When a holiday was discussed we knew it had to be a place which was not a hill station, a beach or a place where there was as much crowd as in the local neighbourhood. Eco tourism beckoned and the choice was between Thenmala and Konni in Kerala. The lot fell to Konni and we made a two day date with Konni and the Sahyadri hills.

Trivandrum was our starting point and it’s a 100Km journey from there in the Punalur-Anchal route. Alternatively, you could drive in from Cochin, it’s just about 150kms. It was a working day at the end of May and the monsoon was peeping over the skies, but the drive was fantastic. The road is not as busy as the MC Road or NH47 and the rain clouds hovering on the horizon lend the afternoon a relaxing coolness. We switched off the AC and enjoyed the wind playing with our hair all along the drive.

Just 10km before we reached Konni, we turned right, off the road at Murinjakallu and thus began the jungle journey. The road wound up and soon, we located the envoy jeep which was to lead us to the resort. We drove a city car, so about half way, left the car at a safe place and loaded ourselves, bag and baggage into the jeep. In about a few minutes it looked like the adventure had commenced in real earnest. Little streams crossed the jungle paths and the clearings that wore clumps of greenery showed wild flowers peeping through. It wasn’t the actual jungle but city junks like us saw enough to coo about. I had locked my camera into the suitcase loaded at the rear and there was no way I could retrieve it just then, so postponed my regret for a later occasion.

The climb then started; the resort we were proceeding to soon came into view. The Contour Jungle Resort is at a 1500 feet above the sea level but we found the air enjoyably cool and not at all bitterly cold. And what a view! The lush green mountains are at your eye level and the white fluffy clouds mere fluff in your hands, I am not exaggerating, guys, it is almost so. The cool breeze is soothing to the travel fatigued muscles. It was a verdant green around the resort, and so relaxing to the eye. We really had a ‘room with a view’. We were just pleasurably tired after the long drive, so decided to eat our meals out in the open air restaurant. We found that there was a better option awaiting us. A campfire session had been planned with a theme dinner in the grounds.

It was almost a homely meal, with duck just in from their own farm and vegetables from the garden beyond; the fruit salad was also entirely with the fruit plucked off the trees and shrubs we could see around us. Then the music started, it was just from the record player and no band playing, but the ambience had relaxed us and a few of the guests started dancing around the campfire…nothing elite, just shaking a loose muscle. The young at heart made a scramble for the swings hanging from the great trees on the grounds. It was heavenly the way the stress slowly eased out of our body; we could almost feel the peace coming in. I guess I didn’t even realize when I touched bed, it was so peaceful.

When we woke up, we stood at the verandah opening out from our rooms and the morning mist simply took our breath away. This was picture post card stuff out there. We were still more amazed to be told that when it rained, the mist would be so thick that visibility was zero; Contour was almost a hill station on those days.

We set off as a big party in three jeeps to what we called the ‘jungle’ right after breakfast. I guess we all knew this was not a real trek but a soft trek that we were being taken to, but that didn’t make any of the ladies in the team any less excited. The paths were probably tried and tested ones too. All that was forgotten when we looked up at the skies; what a lovely sight!

Our sky was a criss-cross sheet of lush green tree tops with blue bits of sky and white clouds peeping in; and the canopy extended for what seemed like miles over our heads. The silence was absolute, an unfamiliar bird’s call broke the silence here and there and the jeeps stopped while we tried to locate the caller. At times, there was gentle gurgling which rose to a roar when we passed by a flowing stream. On one occasion, we even splashed through the Achancoil River that flows all the way through the forest.

At one point the jeeps halted and all of us were bundled out for the trekking experience. We knew at once that it was a soft trek, but the path was uphill here and downhill there, so it did give the uninitiated gals a real thrill. The pathway wound between massive tree trunks and generally gave us the feel of a jungle without venturing deep into the real rainforests that was beyond.

Water! That was all we wanted after that two hour climb up and down; both to splash in as well as to drink. And we were thrilled to bits when we heard that our next destination was a waterfall. It had also begun to rain and soon the drizzle became a lusty downpour. Getting down midway on the narrow tarred road just inside the AVT plantations, we gathered our bathing gear and tumbled down to a lovely pool which was at the foot of a beautiful little waterfall, almost custom made for us. 

