Wandering @ Wayanad

Period: 24th Jan '09 4:30 am to 27th Jan '09 12:30 am

Crew: Anju, Aparna, Archana, Shaonli, Naveen, Khushboo, Aditya, Priya and me…of course, how can I forget our DIIIIRIVER!!!

Facts before we start: Last trip with the same gang (with a few additions this time) was to North Karnataka on the Independence day weekend and this one was on the Republic day weekend.

After a long discussion as to whether we should start in the morning or at night, we all decided to start early in the morning, 3.30 am to be precise. Priya and Shaonli came to my place a night before. The plan was to leave Blr by 4 am. I got up at around 245 in the morning and got ready. Everyone was ready at their respective places on time…AND then…the driver didn’t turn up!! He finally came and we realized we were behind our schedule by ~45 minutes!! Aparna already had her dose of fight for the day, early in the morning, with the driver.

So we started our journey…initial 25-30 minutes we chatted…and then one by one, people started sleeping (not to forget snoring). After around 45 minutes, every one was in deep slumber except for Aditya and me…and then Aditya played a morning alarm and ensured that everyone’s (exception definitely there) sleep is gone. We reached Mysore at around 7 am. There we had our breakfast and after around ½ hr we were back on our track for Wayanad. We played dumbshadads and the best part was when Archana had to enact Jajantaram mamantaram again and still no one could guess it!!! After that we halted at one more place at around 10 am…there we discovered our first location for the photo-shoot. We reached Wayanad (Sultan Bathery) at around d 12 pm.

Now this requrires a special mention in the blog...the way Archana was speaking to the owner of the homestay, Mathew. her dialogues verbatim "its ok Mathew come out...its ok Mathew, come out...Mathew, its ok....come out"...the way Archana was 'daatoing' Mathew was hilarious. Anyways, after checking in to the homestay, we quickly freshened up and then started our search for a lunch place. My friend had already told me that finding good vegetarian food in Kerela was very difficult. Thats why Aparna packed some stuffed paranthas, but they got spoilt and Aparna was in foul mood for around 3-4 hours....mere paraathey :(!!! We found this so-called restaurant called "Palika". Only Biryaani was available at the restaurant! We had that and then headed for the first destination of the trip, Edakkal Caves. I had heard a lot of praise for this place from my friend and that’s why I was really keen to visit this place. We reached the place and then had to take a jeep to go around 2 kms of steep climb on the hill BUT when we reached there, our dreams were shattered! What we saw there was a huge crowd…well, huge is an understatement!! It was pathetic…poorly managed. There were thousands of people. Hundreds of school children, the sun was scorching on our head (it was already 2 pm). Everyone was pushing. There was no way to go..either up or down. A couple of times we even thought to forget it and turn back but then we gathered courage and managed to reach the main cave. The carvings were really wonderful. What I didn’t like was the kind of effort the authorities had taken to save this heritage, this historical site. There was no management of crowd at all!! Anyways, after visiting the caves, we came down the same route by the jeep and then had sugarcane juice. Then we headed to Phokot lake. We were hurrying up since the entry to the lake was supposed to close at 6 pm and it was already 4.30 when we started from Edakkal caves. It was around 5 pm, when we came across beautiful tea estates. Some of us got really excited and stopped our bus to click some snaps. 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes. The time was ticking and we were scared that we wont be able to see the lake. We finally reached the lake by 5.45. the lake was about to close. But that 15 minutes of glimpse was awesome..too good…just mesmerizing..even one full day was less to explore the beauty. After this we headed back to our homestay after having dinner at Windflower. The food was too good and the rest of our meals in Wayanad was at this hotel. One thing which deserves a mention in this post, is that i spotted a hospital at Wayanad which is named as 'Assumption Hospital'....well donno, what assumptions they take while treating a patient!!! Anyways, after reaching our home-stay called Herbal Nest, we chatted for sometime and then went to our respective rooms. Our room actually consisted of two rooms. Me and Shaonli were in one room and Priya and Khushboo were in the other. We switched off the lights and were chatting. After some time, we heard a loud thud and then a scream. It was Khushboo’s. they had decided to suddenly come in our room and then scare us. But in the process Khushboo tripped down and we had a good laugh. After that, I think till 2.30 am we were chatting..chatting about anything and everything. The chat started from where me and Khushboo left at the Yercaud trip. Oh God…it was so hilarious. We commented about everyone we knew, made fun of so many people’s name…and what not. Finally we decided to call it a day since we were supposed to get up early in the morning at 6 and leave for Mutunga wildlife sanctuary.

