Night Trek to Parvathamalai

PARVATHAMALAI… when anyone hears this name, the only thing comes to mind is the 5-minute vertical climb up and down instead of the 4-hour trek. We climbed this peak in April 2018 on a Chitra-Pournami day. There was a huge crowd at that time. 

You can read that experience here: “Parvathamalai Trek on "Chitra Pournami".

Just an intro, Parvathamalai is one of the 3 difficult peaks to climb in Tamil Nadu along with Velliangiri, & Saduragiri. We have conquered all the three once.

Exactly after 5 years, we decided to climb Parvathamalai again, but this time in the dark. The plan is to climb at night, stay at the top till Sunrise & get down before it gets hot.
We started from Home (Bangalore) just before 3 PM and took the Hosur-Krishnagiri-Uthangarai-Chengam Road. After a small snack/tea break in between, we managed to reach the foot hill/parking around 7 PM. The road is too good now with negligible diversions. On the way, the sunset was spectacular as against the moon rising as a huge red ball that resembled the sun.
As the foothill does not have any restaurants, we went back to the nearest town - Thenmathimangalam to finish our dinner. Finally, we were ready for the climb by 8 PM packing all necessary items (water, snacks, torch).
As that Thursday was close to full moon day, the moon was getting ready to light us up. We slowly entered the main gate walking past the Jai Anjenaya temple. We could see our destination through the single path under the moonlight. Time: 8:05 PM.

 

It really looked far & high away. My wife was very much worried whether she could do it or not.
Forgot to tell about the team for this trek. My wife (Lakshmi), daughter (Smriti), my friend (Velumani) and myself. Last time, the 3 of us trekked the hill except my wife.
There are 2 routes to climb this peak – one via Kadaladi & other via Thenmathimangalam. We took the Kadaladi path last time and chose the other one this time. Both the paths meet at one junction & then it takes a common path to the top.
In half-an-hour, we reached the Veerabadhrar Temple, where they provide Annadanam for the devotees. In the next few minutes, we crossed the Vanadurgai Amman Temple & reached the Foot-Step Starting point. The time is 8:40 PM. Some devotees performed Pooja before entering the steps and so did my friend.

 

My wife was happy to see the steps as she was thinking that it will continue till the top. We walked, walked and walked the steps taking a lot of rests in between for my wife. After some 400 steps, my wife told that she wanted to go back & will stay at the Veerabadhrar Temple. We somehow convinced her that she can do it & continued our walk.

 

At around 9:30 PM, after some 900 steps, we stopped to have some lime soda at a shop enroute. After the soda break, my wife said that she can’t continue and will stay with the lady in the shop & told us to continue climbing up. She was not convinced this time and we too couldn’t force her as she has knee issues for long. We told her to take good rest & that we will pick her up in the morning on the way back.

 

Saying Good Night to her, we 3 climbed up the remaining steps then the rocky path to reach the above said junction by 10:45 PM. We had some butter milk in a shop there before moving forward. We could see the marvelous night view of the nearby towns as we climbed up without any rests. 

 

 

On the way we saw a cute shiva-linga on a small rock that was fully covered with sacred ash in the backdrop of the lighted town.

 

Finally, we reached the much awaited place – the starting point of the vertical climb.  Time: 11:20 PM. I managed to capture some pictures of the vertical path in night mode. The path includes small pockets etched on the rock that fits only your toe with some rods to hold on either side, steep iron ladders and some other unexplainable path and all these crossed in moonlight. 

 

It is just a 5 min vertical climb, but the person who climbs it will never forget it for life. But it’s not yet over. We could only see the temple from there. It took another 30 mins to reach the temple at the peak. Time: Exactly Midnight and we could see the moon directly over our head. 

 

First things first, we went inside the Mallikarjuna Swamy Temple for a quick darshan, but it took 45 minutes for us to come out. The temple has no priest/poojari to do Pooja. The devotees themselves are allowed to do the Pooja. Taking this as an advantage, some devotees were performing some Pooja that took a lot of time. 

 

 

Later, we went around the temple for the beautiful sceneries, even at night, thanks to the moonlight. The view from the top was spectacular with clouds sliding all over the hills plus the lights of the nearby towns.

 

We were hunting for some place to rest or sleep if possible. We could see a few devotees resting/sleeping at all possible flat surfaces. Finally, we got a slot under a tower adjacent to the temple. Before lying down, I tried to call my wife, but the call didn’t go through. 

