Meghamalai - a nature lover's paradise..

After a long gap I took my back pack for Meghamalai trip. Public transport is the last word to experience the essence of a destination and life style of it's people. Chinnamanur is the nearest town whether you travel by bus or your own car..Chinnamanur to Eravilangar (last point of Meghamalai) is 52kms.  First bus starts from here to Meghamalai by 4.a.m, second one at 10.a.m, then at 12.15.p.m  and 2.15.p.m last one is at 8.p.m. There are facilities to get token to reserve your seats in the bus (only for two trips). 

If you are particular about food, better buy some food and drinks from Chinnamanur.. Hardly 2 or 3 small restaurants and shops you can see in all over Meghamalai.

Several wine yards will welcome you as you near the ghat road. There is a forest check post at the bottom, you need to enter your details there. Approach road reminded me Yelagiri access. New road is laid recently till High Wavys.

There is a small shop selling 2 or three types of  snacks,water and few local drinks after  climbing few kilometers .No tea or coffee  available. When I bought 2 snacks for ten rupees, shop owner , an aged lady offered me one vada as compliment, though I denied to accept it , finally i had to honour her by accepting the vada due to her compulsion. But that hot vada was one of the best vadas i had in my life. While having a chat with her further, she offered me the second Vada as a compliment, This time she had to honour me..There are human beings around us like this lady , we forgot to see them and learn from them..Still we think that we are the best man/women on the earth great principles..

Shola and evergreen  forest patches started appearing as we near Meghamalai.

When we reach Meghamalai, further 20 plus kilometers to be travelled to reach the last spot of Generally called Meghamalai.

Meghamalai - High Wavys - Manalar - Vennilar - Eravilangar.

This is Meghamalai. We will come across few home stays before reaching Meghamalai. Climbing is almost over once we reach Meghamalai.  

Next we reach High Wavys (often called as highways). There is an accommodation facility provided by Town Panchayath. 
One small hotel is there called Senthil with an ambiance of a tea stall built in a most beautiful location. They can provide you food with limited items but tasty.

Newly built road ends approximate 2kms after High Wavys .Saloon cars cannot go beyond this. Sumos are waiting for you to be hired at 2200/- per trip. They will take you till Eravilangar.

Even if you have a SUV , better hire a Sumo as the road is extremely bad and you can't enjoy the nature as to keep looking at road every seconds . Bad road extends 15kms. Bus took one hour 10 minutes to cover 15kms.

Manalar comes next. Upper manalar is most beautiful. But you need permission to enter.

 But public buses goes there..Once you start travelling from Meghamalai to Eravilangar (20kms stretch) you stop at any point it will be certainly a picnic spot. The beauty can not be described in words..

You will have to stop at Maharaja mettu after Venniar. average 30 minutes climb to top of the hill. Which offers mesmerizing views of plains . Gudalur, cumbum and other small villages. We will get a view of Periyar (Thekkady) lake  on the other side.

If we walk around the Maharaja mettu, it will be a treat for your eyes.. Be careful..  places are elephant movements are there...

Keep one thing in your mind. This is a place with no activities like boating , horse riding, children's park, gardens etc..But if you want to experience the nature , there is no such clean, serene places in south India other than Meghamalai. As it is an emerging destination, this is the right time to visit before it is getting crowded with tourists and heaped with plastics.
 Most of the areas are tea plantations and they are maintained aesthetically..Big salute to Wood briar group (They own lion part of the Meghamalai tea estates)

Tips :- 
1. Book accommodation in advance.
2. Carry some food stuff with you..
3. I felt that, it is the cleanest place in Tamilnadu. So please don't litter..
4. Bring warm clothing except in March , April and May  (It is only 1500+metres MSL)
5. High Wavys to Eravilangar drive is not so good , Aged people must avoid it. They have started the preliminary road works, hope situation will get changed probably after 6 months.
6. Only BSNL sim  has got signal, not everywhere, but better..
7. Be prepared for leeches during rainy days
8. Carry a mat and sheet to sit for hours wherever you like, as Meghamalai is not to be seen it is to be experienced.
9. Bisons and elephants are very common in Meghamalai. So don't invite the danger by going to isolated places..
10.Bring a pair of walking shoes..

 mannarkkad - mukkali - agali - mulli- manjur - ooty trip
it was our return trip to Ooty on 3rd of june 2012 after visiting family members in Cochin. attappadi route was not in our mind when we triggered off. we used to take coimbatore route or nilambur..sometimes Munnar Marayur route..My latha Son Aromal and daughter Shivali they always encourage me to have different experiences in our travel..

This time i didn't tell my son about the route i opted when i reached shornur. because he is very mucjh possessed with our Ritz car whic is less than an year old. when i travelled the same route in 1992 , it was one of the worst roads in kerala at thatt time.but i had to answer him when he asked why we took a left turn off main road at Ottappalam..

Ottappalam-ambalappara-Vattambalam - Mannarghat route was an interesting drive to experience the terrain Valluvanad desam. It was a shocking surprise seeing Mannarkkadu after 20years. i remembered the last visit when i struggled to send a fax from Mannarkkadu which was hard for me because there were only two centers with fax facility where one was out of order.Now Mannarkkadu is a lively town to compete with any other towns in Kerala.

Road to Mukkali is well laid and the side lined trees help us to get nature's vibes. post rain made the terrain more green and make any person love nature. Mukkali didn't get caught in the modernization up to certain extent.

lady selling local veggies was an outstanding in behaviour as well as in look. a perfect pose for magazine cover. Latha was filling her shopping bag with local chillies which would turn out to be an enemy in my dinner plates soon.


it was our good time to ask for Mulli route to a group of youg people simply sitting on the road. they were very helpful and well behaved and even offer guide services for us to roam around. when i told them about my trek from Ooty upper bhavani to Silent valley in the year of 1993, they not only stepped back from offering guide services but  complimented me  with love and respects.

we had to take a left turn from Thavalam to shrten our route to Mulli. that was their advice. with a few number of shops Thavalam offers good homely food with fish curry at no extra charge.fish curry was served like sambar.

Thavalam to Mukkali drive will take you to another world which will take some time for us to transform from the malls in Chennai and Bangalore to this serene villages which are not self sufficient in many areas which are unavoidable in day today life these days.

we saw few doctors offer their charity services to the villagers. but those doctos and their group were looking like cinema actresses with straightened hair, heavy lipsticks highly modern dresses. they could have avoided alll these and dressed simply at least when they visit places like attappadi. how can we blame these tribal people in attappadi , if they are motivated by seeing all these fashions!!!!


two and half kilometer strech nearing Mulli was not meant for saloon cars as there was no tarring and big big stones on the way hitting my car's bottom. it is true if we say that we were little scared to drive through that stretch.

our expectation were not wrong when the forest guard at check post at Mulli asked for some money to open the check post. we happily gave him 50 rupees. lot of people were waiting for a bus at Mulli for more than three hours, but it was not new to them as they are very much used to it.few people shared their worries with us for long waiting for buses. and we found they were getting relieved a bit after sharing with others.

Mulli to Geddai drive was remarkable. we were climbing 46 hair pins. frequent spotting of elephant droppings on the roads disturbed a little. till Geddai it continued.

Geddai to Manjur route was scenic. Blue mountains claiming to be number one in the region by providing a feast for our eyes. we had to stop several time as we couldn't experience the beauty while on driving.

Manjur was crowded like before. we took Balacola route to return as there is a tea out let by Chamaraj tea factory where we can have an organic tea with lime, which will help us to complete our return trip....