Wayanad - Contd

On day 2, we woke up a little bit late, around 8 o'clock, as everybody were tired of the travel. The hotel was situated at picturesque place near Vythiri.

 The place was filled with fog and it cleared only in between for a few time. It was raining, so the view was outstanding, but it played spoil sport with our plans. We had planned to visit  Chembra peak, the highest peak in Wayanad. But with rain, it was impossible. So we decided to change our plan.

View From our hotel

 Our first destination was decided as Banasura Sagar Dam, an earth dam built on mud only. And we planned to visit some tee plantations on the way.

As expected,
there was lot of tea and coffee plantations on either side of the road.  It was a wonderful experience traveling through that kind of places. And we stopped our vehicle to take some photos of the plantations. The snaps we took were used mainly as orkut or facebook contact pictures now.

 Tea plantations in wayanad are believed to be started by British. Now it is owned by big plantation companies like Harison Estates.

Road through Tea plantations

Tea Plantations

Banasura Sagar Dam

 It is an earth dam, built on one of the tributaries of Kabini river. It is the largest earthen dam in India and the second largest in Asia.

 We can see a number of small islands in the center of the reservoir, which are formed by submerging a number of hills when the dam was built. One of the major attractions of this dam is the boating. We will be able to see the  inner forest very close by.

But the Thattekkad boat tragedy happened only on the last week. So almost everybody had instructions from their folks to be careful when going for boating and all. So the boating had to be skipped here. But we had a very good time walking through the path around the reservoir. We  posed for some funny snaps and had fun.

Banasura Sagar Dam Reservoir

Banasura sagar

Kanthanpara waterfalls

Our next plan was to visit a water fall. Since it was raining, we decided it was not a good idea to go to Meenmutti. Because this waterfalls require a good amount of trekking through woods. So we opted for Soochippara waterfalls, which is also another famous waterfall in wayanad.

 But the destiny was had some other say. The road to this waterfalls was blocked because of some landsliding.

 Quite disappointed by this turnaround, we weighed on the possibilities. One local guy suggested about kanthanpara waterfalls which was nearby. It is not big as the other two famous waterfalls in wayanad. But since it was raining, it seemed like a good enough one. We reached that place and found the water flows down to some place, which was not visible because of fog. There were quite a good amount of people, even though we didn't expect many. The fog made things very much beautiful and appealing.

Kanthanpara Waterfalls

Pookott lake

The  next  destination was Pookkot lake. It is a favoured picnic spot for families. Because one can easily spend time here by boating or by walking along the walkway around the lake. There is no hardship involved such as climbing hills etc.

Pookkott Lake

This lake is surrounded by beautiful hills which makes the boating very enthralling experience. I feel that this place is a decent one, not very great. If you want to spend some time without doing much trekking or roaming around, then you can opt for this place.

The rain had started heavily when we were roaming around the lake. We proceeded to our hotel and had some rest. After rain has receded, we had some nature walk in the night.  We bought some honey and other commodities which are said to be special to Wayanad.