 

Hardly we could sleep for an hour because of the tiredness. Later the number of devotees increased and so did the noise as we were very close to the temple. At around 4:30 AM, we got up to find some other place as it was getting too cold right at the top of the peak.

 

As my daughter & me walked down the steps we could see a familiar figure in the moonlight amidst a group of devotees. When my daughter told me that its Mummy, I was surprised to see my wife there standing with the group of boys discussing about their climb. From behind my daughter pat her shoulder & greeted her, she was very happy on the achievement that she had conquered the peak. We too were excited to see her at the top & she introduced us to her new friends. Immediately we took them to the top for darshan. My friend was also happy to see my wife at the top and termed her achievement as DESTINY.

 

My wife & her trek mates took some rest after the darshan. At around 6 AM, we planned to get down before it gets crowded. I was waiting for the sunrise from the that height of more than 4500 Ft.  As we started walking down, the sun slowly came up. Capturing some nice shots of the sunrise, we could see clouds passing by beneath. 

 

Within 30 minutes, we reached the place for the much awaited vertical descent. This was another way for the descent that had much of metal ladders. We saw the queue slowing down after the first ladder. Later we realized that it was a check post guarded by one naughty monkey. The monkey’s task: “Frisking” When a person carrying a bag passes the monkey, it opened all the zips of the bag & checked for any eatables. If it finds anything, it takes or else it leaves you to pass through. All this happening in the middle of the ladder and you have nowhere to run/hide. We were allowed to pass through as we had no eatable in our bags. It took almost 10 minutes to get down the vertical path due to that monkey.

 

In another 10 mins, we reached the cute shiva-linga that was covered in holy ash with a foggy background. My daughter & my friend took the lead & climbed down without waiting for us. This time I accompanied my wife & didn’t let her fall back the trail. 

 

At around 7:15 AM, we reached the junction where the path splits into two and we took the left one. Before taking the left, we had some butter milk along with some rest. After some 45 mins of climbing down on the rocks, we could see the steps. 

 

Another 30 mins of climbing down the steps took us to the shop where we left my wife last night. The lady in the shop recognized my wife & was glad to know that she made it to the top. Also I came to know that she too encouraged my wife to climb up & convinced the guys to take her along to the top. Bidding adieu to that wonderful lady, we started our descent after a delicious slice of water melon from her shop. 

 

Meanwhile, when we called my friend to their location, they had already reached the Veerabadhrar Temple and even finished their breakfast. They were ahead of us by an hour. 

 

Slowly descending the steps, we reached the end of the steps around 9:30 AM. Another 5 min walk reunited us with my daughter & friend at the Veerabadhrar temple. My friend guided us to collect the plates for the Annadanam. I washed the plates and also my face that needed a water-wash. 

 

We were served with the freshly prepared porridge from the large container that was still cooking on the stove. It was so hot that we couldn’t touch it even though we were damn hungry. Even the normal pickle served with that was a highlight. Finally, we completed our first meal of the day and started to walk towards the entrance/parking. 

 

 

Walking away from the beautiful view of the Parvathamalai, we reached the Jai Anjenaya temple around 10:30 AM. My wife proudly walked out of the entrance gate after achieving the almost impossible.

 

Reaching our parking, we couldn’t get inside our car as it was hot as an oven. We opened all the doors & waited for a while to cool down utilizing the time to get rid of our shoes. My wife placed the stick that she used for climbing up/down inside the boot as a souvenir from the trip. A few moments later we headed to Thenmathimangalam and had some coolest rose-milk to quench our mighty thirst.
From there, my friend boarded the 11:15 AM bus to his hometown and we headed to Bangalore. A small break for lunch & then the vehicle stopped nowhere in-between to reach our sweet home just before 3 PM.
As we reached home, me & my daughter decided to visit again after 5 years when we will be 50 & 20 respectively to perform a natural health checkup. On a lighter note, I said my wife to tie-up with her trek-mates if she wants to join.

 

 

Distance: Bangalore to Parvathamalai Parking (205 Kms)

Base Location 1: "https://goo.gl/maps/ArZDCmCm46Cffz4fA"

Base Location 2: "https://goo.gl/maps/q6dw6jE6uhUDwESX9"