Mukurthi National Park – tough ride to cherish for a life-time

Fact : 27 km from Ooty and easily accessible, Mukurthi peak is certainly the most notable height of the Nilgiris. It stands 8380 feet above the sea and commands one of the most magnificent views to be seen in India. It is noticeable owing to its curious shape which is that of an acute angled triangle with one side almost vertical. The view from this peak is one of finest in South India. The Mukurthi dam has been built at the foot of this hill under Pykara hydro electricity scheme. The dam is situated at a distance of 32 km from Ooty and the peak is reached by walk for a distance of 9 km from there.
Wiki :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukurthi_National_Park
How-to-reach : Chennai – Coimbatore (train) – Took a Tempo(15 of us) till the Mukurthi Park
Pics :http://photos.yahoo.com/deepak1283 (Check for folder “Mukurthi”)

This trek was my first initiation into the world of exploring places by foot… and seriously, if it were any weak-hearted I am sure that they would have been scared shit-loads after the experience.. after all, 2 days of perambulation over muddy terrain squiggling through narrow (almost non-existent) paths strewn with thorns (thank god for the jerkins) and with the rain gods incessantly pissing us off with a mighty bladder definitely would have had a scar-making experience…
Fortunate for me, I was with an amazing bunch of trekkers, and together not only could we laugh over our misfortunes but at the same time scale across all the barriers and venture into the world of adventure.
Things started going astray the moment we landed outside the national park (of course, being a national park you have to have necessary permissions.. which our guide Fredrick arranged for) .. our tempo could not navigate across the rainy terrain(we almost pulled it after it got struck) … so it was us back to basics… carrying our luggage(unfortunate for all us newbies, we were instructed to carry almost everything u need, food, torches and stuff) across thorny and narrow terrains, hardly managing to crawl across our backs for almost 2 Hours. Suddenly without any remorse rain started… and till the end of the journey it never ended….. more bad news of course.Resigning to fate, as we trodded along… we only had to wait for the cabin (to stuff our backs and immediately start upon another trek) … this was the turning point.. the Cabin, tiny and picturesque..with the stormy lake across its front-yard and the mountain peaks jutting behind it.. we were enthralled.. for the first time of the journey everyone stopped on their tracks just to view the sight.

Bags dumped, we realized that it was wiser to stay in (cause of the incessant rains) and then started an amazing story telling, rough bantering, journey with all of us joining in.
Next day morning, we woke early… only to find that the intensity of the rains had not lessened a bit… our morals were lifted up by the hot rice-curries.. and immediately we set upon, wearing 2 sets of coverings… the view of the Dam was yet another eye-opener (recommend that you
make this a point of visit at least in the beginning of the journey itself) ..but being a restricted sight, we could not take the pics (also, none of our cameras were capable of surviving the out-lash of the rains.

We made our journey across the clouds,traveling to the mountain peaks (the shortest one), each armed with sticks for support we somehow managed to crawl across slippery tracks and tumbling junta from above ;) .

The Beauty of doing a rain trek across mukurthi was that, we never needed a single bottle of water.. cause all we had was water from atop and across abundant fast-moving streams.

Mukurthi is famous for it's abundant flora & fauna, and we were under constant fear of coming across any tusker family re-unions… of course, we did come across a few snakey encounters… but
apart from that, the maximum we got to see of a elephant was fresh green dumpings.
Overall, it was a trek worth remembering, and keeping as if it were a trophy among your best journeys.