THE PERUMALMUDI TRIP

ONE OF THE 4 HOLI HILLS OF ATTAPADY From Malleeshwaram Jan 22 2010

A Bit on Perumalmudi

Before knowing about Perumalmudi, it is good to write a few lines on Attapady. Attapady  is a high altitude area along  the western ghats, at Kerala, Tamilnadu border very near to Coimbatore, East (Tamilnadu) and The Silent valley National Park, West (Kerala).

The terrain elevation ranges between 400 to 800 meters above sea level.  This lies in between the Nilgiris (Ooty), to the north and Walayar to the South (The only mountain gap splitting western ghats).  There are a few peaks in Attapady which has an altitude of over 1200 meters above sea level. The Kerala Tamilnadu border bounds this place to its East and South.

Previously this was a part of Tamilnadu and later this was handed over to Kerala and so still you will find the people speaking a mixture of Malayalam (Language of Kerala) and Tamil (Language of Tamilnadu), and many other local dialects. Most of the people who live here belong to tribal groups and their main occupation is farming.

Attapady is surrounded by four holy hills. There are temples on all these hill tops and a main pooja (Workship) is done once every year. All these four hills can be seen from most parts of Attapady and the people used to believe that, their house will be blessed only if at least one of these hills is visible from their house.

THE HILLS>

The Vellingiri Hill :  This is the holy hill to the south of Attapady. This hill can be seen from a lot of places. This can be easily spotted from Coimbatore. and Walyar. This is the hill with a small tip on its top seen to the west (to the back) of the Periyakulam, just opposite to the Ukadam Bus stand of Coimbatore. I have been trekked this hill twice and stayed there for a night with my friend Zac while we were doing our Masters at Coimbatore. From the top of Vellingiri you can see the Coimbatore city lights and Attapady hills. The Vellingiri can be seen from Malleeshwaram lodge.  Read More on Vellingiri : http://www.peermade.info/travel/vellingiri

The Malleeshwaram Mudi : This holy hill bounds the west side of the Attapady, and this is very near to Mukkali, the entrance to Silent valley National park. When you move to Coimbatore from Mukkali, you can see this hill to your left for a few kilometers after crossing Mukkali.

The Perumal mudi : This is the hill which borders the east of Attapady and this I very close to Dominics lodge. This is out target for today Scroll down to see more

My Trip>
I was invited to Attapady by Dominic (Malleeshwaram Jungle Lodge http://www.malleeshwaram.com ) . It was just after receiving my new camera lens (sigma 150 500mm) and looking to do a few birding shots. We did our Perumalmudi trek on the second day.

The Starting>
We started by round 7 am, packing up a few food stuffs and started heading east from Malleeshwaram. We were a team of 6 Dominic, Myself, 2 Village boys and 2 men from village. After a few minutes we reached Pettickal town (a town 9 Kms from Goolikadavu en way to Maleeshwaram). We had a chat at Mr Suresh’s shop. From Pettickal we made a left turn along a jeep road descending down half the hill.

Then we moved half way around the hill and reached a small village (Uru As known in the local language). This was a beautiful spot and we could see the Perumalmudi to our left. And the deep valley to our side.

There were a few houses clusters together like the stars of a galaxy.  We continued trekking up, and finally we reached the top by around 2 PM.

From here we were able to get a 360 View of Attapady. We could see the Vellingiri hills, the Malleeshwaram Hills and some area of Silent valley national Park too.

The wind mills planted in Attapady to harvest wind energy  were there all around us to the south and east.  Another place where I have seen this many wind mills was Chitradurga (Karnataka) and Pollachi, some 40 Kms away from Coimbatore.

PERUMALMUDI MAP

By around 4 we started descending down along the opposite ridge, we trekked aside an old  temple and reached a village. We had tea from here and watched the villagers for some time.

By late night we started walking back to Malleeshwaram Lodge

TEAM

• Dominic, Malleeshwaram Lodge
• Myself
• 2 Boys and 2 Villagers

LINKS

• Malleeshwaram Lodge
• Attapady Trip
• Silent Valley National Park
• Vellingiri -Stay At Night