Wayannad is nature at its best. As it is close to bangalore (about 280 km) a ideal getaway for a couple of days.
My internet search ( http://www.wayannad.com is a good site) and outlook’s traveller book provided the info about the places to see. As mentioned in some of the reviews it is for people who are fit and strong and willingto sweat it out. But we also managed to get some adventure with our 2 1/2 year daughter.
We were based at Kalpetta town which is the center for all the sight seeing places. There are a lot of good hotels suiting all kinds of budgets. We stayed at Haritagiri - an ecotel at RS 900 for bed and breakfast. The ecotel was comfortable, lot of variety for food and good service.
Eddakkal caves is a must to see. It is 28km from kalpetta. You have to cross a town called Ambalavayal. It has stone age pictograms and line drawings belonging to the Neolithic age dating back to 4000 - 1700 BC. It is a 1 km walk from the parking lot and a 1/2 hour steep climb up the rocks. MAke sure you are wearing good footwear, because some places are quite slippery and dangerous. Small children cannot climb, so if you have kids it is quite a challenge to climb the steep rock carrying them.
Kuruvadweep is a group of islands about 40 km from Kalpetta. Its nature at its pristine glory. You take a boat to cross the river. Then you have to go explore around by foot. It is uninhabited and gives you an eerie feeling as you walk around, the only sounds of the bamboo trees, birds and insects. You will probably be the only homo sapiens on that island. Its exciting to cross the river by foot as you go from one island to another.
You can actually spend 3-4 hours there. So reach as early as possible. The island is accessible to tourists from 9 am to 5 pm. We got there at 4:30 so we could spend much time. But I definately plan to go back to wayannad sometime later to spend more time at Kuruvadweep.
Some other places we went to were Soochipara waterfalls and Pookote lake. Soochipara is about 20-25 kms from Kalpetta. The drive is scenic through tea estates. From the car park you have to walk about 1 km (it seemed longer while walking) and then go down some 50-60 steps to actually see the waterfalls. I guess since we went in summer, the view was not breath taking.
Pookote lake is a small freshwater lake with boating facilities. The whole process of allocating boats and organizing the boat rides leaves a lot to be desired. We had to wait for over 45 minutes to get a boat.
One place you can avoid is the Muthanga Wildlife sanctuary. It is part of the forests, bandipur in karnataka and mudhumalai in tamilnadu. Firstly they allow private vehicles into the sanctaury with a guide of course. As a result you have busloads of people in the forest area, and the path they take is a straight road. Chances of seeing any wild animal is very remote. I guess all the animals know lots of people will be passing on the path, so they don’t come that side at all.
There are other places like Chembra peak, Meenmutty falls for the more adventurous lot.
On the last day we stayed at Stream Valley Cottage at Vythri. Its a resort far from the maddening crowd. A good place to relax and unwind.
The whole process of booking was also very simple. The website https://kerala.com provides all the hotel tariffs and we paid 50% advance through an online ICICI Bank transaction. We got our confirmation letter within a two days.
Its good to have your own vehicle as it gives you flexibility and comfort to travel .
We had a good time and got to really close to nature for 3 days.