Trip to Wayanad, Kerala (Project team trip) - 02/11/2006
Here I am. This is me. There's another place where I have been.
So here I am back again with another trip experience. This time place was Wayanad which is also in Kerala (My previous trips in Kerala have been to Ponmudi and Munnar). Funding for this trip came mostly from the project fund which we have accumulated (or collected or u can say extorted for various reasons).
It was Team Kmart (Mangalore offshore team) except for few who left out because of various reasons. Here's the team which went:
Sandhya, Ketan, Divya, Thaman, Naina, Kiran, Mehul, Sandeep, Nishant, Manoj, Alkesh, Shashank, Farid and ShriShyam
We had booked a mini-bus for the trip. As per the plan we started from Mangalore on Friday night. Had some fun, singing in bus till people were tired and wanted to sleep. But as you know, problems occur in every plan. So in the middle of night we discovered a problem, which was that our driver was not aware of the route which we were taking to Wayanad. Some how by finding people and asking for directions we were trying to reach our target. One stop worth mentioning is when we stopped at an intersection not aware which way to go (either straight or take a turn). There at 2 in morning, 16 people were trying to stop vehicles. After sometime we realized why people instead of stopping were turning away. We seemed like some bandits trying to rob on highway ;). Somehow we managed to stop a truck and a sumo and confirmed the directions. After that the way was found after confirming with some soul who could be found on the road.
We reached hotel somewhat off our target time, but not much delay. We revised our plan of visiting places. First day we planned to visit Edakkal Caves, Meenmutthy Falls, Neelimala view point and then to camp at some place at night.
We started for Edakkal caves:
"An interesting trek up the Ambukuthi Hill near Ambalavayal town takes you to the fascinating neolithic cave site of Edakkal. Etchings found on the walls of these caves have drawn the serious attention of archaeologists and historians worldwide.With at least three distinct sets of petroglyphs, the earliest thought to date back over 5000 years, it is assumed that the Edakkal caves had been inhabited at various stages in history."
It was good trek up the hill (half of which we did in Jeep :P ) and remaining on foot. From the top where cave is located it was nice view of the surrounding. Also from telescope which is installed there you could view the surrounding. Major view point was Phantom rock (a rock in form of human scull). Once inside the caves it was interesting to see the etchings which we could not initially understand at all. But the guide there showed us the patterns which were made there, a man, woman, child, tiger, dog and elephant carved on the walls. After that it was our imagination running which tried to decipher rest of the paintings. Also on the walls was some things written. I vaguely remember what guide told us, but that was about someone of that time. He translated some more lines for us which were clear. It was nice to see the old carvings and decipher them. After spending sometime there it was time to move to next destination which was Meenmutthy falls where water falls from 300 mtrs and its the highest waterfall in the area.
When we reached the place where we have to track for the falls, localities told us it would be 7 kms trek and most of us were not in mood to trek that much. We decided to skip this and instead go to Neelimala view point which gave a nice view of the falls. We reached and started to trek, which initially was some 800 mtrs (from where there was not good view) to some good 2 kms. When we reached the top from where we could see the waterfall we realized how amazing the falls were. They were huge with water thundering noise coming to the place where we were standing. It was amazing. After watching the beautiful falls we decided to move on. Some of the people went towards the mountain top while remaining (including myself) decided to go on the path which we can see. Later this decision which we took seemed excellent. After trekking up and down the mountain we reached the cliff, it was just end of that mountain. In front of us was a valley, covered in green. The view seemed to look like some film shot, but it was real, we were standing at the end of the mountain with valley in front of us. Since it was sunset time, we decided to see the sun set behind the valley before traversing back. The moments spend here were one of the best, I wished I could just stay there forever. It was so peaceful and beautiful. But alas we have to go back as it was getting darker. We trekked back to base location where bus was waiting before it got dark. After this hectic trekking it was time to go back to hotel. We could not arrange for nice camping place so had to drop that idea. After reaching back to hotel we celebrated Divya bdday and as per tradition painted her face :-). After having dinner it was time to fall on bed. After the tiring trekking it was really a good night's sleep.
