Invitation for 1 day trek to Paravathamalai/3 - Sep 28th

[ace...@gmail.com]

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Invitation for 1 day trek to Paravathamalai/3 - Sep 28th

 Parvathamalai is located near to Thenmathimangalam village, which is 20 kms from Polur in Thiruvannamalai District, Tamilnadu. Polur is 35kms(approx)from Thiruvannamalai.The hill(Paravathamalai) is 3500 feet(Approx) high from the sea level. On the top of the hill, Lord Sivan temple is located, which is believed to be 2000 years old.

       CTC has been there twice and captured the excellent views from the top. So here is chance of all the passive/first-time CTCians to start with an easy trek and experince the feel of trekking.

http://www.chennaitrekkers.org/2008/07/parvadhamalai-may-08.html

Here is the plan.

SUMMARY
Objective - 1-day trek to Paravathamalai
Terrain – Steep climb
Difficulty –  Easy
Duration –  Monday Sep28th, early morning till 10 pm.
Distance - 4 hours from Chennai, around 10 km trek
Transportation - own (cars, bikes)
Expense - around 500Rs (shared petrol, food, ...)- If we hire cab might be 100-200 extra

Agenda  Sep 28th

Wake early in the morning
Assemble Monday 4:00 am near TIDEL PARK main entrance
Pick up people along route (see pickup points below)
Leave Chennai before traffic picks up
Drive along NH4,NH46 towards Vellore
Take breakfast along the way
Take left towards Kanamagalam, polur
Park cars nearby the foothill around 10am
Start our trek to Paravathamalai
Complete trek around 6 pm and reach chennai by 10pm
Upload photos to make other jealous and sorry for not joining us

PICKUP POINTS:
(everyone should come 10 minutes in advance - we do NOT wait for latecomers)
TIDEL Park, Taramani, OMR road – 4:00am
Guindy circle (before entrance gate of Le Meridien) - 4:30am
Koyambedu (Natan cafe just after the exit of Koyambedu public bus stand) - 4.45am

MUST CARRY LUGGAGE:

All participants must carry following items:
Good walking shoes
Carry at least 2-3 re-usable plastic bottles with water
Back-pack to carry luggage, food, water
LED torch we need it to trek during darkness
One extra sets of clothes, can be kept in the cars
Sun cap and sunscreen (Lots of chances we might get caught in the hot sun)
Food will be taken care by organisers
VERY IMPORTANT: travel lightweight to make it easier

Organsiser:
Contact me in case of any doubts.

Ravi Alagappan - ace...@gmail.com

Your Name *

Mobile No *

Your Email ID *

I can bring transport *

• Car
• None

How Can You Volunteer * Call up participatns, book transport, buy food, calculate expenses, provide write-up for blog, etc.

Pickup point *

• TIDEL Park, Taramani, OMR road – 4:00am
• Guindy circle (before entrance gate of Le Meridien) - 4:30 am
• Koyambedu (Natan cafe just after the exit of Koyambedu public bus stand) - 5:15am

Contact number of relative (in case of Emergency) * Give your residential number or any of your family members

Blood Group (in case of Emergency)

Smoking and consuming alcohol is strictly prohibited during the trek(from pick up point to the final disperse point (Koyembedu) *

• I Agree
• I Dont Agree

Disclaimer - The Chennai Trekking Club will not be held responsible for any accidents, injuries, loss of or damage to personal property during this trek *

• I Agree
• I Dont Agree

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[Ravi Alagappan]

List of Participants

 

Ravi A	Car
Gavaskar	None
Anand	None
Hariraam T	None
Anusha V	None
Hariraam T	None
Sabarirajan Saravanan	None
Aneesh	None
Ramprasad	None
Arutchelvi Kasinathan	None
vinothKumar.A	None

 

We might need to hire a cab or TT I guess.

For people who wants to drop out, people inform me atleast before Sat and for me to arrange the transport.

Are there still more people, who are free on Monday ? 

