In mid October this year, we wanted to getaway for a weekend. Being at Bangalore, Wayanad was a good option since it was only about a 275 km drive away. It had all that we were looking for; nature, adventure, serenity, scenery.... everything!
So we packed our bags and off we went on a Friday evening. The route was Bangalore - Mysore - Nanjangud - Gundalpet - Sultan Bathery - Wayanad. It took us about 4.5 hours to get to Wayanad. During our drive through the dense jungle @ Bandipur we spotted a wild elephant, which set the tone of our trip. The jungle-scented cool winds were really refreshing. We had picked Wayanad-Blooms for our stay there since we had read/heard good reviews of the place. In spite of reaching the resort pretty late (past 11 PM), the caretakers (Mano/Stalin/Joshi) at the resort had ensured that we were served with hot food on our arrival, this was a really nice gesture. After a sumptuous dinner we were shown our cottage. It was a nice cozy cottage with a central common area and one room each on either side. Each room can easily accommodate a family of 4 (2 adults, 2 kids) as there were bunker beds for the children. The whole cottage was spotlessly clean and the toilets were maintained like new. We were pretty impressed with our first impression of the place.
After a deep slumber the next morning we woke-up fresh and energetic to begin our sight seeing of Wayanad. We spoke to the resort owner; Mr.Johny who was more than happy to help us out in any way to make our trip memorable. Understanding that we would have a tough time finding our ways through the narrow country roads, Johny advised us to take a guide along and willingly offered us the services of the resort’s driver (Mr.Biju). On the first day, Biju suggested that we cover ‘Soojipaara Waterfalls’ and ‘Edakkal Caves’. He said that we could visit maximum 2 places in a day, since every place closes by 5 PM here. Taking his suggestion we went to Soojipaara first. It took us little more than an hour to get there. The last leg of the drive was very picturesque, filled with lush green tea plantations on all sides. After parking our car, we had a 1 km trek down to the falls. Here you have an option of taking a Jeep ride for about ½ km, after which one has to go by foot, since we have to go down steep steps. At the end of the steps we were greeted by the lovely sight and sound of the waterfalls. It was breathtaking and the fine mist from the falls blew our tiredness away. This being the main falls, it was crowded with people; hence, Biju lead us to another secondary falls which we found even more spectacular and had it for ourselves; where we sat around for a while listening to the sounds of the falls which was rejuvenating. After which we headed out for next destination.
Edakkal caves is formed by a huge rock lodged “in-between” space of adjacent gigantic rocks. The cave dates back to the B.Cs re-discovered by Britishers in 1890. The cave walls were covered with carvings done by various occupants of the cave (cavemen to begin and later by the Buddhist monks who were also known to have inhabited the cave). After a few photos, we continued our trek to the top of the hill, which was about 5000 ft above sea-level. Most of the climb up was – rock climbing with nothing much to support ourselves with. With the expert help from Biju, we were able to trek our way right to the top of the hill. At the end of the 2 hour ordeal we were rewarded with breathtaking view across 3 states; Tamil Nadu, Kerala & Karnataka. Awestruck we sat there for a while to let the scenery sink in, coz the view was something never ever to be forgotten. Since, it was past closing time we had to hurry down, accomplished with the expert help from none other than; Biju who does this 3 times a week. The trek down was even more scary as the drizzle didn’t make it any better. All tired, bruised and soiled in mud, we were looking like the kids in ‘Surf excel’ ad J. We headed back to the resort all hungry & jaded. We quickly freshened up and gobbled down the lovely dinner prepared by Jose; the chef. We were swayed to sleep by the gentle rock of the ‘Rasied-Hut’ which was offered to us. The ‘Raised-Hut’ was situated-by a narrow river surrounded by tall bamboo plants.
Next day we planned to leave early as we had to cover Banasura Dam and Tholpetty Wild Life Sanctuary, which were about 80 kms apart. However, we ended up leaving late, thanks to the exciting carom game that we played at the cottage. First we were off to Banasura Dam, here we had the option of taking a speedboat into the water. The charges for the speedboat was Rs.250/- for 15 mins. We were informed that around 3 or 4 in the evening we would have had a good chance to spot wildlife along the shore, as they come out to have a drink! After a quick cup of tea at the coffee shop in the Dam site, we headed for Tholpetty. We reached there in about 2.5 hours and got ourselves a Jeep to take us into the sanctuary. The entry permit, Jeep, Guide cost us about Rs.550/-. The ride was quite disappointing as we could not spot any of the much anticipated wild life like Elephants, Tigers, Bisons, etc L All we could take sight off were lots of Deers, some Langoors, a snake and a Peacock. Not to mention a Turkey too. After the bumpy Jeep ride, we switched back to our car and headed back to the resort. Since we got back early, soon after dinner we had them arrange us a campfire by our ‘Raised-Hut’ which was wonderful.
On the last day of our trip we went to Kurva Islands. This was again about 2 hours away from the resort. This place basically comprises of a bunch of Islands sandwiched between the Kabini river. There are about 7 crossings through the river to reach the last pocket of land which was covered with paddy fields. The crossings can be made either by foot (on low water levels), or by a Bamboo raft. The place was filled with the sounds of birds chirping and the water gushing, which was as good as a Beethoven symphony. Since we had to head back to Bangalore, later in the afternoon, we had to get going from Kurva back to the resort. But, before we left we visited Johny at his farmhouse especially to see the much talked about hounds and off course to bid goodbye. The farmhouse was more than what we expected it would be. It had 8 dogs (1-Rottweiler ‘Rosy’, 1-Alsatian ‘Chief’, 1- Rottweiler cross ‘Jerry’, 2- cute chubby Labrador pups, 1-German Shepard pup ‘Donna’, 2 Great Danes ‘Max’ & ‘Sheega’), 5 cows, a small rabbit farm, a small chicken farm and lots n lots of Organic plants/trees (including Cardamom, Vanilla, etc). The visit to the farmhouse was the cherry on top of this smooth delicious green forest cake called Wayanad.
With heavy hearts we started our journey back to Bangalore around 5 PM. As the drive went on, the different shades of green that we could find all around Wayanad, melted away into different sizes of buildings. We were back into the dense concrete jungle that we live in.
We would like to thank Johny & the ever-friendly staff of Wayanad Blooms property, who made every bit of our stay at Wayanad very memorable. Wayanad is one place that we would surely visit again