Every time I travel with my dad as a kid, I used to ask him "Dad, which place is this?", at each junction. That too, pretty loudly at times, even annoying the co-passengers. But he was patient and kind enough to answer all my questions, without bothering that I'm just a few year old kid. He also used to talk a lot about his life at different places, which were mere stories for me then. Small gestures like these, I believe created the zest for travel in me. One place in north Kerala he narrated a lot about during my childhood, attracted me a lot and made me create a picture of it in mind, a canvas that had lush green hills, waterfalls, twisty roads, wild elephants roaming around... Yeah, you got it right. Wayanad - the palace of natural beauty.
Whenever I plan a road trip with friends, the first to pop-up in mind would be this beguiling place. And, we've worked out some plans a number of times too. But, these plans just remained in paper all these years for some reason. The twist happened when we got a new roommate who hails from Wayanad itself. We talked a lot with him about our dream destination and the plans we had for visiting it, which never became a reality. That's when he said that his wedding is gonna happen in a few months. The news was really exciting for us, as now we have an unavoidable reason to visit a destination that eluded us for a long time. Within no time the plans were chalked out, itinerary created, hotel bookings done... yeah, we are all set. Now it's a waiting game till the day arrives.
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| Let's go...😉 |
On a cloudy Friday evening around 4.30, we left Kazhakoottam, with our heavily packed bags cramped in my Maruti 800. We had booked a Maruti Ertiga from Cherthala. So, until Cherthala we had no option other than just enjoying the highway ride in my little hatchback. The
NH had pretty heavy traffic, still we managed to reach Cherthala by 8.30PM.
That’s a pretty decent time for covering almost 160kms, considering the tea
breaks we took in between, as well as tackling the rugged roads from Kayamkulam.
Tijo was there waiting for us with the Ertiga. Wasting no time, we transferred our
bags to it and set out after filling the fuel tank till its lid, cruising along
the smooth Cherthala bypass road. We stopped at a wayside eatery somewhere near
Kalamasserry to have the dinner. That turned out to be the only forgettable food
experience we had throughout the trip. We somehow finished the food and
continued the journey. Jithin throttled the car smoothly along the NH66. With Nikhil having
the Google maps, and Nejin giving company to the driver from the co-driver’s
seat, I moved to the back seat to have a nap.
Through the Ghats in the early morning…
The smooth roads with literally no traffic
issues in the night accompanied by some decent driving made us reach Kozhikode at
2.30 in the morning. I’ve given up the hope of having a nap long way back,
since my eyes were reluctant to miss the beautiful night views around the
highway. After all, that is what we are doing a road trip for. At first we
decided to take a couple of hours rest at Kozhikode and resume the ride sometime around 5AM. But
anticipating the early morning traffic in the Ghats we decided to continue
after a few minutes break.
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| At Thamarassery churam in the early morning |
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Such a nice view of the sky in the early morning
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In
less than an hour we started climbing. Yeah.., the renowned Thamarassery
Churam(Wayanad Mountain Pass) with nine hair-pin bents. It was pretty cold
outside and we thoroughly enjoyed the ride. We reached the top around 4.30 in
the morning. Since we had ample time left for check-in, we spent some time in
the view point at the top and enjoyed the early morning view of the pass and
the valley beneath. With our eyes desperately asking for some rest, we resumed
our journey with our destination being Dreamland Residency – a nice hotel at
Mananthavady which we’ve booked via Oyo. We checked-in to the hotel around 6AM,
and hastily crawled into the comfy bed for a couple of hours’ sleep.
Day
one begins…
According
to our initial plan the first destination for the day was Kuruwa Islands and to
reach there by 8AM. The sleep was so sound that we could get ready to set out
only by 9.30AM. Also, after exploring more on the internet we found the place
to be less interesting and moved it down the list, among less priority spots.
Being a weekend we expected the place to be heavily crowded as well. After
having some delicious Appam and Egg curry as breakfast, we headed to our first
target according to the revised plan– the Banasurasagar Dam.
At the
largest Earth Dam in India….
A
25kms drive from Mananthavady took us to the Banasurasagar Dam. The roads were
twisty and not that wide, but we still managed to cover it in about 45 mins.
There is a parking ground for vehicles, for using which one has to pay a decent
fare of Rs.20. It was 11 in the morning and the place was not that crowded. Some
exhibition was happening nearby but we avoided that since it’ll be interesting
only for kids.
Talking about
the dam, Banasurasagar Dam is the largest Earth dam in India, and the second
largest in Asia. It was built to support the Kakkayam hydroelectric project in
the district, across the tributary of the Kabini river. The view from the dam
is really nice with tiny islands submerged in the reservoir, thick forest at
the other side along with the Banasura hills in the background. It can offer
you some good clicks as well. Speed boating and horse riding are available here.
But we were not ready to go for any of these under the scorching sun. Instead,
we went for a walk around and took some time for photography. I felt it should
be better visited in the evening, since the temperature will start falling and
that’ll help enjoying the other activities around. Local shops selling Cool
drinks, tender coconuts, homemade chocolates, spices, tea etc. are plenty here.
But it’s not advisable to go for these products, especially those spices and
other local items, as they are cheaper in the town than in these tourist
spots. But, of course you can try a few,
if you are interested in helping these local merchants in earning their daily livelihood.
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| Banasurasagar |
After
spending a couple of hours at the dam, we started heading towards our next
destination. It was noon already and our tummies started sending signals. We
stopped at a “Meals Ready” board on the way for lunch. It’s a small eatery with
few seats, but the meal they served was homely and we thoroughly enjoyed it.
