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This year when we got list of holidays from our office, I saw second holiday Jan 26 is on a Monday means long weekend. I had to plan something. Didn't want to miss on this. Heard lot about Mangalore though earlier I have been to Turtle Bay (at Trasi, Kundapur) but this time I wanted to go to Mangalore.

During cafeteria chitchat when all the colleagues were discussing about their plans, I also shared my plan to go to Mangalore and few people suggested me not to go because of bad roads especially from Sakleshpur to Mangalore. The day this discussion happened was Thursday Jan 22. I inquired from few more people and thought of taking longer route Bangalore --> Mysore --> Shimoga --> Mangalore. But still most of the people suggested me against this. Finally democracy won and I had to change my plans.

I was checking with other colleagues about their plan, one of the colleague suggested me for Chickmanglur but somehow I was not comfortable going within Karnataka, next best option I thought of was Pondicherry. Pondicherry is a busy tourist attraction and since I had not yet made any bookings I was apprehensive about my plans. Then two of my colleagues suggested for Wayanad. They mentioned that the place where they had made bookings still have few rooms unreserved. Without taking chance I told him that I will come along and they called the home stay people and confirmed the reservation.

Now my research started on the Wayanad. I checked in the outlook traveler and to my surprise there was nothing mentioned about Wayanad. Later when I check the index, the place mentioned in the Outlook traveler was Lakaddi.

Accommodation: We stayed at home stay Aranyakam, Valthoor. A bungalow with a with 8 guest rooms and two cottages. Only one cottage was being used other was still work-in-progress condition. Though it was a nice place, I will suggest to stay somewhere in Kalpetta since Kalpetta is the centeral location for all tourist spots.

Day 1 (Jan 24, 2009): As we decided to start early, my other friends were ready at sharp 5:00 AM. But the person who suggested to start early (myself) was late by 45 min. I reached at the common meeting place (near Cotton Silk board, BTM Layout) at 5:45 AM. Finally without wasting time, as soon as I reached BTM, we headed towards Mysore. On the way default place to have breakfast is Lokruchi Kamat. No trip on Mysore Road is complete without stopping at Lokaruchi Kamat. We reached at Kamat at around 8:30 AM , had breakfast and headed towards Mysore. From Mysore , as I said above, there are three routes, we were not sure which diversion we have to take for NH 212. There was no sign boards or directions for NH 212. We asked for Nanjangud nd people suggested to keeping going straight. Follow the sign board for Mysore Palace. First sign board for Nanjangud  or NH 212 we found after crossing Mysore Palace and from there on it was straight road though single. Road was wide enough but due to traffic, sometimes it was difficult to overtake.

Finally we reached Wayanad at around 1:30 PM but didn't realize that we still have to drive another 50+ kms to reach our home stay. We have done bookings at Aranyakam, Valathoor. We reached at our home stay at around 3 PM. When we planned our trip we though we will be able to reach Wayanad in 6-7 hours. We actually reached Wayanad at 1:30 PM with in seven and half hours but we didn't realize the extra 50 KMS we have to drive to reach our home stay.

When we reached Aranyakam, our lunch was waiting for us. It was a nice and secluded place. There were around rooms in the bungalow out of which we took 3. We kept our luggage inside the room and had a quick lunch. by the time we finished our lunch, it was already 4 PM. While having lunch we asked our host where we can go and he suggested to go to Pookote Lake. It was around 20 KMS from there. On the way we stopped to take few pictures amidst tea plantation. By the time reached lake, it was around 5:00 PM. Lane to the lake was very narrow and difficult to park the car. We bought the entrance tickets and ticket for camera and went inside. As soon as you enter the gate there is a shop to buy spices, tea, coffee and handicrafts. At the lake one can do boating or walk around the lake. There is one children park as well. Boating time is only till 4:30 PM and we reached after 5:00 PM , so we could not do boating. Any way we spent some time around the lake , had some tea and coffee and decided to go back to home stay, since it was already getting dark.

We had some "plans" for the night. One of my friends had got a bottle of Absolute Vodka. When we asked our host to prepare some snacks and send to our room, he told us, they don't allow any eatables inside the room, since it might attract insects and rats. But he agreed to give some onions, lemon and Soda. We were carrying chips and juices. That is all we needed. Had few drinks and then got call from our wives for dinner. For dinner there were few Kerala delicacies. After dinner, we requested our host for camp fire. Weather was bit chilly but wonderful. At this time, we were tired and it was already 11:00 PM. We decided to call it a day.

