June 21st
Time : 4:30 AM
Tasks ahead : Get to Ambalavayal village and hike to Edakkal caves
Status: All asleep
Once Bitten Twice Shy
After missing the train for Coonoor, the previous day, I was thinking about how to manage everybody so that things go as per the schedule. And so this time, I had a plan. It so happened that as a custom, Hotel manager had taken some additional amount as advance. Though, I had convinced the manager to allow our stay till 7 AM but hadn't conveyed the same to others.
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| At dawn on d streets of Sulthan Bathery, excited 4 the day ahead |
So, I asked everybody to get ready in the next half an hour(ie. by 5 AM) and leave the hotel or we'll end up loosing our advance amount. The words were magical and everybody got into action(even the laziest of the lot). In all this exercise, Amaan and Akshat had been extremely cooperative(rounding up everyone to get ready), even though they had hardly slept (due to their poker-sessions extending upto 2-3 AM). Indeed, by 5 AM, everybody was on road, moving towards the city centre bus stand.
Sightseeing
After a quick tea and some weird Kerala snack, we booked a cab that would take us around the district until evening. It was a tough task to make the driver understand our plan(I had to resort to a mixture of sign language, English, Hindi, gestures and so on). The information that I had gathered before leaving Bhadravathi(from net) were immensely useful and helped me in discussing the route with the driver(in our strange Khichdi Language).
The weather was just perfect, sky interspersed with little clouds(though it was raining like hell a day back).
So off we began for our 1st destination
Edakkal Caves with our jeep moving through the beautiful Kerala forests. .
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| trekking path ahead |
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| climbing through the rocks |
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| midway to Edakkal caves |
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| Finally after reaching the Edakkal cave |
It also involved a steep hike which we enjoyed thoroughly. We had reached before the opening time and so we relaxed there in the jungle, waiting for the place to be opened.
Next we moved to the
Meenmutty falls. But the place was closed due to the recent torrential rains, so we took a diversion to
Soochipara falls.
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| Soochipara falls at the background |
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| others chose to watch the falls from distance |
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| Meditating under the falls |
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| one of the best falls so far |
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| Refreshed after bath @ soochipara |
The route was just fantastic and was laced with waterfalls, tea/spices/coffee plantations & monsoon greenery.
Plan Aborted
I had planned a hike to Neelimala view point but I realised that some people at the back of the jeep weren't feeling well (perhaps due to lack of proper sleep) and so with a heavy heart I aborted that plan and asked the driver to take a detour to the Bird's Eye view point at Wayanad-Kozhikode border on NH 212. The view was just awesome with far-stretching Kozhikode plains ahead and lush green Wayand hills behind.
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| Wayanad-Kozhikode border, Lakkidi view point |
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| Kozhikode's beaches 60 km towards west |
We also spent considerable time at
Lakkidi especially at CCD (on Amaan's special request) where he emptied his pocket in pursuit of some 'Dark passion'.
The final destination of our journey was
Pookot lake where we spent quite a lot of time. After boating, we enjoyed coffee at the Lake canteen.
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| Boating @ Pookot lake |
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| Lotus @ lake |
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| forest covered Pookot lake |
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| 10 of us took 5 boats, & kept on colliding with each other |
Places left for my next visit to Wayanad
It was getting dark, and we had more or less covered all the representative places. In order to fully cover this beautiful district, we would have needed atleast 2 more days. So far, my group had been extremely cooperative and I couldn't have asked them to stretch themselves any further and so I had to leave the following palces for my next visit to Wayanad. Kuruva island, Banasura dam, Pakshi pathalam, Tholpetty WLS, Muthanga WLS, Pazhassi Tomb, Meenmutty falls, Thirunelly temple and so on.
End of this Journey
By 7:15 pm(almost after 12 hours), our driver dropped us straight at the Sulthan Bathery bus stand, just in time to catch the bus leaving for Mysore. Our bus moved along NH 212 through the Muthanga WLS and within 2 hours we reached Mysore. I had already visited Mysore earlier with parents and had seen all the places over there, so I left that Jumbo group & decided to continue to Bhadravathi and attend next day's PS.
Beginning of Another Trip
But in reality my actual agenda was preparation for the next trip (Coorg- the land of Coffee). My trip to Wayanad & Nilgiris had been fantastic and had only fuelled my appetite for travelling. I wanted my next trip to be even better.
I dedicate this episode in the fond memories of my dear friend Amaan without whom this trip would have been tasteless.
(Special mention to his e-maps which enabled our navigation through the tricky forests of Tamil Nadu-Kerala-Karnataka border region)
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Coming Next - Episode 4 : Wild Wild West Karnataka
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