By Mukund Sathe
Diary of a cyclist – a summary of the Munnar cycling expedition.
Day 0: 14th December, 2024 Saturday – Arrival
This was the second hilly expedition I was participating in, after the Nainital-Ranikhet expedition. I couldn’t ride on the last day of the Nainital expedition due to heavy rains and severe cold weather, the conditions I wasn’t prepared for then. When I reached base camp for this expedition, it was drizzling. The weather report showed the probability of rain on all the expedition days. However, this time I was carrying a raincoat and was ready to face the rains.
Base camp was at ‘National Adventure Academy’ situated at Devikulam town, 7 km from Munnar on National highway 85 towards Thondi.
We collected cycles and helmets, and took a trial run to prepare ourselves for the acclimatization ride on the next day. Yogesh, with whom I had enjoyed Mumbai-Goa and Nainital-Ranikhet expeditions, had come from Chennai to participate. It’s always a comfortable feeling to ride with friends.
By dinner time, the rain stopped, and the sky was getting clear. We were warned of leeches in the area. We went for a post-dinner walk to the nearby Swami Aiyappa temple. It was a full moon night and I could capture moonrise behind hills.
Day 1: 15th December, 2024 Sunday – Devikulam – Anayirankal Dam – Devikulam – 40 KM
It was a bright sunny day. We geared up post breakfast and were ready for an acclimatization ride. Our leader Shashank alongwith Mr. Raja gave us the briefing and basic cycle training. It was a large gathering of 24 cyclists including 5 lady cyclists.
We left the base camp around 9:30 AM with a chant of ‘Ganapati Bappa Morya’. A kilometre ride on a slope to exit the town and we were on NH85. After a couple of kilometres we crossed the toll post, feeling happy for not paying the toll ☺. Couple of kilometres and we entered Lockheart tea estate where we took our first break for coconut water. Throughout the expedition, we either passed through tea estates or Nilgiri jungles.
We crossed the Lockheart gap and entered the Bison valley. A few kilometers of descent and a massive waterfall of Periyakanal appeared. Another break for pineapple and raw mango. We enjoyed the sliced pineapple on all the days.
The highway had broad shoulders of about 3’ width on both the sides, making it safe to ride. Another couple of mountain gaps revealed the view of the beautiful Anayirangal dam backwater.
Another 8-10 KM of descent and we reached ‘Elephant abode boating center’, a picnic spot at backwaters of Anayirangal dam. It was lunch time. We had lunch in the garden and the return journey began.
It was a sunny hot noon. Post lunch we were to climb 20 KM of ghat. With a lower gear combination of 1-1, 1-2; we advanced. Somewhere halfway, my cycle’s gear assembly gave up. I was lucky to get another cycle, as one of the riders had opted to travel in the support jeep. With a steady pace, we reached the base camp around 5 PM. Acclimatization ride was supposed to be an easy one, just to get the hang of it. But this one proved to be really a challenging one. It was like you prepare for JEE mains, and appear for JEE advance.
On return, I had a cold water bath; not by choice, but there was no heater at the base camp. Post dinner packed up for the next 3 days’ travel and in no time hit the bed.
Day 2: 16th December, 2024 Monday – Devikulam – Munnar – Kundala – 32 KM
Another bright sunny day. We went for a morning walk on the hill opposite to the base camp. A refreshing walk in a nature listening to the bird chirping
Post breakfast, we loaded the luggage in the jeep, took a packed lunch and left the base camp towards Munnar. Shahank, two mechanics and the jeep accompanied us for directions and assistance. With 7 km of mostly descent, we reached the crowded Munnar market. Picked up a few essentials and hit Munnar – top Station highway. After half an hour of climbing, we took a break at Ripple tea outlet for refreshing cold tea. Again an hour of climb and break at Mattupetty tea factory for masala tea. We reached Mattupetty dam around 11.15 AM.
We rested at the dam for sometime. The next journey was on the side of dam backwater through Nilgiri forests. We noticed lot of areas fenced by electric wires to keep elephants away.
The next stop was Echo point. Just before the echo point we got a glimpse of amazing nature. That’s the advantage of cycling expeditions. You get to observe the nature very closely and can stop anywhere you wish.
We reached the echo point and took a lunch break. Unlike echo points at other hill stations, this was an entire stretch across backwater having mountains on the other side, giving echo effects on the entire stretch. Post lunch we had a group photo.
After half an hour of easier cycling due to lesser gradient uphill, we took highway exit at the end of the Mattupetty back water and moved to kachcha road through tea estates of Kannan devan hills.