 

[Ravi Alagappan]

Ravi A	Car	Koyambedu
Hariraam T	None	Koyambedu
Anusha V	None	Koyambedu
Hariraam T	None	Koyambedu
Sabarirajan Saravanan	None	Vellore
Aneesh	None	Koyambedu
Arutchelvi Kasinathan	None	Koyambedu
vinothKumar.A	None	Koyambedu
M.S.Shanthala	None	TIDEL Park
Haritha	Car	Guindy
Shanthala	None	TIDEL Park
N J BALAJI	Car	Koyambedu
Poornima	None	TIDEL Park
Rafeeq	None	Koyambedu
Anitha	None	TIDEL Park
Kishor Kumar	None	TIDEL Park
Srinivasan	None	TIDEL Park
Pradeep	None	Guindy
Srikanth V	None	TIDEL Park

 

 

These are the list of participants, Registration will be closed soon, New joiners/Dropouts act ASAP.

[Patanjali V]

Here is my share of the pics.

http://picasaweb.google.com/v.patanjali/Parvathamalai02#

[Ravi Alagappan]

Hi Guys,

 

Another feather on the CTC's cap. 17 CTCians completed the one day trek to Paravathamalai/3 successfully. Started at 4 am in the morning, reached chennai back by 1 am.

 

After having breakfast at Vellore at 8 am , Saravana Bhavan, reached foot hill by 10am. Trek started with crossing the 1000 steps from the foothill and then trail with rock and boulders, Rock climbing with iron rods and chains to hold on to very interesting climb and adventurous climb.Every 300m of hike, we are greeted with Lemon soda which tasted heaven(Never in any treks with CTC this is possible) and we had lunch at the top will excellent panoramic view of the entire Javadhu hills range with mountain breeze cruising on the top. Small rain, another peak, rainbow,muscle cramp of few ladies and many more interesting things happen on this trek and the trek ended with good dinner back at Saravana bhavan in Vellore.

 

Thanks to NJ Balaji for helping in sweeping and Shamugavel for arranging the cab, helping me co-ordinating things.

But Very bad on those 6 people who registered and dropped out and never even bothered to inform me. Very bad on you guys.

 

Guys please upload the pics and if someone can do write up or complete blog on this trek, it would be great for me to publish it in the website.

 

Your Trek-Mate,

Ravi A.

[Ravi Alagappan]

Sending on behalf of Srinivas

 

Hi Guys,
 
Please find the link. Pls share urs....I am not sure if everyone is included in this list......Team - Pls pass this link to the ones that I might have missed...
 
http://picasaweb.google.com/ssrini21/Parvathamalai_Trek#
 
Thanks Ravi for organizing this trek....
 
- Srini

[Ravi Alagappan]

Sending on Behalf of Pradeep, Guys use this mail thread to update the photos and blogs, dont create a new mail thread.

Guys Here is My part of pics..

http://picasaweb.google.com/pradeepbaliga/CTCParvathamalai?authkey=Gv1sRgCOWtpuPq5dnMBw#

It was great trek. Thanks Ravi and team or organizing ,,,

Thanks & Regards,
Pradeep

[shanthala subramanyam]

Hi! Guys...

Thanks for uploading the pics so quickly! Looks awesome....

I had a wonderful time yesterday. Thanks to Pradeep, Srini ,Srikanth, Shanmugam for being with me during the trek, helping me and putting up with my slow walk downhill.

Thanks to Ravi for organising the trek very well. Looking forward to more trekking in the future.

Thanks,
Shantala

---

Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:26:15 +0530
Subject: [Chennai Trekking Club] Re: Invitation for 1 day trek to Paravathamalai/3 - Sep 28th
From: ace...@gmail.com
To: v.pat...@gmail.com
CC: sachennait...@googlegroups.com; srini.s...@gmail.com; pradee...@gmail.com

---

Get easy photo sharing with Windows Live™ Photos. Drag n’ drop

[shanthala subramanyam]

Special credit to Shanmugam for coordinating some of the arrangements during the trek.

---

Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:16:55 +0530

Subject: [Chennai Trekking Club] Re: Invitation for 1 day trek to Paravathamalai/3 - Sep 28th
From: ace...@gmail.com
To: v.pat...@gmail.com
CC: sachennait...@googlegroups.com; srini.s...@gmail.com

[aneesh dath]

Hi Everyone,

Please get my snaps from below link..

http://picasaweb.google.com/aneeshdath/ParvathamalaiTrekCTC#

Your comments and valuable suggestions are most welcome!!

