Kanthalloor is a village in Idukki district of Kerala. It is a village snuggled in the Western Ghats of India. The salubrious climate and the attractive landscapes and wide diversity of tropical crops coupled with the closeness of Munnar, has transformed this village into a tourist destination. Hence many tourists select their kerala tour packages to this destination recently.
You venture into a forest the minute you leave what is left of Kothamangalam’s boundaries and drive out of the Neriyamangalam bridge. Flanked by thick greenery on either side, the road winds up the hills to misty Munnar and Marayoor and to the less-seen serenity of Kanthalloor beyond.
The road less taken winds up to a land unsullied by the crassness of tourism overdrive. The local folks call it a paradise on earth, the kind of place where milk and honey flows. Kanthalloor, which is in Kerala's Idukki district, is any fruit lover’s paradise. Its rich haul of apple, orange, strawberry, gooseberry, blackberry, egg fruits, passion fruit and more is proof enough of its paradise tag.
As you drive up to the hill town of Munnar, the air turns cool. The waterfalls along the way can be felt from afar, much before they thunder into view and drench you to the skin with their jets of water if you are up to it. With the Western Ghats fortressing the place and covering it with a canopy of green, it is a joyride all the way up along the 180-km drive from Ernakulam to Kanthalloor.
The place begins to cast its spell once the drive takes you from the mushroom-green of Pallivasal’s vast tea estates to the Munnar road and more stretches of tea. The serene sheets of green go all the way until the drive reaches the sandalwood forests of Marayoor.
Folks call this place Marayoor for its blend of sandalwood scent and the sweetness of jaggery, for which the place is famous. Though Marayoor sharkkara is much sought-after for its purity and sweetness, those round balls of jaggery are in reality made in the sugarcane fields of Kanthalloor.
Cross the Kovilkadavu bridge across the river which flows from the forests of Chinnar and it is right into Kanthalloor that one drives in. Far from the madding crowd, the diminutive village, hemmed in by evergreen forests reminds one of the past transcending into the now, going by the great number of dolmens dotting the place.
The megalithic Muniyara dolmens are burial chambers, which have been subjected to much research by anthropologists who have descended on Marayoor and Kanthalloor fascinated no end by these pre-historic burial cists.
It is next to impossible to drive through the forests once you reach Kanthalloor junction. The path is strewn with deep pits and boulders.
The next stop is the Kulachivayal colony where Kanthalloor’s native tribes live. This is the only world they know. Sons and daughters of the soil, they have inhabited the place for years now. Over 50 families live here in one bedroom-one-kitchen house and almost all of them are related by blood.
Take the narrow mud path below Kulachivayal which opens out into a wide space covered with lemongrass. There in the middle of the land stands what looks like a small tree house beside which is a tiny thatched hut with its sides polished with mud. It apparently belongs to Pazhaniswamy who is quite a tribal artist and inventor.
For the local traders, Kanthalloor is Kerala’s Kashmir. It is a veritable apple orchard. Oranges, strawberries, blackberries, egg fruit, passion fruit and a host of other fruits grow bountifully here. Among vegetables, cabbage, radish, peas, and tomato are farmed in abundance. kerala family packages to these destinations will be a different experience for family members.
Most of Kanthalloor and Marayoor farmers are settlers who made their way to this once forlorn land for the sake of greener pastures. They tilled the fertile virgin soil, planted and reaped to turn it into the proverbial land of milk and honey that it today is. Visitors have to pay a small fee to access the farms and their produce. The place never disappoints, for visitors go back loaded with ripe golden mangoes, oranges, apples, and passion fruit.
A peep into Marayoor’s sugarcane units is a must. The famous Marayoor jaggery is made from the juice extracted from the cane. A lot of its taste depends on the expertise of the man who makes it. The jaggery sells well in Ernakulam, Kottayam and Tamil Nadu.
Kanthalloor is a shutterbug’s canvas. Women with forest twigs on their heads, men with farm implements as well as sugarcane fields, jaggery units, sandalwood trees, forest growth, and undulating valleys are sights worth capturing on camera. What’s more, it’s the ultimate selfie destination. Some of Kanthalloor’s engaging sights include the elephant park near Keezhanthoor where a lot of rock caves and dolmens are present. The burial cists are preserved by the Forest Department.
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The evenings are a sight to behold when the place gets covered in a haze of red just before the sun dips, only to be covered by a shroud of mist by nightfall.
Have you ever seen snow falling from the mountains in the distance? Have you ever felt that you are covered with smoke in front of you? Did you know that the cold is filtered with a thousand hands and soaking up the spirit? Excluding all congestion and relationships, whether it is love, solitude or loneliness, Or any unnamed emotions, With a sigh, a warm, warm bosom sinks away from sight and thoughts, dropping down like a feather to the stellar wind. Have you ever dreamed of getting a snowball on the pavement ...
Then you. come to Kanthalloor.
Munnar, Maraoor, and Kanthallur are on their way to winter again. But if you want to know more about the fog of the snow, visit Kanthalloor. Travelers can experience the novelty of snow and cold as a mere cyclical way of life, but also for those who are drowning in it. Traveling unconsciously with the shadows that slowly fade. One can search the history, kindness, eagerness, and hope of a country in the dimly lit cataracts and the slow-moving bears...And when you come back, you have a thousand memories you will never forget ...Each journey is complete when you go through the experience.
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