While riding off-roads, we met a tea garden worker lady who gave us a lot of useful information about tea production. As she informed, the tea trees are around 100 years old. Majority of the population in Munnar area are Tamilians, a border effect.
We further crossed a couple of streams and moved to our destination through Nilgiri forest. The destination was a pleasant surprise. Santosh resort was a home stay with all the facilities. After spending nights with YHAI in schools, tents, marriage halls; this accommodation was a luxury.
I had a hot water bath followed by evening snacks and tea. It was time to stroll at the lake.
Setting sun had spread the golden yellow colour on the Nilgiri trees.
Multifold mountain ranges of the backwater had variety of shades
Fishermen returned with the catch and left the canoe on the shore. Yogesh captured my pose with the perfect angle, showing I was rowing the canoe in the water
After sunset we returned to the resort. We had a small campfire before dinner where everyone discussed their adventure bucket list. There were many inspiring stories. Post dinner there were some thrilling moments as there was news that a herd of elephants is coming our way. Neither then nor during any of the cycling days, we could spot elephants. During Pench forest cycling expedition, tigers missed me and now elephants missed me 😆
Day 3: 17th December, 2024 Tuesday – Kundala – Vattavada – Top station – 40 KM
Day began with a morning walk to the village. Spotted a moonset, a very rare view followed by Sunrise. We were lucky to spot moonrise and moonset in this expedition.
The ride began with moving off-road to Kundala dam. Road was pretty bad and uphill until we hit the tea gardens. Probably some of the tea garden roads were maintained by the estates and hence were in good condition.
Kundla dam also had a hydropower generation unit similar to Mattupetty dam. Kerala, God’s own country is blessed with plenty of rain and water. Most of the time during our travels we could hear the sound of either a stream or a waterfall.
We could not get a glimpse of the elephant, but spotted an Indian giant squirrel. It was busy eating the tree leaves while we were shooting.
The ascent to the Top station began. With a scorching sun, it was tiresome to pedal through tea gardens. We were thirsty and wanted to have a chaay. It was like ‘tea tea everywhere, but not a drop to drink’. Finally on one of the mountain corners we noticed a mobile ice-cream shop.
We crossed the gap of Devikulam border and the atmosphere changed. It became foggy and chilled. We got surrounded by the clouds.
We crossed the Top station and continued downhill to Vattavada town through Pampadum Shola National Park. On the way we had lunch at the forest guest house. Post lunch we comfortably rode downhill to Vattavada. Visited the honey museum and learnt a few things about bees.
Another round of masala tea and the uphill ride began through the forest to the Top station. All the locations of our travel were in Kerala except Top station, which is a part of Tamil Nadu state.
We reached the destination by 4:30 PM. Again it was a surprise, the destination was Periyar Residency, a 2-star hotel at the Top station. Wishing for similar stays in future at YHAI expeditions 🙂
Day 4: 18th December, 2024 Wednesday – Top station – Devikulam 38 KM
Got up a bit late in the morning and rushed to the viewpoint to watch Sunrise. The eastern horizon was cloudy and we missed the sunrise.
The concluding journey began. It was supposed to be a downhill for most part of the day. We enjoyed the descent appreciating nature around us.
We reached Devikulam grama panchayat office at Mattupetty. Here there was a kahani mein twist. Instead of going thro’ Munnar via highway, the road chosen was off-road through tea gardens.
Crossed some beautiful landscapes.
The last stretch was very steep with bad roads. After every few meter ride, I had to stop as the heart rate in the smart watch was showing beyond 150 mark. The dry fruits backup also almost got over.
With great efforts and sweat we reached the mountain top where there was a temple. Took a lunch break before finally descending.
It was almost 3:30PM when we reached Devikulam base camp.
In the 4 days, we completed 150 km of ride, of which 50% was ascent. We achieved an elevation gain of almost 2400 M. We were lucky not to have rain during rides.
The group of 24 cyclists was well represented from different parts of India including Delhi, Kolkata, Indore, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad; and all were homogeneously united by YHAI hospitality.
Thank you YHAI for another wonderful expedition !!!
and here is a poetic summary of the experience 🙂
Devikulam की ठंड
Anayirangal बाँध
Periyakanal का झरना
पहाड़ी पर साइकिल चलाने से क्या डरना
Mettupetty का पानी
Echo point की पुकार
साइकिल चले जिधर
चाय बागों की बहार
Kundala डॅम पर अनानास
Vattavada का शहद
निलगिरी के पेड़
गियर को मत छेड
Top Station का नज़ारा
Munnar घुमा सारा
दिखे नहीं हाथी
पर मिले खूब साथी
This Day in History 