The window covered in dew was the first
thing I saw while waking up in the next morning after an amazing Day 1. I had a sound
sleep last night, despite Aravind’s rhythmic snoring. Talking
of Dreamland Residency, it is one of the nice affordable stay options available
within the town. The facilities were really good, so do their service. We’ve
only booked two double rooms, but they happily obliged to our request for
arranging an extra bed in one of the rooms. Overall, we were really satisfied
with the stay there. The first thing on agenda for the day was the wedding
function of Adarsh, because of which even the entire trip happened.
Going
through some history of North Kerala…
The wedding function will be starting
only after 11.30AM, and since it was only 9AM we searched for some nearby attractions.
That ended up in paying a visit to the Pazhassi Tomb which is barely a couple
of kilometers away from the Mananthavady town. Pazhassi Tomb is a memorial of
Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja, a warrior king who ruled North Kerala in the 18th
century. He is considered to be one of the earliest freedom fighters in India,
because of his revolt against the English East India Company. He was eventually
killed by the British in 1805, but his courage, exploits in martial arts and
patriotism earned him the name – The Lion of Kerala.
All these details are
displayed in various forms in a small but informative museum set up alongside
the memorial. Ancient weapons, enlarged copies of hand-written declarations during
the British rule, etc. are exhibited here. Photography is not allowed inside
the museum, and we’ve to be satisfied with the clicks outside. If you are at
Mananthavady, with a couple of hours to spare, this place is worth a visit.
Remember, Mondays are holidays.
At
the wedding…
It was the first time I was
attending a wedding function in Wayanad, may be first in North Kerala itself.
It was a simple traditional wedding ceremony. We really enjoyed the Sadhya (Veg
meals) as well. I’ve had Sadhya at weddings a number of times from South Kerala,
and this was a new experience – a good one. After congratulating the newlyweds
and wishing them all the best, we left the place.
An abandoned ancient Jain Temple…
Google showed us that there are
remains of an ancient Jain Temple not too far away, barely a 30 mins ride from
Mananthavady, the actual place being Panamaram. We were following the
directions from the Google maps and reaching at some point the sweet female
voice said, “You’ll reach the destination
in 100mtrs”. But, we couldn’t find any signs of a typical tourist
destination anywhere near. The road was almost deserted with a few vehicles
passing occasionally. In a few seconds we reached the destination, and to our
surprise it was truly an off-beat location- no ticket counters, no crowd,
nothing usually found in a typical tourist destination. It was truly ruins of
an ancient temple with broken stone walls, and pillars covered by creepers. We
found it really interesting though.
The intricate carvings on the walls and
pillars are few of the surviving examples of ancient Indian art. The place is a
good spot for getting some really cool clicks as well. Each of us took a lot of
pictures and left the place after spending half an hour there.
One thing I personally felt was that, this
place should be left as it is right now, though with some basic maintenance. The
advantage is that, it’ll attract only genuinely interested people rather than
people who drop by just for the sake of visiting a tourist spot, making it a
typical crowded spot.
Soochippara
waterfalls…
After searching about all waterfalls
in Wayanad on the internet, we finally narrowed down to Soochippara Falls,
since it is the one nearest to Kalpetta, where our stay for next night was arranged. The
Soochippara Waterfalls one of largest Waterfalls in Kerala, is about 25kms away
from Kalpetta town. It is a three-tiered waterfall, surrounded by lush green
forest. Just a kilometer before the falls, we saw a ticket counter with a board
saying something about trekking, and that made us curious. We stopped there for
an enquiry, and the staff said that a 1km trekking till Soochippara falls
through the forest is organized by the tourism department at a cost of 100 per
person. We were not interested in the trek at that point of time, and hence moved on.
