Trekking to Palakkayam Thattu (പാലക്കയം തട്ട്)

9th June, 2013. Another lazy Sunday, got up late and so the break fast also delayed…

Got a call from Shaji, Saju and Haneefa (my friends) at 12:30 and asked how about roaming around exploring either Vaithalmala or one of the near by hill stations. I wasn’t knowing the name of the hill station, though, I said Yes and they asked me to call Mohanan Master, who is well familiar with the near by places. He had gone for attending a marriage in near by town. He informed that he would join us by 2PM.

I got ready, had break fast and lunch together ( 😛 ) and left home by 1:30PM. It was just 11KM ride to reach them. Called Mohanan master again and got to know that he would be late. Went to two of my relatives house and joined Shaji, Saju and Haneefa by 3:00PM.

Took another 45min to start the journey (its not so long..) and we (Mohanan Master, Shaji, Saju, Haneefa, Akshay, Ajay and me; Akshay and Ajay are Mohanan Master’s children) reached the valley.
Oh!!! I forgot to tell you the name of the so called hill station, its Palakkayam Thattu (പാലക്കയം തട്ട്). The name derived from the words Palakkay (the fruits of Tabernaemontana sp.), Maram (Tree) and Thattu (Top Level).

Kept the bikes in near by home and started climbing the hill at 4PM. Mohanan Master is well known for the people there! He took us through a narrow way, he and his kids were climbing very fast.

Could see Mandalam Church, Pulikkurumba St. Joseph’s High School and Chemberi Vimal Jyothi Engineering College far away.

Shaji was trying to take some SHORT CUTS which had almost 75° incline and failed and had to seek our help to climb up 😛

The short cut ends and we reached a road there! We wondered why he took us through that difficult way, but the fact was it was the (easiest!) short cut.

We had water from one of the houses near by and went on walking through the road, walked for another 1KM through the road and took another route, which were not sure about (except Mohanan Master) 😉

We followed him and reached another level where we saw the rock mining is going on. Though the mining affects ground water level badly, we cannot completely blame as we need the stone for constructions, of-course the development including rail and road!

We saw a footprint of an animal and said it’s Infant Tiger’s footprint 😉 It could be a dog’s as well. But later when I checked the footprint of a dog, the nails didn’t notice. Not sure whose it was 🙂 Have to get confirmation from the experts!

Continued the walk and reached the lap of Palakkayam Thattu where there is a fresh and cold water stream. We had banana we bought and drunk the stream water. It was so sweet!!

Continued the walk and now its through the grass which grown well in the rain. It was grown up to the knee, some are more than that. Banana gave a kick or the wind was patting on us? We were so energetic and climb up easily, took some snaps and a silhouette as the sun was bright in the evening!

We could see the Valapattanam River far away, due to heavy mist camera couldn’t focus!

Reached the peak by 5:45PM, enjoyed the view from there.

Could zoom and take another view of Pulikkurumba St. Joseph’s High School and now it’s almost -90° (270°) rotated view.

We took a group photo with the help of self timer and spent some more time there

We started back by 6:15PM, I was quite unhappy that it hadn’t rained! On the way back noticed one of the trees there and for some reason loved the way it was.

Notes

Palakkayam Thattu is just 4KM away from New Naduvil towards Vaithalmala. One can have an adventurous trekking from here to Vaithalmala through Kottayam Thattu. Assume the place was once sanctuary for elephants and wild boar. There is a small waterfall near by where we couldn’t go as it was late.