Trekking in the Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary, Thoovanam Waterfalls.

Thoovanam Waterfalls…The forest department guards. Having spent a better part of their life in and around these forests, do an amazing job of spotting animals.





Another flower…





The guards sensed some movement on the hillside. Notice anything in the pic?





Then we saw this family walking out of the bushes…







We reached the hill-top hut at Vasyapara. You can actually book the hut and stay there for a day to experience the jungle from close quarters…





The place has some amazing views and you can see for miles across the jungle below…





More ‘us’ photos





And more mountain pics!





A picturesque rock…





When it rains on the mountains, you can see quite a few waterfalls in the distance…





They had received a tip-off about the presence of some sandalwood poachers in the area and were heading out to investigate…





A rare Grizzled Giant Squirrel…





We walked through a tribal village on the way back…





A fledgling ‘Sunbird’ that was just learning to fly…





A domesticated pea-hen in the tribal village…





The Pambar river…





Cute!





Returned back to the eco-center for a late lunch, packed our bags and headed out to our last destination for the trip, the ‘Thoovanam’ waterfalls. It is a 14kms drive from the check-post and then a 3km walk down to the valley floor.


We overshot the ‘eco shop’ (where we needed to buy a Rs.100 per head ticket for the falls) and realized it only after we had driven a couple of Kms ahead.


Kumar’s (Our driver) joke of the day:
Quote:

Me: "Kumar, did you notice the eco-shop on the way? I dozed off and must have missed it."

Kumar: "I don’t know sir, I too dozed off."

Me:

Kumar: This view from the top motivated more than half the group to trek down to the falls…





Another view of the falls…





A moss covered log…





The trek down to the falls may be a little strenuous, but you are rewarded with some amazing sights…







It takes around 40 mins to reach the falls…







Though it was not raining at the time, the mist from the falls was enough to make everything close by dripping wet…





We spent around 30mins at the falls and walked back up to the road. If you continue on this road for another 50 odd kms, you’ll reach Munnar…





We started our journey back towards Bangalore at around 7.30pm, stopping for dinner at Pollachi…





And just like we did during our journey back from the Parambikulam trek; we stopped to pick up some mangoes near Krishnagiri, at around 3am…





I was playing around with slow shutter shots while Sangeetha was busy shopping…





Reached Bangalore by around 5.00am, took an auto back home, and got a few hours of shut-eye before waking up with the Monday blues and heading out to start work for the week.