It's almost 3 years back that i made a trip to Ponmudi. It had been one of the best among the places i have trekked. Ponmudi aka The Golden Peak (malayalam translation) is a hillstation near trivandrum in Kerala. Its located 61 km north-east of Trivandrum at an altitude of 610 m.
We hit the road from Coimbatore. The en route to Ponmudi is bewitching. You can find the roads sheltered above with the umbrellas of lush green trees. God's own country, we know it to be kerala. God's own home is Ponmudi. The traces of forests soon gives rise to the vast tea estates. The tea estates en route Ponmudi is not as big as the ones that you would find in Munnar or Chembra peak. Nevertless they send out a soothing fragrance that just finds your olfactory in proper channel even inside the car.
On the way, we saw a lot of elephants ambling and taking its own time to cross the roads. Deers were also in plenty and we saw a couple of peacocks dancing along the sides of the roads. There were a couple of small waterfalls on the way. It was quite a climb to the top of the peak in the car. The car coughed and hiccupped. Thankfully we reached ponmudi by sunset. the entire ambience was marked with the chuckling of heavy billed Malabar hornbills.
Its an amazing sight to see various wild birds migrating east and west flying gracefully. At times i really felt like saluting to the birds. They had such a graceful and majestic appeal. The shrill notes of the blue-black Malabar whistling thrush add to the surrounding. It was like an open aviary. There is also a place of interest called "Echo Point". We had lot of fun responding to our echos.We had meant to stay for one day only. But thick fog cut us off from rest of the world. We were the only people in the resort. It was amazing to be in total solitude just having the nature for company. We were stranded there at the top of peak for 3 days!
On the way back, we took another route that were the region of plantations – rubber, pepper, cardamom and tea. The tappers can be seen going about briskly gathering the milky fluid from rubber trees collected in coconut shells. We also passed a number of rivulets and rapids, some even gushing across the road.
The sheer wilderness and eternal beauty of Ponmudi will mesmerize you!
2 comments:
wow!!!! awesum place.. y cant v plan our next trip to ponmudi???
Ponmudi is the place to be in!!!!ur expressions about nature has made me to think of planning a trip there.Fr sure i ll visit it.Lucky to have such a nature lover as my friend...
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