By Shobha Rao Smilemaker
Apr 27: Would you get up at 3.30 am to leave at 4.15am, for an off - roading driving experience in the worst possible shaking jeep, banging your head for at least 20 times in 1 hour among the dark rods inside the dark jeep while holding on tightly for your dear life?
Well, I surely would not have not gone through this unforgettable ordeal of a journey, if I had known in advance, that it is not recommended for senior citizens! (In defense of the hotel travel advisor, he said that we did not look like senior citizens!)
My bones must have shaken to the core in shock, during this hour-long uphill journey from the town of Suryanelli to the Kolukkumalai view point.
It was just a small climb to the top to see the line of orange glow behind the clouds in the distance. The sun has not yet risen by the time we reached there at 5.45 am.
And suddenly we spotted the bright orange curve of the sun peeping out of the misty clouds much beyond the hills in the distance.
We tried to capture the different moments of sun slowly pushing its way up, behind the screen of the clouds, but honestly no camera can ever do justice to recreate this early morning experience. I could literally feel the pure positive dawn energy, enveloping me in its radiance.
The spectacular sunrise, slowly covered the sky with an orange glow. It felt as if nature was demonstrating a live painting on its giant sky canvas, just for my eyes only. As I squinted my eyes, to directly face the full glory of this just risen sun, my tearglands swelled up to play amazing tricks on me.
The sun felt as pretty as a flower with petal like light yellow rays sprouting in all eight directions. At the centre it seemed to have a sparkling silvery pink coloured dancing halo kind of illusionary effect. In my entire life of more that six decades, this was surely one of the most spectacular sights of the sun that I had just witnessed. And all along I was sharing the experience with a close friend, who corroborated my description of the unique sun gazing experience with squinted eyes! My description of nature’s ultimate show over mountain top still cannot do justice to our actual experience.
The mild orange glow changed to a bright yellow light and the jeeps started going back in a row, one behind the other.to witness and experience.
Once the sun was up, I looked around to get an uninterrupted view of the border with Tamil Nadu to the left and Kerala to your right. Standing at Kolukkumalai peak which is second highest peak in the Western Ghats, we saw the higher Meesapulimala peak behind us and the silhouette of the surrounding hills all round us!
I could now soak in the beautiful greenery on the surrounding hills and we actually saw a bison on the distance on the hill.
I sat down at the edge, inhaling the pure mountain air, looking at the valley below and feeling the freshness around me!
We drove back admiring the greenery around us. I was more careful to avoid the head bumps inside the jeep by couching low and tying my shawl like a turban around my head. I suddenly spotted a signboard, stating that we were at the world’s highest elevation tea plantation at 7900 feet msl. . Over 15 years ago in 2010 when I visited Kolukkumalai with family, I had taken a picture at this very place and later I was able to make collage of the two pictures!
We decided not to visit the tiger face rock view point, out of sheer exasperation of wanting to finish this bumpy ride as soon as possible! We decided to sing songs along the way, which helped in diverting our.minds from the treacherous shaky ride on the rocky road below us.
And then we stopped for a bit at the Tea Plantations, for pictures among thecte bushes. Suddenly I remembered a tea garden song on which I had given a dance stage performance on stage when I was barely 6+ years of age! We also saw what the locals claim to be as one India's longest zipline of about 2 kms above the tea gardens.
In the light of the day we could now admire the winding curves of the hilly roads dotted with the beautiful morning mist in the distance.
At the end of it all, I smiled in memory of the spectacular sunrise which also made the tough ride to the hilltop absolutely worth it!
Shobha Rao Smilemaker has a vision of living in a world where people use their ability to find and make smiles in any situation. She is a lawyer by qualification, a soft skills trainer by passion, a motivational speaker, a freelance journalist, a bestselling author, an avid traveler and founder of 'Smilemakers Trainings'. She can be contacted at www.shobhasmilemaker.com.