MARUTHIMALA

Date: 6th September 2009

It was on a rather rainy Sunday morning that I rose up at around 6 am all geared up for a trip to Chadayamangalam and Kottukal Rock cut cave temple. When I revealed my plans to my hostel mate Anuraj, he suggested a similar spot near his home called Maruthimala where we all could go together. I thought about it and concluded that it was the better option as I would face some difficulty in going solo to these places in this climate. However due to miscommunication all of us did not reach the place together.

So myself and Shijil sir, were left to travel by ourselves while Anuraj, Arun, Shashi, Shivprasad reached the place well before us. There are few buses plying between Kollam and Odanavattom, the base village for the climb up to the top of Maruthimala. The group comprising of four people I mentioned earlier had caught the through bus going to Odanavattom. Myself and Shijil Sir had a difficult time in first locating the bus and then when we finally got hold of it we could not get inside as it did not wait for us and sped away. In the mean time we thought of enquiring about the boat ride from Kollam to Allapuzha or some other place nearby in case we were unable to reach Odanavattom.

We went to the Tourist information centre near the KSRTC Bus stand. We could then catch a bus from the Bus stand to reach Pooyapally, which would be the place from where we could catch another bus to Odanavattom. We enquired about the boat rides with the person at the information centre who informed us that the boat service had already left at 10:30 am. This boat would reach Allapuzha by 6:30 pm only. This ride costs 400 bucks!!

Other service available at that time was the one at around 1:30 pm which would take us near Thekkumbhagam, Chavara. The fare was 10 Rs per head. We decided to skip the boat ride and went to the bus stand, where we found a bus going to Kulathupuzha waiting for us. We made ourselves comfortable on two adjacent seats. There is good scenery on this route. We had left Kollam at around 1:10 pm and reached Poyapally by around 2:15 pm. We caught the bus to Kottarakara at around 2:20 pm and reached Odanavattom at 2:30 pm.

Anuraj had come there with his auto-rickshaw to receive us. We reached the point from where we had to abandon the auto rickshaw and trek by foot at 2:45 pm. We could not see the huge rocks at the top due to the dense rubber plantations in between us and the top. We reached on top at around 3 pm. There are many rocks here and surprisingly even coconut trees can be seen here at such a height. There are two set of impressions or water which are supposed to be Lord Krishna’s foot impression when he stamped his feet on the rocks so as to provide water to Arjun and the Pandavas when they were living in exile. We explored the whole of this hill and returned back after taking some snaps.

Getting There:

Direct Buses are there to Odanavattom from Kollam but frequency is less. Else one can catch a bus to Kulathupuzha, get down at Poyapally and catch another bus to Odanavattom.

Bus fare up to Poyapally Rs 12 per head
Bus fare up to Odanavattom is Rs. 4.50 per head
Direct Bus will save you Rs.3.50

Best Time: Anytime except during heavy rains. The rocks can be pretty slippery.