Excellent destination. Review on Wayanad

Being in bangalore, it's almost impossible to not hear about Wayanad, if you are bitten by travel bug. Finally, in June, 08, I was able to plan the trip to Wayanad at very short notice without being able to book any hotel/resort in advance.

We started from bangalore at 5:30a.m. one saturday morning, crossed Mysore Palace by 8a.m., had breakfast at Kamat on road towards Bandipur and reached Kalpetta by 11a.m. started searching for a hotel, and luckily since the school holidays had ended and it was start of rainy season, it was not so much crowded. We got some rooms available at least at every hotel we enquired, however, finally settled at The Woodlands. Booked only for one day as we were thinking of booking some resort for the next day.

After some rest, we enquired about the sightseeing places around and what we could cover same day. Since dam and Pookat lake used to close around 5p.m. and it was already 3:30, we decided to go to Soochhipara waterfalls. The receptionist confirmed that because of last few days rain, there was good enough water in the falls.

While on the way, we took a wrong turn and got the first treat of the day for our eyes. Lush green tea estates on one side of the road with Chembra peak at the back was enough reason to come out of the car and forget about the waterfalls. The peak is unique in the sense it seems like green carpet is laid out till the very top of it. Just as good as in the photographs you may see on websites.

The long winding road on the way to falls, we stopped at several places. Tea estates, coffee estates and just plain jungles. It looked like we are covering Munnar, Coorg and Ooty all in same day. One has to walk almost 1km from the parking and then walk down the stairs to the base of the falls. Not fit for too elederly or people with small kids. However, just for scenery on the way, I will recommend you drive and come back.

Next morning, we went to Kuruva island. It also takes half a day at least including the travel time ffrom kalpetta. The drive was again scenic. When we reached the island, it started pouring and the security guy there told the river is deep enough to not cross on foot. We crossed the river by boat to reach kuruva island. There is nothing to see in the island except that you can walk through the island on a muddy road. However, the real fun was waiting at the end. It's a group of 63 islands through which Kabini river wades through. It creates channels of water rapids between the islands and it's real fun crossing the river to reach another island and so on. It's not so easy and not so difficult, just good enough. Though, it's better to hire a guide so that you know if it's too deep at some point. Photo attached with us in the middle of rapid sitting at one rock.

Till now we had become sure that we will end up spending all our time in sightseeing and so left the idea of booking into some resort and extended our stay in same hotel.

After we came back to Kalpetta, had lunch and headed towards Pookat lake. The lake is very calm and scenic, was less crowded that day. However, couldn't do boating because there was huge waiting. I wonder what they do in peak season since the number of boats in operation were so small in number.

Went to lakkidi view point which is on highway to Calicut. Since we were already overwhelmed with the scenery, we had expected the view point to be something similar. However, this time it was not the view of the hills but the valley view. It was already 5p.m. by the time we reached there and we could see the mist rising from bottom of the valley to the top where we stood. We could just spend entire day sitting there probably and still not feel enough.

On way back, I took a turn to see Rain country resort. The road led to a hill from where we had a n awesome view and the clouds slowly started encirling our car. Just want to go there again and stay at the same resort.

Wanted to see Edakkal caves next day, but we had planned to see Mysore palace and Vrindavan Gardens so left early from Wayanad and skipped it. Through Bandipur, saw a group of deer grazing just near the road.

I would like to strongly recommend Wayanad to everyone. Wayanad is one more reason for Kerala's claim to God's own country.