We as a team started on 5th night towards Kolli hills from Chennai by
9.30 pm from koyambedu. Kumar and Raja from our group had responded to
this subject for the full moon trip. Other than this we had Devaraj,
Balaji, Ganesan and my cousin brother joining us. Mr. Selvam started
from Kumbakonam and joined us at Salem on 6th early morning. All 8 of us
from there took a bus at 5.30 am and landed to rasipuram. From there we
took a bus and reached the malai adivaram (karavalli). We took
another bus that would take us to the top of the kolli hills. (A
destination is so amazing and is worth a trip for people who choose
siddha margam). The climate was awesome and there was no sunshine at all
while the bus started travelling up. There are only 70 hair pin bends
before you reach the top. The bus came to Semmedu and then finally
stopped near Arapaleeswar. It was a long travel because the time has
become 10.00 am. We refreshed ourselves there with a unique soup (made
out of a potato-mountain-variety, ginger, garlic,
pepper, coriander
etc). It was mouth watering and most of our team emptied their 3rd cups.
Fruits like jack fruit and pine (orange in color instead of the regular
yellowish) were too good.
Mr.Devaraj and Raja have been there
before whereas rest of us was completely new to the expedition @ kolli.
The plan was to get down towards Akash Ganga and from there divert into
the woods and reach the caves of Korakka siddhan. Devaraj is a staunch
devotee of korakkar and has been visiting these caves many times in the
past. We took a look @ arapaleeswarar temple, which is believed to be
one of the "seeva nilaya" of Kalangi nathar. Balaji and Devaraj packed
rice, fruits and pooja items near the temple. We all started moving down
towards akash ganga.
On the way the first diversion on the
woods is for the mudal siddhan's cave (agathiar). The passage was thro'
extremely thorny bushes. The place is close to 700 steps and a bougain
villa tree is the landmark. We all moved towards the entrance of cave.
One by one started getting into the narrow path. I would say the
entrance is 2 feet and is at 30 degree angle upwards with a sharp stone
on the path. Once you move the path length is around 15 feet and towards
the last part of entrance it becomes extremely narrow. All of the team
squeezed inside except me.I was not able to get inside and
wished to stay outside after making few vain attempts. Devaraj and
Balaji didn't give up. I was called to the other end of the cave. This
had a different challenge because of the height however the duo
literally threw me in, this time. To the left there was a face like
appearance in the rock with 2 eyes and to the other end the cave grew at
45 degree. The visibility was upto 20 metres easily where atleast 20 to
30 people can sit and meditate. We have a few snaps for our group that
will get posted to-night.
After that we started moving deep down to
the woods will all luggage. On the way we found the Vengai tree that
gives the vengai milk. I put my hands inside and it smelled like Crude
oil and so is the color too. It is a medicine and also used for tantric
purposes. We kept walking into the dense woods continuously. Technically
we were walking down the valley. After a while we reached the cave of
Pambatti siddhar. This is near the forest river which I heard was
dangerous because of the varying water levels due to forest rains.
We did a small worship, after which we had few bananas and jack fruits.
We crossed the river rocks and started walking on the other side now.
There were lot of forest ants in this area but from then on we continued
to hear the voice of the river. After that should be a km or 2 we
reached the cave of korakkar. A nice and serene place that is so dense,
un-polluted and distinct. The legs were aching for all but everyone had
the temptation to get into the water stream. We put down our luggage in
the cave and then went to the stream. It was damn cold, clean. The bath
and drink from the stream was extremely refreshing. Most of them stayed
on the stream for more than an hr. After which we all left back to the
cave. There is a Murugan and lingam statue outside. There is a small
eswaran, eswari and Nandi statue inside. Each of the member started doing works like cleaning the statue, pooja work and doing Neivethiyam.
The time grew dark and a pooja was done to Korakkanathar by Devaraj.
After which there was a long Satsangam. We consumed the neivethiyam and
fruits after that. All shared some unique experiences and time went on.
We had a camp fire that continued the entire night. As time went on few
went inside the cave to sleep. The other 4 Including me slept outside as
the pournami started. Moon couldn't be seen since we were deep inside
the valley and the mountains were really tall. There was just one star
that we could see and which shined so brightly on top of the mountain. In the night some movements were felt here and there but we were safe lying near the cave.
7th Morning started with a nice lengthy bath session. After which we
created porridge using rice and nice pickles. We started slowly at 11.30
am from the caves. Climbing apparently back to Arapaleeswar was
tougher. We had track back and rested near Pambatti siddhar cave. There
was a strong forest shower for 20 mins and we were forced to be inside
Pambatti cave for that time. From there we started walking back and
finally reached the top by around 4.00 pm. It was extremely tiring but
we now had the soup to Relish.
Some of us took a walk and met
Manicka swamigal. I guess he is avadhoothar and maintains a dirty look
to avoid visitors. Post that we had tough bus journeys and finally
managed to catch a bus at 12.00 in the night from Salem to Chennai.
Bus routes:
1) Salem to Karavalli, then to Kollimalai (roughly 175 kms)
2) Namakkal to karavalli then to Kollimalai