Next day plan was to leave the hotel, go to Pookote Lake, then to Kuruva Island and then travel back to Mangalore. We had some delay initially in leaving the hotel and then also when doing brunch we got late. While going towards the lake we got tea gardens. We wandered for some time in the gardens which was nice. Had some nice pictures in the gardens and then again proceeded towards the lake. The lake was full of water :P and surrounded by hills and greenery. We took three pedal boats and then had small race, boat fight, tug of war (yes tug of war between two boats :-) ) and water fight between ourselves. It was nice time pass there. From the lake we had to travel to Kuruva Islands. But before we could pass the city our bus's tire punctured and changing the tire too so much time that we decided to drop Kuruva Island plan (third place to be dropped :P) and after the tire got replaced decided to start for Mangalore so as to reach and have proper sleep. While the tire was getting replaced, we had ShriShyam on guitar playing some tunes for us and also teaching how to play guitar. He made lots of locals his fan also.
Traveling back through the jungles was awesome. Saw wild elephant but did not try more to venture out for more dangerous animals.
We reached back Mangalore sometime around 2 AM and dropped people home and as soon as I reached home I too was fast asleep before I could blink (I tried to blink but I fell sleep :P).
This was also one amazing trip with couple of hiccups, which by now you will know is integral part of all my trips :). Would like to go back to Wayanad, so as to spend more time on Neelimala point, trek to Meenmutthy falls and also trek to Chembra peak (which we had not planned in our trip) as it is one whole day trek. "At 2100 metres, the spectacular Chembra Peak located towards the southern part of Wayanad is the tallest summit in the region. Climbing this peak is a challenging mountaineering endeavour and would take a full day. The surrounding areas offer exceptional photo opportunities. Camping on the peak is a unforgettable experience."
Its good bye from my side for now. I will be back soon with a new exciting trip to some part on this planet Earth. Hope to have some trip very soon.
So here I am back again with another trip experience. This time place was Wayanad which is also in Kerala (My previous trips in Kerala have been to Ponmudi and Munnar). Funding for this trip came mostly from the project fund which we have accumulated (or collected or u can say extorted for various reasons).
It was Team Kmart (Mangalore offshore team) except for few who left out because of various reasons. Here's the team which went:
Sandhya, Ketan, Divya, Thaman, Naina, Kiran, Mehul, Sandeep, Nishant, Manoj, Alkesh, Shashank, Farid and ShriShyam
We had booked a mini-bus for the trip. As per the plan we started from Mangalore on Friday night. Had some fun, singing in bus till people were tired and wanted to sleep. But as you know, problems occur in every plan. So in the middle of night we discovered a problem, which was that our driver was not aware of the route which we were taking to Wayanad. Some how by finding people and asking for directions we were trying to reach our target. One stop worth mentioning is when we stopped at an intersection not aware which way to go (either straight or take a turn). There at 2 in morning, 16 people were trying to stop vehicles. After sometime we realized why people instead of stopping were turning away. We seemed like some bandits trying to rob on highway ;). Somehow we managed to stop a truck and a sumo and confirmed the directions. After that the way was found after confirming with some soul who could be found on the road.
We reached hotel somewhat off our target time, but not much delay. We revised our plan of visiting places. First day we planned to visit Edakkal Caves, Meenmutthy Falls, Neelimala view point and then to camp at some place at night.
We started for Edakkal caves:
"An interesting trek up the Ambukuthi Hill near Ambalavayal town takes you to the fascinating neolithic cave site of Edakkal. Etchings found on the walls of these caves have drawn the serious attention of archaeologists and historians worldwide.With at least three distinct sets of petroglyphs, the earliest thought to date back over 5000 years, it is assumed that the Edakkal caves had been inhabited at various stages in history."
