9-10, January 2019 

Thondaman Kotta, Kathaku palakamedu & Thevaram

Again a trek with HATS ( highrange adventure & trekking society ) got the information about this in whatsapp group, so planned my leave for the same.  Ajeesh has send pic of the meeting point and how to reach so it was easy to get down near Fort Surprise , Rajappara, Poopara which is about 2 kms from the main road, on the way between Poopara – Udumbanshola it’s the road to Nedumkandam took the metro to Aluva from there to Adimaly by KSRTC Adimaly to Poopara – Rajappara pvt bus I reached there at about 1 pm, Anoop & Justus chetan was waiting alongwith Das chetan, Aneesh, Joseph & Ashraf  was with me from Poopara, Santhosh was coming from Trivandrum but he reached our homestay when we were up in the view point

Not so hard trek to the Fort Surprise view point, but wading thru the baby bamboo weeds and grass was not difficult but had a nice view of Thevaram, Theni, & the Neutrino lab so many stories about Thondaman peak, Thondaman who retreated from the Tamilnadu region and came alongwith his treasures hid them in the mountains with locked with a boulder with a chain to open the samereached back in our homestay

A cool boulder stone home with 1 bedroom, balcony, verandah & kitchen its named Directors bungalow its was bought from a Theni landlord now in the hands of a Keralite since 1974, this area as thriving village long back because it was only route for bringing goods to Poopara from Thevaram as the Bodhi road was not opened, goods were brought thru headloads and donkeys after a while all left this place

Trekkers night is the best unwinding place, musings, happenings, the funny things, the difficult things all will be revealed from the past treks had a gr8 time with new & old trekkers

Dinner time, as Ajeesh has planned chicken & chappathi for dinner we all joined him to make mouth watering chicken curry, chicken fry & chappathi all had sumptuous dinner, night trek to the nearby view point to see the tiny dots of light in the far away villages of Thevaram & Theni moved back and a nice cozy sleep all were on bed with blankets

It was a rainy night with good rain, so fingers crossed for the next day.  After switching treks plans and deliberations finally arrived at trekking down to Adivaram and from there by jeep to the Thevaram bus stand

Day 2

Woke up early morning Ajeesh and others were in the kitchen with hot tea, later breakfast with Tapioca & green chutney & pickle all got ready by 7.50 started our trek with guides Sebastian Anna & Ranjith

Annan informed that upto pathinettam padi the way was cleared and from there to Adivaram we have to wade thru the bushes and find our way to Adivaram.

So our trek began thru the slush mud and leech attacks it was bit misty and drops of water falling and slippery on some stretch thru forest canopy and on the way remnants of old buildings store houses, temples, after about 45 minutes  we reached pathinettam padi were we found 18 steps seems to be a way point on the way neatly led stone steps.

After this we we were struggling thru bushes with pricky bushes on either side our Annan was making way for us with his machete and finally we saw Thevaram the  distant village with large tracts of farm lands on the way we got wild gooseberries and seems these places are frequently visited by elephants on the narrow paths we could see elephants dung all the way, by 1.30 we saw civilization roads & automobiles had  lunch thairu sadam at a small shop and waited for the bus to Bodhi and from there to Poopara – Rajappara by jeep, Anoop  has come by Activa so got a ride upto Adimaly form there I took the bus to Kothamangalam and from there to Aluva and to home by metro

Rajappara - Thevram

Rajappara - Fort Surprise view point google map