We woke up at Radha and Somakumar's house to the chirping of birds. Tea was scheduled at the small but pretty garden outside, on swings and park benches. Today we had planned to explore the Kollengode area, around an hour from Palakkad town, and our hosts decided to come along too. In fact, to drive us there. So a quick breakfast of idlis / puttu / egg saw us on the road at 9.00 am.
Kollengode is a small town to the south of Palakkad. Standing there, facing further south reveals virgin hills, with silver streaks of waterfalls still visibly flowing down. We wanted to catch a couple of these waterfalls wandering in their natural habitat, as opposed to being bred in captivity, like Cascade shower systems.
Vellarimedu waterfalls (11.00 am)
We reached this after travelling on a rather bumpy road, and it turned out to be a gurgling stream, at least in its current format. I am sure if we were visiting in September after the monsoons and not in November, the mountain in front would have been awash with rivulets and this brook would have been a roaring torrent. We could see boards that indicated that resorts were eyeing prospective projects in the area.
Seetharkund waterfalls (12.00)
This was a more saleable proposition as a waterfall, with some quantum of water bouncing from rock to rock, and collecting at a cool pool at the bottom. There was a fair degree of visitors here, a lot of whom looked like college students bunking Physics classes, with or without a romantic partner thrown in. We had the opportunity of doing some proper photoshoot here.
Lunch at Ayappan, Kollengode (12.30 pm)
This choice of Somakumar was vindicated as a fast moving and popular local eating joint, with thalis being served on plantain leaves, with fish or meat on extra orders. The fried fish was excellent, well-coated with spicy masala. Lightening speed service, like McEnroe.
House of DeeGee (4.00 pm)
My IIMC classmate Deepak was spending a night at Palakkad, which holds Shobhana's parents' house. We came down to spend a night with them. The house is a marvel, designed by Laurie Baker, an expert in vernacular architecture for the common man. The house, as per DeeGee, has been built around the trees, of which there are many on the grounds, not to mention a grandfather jackfruit tree that acts as protector of the realm.
Fort Maidan at Palakkad (5.00 pm)
At DeeGee's insistence we went off to see Fort Maidan, an extremely well-maintained fort. It had been taken over from a local ruler by Hyder Ali, Tipu's father, in 1757, and it kept switching between the Mysore Sultans and the British in subsequent years.
ASI taking over the fort had turned around its upkeep to a high level of perfection. The sentry posts, ramparts, moat, jail cells - everything were beautifully maintained. There was also a paved walkway all around the moat, often used as a jogging track. We were halfway through it, looking at the darkening skies, listening to the gentle rumble of thunder, and wondering whether it looked like rain, when not only did it look like rain, but felt like rain too, cold buckets of it, and we were drenched by the time we scampered back to our car.
Dinner was at home, lovely noodles rustled up by Shobhana, with freshly baked multigrain bread (with Amul butter of course) and hot cinnamon buns.
Tomorrow we travel to Coimbatore.
Photo credits: Panna Rashmi Ray