20th 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 7th hill
Lord Shiva bless us and certifies our healthiness.
This is the 4th hill trekking
after Othimalai, , Chennimalai and Parvatha
malai during this season. The trek to this hill was scheduled on 16th 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 16th 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 3rd 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 18th 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 7th Hill – devotees used to take a holy dip
The
7th Hill view from 5th hill top
The
beautiful sun rise
The
beautiful sun rise
Facebook
friend, Podhigai Paramasivam Mr Ashok Kumar – self – Mr Vijayan
---
OM SHIVAYA NAMA---