Parvathamalai – 915 meters altitude – Maiden Night Trek with my coach Vallab,Ajk,Shun and Don Gangatharan.
When we planned, 8 peoples shook their heads and on the trek day it reduced to five….. we want to do this as a Bike (motor cycle) ride and trek. *motor bike- Nowadays if I quote bike it may only denote cycle .But due to non-availability of bike we decided to go by My “Benz” LXI . 30thnov around 4 we assembled in PASO clinic and started around 430 ,picked up Don in Tambaram and proceeded towards our destination in GST .When we bypassed Chengalpattu rain welcomed us. I switched my wiper to clean my car wind shield resulted a clear unclear wind shield vision. Our trail started …. Vallab, when asked me how r u driving as he can’t see anything through the wind shield, i coolly replied “Oru Kuthu Mathipa than….” and warned him to wear the seat belt and lock the door as my Benz may misbehave sometimes. There was a pin drop silence in the car ,everyone got frozen “MaranaBayam” .Our organizer AJK was in his successive 5th,5th day quitting GM diet…… in all our tea stops and dinner stop we almost tempted him to abandon his diet .With the help of GPS, at last we reached the base around 10 30.
There stood a tall, big, high Parvatha mallai. Parvatha Amman silently smiled at us from the peak.
3 liters of water, pair of tee and shorts, sleeping gears, an apple, an orange and bread in our back bag and 20rs torch (bought in a base shop}we started with a prayer in Anjanayar Temple by 10 40pm. After a kilometer of warm up walk in cement road leading to stairs, we started climbing the flight of steps, Except me,other four climbed faster. Killer steps was hard and then harder, after almost 1500 steps I reached the point where real hike begun…… Hilly rocky ever ascending way………I loudly scolded my friends who didn’t stop for me there .An upward arrow mark all along the way showed the way accurately. After some 10 ,15 mins climb saw them waiting for me in a way -temple ……..started again to ascend with a Tunggggg…….. Temple bell sound .Again I lagged behind and all others where mounting bit quicker. Pitch dark can’t see anything, without torch it could have been difficult. I panted hard and stopped in a small shop ‘wo’manned by a female. Refilled water, hydrated with Tata Plus……… “Porumaiya nadanga…… ellathuyam antha aatha pathupa” blessed the shop keeper. I started again….. climbing some meters ….caught a tree branch to balance myself, something bit my left hand finger sharply .Snake,scorpion ,red ant,insect ………no clue what was it ,but it was paining. Alone in that dark further increased my pain. I got bit relieved as there was no bit marks. With the swollen figure I doubled my speed just to reach my friends who may wait for me somewhere. Pain increased …trail became harder but couldn’t find them. When I almost opened my mouth to shout out for my friends I saw them. Phewwww ….. it was almost 20- 30 mins after the bite, so a snake or scorpion probability was ruled out as there was no Norai-thalling ,nursed the finger with sunnaboo ……….“innum konja thooram than…” with this continuity dialogue by our good Shepherd AJK we continued . To ease the hardship steel railing was there in the middle of the rock way…… one can hold it as support and walk. Amman tested me with the swollen finger. I somehow managed it with my right hand…… from here we all five remained together. We reached a dead end point and lifted our face to look up ……. Kadaparai Pathai……Almost 90 degree perpendicular, complete darkness. Iron rods dug and rock was carved to enable uphill .With the torch in our mouth we crawled up. As climbing up was only in my mind my finger pain didn’t bothered me much. Rested some time and again Ajk uttered the continuity dialogue “innum konja thooram than…” we continued…….Via Thandavala Pathai….. Agaya Pathai I crawled the final stairs to reach the Temple.01:40 am.3 hours strenuous up- hill tiredness vanished when we saw Sivan and Parvathamman.A refreshing vibration.
We decided to sleep there till sun rise to descend. Would not find a place near the temple…. We climbed down to accommodate ourselves in a mandapam just above Kadapparai Pathai.Vallab and shun was properly equipped with sleeping gears ,Don,AJK and myself was left to enjoy the cold. Don somehow sandwiched between shun and vallab and managed to catch some sleep. AJK trembled in chillness and me……deadly three hours – pain in the finger, chillness and as my phone screen got conked off I could not stop my usual 4 o clock alarm ….. It was snoozing every 15 mins . We were frequently disturbed by the other devotees who were climbing up to the temple.I sat there covered myself with a bed sheet, heard the roar of the wind and discovered the sound OM.
630 morning when we came out of the mandapam we saw clouds below us. Heavy wind .Though there was an easy way down we were determined to climb down in Kadaparai pathai just to take photographs……Varalaru Mukiyam amaicharey……through our camera lens only we came to know we are almost hanging and there is a steep slope down. Our major foto session was around Kadaparai Pathai. Had vadas,tea and then shared bread with the monkeys . After one hour of descend I found the real misery .Tired thigh muscle refused to move I couldn’t take a step down ……my thighs couldn’t bear my weight. But I have no other choice other than climbing down. Recovery for the tired muscle is complete rest which was not possible as the other four was descending at ease. I didn’t feel the finger pain as the thigh pain was more than that. I shouted some abusing words …..then screamed om sakthi ……. Just to gather some strength to climb down. It was real agony. Reached base around 10 40am.Thigh and calves ached very badly.
My Benz LXI was ready to take us back …. Vallab rode it till lunch and then I steered. It was a nice chatty drive with my coach as all other slept. Reached Chennai around 6pm. Coach efficiently managed the money kitty and to all our surprise the total expense was just 665 rs per head. Unforgettable, most memorable maiden nite trek……… Parvathamallai.
