Vellari mala and Vavul mala trek

Where is this place:    90km from Calicut, near wayanad in Kerala.

How to reach:            From Calicut government buses are available to                                   Muthappanpuzha, from the village trek starting point is 4km

 Is it difficult:                Yess...it takes around 8 hours of climbing with a total distance of 14km

 Is Guide necessary:    Yes....there is no proper trail....

early morning on the top

When i read in other posts that Vellarimala trek is the toughest trek in South India, i did not believe, i thought they did not go to Velliangiri, which is very difficult. But after completing vellari mala trek, i feel it is tougher than velliangiri for two reasons

1.  Whole 14 kilometer trail is steep, in other treks..you see a flat path somewhere on the top, you motivate yourself to reach there and take rest, but in this trek, the whole trail is steep..you have to climb, climb and climb

2. It is completely dense forest, like other treks...there are no views of hills, clouds, valleys....if you do trek to have some good view of hills and clouds or if you motivate yourself to finish the trek to see the view on the top...then this trek is not for you....

iruvanjipuzha river flowing down the hill

 

A small stream is available near the trek starting point which is a good place to get fresh up and start the trek.

From the trek starting point it will take two hours to reach water falls called 'olichuchattam'....there will be lot of leeches throughout the trail in the rainy season.

olichuchattam falls

view from falls

From the falls you have to cross the stream two more times and after that we have to walk two more hours(5-6 hours from starting point) to reach the first camping site called 'Mastakapara'




It is a good place to camp, where 8-10 tents can fit, but there wont be water resource available.

The temperature gets down to 10 degrees on the top

If you want to camp near water resource, then REC para is correct place, REC para is 1 hour away from Mastakapara.

In between REC para and MASTAKA para, a view point will come which is called Ketanpara...you can have a good view of hills where you can see the chembra peak, vavul mala peak.

view from Ketanpara view point

After camping in the night either in REC para or MASTAKA para, we can climb to VAVUL mala next day morning...it will take some 2-3 hours to reach the peak.


The whole trail is through dense forest, so if you want to spend some good time in thick jungle, experience the real thick forest....this trek is for you.

Here is a video made by me about this trek, watch for more clear information

VELLINGIRI TREK 2017

This post contains only photos of my recent trip to vellingiri, the information about the trek is in this post On March 4 2017, we went for this trek, this time we stayed whole night on the top and we found a beautiful spot where we can camp, here are the few pics from the trek

people who went to this trek, before poondi temple

To see this view point you have cross the trisool fence on the seventh hill and walk for some 5 minutes, it is a very good place for night camping

This is the route the view point in the previous picture

first trek with vesti

The same view point, if you are lucky you can see the bed of clouds under you

night time view from 4th hill

we slept beside a big rock which shielded us from cool breeze, we reached 5th hill by 8.30 pm, played some cards, slept until 3 am, got up and reached 7th hill by 5.30 am(took bath in small pond at 6th hill).

view of AADHI YOGI statue near isha temple from 4th hill

Aadhi yogi temple near isha temple

GOUTHAMI PUTRA SATAKARNI

Generally a war scene means you expect a lot of aerial shots, fast moving shots showing entire war location, but in this film there are lot of close up shots, with a great back ground score and editing the crew created the war environment in theater.

Instead of showing the entire life of the king, director concentrated on his two major wars and the dream of satakarni. The three things that stood out in this film are BGM, EDITING and DIALOGUES...almost entire war scenes happen with out dialogues, there wont be any inspirational speeches in between the war, everything was conveyed using BGM and the editing work in war scenes is excellent. BGM in this film elevated every scene and dialogue to another level.

 Coming to the dialogues, there are lot of good dialogues, and the way balayya delivered them is mind blowing. The scene where he explains shriya how important his son is to him, the scene where he tells his dream, the pre interval dialogue, the scene where he explains about the greatness of mother, the climax dialogues, etc...all are goose bump scenes, with his dialogue delivery he created so much power in theater, it is good to see him in a good film....

Coming to the negative points of the film, first thing that comes to my mind is HEMA MALINI, i dont know why they picked her for mother character, she just does not suit to the character....similarly all the side characters who played small kings, their acting is so poor....second thing is make up of balakrishna, i felt they should have taken a little more care on his makeup, the wig does not suit to him at all...

Overall it is a very good film...if you have not watched it...watch it....

VANGAVEETI

STORY: vadu vedni champadam, eedu aadi champadam, champadam, champukodam(this guy killing, that guy killing, both killing, both sides killing).

Did i like anything in the film: Nothing, only scene i felt like watching is the murder of vangaveeti raadha, other than that nothing.

What did i not like in the film:

• lot of things,  camera angles in the first 30 minutes of the film, it did not work for me, i could not able to concentrate on dialogues
• RGV's voice over, half of the film is covered with his voice over, he made a 2 hour film out of 22 years story, in that process he skipped lot of incidents which he tried to summarize using voice over. but because of this method, i could not able to feel anything, it is like he is begging audience to feel the emotion, feel that this guys is a great rowdy, this is a very sensational murder...he is simply saying audience instead of showing them. his voice over made me feel VANGAVEETI like a documentary.
• Slow motion shots in the climax, almost entire climax shot in slow motion, i slept for some 15 minutes, a loud bgm woke me up.

What did i learn from this film: voice over can be used explain what character is feeling, to give introduction, to explain a situation, but showing it is always effective and difficult than saying it.



This is not a film, it is a documentary with out interviews or video diaries.....its up to you to watch it or not watch it.

Saaham Swaasaga Saagipo.....watch it for Rahman..

For RAHMANIACS like me, this film's first half is like eating a full andhra meals with all the varieties served with extra love. ALL the five songs in the album comes in the first hour of this film. It is like Gowtham memon saying to me "You liked the first song, wait i will create a beautiful moment to serve you second song....here is the second song...njoyy"...the moments GOUTHAM MENON created to place these songs and the way he picturised them are so beautiful, every time the song started, there was a huge cheering in theater and all the rahmaniacs like me hummed the song.... listening RAHMAN's songs back to back in DOLBY ATMOS sound with great visuals is itself worth the ticket.....

Some people liked the second half, some did not like it...i liked it, overall it is a good film with some beautiful moments in first half and some thrilling moments in second half...