It was a Friday evening.. and we started from (Kazhakootam, Thiruvananthapuram) by around 5.30...four of us were there, as planned earlier..and one more addition came in as a tagged-in version in the form of Renju when we were about to start. This time the destination was to Idukki..a place famous for its ghats, greenery, hill stations and biodiversity..a place without which a state like Kerala has no meaning...Much of the electricity needs of the state are addressed by the hydroelectric projects set up in Idukki..!!! I am not here to go deep into what Idukki is famous for.
We reached Thiruvalla by around 8 pm. Renju had to take bus from there to reach her home. We four went to have our dinner at a nearby hotel..There were varieties of biriyani there, but we sufficed for Kaada fry, chappathi and chicken roast. We planned to go via changanassery bypass road and then hitting the Kottayam -Kumily (KK) road. The only place we stopped in between was Kuttikkanam. We had milkless-coffee (kattan kaappi) from there, and we had to hit Stebin’s house as early as possible, as to disturb the peace , but not the sleep of his brother and mother :) We reached Kattapana aka Stebin’s place by around 12 in the night. His mother was awake.. Parking the car was a tedious job as the tyres were not finding much grip on the rocky terrains. Stebin’s mother gave us a warm welcome in that cold ambience. Stebin’s brother Stylo came out of his room, said “hi, will see tomorrow morning” and went back to his bed. After some chit chats, we all went to bed and got up the next day, by 8 in the morning. Stebin’s brother was getting ready to leave for his work. We were just getting up and making ourselves ready for the sight seeing. Vijeesh and Shaneesh were so particular on not having cold water showered on their body.. It was time for our first high-range breakfast.. Kolli aka Kappa aka Poola aka maracheeni ( in English, Tapioca) and beef curry was our breakfast. On special request, Stebin’s mom prepared a special hot chutney made out of real hot chillies (“Kaanthaari ”) .. That was damn good a food. We were all set for going out and seeing the nearby places, and just a 200m from Stebin’s house is a bridge made of mud and sand.. It is an extension of the catchment of Idukki dam. The water in that area was real low and we saw cows and goats grazing in that lush lands. After spending few minutes there, we went to a place named AyyappanKovil, which was once the capital of Idukki district. It lost its importance as an effect of the Idukki Dam project. We reached the hanging bridge and the view from the bridge was spectacular.
On one side was Kozhimala, and is still being ruled by their tribal king and he has Police protection too. (courtesy - Stebin). There was a movie set put forth for the Malayalam actor Dileep's new movie "Life of Josutty", and if one was not told he would take it for a real house. We visited the movie set, it consisted of 2 houses, their vegetations, and we also saw a small temple at some distance, and that was the real “Ayyappankovil”.
We had gooseberry pickle and buttermilk from a nearby small shoppe. Offroader and not a sedan is an apt commute for you to reach this place. We went to Kattappana, had our lunch. This again was an awesome meal...High-range is not only famous for its serene looks, but for its mouth-watering food as well. Post-lunch we proceeded to a place named “Anchuruli” (meaning, five vessels), and is named after the resemblance of the five small hills surrounded by water which can be seen from that spot, to the classic inverted vessels of Kerala named “uruli”. This is a famous spot, as many movies like “Iyyobinte Pusthakam” were shot here. This is a picturesque picnic spot, and is a catchment area of the Idukki Arch dam. This 4.75 km tunnel is the location where the villain is getting killed in the movie “Iyyobinte Pusthakam” by Amal Neerad. When we were about to reach the spot, there were a large number of cars and travelers parked on the side of that small road which led to the tunnel. The same movie, for which we saw the movie set, was being shot there, and the Police was not allowing the visitors to get down to that spot. We waited for the crew to come out of that location. The star crew were Dileep and Rachana Narayanankutty. The movie is getting directed by Jeethu Joseph ( the Drishyam movie fame). We noticed one other celebrity among the crew, and that was Pranav Mohanlal ( the son of famous mollywood star, Mohanlal). With 15 minutes of waiting, we were allowed to get down to the Tunnel, but since the water flow from the Erattayar (one of water sources to the Idukki dam) has not subsided, we couldn’t get inside the Tunnel. On our way to the tunnel, Rachana Narayanankutty was doing still photos for the movie. I also took few snaps of that.. and i should say, what a PUTTY :)
Once reaching the face of the tunnel, we could see the end of the tunnel as a white dot, the opening on the the other side of the tunnel, and we are seeing it here, at a distance of around 5 kms. Mesmerizing...!!!
