Thekkady serves as the entry point to the renowned Periyar Wildlife Reserve. It's a small city as such but serves the basic requirements of stay. There are good restaurants, home stays and hotels to cater to all your needs. More importantly there are a lot of guided tours which are organized from this place into the wildlife reserve.
We started from Bangalore early morning and our target was to reach Thekkady timely so that we can explore the jungle treks organized in that area. On reaching there we realized that the treks are done only in the morning as it's a dangerous area filled with wild animals and it's unsafe to wander there post noon. We couldn't go for the trek on day one however we made the arrangements for going there on day two.
The stretch of Periyar which is open for tourists is divided in two phases. The first phase has a nicely laid road all through out while in the second phase you have to trek through the jungle. You have to get tickets to go for phase one too. It costs around 20 bucks and will secure you a walk in the jungle for a good 4-5 km. The road will take you through the jungle and showcase what natural beauty looks like. If you are a runner, you will just not be able to control the urge to run on such a nice trail. Personally, I liked the trail a lot and did two 5K runs on it while my group was busy with other activities.
Once you cover the first phase, you'll come across a view of the Wildlife Reserve. In front of you will be a lake disappearing in the mist and it's water shimmering like it's covered with golden glitter. We reached there during sunset time so the views were ravishing. The setting sun was casting it's last of golden rays on the jungle and every tree seemed to be made up of golden leaves owing to the reflecting sunlight. There is a barricade leading to the guard room and the boat ride which is offered in this area. The boat ride bookings are done in advance and we were not able to experience that.
However if you want to go for a jungle walk, that can be booked at the forest department's office. They will give you tickets for 350 per head which will give you permission to go for the phase two trek. This trek is however guided and guarded so you can't explore the area as much as you feel like. We booked our trek for the next day in the very first slot.
The next day started with our trek in phase two. We started at about 8 AM from our stay and reached the entry of phase two by 9 AM. There we were given some covers for protection against leeches in the area. After putting the protective clothing, we started our jungle walk with the two forest guards. One guard in the front guided our way into the jungle, while the one in the last made sure no one wandered off here and there. Although the trail is very well defined, there are still wild animals in the area which can attack without any warnings. That is the reason people always go in groups for the trek in jungle with 2 guards.
Our walk started from an open field which had a lake and there were a lot of birds near the area. We didn't really know about the varieties of birds but if you are even slightly interested in bird photography, this place will be a paradise for you. After covering the 2 km field stretch we started covering some distance in the jungle. Another 2 km and that was the end point of jungle walk. There are few things to be careful about. The jungle walk might seem a pretty short walk, but it's like that for a reason. Only that part of the jungle is considered safe for tourists. You might wish to wander off a little and explore the green jungle but as lucrative as it might look, it's equally dangerous. That jungle walk was the last attraction of day 2.
After this we started for Munnar and shockingly on the way itself we were able to come across a waterfall which was listed no where on the *attractions to visit* list of any website. This waterfall was gushing with full flow in the month of December and the water just seemed like it came directly from Himalayas. We stopped our vehicles on roadside and enojyed the waterfall views for quite some time. This waterfall is on Kambam - Thekkady road and is definitely one of things you should visit if you are planning any trip to nearby areas.
Although the flow was pretty strong, still we tried venturing to the base of the waterfalls from the side of the road. It was a drop of almost 30 ft which we managed to go down by grabbing some rocks and bricks coming out of the walls leading to the base. It's restricted to go there because even a slight rise in water level will increase the flow multiple times and will just swoosh you away without any warning.
But it's only natural that the places difficult to visit are the places whose beauty remained preserved. We went till the bottom and the views didn't disappoint us. In fact we took a dip in the stream and the chilling water was refreshing.
How to reach:
Thekkady is at a distance of 257 km from Trivandrum, 114 km from Madurai, 145 km from Cochin and 114 km from Kottayam railway station.
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