I'm writing this blog to help others and give some insight into experiences that I have had travelling.
In this instance, my brother and I were backpacking India and arrived in Munnar. Being fairly experienced hikers from western Canada, we weren't too keen on paying for a guide and we couldn't seem to find any information in the city or online about self guided or unguided trekking around Munnar. We figured this could be because the tea companies prefer no trespassers without permission, but we had a sneaking suspicion it may be because the locals would prefer you don't know how to get around without a guide (money talks). So we set out on a mission to self guide ourselves up the Lakshmi Hills Trek with only a litre of water each and a couple packs of cashew cookies for food (I recommend 2 L of water and maybe a real lunch per person - suncscreen, a hat and sunglasses would be an excellent idea on a sunny day, rain jacket during a wet day). We hiked in the first week of February and the weather was fairly forgiving. Around 30 C and sunny with some wind on the ridge.
I had found a vague mention of the trailhead from a blog post I found after searching the Internet, so we headed to the Munnar Headworks Dam with high hopes and hopeful spirits (we hadn't had a drink in a few days).
I tracked our journey using an app called ski tracks, which follows your movement and tracks the data in a nifty program. Not plugging it, just giving a heads up in case anyone tries to argue with my data.
From the Munnar Headworks Dam the hike to the 4th hill (I believe it was the top one with the cross on it) took a slow 2.5 hours and was approximately 3 kilometres. Starting at 1445 meters the climb was 336 meters in elevation to 1781 meters measured from the stone at the top. We made it back down in about an hour for a total of 3.5 hours, 6 kilometres, and more than a few wrong turns.
Directions are as follows:
From the Munnar Headworks Dam, cross the 85 highway and look for a set of stone steps going up to some houses. Alternatively, about 100 meters up the road closer to Munnar, you may walk up a plantation road that is blocked with a walking path around it.
Walk up around the houses following the stone path until it curves left past the last house and turns into a dirt plantation path.
Follow the plantation path taking the first left unhill and then the next left as well. This leads to a steep uphill climb that takes you near to the top of the first hill.
Follow the path along the top of the tea bushes until it dips down to meet another hill. At this point take a left and follow a single track trail up the ridge to the right. It leads to the top of the second hill.You can also go left up the other ridge to the top of the first hill, but we passed on that.
Once on the path to the right hand ridge the trail is pretty easy to follow and doesn't need any direction to follow it to the top most hill.
We relaxed and took some pictures from the top and made our way back. NOTE: I recommend following the same path back down, but we felt adventurous and went for a walk through the tea plantation.
In between the 3rd hill and 2nd hill we took a cut trail north into the plantation and ended up with no where to go but back. Naturally we bush whacked our way straight down and got covered in dirt and scratched by bushes. Eventually we found a plantation path that sort of went directly down instead of leading us in circles and we ended our hike at the hill view munnar hotel.
Hopefully this helps somebody somewhere who dislikes paying for guides and likes free adventure as much as I do. Feel free to comment with more information or if I have given any incorrect information. I do not want to steer anyone wrong.
Thanks for reading,
Mark
In this instance, my brother and I were backpacking India and arrived in Munnar. Being fairly experienced hikers from western Canada, we weren't too keen on paying for a guide and we couldn't seem to find any information in the city or online about self guided or unguided trekking around Munnar. We figured this could be because the tea companies prefer no trespassers without permission, but we had a sneaking suspicion it may be because the locals would prefer you don't know how to get around without a guide (money talks). So we set out on a mission to self guide ourselves up the Lakshmi Hills Trek with only a litre of water each and a couple packs of cashew cookies for food (I recommend 2 L of water and maybe a real lunch per person - suncscreen, a hat and sunglasses would be an excellent idea on a sunny day, rain jacket during a wet day). We hiked in the first week of February and the weather was fairly forgiving. Around 30 C and sunny with some wind on the ridge.
I had found a vague mention of the trailhead from a blog post I found after searching the Internet, so we headed to the Munnar Headworks Dam with high hopes and hopeful spirits (we hadn't had a drink in a few days).
I tracked our journey using an app called ski tracks, which follows your movement and tracks the data in a nifty program. Not plugging it, just giving a heads up in case anyone tries to argue with my data.
From the Munnar Headworks Dam the hike to the 4th hill (I believe it was the top one with the cross on it) took a slow 2.5 hours and was approximately 3 kilometres. Starting at 1445 meters the climb was 336 meters in elevation to 1781 meters measured from the stone at the top. We made it back down in about an hour for a total of 3.5 hours, 6 kilometres, and more than a few wrong turns.
Directions are as follows:
From the Munnar Headworks Dam, cross the 85 highway and look for a set of stone steps going up to some houses. Alternatively, about 100 meters up the road closer to Munnar, you may walk up a plantation road that is blocked with a walking path around it.
Walk up around the houses following the stone path until it curves left past the last house and turns into a dirt plantation path.
Follow the plantation path taking the first left unhill and then the next left as well. This leads to a steep uphill climb that takes you near to the top of the first hill.
Follow the path along the top of the tea bushes until it dips down to meet another hill. At this point take a left and follow a single track trail up the ridge to the right. It leads to the top of the second hill.You can also go left up the other ridge to the top of the first hill, but we passed on that.
Once on the path to the right hand ridge the trail is pretty easy to follow and doesn't need any direction to follow it to the top most hill.
We relaxed and took some pictures from the top and made our way back. NOTE: I recommend following the same path back down, but we felt adventurous and went for a walk through the tea plantation.
In between the 3rd hill and 2nd hill we took a cut trail north into the plantation and ended up with no where to go but back. Naturally we bush whacked our way straight down and got covered in dirt and scratched by bushes. Eventually we found a plantation path that sort of went directly down instead of leading us in circles and we ended our hike at the hill view munnar hotel.
Hopefully this helps somebody somewhere who dislikes paying for guides and likes free adventure as much as I do. Feel free to comment with more information or if I have given any incorrect information. I do not want to steer anyone wrong.
Thanks for reading,
Mark
