Trip to Wayanad - Day 1

On the way to Wayanad

  I had heard from many that Wayanad is a beautiful place with tea plantations, waterfalls and many other beautiful places. I had never visited this place before, even though I am a Keralite.  And currently living in Bangalore, which is only at a distance of 350km from Wayanad,  I always wanted to visit this place . We had planned a trip many times, only to cancel it at the last moment.  Finally I got an opportunity on October 2008 to visit this place.  After many hurdles, we finally managed to  embark on  the journey to Wayanad.

 I would like to say some words about Wayanad. It is not a city, it is the name of a district on the north Kerala. It is set on the Western Ghats very high above sea level. There are many places in wayanad, which truly
exhibit the beauty of nature.  We did a bit of google search and made a list of must visit places in Wayanad.

They include

·         Edakkal caves

·         Meenmutty water fall

·         Chembra Peak

·         Kuruva islands

·         Banasura Sagar Dam

·         Muthanga Wild Life Sanctuary

·         Pookot Lake

Although we were not able to visit many of them.

Near Muthanga sanctuary

  We started around 5 o'clock in the morning from bangalore. We were 6 people, with 3 of them having the name Arun!!  We hired a Tavera, which is comfortable enough for 6 guys. Having breakfast from Mysore, we immediately hit the road to Wayanad.  Gundalpet is the last town in Karnataka on the way. The Muthanga wild life sanctuary come after this and is on the Kerala-Karnataka border.

  We were greeted by rain as we approached Kerala.  The change in climate was sudden and we were absolutely surprised by it. When we planned the trip, our main concern was rain. And that was the first experience on entering Kerala.

Entrance to Edakkal caves

  The bamboo woods and thick bushes on either side of the road presented an unforgettable view. We were thrilled to know that we were going through a thick jungle where even elephants are plenty.

  We reached Muthanga check post (after kerala border), and we were told that there will  be about 1 hour delay here. So we have decided to have a look of the surrounding bamboo woods. We found a small river very nearby, flowing through the bamboo forest. This turned out to be an unexpected and wonderful beginning to the tour. We took some snaps and enjoyed our time there.

On the way up - Edakkal

  By that time, the driver has returned from the check post and told that the formalities are over and we can continue the journey. And we found  that wild life safari was not available in Muthanga sanctuary at that time.

 Our next destination was Edakkal Caves which is near Bathery, the first town in Wayanad on the way from Bangalore.  It is a set of natural caves located very high on a hill called Ambukutty mala. Inside the caves, pictorial writings can be found believed to be from neolithic man, evidence of the presence of a prehistoric civilization existing in this region.

Inside the cave

  We need to do a good amount of trekking to reach this caves. And there is only a narrow path on to the top of this hill.  I think there is a lot of misinformation about this place, because i found a lot of old people and people with small kids on the foot of hill, wondering whether to continue climbing up or not. People think that it is a normal picnic place and don't know about the trekking they need to do to reach the place.

 The entrance to the cave is a very narrow one and only one guy can enter at a time.

  It got the name 'Edakkal' because of a big splitting in the rocks. It is seen almost at top of the hill.

Writings inside cave

Splitting of the Rock

   The writings are seen on the wall of a big cave. It was a little bit of dark there and we were not able to see what is actually written on it. And the climbing down was even tougher as it was raining. It made the stone steps slippery.

 At that point, we were tired and decided to proceed to our hotel. It was at a place called Vythiri, very near to Pookkot lake and Wayanad pass. This place is the gateway to Wayanad from Calicut.  Even the hotel was situated at a beautiful place.

 After taking some snaps there also, we decided to call it day.