Wayanad, Kerala

It was a long weekend ahead of us. Friends (Deepak, Ashish and Reena) had come from Delhi to attend a wedding. After a lot of deliberation and discussion, we decided to travel to Wayanad district of Kerala.

Uncertain of what to expect, we set off at an unearthly hour of 4am on the 28th of March (Friday). It was a brilliant decision to do so, as we covered Bangalore and set out onto the Bangalore-Mysore expressway in no time. We stopped at a 24 hour cafe coffee day for some refreshing coffee and a nice pit-stop.

When we set off once again, it was still not sunrise! However, in a little while, we began to see the sun rise from beyond the plains. By the time we hit Mysore, it was early morning. We took another pit-stop outside the South Gate of the Mysore Palace, before heading out to Kerala.

 

We took a right off the Mysore-Ooty highway at Gundlupet and headed into the Jungle (See the route map below). 

The jungle road was beautiful and serene. The time of the day was perfect to be driving through the jungle, with minimal traffic. Since it was early morning, we were lucky as we saw the jungle wake up with us. We even managed to spot a few deer!

We were literally counting down the kilometers once we got out of the Jungle, and after our last set of route instructions to our resort, we entered Wayanad.

 

To get to our place of stay, we had to pass through Sultan Bathery, a quaint little town, with a lot of auto and bus traffic! We proceeded to our destination in Kalpetta, another town in Wayanad.

We were to stay in Green Gates Hotel, and one cannot even begin to say what a wonderful stay it was there. The hotel is very pleasing to the eyes, with a lot of greenery and the staff is very polite and courteous. We stayed in the cottages, which are a little sperated from the main hotel, and ensconsed within dense greenery.

 

What a wonderful place to stay! The cottages were very spacious and very nice, and right next to the pool. But we were not in Wayanad for the stay.

We got ready, ate lunch and went straight to business. Off we went to enjoy the Pookode Lake, Chain Tree and Lakkidi Point. The Lake was quiet and serene, although there was an abundance of monkeys! The boat ride around the lake was a lot of fun, and took about 20 minutes. 

We went on to find the Chain Tree and Lakkidi point, and almost ended up at Kozhikode! So insignificant are those two "tourist attractions"! The Lakkidi point, is just a turn on the highway from where one can see the sunrise and sunset.

Who in their right mind would want to stop on a highway which snakes over the hills? So we stopped there so some pictures! After all, we had come around 300kms already. Next was the more insignificant chain tree, which was so hard to find, that we had to ask about 3 locals within the space of a kilometer. Finally we found a tree on the side of the highway with one chain dangling off a branch! The story of the Chain Tree is more interesting that the Chain Tree itself.

 

On the way back we decided to check out the much-hyped Vythiri Resort. Now dont get me wrong, the Resort is beautiful, set in the jungle (literally). However, it is for those folks who want to go to Wayanad and not go sight-seeing. The road to the resort is just a jungle path, full of cobbles and dust (their justification is that they dont want to ruin the jungle experience for their guests). However, we were 5 full grown people in a Maruti Alto. The "road" is just wide enough for 1 and a half cars to pass by side-by-side! So when we reached there, we were already very irritated, and left after just seeing the Hanging Bridge. We headed back down the horrid road and went back to our wonderful and easily approachable Resort. We enjoyed a nice snack in their tree top restaurant, where they only serve dosas. After some relaxing (in the gym!) we had a nice buffet dinner, and decided to call it a night as we were up since 2:30am!

The next day, we decided to travel 25kms further into Wayanad to go see the Soochipara Waterfalls.

The parking is about a km away from the actual falls, so its basically a nice steep 1 km trek. The trek was a good exercise, and was very good for the senses. We were surrounded by greenery, and could constantly hear the waterfall. The falls as such was not very majestic, but it was less crowded when we went (Saturday, before noon). We enjoyed the falls, and before we went back decided to eat maggi and drink some fresh juice. 

Finally, it was time to head back to Bangalore. We left by about 3pm and drove back to Bangalore. En route we stopped at another Cafe Coffee Day to eat dinner (this one served Biryani too) and drink some refreshing coffee.

By the time we got home it was midnight, and perfect time to celebrate Deepak's birthday!

All-in-all a wonderfuly trip, great driving experience, relaxing holiday enjoyed with wonderful friends.