I went for a short trip to Wayanad, Kerala with my colleagues and this post is just a looking back.
I heard from one of my friends that Wayanad means "Vayal" "Nadu". I had no problem in understanding this (land of paddy fields) as it sounds the same in my own language, Tamil. The journey towards Wayanad started around 8.30 AM from Calicut. In fact, it is Wayanad district, located on the Western Ghats and we were travelling towards a place called Kalpetta. It looked like a town and I guess the place is dominated by Muslims.
It was interesting to watch the road and the streets that connects it to the near by houses. The road is laid higher than the street level and just after half a kilo meter it is the reverse of it. Perhaps, you could imagine the structure as a graph where the zigzag line moves on the z-axis having its base on the x-y plane. The pattern repeats for a long distance and I wonder how beautiful it would have been had they not built houses there. I was enjoying this pattern change before I realize that I was missing something - the people. The trees and plants seem to have encroached the entire land. All I could see from our lonely vehicle on the road was few houses surrounded by hundreds of tall trees spreading their shades everywhere.
Rubber trees bearing sharp scar all over them and the glue was dropping - like a tears of pain - over the plastic covers at the bottom. And beside that are coconut trees. It is not the sort of common coconut trees. They are too tall and too lean; perhaps they attempt to push the energy upwards so that they can reach the cloud dancing over them. Deep valleys are winking at you by taking the sunlight through the cloud is one of the beautiful places to have your travel.
On day one we were able to visit a waterfall. It is called Soochipara [ozzypara? - not sure] water falls and it is located around 25kms away from Kalpetta. The tall mountain mocking at the sky after depriving those beautiful clouds(mist) is what you might feel when the white water flashes all over the place from the top of the mountain, with sweet rhythm. Take a risk to reach the bottom of it.
On day two we were able to visit a set of islands and a dam. Around 50kms from Kalpetta - Kuruva Dweep is a place of around 1000 acres of green forest with hundreds of herbs and many kinds of bamboo (over fifty types of it is what I heard from the local people) and other trees. And the greatness of this place is the islands that are made by the Kabini River flowing through the trees and dancing on the rocks, singing along the birds sitting over the tress. Banasura Dam, the largest earth dam in India is amazingly beautiful in the evening with mountains on three sides of it. Unfortunately we were not able to get the boating facility which the Kerala government has launched very recently as it was late when we reached their at 6.10 PM. And an extremly disappointing thing is that we were not allowed to take photogrpahs.
On day three we went to Pookot Lake tourist resort, though it is very small when compared with the Banasura Dam, it is equally beautiful. And we had enough time to spend on boating on the dark green water and a small walk on the sides of the lake. And the fun was the leeches which took the blood from everybody, no matter how careful we were! And we were able to do a bit of shopping there and I strongly believe "Honey Amla" is the top of the shopping list for anyone. They do have lots of arts and crafts but my feeling is that they are too costly.
The place is very much similar to Ooty but I feel you have to do lots of travel to visit them. I believe we missed few other good places like Edakkal Caves, Pakshipathalam… but it was a memorable trip. Every nerves of the eyes are thrust with the lavish green of nature – refusing to fade away, and I wonder how I can get rid of it as their roots are remain settled strong in the deep inside of heart.
Kovil Pillai P.
I heard from one of my friends that Wayanad means "Vayal" "Nadu". I had no problem in understanding this (land of paddy fields) as it sounds the same in my own language, Tamil. The journey towards Wayanad started around 8.30 AM from Calicut. In fact, it is Wayanad district, located on the Western Ghats and we were travelling towards a place called Kalpetta. It looked like a town and I guess the place is dominated by Muslims.
It was interesting to watch the road and the streets that connects it to the near by houses. The road is laid higher than the street level and just after half a kilo meter it is the reverse of it. Perhaps, you could imagine the structure as a graph where the zigzag line moves on the z-axis having its base on the x-y plane. The pattern repeats for a long distance and I wonder how beautiful it would have been had they not built houses there. I was enjoying this pattern change before I realize that I was missing something - the people. The trees and plants seem to have encroached the entire land. All I could see from our lonely vehicle on the road was few houses surrounded by hundreds of tall trees spreading their shades everywhere.
Rubber trees bearing sharp scar all over them and the glue was dropping - like a tears of pain - over the plastic covers at the bottom. And beside that are coconut trees. It is not the sort of common coconut trees. They are too tall and too lean; perhaps they attempt to push the energy upwards so that they can reach the cloud dancing over them. Deep valleys are winking at you by taking the sunlight through the cloud is one of the beautiful places to have your travel.
On day one we were able to visit a waterfall. It is called Soochipara [ozzypara? - not sure] water falls and it is located around 25kms away from Kalpetta. The tall mountain mocking at the sky after depriving those beautiful clouds(mist) is what you might feel when the white water flashes all over the place from the top of the mountain, with sweet rhythm. Take a risk to reach the bottom of it.
On day two we were able to visit a set of islands and a dam. Around 50kms from Kalpetta - Kuruva Dweep is a place of around 1000 acres of green forest with hundreds of herbs and many kinds of bamboo (over fifty types of it is what I heard from the local people) and other trees. And the greatness of this place is the islands that are made by the Kabini River flowing through the trees and dancing on the rocks, singing along the birds sitting over the tress. Banasura Dam, the largest earth dam in India is amazingly beautiful in the evening with mountains on three sides of it. Unfortunately we were not able to get the boating facility which the Kerala government has launched very recently as it was late when we reached their at 6.10 PM. And an extremly disappointing thing is that we were not allowed to take photogrpahs.
On day three we went to Pookot Lake tourist resort, though it is very small when compared with the Banasura Dam, it is equally beautiful. And we had enough time to spend on boating on the dark green water and a small walk on the sides of the lake. And the fun was the leeches which took the blood from everybody, no matter how careful we were! And we were able to do a bit of shopping there and I strongly believe "Honey Amla" is the top of the shopping list for anyone. They do have lots of arts and crafts but my feeling is that they are too costly.
The place is very much similar to Ooty but I feel you have to do lots of travel to visit them. I believe we missed few other good places like Edakkal Caves, Pakshipathalam… but it was a memorable trip. Every nerves of the eyes are thrust with the lavish green of nature – refusing to fade away, and I wonder how I can get rid of it as their roots are remain settled strong in the deep inside of heart.
Kovil Pillai P.
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