Bamboo rafting experience in Wayanad

I woke up at around 6’o clock listening to the chirping birds. Opened the window and Wayanad was a completely different world. Last night was all foggy and the visibility was very low but the morning is very bright and I could see the mountains several kilometers away. Without disturbing my friend, I went for a walk. It was too cold and I felt sorry for not bringing my sweaters. But it was still a nice feeling to walk alone through the heavily shaded country roads in the chilling weather with greenery all around Wayanad. I had forgotten to take the phone and I realized it is getting late to start our river rafting. By the time I reached the room, my friend had already got ready for the day. I took a quick shower in the hot water and had the typical Kerala style appam and coconut milk from the same restaurant we had dinner last night.

Bamboo rafting by Pepe Vacanza

By around 8am, we started towards Pozhuthana river near Vythiri for rafting. We called Pepe Vacanza, the rafting company, to make sure they are ready to take us.

Pozhuthana river in Pozhuthana village is a small river with shallow waters in the most part of the river. Since there is no current, the water didn’t look very clean but people were swimming in some places. The company had several rafts and they all looked very similar. There were few other groups who had already started their fun in the bamboo rafts. Our raft was ready and we jumped into the bamboos without wasting much time. Our guide was a really cool guy and he started telling a lot of tales and stories about the history of Wayanad and how Wayanad was converted into a tourist destination from a spice route. He told us the story of “Karinthandan”, the tribal person who showed the ghat road to the British to transport the spices through the mountains. After finding the routes through the mountains, it is believed that the British killed him to claim the credits of discovering the new route. The soul of Karinthandan is chained to a tree, opposite to the Pepper Wayanad Gate hotel we saw yesterday. The tree is now called “Chain tree” and the local people believe that as the tree grows, the chain also grows. I've shared more photos and videos of my experience at river rafting in Wayanad

We enjoyed the bamboo rafting as well as the narration of our guide. After about 2 hours of rafting through the river, he asked if we wanted to continue. We continued for another one hour and then returned to the place where we started.

It was a great experience and I would recommend you try the bamboo rafting if you are visiting Wayanad. We took some photos with the Pepe Vacanza guys and then started towards our next destination - Edakkal Caves. I will write more about our visit to the Caves in the next travelogue in Tripoto.