The fish fry though needs special mention. It’s time to leave…
Through
the jungle…
We reached
pretty early at the Tholpetty Wildlife sanctuary, which is 24kms from
Mananthavady, situated along the way to Coorg. Jungle safari is organized by
the tourism department at the sanctuary in two time slots – one at 6AM and
other at 3PM. We reached there at 2PM
and had a good 1 hour relaxing time to get over the hangover of the meals we
had. We visited a couple of wayside shops there while waiting for the ticket
counter to open. A local seller was very generous, that he let us try the so called 'honey
gooseberry'(gooseberry dipped in honey), saline pineapple slices and other such items. The little chat we
had with him was quite informative. We also found crockery items made of bamboo and coconut
shells, the craft of the tribal people.The ticket counter opened at 3 O’clock and
we got our tickets. We hired a jeep for us alone, which normally carries 6 people
for the safari. The total cost of Rs.1300, which includes the entry fee plus
Rs.100 each for the jeep driver, is a little too much. But, you have no other
option.
The jeep began
rolling over the rocky dirt path, making a cloud of dust around. Within a few
mins into the jungle the guide pointed towards a tree top where he has spotted
some Vultures. ‘Vultures are found in
large numbers only in this forest, than anywhere in Kerala’, he said. We
moved on and yet another few minutes later the jeep driver stopped on seeing
some wild ducks in a small water body. Moving on we spotted a Serpent Eagle,
Malabar Giant Squirrel etc., but not yet the big guys of the forest, which we
were waiting for. All the eyes were thoroughly scanning each and every bush and
tree around. Gee... I’ve never put such amount of concentration on anything in
the recent times. ‘Hey… look…! There is
something…! Stop..! Stop..!’ I cried. Yeah…I’ve spotted something in the
tree. It was some kind of monkey - a
Gray Langur (a.k.a Hanuman Langur), not much found elsewhere. I couldn’t get a
clear shot of it as it was way too far for my lens to catch, and the bumpy ride
added to the woes. ‘Hanuman Langurs are
common here, you’ll spot them again’ the guide said.
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| Serpent eagle |
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| Gray Langurs |
As we moved on,
the driver stopped and pointed towards the left. Standing there was a huge
tusker – a majestic wild elephant enjoying a lazy afternoon. He gave a few good
poses for the camera too. Finally we’ve spotted one of the big guys in the
jungle. One down from the list, and we moved on. Deers were a common sight
throughout. I got a few good snaps of these shy animals as well. We couldn’t
see any other animals, a tiger, a leopard or something like that. We were so
into the search as even tree branches and rocks looked like animals to our
eyes. Even though not satisfied with the variety of wild animals we could spot,
the jungle safari was a pretty good experience. I think the place should be
better visited in the morning time slot. There will be a chance of spotting
more animals I guess, if you are lucky. After spending a couple of hours in the
forest, we came out by 5PM.
Before a Rogue Elephant…
Since no other
spot could be visited after 5PM we decided to call it a day and head back to
the hotel. That’s when we thought about the Tirunelly Temple, which is just a
few kms away. Trekking is possible in the Tirunelly forest, with prior permission
from the authorities, but that’s not gonna happen after 5PM. We decided to just
visit the temple and then return to the town. We never thought this few kms
drive is gonna be a memorable one. ‘It’s
getting dark, we should leave the place as soon as possible’, said Nejin
from the back seat while the car raced through the narrow twisty roads. Just as
he finished saying, we were shocked to see a big black figure in the bush
beside the road - a Rogue Elephant (Ottayaan
in Malayalam), just a few feet away from the car. We had no guts to stop in
front of it to have a click. Luckily it was not blocking the road and we calmly
cruised forward and slowed at a hair-pin bent some 50 meters ahead and clicked
a few pictures. Gradually the shock gave away to excitement.
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| Beautiful roads through the jungle. On the way to Tirunelli |
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| You need some good eyes to see the elephant standing in the bush just a couple of feet away from the road. The best shot I managed to get |
We reached the Tirunelly
temple in a short while. Nikhil and Aravind went into the temple, while the rest
of us spent time with the cameras. We tried the famous Mulayari Payasam(Rs.20
for a small cup), a kind of sweet made of Bamboo Rice. Bamboo rice is obtained only once in many years, making it a rare commodity. But, one can get bamboo
rice from most places in Wayanad, however it’s better to avoid buying them from
sellers at tourist spots because of the hefty price they demand. Bamboo rice is
said to have lot of medicinal values as well.
We spotted
another elephant on our way back, but this time far away from the road. We
stopped on seeing a spotted stag on the way. I was lucky to have a few nice
clicks of them. After taking enough pictures we started to move, only to be
stopped just a few meters ahead by a Forest Department vehicle. They thought we
were feeding the monkeys, which are plenty around the road. Once we explained
them that we were just capturing pics of the stag they let us go, and warned us
not to stop, as there will be wild animal crossings in these roads in the
evening.
Day
One ends…
It was almost 8PM
when we reached back at the hotel. After fresh-up we set out to the street in
search of food. As always, we avoided big hotels, and chose a Thattukada(small
wayside eatery) for dinner. We had some delicious poori, dosa and pathiri along with chicken
roast and beef fry and completed the mouth-watering
dinner with a lime tea. Like any other, this town too looked more beautiful in
the night. People in the local shops seemed in a hurry, as it was almost time
to wind-up for the day. After roaming through the streets in the cool climate
for an hour, we returned to the hotel. We desperately needed some rest, as the drive
on entire last night and the travelling throughout the day had taken heavy toll
on the body. It’s time for a good
night’s sleep…
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