Monday, October 09, 2006

The Guna Cave - Devils Kitchen

Enter at your own risk... Surprised to hear this statement? Yes, Looks like Beauty comes with Lots of Risks involved. There is no doubt that this place is very interesting to visit at the same time its bit dangerous to visit too. Once There were troup of 12 got deeper into the cave and never turned back it seems.

Just now during my reading I found that there is a Lucky person survived after he fell inside the very same Guna Cave. Here is the News

Here are some sharings from few blogs for I brought it down together especially for those who search this terms in GOOGLE.

If you look a little lost around Kodai Lake, you’ll have at least four people walking up to you chanting names of ‘points’, ‘sights’ and ‘treks’. I say I don’t want to see touristy places, only directions to a certain Guna Cave. Shock, awe, disappointment: It’s a place that’s fenced with barbwire ever since 12 boys decided to go too deep into the caves five years ago, and didn’t come back. The crowd disperses, except one man. Selvam is a driver-cum-guide, and once I’m in his Ambassador, he fishes out a little book of 28 must-see sights. Published in 1975.

Guna Caves is the local name for Devil’s Kitchen, a deep bat-infested chamber between three naturally arranged imposing boulders (Pillar Rocks), a sight that is listed in Selvam’s book. It’s now called Guna Caves after it was turned into a romantic kidnapper’s lair for a Tamil movie. Loud teenagers stand just outside the fencing around the cave, screaming angstful “Abiramiiiii!”s (name of kidnapped in said movie). Selvam and I go around the base of the pillar rock. Me, petrified about being the potential thirteenth ghost in the cave, and Selvam, looking for a certain hallucinogenic ‘magic mushroom’ that gets him a good price from “Keralites and foreigners”.

We find an entry, veiled by bramble. “It’s a path only some of us know about,” says Selvam. The rocks are loose and wobbly, the fluorescent green moss making everything slippery. Bats are shrieking from somewhere really south, and we, errr… are heading in the same direction. Someone is haggling for a kilo of carrots somewhere far above and it sounds warm and safe there. Inside Devil’s Kitchen, however, the air’s muggy, the walls smooth, with little shelves that look perfect for a perch. Selvam chucks a pebble that’s instantly swallowed by the darkness. We hear the plonk only after about 10 seconds, and a crash of wing flapping (of bats we jolted awake). We’d discovered fresh country by simply stumbling on it. This is the kind of place that teaches you to how important it is to have a firm footing.

Above experience is shared by Blogger RO


Photos of The Guna Cave
Courtesy : Traveller Prabodhan Potdar

Another Closer view of the Cave - Courtesy: Ajay

Warning Given to Tourist at the Guna Cave (Courtesy: http://peakday.blogspot.com)

Top View of the Cave

Want to know more places to see in Kodaikanal? Click Here

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

its awesome ,the cave,once ive been there but had to return just seeing that gate . once ,for sure, ll go there explore the place "in my own risk".
thnk u for giving a brief still worthy description about guna cave.

Saravanan said...

You are welcome Anonymous Visitor. To me its not worth risk taking...I too felt like going in during my trip to Kodai about 3 weeks back but why to put ourself in danger just for few mins thrill. Think over it and decide. But please make sure that you at least go as a gang with permission from local authority and keep people informed about your visit.

Anonymous said...

thnks for that,guna cave leaves me with great curiosity.i am so very much attracted by the cave and i know that i cant go there alone.
if i get a chance to visit guna cave again i would surely take your advices in to count .

Saravanan said...

Hi Anjali,

Yes, you have got the point right.

Anonymous said...

hi saravanan,

I couldn't read the news you included in the blog about the
person who survived because it is in Tamil.But i know this person and i have read the news about him in a malayalam news paper .This person is a keralite and so am i.
I read this news some months ago and that was the first time i came to know about the cave .

Saravanan said...

Hi Anjali,

Yes. It is incredidble. I had a chance to visit Kodai couple of months back during my visit to India. I just passed by entrance to Guna Cave and noticed the very same sign board that I have posted here that was keep on reminding me of route to an adventure in the dangerous midst

Anonymous said...

ss i agree its risk but i have entered it and returned safely even now when i think about it,its very thrill..... i dont know how i did it Dare to get down but i did it!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

i have gone inside. it was a thrilling experience for me i cant forget in my life.Really dare to do it. ss i did it.

Saravanan said...

