Parvathamalai Trek on "Chitra Pournami"

We were planning for this type of trek for the past 4-5 months. The actual plan was to trek to Saduragiri on a full-moon day which should fall on a Sunday as we work on Saturdays too. Saduragiri is open for devotees only on Full-moon & no-moon days. This weekend being Chitra-Pournami, we skipped Saduragiri as there would be a massive crowd (in lakhs).

The destination shifted to Parvathamalai for this full-moon Sunday, which is similar to Saduragiri. We chose Parvathamalai as we knew that most of the crowd will visit the nearby Thiruvannamalai temple on Chitra-Pournami day. Reached home early on Saturday & left for Vellore by 3 PM, reached my friends place at around 6:30 PM with a tea/snack break in between.  The team was me, my wife, our 10 year old daughter & my friend. Somehow we managed to bear the 40+ degrees of heat there. Also we couldn’t sleep well in the night because of some temple festival happening in the neighborhood with loud speakers.

The trek day started at 3 AM (on 29th April 2018). My daughter got up instantly when I woke her up. After a cold shower, we left home at 3:50 AM. The trek team was me, my daughter & my friend. The trek base was 85KM from my friend’s house and we estimated 2 Hrs to reach there. The roads were too good and I told my daughter to take a nap as we reach our base. With a tea break in between, we reached the base around 5:45 AM. The last stretch was a mud road after we took deviation from the main road. After struggling to park my car in a slot, we started the trek by 6 AM. There were quite a number of vehicles parked before we arrived. People have trekked the previous night itself. Also there was a Mounayogi Vidobanadha Ashram where devotees can find accommodation.

Before the trek...
 

There are 2 trek paths to reach the peak. The first half of both are different, which meet at a junction and the rest is common for both. We took the adventurous path (Kadaladi route) that runs through the mountains, whereas the second one (Thenmathimangalam route) has steps built for an easy walk.

Up-Hill

The trek started from the Ashram along a mud road for 3 KM with some paddy & other fields on either side. There was a small Ganesh & Shiva-Linga idol with a board saying us to go right for the hill-top temple.
The Sign board...


The mud Road...

After some time, the path changed with small rocks. It was a little bit cloudy when we started the trek & we were glad. The vegetation was dry & as time passed, the sun was coming up to heat us up. After about an hour of trek, the heat started to build-up. We were sweating like anything & we were not even half way through. We carried 3-4 litres of water doubting about the shops there. But we found shops consistently throughout the path. At those early hours, they had only water & lemon soda. They were getting ready for some breakfast & snacks.

The first shop...







On the way we had some fruits to give us some energy. The trek continued without the visibility of the final destination. Then came a point where we saw our destination far at the top amidst fog. It was looking so far. My daughter was like… “Still so much to go?” We gradually walked up, frequently checking out our destination so that it comes closer.

The first sighting of the temple...

At last, we came to the junction where both the paths meet. We came to know that we are half-way through. Till now, in our path we came across only around 5-6 groups. There were more crowds from the other path. 

After having some snacks, we started the journey. Now the path had some rails to hold but some high steps sort of path. It is from here you physical fitness comes into picture. The path slowed us down as my daughter also was resting in between. But she had a never-give-up attitude. We used to encourage her saying that “we are almost there” every time she asks about the final destination. At every shop that came after every 15-20 mins, we stopped and had some or the other drink to keep ourselves hydrated. We were fully on liquid diet (Water, Butter Milk, Lime Soda, Ragi Porridge).

 

(Quarter-)finally we reached at a spot where there were crowd gathered to move upward (not forward). It was almost a perpendicular rock and zig-zag path to climb. There were separate paths for going up and coming down where only 1 person can be in the path at a time. As usual there was no discipline in forming a queue/line and then move forward. Everybody wants to go first that delayed the journey by an hour. My friend & some other devotees volunteered to control the crowd in sending them one by one on that path. Devotees who were carrying Idols or some offering on their head were given priority to climb first.

The dangerous climb...

People were unable to climb as the path did not have steps or proper railings to hold. The rocks were chipped to hold a foot & the railings were made of iron rods drilled in the rock with some cycle chains connecting them. We have to hold the iron rods or cycle chains & move upward, which was a terrible experience. It was literally like rock climbing without any gear. That made the aged/new people to take time to climb and cause for the delay. People were looking down while climbing & that made them nervous and slower. At the end there was a metal sheet to walk over the top of this rock. Totally that climb took just 10 mins, and it could be dangerous if you are not cautious. I managed to click some pics in that dangerous path & my daughter went wild when I asked to pose her for a pic.

