Journey to the Green Paradise of Kerala -Wayanad - EXPERIENCEDROADS

When we are not much planned for a trip and when unexpectedly a bunch of holidays is offered before us .It was rather like a treat for us .We were a pack of five.Like every travel maniacs , we went through all type of searching & goggling to find the best destination for our weekends. After many chaos ,we made our bag packs to set for the Green paradise of Kerala-Wayanad.

If you google about tourist spots in Wayanad then there is a bunch of places to visit. Since we had only weekends left for us ,we cut shorted the number of destination in Wayanad and decided to make our trip a foodie cum fun trip.

On the road:

We started our trip by early morning. We decided to stop for breakfast in Bharath Hotel at Thrissur. This hotel is famous for south Indian dishes. We find this eatery as an apt start for our food trip. Though it is always a busy restaurant, I assure you won't be disappointed with the food .After having our favourite "Thairu sadham" and "Masala Dosa" we resumed our journey.If you are a South Indian food lover,then I would strongly recommend you this restaurant.

While passing through Kozhikode,we stopped by the beach. The most attractive part of this beach is the "broken bridges" which extends to the sea. After spending a great time over there we have a hankering for spicy foods.So we stretched out to our next destination , Paragon Hotel,Kozhikode.Be sure you opt the old ethnic eatery itself once you give a try for the same .We had the tastiest biriyani's and their famous fish mango curry from there. I am sure that no one will skip paragon hotel if they are in the periphery of Kozhikode if they have once tasted their authentic food. Trust me every dish here is worth trying.

The best part of road trip is that you can stop by to have a glance at all the magnificents.But make sure that there is a driving lover in your trip gang so that things don't get messed up. Luckily my gang had three of them,so they took turns in driving while the rest of us had to just sit back and enjoy the landscape.On the way we kept on taking breaks at various tasty spots in Kozhikode. Out of which fried ice cream from Alibhais Thattukkada was beyond descriptions.

The green paradise - Wayanad:

We reached Wayanad by night. Since we were gonna have an adventurous day on next day we had an early sleep. By early morning we set out for Soochipara waterfall. Soochipara Falls also known as Sentinel Rock Waterfalls is a three-tiered waterfall in Vellarimala, Wayanad, surrounded by Deciduous, Evergreen and Montane forests.Sentinel Rock Waterfalls offers scenic views of some of the best tea estates in Wayanad. There is walk of 15-20 minutes from the car park to reach the waterfall.

The promenade to the waterfall is beautiful surrounded with woods. It's a spell bond glance at waterfall. There is a small concave-like rock near the waterfall. We basically loved the view from there.

The heart lake ,Chembra peak:

We made a fast packup from Soojipara to our prior destination-The heart lake. Just the way it sounds, heart lake is a small lake that has a shape of the heart naturally. Its at the summit of the Chembra peak. The chembra peak is 2100m from the sea level and it's the highest peak in wayanad.

The trekking distance to the peak is 4.5km(one side) in more realistic point its equivalent of climbing a 150 storeyed building. We literally had heart attack after seeing the altitude of the mountain but all of us was excited about the trekking.The trekking time is from 7AM to 5PM.The entrance is around Rs.100 per person.

The travel from Soochipara to Chembra took around half an hour. After passing all the zig-zag roads we reached jumping of point of our awaited trekking.

There are shops near the bottom of the peak,that serves mainly 4 items:bread sandwich, maggi noodles, butter milk and water.( Trust you will never understand the value of the buttermilk unless you finish your trekking.) .We had a brunch and then we set out to the heart lake.

I would personally suggest to have a staff while climbing the Chembra though We didn't have one but we had good trip companions. The initial path is along the tea estate that is quiet an easy one. This path is continues till a watch tower, that is 1 km from the starting point. Half a way from there the trekking is along the forest .To make the trekking a bit easier the forest department have built a small step like structure on the ground. We took regular breaks in between(may be a lot of them).

It takes a minimum of 3 hours to reach the summit. On the way to the summit there is small water stream running down, this water is clear as crystal and can be even used for drinking. After long time of walking and regular breaks we finally reached our destination. I never thought the lake would reflect such a shape. The glance at the heart lake really made our day. The sight-seeing from the peak is just captivating. The way down was much easier. As I told no one would say a no to the buttermilk served there once you get down from the peak. It's really an energy booster. After we returned back from the day tripping we felt no lesser than Edmund Hillary.

After a night rest, we left for home. But on the way we decided to extend our trip a bit longer. We drove the car straight to Masanagudi. It's actually a place filled with flora & fauna that is in Mysore-Ooty road.

Back on road:

Elephant herd crossing and peafowl is a common seeing here. This is a place under the forest department of Karnataka.One have to be very careful while driving through this road,you can never know when you encounter the fauna jumping around.

And we enjoyed our weekend with spicy flavors and nature bliss.

For more details check our blog: experiencedroads.