Above about a thousand metres this range stops being a plantation and becomes something older: bald granite domes with dry grass on their shoulders and dense shola forest packed into the folds between them. Three of those rocks are reachable from the plateau, and the useful thing to know is that they are not interchangeable.
Kesavan Para — the one you walk in to
Kesavan Para is about four and a half kilometres from the settlement and two from the Kaikatty junction, and then there is a path. Red laterite earth under a canopy that closes completely overhead, the light coming down green, and then the trees stop and you are standing on an acre of bare granite tilted out over the valley. It is the only walk here that does not turn on the Forest Division’s permission, which is why it is the one people do. Put someone in the photograph: the rock has no scale of its own.
Karadipara — the one you step onto
Karadipara is a rock shoulder on the same road, a kilometre and a bit from Kaikatty, and it takes ten minutes. What makes it worth the stop is what is not in the view: no tea, no coffee, no cardamom, just an unbroken fold of wet evergreen forest dropping into a valley and a steep conical peak standing above the ridge on the far side. On this plateau, a view with no planting in it is rare. There is no sign and no railing, and there is usually nobody there.
Ranimedu — the one you earn
Ranimedu is a working plantation with an open grass-and-rock top above it, named by Kerala Tourism among the trekking places on these hills. The last stretch is estate track rather than road and most people finish on foot or on a bicycle. It faces the other way from the rest: not the plain, but ridge after forested ridge with cloud lying in the folds, and at first light a far peak standing above a flat sea of cloud. It is a dawn place, which is a good argument for staying on the estate.
What they have in common
Nothing is built at any of them — no railing, no shelter, no shop, no toilet, no dependable phone signal. All three are slippery when wet and all three have unfenced drops. They are elephant and gaur country, and the paths that link the high points to one another appear on no signboard. Boots, long trousers, water carried up, and an early start.
Frequently asked questions
Which one should I do if I only do one?
Kesavan Para, because you get the forest, the walk and the rock in half a morning, and the path in is half the pleasure of it.
Can I do two in a morning?
Kesavan Para and Karadipara are a few hundred metres apart across the hillside on the same road, and they pair naturally. Ranimedu is a separate morning because it is only worth doing at dawn.
Do I need permission?
Not in practice for Kesavan Para or Karadipara. Ranimedu is a working estate, so ask. The longer Forest Division routes need the division’s permission and that answer changes with the season.