Aneesh S Dath

9884810112

http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Profile?rl=fpp&uid=10497653967351282805

[violins...@gmail.com]

Hi Guys & Gals !
Had a nice trek . Thanks to Ravi for organizing . The group was
compact & nice ! Like Arul was saying ,it certainly was not an easy
trek ! CTC sets high standards - An easy ctc trek will be rated at
least moderate in any other group !!
My legs are still paining a bit !
Thanks to all of you. Sorry to the lady whose seat I took at the
dinner table !!!
looking forward for a moderate 2 day trek.

Pictures from my cam __ http://picasaweb.google.com/violinsrikanth/CTCParvathamalaiSep2809?locked=true#

[N.J.BALAJI]

Hi,

 

Oops... there's nothing to see here. Either you do not have access to these photos, or they don't exist at this web address. Please contact the owner directly to gain access

 

This is the message I am getting from your link.

 

N.J.BALAJI

9884171781

 

[arutchelvi kasinathan]

hi all !!!

it was a grt trek and a fun-tastic group. the weather was jus perfect and the lemon sodas on the way made the trek much easier. the rock climbing part ( if i may say so ) was pretty challenging after all the climb and the view after that was all worth it. the lil shower as we started down scared me a bit, our good luck it stopped pretty soon. finally we managed to catch up with the first group after one and half hours, thanks to participants like me :).  thanx to ravi and others who have helped in organizing this trek and making it such an enjoyable trip for the rest.
my special thanks to balaji who helped me with the rock climbing bit, sabari for lending his shoes and shanmugavel who arranged for my drop in front of my home at that time. i think at the end what made the trek memorable was the good company . hope to see u guys in some trek soon.


http://picasaweb.google.com/lulaalul/PARVATHAMALAITREK28909#

cheers,
arul




 together we met half of the gang only towards the end on the trip ...thanks to participants like myself

[Ravi Alagappan]

Hi all,

 

Here is my pics from my cam contains people and nature pics.

http://picasaweb.google.com/aceravi/TrekToParavathaMalai3#

 

Here is a nice writeup by Shantala, Thanks for the write up. Hope you are ready for next trek with CTC.

 

Karthick, Can you please go ahead and publish it in our webpage. Again Thanks Karthick for your efforts.

 

PARVATHAMALAI ODYSSEY -- Sept 28, 2009

 

 

An enthusiastic group of 17 members, after being picked up from Tidel Park and Guindy circle, left from the last pick point Koyambedu at about 5.30a.m. on Sept 28, 2009. Took a breakfast break at Saravana Bhavan,Vellore and left for the foothills of Parvathamalai at around 8am.

 

Parvathamalai as the name suggests is a hill standing tall at approximately 3500ft above sea level. The hill is located south-west to Chennai close to Thenmathimangalam village  in Thiruvannamalai District, Tamil Nadu about 20Kms from Polur which in turn is 35Km from Thiruvannamalai. Kadaladi which is about 25Kms north of Thiruvannamalai, is another route to reach the base of the hill.

 

Atop the hill is a Shiva temple apparently 2000 years old and an Ashram which is quite recently constructed. The presiding deity of the temple is Lord Mallikarjunaswamy. One of the most popular theories attributed to the origin of Parvathamalai is that it was formed when a part of the Sanjeevini mountain that Lord Hanuman carried, fell down to form this existing hill. The hill is also popular for its medicinal plants. Devotees mentioned the hills hosts 119 varieties of medicinal herbs. 

 

We chose the Thenmathimangalam route to begin our trek. We CTCians reached a temple very close to the foot hills at around 9.50am.. We began trekking from this point at 10a.m after filling our back packs with lunch, snacks and essential drinks. We got quite lucky with the weather. It was neither too hot nor raining. Rain was a matter of concern or most trekkers.  

 

The trek began from a check post close to another small Hanuman temple. By the check post, we saw a board put up by the Government of Tamilnadu welcoming devotees and also showing the route to the hill top. From here we started walking on a cemented road up to a Km until the beginning of the steps. There is a shelter at the start of ascend.  Although the group started together, it slowly dispersed into smaller ones and some singles too owing to the fitness level of each one. About 10mins after we started the trek, we caught up with each other as we took a coconut water break while some chose to carry on without a break.

  

After a nourishing natural drink we got back inching forward towards the top. The steps are well laid and well maintained. The steps route extended to only about 1/3rd of the entire distance. Although the existence of steps may sound like a boon, most of us felt trekking up the boulder path was far easier and quicker.

