Chalakkudi Collection Trip - 02 May 2009

It was quite an early start this morning, 3 am. Two Indicas, driven by Suraj (my husband) and Vignesh moved out of the house and after a fuel stop, hit the highway. Most of us had dozed off and were woken up when we stopped for an early morning tea at Vadakkanchery. A glass of tea, chips and jokes shared, we were on our way again reaching the outskirts of Chalakkudi by 5.45.

A deviation to the east and we were about 33 kms from the famous Athirampally falls. Our first stop was a bridge near a theme park. It was daybreak and we could see quite a few large fish (barbs, danios) swimming around. After a group shot, we proceeded towards the falls. Though this is the dry season, the water was still flowing in plenty to create magic. This was my first visit and it was captivating.



Unfortunately there was no way to get to the base of the falls, as the entire area was private property now and a resort had come up there. I asked Suraj if we were going further up, but he said 'no' as we would be entering reserve forest zone and catching fish there could land us in trouble. So off we went downhill searching for a road that could lead us to the river. We soon found a steep road heading right into the river and this was our first collection point.