Another long week end in the offing and we came up with a plan. This time around we decided to go for a one day trek along the paithal mala in Kannur district.
We were staying in my wife’s house at Thalassery for a long week end. We referred google maps for direction and it responded by telling us that paithal mala was close to Kerala – Karnataka border and is close to 2 hour’s drive from Thalassery.
So We started off early morning by 6.30 from Thalassery. After driving for an hour or so, we reached irikkoor. We then brought few appam and a potato curry for breakfast. We parceled it as we were not feeling that hungry. We then continued our journey through payyavur. We then stopped at payyavur shiva temple. Visited the temple and small pond near by. We continued oru journey through narrow stretches of roads where one side was covered by rubber plantations and another side by plantains.
We continued the journey as the road become more and more narrow and roads more curvier. After a while we checked with few locals who were sipping through their morning tea about the directions and they were more than happy to help us. We followed their directions. Soon mist and fog covered the road and we were not able to see clearly. After driving through fog and mist, we eventually reached atop of paithal hills. We came to know that paithal mala is also called vaithal mala. My wife googled and found out that we were in the Kodagu forests in western ghats.
The entire region was covered in fog and mist. We continued our trek by paying the forest officials 30 rs each as entry fee. It was heartening for me to see that the forest officials were really ensuring that plastic is totally banned inside the forest. The forest official told that there might be leaches on the track and told us to take some salt with us. We obliged. My wife was more than worried on hearing about leaches. We walked through the small trail along the forest. We took few snaps and continued. Recent rains brought in lush green colour all along the forest. We saw few trees uprooted here and there. After walking for some time, my wife complained about itching in her leg. Soon we found out that it was indeed a leach. But she was lucky enough that she detected it early on, before biting. We put salt over it and continued. We took breaks in between and immersed ourselves in a meditative state in the laps of mother nature. The early morning breeze and the mist energised us and we continued. After walking for around 45 mins we reached the top spot. At the top it was entirely covered in fog, and it was hardly difficult to see a person staying few feet away. We were accompanied by few fellow travellers. It was an entire mountain covered in green grass. Grass roots almost the size of a full grown man. We took few more snaps and stood there in awe at the beautiful view.
Soon we descended. By the time we reached back, the mist and fog had reduced and we were able to see clearly. We walked through and saw few places along the way which we couldn’t see because of earlier mist and fog. Took an hour for us to reach back, we saw few families and enthusiastic travellers going up. We reach back near our car. The trek had made us hungry and we ate our hearts out. We then headed back to our home.
After reaching back home, I just had a feeling to check for leaches. I found a dead leach near the ankle of my leg. What an end to a terrific trip I said 😃
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