Saturday, Vijaya, Aman, Abdul, and I headed for the hills. We start at 7:00 in the morning and traveled North from Chennai. After a few hours of driving we arrived in a small village and turned off on a back road. Parts of the road were so rough that Abdul asked us to get out and walk. We reached the trail head by 11:00.
Behind Abdul, you see our destination, the valley between the cliffs. It wasn't a steep hike, but the first half had no shade and was hot. Before we got to far, we decided to stop for lunch. We had brought food some from Chennai, but not enough as Vijaya and Abdul had skipped breakfast. We found a nice shady spot to eat near a stream. We hadn't been there but a few minutes when a couple of monkeys show up.
I quickly grabbed my camera and started taking pictures. The monkeys circled us and inched in closer towards the food. When they got close, Vijaya repeatedly advised me to be careful. The closer they got, the more anxiety was in his voice. I was naively oblivious to any danger. Aman and Abdul were holding the food and when the monkeys approached them, they surrendered our lunch. This I didn't understand, they're just cute furry little animals. But to be fair, the monkeys were more willing to bite Aman, then he was willing to bite them. From then on, we armed ourselves with sticks and stones.
We were able to recover most of our lunch and moved to a more populated spot to eat. We made several stops along the way. We weren't sure how far away our destination was or what we would find there. It took some convencing to keep out troup moving forward. Once we got into the shade, our spirits were higher.
The trail followed a stream. At a few spots along the way, we stopped to dip our feet.
At the end of the trail was a great swimming hole and a small waterfall. It took us approx. three hours to reach it.
The waterfall is just around the bend. You can only get to it by swimming. I couldn't take the camera, sorry. It was very relaxing sitting underneath the falls and letting the water give me a natural back and shoulder massage.The water is very deep, except for a ledge where this group of college age kids are sitting. Most of the local are not strong swimmers, so the falls were very private.
It was still a long walk followed by a long drive home, but it was worth the trek.
