SRI VELLIANGIRI ANDAVAR TEMPLE / HILLS – THEN KAILAYAM - MY TREKKING EXPERIENCE

20^th April, 2016.

Do you want to check your health along with ayurvedic medicinal herbs, but without spending money?. If the answer is yes, here is Dr Lord Shiva from Villiangiri, on the western Ghats near Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu. To reach Lord Shiva’s natural cave temple, you can reach after crossing 7 hills  at an altitude of  2240 meters / 7349 feet above sea level and climbing height of 1200 meters / 3937 feet, only by trekking. After reaching the top of the 7^th hill Lord Shiva bless us  and certifies our healthiness.  

This is the 4^th hill trekking after Othimalai, ,  Chennimalai and  Parvatha malai during this season. The trek to this hill was scheduled on 16^th April 2016, Night, planned much earlier self with a friend from Ooty. 2 weeks before 3 more people from my old office expressed their willingness to join with us. On 16^th April,  I couldn’t join from Chennai, instead,  joined at Coimbatore Railway station, due to personal reasons. From Coimbatore Railway we took a Taxi ( Rs 1000 taxi fare ) and reached to Poondi the base temple of Velliangiri.

  

To avoid Chitra Pournami crowd we planned trek 5 days before.   But to our surprise, there was lot of crowd to trek the hill. After clearing all the formalities by the forest department ( removing all plastic bags, polythene bags, even the water bottle labels are removed ) we 5 friends started our trekking around mid night. Before reaching the  first hill we 5 people got separated in to two groups and couldn’t meet till we returned back to the base temple. The path has become very tough compared to the last year due to last year’s rain which washed away the path in many places. We are forced to wait in many places to give way to the devotees coming from the opposite direction.

Finally we reached to top of the Shiva cave temple around 05.45 hours and had the darshan of Sri Manomani Ambal Samedha Sri Velliangiri Andavar. It took almost 5.30 Hrs to trek the hill top from the base. We are very lucky to see the sunrise also  from the top of the hill. After spending about 30 minutes, we had started our return trek. On return also we could not meet our lost friends.

We are able to reach the 3^rd hill within 3 hours and escaped from the direct sun heat. It was too hot and made the trekking further difficult.  On the way we had the “kamba kool” ( millet )( there are more than 50 shops on the en-route)  and what we carried to eat could not do so due to tired and sleepy. It took almost same time to reach the base of the hill. During returning I got the neck pain ( always looking down the steps) also the right dislocated leg started paining. With the blessings of Lord Shiva we reached to the Poondi base temple around 11.30 Hrs, without much problem.

We had taken rest up to 18.00 hrs at our Guest house and proceeded to Coimbatore Railway station to catch our train to Chennai. Reached Chennai safely around 07.00 Hrs on 18^th April 2016. While travelling on the suburban train, it touched my heart that one of the passenger touched the bamboo stick and worshiped it and inquired a lot about our trekking. Thanks to Lord Shiva for the wonderful Darshan and safe trekking to the Velliangiri Hills.

HOW TO REACH :

The base Poondi is about 40 KM from Coimbatore City  on the way to Siruvani Dam.

Almost 2 KM from Isha Yoga centre.

Buses are available up to Isha and very few busses  are plying to Poondi on normal days and special buses will run during Chitra Pournami day.

LOCATION: CLICK HERE

Details of my previous Velliangiri Trekking / Yathra please click the links: 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019

For more Photos on Picasa web : CLICK HERE

For Vedio on YOUTUBE            : CLICK HERE

 Poondi Sri Velliangiri Adavar temple ( Base of Velliangiri ) 

 Vellai Pillayar – at the top of first hill 

 Vazhukku parai ( slippery rock )

 A Devotee carries the trisool 

 Beema’s Kali urundai  

 The spring at the base of 7^th Hill – devotees used to take a holy dip 

 The 7^th Hill view from 5^th hill top 

 The beautiful sun rise 

 The beautiful sun rise 

Facebook friend, Podhigai Paramasivam Mr Ashok Kumar – self – Mr Vijayan 

--- OM SHIVAYA NAMA---