Wayanad Trip - Day 1

On Saturday 20th Septmber, we began our journey to Wayanad. We were four of us, me, Jayasimha, Shrinidhi and Raviraj were on our way to Wayanad, popular tourist destination in Kerala and is about 282 kms from Bangalore. Journey began from Vijayanagar at 6 30 am in the morning with Nidhi in driver's seat in Scorpio, rented for self drive.

New Animal in Bandipur National Park!

Route we followed was - Bangalore - Mysore - Gundlpete - Bandipur forest - Wayanad. Bangalore - Mysore road is at its best inviting you to advance your speedometers. So is the NH212 route from Mysore to Kozhikode which passes via Bandipur national park.

Seetha Devi Temple at Ponkuzhi

Soon after crossing Kerala border, we saw this Seetha Devi Temple at Ponkuzhi, reminiscent of Kerala temple architecture. After taking some snaps of the beautiful temple we cotinued on our journey, to reach Sultan Bathery at 11 30 am.

Sulthan Bathery:
Suthan Bathery as the name suggested, we thought it may be a fort like structure, where ammunitions used to be kept. But even after asking several locals, we could not locate the fort at the place. Then one wise guy pointed us to the Jain temple where the shells where kept then.

Jain Temple at Sulthan Bathery

Jain temple, built in 13th century was used by Tipu Sultan for keeping arms and ammunitions, after he captured the temple in 18th century. Hence the name, Suthan Bathery. It is also the largest town in Wayanad district.

Edakal Caves:
Edakal caves was our next stop. We reached there around 12. You have to park your vehicle some distance before the place. To reach the caves on top, you can avail the jeep facility. It is a rocky hill, on the way to its top you will find 2 large caves.

1st Edakal Cave

Edakal caves is also the place where the Kannada movie 'Edakallu Guddada Mele' directed by legendary director Puttanna Kanagal was shot, to be precise in the first cave. Incidentally that was the only film shot here as per the guide who briefed us about the history of these caves. Reaching the peak can be a adventurous task as there are some steep rocks to climb on the way. One has to go via the first cave to get to the top but second cave is not directly on the way. We visited the first cave and were on our way to the top keeping the programme of visiting the second cave postponed while getting down. The place was crowded with youngsters enjoying the nice weekend.

Birds view from Edakal Peak

After climbing each altitude on the way to the top, seeing the land far below the hill, exclaimations by fellow trekkers like 'waw' was a common scene and I had in mind suggesting an alternate name for Wayanad as 'Wawnad'! After reaching the top of the hill, all the land below seem so small in dimensions.One can see the whole geography of the place, all green - paddy fields, plantations, towns, quarry at one glance and be amazed by nature's creation. On our way down,

2nd Edakal Cave

we visited the second cave where you can find inscriptions on the rocks by stone age people who believed to have lived there. The whole process of climbing up the hill and getting down took us about 3 hours.

Soochipara Falls:
We continued our journey towards Soochipara falls after finishing lunch at Edakal at around 4. Since the places were within a distance of 10-20 kms travelling time was far less and we were near Soochipara falls soon after Edakal. On our way to Soochipara falls we visited the Wayanad Heritage museum, did not find it interesting though.

Tea plantations

That apart, lush greenery of the tea plantations on the way is a treat to watch. Also, they make perfect locations to take some great snaps of unforgettable journeys. This also reminded me of how as children, we were mesmerized by the sight of all green tea plantations shown in Kannan Devan Tea ads! Now I was seeing them for real. After parking the vehicle, way to Soochipara falls is about 2km walk. 200 meters Soochipara falls was already filled with people.

Soochipara Falls

Water falling from such height and great force had made surroundings filled with sound and had created misty surroundings.

After Soochipara falls visit, we headed towards Kalpetta some 22 kms from Soochipara falls, in search of some good hotel to stay on that night. Kalpetta is the district headquarters of Wayanad, and hosts quite a number of hotels. After finding one to stay, we soon got into sleep, after discussing the next day morning's programme of visiting Lakkidi, a view point to catch the glimpse of misty mountains. Well, thats all folks for now. 2nd part of the trip coming soon.

Regards
Raveesh

Another view from Edakal peak

Great Roads amidst tea plantations, Wayanad