Wayanad

If Kerala is God’s own country, then Wayanad is the capital  Located at a distance about 76 km. from the sea shores of Calicut in the Western Ghats, this hill station is full of plantations, forests and wildlife. Wayanad hills are contiguous to Mudumala in Tamil Nadu and Bandipur in Karnataka, thus forming a vast land mass for the wild life to move about in its most natural abode.

Wayanad is one of the fourteen districts of Kerala, bordering Karnataka to the north and Tamil Nadu to the east. The name Wayanad has been derived from the expression 'Vayal nadu' - the village of paddy fields. Wayanad is a very small district, so small that it depends on the neighboring Kozhikode for all its transportation needs. The nearest airport & railway station are in the neighboring district! It is a better option to drive oneself or hire a vehicle from Karnataka or Tamil Nadu while visiting Wayanad. The cost per km is also very high in comparison with the neighboring states.

Wayanad (Kerala) is one of the most impressive places I have been to. Before we left for this memorable trip, like many around me, I was under the impression that Wayanad was just one place will a lot of sight-seeing options. This one trip cleared my mind of all the wrong notions that were prevailing in my head! Once the trip was over, I could understand and agree with why Kerala was called ‘God’s own country’.

Giri & I decided to drive ourselves to Kalpetta, 293 km and 6 hour drive from Bangalore. The drive was beautiful. Escaping the foggy & soggy Bangalore was heaven in itself. Giri was already familiar with the Mysore – Kabini route through the forest and decided to try it again. The road conditions according to him had deteriorated over the years. I wasn’t surprised, Bangalore roads and their ever improving conditions had made us shock proof as far are bad roads went. I kept clicking pictures of the deep gorges on the road wondering if our car would sustain such rough treatment. But we plied ourselves past the dirt race track.

The first animal to be sighted here was an elegant elephant. WOW! Giri parked near the forest guard check post. A fearless deer was walking gracefully towards us. I rolled down my window, hoping the deer wouldn’t lose courage and shoot off before I could shoot it  Camera of course! Check this out. The deer actually peeped into my side of the window and sniffed all the plastics on my lap looking for food. We shared some fruits with her  Monkeys were not welcome though. We saw some majestic Tuskers, chained though. This gave us the courage to go close quarters and pose with them.

We also saw many birds. Trying to take pictures of them was proving to be a tough task. We were glad when we crossed the arid, pot holed stretch and got closer to the Karnataka border. The roads in Kerala made us heave a sigh of relief that the ordeal was over. Tall trees on both the sides provided shade to the weary traveler and the scenic beauty of this stretch held us enthralled.
A tea break and inspection of the route map happened in Manandhwady and nearly 30 minutes later, we were in our hotel, Green Gates in Kalpetta, looking forward to a nice lunch.

Post lunch began our tour of Wayanad. We spent the rest of the noon boating in Pookote Lake. It looked like a million lotus flowers floating in the freshwaters of the placid lake. The lake was aptly named.The mauves and pinks of the flowers, and shades of blues of the skies and waters would make any canvas proud.

Lakkidi view point was our next stop. The view of the serpentine curves to the hill top was captivating. The fog set in even before we could take our camera out for a picture. We could see Chembra peak, the highest point in Wayanad hills at 6890 ft above sea level. We moved on to the chain tree, which had the legend of having the soul of an Adivasi chained to the tree.

The chefs of Green Gates cooked up a lovely dinner. We played a game of TT and I learnt snooker from Giri at the hotel’s club house.

The next day, we were to begin early. We left for Banasura Sagara Dam. We were reminded of Honnemaradu. This lake was the only earth dam in India and the Second largest earth dam in Asia. We booked slots for speed boating in the crystal clear waters of the lake. Rs 50 per seat seemed to be very nominal. We could see that many hillocks had been submerged during the lake formation and now made lovely island in the massive lake. Our speed boat gave us a 20 minute tour of the lake, if I may say so. The huge Banasura hill tempted me to trek. But trekking was not on the agenda. Next Time! I said to myself, Next time!

We were back for a quick lunch. Soochipara water fall, exactly in the opposite direction to Banasura Dam, was next on the itinerary. Later we thought that we enjoyed the journey more than anything else. To reach the water fall, we had to drive through 15 km of lush green Tea Estates of Wayanad and the roads were in best conditions. I have no words to describe the serenity of this place. We took many stops here, went for a small hike in the tea estate, clicked a lot of pictures. It would be good to stay in a tea estate for a weekend.

Soochipara Water fall, also called Sentinel Fall was a massive fall. We had to park our car and walk for a mile to reach the point where a few hundred steps led to the fall. Hordes of tourists had occupied every nook and corner available at the base. Nearly naked male population was predominant at the fall, making the women keep an embarrassingly safe distance from the fall. There were some souvenir shops and a hotel near the parking lot. It rained all the time on our way back to the hotel. Yet another lovely dinner awaited us.

We were very excited about the next day’s plan. Kuruva Dweep, meaning ‘Small Islands’, the basin on the back waters of Kabini river, is a 950 acres of evergreen forest. , Many small tributaries of Kabini divide this basin into 62 small islands, uninhabited. Hence the name!

A nominal fee of Rs 10/- got us entry into this beautiful region. We could see a lot of tourists in this place too, and noticed that most of the local people who came there dropped a lot of garbage. There were food wrappers all around.

Thankfully, most tourists explore only 10% of this beautiful island. The rest of the island is untouched. The place reminded us of rivulets in Muttatti. A guide who knew the area well took us to the interiors of the island. The river was about 70 m wide with no bridge, no boat and no bamboo raft to help us cross. We had to wade through knee-deep water.

There is always an unsaid danger lurking behind the compelling beauty of water spots. Kuruva Dweep is no different. The river is extremely deep at some places and is inundated will whirlpools and sharp rocks. The currents are also high during monsoons.

We clambered on to the trees to cross some rivulets. It started raining and it was lovely to be in water while it was raining. We spent the half the day enjoying the tranquil ambience of Kuruva Dweep.

A local couple had arranged our lunch in a log hut. The chef had many years of experience working for hotels in Mangalore and Mysore and offered us home cooked meals on banana leaf. Most people in the region could speak Kannada.

The area was swamped with thick bamboo forest. The wild green colored pigeons were seen picking the bamboo rice, which grew once in 40 years. We rushed to Tholpetty Wild Life Sanctuary. Bison, huge Malabar Squirrels, Red Mangoose, Macauque, deer, wild dogs, were some of the animals we saw here. Giri captured all the precious memories with his camera.

Thirunelli Vishmu Temple, 20 km from Tholpetty, was our last visit for the day. The view of temple located atop a hillock was spectacular. The small hillock was surrounded by Brahmagiri in the north, Udayagiri in the east, Black hill in the west and Nari Naringya Male in the south. This place is a trekkers’ paradise. Lots of trek routes and trails including Pakshipatalam start here.

We admired the jewelry that adorned the deity’s idol. A huge emerald, as big as a baby’s palm shone bright. The rules of other Kerala temples applied here too. Men had to take off their shirts to enter the shrine.

It was late by the time we reached our hotel.

Edkal Caves were closed for a week. We met Praveen from District Tourism of Office and got more information for our future trips. We passed the Jain Temple and Museum near Sultan Bathery and took the Gundlupet route. The even Kerala roads and the lush green forests through out made our return drive worthwhile. With beautiful memories and many pictures we were back hoping to return again.


Roopa Sreedhar
TAG INDIA