Dear Manoj,

Glad to hear that you explored the place with much of thrill and you are really daring...

Share your experience. Send me another article I will post it here

Anonymous said...

hi. most of my education was in Kodai and i'd been down there in my student days with a bunch of pals. half of them backed out and a few of us who did get down had an awe-inspiring experience. before taking the first step in we did pray hard, secretly though and i'm sure even the atheists did. it's beautiful alright but too dangerous not only because of the fall but also due to the slippery terrain. sadly back in those days we were'nt equipped with digi-cams/cams. so it was good looking at the snaps you've taken. i don't know if i'd dare to get down now given it has been barricaded, but if i ever did i'd like to take a shot from down there, camera facing up. ah!

kishi said...

hi,

Reading ur article , the news article and seeing some posts abt the Guna caves.i really feel chilled.....I went there in 1999 when i was studying 9th std.I always have a sense of adventure.....and decided to go till the point kamal was standing ...I went with 2 other people who were so excited to go down..I never knew abt the danger of this place except the fact that I want to reach the pt.....On my way I found 1 black gorge and just crossed it very casually...I didnt have knowledge of how deep it was...so after many years realizing my child's play.it sends chill down my spine......!!! God is there !!

- kishan

s l y said...

hi friend ur astonishingly true....... have u heard about sri. shenbaga nadar who have died there in 1955 and his monument is also erected there warning us all...
loving friend
kishore

yatharth said...

i have crossed the wired fence which you were talking about and been to that slippery path of green slippery rocks that leads to guna caves but i didn't had the guts to actually enter it ....
but as it has been said its a splendid sight and all the risk is worth it .
i have made my mind that one day i will enter the devils kitchen and return safely .
to all those who are planning to go there ... BEST OF LUCK

Anonymous said...

Ufffffffff, I never knew how the guna caves will be, but I have seen in the movie, with the words of my friends, started going beyond the fence and for a second I thought I lost my life, Its very slippery and I slipped but I catched hold the branch and rocks which saved my life, reached half a way, my thighs got cramped, my heart beat raised, that place appeared to me like a hell, I cant go back now, so decided to go down to the end as my friends wished. So being very careful got down fully till the quick sand, had a smoke, climbed up and happy realizing that am still alive, pissed out, it took shit outta me.And the forest office saw us climbing down guna caves and climbed up back, all were fined of Rs 1000/-, gud experience but decided never to go back again and risk my life.

anjali said...

i am that first anonymous person who commented , well i never got a chance to visit that place till now !! i m anxious to go there and still curious :) hope i can make it soon

Saravanan said...

Anjali,

Risking your life for a few mins thrill is worth or not is something that you should decide before deciding about going there.

razack said...

Reading about guna cave makes me thrilling and fearing vow Anjali ur following this cave blog for 5 years

Unknown said...

very trilling to hear about guna cave.I have been to kodaikannal many times just visiting dolphins nose and a water falls which is little deep inside the forest which one foreigner took me der awesome spot and little risk to.. now planning to go this weekend thats oct 12th with my own risk eager to visit guna cave and ill definitely make a move... kodai is very superb heaven..

milalex said...

As a student at Kodai School, now Kodai International school, in the 1950ies, I remember visiting the Devils Kitchen, now called Guma caves several times. At that time you could enter the caves, one always stayed on the north side of the cave, as here were stories, that there once had been a deep pit on the south side of the main cave. and if you went deep enough into them you could assend out of the cave, up a winding passage way that was quite narrow, to an exit on the far side of the pillars. One would then hike up a narrow trail up to the top of the rocks. All this was great fun when I was in my early teens.

F. Wilson

sam franklin said...

I am a other state student i just visited guna caves it was all fenced and every one told that many people died there and there body r unseen and untraceable and another doubt is there light in the cave till the end coz i need some pics ofthe inner parts i.e sights of the cave and it is said the base of the pillar rock has temperature range of 700 degree Celsius to 1100 degree Celsius then how did u all go to the base of the pillar rock saravan sir and that to there r many cave's not only guna cave in pillar rock region and many endangered species of animal's to then how cum ur visit Sir and plZ ensure with some beliveing pic's plz it a humble request thank u

Christmas crib decoration said...

Guna cave is nothing to see right now I went yesterday there but cave was closed due to some death and now it's using as view point and the path is very difficult to reach old ages don't waste yout energy to reach there teenagers only can enjoy