Could not really find
a decent blog while planning for a trip to Silent Valley. So just thought of
updating my blog with some useful hints.
Silent Valley gets its
name due to the lack of Crickets in the forest. To reach there you need to
travel 22 kilometers inside the forest starting from the forest check post. To
cross the check post you need to get permission from the forest department. You
can call them at the below numbers in advance and book for the drive.
Phone: 04924-222056, 085 8989 5652
You just have to reach the office on time and relax. All the rest will be taken care by the Guide who
is going to be with you for the next five hours till you reach back safe.
The nearest bus stop
to the Forest office is Mukkali, which is on the road between Mannarkkad and Anaikkatti. From Mukkali the forest office is just 300 meters.
You can only get into
the forest in their vehicle accompanied by one trained Guide. If you need a
guide who speaks English you will have to reach the place by 08:30 in the morning. Even otherwise it is preferred to reach the place before 10:30 am. No
other vehicles are allowed inside. It takes almost 90 minutes to complete the
22 KM drive in the Jeep. It will cost you 1300 per jeep and 60 extra for each person. You can even share the Jeep with other visitors.
From the place where the
Jeep leaves you, there are two places you can reach to.
1) The Kunthi River
2) The Tower
It is 1.5 KM walk to
reach the Kunthi River from the place where the Jeep leaves you. The Guide will
always accompany you. There are lots of leaches in there and probably it would
be raining also. So consider carrying some leach repellents and an umbrella with you.
Dealing with the leaches can be found here.
http://www.goborneotravel.com/removing-leeches-properly/.
You can get the Leach
avoiders at the shop just before crossing the border, the guide will help you
with that as well.
From the tower you can get the high site view of the Kunthi
River.
Stay
1) There is government guest house and dormitory available in the forest office, from where the Jeep trip starts. For that you need to book it in advance in their website. They allocate rooms based on the request received from Trivandrum for those who requested through the website. Since we did not do that we did not get the room there.
2) There is a resort named
“Tree Top” near the place. The roads to the resort were too bad. You can give
it a try if you have a Jeep or leave your car somewhere and hire a Jeep from
Mukkali.
We were in Honda City,
also did not wanted to leave the car somewhere on the road side. So we went in
search of another stay.
3) We stayed at a lodge with the name "Grand Residency" at Kakkuppadi, which is two kilometers from Mukkali towards Anaikkatti. A decent one with Rs. 500 for non-A/C rooms and 1500 for A/C ones. It was a new lodge and was pretty neat. There are couple of shops nearby where you will get almost everything including Food.
3) We stayed at a lodge with the name "Grand Residency" at Kakkuppadi, which is two kilometers from Mukkali towards Anaikkatti. A decent one with Rs. 500 for non-A/C rooms and 1500 for A/C ones. It was a new lodge and was pretty neat. There are couple of shops nearby where you will get almost everything including Food.
Grand Residency: 04924 253 003, 08111 930 003.
4) If you go further 4 km down from there, there is a Chemmannur Resort. When we went there and enquired, they said
they would open only from the month of October.
Note:
All the roads pretty good.
The nearest liquor shop is almost 20 kilometers away either side from Kaakkuppadi.
Please feel free to visit the wiki page for more details.
http://wikitravel.org/en/Silent_Valley_National_Park
