The Name : Ilaveezhapoonchira

According to a legend, the Pandavas had a sojourn here during their life incognito. Their wife, Draupadi, came to take a bath at a lake, which was here at that time. Some devas, bewitched by her beauty, tried to satisfy their voyeuristic itch. King of devas, Lord Indra, came to know about what was going on, and built screens or hills heaping flowers and prevented them from indulging in such a practice. And the pond thus became a dam isolated by floral hills. Since there were no trees around the bund it was always free of leaves and so it was called Ilaveezhapoonchira or the floral bund where the leaves never fall.

The main attractions are the Ride of 7 Km to top in 4wheel drive (Jeep), 3Km walk to the Hill Station, and the beautiful view from the top of the hill, which is 3200Ft high.

You can see 7 Districts in KERALA from here, and there is also a big cave which can accommodate around 50 people inside.

At the spot you can view four hillocks and between them a verdant valley. Atop of one of these hills, Kudayathoor Vindhyan, one can view large parts of Idukki, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Alappuzha, Pathanamthitta and Thrissur districts; it also offers excellent views of sunrise and sunset.

We started our tour around 6:45 from Chengaloor, my native in Thrissur Dist, and took NH47 straight to reached Angamaly, and took diversion on SH1 to Mattoor, around 8:25Am we reached Mattoor and from there our President of the Tour Mr. Anto K.C boarded the bus.

We took a small break at Perumbavoor for break fast around 8:45AM and resumed the Journey in 25Mins

This is the navigation sign on the main road pointing to ILAVEEZHAPOONCHIRA 7KM

Photo taken from Bus while taking the upwards route of 7KM to Ilaveezhapoonchira.

This is the last area where the buses can come, ahead there was some construction going and we have to stop the bus here and take the ”NADARAJA” ie; we thought of walking the rest, as we were not sure how long was the top station.

We can only see the zigzag road ahead, boys started climbing instantly but we know that Moms and Aunts would n’t go much far. So we took…

Mr. President enquiring to local people regarding the possibilities of travel to top.

Oh just after 600Mtrs Climb they have started to rest for the time, so..

While we are down the valley we can see the beauty of the Mountain from here itself, it looked sooooooo far.

We took a Jeep 4Wheel which came across and asked him whether he can carry 21 People to the Top, he agreed and it was Sebastian Chettan’s vehicle, so we rushed in and started the upwards climb, as we 5 were hanging around the body just like monkeys, we really enjoyed.

We can see each turn and roads clear and look around, my brother was shooting even with one hand with his mobile while on the side of the vehicle, I was having trouble hanging with one hand to the Jeep and I held the metal bars with 2 hands and wasn’t able to even take the camera to my hand.

But the 7Km ride was fantastic and memorable for a long time.

Catholic church in the route.

This was our first Rock climb after we reached the top by Jeep and from here around 3 Km to top and we have to walk that distance.

We took another break after 1KM walk and this will be the point [BASE STATION] where some of the elder members will be staying as the rest of the climb is difficult for them so we took some snacks and kept one water jug with us for the rest of the journey and one was in this base.

Antony took a small break to a higher rock and was sitting there for sometime

Bijoy accompanying Antony on top

Sr. Rosemary distributing the snacks

Ready for the rest of the climb..

A great view from the base station

Lush Greenery of the Valleys

Princy Aunty Walking Alone

Greenery all around

You can see in this the highest peak which is around 3200Ft high from sea level

GREEN VALLEY

Almost on top of the mountain and we can see the beauty

Another Short break at one of the big rocks..

From this shot you can see the road is mostly made of the stone which are round in shape and very difficult even for the 4Wheels to travel.

On the right we found some Rubber Plantations

Libin just found some shade and it was a nice shot

Another 4Wheel passed us while we were on the climb.

Some of the local people collecting grass.

We are almost there..

After reaching the top we took the right way to the PEAK where it was the VIEW POINT of 7 Districts and a Govt. Wireless station stand. It was around 1.5Km walk, but we all were tired.