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