Trip to Wayanad (Part 3)

Part 1 and Part 2 of the series can be found here.

Before retiring for the night, we decided that we did not want this trip to become hectic. Mrs. Seetha mentioned that Kuruva Island had been shut down due to the rains. So we decided to head out to Lakkidi Viewpoint, Pookote Lake  and then try and make it to Soochipara Waterfalls the next day.

Three of us had a pleasant sleep and got up refreshed to the beautiful aromas of tea and coffee plantations. We were provided with hot cups of tea and coffee by Mrs. Seetha herself in our dainty cottage.

We then got ready and then all of us then gathered for a sumptuous breakfast. The boys were having great fun together playing and jumping around the estate. Spent some time clicking photos of the estate in daylight..and then headed out towards Pookote lake with Vivek guiding us.

 

On the way, we stopped at a Tea estate and it was snap time again.

With that, we again headed out towards Lakkidi View point,  the roads were beautiful winding ones, decked with mountains of green and the blues of the sky and the small waterfalls all along. We stopped at one of the small waterfalls and Arjun had some fun time there…Lakkidi View point is essentially one of the highest locations in Wayanad and the road was a ghat.

We then headed towards Pookote Lake, along the way Vivek showed us the Chain Tree. We reached Pookote Lake by around 11:30 am and spent time boating, taking nice walks around the lake and eating munchies (ice-creams etc) Overall a great quality time with family.

We then headed out towards Vythiri Resorts, it seems it’s the oldest resort in Wayanad and earlier Wayanad was synonymous to Vythiri Resorts for the tourists. Mrs. Seetha and Vivek told us to atleast visit and if possible have lunch there as well. Off we headed to Vythiri resorts, the resort is reachable by a motorable but extremely treacherous “kaccha” road, and although it was only 3.5kms it took us almost 30 mins to reach the resort. The drive was amazing, that if fuelled my ambition to buy a 4*4 sometime in the future (when I can afford one).

Vythiri Resort is a wonderful resort nestled right in the jungle with a river flowing right through it. Has nice cottages and as per the locals is an excellent place. The main attraction being the hanging bridge. Tourists who do not stay there can even go and explore the resort and if hungry can snack up or stay for lunch. I wouldn’t recommend dinner unless you are staying there, since coming back through that route in the night won’t be recommended for the family types…but mind you it would be one helluva experience. We decided to have buffet lunch at the resort, Sachin and family decided otherwise and headed towards Kalpetta. We decided we would synch up with them at Kalpetta. In a way, we celebrated Sawani’s birthday, alone as a family with excellent lunch.

We had a leisurely walk across the resort, spent quality time and then decided to head out towards Kalpetta. Once we reached the highway, we stopped over for some local purchases and then met the gang again at Kalpetta. It was about 3/3:30 and Vivek mentioned that Soochipara falls is open only till 4:30pm and that it would take us atleast 40mins to reach there. That would give us about 30/40 mins at the falls, which we all thought wasn’t time enough, so instead we decided to head out to Banasursagar Dam. Vivek mentioned that we could do speed boating there as well. It was about 30 mins drive and what an amazing place it turned out to be.  Excellent backdrop and backwaters and the scenery was just breathtaking. Btw: we had to again travel by a jeep for about 3 kms to reach the dam.

We then waited for about 45 mins for our turn to come on the speed boat. There was only one speed boat available which was kinda a sore point with so many tourists, the tourism deptt. could have done much better. We decided to split up since we couldn’t accommodate the 9 of us in a single ride, so the 3 of us decided to go first and then the Sachin’s would go in the next round. The speed boat ride was not thrilling really, but more relaxing. We sighted a herd of elephants in the adjoining jungles, we were lucky as per the local legend, since the rides earlier to us hadn’t sighted them and amazing they were brown elephants. It was our first time to see a herd of brown elephants. Even the boatman was busy clicking snaps on his mobile (guess it was his first time as well).

 

With our turn done, we then whiled away our time in the garden nearby waiting for Sachin’s ride to complete, and we were in for some fun moments. On their round, the speed boat had an engine failure, can you believe that, all the 6 of them were stranded in the middle of the lake on a dead boat. The local authorities took their sweet time to send out another boat (atleast 50 mins) to tow them back to safety, and the other boat also faced hiccups (stalling in the middle for some moments) it was crazy and hilarious. Sachin and team must have had one thrilling experience. By about 6/6:30 we headed out back to Ente Veedu and along the way in Panamaram I bought a nice walnut cake for Sawani and reached by around 7:30 pm. We then relaxed in the hammocks and the jhoolas to be again treated for some delicious dinner by Mrs. Seetha.

The next day  was Sawani’s Birthday and Mrs. Seetha arranged an excellent spread  of breakfast. Sawani cut her birthday with cheers of Happy Birthday from all of us. It was great and many Thanks to Mrs. Seetha for making it so special.

Later Sachin and team decided to visit Soochipara falls but we decided to head back. We decided to take Mananthawadi-Kartikulam-Kutta-Nagarhole-Hunsur-Srirangapatna-Bangalore route so we could travel through Tholpetta and Nagarhole (Rajiv Gandhi National Park). We headed out at about 11 am thanking Mrs. Seetha for her wonderful hospitality and thinking about the amazing time we had there and hoping one day to go back.

The return journey through the forests were amazing and this time around we were lucky to see herds of deer and elephants along with tons and tons of monkeys. The Nagarhole forest is an amazing jungle and to travel through it was a great experience that is difficult to pen down but rather something that one has to experience.

 

We were back in Bangalore at about 6 pm on 27th July to cap up a great weekend outing.

Cheers,
Yogesh Ranade