 

Day 2  (Jan 25, 2009): Got up at around 7:00 AM, had morning tea and started getting ready for the day. First we went around the estate of our host. Not sure about the size but it was quite big. We decided to take a round. Since our home stay was at a peak of hill, when we went around , there was a tree house (which we could not climb) and two cottages just at the edge of hill (reminding of climax of hindi movie WELCOME. We were having fun and talking about the movie and if the cottage falls. After taking few pictures, we went back our home stay for having breakfast. At the break fast table we made our program for the day. Now out of two couples who had to leave , one of them decided to stay back with us. Plan was to go to Kanthanpura waterfalls, Edakkal Caves and Kuruva Island.

Kanthapura waterfalls or Kanthapura waterfalls was around 5 KM from the place where we were staying, so it didn't take more than 20 min to reach the waterfall. It is around 30 mt high.

Edakkal Caves: After the waterfall, we headed towards Edakkal Caves which was around 30 KMS from the Waterfall. To reach the caves, from the parking place, one has to either walk for 1.5 KM or can take a ride on Jeep by paying Rs.10/- per person. We decided to go on Jeep, but due to the weekend rush, first the Jeep guy said, we need to wait for 15mins then later he said it will take more than one and half hour before our turn will come and we were not ready to walk. Also, we came to know that even after reaching on top , there is a long queue at the ticket counter. So we decided against going to the caves. From here we headed towards Kuruva Island.

Kuruva Island or Kuruva Dweep around 60 KMS from the Edakkal Caves. On our way we stopped at Sulthan Bathery and had our lunch at Jubilee Restaurant. This was one of the best part of the whole trip. From Sulthan Bathery there are two ways to reach Kuruva Island, one from Mananthavady and other from I guess Pulpally (not sure about the name). Last 3 KMS of road to reach Island was very bad , rather there was no road. Reached Island at around 4:00 PM. Kuruva Island is around 950 acres of land of which more than 400 acres is forest protect area. Entrance fee for Kuruva Island is Rs.10/- per person. Besides entrance fee, one has to pay additional Rs.5/- for rafting. Island is surrounded by Kabini River and Bamboo rafts are available which can take upto 20 people at a time. These are managed by forest department. After crossing the river one has to walk around 1 KM to reach the actual spot. There water level is low (knee deep or less) and there are lot of rocks in the water. A good picnic spot. Some people play around and take bath in water and other just sit on the rocks, relax and enjoy the weather and surroundings. At around 6:00 PM, it was getting dark and staff of forest department started asking people to vacate. One more point which I forgot to mention earlie, timing for Kuruva Island is from 9:30 AM to 4:30 PM. Make sure that you reach there well in till. I will suggest to go there in the morning or latest by 2 PM, if you want to spend some useful time. Once you get in there you will not want to come out of that place.

 

Pictures of Kuruva Island

We also headed back to home stay and by 9:00 PM we reached back, had dinner while planning for next day.Plan was to go for trekking early morning at around 7:00 AM , then Soochipara waterfalls, Edakkal Caves (since we could not go there earlier) and the head back to Bangalore. Requested our host to send the tea at 7AM. Host said guide will be available to take us for trekking by 8:00 AM. With this plan we went to bed.


Day 3  (Jan 26, 2009): Got up at 7:00 AM waiting for tea, but tea came only at 8:00 AM and got delayed for the trekking. So we decided to first have breakfast, wrap up every thing and then go for trekking. At around 9:30 AM, we started for trekking. It was tough terrain, we had to go down the hill for 1 KM and then climb up from another track for 1 KM. In total it took us around 2 hours. Came back by 11:30 AM and then headed towards Soochipara waterfalls. It was around 30 KM from here. Since we started late, we dropped the idea to go to Edakkal caves. Reached Soochipara falls at around 1:00 PM. From the parking place, there were jeep rides available for Rs.50/- one side irrespective of number of people. We could have also gone there on foot, since we were tired after trekking, decided to take the jeep. It was around 2 KM ride. From the point where Jeep dropped us, we had to go down the hill. There were man made steps, to reach the falls. On the way you will find people selling buttermilk and lemon water (there was hardly any lemon in water). Due to long weekend, place was full of people. So we didn't spend too much time there. On our way out, my wife wanted to visit a tea factory. It was about 5 KM from here. Though we went there, due to republic holiday, it was closed. Headed back to Sulthan Bathery for lunch and then back to Bangalore.

Pictures of Soochipora Waterfall

There are quite a few places to visit in Wayanad and I think 3 days are too less considering each tourist spot is pretty far and one cannot enjoy more than 2-3 places in  a day. All the more reason for me to visit Wayanad again.

Click to see Wayanad Photo Album

 

Disclaimer: This article is just a narration of how myself and my friends spent time there and not a suggestive itinerary.