 

 Some portion of the flight of steps was quite steep and strenuous. All along the steps route one gets to see numbers like 400, 1000, 900 with arrow marks pointing upwards

 although it was hard to guess whether they indicated the distance in meters or the number of steps left. Along this path we came across many kinds of insects and some monkeys curious to know what our bags contain! A little before getting to the boulder path, we stopped by a tea stall for a lemon soda break. Very refreshing and essential!

 

 Soon came the end of steps and start of natural trail! This path was nice and a little steeper. At least we were catching up with height faster. Along this route one gets to experience cooler breeze which is a soother. As we breathed deep, the difference in air was evident! The air out there smelt very fresh, raw and green. Some ardent devotees owe it to the medicinal trees and shrubs. Along this path we took rest at a couple of points to enjoy some beautiful hill views and clicked some pictures. We heard the hills running parallel to the Parvathamalai was Javvadhi hills. At some points we also could see patches of cultivated land offering different shades of green view. The last stop before the big steep risky ascent is famously identified as "Sarasamma kadai" - a tea shop! Generally people are expected to leave their footwear behind here as some devotees think its disrespectful to wear them any beyond. It also suited for some of us as the climb henceforth was easy to accomplish barefooted. We saw some devotees made it barefoot all the way!

 

 Some devotees heading back from the hill top kept hinting us on the path and tasks that we were to encounter. The climb further was with the aid of different kind of steps. As we trekked up through some loose stones and pebbles, we came across a rocky path with some carved space for footing. The chains supported by metal rods on the sides were meant for support. It’s called 'Gadapaparaippadi' in Tamil. This helped us cover quite some height although quite steep and tough!

 

 And then came 'Thandavazhappadi' or the track steps resembling a rail track with some slim metal plates laid in between for preventing any slip. I tried gazing on the side as I crossed the track steps and I was scared to death!!

 

  And then came the carved rock path with metal rods, some in the shape of ‘Vel’, to hold and climb. Then came 'Agayappadi' or sky track. 

 Like a metal carpet held by cross rods under. Soon we took some rest under a ‘mantap’ built out of big cut stones. This place was really cool! And gave us a much needed break before heading up to the last leg of steeper climbs. As we ascended we came across a combination of paths mentioned so far and also 'Yenippadi' or ladder steps and then a small narrow stone step path sandwiched between two huge rocks!

 

Soon we breathed a huge sigh of relief as we saw the Ashram building. One could either go to the Ashram first or the temple with just a few more steps up. Only a part of the group reached the top ahead of target time while the others reached much later. The ones who reached the top had almost decided that the others had given up mid-way!

  

There is plenty of breeze one can embrace atop the hill. The summit also offers some breathtaking views. We sat near the temple to have lunch while some of us took lunch at the Ashram. Then relaxed for a bit before retracing the path downward. And that's when we were in for a big surprise! We saw the rest of the members had finally made it to the top!! The members who reached the top earlier decided to leave earlier as they did not want to be stuck in the rains. As we started climbing down the groups split again into ones and twos. Of this some of them chose to climb down through the Kadaladi route and some through the same path they came by. It drizzled for a couple of minutes after we started descending. Luckily not when we climbed down the different kinds of ladders! But later we heard that some members who started climbing down later did get stuck in the tough parts and did find it scary as the path got a bit slippery.

 

 As we got down the hill, we observed some dilapidated structures of wall leading to something like watch platforms, like in a fort. We took a small deviation from the downward path and walked to the edge of one such raised platform and sat there to enjoy the spectacular view it had on offer! After a few minutes of enjoying the view got back to our climbing down. The climb down appeared tougher on the knees. We did take a few photo and tea breaks in between.

 

 

The plastic cups, bottles, covers etc., thrown by the devotees, mostly in close proximity to the tea shops, was a picture of utter disregard devotees have for this pristine green hill. Really wish something could be done about it.The walk downward was slow and got slower for some of us although some of the members who choose the Kadaladi route had made pretty earlier. Slowly one by one members trickled back to the van by about 7.30pm. The group left for Chennai around the same time after a long, tiring, tough and most of all enchanting trek. We stopped by the Saravana Bhavan for dinner. And finally reached Tidel park around 1am and dispersed to our residences.