The trek to Agasthyamala !

It was early March, the college was going forward with its usual disregard for people who were not much interested in what went on in there and my gang decided to go for a trek, up Agasthymala, which is the second tallest peak in Kerala.
The trip involved taking an early morning bus to the Bonaccord Tea Estate in Vidhura, a village on the slopes of the Western Ghats. From there we would go to a base station some 15 kilometers, in to the deep forest and then we would climb the peak !

Things started off rather nicely as we managed to catch the bus. I and my friends occupied the ladies seats in the bus and dozed off (It was 3:00 in the morning and there were no ladies around !). But things turned interesting as we neared Vidhura, as women workers from the tea estate began to board the bus. We had to hang on to the roof of the bus for the rest of the journey (that is not much of a problem for me though, I am 6'2" and the bus's roof stands at 6'1").

We reached the estate in time and had tea and tapioca for breakfast. Nobody was really paying any attention to the food (except me !)as everybody was very excited to start the trip.



In front of the tea shop !




Streams are dime-a-dozen at the estate.




Got any doubts who started this estate ? Of course, it was the British !



Hmm.., can not think of a caption !

Then we headed to the Forest departments camp at the entrance to the forest for verification of our identities.
(to be continued ...)