Day 2: we got up and were ready on time..All the 9 of us and then we waited and waited and waited…why…for the driver to get ready!! Then we headed to the sanctuary. We had around 15-20 minutes before we could get into the park. So as we waited, we spotted a very very beautiful place. There was a small clearing amidst the forest. There were bamboo trees all over and there was pin-drop silence except for the sound of the water. We had lots of fun there…lot of photos..lot of memories…we even tried to bring down one of the bamboos!!! Then we came back and finally went into the “wild-life sanctuary”. We spotted a LOT of wild animals. I will list down all of them here…First it was domesticated elephants, a couple of monkeys, a couple of dear…that’s it..oh yes…how can I forget, Tiger Pug marks…Tiger pug marks and NOT TIGER PARK!! :-) Never knew that even Priya could loose her temper!!

After returning from the wildlife sanctuary, we got ready and we headed for Meenamutty falls. But after reaching there, we realized that it was a one hour trek to reach the base of the falls so with majority, we decided not to go there…I was disappointed and shattered. In the last trip we didn’t go to the base of Jog falls and now this…boo-hoo-hoo…sob sob...sniff sniff

But then we headed for a place, jiska naam mujhe abhi nahi yaad hai, but due to the expert navigational skills of Aditya, we reached a waterfall called as Kanthanpura Falls. it was a very small stream. There were hardly 15 people there as against thousands of people at edakkal caves. We had a lot of fun in the water. Then me and Aditya went to explore the place a bit. And we found out, that what we saw earlier was nothing. There was this huge waterfall which was ahead of us. It was such a wonderful sight. We spent some ½ hr there and then headed for Banaswara dam. And as luck was in our favor, we reached the dam just 10 minutes late. Concequence: we missed the boating here also :-(. From the road, the river was around 1.5 km away, so we walked. This place was amazing. No doubt. Pictures say it all…


While coming back we told each other, which animal we resembled. Oh god…it was soo funny…Aditya thought Shaonli resembled a squirrel…why..well that he only can answer… Aparna thought I resemble a horse…well no comments again here!! We had decided that we would have dinner at the home-stay with camp fire and some enjoyment. So we reached the place at around 8. Aditya and Naveen went to the market, arranged everything and brought the dinner. Meanwhile, we arranged for the bonfire and music. Mathew was kind enough to give us his speakers which we connected to Khushboo’s MP3 player. Ya…we are used to a lot of jugaads…after all, we all (except 1) are in Finance :-)

We had dinner….sang…danced…and then at the strike of 12, we sung a patriotic song…after all it was the republic day!! We blew off a bottle of Appy Fiz (aka Champagne)…and then we played a game of Shanghai!!! Our very own Shanghai…and that Archana…I will never forget, didn’t give me 5 of hearts!! I will never forgive you Archana for that!!

The next day, we got up and got ready to go to Kuruva Islands…it was around 3 km of really bad road…it was kachcha road. We went there..walked for around 200 mts and then was face to face with Kabini River. There we had to take a raft to cross the river. We went in two batches. We had a guide whose name I don’t recollect. Then we trekked through the jungle…walked on a horizontal tea bark around 10 feet above the ground. And then the best thing about the trip happened here…we did water trekking!!! Around a km of trekking in water…it was just too good! The water at some places was 3 feet deep…so that wasn’t the scary…the most difficult part were the slippery rocks below…the small granules…the pointed stones….urgh..it really hurts!! And then there were a few falls…umm…well just a few…and you wont believe it…it was always the boys who fell down in the river!!!

After about a couple of hours when we just crossed the last lap, we saw two alligators in the SAME river. Well not where we trekked, but not very far from that place either. Our guide told us that there were 4 alligators in total there..from there we hiked a bit…then saw a heap of dried “fasal” and we jumped onto it…it felt amazing!! I had never ever done this before!! wow…then we had tea…got a bit freshened up and then headed back to the homestay. Vacated that place around 5 pm…Mathew gave some papayas to his very very very dear FRIEND Archana!! And now we were heading towards the end of our 3 day fantastic trip. Oh yes…on the way back from Kuruva islands, I gave an idea to play the fish bowl game wherein everyone had to write something about all the others and put in a box( here it was my topi!!) and then on the way back to Blr we were supposed to read them. Gosh!! I never thought this would become so addictive that everyone(well..almost) were hooked to writing the chits even when there was an argument between Aparna and Shaonli!!! And it was so much of fun to read out all the chits and explore the creative minds of soo many earlier considered to be "boring" people!!

Alternative Career Options for:

• Aditya : Conductor/ Navigator/ Photographer/ Model
• Archana: Tour Operator/ Event Manager
• Aparna: Event Manager
• Arpita: Trekking guide/ Photographer/ Model
• Shaonli: Again a model for matrimony ads :-)
  

Its so strange…we live two lives…two completely different lives….one the professional one AND one the totally opposite life of fun…frolic and adventure….