From there, we walked towards the way we came, via the hanging bridge; and we planned to go to the other side of the river in a “changaadam” which was unmanned and can be used by anyone who wants to cross the river to the other side. It had 2 ropes, one on on each side. The other end of each rope was tied to polls piled on either side of the river. So, there was no need for an oar to move the boat from one side to the other, but just with the help of the rope.
We had gooseberry pickle and buttermilk from a nearby small shoppe. Offroader and not a sedan is an apt commute for you to reach this place. We went to Kattappana, had our lunch. This again was an awesome meal...High-range is not only famous for its serene looks, but for its mouth-watering food as well. Post-lunch we proceeded to a place named “Anchuruli” (meaning, five vessels), and is named after the resemblance of the five small hills surrounded by water which can be seen from that spot, to the classic inverted vessels of Kerala named “uruli”. This is a famous spot, as many movies like “Iyyobinte Pusthakam” were shot here. This is a picturesque picnic spot, and is a catchment area of the Idukki Arch dam. This 4.75 km tunnel is the location where the villain is getting killed in the movie “Iyyobinte Pusthakam” by Amal Neerad. When we were about to reach the spot, there were a large number of cars and travelers parked on the side of that small road which led to the tunnel. The same movie, for which we saw the movie set, was being shot there, and the Police was not allowing the visitors to get down to that spot. We waited for the crew to come out of that location. The star crew were Dileep and Rachana Narayanankutty. The movie is getting directed by Jeethu Joseph ( the Drishyam movie fame). We noticed one other celebrity among the crew, and that was Pranav Mohanlal ( the son of famous mollywood star, Mohanlal). With 15 minutes of waiting, we were allowed to get down to the Tunnel, but since the water flow from the Erattayar (one of water sources to the Idukki dam) has not subsided, we couldn’t get inside the Tunnel. On our way to the tunnel, Rachana Narayanankutty was doing still photos for the movie. I also took few snaps of that.. and i should say, what a PUTTY :)
Once reaching the face of the tunnel, we could see the end of the tunnel as a white dot, the opening on the the other side of the tunnel, and we are seeing it here, at a distance of around 5 kms. Mesmerizing...!!!
On our way back we saw the movie crew taking break for their lunch, and Pranav Mohanlal was also in the queue for lunch, and there was not a feel of stardom on his face, or the people around.. We then proceeded to Kalvari Mount, a where the breathtaking scene of Idukki was awaiting us. We parked the car towards the side of the main road , and went to a nearby shop to buy chips and softdrinks. We then trekked towards the Kalvari Mount and it was only a small trek. We reached the top by 2.30 pm. There were new huts being built for tourists to rest and we saw ground works for making this place levied with tickets and passes for the visitors.
Once we reach the top , we can see a panoramic view of the Idukki reservoir. There were lot of islets in the reservoir, some looked like dense forests, and there was one islet on which there were no trees but just green meadows. We halted in a hut and were doing the mens’ talk, and a group of school teachers halted in our hut, and luckily they didn’t stay for long. We saw a lot other visitors, some were families, others were friends, and we saw one couple who came to shoot their post-marriage snaps and videos. We thought of enquiring about the timings of Idukki dam visit to the people nearby, and we were told that it would open by 9 in the morning and would close by 5 in the evening. We thought of spending our evening in the Kalvari Mount and then go for this new Shankar - directed Vikram movie, “I”..Took some snaps of the sunset from Kalvari mount , trekked down towards the road where the car was parked, and from there to the theatre where I movie was running. On our way we saw the procession by a Roman Catholic Church owing to its annual day celebrations. That was a long procession and it took some time for us to cross the entire procession. We reached the theatre on time of the first show (6.30 PM), the film did not meet the expectations. But who cares? We came to enjoy the beauty of high ranges, and not to watch the movie “I” :) Post movie, Shaneesh was awarded the name “LEE” aka Lingaswamy, and Stebin was exclaiming the worthlessness of beauty.. and he also said it is always a lesson to handsome guys like himself. Poor Stebin !!! that much was enough for all of us .. He equated the handsomeness of Vikram to himself !!! We headed back towards Stebin’s house. After few chit chats, I went to take a shower; and this time as well Shaneesh and Vijeesh were telling ‘how cold the atmosphere is !!!’ to escape themselves from the pain of having cool water on their body. We had a splendid supper, and we got introduced to Stebin’s sis-in-law who is waiting for her first kid by end of next month. After few chit chats we all went straight to our beds, since all were tired due to the treks and travels that we did on that day.
