Idukki, Kerala

Famous for its dams and power generation, the mountainous and dense forests of Idukki is what we zeroed on for a short vacation. Having packed our bags we set on the road and reached Green Berg resort, where we had pre-booked ourselves.

Green Berg Resorts is nice and snug overlooking valley and far away mountains. The cottages are neat, warm and welcoming. We checked into one such cottage and since it was late afternoon, decided to stay put at the resort for the day. We took a long walk on the walkway and enjoyed the splendid view for sometime before we headed to the badminton court for a game. Just close to the court is a nice park for kids to play around on various swings and slides.

At any given point in time, you can hear at least 5-6 varieties of birds chirping! It can be a good pastime for the bird lovers, no doubt. Besides, they have as pets – goose and a gander along with different colored rabbits!

It rained that evening hence confining us to our room, though we sat out watching the mist coupled with rains with lots of hot snacks to keep us warm and happy 🙂

After a good nights rest and a wholesome breakfast the next morning we set off to check out the Cheruthoni, Kulamavu and Idukki dams. The Idukki Dam is currently the largest Arch Dam in Asia, at 555 feet in height. Together, the three dams have created an artificial lake that is 60 km² wide.

The name Idukki has been derived from the Malayalam word ‘idukku’ meaning narrow gorge and offers diverse attractions like wild life sanctuaries, hill stations, spice plantation centers and mountain treks.

One thing I have seen is common to most of the mountains in Kerala is the 14 crosses and what beats me is local Christian community climb the steep slopes till the last cross almost on a daily basis! One such mount in Idukki was the Kalvari mount. What to say, for the first time in my life I wanted to call quits but hubz pushed me to the top. The breathtaking view from the top was so good that I had to stop cribbing about the nasty climb.

On returning we check with the manager at the resort if a campfire was a possibility, since we were the only guests on that that. Usually this is the scene around any festival and we find it the ideal time to travel. With less people around you can enjoy and be one with the nature to the best. Anyways, the manager readily agreed and arranged for a campfire for the two of us. An interesting thing we noted was that the campfire was lighted from the top and not from the bottom, like usually people do. This way less amount of wood was required and it lasted also for long. A tip we carried with us for our future trips as campfire has always been our prime focus during a nippy evening on a hill station.

The next day we got ourselves for the costliest boat ride ever through the resort guys. Run by government, this boat takes you around the catchment area of Kulamavu dam and cost you Rs.1000 per ride. We were drinking in the scenic beauty when the boatman pointed us two wild elephants! As we moved closer, we saw two more getting out of the water. The three female elephants stood in circle around the tiny male tusker protecting him. This is the first time I saw elephants in its natural surroundings. As if to add to our excitement another elephant came running down a slope and joined the main group. We were completely in awe with the live show by the elephants.

After freshening up and a quick snack break we decided to check out the Green Berg Rock viewpoint. Any climb is easy after the Kalvari mount. The viewpoint climb was a breeze and the view beautiful. We missed getting our books, as it was the nicest place to sit and relax that we could think of.

This was our last day in Idukki and we were trying to capture all the beauty this lovely place has to offer. Fully refreshed we headed back home the next day ready to take on the world 🙂

About resort …click here

The route we took via road: Kochi -> Tripunithara->Muvattupuzha->Thodupuzha->Moolamattam->Kulamavu. It is approximately 95 kms from Ernakulam.