After getting our entry
tickets we put on the shorts, took the towels and hurried towards the falls,
with the excitement of having a bath in the falls. But, much to our dismay, the
place was very crowded and that made us reluctant to get into the water. Standing
there thinking how to get into the water, we soon found one of us missing. Looking
around, we found him in the waters making his way towards the fall, crawling
through the slippery rocks. That’s Aravind, this guy is seriously crazy about
waters 😆. Gradually one after the other we all followed him. The rocks are very
slippery and are not advisable for kids to try without the help of grownups. Crossing
all of them, we somehow reached beneath the falls. We spent a fair amount of
time under the cool water falling on our heads, and it was a really nice experience .
Wrapping
up Day 2…
On our way back from the
waterfalls we stopped at the tea estate around and took some photographs. The
driver of a truck passed by told us not to spend too much time there, as a
tiger was spotted nearby about an hour ago. Posing for photos, at the same time
carefully looking around for every leaf movement around was really fun. We left the
scene as it was getting darker.
On our way back we stopped at
Meppadi, a small town on the way to Kalpetta. We did some shopping there, tea,
honey gooseberry and stuff like that. These items are lot cheaper here than in
the tourist destinations. After having a hot cup of tea we left the place and
reached Kalpetta town by 7.30PM. Our accommodation here was arranged by Adarsh ,
at the Chandragiri Inn right in the town itself. We were all tired and were not
ready to roam through the street at night searching for local food, like we
normally used to do. Instead, we had dinner from Hotel New, a pretty decent one
in the town. That’s pretty much for the
day and wasting no time we all went for sleep planning to wake up as early as
possible in the next morning, the much awaited day in our schedule.
At
the bank of the Heart-shaped Lake…
7AM was the target we set for
reaching the first target of the day – the Chembra peak. But we could reach there
only by 9 AM, owing to our reluctance to get out of the bed. Chembra peak located 2100 meters above sea
level is 18kms away from Kalpetta and is an ideal destination for trekking.
After getting tickets from the counter we started off towards the final parking
area. From there on, till the next 3kms the road was almost worn out, and driving there was quite an adventure. Some local jeep drivers approached us and offered
to take us through these roads in their jeep. But coming at a fare of Rs.1000
was a little too much, so we politely refused them and continued in our own
vehicle; after all we have a good driver in Jithin. While we were enjoying the drive amidst tea plantations, suddenly out of the blue our car developed some trouble. All the backward gear shifts were not working. We somehow managed to reach the top using the first and third gears, and left it for repairing after the trek.
We met our guide at the final
parking spot and finally started the trek by 10AM. The initial leg of the trek
was easy; we simply walked between tall trees and the tea plantations. The
first leg ended at a watch tower. After a few minutes break we started the
second leg. From there on the trek got a little harder compared to the previous
one. It’s dense forest around and we continued the trek cautiously. The trek
path is full of rocks and the dust made it more slippery. With each step we
tried to make strong grip. About 100 meters covered and that’s when something
unexpected happened.
Aravind was lagging behind us
and we were motivating and cheering him throughout. But, in a few minutes he
collapsed and couldn’t move further as he had developed some breathing
problems. Jithin and Nikhil were with him at that moment, while I along with
Nejin was a little ahead. On not seeing them behind us, we waited for a while.
Still no signs, and we called one of them and that’s when we came to know the
problem. A lot of thoughts flashed across our mind. We even thought of
abandoning the trek. We waited and waited. After a few minutes Nikhil informed
us that they are taking the sick guy to the watch tower at the base (which had
bed and other facilities), and told us to continue. By the time Aravind started
feeling better and after making sure that he can take care of himself, Nikhil
and Jithin left Aravind at the base and resumed their journey uphill. With a
sigh of relief we too carried on. 😌
After about an hour of trekking
we crossed the dense forest part, and the remaining was the steeper part of the
trek. We took a few minutes drinks break. After regaining some energy, we
rubbed of the dust and started ascending the steeper part. The steeper path was
never an issue for us, because back in our mind was the picture of the beautiful
lake at the top to which we were inching closer. After cautiously navigating
through the rocks and thorny bushes we finally reached the top with the
beautiful ‘Hridayathadakam’ (The Heart-shaped Lake) in front of us 🙌.