The waterfall gathered momentum as the rain got heavier, and I still can’t say which I enjoyed most, bathing in the rain in the pool or bathing under the water fall. The rocks rose high above the water fall and it was an easy climb, though slippery…and a few of us did venture up till they slithered all the way down into the pool at a particularly difficult point among screams of laughter. We drowned our stress in the pool and washed away our sorrows in the rain. I decided I didn’t need that massage at the Spa at the resort; the water fall had done it for me without any charge.

Our stomachs reminded us of lunch and as we sped towards the resort, the rains moved away for sunshine again. It was a pleasantly dry ground that greeted us at the Contour. The rains had been entirely for our benefit I guess, and it looked like it was going to bless us again. The air was very cool on our skins, and dark rain clouds rumbled across the mountains promising a wet afternoon. We changed from our wet skins into dry clothes and settled down at one of the bamboo huts perched over the edge of the rocks to lunch as well as to watch the rains advance towards us.

This is one sight I will never forget in my life. The rains floated in from nowhere to each mountain top. Then it folded the mountains one by one in a wet silvery sheet and finally wrapped our abode in a cool blanket. It was the perfect time to nod off, we were just tired enough to cuddle up. I doubt if I have ever had a better afternoon nap. When we woke, we saw the final act of the ballet in the skies, a wonderful rainbow shimmering in glorious colours from one mountain to the other. What a grand finale it was!

There seemed to be something like a big rock just out in the grounds, and we were told that it was a nice place to spend the evening. To be frank, I didn’t like the idea of visiting the rock; strolling barefoot, hand in hand with hubby in the rain-softened grounds was more my idea of a perfect evening. The boy on the hotel staff seemed so enthusiastic about it that hubby decided that we would oblige him for a few minutes and visit their prize location.

All my prejudices went rolling down the sides of the rocky plateau the minute we set foot there. Whoever said it was just a rock, unless they were offering a geological definition? It was a full eight acres of it, a single one mind you, and rolling on and on with the green rain washed valley glistening back at you at its sides. The sky was a newly painted blue and stretched on like it would never end, then disappearing down the sides of the rock. The silence was awesome, to say the least, and the sunset gripped us with its real magic. We watched the blue sky change shades into pale orange and then a brilliant red splashed all over the horizon. I compared the sunset at the beach in my town and couldn’t believe it was the same phenomenon I was watching here. The same brilliance yet so different!

And that was not all; just as the sun was going down we turned to watch another spectacle on the eastern skies. It was a full moon night, and a golden moon hung from the skies, flaunted by a couple of stars. I guess we were just blessed by nature that day, to witness so much of it magnificence in the same day. The rains, the mountains, the sunset, the moonrise, the mists, the waterfalls…our cup of joy was full.

The radiant moon kept us lingering till the mosquitoes chased us to safer zones. A fire dance awaited us, and although the kids in the group went oohs and aahs, I guess nothing could take away the thrill from my day, so we went to sleep declining offers of a tent for the night. It looked like rain again, and we weren’t the seasoned trekkers who love the grounds more than a warm bed.

The morning was all that was promised to us, a pure white blanket of mist over our cottage. After a while, peep holes opened into the blanket and green and white strips showed into our day. I guess this was all I could ask from a holiday, a treat for the mind and the body. I was ready with my camera for the journey downhill this time and enjoyed every moment of it, although there was this feeling of a holiday over! I guess it was not about the sceneries rather than the experiences; you can’t beat nature for those wonderful moments.

Go to Konni if you can, I recommend it for all seasons.

How to get there

By road it is 100 Kms from Trivandrum and 150 Kms from Kochi.

  40 Kms from Thenmala Dam
150 Kms from Kochi Air Port
130 Kms from Thekkedy
  50 Kms from Railway Station (Chengannur)
100 Kms from Kovalam/ Trivandrum
  70 Kms from Kollam

There is just one resort in the vicinity, the Contour Jungle Resorts, where we stayed. http://www.contourjungle.com/