My Trip to Wayanad - Land Of Spicy Hills
Wayanad have been on my wish list to visit from the start, so much so that I was willing to allocate a large proportion of my time to this ‘Land of Spicy Hills. This was my second trip after my marriage and was indeed the memorable one with my colleagues and friends. We had been to various hill stations in the Western Ghats belt like Parambikulam, Silent Valley, Nelliambathy,Kalakad, Courtallam,Ooty, Kodaikanal,Koodalur but still Wayanad was aexceptional one as we had special friends in the crew from other firms. Ton of thanks to Palaniappan, Raja, Dananjayan, Joe, Anand and Venkat for joining the trip with us in short period of notice.Hope they all enjoyed being with us while exploring Wayanad.
My sincere thanks to Pandya and Rams for finally agreeing on Wayanad even though they initially had plans to visit a beach resort at Mangalore.
Let me introduce our crew members
Starting from Left to Right : Venkat,Raja,Dhananjay,Arun ,Pandiya,Guru,Rajkumar,Sankar,Anand,Akilan, Joe,Durai,Thiags,Rams and Karthik
We boarded Mangalore Mail on Jan 6th at Chennai central and reached Palghat the following day morning. Excellent breakfast was served for us at Hotel Asma Towers and we started from there to Hotel Haritagiri, Kalpetta, Wayanad.
Day 1 at Wayanad...
When we reached the hotel at Kalpetta,the weather was not as pleasant as we expected, it was hot in the noon but still chill wind blew. Since I was the one who suggested Wayanad, "manasukulla oru chinna bayam kalandha uruthal ...enga ellorum serndhu oorugaa panna poraangannu..nalla velai evanum udhaikala.."
Guys were thrilled looking at the swimming pool in the hotel and plunged to cool their bodies. We had a good lunch andwith a big list of places to visit at Wayanad we started from the hotel at 3 PM in the afternoon
after a detail chat with the hotel manager.
Our first visit was to 'Edakkal caves'.
Edakkal caves is situated in the Ambukuthi Hills. Edakkal caves are two natural rock formationsm believed to have been formed by a large split in a huge rock. Inside, one finds ancient stone scripts, cave drawings and pictorial wall inscriptions of human and animal figures with peculiar head dresses, the swastik forms and symbols.
We visited Edakkal caves, where the cave walls have carvings made in 3000BC. Though it is a steep climb, but it is worth the effort. Really impressive, the chief with all his headgears, man, woman, children, elephant, dog ... all made by several short straight lines.It was a good trekking experience as the caves are located at an altitude of 4000ft above sea level and the caves are currently maintained by the Archaeology department of Kerala.
After coming down from Edakkal caves, we decided to return to the hotel. Our way to hotel we stepped into a toddy shop( kallu kadai..) and few of them tried kallu and fried fish. Joe, our interpreter helped in getting fresh,lite kallu..
When we reached the hotel, the HM had all set for the camp fire followed by dinner near the swimming pool. Arun and Akils were the CEO (Chief Entertainment Officer) of the evening after and before the dinner. Arun, Raja and Rajkumar had a good lesson to learn out of that night..( poruthaar boomi aalwar porukaadhavar thongi viduvaar..) Arun was at his best (utkaarndha than prechinaya irukey..paduthaa than problemey..)
Day 2 at Wayanad...
The next day morning after breakfast we proceeded to Kuruwa Dweep( which is 955 acres of green forest on the tributaries of the east flowing river Kabini) with packed lunch. The dress code to visit this place is t-shirt, shorts and slippers as you need to cross the river which is usually 2-3 feet depth. We crawled through the river and reached the land and again crawled to go inside the island.We cud have explored Kuruwa better if had hire some tourist guide.
The below photo was taken at kuruwa island.
After having our lunch (chicken biriyani madhiri..) from Kuruwa we left to Muthunga Wildlife sanctuary.We made it to the sanctuary at around 5 pm and got the permission to enter the forest area in our van. It was appropriate time in the evning to visit a wildlife sanctuary to see wild animals, with all the luck we cud see bisons, spotted deers, elephants and wild boars.
We returned back to the hotel and had dinner with camp fire.
Day3 at Wayanad..
With just half a day available before catching train to Chennai, we had a great breakfast and vacated the hotel bit early in the morning. We had two places pending in the list - Chembara Peak and Soochipara falls. Majority of the guys wanted to visit Soochipara falls and hence we headed towards it. On alighting the vehicle, we cud reach the Soochipara waterfalls after a 2-km walk into the dense equatorial forest of Wayanad. Here, one can find nature at its thundering best. Soochipara is a 3-tiered, powerful waterfall and the cliff face here is ideal for rock climbing.
Joyful crew at Soochipara waterfalls
Pookat Lake is located on the way to Calicut from Wayanad, considering the availability of time to board the train we decided to visit the lake.This lake is a real delight to the eyes, sitting softly amidst the enchanting hills surrounding it.We had lunch at one of the hotel on our way to Calicut, special thanks to Akils who did QA for chicken biriyani and luckily others had meals. Without any impediments we were able to board the Chennai Mail at Calicut.
Click here to view more photos of my Wayanad trip.
