Kilimanoor Palace and Rajathottam

After leaving Kanthalloor I went onto Trivandrum and on thursday met my friend Shinu who lives in Trivandrum. Shinu very kindly took me to the hills of Rajathottam which are in Kollam district and next to the border with Tamil Nadu. Before we went to Rajathottam Shinu's friend Anoj took me to the beautiful palace at Kilimanoor in the morning. One of India's greatest painters Raja Ravi Varma was born at Kilimanoor palace on 29th April 1848, and the palace now holds a large collection of some of his paintings. Members of the Kilimanoor royal family still live in the palace today.

Anoj and I were guided around the palace by Ravi Varma, seen here on his phone next to the palace temple.

Anoj and Ravi in the palace.

Raja Ravi Varma himself.

We arrived in Rajathottam in the mid afternoon after picking up Shinu's friend Shantimon Reghunadhan. As soon as we parked our vehicle at Bobby's house we set off to climb the tallest peak to enjoy the views. Unfortunately there was cloud in the skies so the views were not at their best, but we still had a great time up there. The walking party consisted of Bobby, Shinu, Anoj, Shanti and me. Shinu has an amazing blog, and I encourage all of you to visit it. You can find Shinu's report of our trip to Rajathottam plus an earlier trip that Shinu and his family took to Rajathottam when the weather was clearer and so his photos are better than mine here. You can see Shinu's report on his blog at:

http://sshinu.blogspot.com/2011/05/rajathottam-rulers-choice.html

Shinu is one of my heroes in Kerala, please have a long read of all of his posts, especially the one titled "Kodaikanal - a different approach" for an adventure that began and finished in Kanthalloor all in the course of one day. Like Shinu and his friends and family, I also enjoy the destinations that are less crowded. Back in early 2010 I typed "Kanthalloor" into Google to find some information on the area, and one of the first hits presented to me was Shinu's post on Kodaikanal, and a shared enthusiasm for nature eventually brought us together.

Looking east from Rajathottam over to Tamil Nadu.

Shinu (right) and Shanti (left) with Tamil Nadu in the background.

With Shanti at the top of Rajathottam - "Sipe!"

This is looking down from Rajathottam peak to the valley where we stayed the night. There were lots of Parakeets flying around the valley at dawn of the next morning.

Anoj maintains his cool composure in the strong winds at the top.

After a great time with Shinu and his friends at Rajathottam, I had a day and night at Varkala beach (sunset above) before spending some more time with Shinu and his family and friends before the flight back to the UK.

Take care, see you next time.

Chris

Chambakad

One afternoon I went to visit a village of tribal people called Chambakad which was about 12 km north of Marayoor, on the east bank of the river Pambar on the way to Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary. I stopped on the way to look at the river Pambar from above.

The hills around Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary and the river Pambar running through them.

This is the river Pambar as we crossed it to walk a kilometre into Chambakad. You can see the remains of an old footbridge in the bottom right of the picture above.

I went on a walk around Chambakad for an hour while the sun went down.

I saw a peacock being fed by a woman outside her house so I followed it and took some photos.

The Peacock is the vehicle of Lord Murugan, favourite god of the Tamil people. What is the average number of eggs that a Peacock lays?

Perumala

Perumala is a small village 1km uphill east from Kanthalloor, towards Tamil Nadu. I think that the altitude of Perumala is approx 1800m, and it has some great views when the sky is clear. Most of the time it was cloudy for me as I'd reach there in the afternoon. One afternoon when I was walking through Perumala a man called Gopal asked if I'd like to visit his house as his garden had a good view. Gopal was right, his garden does have a good view as you can see from the 4 photos below.

I asked a resident of Perumala, and was told that this bus has been parked here for 7 years. Now it's only use is to display election posters.

In Perumala there is a tiny Hanuman temple, which is only open on a tuesday. Fortunately I was there on a tuesday.

There were two shrines near to the Hanuman temple, and next to the stream in the picture below is another nearby shrine.

Looking south west from Perumala.

There's an old temple in Perumala built around the stump of a Banyan tree. I was given a tour by the 4 boys pictured below.

Hanging out with the ladies of Perumala, and their grandfather. The woman on the left in yellow clothes is getting married this month (June 2011) to a man in Puthur. I hear all the news when walking around.

A lot of garlic is grown in Perumala. I like the method of carrying the crop.

Don't drop the garlic!

One afternoon I took a long walk of several kilomtres from Perumala up to a checkpost at Methappu at the top of the mountain range to the east of Kanthalloor in the forest inside the national park. I met Mr A P Thankachan the checkpost officer (right on the photo below) and his colleague who gave me some rice and sambar upon my arrival. I considered walking further into the forest but after a long climb I thought it was sensible to return to Kanthalloor before dark. There were some great views at the checkpost after 2 hours of walking along the road through the forest. Mr Thankachan said that the checkpost altitude is 2100m which is the highest altitude I've ever experienced, anywhere in the world.

This is looking west from the checkpost. In the foreground is the several km of forest I walked through from Perumala, the Sacred Heart school inbetween Kanthalloor and Perumala is visible just above the edge of the forest on the right, and way out in the distance but obscured by cloud is the Marayoor valley. Previous photos taken looking east to Kanthalloor from the valley floor in Marayoor will display a mountain range in the distance, this photo is taken from the top of that mountain range. I don't think I can say any more about the geography of Marayoor and its valley, I hope you can visualise it or go and visit for yourself.

The road through the forest from Perumala up to the checkpost.

There were lots of interesting trees and plants along the way, have a look at these huge Kalyana Theva trees.