Silent valley is not a place where you find large mammals like lion, tiger, elephant, etc. Here you can go into the dense rain forest which is very remote and can spend time with nature in all its glory. You can enjoy the beauty of the forest, the cool refreshing breeze, the crystal clear water of the river Kuntipuzha.
Me and my friends went to Palakkad to attend a marriage, after marriage we planned to go to silent valley. The reason for choosing this place apart from beauty is summer, may month, hot sun. Whichever place we go, there is no way we can escape the hot sun, but silent valley is a rain forest, it rains almost every day in silent valley.
How to reach:
Silent valley is in Palakkad district, Kerala. The entrance of the park is in the town MUKKALI, it is about 80km far from Coimbatore and Palakkad, takes two to three hours to reach. From Coimbatore we have to take bus to Anaikatty and then to Mukkali. From palakkad we have to take bus to Mannarkkad and then to Mukkali, there are no direct buses. Comparatively the road from Palakkad to Mukkali is more scenic.Coimbatore-(by bus)- Anaikatty- (by bus)- Mukkali town(entrance of the park)
Palakkad- (by bus)- Mannarkkad-(by bus)- Mukkali town
Only Forest department vehicles are allowed inside silent valley, call up the forest department (08589895652, they are quite helpful) before coming and ensure a jeep availability, they'll probably ask you to arrive between 8:30 am and 1 pm post which entry for this trip closes.
23 KM jeep ride:
The ride started from forest check post in Mukkali, our jeep driver started explaining about silent valley. He told that out of this 23km ride only the last 1km comes under the core zone of the forest, the place we are going is called Sairandhri vanam which is 23km away. For the first 5-6 Km the forest is dry. After 6Km we reached a place where we can see the tribal settlements.
After this place the forest started getting thick, driver told that it is difficult to spot animals as they run away after listening to the jeep sound. We saw a lion taled black monkey and a giant malabar squirrel, i could not able to capture them into my camera. We stopped at several places to have a good glance of that thick forest. There are trees which have a 10 meters circumference, trees with big hole inside the trunk, Sunlight tried very hard to get inside and touch the ground, but the big trees gave a tough fight.
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| Surender, myself, dharani and bala |
A photography enthusiast will feel at home at this place and will probably dry up his camera battery. .....unfortunately we forgot to charge our camera and cell phones before night, so we could not able to take much photos.
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After 20 Kms we saw a board and a gate welcoming us to the silent valley National park and soon we were at the place called Sairandhri, where there was a 150 meter high watch tower.
Watch tower:
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| very bad photo- but this is the only long shot of watch tower i got |
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Hanging bridge and leeches:
This is the most beautiful and the best part of the trip. there is hanging bridge over kunti puzha river, it is located around 2km from the watch tower and takes 15-20 min trek down from watch tower, but the path that leads to the bridge is full of leeches and there is no way you can escape them. The best thing you can do is not to stop on the way, if you stop then 10-15 leeches will jump on your legs to taste your sweet blood(at least for them).When we were on the half way, it started raining heavily, we continued our walk in that rain and reached the hanging bridge, the sight of bridge and the place is so stunning, i wish they allowed us into the water, but what to do, visitors are not allowed to enter into the river. You can have a good view of the river from the bridge. This is the last point of the silent valley trek, there is a route on the other side of the bridge, but visitors are not allowed.
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| bridge and kunti puzha river |
We stayed there for some 20 minutes only, right from the watch tower the driver was on our ass telling that we are getting late, we should move fast. So. after 20 min we started climbing up to watch tower where our jeep was parked.
This climbing up part was somewhat difficult, not because of the slope or distance, but because of the leeches. It is almost a 20-30 min hike and you cannot stop in between, coz if you stop, the leeches will get on you legs...so you get tired..you want to stop..but you cannot and continue the hiking...it was so funny.
Finally after reaching the top, we removed our shoes and sandals to take the leeches out, Surender went a head and removed his pant to check any leech inside it.
Return journey and Bhavani river at Mukkali :
There is nothing much new to tell about return journey, we got tired after the trek and took a small nap. After reaching mukkali, we said good bye to silent valley and our driver and went to have a look of bhavani river. It is very near from forest office, you need to take the small way on the right side to the office. It is a very beautiful place, when we went, the time was 5 in the evening, few local women were taking bath and washing clothes. so we went to the other side where few local kids were taking bath and having fun.We sat there for some 5 min, Surender tempted me to take bath but my return bus to Chennai was at 9 from Palakkad. So promising that we will take bath there in our next visit, we returned to the bus stop.
As i said before the silent valley gives you the experience of going into the real forest and most admirably with no plastics and other wastes, it is so pure and clean.
Points to remember:
Book the jeep in advance,get the details from the number 08589895652, it costs around 1350 for jeep, maximum 6 persons are allowed, if you are less in number say two, you can share the jeep with others or take one separate for you.
Take food items from Mukkali, there is nothing except the fresh water you can get inside the park.
Reach the forest office at mukkali early, atleast before 12 to enjoy the complete trek without any hurry.
So beautiful pictures and great stuff thank you for sharing us.
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DeleteVery useful information,thanks for sharing.
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