The Peechi Dam treks are one of the lesser known (or maybe just to us) treks in Thrissur district. The dam itself is a very popular tourist spot for Thrissur people with its beautiful view and the adjacent children's park.
We came to know about it only very recently and it would be a shame not to go since it's so near. I'm not going to lie, even after skimming through a short YT video about the trek I was low-key expecting a paramb trek. Spoiler alert, it was not. It was beautiful and well worth the time, effort and the money. So this should take up your whole one day if you're planning a trip to Thrissur. Definitely include this in your itinerary.
The trek starts at 8am in the morning and finishes in the afternoon, according to the people. We finished by around 2pm but the guide said it can go till 5pm sometimes in the summer because they'll have to take different routes according to elephant sightings. Animals do come in more into the trekking path/dam area in the summer for water.
It's a minimum 4 people(₹2000) trek for moodal mala and ₹500 additional per head. The information said it's an 8km trek, but 2 of our smartwatches read 13kms and Google fit on my phone(no watch connected), 8.8kms. It did feel more like 13kms, or maybe we wanted to believe so. xD
You can call 8547603473 ( Vijeesh) or 8547603470 a day prior to book the trek so that they can book a guide accordingly.
One guide is assigned per group and they trek as a separate group. This can be good or bad according to your ‘social quotient’. I personally prefer this because some personalities can be very ‘different’ and can ruin it for all of us. At least here I know I can outrun my brother and leave him to the bears/tigers/leopards/centipede or anything which takes him.
Distance: 8 or 13kms
Price: 2000 for 4, 500 per extra person
Difficulty: Low to Medium
Mosquitos: ∞
After a few hundred metres of tarred road we begin our trek into the wild. Some area in the beginning are plantation area and from then it’s totally reservoir. Our guide Narayanan chetan kept explaining about many of the flora and fauna around us, of which some we know were true, so most of them must be true. We hmm -ed along for most of the fascinating information which we forgot 2 mins later. We were sceptical in the beginning because some guide do tend to ‘thallal’ enough to compete with Mammooty from ‘Megham’. But not our Narayanan chetan, he was very friendly, knowledgeable and led the pack valiantly.
Vennilav / venn thek/ tea, arrowroot, bhrana / poo maruth, punna / poona / elantha / jujube pazham
After about 2kms and a meadow of the manja koova aka arrowroot (not kasthuri manjal), we reach a big rock with fresh aana pindam (elephant poop) which is our first rest point. From here begins a steep incline which guide chetan described as Malayattoor-like and he gave us some perfect sticks, so we knew shit’s about to get serious. This was probably the hardest part of the trek, but looking back I want to say it wasn't that difficult idk why.
At the end of the first incline starts the reservoir and further up we reach our first view point! 10 min more and we reach a point where from we can almost see the Kuthiran tunnel and a long stretch of NH544. Next high-view point had a view of parts of the dam and on the way we got to see Malabar giant squirrel, many puzhus (worms), grey langurs and even 4 hornbills! Unfortunately we didnt get proper photos of the hornbills but it was a sight to behold. You can distinguish the normal hornbill and the great hornbill with the helicopter sound it makes when flying away. It’s truly majestic.
From the nice dam view point after enough break and bananas, our next stop was ‘evergreen’ which apparently stays green throughout the year. In summer this is where most of the animals come for water and hence your chances for animal sighting are higher in summer. This was the 2nd most difficult part of the trek, but it was a decline this time, a never ending one at that. It was a steep decline through a marshland-like area. For normal treks it’s when we reach the topmost height we get the ‘achievement’ feeling. Here even though we have 3-4 such points, it was felt when we reached the ‘Evergreen’. It was just beautiful.
I think it was almost 12:15pm when we reached this point and it’s another 3.5kms from here to the destination, or rather the starting point. We decided to have our packed lunch here and Narayanan chetan gave us some of his fish curry made with small fishes caught from this very dam itself. It was a local style spicy fish curry made with kudampuli (Dried Malabar Tamarind). It was super sweet of him.
The stunning rest-view was made even more stunning when 2 elephants on the other side decided to came out of the water and have their lush green lunch. We extended our rest for 10-15 min more minutes under the shade of a huge tree (forgot the name) enjoying the view before heading back.
Mushrooms of Peechi
We reached back around 13:30, left our beloved sticks at the starting point of the trek and shared our experience with the enthusiastic forest officials at the station. We even had a brief conversation with one of the famous official snake handlers Xavier Antony Kunjappu, who shared many of his brave stories with us. We learnt a lot more about the place from them which is now home to most of the rescued snakes from Thrissur, including >60 King Cobras! Hoping to come back in the summer for more animal sightings, we bid goodbye to everyone at the station and headed back home super happy.
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