My day trip to Gudiyam Caves

[Hari Ratan]

Hi everyone

This morning we started at 7:30 Am to the Gudiyam caves. My 2 sons
aged 21 and 16, my friends Ejji, Mani Iyer, his nephew Sharan and my
son's friend Arjun came with me. We had breakfast at Highway Motel and
started for Thiruvallur. From Thiruvallur we went to Poondi reservoir,
crossed the dam and went on the road leading to Place Palayam (do not
go to Place Palayam) at Kamarapalayam turn right at the T junction 10
Kms from Poondi, within 200 metres we saw the Board pointing us to
Gudiyam Caves, went through the gravel road for about 2 Kms and
reached Gudiyam the village. We reached Gudiyam at about 10:45 AM

We parked our cars at a point where we could go no further. Searched
for a guie and found Jagdish a kid studying in the 5th Std, bright,
cheerful and happy to take us on and just when we were about to leave
and hoping to find a mature person we noted Nagesh coming in from the
general direction of the caves. Nagesh happened to be Jagdish's uncle
and we asked him to join us too.

Jagdish leading us we started at 11AM we walked through Eucalyptus
plantation for the first 500 Metres or so. later we were in the shrubs
and walking on large stones and pebbles all the time. Watch out as
these are loose stones and you may sprain an ankle easily. Jagdish
pointed out to us a burrow which he claimed was deep and very large
inside, when asked if anyone had crawled through and gone in his uncle
said that no one ha gone in because there were lots of snakes and
other insects inside, when I asked him how he knew the size of the
cavern his only response was that this was hat he was told by his
elders. After walking for about 30 minutes we saw the first cave and
walked up the hill to it, the caves are like canopies and not deep,
the first cave is about 30 feet in height an 60 feet in width. People
had cooked at the cave and we saw feathers and bones. Above the cave
is a body of water and a steep climb will take you to it. After 15
minutes we set out towards the main cave.

We reached the main cave at 12:30 PM. We met a few youngsters coming
back after a visit to the temple in the cave. When i inquired whether
they had explored the area they said "No" as it was risky and no
medical help at hand. They have been coming to the cave frequently the
last many years as they are locals but no one seemed to have venture
to the other caves or even climbed the hill opposite. After resting
and walking around the cave we started at 1 PM and came back to the
cars at 2 PM. The walk each way is about 3 Kms I guess.

Points of interest:

At the main cave there were small mud figures and lots of bee hives.
The priestess at the temple gave us a mango which we ate. We were told
by the other group that 10 years ago the shrubs were not so tall nor
were they so thick.

A few 100 metres from the cave is a large conglomerate rock almost
round like a ball.

The caves are supposed to me more than 10 lakh years old.

A desolate and beautiful place but overnight stay would be tough. The
cave itself can be a place to spend the night in. Maybe permissions
might be required and the tough ones can venture out to the hills
opposite and see the ther caves.

There are a total of 16 caves is what I gather, needs to be verified.

The museum at Poondi will be able to provide more information on
permissions and maybe a guide who has been to all the caves. My guess
is that the locals we took would nt go beyond the temple and this
place deserves exploration. Rugged yes but beautiful and dangerous it
looked from the cave.

I have upload the pictures to my Picasa web album and here is the URL

http://picasaweb.google.com/ratanspics/GudiyumCaves

I have Jagdish's phone number with me so anyone can fix him up in
advance as a guide his father's name is Kuppaiah.


Hari Ratan