresome trip towards the PILLAR ROCK. But everybody had their faces lit up with the joy of reaching the destination. Believe it or Not we took 2. hours and 10 minutes with 9 halts in between to cover just 8 kms but of course its not a flat city highway.

Ya that's the Pillar Rock

The View was Really Awesome

After relaxing and taking few snaps, we pedaled back towards the Kodai lake, In the return there was only few uphill ride but the entire ride in turn to the Kodai lake was unbelievably pleasant and soul soothing experience and we were greeted by a cool drizzling on our way back to the Kodai road.

Enjoying in RAIN

The return took only 45 minutes to cover the entire 8 kms stretch. So the old man was right it took us exactly 3 hrs to complete this Splendid task. Most of the times the older people always say the right things I guess.I suggest everybody to try this exciting and refreshing task atleast once and feel the Pleasantness of the nature and also FEEL LIKE GOD

Important Things
- Try This only in Off season from Aug – Oct
- Always watch out for the irresponsible Cabbies on the ghat road

Tadiyandamol Trek - Coorg

Our most expected Brahmagiri trek was totally collapsed, Thanks to the Summer Heat, the next alternative we could think of was Tadiyandamol near Kakkabe in Karnataka. Myself , nirmal, harish, rakesh, keerthi, Saravana took the Mysore express on Friday night and reached Blore by early morning 4, from there we have arranged for a pick to Tadiyandamol base camp. We took the SH thru virajpet to kakkabe.The road was very well maintained by the Karnataka govt, and the early morning climate was also very pleasant and foggy, the visibility was very low.

After refreshing up we reached the based camp , which actually is a palace, there u can park ur vehicle and start trekking. Initially the trail was a well laid tar road passing thru a coffee estate (privately owned).

After covering a approx 3 kms the forest trek trail starts with lots of small rocks which was little bit slippery, and there were small stream of water along ur path, the water tasted good and was really a refreshing one, fill ur water cans to the maximum there itself no water is available in the top.


After a kilometer thru jungle trail,the trekking trail opened up in to a open valley of sholas.


By that time the sun was almost killing as mercilessly, as we were ascending the trail we heard a loud growl of a tiger, not sure wheather it’s a tiger or something else but the noise was loud enough to scare us to death,We stood there confused about continuing or not. Moreover we don’t have a guide with us, all are first time trekkers, and to the core we don’t know the exact trekking trail even. So we decided to descend back.

The Point where we heard the Growl

On the way back after a few steps of descend we saw a UK couple ascending towards the peak. The UK person named David ( a 64 year old young man ) encouraged us and showed us the right trail to move ahead.David is visiting india frequently for the past 12 years,this is his fourth year in this mountain itself. Motivated with the information he gave we again started to move towards the summit

That's David there with us

After crossing about 4 kms, we started to ascend in a steep rocky surface. Before entering the Steep rocky ascend u have to cross a Big Black rock, once u reach that rock take right and start ascending never take a left.

That is the Peak which we climbed

From there the ascend was little bit steep and was slippery, we crossed another 1 km in the rocky surface . Ascending in the steep surface was really tiresome for a first time trekker and also the summer heat added up to the tiredness. As we reached a highest point from where the ascend to the summit was only few meters away one of our friend was totally collapsed. So we decided to quit there and took few photographs there.

At the Highest point

From that point the Descend towards the base was relatively a easy one only. It took us hardly 1.5hrs to reach back to the Base. Though we had lot of holes in our plan this trek really gave us many heart warming incidents

About tadiyandamol
Tadiyandamol means the highest point in the kodava language, standing 1740 mtrs height is a second highest peak in the Karnataka.
Important Things
• No permission is required
• No guide required (But ensure the trail before u start ascending)
• Avoid trekking in summer, entire trek is through open valley only
• Carry enough water , no water uphill

Silent Valley - Refreshing Nature

As the day dawned we 6 persons were gathered for the much awaited trip to SILENT VALLEY NATIONAL PARK. We started in a maruthi omni which was compact enough for 6 of us. We took the Tadagamà -->kannuvaai-->Annakattià route, the road was good and pretty straight till we neared the Annakatti from there the road had many blind turns and curves , as the there was almost no traffic that really didn’t matter. The route in the early morning was Beautiful and scenic

In Annakatti we had a small tea break and then we started to mukali where the National Park is actually located, After a good 2 hrs drive we reached the Silent Valley national park , from there only the parks authorized vehicles are allowed inside. We took a minivan from the Range office , as we have already booked for a trip there were not much formalities. We just paid the entrance fee and which was 150 rs per head + charges for the Camera. The travel inside the park is actually a climb thru the jungle route

Which was very dense. The route was filled with many exciting scenic beauty. But we were not allowed to get down of the vehicle so felt bad about missing some good pics. After a 1.5 hrs of solid climb in a Jungle we reached the Core area of the Sanctuary.

In the Middle of the Core area there is a Huge Watch tower from where almost all the surrounding mountain ranges are clearly visible. Climbing up the Watch tower was a little bit shaking because of the crowd, but the climb was a rewarding one.

Mountain view from the Watch Tower

As we came down there was a small trekking thru the jungle towards the Bavani sagar river source and a small Bridge across the water source. but visitors were not allowed to cross the bridge as it was damaged during a recent flood. We heard from our guide that this water is travelling for around 35 km thru a dense no man’s land

Our Trekking Route

Hanging Bridge across Bhavani Sagar