Wayanad In a Monsoon Weekend

Day 1 : Thamaraserry, Kozhikode

Thamarassery is a small town in the Kozhikode district. Although there were no major tourist spots or scenic places, the air was clean and ripe with the pleasant, dewy petrichor of the post-rain afternoon. So it eventually turned out to be our secluded place to take selfies and portraits in weird poses (that only stays in the mobile gallery kind of pictures).

Day 2 : Kalpetta, Wayanad

We stayed that night at Thamarassery and grabbed an auto-rickshaw the next morning to reach Kalpetta via Thamarassery Churam. It is a beautiful mountain pass from Adivaram to Lakidi. From there again got a bus to reach Kalpetta. We walked the rest of the way to reach our homestay in Kalpetta, refreshed, and immediately set out to explore in another auto-rickshaw.

Pookode Lake

The first destination was Pookode Lake. In the dilemma of choosing between "why to visit the same damn places that all others visit?" and "What would it be to visit the most popular place at a secluded time of the year?" we started our monsoon trip to Wayanad. And it indeed paved well. Deserted lakes and parks, again made us own the entire neighborhood for some time.

Lakkidi Viewpoint

On the way from Pookode, we stopped at Lakkidi Viewpoint to shoot (of course with the camera) the mountains that peeped from the clouds for a brief moment. The thrill of running from one point to another to catch the final glimpse of the breath-taking views before the snow covers the mountains is the real boost one can experience in the mountains during monsoons.

Chain Tree

Our last stop before heading back to the homestay is the Chain Tree. The myth behind the tree is that Karinthandan, a local adivasi helped the British to find the way through the ghat. The British engineer then killed him. Karinthandan's spirit was taking acts of revenge by causing accidents in the ghat. Years later, the spirit chained to the tree, and people started praying to the tree to avoid accidents.

Muthanga Wildlife Safari

As the saying goes untold, one should take the very first jeep ride of the day in Wildlife Safari to not to miss any wild encounters. So we took the 7 am ride that morning in the hope that we can encounter many species on that pleasant sunny day after a week's heavy fall of rain in Muthanga. As expected, the usual 60mins safari extended to 90mins and it was a mind-boggling experience. In the middle of the jungle, our guide has to turn off the engine, to make the entire crew sit in silence because we encountered a charged matriarch (the female head of the elephant tribe) as near as 5 meters from our jeep. It was a close call, and everyone had caught their breath for a brief 15 minutes.

Edakkal Caves

The last stop for the weekend is Edakkal Caves. It is one of the prime Neolithic sites situated at Ambukutty Mala, on the Mysore Plateau, in the Western Ghats. As per our revised itinerary, it is now the only physically demanding place (trekking in the hilly terrain for 1 km followed by climbing 380 steep steps) we visited on the trip. The sunshine attracted more people today, and we ended our trip amidst a group of crowded fellow travelers at last.