Blog on Wayanad - Kerala trekking trip :
From long back thinking of writing a blog on our trips. This time it came into reality.
Life is never complete without excitements…I went for a trekking with office friends in the weekend. Journey started on Friday (15th June from our office directly with a team of 8 (all from same group) in a Qualis. For most of the members, this is the first trekking trip to Kerala. Kerala – God’s own country, really worth full caption for the nature’s beauty in that place.
Journey Highlights:
It started with the NICE road (really nice one) from our office in E-city to touch the Mysore road, which saves lot of time by avoiding Bangalore traffic. Took aken a small break at Maddur tiffins, which is famous for the vada.
We really felt the difference by entering into Kerala as it started drizzling. We were surprised to know that these were the first rains of Wayand district. Nature welcomed us in that way. We checked into Dwaraka Hotel in Sultan Bahery which we had booked already. Found a hotel to eat our dinner (close to 11PM) and had typical Kerala food.
Covered places:
Our day, 16th June 2007 started with a morning jogging / walking on the roads of Sultan Bathery, enjoying the nature and, typical coconut and green trees in Kerala. For the whole team, the day started with the visti to the Jain temple in Sultan Bathery. We had a yummy Kerala breakfast (Appam, egg curry, Idiappam, tea). Special mention requires for the hot water they serve in hotels with some natural variants added to the water.
We started for Edakkal caves (40kms travel). This part of trek involves walking on steep roads for 1 km then enjoying very old caves. Then to reach the hill top we have done rock climbing and trekking in that. Wind is really refreshing and it is also not so easy to reach hill top as 2-3 critical spots are there on the way. In return had fruits (mango, pine apple) which they preserve in salt water which adds to the taste.
Here we grabbed a Jack fruit with the help of driver and knife from the shop-keeper and people shouted at us all through out the journey by seeing 2 jack fruits on top of Qualis. We really could not figure out why they are shouting..:). Good that no rain for this forenoon session.
We had have taken Bakery items only as our lunch. Then rains started in full swing while we were on the way to second part of the day. High light of trip is the trek to Meenmutti Waterfalls. We could not imagine at that time, coming back (climbing in the forest) would be that easy after experience the difficult part of the trek, as the path is very slippery in that forest. Around 3kms we have to go down in the forest to experience that beautiful Meenmutti Waterfalls.
Mainly the rain (which just started the other day) added more complexity to the trek otherwise it would have been a normal trek trip. Luckily we have a guide (localite) otherwise we won’t be dared enough to go for this difficult trek as we come across a group of guys who are unable to complete the trek due to the slipping nature and no clear path in forest and it is raining still at that time. We all were completely exhausted after this very special risky trek. This trek also shown a great team building activity as all our aim is to go carefully to the waterfalls successfully. No one thinks of photos also at that time as you can imagine the situation how tough the trek was.
Some situations I asked myself, “is all this required?” as it is very risky. But immediately my mind replies, as I enjoy this continue with enthusiasm. It is part of enjoyment in life. I am sure I may go for more treks but not sure whether I will take this kind of risky trek again. Thanks for the team for making this trek a memorable for lifetime.
Roads in Wayanad are really awesome. Enjoyed most of the ride as well (even though I am subjected to usual naps in between). In the evening, walked for some time on the cool roads where it is completely surrounded by hills, clouds and tea estates by listening to Romantic Telugu songs, which is really Amazing experience.
Finally reached the hotel with drenched shoes and muddy clothes. Got refreshed and taken dinner.
Second day is more like site seeing. Morning spent time in Mathanga wild life sanctuary, where we could be able to see only dears and elephants. After that covered Kalpeta and moved to Pookot Lake, where we enjoyed boating (both rowing and pedaling types). Rowing the boat is not so easy. The lake is amazing with the surrounding green hills. View point at the end of Wayanad district on the Kozikode side is really awesome as first impression for is completely covered by clouds and slowly cleared off showing the beauty of the nature, which we can’t express in words. Chain tree is the next stop for us, which is next to the road side.
Then covered Banasura dam after the lunch in a small village (where only one hotel is operating), again typical Kerala hotel. Then moved on to Thirunelli temple (50kms), old temple believed to be built for Lord Vishnu by Lord Brahma. Paid a visit to Papanasini, which is near the temple to get rid off our sins before entering the temple, where we have to remove our shirts to enter the temple. Officially our trip seems to an end and get started back.
Finally started coming back. As we have taken different route for Mysore via a forest, that route is very pathetic but it was like moving in a wild life forest as we can see Rabbits, Deers, Elephants, Bisons, giving a fantastic finishing touch to thejourney. After that pathetic road of 30kms (taken 2hrs to cover that), comes the awesome road where we touched 100kms easily. Taken dinner in Mysore and reached Bangalore by 1AM on the next day.
Food:
Next comes the food – Kerala food is awesome. Most of us are non-veg people. As Kerala is famous for the fish, we tried. Appam, Idiyappam, parota, fish fry are the specialities there. But all the hotels which we ate were not that good. We should be careful in choosing the hotel in Wayanad for the food. The second day, we realized that even though fish might be famous in Kerala but Wayanad is being a hill place, we felt that it is not that fresh. So ended up in having egg and veg at the end.
Final points:
Total we covered around 900 kms for those 2 days from Bangalore to Wayanad. We explored the most of the places in this Wayanad district of Kerala. We felt still we are not able to cover all the places in Wayanad due to the rain and lack of time. This is an ideal place for the trek n site seeing from Bangalore.
We shared a great time together and enjoyed the best of feast nature can provide to our eyes, soul and definitely stomachJ. Thanks to all for this memorable trip!
Along with all the excitement, rain sometimes disturbed few of the plans but as a whole we are all thankful for the Nature for this wonderful trip. It was a highly potential risk for my anxious mind to complete the Meenmutti falls trek.
Side lights:
Even though we understand it is the off season, we enjoyed the trip.
Missed the Chembra peak trek due to weather conditions.
Should be taken care in choosing the hotel to eat.
Knowledge of local language (Malayalam) is always helpful in covering the places even though good number of sign boards are available. (Thanks to Hari in this regard).
Looking forward for the next trip... :)
Much more deatiled blog can be found from my other fren, Sunil Haste of the trip.
