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Freedom Walk Day 13 - Kalpatta to Eengappuzha

We have reached a place called 'Eengappuzha' and are resting at the KSEB office (courtesy Unais) . What a day! We have covered 26+ kms and 12 kms of out it was the 'Thamarassery Churam' (Thamarassery Pass). Anoop and Suraj are back in full form, and even though we didn't have any sessions this day was awesome.

We had an awesome breakfast and set out at around 8 [ After an awesome Idli-chutney-sambar breakfast and cups of coffee ]. Manuel had left , Prasad had rejoined the gang and Jiyo accompanied us till Lakkidi. So it was Anoop , Cherry , Prasad, Suraj, Ashik and Jiyo for today. We walked for about 2 or 3 km to reach the NH leading to Lakkidi and the Pass.

Today it was tea plantations that surrounded us. Lots of it. The air was clean , the sun was kind and the terrain was good. A fine day for walking :) . So we walked on. The levels of curiosity had fallen and noone stopped us and asked us questions today. We walked on, with frequent rest stops and reached Vaithiri. Anoop went on ahead while we stopped for a tea-coffee break. We had some nice tea, warm parippu-vada and 'bonda'. It was awesome. Ashik filled his stash with Tiger biscuits and two ten packs of 'coffee bites'. Then we set off towards Lakkidi.

Anoop was far ahead by this time. On the way, we saw a board saying 'Pookkod Lake 0.5 km'. So we decided to take a small detour and visit the place. It was beautiful enough and the lake seemed to be a very peaceful place to be. There weren't many people around, but that must been because it was a week day. By the time we got off the place, Anoop had gone further.

Cherry, Jiyo and Suraj decided to catch up with Anoop and increased the pace. Ashik and Prasad being the heaviest of the lot ;), decided to continue at their slow but steady pace. About a kilometer from Lakkidi, it started raining and forced all of us (except Anoop, who had gone far and was probably in the Pass by now) into the Forest Department check post at Lakkidi. We waited there for a bit, but since the rain didn't show any sign of stopping, we decided to cross the road and have lunch at the small food place there. We had some 'kappa' and fish curry there. Prasad didn't eat much.

We all saw off Jiyo and then proceeded to the Pass and started the descend by 2:30 - 3 pm. Cherry ad Suraj increased their pace and caught up with Anoop somewhere near the middle of the Pass , while prasad and Ashik plodded on. The road and scenery were beautiful and we all strongly recommend walking all the 12km to enjoy the beauty.
It started raining heavily by around 5'O clock. The group continued bravely, in spite of the heavy rain, for they wanted to reach the Adivaram as early as possible. The first batch (Anoop, Cherry and Suraj) reached the base (Adivaram) around 6:00 - 6:15 . Prasad and Ashik reached the base at 7:15 pm.

From there it was just some 5-6 km to KSEB office at Eengappuzha, where Unais had arranged for the group to stay. Ashik left the group today, after reaching the KSEB office. The day proved how tough the road and weather can be and how the group stayed together, without breaking their resolve to cover the day's schedule.

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