Kerala, famously known as "God's own country" in the tourism circuit is in every way worthy to be identified with that name because of the abundance of natural beauty. Be it beaches, backwaters, high ranges, forests and wild life, culture, architecture, historical remains, ethnicity, Kerala has everything.
Every journey is a story in itself and it is really fascinating how certain journies happen. Certain places are there in your bucket list and suddenly they pop up from somewhere and you are all set to make it your next destination. Something like this happened with our trip to Gavi, one of the main tourist destinations in Kerala for those who love nature and wildlife.
Last year in November, when we were planning our trip to India, I chanced upon a post by one of my friends on Aangamoozhi and Gavi on Facebook. That was the first step towards making a dream come true. It’s planned that we visit his family house in Aangamoozhi first and from there proceed to Gavi. We were on the way to Nagarhole National Park in Karnataka and we made Aangamoozhi our first stop. That was one of the best decisions we had made.
Angamoozhi, a small village in Pathanamthitta has its own share of tourist attractions, the most important being the Nilakkal St. Thomas Ecumenical Church, one of the Seven and Half Churches supposed to be established by St.Thomas, an apostle of Jesus Christ, who arrived there in 54 AD. This is the first Ecumenical church in the world. The way to the church is through thick forest and it is possible to see wild animals on the way. The historic significance of the place makes it all the more interesting. Another captivating experience that awaited us at Angamoozhi was the "Kuttavanchi Safari". The river flows through forest area and it is a paradise for bird watchers.
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Angamoozhi is the gateway to Gavi. The forest checkpost , which issues daily passes to vehicles to ply through a stretch of protected forest area is stationed here. Passes are issued daily from here around 8 o' clock in the morning. One important point to be kept in mind is the limits in number set for issuing daily passes. A maximum of 30 vehicles are allowed per day. If you are early enough, you will definitely get a pass. Local taxi drivers have an upper hand since they are familiar to the routine and are more or less stationed around the area. We did not face any problem as our friend had arranged a local guide cum driver to assist us. Nowadays passes are issued online through the website www.gavikakki.com.
On the second day morning, we began our trip from Aangamoozhi to Gavi. We had never expected that it would turn out to be such a wonderful experience. It was a journey through a 61 kilometre stretch of thick green rain forest. Our driver cum guide Unni was of real help in explaining everything about the forest. We were in no hurry to reach our destination for that day. So we stopped on the way to explore nature whenever and wherever possible. It was a sunny day and soon we began to see the forest coming to life.
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On the way to Gavi, you have to pass through three dams. The first one is Moozhiyaar dam. We crossed the dam by walking, looking around, while Unni had parked the car at the other side of the dam. Since photography is prohibited inside the dam premises, we had to be satisfied with pictures taken from the parked area. As we went a little further, we saw a small waterfall and stopped there for a short while. We looked around the area and saw huge spiders in different hues with unbelievably big webs (the kind of which can be seen only in forests) stretching from tree to tree. The sun shined through thick foliage of leaves. We proceeded further with our journey and suddenly we saw a family of black monkeys.
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Our next stop was at the Moozhiyaar bus stop. One KSRTC bus runs between Moozhiyaar and Trivandrum daily. From the small tea shop there, we drank hot tea. In front of this tea shop is a small garden with a variety of beautiful flowers. It is worth your time to stand on the veranda with a cup of hot coffee or tea and watch the butterflies, sometimes flying around, sometimes stopping to kiss the flowers. It was a feast to our eyes. Anyone interested in bird watching can spend some time there and look for the birds also.
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We carried on with our journey after getting refreshed. When we reached the point from where Moozhiyaar dam was visible at a distance, we stopped again and there also we saw black monkeys and there was an orange breasted green pigeon on the road pecking at something. Nearby was a cleared area and we walked through the opening for a small while. At a long distance at the top, we could see the sihoutte of a sambar deer gracing.
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We crossed the Kakki dam. Our next halt was at “Echo point “. We saw another group sitting there and having lunch. It is a place surrounded by small hills and we tried to find out the truth behind the name and we had great fun. The scenic beauty all around was really captivating. We proceeded further and passed through Anathode dam. Suddenly it started to rain, at first in drissles and then a heavy downpour. We were taken by surprise. The nature adorns a different look when it rains. One feels that something mysterious is going on. All the animals disappear. Without the sun , it turns a little dark , which adds to the mystery of the atmosphere.
It was almost 3’o clock in the afternoon and we were slowly nearing our destination. Our friend had booked rooms for us at the KSEB Guest House in Kochupampa which stood amidst thick forests. We ate our lunch from the canteen and made plans for the rest of the afternoon. A sign board told us that Gavi was just 10 kilometre away. Ravi, the Care taker at the Guest House was very friendly and asked what we wanted to have for dinner. He showed us videos taken from his various experiences of sightings of elephants, tigers and leopards near the Guest House. It was just amazing. He relished his stay in the midst of nature and wild animals.