The next day morning, when we got up ( by around 8 am), we met Stebin’s elder brother. After our shower, we got a super breakfast (‘noolpputtu’ aka ‘idiyappam’ and beef curry). We said bye to Stebin’s house and gave a ride to Stebin’s mom till Labbakkada, a place on the way to Kattapana. We went straight to the Idukki hydroelectric project and en route we saw this.
The same movie ("Life of Josutty") crew were there to shoot a cricket match (may be, only just one scene in a song where Dileep gets hurt when a little kid attempts a boundary). Stebin directed us to Cheruthoni dam, one of the 3 dams of the Idukki hydroelectric project, through a narrow route. We saw the school where the movie Idukki Gold was shot. We were at the bottom portion of the dam. Shaneesh posed as Lee and we took few snaps and selfies of us.
From there we went to the Idukki Arch dam and we thought to taking the 15 minute speed boat ride in the dam. We had to wait for 45 minutes, and we became company with the docking guy, and he asked us to take the Rs 2500/- one instead of the 750/- one that we took, so that he can take us over to the islets which we saw from Kalvari Mount and he promised to take us even till Ayyappan Kovil. We did our boating and the scene was splendid. The verdant greenery, the speeding boat, the cool refreshing air floating around the landscapes, the little waves in the dam, the panoramic view of the surroundings touches the depth of your heart in no time. We came back to the dock, returned our life jackets and went to see the Idukki Arch dam which was constructed in the canyon between Kuravan and Kurathi mountains. On our way to the dam, there is this statue of Kolumban, a tribal head, who first showed the way to the spot of Arch Dam. We had to walk on top of the Cheruthoni Dam, then reach the tunnel of Kuravan mountain to reach the top of Idukki Arch Dam. It still seemed to be a wonder to me that why it was arch-shaped, and it gave the fire to know more about the advantages of this shape. Learnt one more thing on our way back through the tunnel that an average singer can sing with high bass when he sings inside the tunnel. We had butter milk carried in a bisleri bottle when we walked to the dam. We planned to have our return through Thodupuzha, as we heard the road was so good. The hair-pin routes made the ride a thrilling one though. We passed through Kulamavu, the third dam in the Idukki hydroelectric project.
We had our lunch by around 2.30 pm from a house that served homely meals. Again, no words to say about this meal:) All the food that we had, even from the start of this trip was super awesome. En route I stopped at Eden Gardens, a nursery and I bought 3 saplings, one each of Magic Fruit, European Cherry and Strawberry Guava. We continued our journey and reached a place near to Changanassery where we had our Tea and evening snacks. We reached Thiruvalla by aroud 6 pm where all others got down to get their bus to Trivandrum, whereas I headed to my home.
We had our lunch by around 2.30 pm from a house that served homely meals. Again, no words to say about this meal:) All the food that we had, even from the start of this trip was super awesome. En route I stopped at Eden Gardens, a nursery and I bought 3 saplings, one each of Magic Fruit, European Cherry and Strawberry Guava. We continued our journey and reached a place near to Changanassery where we had our Tea and evening snacks. We reached Thiruvalla by aroud 6 pm where all others got down to get their bus to Trivandrum, whereas I headed to my home.
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