Trekking in 'Nelliyampathi' vs 'Parambikulam' vs 'Silent Valley'

SouthIndian

Hi all,
This is my first post in this site. Me and some friends are planning a 3-4 days in kerala forest(call it as trek or something). Note, only planned.. ha ha.. we don't know when? we have to do it in this month in june as usual the mansoon will be in kerala so Leeches..

In search of details of the places like 'Nelliyampathi'.. 'Parambikulam' , 'Silent Valley', 'Periyar'... etc.. i'm googling.. i got a link on this site (the thread 'Best Wildlife; Southern India')... without a delay created a user..and posted this.. ha ha.. let see what will happen..

I had a round look at this site.. unfortunately(ha ha ha..) most of the posts sounds like foreign tourists.. so I think it will not help me to find what I'm looking for... anyway it costs only 1/2 hr.. ha ha..

regarding the trek what i know is these names.... I found one guide from kerala. I think,he is knowledgeable about 'Parambikulam' and 'Nelliyampathi'( i don't know much about 'Nelliyampathi' , he only suggested it). According to him for 'Nelliyampathi', we don't need forest permission. (then is it a forest?)

Any info in this regard would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

A South Indian(at present in Chennai).
-------------------------------------------------------
"If you can laugh at yourself, you will always be amused."

crvlvr

Hiking in Kerala during the monsoon? I hope you make it to base camp. Here's what the traffic in Jerala during June will be like
..

SouthIndian

hay crvlvr,

If you look the rain from that point it will be like that... ha ha.. If you(we) look it from the rain, i think it will be pretty wonderful.. and traffic in kerala.. that is the worst trafic we can see in South India.. ha ha....

Anyway i cannot wait for the rain.. i decided to go 'Nelliyampathi' at end of next week.. Let see what enjoyment i will have there.. ha ha..


moving more south(as lazy i'm).

nbmkumar

Hi,

I plan to have a trek in nelliyampathi during this feb 2007. how was ur experience in nelliyampathi. is it worth going there. if possible send some photos. my email id nbmkumar@gmail.com

thanks

Muthu

dimitri

I have done a 3 days Silent Valley trek during the new years eve. It was an absolutely delightful trek. The kind of flora and fauna you see here cant be seen anywhere else. Typical rain forest stuff, very thick vegetation, where sunlight finds it difficult to seep through.

Unfortunately, you need permission from the forest department to trek inside and that is very difficult to get. For Normal tourists you can go 1.5 kms into Silent Valley called Sairandhiri.

AKMEKM

Hi all.
I am planning a trip to Nelliyampathy this month. I found some interesting tips in this thread. Thanks to all. I have no permission from the forest dept. so i am considering myself as a nonrmal tourist. So i think i can move only to Sairandhiri .

Any photos regarding nelliyampathi is available??

pmvelu

We(Myself & My 2 friends) visited Nelliyampathy forest range 4 years back. Just we wanted to go to some Off-the-beat place and as usual I decided this place for a 3 day visit (Not for exactly Trekking thou). This place is around 60 kms from palakkad bus terminus . First surprise is when we boarded the Nelliyampathy bus as conductor repeatedly asking us where in Nelliyampathy we want to go & we are saying again and again , we want to go to nelliyampathy (That is the only info I had as internet searches almost projected Nelliyampathy as a Hill station ). Atlast Conductore gave ticket to Nelliyampathy ( ??!!) and told us , I am giving the maximum priced ticket to you guys and as you are telling you are tourists, whichever place impresses you , just tell me and I will stop the bus for you guys to alight.

And it took almost 2 hours + to reach , and the drive is almost equivalent to Yercaud Hills ( Near to Salem , Tamilnadu ) & Kolli Hills (Near to Namakkal , Tamilnadu) which is very normal with not much scenic places on the way and we reached the last stopping. I had a Tea estate bungalow address for stay and we boarded a Jeep to this place and to our surprise, the tea estate bungalow was rented out completely to a Malayalam cinema crew for a month ))::-- Then we talked to the Manager and told we were from chennai and requested him to consider & atlast it turned out to be, we need to stay @ tea plantation workers huts in the nights & have food along with cinema crew & we did for the 2 days.

1) There is no lodges to stay in Nelliyampathy except this bungalow
2) There are no hotels (Except the typical road side tea shops which will have parotta / Appam & Beef )Or Bar
3) Climate is average (We went around March I suppose) & nothing to see as such except one view point near to that tea estate
4)Nights are delightfully cold & Early morning Mists


No body in Nelliyampathy knew that it's actually a tourist place (Except we 3)..

But we enjoyed the stay as it's calm, no tourists and 1 in every 3 tea estate workers were from tamilnadu and each sharing their own stories & best of it all we lived with the cinema crew for that 2 days
Hope this gives some insight to Nelliyampathy ...

VSK Sharma

Hi,
You have provided all the info one needs to plan the trip.

AKMEKM

I was unable to go to Nelliyampathi. Plan dropped.

Now again planning a trip to there.
Any body having nice pics from Nelliyampathi.

Bigzero

If I am not mistaken, the Malayalam movie "Vinodayatra" released a couple of months back was shot mostly in and around Nelliyampathy. I havent seen the movie, but i did happen to watch a couple of song scenes in TV. Nelliyampathy looks really beautiful! Of course, you would also give some credit to the cinematographer to enhance the beauty of the place

Flickr has a good collection of Nelliyampathy pics..
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=nelliyampathy&w=all

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miles to go....

Bigzero's Photo Gallery

salviadivinorum

Excellent pic's " fest for the eyes "...

Nelliyampathy is one of the most untouched , pirstine forest left in kerala...I've always dream't about a holiday to this magical place, heard that " permission is to get into the forest is the biggest deal.

Where were u staying ?? pls share some info ..

Will connect

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If you've planned a vactaion, just go there and let the universe guide u .....

federica

I've been to the Nilgiris in June and it was ok, it is not as wet as on the coast. Silent Valley is beautiful... real rainforest...can't tell you anything about necessary permissions, I was working and my office cared for these things

AKMEKM

Thanks every one for these intersting information.

Got the pics.
Thanks alot.!!!

Bigzero

I have never been to Nelliyampathy! those pictures are from flickr - i just did a search on Nelliyampathy and posted the link thats all.

I would love to be there one day!!