We decided to walk around the area. A little up from the Guest House is the Annex. On the way up, we could see the Kochupampa dam.
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The place around the guest house also turned out to be a perfect site for bird watching. We saw crested serpent eagle, blue winged parakeets, lorikeets, long tailed minivet etc. As we moved up further, we could see the Pampa reservoir and the panoramic view of the landscape appeared stunning. We saw more Sambar deers at a distance on top of another hill. Watch out for the weather here. It is really unpredictable. We were in for real surprises in no time. The rain had stopped and the sun was out shining and the landscape appeared serene. Suddenly we were shrouded in mist. It was so thick that the visibility became almost zero. It was so sudden that we were taken by surprise. It felt as if we had come to an ethereal world.
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That was an experience beyond words. As the sun was setting, we walked down towards the Guest House. We got refreshed and by then Ravi had prepared our dinner. He turned out to be a super cook as well. It gets really cold in the night. It is not easy to stand outside without jackets. Ravi , the care taker had sighted so many wild animals around the place, we were hoping that something would turn up on that night as well. But it turned out to be a normal night without anything special or unusual happening. We made plans for the third day.
Around 6.30 am the next morning, we began our safari through the jungle. Unni asked us to keep our cameras ready. Suddenly out of nowhere, a barking deer appeared and crossed in front of our car in high speed. We were so lucky to see it because usually it’s extremely difficult to see barking deers and they are far less in number . We could not see anything more on that stretch, but a wonderful sunrise was awaiting us. It was a misty morning with a fantastic sunrise and a surprise of a small rainbow.
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On the way, we met a group that had come from Gavi for the morning Safari. They said that they had seen elephants on the way. We returned to the Guest House to have breakfast and we were ready for the rest of the day’s adventure. What an adventure that was!!!
Before proceeding to Gavi, we decided to go for a boat safari at the Pampa reservoir. On the way, we passed the KSRTC bus plying through Gavi. This bus and bus route are famous among Malayalees thanks to a Malayalam movie by name "ORDINARY".
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Our driver cum guide for the boating trip was Murugan. He assessed us in a short time and realizing our interest in nature, he became the perfect guide anyone would love to have. He eagerly answered all our questions and spoke about the forest and the animals in there. Suddenly we sensed the presence of an elephant and we waited for almost half an hour for it to come out towards the cleared area. Finally it came out and our waiting was rewarded. We saw lot of birds both on the water and on the trees. He took us to the places where Tigers and black panthers drink water from the reservoir. Suddenly there was this giant Malabar squirrel on one of the trees. He showed us the place where usually snakes are found. We were not really very keen to spot any because of fear.
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Murugan presented a very tempting picture of the future when he informed that trekking which was stopped two years ago because of an unfortunate incident would be restored soon and that tree houses would be renovated for staying overnight. Kochupampa seemed to us more or less untouched. That adds to the beauty of the place. We had planned for a one hour boat safari and it turned out that we spent 3 hours at the safari. If you go for package tours from Gavi, you will get just 30 minuets of boat safari. So it’s better if you go separately so that you can make the hours flexible. (image:f85661ec-550a-4521-81d9-6b0c76de0d00.jpg)
There is a very nice restaurant there at the boat safari Centre from where you can have breakfast or lunch by placing orders in advance. We ate our lunch from there. There’s a well kept Rest room also. We continued our trip to Gavi from there around 2’o’clock. On the way, to the right side of the road, Unni showed us the Gopher tree which is connected with the biblical story of Noah’s Arc. It is assumed that Noah built his boat using Gopher wood. Only two of this species of trees existed in the whole of India and luckily for us, we’re standing in front of one of them. Beware of leaches. By the time we reached Gavi, each one of us had had one experience at least with the leaches.
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We reached Gavi around 3’o clock in the afternoon. There also you can go for a boat safari in the lake. We spent some time at the Gavi dam, which is the fifth and the last one on that stretch. Since we were not spending the night there, we had to get out from there very fast as there are restriction in time for driving within the forest area. We continued with our journey through the forest, this time up to Vandiperiyar. Once again it turned out to be a feast to the eyes with lots of black monkeys at different places, crested serpent eagle, Malabar giant squirrel and a gigantic Indian Gaur. Unni showed us the huge honeycomb. As I got out of the car to take pictures, two forest guards passing by on a motorcycle warned me about elephants. The sun was slowly fading and we had reached the end of our journey we had started the previous morning from Aangamoozhi to Vandiperiyar through an unbelievably long 81 kilometer stretch of thick green rainforest full of wildlife and wonderful scenic views.
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Anyone out there with interest in forests and wildlife? This is your route to have an experience of a life time. We had an adventurous and fun filled two days which are etched in our memories .
