Pandi pathu
Most of our team members are of the opinion that Pandi pathu is the easiest trucking station ever trucked by them. We six people planned to truck pandipathu .Four of team members have already been there for more than three times. Me and another one was visiting for the first time. We started early in the morning from Thiruvananthapuram, reached Vithura by 9.30 Am. There Varghese chettan (forest watcher ) was waiting for us. In Vithura we saw one of our team members friends and they told us that the weather conditions at Pandipathu is not so good.
Varghese chettan headed our team from there and we bought rice,vegetables,meat and other food items for our one day stay at Pandi pathu. From Vithura we hired a jeep and started our journey.
By 11am we reached the base of pandipath (top division -3) from there we started our walk with our luggages first half Km is steep climb and after that the path became much easier, But leaches attacked us in hundreds ,every one was bleeding from there feet . By 12.30 pm we reached a building at the top of the hill ,by covering a total distance of 4.5 kms . By nearing that building we understood that the weather has been totally changed .
The building and its surrounding were fully covered with mist and fog heavy wind was blowing towards the building . we cannot even stand freely on the outside of the building,high speed wind will blow you off from your feet. I cannot imagine such a weather in a place just about 50 Kms from the heart of Trivandrum city. Only possible thing was to stay inside the shelter wearing woolen clothes.
By evening, wind began to blow from the opposite side and We just got a view of the near by hills. Beautiful place with lot of greenery. I just got a wink of it. We six people stayed in that shelter for about 24 hours trying to survive in cold, eating food prepared by Varghese chettan.
We just covered 2 kms of surrounding area, but cannot see anything beyond 10 meters because of heavy mist. According to me that was a failure trip but experience of such a weather will not get even if we pay lakhs. In our return journey by next day after noon I decided in my mind that I will come back here another time to see this wonderful place in clear light.
