As last weekend was a long weekend so thought of visiting Wayanad. After a lot of hiccups we set out for Wayanad in a rented Qualis. We started early morning on Friday around 4, our plan was to reach there by 10 in the morning. Route was simple Bangalore -> Mysore -> NH212 -> Gundalpet -> Wayanad (Right turn from Gundalpet approx 50 km). Faced a little trouble at the Kerala border as the vehicle papers were not up to date …as a result ended up in paying Rs 1500 as fine and 1 hour delay. Nevertheless we reached Sultan Bathery a place in Wayanad around 11. Quickly found an economical place to stay. After getting fresh we went out looking for lunch. To my surprise food we got was pretty good & economical. If you are Non Vegetarian then you will love the Kerala food. So ended up in having fried fish & Kerala style chicken biryaani (this was best modified version of chicken biryaani I ever had, chicken was fried but it tasted good).
After having lunch we went to see Eadakkal Cave. One needs to walk about 1km on steep and difficult terrain to reach there. One has the option to take jeep also although we went all along by foot and found the terrain a bit tiring..Once reached up the view was good but there is no comparison of Edakkal caves with the Bora caves of Aarku valley (near Vizag, AP). Anyhow came back to our vehicle and went to saw Karapuzha dam. It was a small one but a good one…got a chance to get on the top side of the dam...view was good. From there we moved back to our hotel and visited a little known view point called Phantom Rock …This was the best one of the day….a good view point where you can sit and see the world coming to a standstill. Spent 1 hour in just sitting there and admiring the god’s own country!!
A view from Karapuzha dam
A view from Phantom Rocks
Next morning we went for Meenmutty water fall ...entry fee for that fall was 300 bugs for a group of 10 but as we were only 3 guys we waited for some more guys to come. After a wait of few minutes we were off to the 2nd largest waterfall in Kerala, way to waterfall was one of the most tiring and dangerous track I have ever taken in my whole life. We went all the way down through coffee plantation and on latter part using the bamboo/rope support. So if you’re an ‘OMG!!that’s Dangerous!!’ type of guy or gal please avoid this one :) ... View of the fall was just OK…but I really enjoyed the way to the fall…as it was exiting, dangerous and challenging. After that we went to Suchipara waterfall, a more popular one as it was bloody crowded. So avoided the temptation of taking a dip in the water.
Meenmutty Falls
On our way back from the fall we stopped our vehicle at a point where there was a small channel of free flowing water. So we went all out and enjoyed the natural Jacuzzi. As it was getting dark we moved back to out hotel and decided to move back to Bangalore next morning as there was nothing much to cover apart from Wildlife Safari but people advised against it as there was nothing worthwhile apart from deer & peacocks. On the way back to Bangalore we stopped at Mysore to visit Mysore palace..Sheer waste of time …I felt …entered Bangalore by evening via outer ring road ….and finally back to home!!!!