We are not yet there. Now the remaining path had some decent tall steps with proper railings to reach to the temple. It took another 30 mins of trek was which consisted of steep rocks, narrow path between rocks, etc. to reach near the temple.

(Semi-)finally we reached the temple entrance, where the devotees had offered their coconut, agarbathi, camphor, etc. It had a small water body & the view from top was amazing with cool breeze drying us up completely.

Temple Entrance...
 
We stood in the so-called queue & we witnessed devotees coming out with full sweat dripping from their body. Once again, my friend & some others tried to control the crowd, but in vain. We realized that another adventure is waiting for us. The next 30 minutes inside the temple was like in a furnace. And Finally, we went inside that sacred sanctum, touched the idol inside and came out successfully. The devotees are allowed to do any sort of pooja or abhishekam on the main idol. There is no separate poojari inside the temple. It was so hot inside that we were fully drenched (in sweat).

Inside the temple...

 

Our prime target was achieved and we were out by 10:35 AM. We thought that we will reach the base in next 2.5 hours & home by another 2 hours for lunch, but that didn’t happen. 

Down-Hill

After having some more drinks, we climbed down the main hill (where the temple was) to the place where we need to climb down the almost-perpendicular rock. This was the other path to go down as mentioned earlier. There was more crowd this time than when we were waiting to climb up. After sometime, we came to know that the downward path is blocked as some people were trying to climb up on this path.

Return Journey...

After waiting for some 30 mins, we thought we will try to go down in the path that we climbed up assuming that the upward crowd would be less because of the noon heat. As the crowd was more, that plan was dropped. We came back again to see whether the crowd is reduced in the down path, but still it was increasing and we could not stand there directly under the sun any more. We took a break by going to a nearby shop, had some fruits that we carried, some liquids too & then came back to stand in the so-called queue. As usual all of them want to get down at the same time and in the process no one was able to go forward. Luckily a policeman, who was visiting the temple, went to the starting point of the path & started regulating the people one by one.


Once again my friend & some other devotees started regulating the crowd in sending them one by one downward. After 2 hours of waiting, we climbed down those steep zig-zag ladders. This path was easier than the climb-up as it had the ladders from top to bottom. People were making the same mistake by looking down while climbing down which was dangerous and in turn took more time. It was easier to climb down while facing the ladder, which my daughter enjoyed & said that these were easier than the one we climbed up. It took less than 10 mins to climb down that perpendicular rock for which we waited for more than 2 hrs.

Waiting for our turn...

Now that the hard part of the trek was over, we trekked down slowly halting at each shop to eat/drink one or the other items that was available there. We were glad on reaching the half-point where those two paths meet. From there on, there were less people in that path. My daughter was getting really tired that she was asking “Still how long?” every 5 minutes. We know that we had to cover the long rocky path, then the mud path (3 KM) to reach our car. We were just consoling her by saying “the rocky path is almost over & the mud road will come”. Really that was a long walk back to our car. We were walking, walking & walking… hoping to see the mud road soon. At that time we realized that we had walked so long in the morning. We were stopping for a few seconds in every shade we came across as it was very hot & dry. At last, we came across the first shop we visited in the morning & happy to know that the mud road is 15 mins away.

Final rest point...

Finally we saw the mud road & my daughter now started asking “where is our car?” And we, as usual consoled her that we are almost there. We reached our car at 4:45 PM and there was a sign of relief for her. First thing was to remove our shoes, change to slippers & relax our feet. We had some hot bhajjis at a shop there as we were on empty stomach. We, including my daughter did not have breakfast or lunch till that time. We were on fruits and liquid diet for the entire trek. One thing for sure is that we did not get exhausted at any point of time during the whole trek. As it was summer, the first half of the trek was hot & sweaty. You get all refreshments all the way at regular intervals, so no need to carry a heavy back-pack. Water is available in packets too which is handy to drink & wash your sweat off your face and eyes. My daughter had no complains and really enjoyed the trek, which is a great accomplishment for her age.
Somewhere I read this quote for this trek, “A test for physical and mental strength and definitely fitness, endurance and courage is a mandatory requirement” which was 100% true.

Finally we reached my friend’s home at around 7PM, with a break in between for a chilled rose-milk. After a refreshing shower & dinner, started to Bangalore at 8:30 PM and reached home by 11:30 PM.

My mobile App showed the trek statistics as 9.6KM of walking, 15,020 steps and 92 floors climbed.

Total Distance Travelled:  610 KMS (excluding the 9.6 KM trek)

Planning to repeat this trek on some full moon night...