It was good trek up the hill (half of which we did in Jeep :P ) and remaining on foot. From the top where cave is located it was nice view of the surrounding. Also from telescope which is installed there you could view the surrounding. Major view point was Phantom rock (a rock in form of human scull). Once inside the caves it was interesting to see the etchings which we could not initially understand at all. But the guide there showed us the patterns which were made there, a man, woman, child, tiger, dog and elephant carved on the walls. After that it was our imagination running which tried to decipher rest of the paintings. Also on the walls was some things written. I vaguely remember what guide told us, but that was about someone of that time. He translated some more lines for us which were clear. It was nice to see the old carvings and decipher them. After spending sometime there it was time to move to next destination which was Meenmutthy falls where water falls from 300 mtrs and its the highest waterfall in the area.
When we reached the place where we have to track for the falls, localities told us it would be 7 kms trek and most of us were not in mood to trek that much. We decided to skip this and instead go to Neelimala view point which gave a nice view of the falls. We reached and started to trek, which initially was some 800 mtrs (from where there was not good view) to some good 2 kms. When we reached the top from where we could see the waterfall we realized how amazing the falls were. They were huge with water thundering noise coming to the place where we were standing. It was amazing. After watching the beautiful falls we decided to move on. Some of the people went towards the mountain top while remaining (including myself) decided to go on the path which we can see. Later this decision which we took seemed excellent. After trekking up and down the mountain we reached the cliff, it was just end of that mountain. In front of us was a valley, covered in green. The view seemed to look like some film shot, but it was real, we were standing at the end of the mountain with valley in front of us. Since it was sunset time, we decided to see the sun set behind the valley before traversing back. The moments spend here were one of the best, I wished I could just stay there forever. It was so peaceful and beautiful. But alas we have to go back as it was getting darker. We trekked back to base location where bus was waiting before it got dark. After this hectic trekking it was time to go back to hotel. We could not arrange for nice camping place so had to drop that idea. After reaching back to hotel we celebrated Divya bdday and as per tradition painted her face :-). After having dinner it was time to fall on bed. After the tiring trekking it was really a good night's sleep.
Next day plan was to leave the hotel, go to Pookote Lake, then to Kuruva Island and then travel back to Mangalore. We had some delay initially in leaving the hotel and then also when doing brunch we got late. While going towards the lake we got tea gardens. We wandered for some time in the gardens which was nice. Had some nice pictures in the gardens and then again proceeded towards the lake. The lake was full of water :P and surrounded by hills and greenery. We took three pedal boats and then had small race, boat fight, tug of war (yes tug of war between two boats :-) ) and water fight between ourselves. It was nice time pass there. From the lake we had to travel to Kuruva Islands. But before we could pass the city our bus's tire punctured and changing the tire too so much time that we decided to drop Kuruva Island plan (third place to be dropped :P) and after the tire got replaced decided to start for Mangalore so as to reach and have proper sleep. While the tire was getting replaced, we had ShriShyam on guitar playing some tunes for us and also teaching how to play guitar. He made lots of locals his fan also.
Traveling back through the jungles was awesome. Saw wild elephant but did not try more to venture out for more dangerous animals.
We reached back Mangalore sometime around 2 AM and dropped people home and as soon as I reached home I too was fast asleep before I could blink (I tried to blink but I fell sleep :P).
This was also one amazing trip with couple of hiccups, which by now you will know is integral part of all my trips :). Would like to go back to Wayanad, so as to spend more time on Neelimala point, trek to Meenmutthy falls and also trek to Chembra peak (which we had not planned in our trip) as it is one whole day trek. "At 2100 metres, the spectacular Chembra Peak located towards the southern part of Wayanad is the tallest summit in the region. Climbing this peak is a challenging mountaineering endeavour and would take a full day. The surrounding areas offer exceptional photo opportunities. Camping on the peak is a unforgettable experience."
Its good bye from my side for now. I will be back soon with a new exciting trip to some part on this planet Earth. Hope to have some trip very soon.
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