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6th July 2009, 22:49
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| BHPian  Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Campus @ IIMA !
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| 'Xing'ing around ! - Trekking in the Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary, Thoovanam Waterfalls One fine morning, opened my inbox to see our old friend Chandrashekar's mail proposing a weekend trek for the 4th & 5th of July 09. This time the destination was the Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary (CWS). Fired up the browser to check out what Chinnar was all about... I had heard about Chinnar sometime in the past and the name was stuck in my memory since the person who mentioned it had said that 'Chinnar' is near 'Munnar'! (The Chinnar Checkpost is indeed around 60kms from Munnar.) Here is some text from Wikipedia: Quote:
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Apart from the flora and fauna, Chinnar also has a bit of ancient history thrown-in. There are several hundred 'Dolmens'; ancient tombs... Quote:
 The route taken was... To be followed with pics and details. Meanwhile, here is a pic of the Thoovanam waterfalls, which we trekked to on the 5th of July... As seen from above...  A video, from near the base of the falls. Only part of the falls is visible here... My camera was getting quite wet even at this distance due to the mist / spray from the falls... Continued... Last edited by hotstuff : 6th July 2009 at 22:59. | ||||
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7th July 2009, 08:17
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7th July 2009, 08:58
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8th July 2009, 12:32
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9th July 2009, 01:15
| #5 |
| BHPian Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Campus @ IIMA !
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| Chinnar treks... I'll try not to   Since the route was via Hosur road, we decided to catch up with the group near the silk board fly-over...  Got onboard and promptly fell asleep, only to be woken up for the early morning tea & pee stop...  By around 6'ish we reached the first check-post...  A little after the check post, came across this wild boar ambling along...  Trees on the hill, giving it a halo effect...  I just could not stop taking more and more pics of the mountains around...  A little after 7am, we reached the Chinnar check post...   Welcome to the jungle...  Waiting for the paperwork to be through!  Among other things, Sangeetha can speak fluent English, Hindi, Marathi, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil... and Malayalam too! While she was taking care of the details, I was walking around taking pics...  The current list of programs available. They have not bothered to update their website as yet...  There is dormitory accommodation available at reasonable rates in the eco-center next to the check post...  Show the boys a river... and this is what you get!  Langurs...  Size-wise...  Since milk (for chai) and normal rice is not available at the check post, we negotiated with a van driver who regularly travels on this route to get us some rations...  Neela kurinji is a shrub that was once abundant in the Western Ghats. The Nilgiris - blue Mountains, got their name from the purplish blue flowers of Neela kurinji which flowers once in 12 years. The last flowering was in 2006...  One good thing about trekking in this season was that there was hardly any sun throughout the day...  The Chinnar watch tower is just a few hundred meters from the check post and offers a panoramic view of the forest...    Antler of a deer...  Sangeetha recently remarked, "How come you never take any flower photos?"... Well, here you go!  We first went out for a 'Riverside trek', which would take us to the Chinnar River...  A Sambar deer...  Ok, I really could not stop myself from taking pics of the mountains around :-)  A small break!   Contd... |
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9th July 2009, 01:58
| #6 |
| BHPian Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Campus @ IIMA !
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| Chinnar Treks... Though very close to the Parambikulam area where we had trekked last month, Chinnar is in the 'rain-shadow' region. Due to the scanty rainfall, this is predominantly a thorny / scrubland, with Shola forests only at the higher altitudes...   Left-right-left...  Pics break...  The green line you can see in the pic is the course of the Chinnar River...  More walking...  The queen and her entourage...  There are also quite a few medicinal plants that can be found here...  Soon, we reached the river!  The remains of a deer killed by wild-dogs...  Time to relax...  The water was quite cold and refreshing!    And the forest guards watched over us...  Bliss!  Us...  Wow! I want to do that too :-)  I want to play in water for some more time please!  After a while, we decided to head back... the guides pointed out this Leopard pugmark on the way back...  Next we headed towards the 'Pambar' river...  A Kingfisher...  Monkeys :-)  Post lunch, we headed for an uphill trek, to see the 'Dolmens'. Megalithic burial sites...    We spent quite some time walking around and wondering about how life would have been 1000s of years ago...   It started raining and the umbrella came in handy!  Contd... |
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9th July 2009, 02:33
| #7 |
| BHPian Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Campus @ IIMA !
