Less Traveled Brahmagiri Trails

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It all started when Sreejith came up with the idea of a one day trekking to the place called Pakshipathalam in Wayanad. The place is known for caves owned by vampires and ancient artworks and paintings. The place is only accessible by trekking through the jungles of Brahmagiri hills. With this limited information we planned a weekend trip but we eventually ended up in the Brahmagiri trek.

As always Umar is ready for a weekend trip, no matter if its a short trip or a long one. But this time we decided to travel by bus all the way. The trekking point near Thirunelli is easily accessible. The Kerala Sate Road Transport buses and private buses ply in this route every one hour. Umar booked a night bus from Ernakulam to Kalpetta which reached there in the morning. Without much waiting we got the connection buses to Mananthavady and then to Thirunelli. The forest office is just a kilometre's walk from the Thirunelli town.

The trekking towards Pakshipathalam was restricted two years ago. Recently this place has witnessed many maoist activities and became restricted for tourists. Maybe being a digital marketer Sreejith blamed the search engine giants (Google) for not providing him with the right information. But luckily the grasslands on top of the Brahmagiri hills are still open to the visitors. Almost half way through the trek follows the same trail towards Pakshipathalam. From a watch tower, the trail splits into two tracks. One towards Pakshipathalam and the other one to the Brahmagiri peak.

We bought tickets for the trek from forest office and a guide joined us. Before we started he urged us to be prepared for the leech attacks. He gave us an oil mixed with tobacco which acts as an excellent leech repellent. Right from the start of the trek, leeches came into action and the repellent oil worked really well initially. But when too many of them attacked, the oil wasn't enough to stop them. We decided not to bother about the leeches and carry on.

We entered into thick jungle and on the way there were little streams. We saw many elephant footprints and dungs, but it was the first time that we found footprints of a tiger. The guide says the Brahmagiri hills is home to many predators as the jungle is close to the Nagarhole National park in Karnataka. He says some have spotted leopards and other predators using these streams and it is not safe here during dawn. That was really a thrilling experience to spot pugmarks of a tiger. Four kilometres into the trek we reached a watch tower which was built by the forest department. Our first stop during the trek and the guide made black tea for us. We spent some time on top of the watch tower and took a few shot of the jungle.



We continued our trek towards the Brahmagiri hills. By now the landscape has changed. Very few trees around, tall grasses the more you go upwards and mist that blocks the view of the hill top. Getting on top, you can see the hilly terrains in the Coorg district of Karnataka. We could not take many pictures as the visibility becoming poor and we did not stayed there for long. The trekking back to Thirunelli only took half the time it took to climb climb the Brahmagiri hills.

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