My first travel of the year
happened on the weekend and we did a trip to Javadu Hills; which is a part of
the shattered Easter Ghats Mountains, rose between the Vellore and
Thiruvannamalai Districts of Tamil Nadu, India. Being a low-lying hill station
among the others visited, it wasn’t too cold but being winter there was
moderate cold at night, comfortably. And it was the reason for me to choose
this time for experiencing some cold, and as I expected the morning was immense
refreshing with atmosphere foggy or mist. But it doesn’t wonder me, because it
was almost same the way sensed on plains once we touched the highways, out of
city and home.
This is not from a hill station, but the hills beyond the Chengalpattu town among the fog.
It wasn’t like every day morning:
for me regularly the morning means only after 8 or 8.30 am, the usual time I wake
up whether it’s cold or hot no matter what. But I try my best everyday to wake
up early and if not the passion for traveling, I wouldn’t be checking sunrise
at all or unless bladder filled up to wake me early, that too not much less
than the usual time. We experienced a fog of Kodaikanal or any other hill
stations on the morning of Saturday and the fog visibly makes invisible the
distance buildings, trees and towers and even the Kolava Lake of Chengalpattu lose
its trace in gray white. Unlike the usual sight of stunning sunrise over the
lake during our early morning rides and the fog lasted until 9.30 or 10am. The
roads after Chengalpattu were state highways, which are my favorite lanes
taking via scenic countryside’s that hardly visible through NH.
Jamunamarathur is the capital
village of the entire mountain range of Javadu, which has two ways to reach –
one via Polur and Alangayam; and Jamunamarathur was the only place to accommodate
on the hills, that too the government provided BDO (block development office)
guest house. There are many towns close to the foot hills easily accessible via
road and railways which also holds many hotels and lodges to accommodate.
Gladly we took the Polur route which has a long ghat road section with half a dozen
hairpin bends passing through forest division. Before taking the ghat or uphill
road, someone needs to sign at the forest check post writing a reason to visit.
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| A lake near Uthiramerur |
It took more than an hour to
reach Jamunamathur from Polur and thanks to the GPS in my galaxy player; it was
very easy for us finding routes on Google maps. We already booked rooms at the
BDO guest house, seeking their phone number at the Thiruvannamalai district
govt. website, the guest house had been handed over to a private person in
charge who maintained it well. We requested for a ground floor room and also before
reaching there we contacted the person in charge on the way, but initially he
told someone had haired the ground floor and later discussing with the other
describing my state, they decided to shift the room so kindly and humble. Thanks
so much to those unknown kind hearted and the wise man who arranged the rooms
for us.
(To be continued…)