The green
lake, surrounded by lush green dense grass with the peak standing tall in the
back, gorgeous view of the valley below … it was quite a memorable experience.
The feeling being there cannot be described in words. One really has to be
there to know it. The lake looked tempting to have a dip on its cool water. But
it was not allowed, as the water is contaminated with remains of animals and
other wastes. But being at its banks itself was a really nice experience. We found
a cliff somewhere near the lake and sat on it marveling at the sheer charisma
of the place.
We started descending after having
some great time near the lake. At the same time we were a bit disappointed as
we couldn’t reach till the peak. No trekking further the lake was allowed due to
the threat from lurking wild animals, as well as not to disturb the migratory
birds that live in large numbers. The influence of Maoists was another cited
reason by the forest officials. Still, the trekking till the lake itself was
quite satisfying for us. We cautiously continued descending through the steep trek
path and finally reached the base by noon.
We checked for any nearby workshop to repair the car, but couldn't find any. We decided to drive to the town with the available gears.As we were moving in a sluggish we kept trying the backward gear shifts. We were almost nearing the town, that's when the car surprised us, a pleasant surprise. All the gears shifts started engaging properly 🙌. Finally, we reached Kalpetta with huge relaxation, despite all the hunger and tiredness. We found a small hotel named
‘Oottupara’ in the town itself. If you are someone looking out for typical
Wayanadan meals then this one will be the right place. The meal they served was
simple, but delicious at a reasonable price. The long trek and the heavy meals;
it’s time to give a much needed cool-off time for our bodies. We went back to
the room for a short nap. By 4PM we checked-out of Chandragiri Inn and before
beginning our return journey, we decided to visit the Pookode Lake, which is on
the way to Calicut.
Pookode Lake…
Boating
was the only thing we planned for the Pookode Lake visit, and we reached there at
5PM sharp. We rushed to the counter for getting the boating tickets, only to
see the ‘Counter Closed’ board. We asked the man in the counter for any options
for setting up a boat ride for a few minutes. The reply we got was a rude
‘No..!’ 😞. We were very disappointed at the behavior of this guy, like he owns the
Lake. This sort of arrogance is something the authorities need to work on,
especially where good interaction with the public forms the basis of the
existence of the system itself. After having a scoop of ice cream we left the
place, with nothing else to do there.
The
Return…
As the day declines we started
descending the pass. We stopped at a view point in between to relish the beauty
of the valley below. The vehicles passing through the roads below looked like
tiny toys, and as it became darker their tail lamps appeared like a group of
red fire flies swarming all over the valley. The evening traffic was getting
heavy and a bit reluctantly we continued the ride downhill.
On reaching Kozhikode, the
place well known for its variety of food options, we searched for good dining
options in the Tasty Spots app. We finally shortlisted Hotel Rahmath, which is
very famous for the beef biriyani they serve. Beef biriyani accompanied by
tender chicken roast made the dinner for us, winded up with a tasty Malabari
Sulaimani(Lime tea) 😋. Since we had enough time left, we spent almost an hour in
the Focus Mall. Most of the shops in the mall were already closed, and since we
had no intend of shopping that didn’t affected us. Sitting there, we
recollected the interesting moments we had throughout the trip. The sighting of
the Rogue tusker, Aravind’s snoaring, crawling through the rocks at
Soochippara, the eventful Chembra trek - the talking points were countless. The
streets were getting empty and we too buckled up for the long night drive back
to home. We cruised smoothly along the highway, having a few short tea breaks
in between.
After 3 days and 2 nights at
Wayanad (and a couple of nights in the car) we
finally reached Trivandrum just before the clock struck 9 in the morning. I’ve
never done driving with such heavy eyes ever before. But the mental energy from all
the fun and exciting experiences we had in the past few days were more than
enough to overcome these fatigues, as rightly said by Loretta Young, ‘If you
have enthusiasm, you have a very dynamic, effective companion to travel with
you on the road to somewhere.….'
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