Thursday and Friday, March 21st & 22nd Oh what a hike!

Thursday, March 21st Kodai – Elephant Valley-Palani Dam-Kodai

Giving the legs and feet a break!

Leaving the cottage at 7AM, we were unhappy to see that our guide had brought an assistant guide with him although I had insisted only one guide, as well as the driver, while the car was not big enough for five of us.  He said no problem the three would ride in the front! We drove 40 minutes just past Perumal Malia and turned left for the fork toward Palani, going down a road that I did not know and stopping at a town possibly called Palangi, with an ecological research station. Our guide Peter said we were at 2,500 feet elevation, which worried me because of likely heat, but in retrospect I think we were really at 3,500 feet at that point. Starting to hike at 8AM, we proceeded down a trail on a steep hillside for some time, constantly seeing old elephant and bison dung, but we did not see any live animals. Thank goodness as Leslie was unhappy with the prospect of meeting wild animals on this narrow trail particularly since she had said she wanted to see butterflies. The trail was rough and it started to get hot by 10 AM, and we learned that were going to the valley below, where our car would be able to meet us – this is sort of the equivalent of the Tope hike that went down 5,000 feet to the plains. Neither Leslie nor I had wanted a major hike down to the heat of the plains, but our guide had not explained this properly. That morning he at first had said we could finish and make it to the car by 1 PM, but he was not saying much now, and was having some trouble with his feet.



Another break with the shoes off - but that is the guide that is flat out there on the rocks!

We were carrying two and a half liters of water each, but it was going quite fast. The track was slippery with leaves and loose dirt in places, and both Leslie and I fell once, with Leslie having several near misses, but without any serious injury. We reached the bottom of the hillside from where we could view a large waterfall that Peter said a boy had fallen from to his death. It was 11 AM, and our guide said we had three hours to go, and we were not sure if he was joking or telling the truth – the latter, it turned out. We had packed 2 peanut butter and apple sandwiches and some date walnut cake for our snacks.

Although we were both exhausted, we did see some very interesting birds: Several Green Pigeons, One Crested Serpent Eagle and a second unidentified hawk, many parakeets, several Lorikeets, White-Bellied Drongos, several Fairy Bluebirds, a beautiful Sunbird to be identified, and Leslie spotted the Paradise Flycatcher, as well as an Oriole first. Besides fresh elephant and bison droppings, we also saw some deer droppings and the footprint of a big cat, perhaps a small leopard or a civet cat. We later learned that the area is a natural elephant track on a centuries-old migration path, and that the path is kept trimmed (somewhat) by the elephants and not by humans, although humans have built some bridges (now non-functional) and steps in the 1930’s.

We reached the dam at about 3PM, and still had a half hour of trudging exhausted along a wall until we reached the road at 3:30.  It then took two more hours of driving on a curvy narrow road to reach Kodai, with one quick stop for tea. We took our showers, grabbed some dinner, and went to bed exhausted. While exhausted during the hike, Leslie went through a couple of rosaries as well as many “just beam me up Scotty”, “and where are butterflies?” comments, while David just kept plugging along. We have since obtained a Trekking Guide of 2005 from the Kodai Information office and this hike was noted as the toughest.

March 22nd Friday Kodai rest day
Rising sore, we gave our laundry to the laundry man and hobbled with painful legs to the Carlton to bask in our breakfast.  Then David went back to bed, while Leslie wandered into the various shops to see if there was anything of interest. There are least 3 Tibetan shops here to go along with the 2 Tibetan restaurants. Leslie played on her computer with her QuiltAssist program.  There is no internet anywhere on the campus that we are on, so if we want to use the internet we have to go to the Kodai Alumni Office. We ate at a Pizza place that was okay and went to bed early.  David had barely risen from bed all day.