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| Chinnar trek... We started our trek back to base...  The sun playing hide-n-seek in the clouds...  More flower pics...  Mountains in the mist...    Came across this Gaur trying to figure us out...  Mountain pics again!  Is this a Cicada?  Stopped to check out the Tree-house...   A tree house of a birdie kind!  It remained dark and cloudy all through...  No comments!  Another Sambar deer...  Came back to the check post and retired for the night after a hearty meal. The plan for the next day was to trek up to a place called 'Vasyapara', which offers a 'Balcony view' of the forest area. After a quick breakfast, we started walking at around 8.00am. Came across more Langurs on the way...  Peeping through the morning mist...  A birdie!  And a squirrel...  We reached the Pambar river...  And continued our trek...  A dried up waterhole...  It was quite a strenuous walk up the hillside...  A colorful insect...  More walking!  A mid-way stop...  More flowers...  Ok! Get up and start walking!!!  A Macro experiment...  A mushroom...  Contd... |
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9th July 2009, 02:44
| #8 |
| BHPian  Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Hyderabad
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9th July 2009, 03:11
| #9 | |
| BHPian Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Campus @ IIMA !
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| Thoovanam Waterfalls... The forest department guards. Having spent a better part of their life in and around these forests, do an amazing job of spotting animals.  Another flower...  The guards sensed some movement on the hillside. Notice anything in the pic?  Then we saw this family walking out of the bushes...   We reached the hill-top hut at Vasyapara. You can actually book the hut and stay there for a day to experience the jungle from close quarters...  The place has some amazing views and you can see for miles across the jungle below...  More 'us' photos :-)  And more mountain pics!  A picturesque rock...  When it rains on the mountains, you can see quite a few waterfalls in the distance...  They had received a tip-off about the presence of some sandalwood poachers in the area and were heading out to investigate...  A rare Grizzled Giant Squirrel...  We walked through a tribal village on the way back...  A fledgling 'Sunbird' that was just learning to fly...  A domesticated pea-hen in the tribal village...  The Pambar river...  Cute!  Returned back to the eco-center for a late lunch, packed our bags and headed out to our last destination for the trip, the 'Thoovanam' waterfalls. It is a 14kms drive from the check-post and then a 3km walk down to the valley floor. We overshot the 'eco shop' (where we needed to buy a Rs.100 per head ticket for the falls) and realized it only after we had driven a couple of Kms ahead. Kumar's (Our driver) joke of the day: Quote:
 Another view of the falls...  A moss covered log...  The trek down to the falls may be a little strenuous, but you are rewarded with some amazing sights...   It takes around 40 mins to reach the falls...   Though it was not raining at the time, the mist from the falls was enough to make everything close by dripping wet...  We spent around 30mins at the falls and walked back up to the road. If you continue on this road for another 50 odd kms, you'll reach Munnar...  Contd... | |
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9th July 2009, 03:20
| #10 |
| BHPian Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Campus @ IIMA !
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| Back to base... We started our journey back towards Bangalore at around 7.30pm, stopping for dinner at Pollachi...  And just like we did during our journey back from the Parambikulam trek; [ http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...y-history.html ] we stopped to pick up some mangoes near Krishnagiri, at around 3am...  I was playing around with slow shutter shots while Sangeetha was busy shopping...  Reached Bangalore by around 5.00am, took an auto back home, and got a few hours of shut-eye before waking up with the Monday blues and heading out to start work for the week. __________________________________________________ ________ Where to next? |
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9th July 2009, 07:29
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| Senior - BHPian  | |
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9th July 2009, 08:27
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9th July 2009, 09:38
| #13 |
| Senior - BHPian | Great trip Sanjay, I remember Thoovanam falls, I saw it the first time on my way to Chinnar from Munnar during my honey moon trip. It is an amazing view to see it high up from the Mountain, I was under the impression that you could possibly not reach it, may be gives me a reason to visit it again. Chinnar is pretty much a dry cousin to its other siblings around the area and possibly used more as migratory path. The advantage of a dry forest is sightings becomes very easy, unlike say a Parambikulam where you could possibly not see beyond 5 feet. I had managed to sight an elephant herd in the Chinnar forests while driving down the ghats from Munnar which was possible only because of the dry scrub forests. Am sure you guys would have missed out on visits from your friends from Parambikulam "leech"  Thanks for sharing. The pictures were worth the wait. And last but not the least I think you have managed to find a great driver who gives you the advantage of a self owned vehicle (completely flexible trip) with the added incentive of not needing to drive yourself. Before I forget nice shot experimenting with the slow shutter speeds. |
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9th July 2009, 11:53
| #14 |
| BHPian Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Hyderabad
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| hotstuff, that was a really cool set of pictures and great narration all through. It was like trekking along with you. Great going man!  Do share more pictures if you can! |
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9th July 2009, 11:53
| #15 |
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