Post purchase from Reliance fresh Kadvantra, Me n Gokul( alias Kuttu), decided for a movie Rakhta Charitra, ( second show). Dinner at Pai Dosa after film, on our way back to room , just an idea struck us to head towards Munnar and feel the chilling climate,and there we were...the Dzire was steered to the muvattupuzha stretch to Munnar around 12.30pm
This drive to buy Onions turned to a fabulous trip exploring the two extremes of Idukki Dist., Munnar and Idukki, covering around 300km terrain stretch.
After a fantastic night drive through the spiraling and misty ghat road we reached Munnar by 2pm, slept in the Car itself which was parked besides a tea estate.
Early morning drive back to Cochin, was the plan, but green grass mountains and the river running parallel were really calling us. Stopped in one such location took a bath in the chillin water at 7am and that was refreshing and energizing.
With extra energy, Dzire was now doing 100km in the terrain, stopped neat to two water falls Vaalara and Cheeyapra.
Driving forward, at Neriamangalam we found a direction board with an U turn to idukki. the Dzire expressed its desire by automatically steering the U turn to that mountain road.
This is a 90 km stretch inside the forest and hilly region of Idukki.. nature and mountains and rivers at its best... waterfalls are just another common things.
Stopped in a small junction to have the desi breakfast with Tea n Dosa with savouring Idukki delicacy EDI erachi- (beef roast which is crushed n dried).
The road after 90km drive through the terrain took us to Cheruthoni.
Cheruthoni is where the world famous arch dam, powering entire Kerala ( The great Idukki arch Dam). Cheruthoni and Idukki dam have certain places and thing which really ignites the adventure enthusiast.
One such is MOUNT CALVRY ( pl don miss this). Unfortunately our Phones were charged out to take snaps from here onwards....we dint carry chargers ( since we have come to buy onions last day)
MOUNT CALVRY is 10 km terrain drive frm the arch dam. After a 2 km trekk to the mount, u can witness the splendid feast nature has kept for you. An awesome site of the water catchment of the dam with a touch of sky blue and surrounded by dense green forest. There are island bodies filled with trees in the water, which really gives an ambience of the world map. U will never feel like coming from there, nature will seduce you with her romantic scenic beauty...
Trekkin down we met wit a localite who told us about a TUNNEL, which is 1.5km long cutting cross a mountain to the Dam. This tunnel is to channelize water to the dam in the early days.. We were thrilled and excited. This is around 6km down hill.., after a lot of enquiries , to and fro off road drives, we finally reached a place which was stranded and filled with trees. It was just another location besides a small check dam. We found a big stream flowing down to a small grilled tunnel below. We got down and peeped inside through the grill….my god tat was huge dark tunnel and a kind of glowing Bulket in the end. The scene was terriying
We came up , enquired to a boy who came there. He said we can go inside the tunnel with some light source and there are lot of Bats. This has struck me the last Man v/s wild Program where he was going inside through a cave in Turkey, we were excited, took my torch part of the accessory kit in my Car.
Got down to the tunnel mouth , it was indeed horrifying like those found in Movies. We pushed ourselves through the concrete grill, the tunnel was around 8ft round rocky and the water was till our knees. Our hearts started beating fast when we moved ahead.., torch lite was very feeble in tat dense dark. The light glow in the other end was our target and it looked at far distance from inside along though the small bends of the tunnel. We could here only the sound of water stream inside the tunnel.
I was scared of any poisonous creatures in the water and the oxygen level in the tunnel, when we further go deep inside. 100 meter away, I suddenly lost my balance, the floor was un even and the water stream increased. We went further 500meter, I just moved the torch light to the roof, my heart just came in my mouth, the roof was full of Bats hanging down. I just saw about vampire Bats in Animal Planet 3 days back. Bats started flying to us when the light hit them., two bats hit my head. Bats always have a terror connect. in films, but it din’t do any harm to us.
After half an hour walk we were about to reach the other end, the tunnel has a bit of visibility now. Standing in the end of the tunnel, the water flows down to the dam. It’s a wonderful site, either side were deep forest. We tired looking the top of the tunnel from outside, and that was a big, huge tall mountain. This tunnel of 1.5km was drilled through this mountain to the dam.
We had good massage in the water falls from the tunnel, then I noticed something the sky is turning black, it gonna rain, which will increase water level in tunnel. I shouted,” Kuttu.. rush, we need to go back quickly”, if the water level and flow increases, it would be very difficult to walk up-stream and fatal too.
We quickly started walking back..and tat was difficult to walk Up-stream. We managed to reach back in 45 minutes, Bats were of course there to push us fast.
Indeed a great drive back to Cochin from Cheruthoni, with fantastic road inside the forest crawling though the mountains.
Fantastic Trip, Thanks to the Onions…..
