Trek to Chembra peak was completely unplanned one. We were in wayanad for Binoy’s sister marriage, as the wedding ended on Saturday we had one more day to spend in wayanad. So thinking of the options, suddenly I got remembered about chembra peak. Our vellarimala guide told us about chembra and the heart shaped lake, when we went there last time. Immediately we enquired about that in out hotel, and they helped us in arranging the guide and transportation. And all decided within few hours and we decide to start early next day morning.
Next day morning we got up early as the guide wanted us to be ready by 7am. We quickly got ready and started our journey in the jeep arranged. Within few minutes of the journey we asked the guide to stop somewhere for breakfast. And reply we got was “No breakfast, we need to start early”… That was big blow on our stomach as we were so hungry…then we stopped at a place where we need to get the permission from forest department. Near that place we had a shop, so we filled our bag with snacks and water bottles. We also got one pack of bread for breakfast. We finished our breakfast within the jeep and had a tea in the near by shop.
It was 30 minutes journey through beautiful tea gardens to reach the starting point. On the way we also paid 20rs in a check post to enter. The starting point seems to be forest guest house place, our jeep stopped there and waited for us. We packed our things and started to walk. It was a flat track for 15 mins then we took a detour towards a hill. From there it was a complete steep track. All we could see was big rock mountain in front us, so on a curiosity we asked our guide that “Is this the peak we are climbing?” he gave a good replay saying, we have to cross this mountain to start our actual trek. OMG….the initial path was itself too tiring. We walked past that mountain and reach a place where we could see some beautiful hills to cross . From there also it’s a steep walk. The path was completely covered by grass…its was an awesome palace to do trek…only thing is as there is no trees so your completely exposed to the sun.
As the time goes, sun started to show its hotness. We reached a place where there was a small lake, which happen to be a heart shaped lake. The lake was small but beautiful. We took a pit-stop there and took some rest. Then we started to walk up. On the way to up you can clearly see the heart shaped lake. Wow!!! Was the reaction from us!!!
After walking for sometime, our guide showed us the final place where we have to reach. It seemed to be pretty far. We walked few meters upward and then also the peak seemed to be far ...was it an illusion???? The peak seems to be not coming closer even after walking for 30 mins… It was quite a steep climb and the heat also started to hit our body. As we came nearer to the peak we encountered insects or rather a fly. They were so many and suddenly started coming to toward us...First they didn’t do anything than just sticking in our shirts…then as we came close to the peak they started attacking us…ouch…they started biting us…they suddenly came in big numbers…may be they are the knight templar who are protecting the holy hill…and preventing us from reaching the top…we didn’t was to retreat and even they also...we walked up fighting with them…and they also started to attack us from all the side…they were attracted towards black colour…to our bad time myself and vinod was wearing the black
The fight become intense as we came close to the peak…there were so many ouch and f***…and finally victory for us by reaching the peak…Yes.. Chennai Trekkers have conquered the so called highest peak in wayanad….ooohh…what was that??? There seem to be a higher peak next to us…but since those comes under different district they are not taken into consideration…!!!.the hill top offered some beautiful views of the surrounding places…almost every hill seemed to be under you
…By the time we started to click pictures, the insects become so furious that we conquered the peak...they started to come from all directions and attacked us…we were not allowed to sit for few mins to take some rest…we decided to leave the place as we were unarmed to take the attack… We started walking back...as we came down the insects were reduced in numbers…but the sun started to show its full heat….its was 12…sun was at his peak…but we were also on a peak which doesn’t had a single tree cover us…we were completely drained and our water bottles were also empty…So no water and walking in the full sun…it took two hours to come down….As we reached the jeep we were completely dehydrated and our only salvation was to have water…we drank so much of water as there was a water tap in the nearby guest house…then the jeep dropped us directly in a restaurant to have food…after having food we went to our room and slept well…
Chembra trek was not an easy one…it took 3 hours to climb up and 2 hour to come down. Our guide when started said it as easy one… liar…it was not an easy one…why all guide’s are big time liars. This is second experience after kodai mani in Escape road trek. May be that’s the basic qualification to be a guide. Anyhow chembra was really a beautiful and short trek to do…and wayanad itself is a beautiful place to be….
Story written by Balaji
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1 comments:
The guide was not the lier, he is a cheater. Usually they take everyone up to that heart shaped lake and say trekking is finished. They say next is only 10 min and nothing is there. Even when we went there our guide also used the same trick, but we were smart enough to take him to the top of the hill!! ;-). And after we felt its not necessary to a have guide for Chembra peak, as its straight forward
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