Exploring Wayanad

---

We zeroed down to Wayanad after considering all the possible destinations.Its 1 hour now we at Mysore Bus depot, Pondiherry,KodaiKanal, Madurai were the other options we considered.Thanks to my friends who dropped out at the last moment for Gokarna Trip and KSRTC for not running enough Volvos to the above destinations else I would have missed exploring such a beautiful place..

Nyways Wayanad is 3-4 hours from Mysore in the "Gods own country" Ride from bangalore to Mysore was smooth on KSRTC Volvo but no Volvos to Wayanad, a dabba bus was ready to leave to "Sulthan Bathery" the first town in wayanad district.6.30 pm lets not delay any more..Go go go we boarded this red coloured Kerala State Road Transport Bus to Wayand !!

Its 9.30 pm and raining," Suthan Bathery "Get down here, the bus conductor told.Its a small town and its dark..no one on roads, light off.. a bit frightning ... Luckily we saw a hotel board after walking few mins.Its a weekedn lets see if we can get a room !! Thank God we got one ...The restaurant was still open we had some nice Kerala Parathas and Paneer Butter masala,retired qucikly to our bed to start our day early next morning.

Next morning,we are at the Taxi stand, by now we could make out.. the langauge issue... people don uderstand english / hindi..so we gona have tought time.This guy seems to be too polite his name is shiva parasad, he owns this Mahindra Jeep,1500 bucks for full day siteseeing.. the deal stuck and here we go.The drive is thrilling..Shiva trying to be our tour guide .. trying his best..but we couldnt understand a word except he asked 1500 rs for the full day trip.

Our first stop was an ancient jain temple,I was clicking some pix when Mr Sishupal came and started explaining me the importance of the place, he is affleunt in hindi as well other regional languages.This temple is 1000s of year old.Tipu sultan used it as Garrison for the army, that was the time "Jains" left this place and thats how the town got its name."Sulthan Bathery".He showed how 2 british national shared their cosmic rays research work which was already done in india 1000s year back.

I thanked Sishupal ji for his time, now we moved to the Edikel Caves,It was an hour trek to reach the hill top,to see the caves. There are ancient inscriptions on the walls showing tribal man, women,children, elephants other animals and rituals.We met Nash here, he explained about this cave, the meaning and the dates of inscriptions and finally he showed one more inscription in some anceint tamil script.. which was 2000 years old it reads as " a man by name nandu who killed many tigers lived here".We thanked Nash, a bit tired now we started to trek back to the place we parked our world war 2 Naaazi jeep.

After the caves it was natural museum, we met Menakshi here....she couldnt speak english but tried her best to explain us what all was there..Some excellent conddition idols, terrcota work and weapons used by tribals.We finshed it fast and moved to next point the banasura dam.The place is awesome, scenes are amazing...We played with couple of goats here before leaving to our next destination.

Now it was a long drive on steep narrow road.. some super sexy views of tea and coffee plantation towards the Sochipaara falls...Well guys u need to be physically fit if u wana explore wayanad..lot of walking is envolved ..its 2 in the nite and while I m blogging.. I have pain everywhere..The falls were awesome though 😊.

Its 6.30 pm now already dark, we cant go to western ghats sunset point..Sunset cancel maadi ,shopping n kalpeta instead...we were able to explain this to shivnarayan..we started back and were at kalpeta the district head qaurters of waynad dist. Its a small town like sulthan bathery..Walnut cakes is a must go place in Kalpeta.We had some yummie cakes here, did some window shopping.

9.30 we are back in sultan bathery,went to some eatries but all were crowded..Got place in prince rest latter..after waiting for an hour he served food.

Next morning again we got up early,lets venture out on the City bus.. This is the best way to get to knw the people and the place,I guess I havnt missed it any were wether I am travelling in India or Abroad.Today our plan is to visit the national park in waynad, some one told u can get a bus to "Muthanga" from this bus stop.We boarded the bus it dropped us at Muthangana National Park.We hired a jeep again with a tour guide to take us to the National Park, hard luck we only say 2 deers and a monkey.. it was afternoon ,time to go back to Bangalore.

The National Park was on way to Bangalore, we waited for Bangalore buses on the barrier singing songs and clicking pix..a bus came totaly packed.. it would take 4 hours to mysore from here so we cant board it.There are no volvos atleast we should get sitting space in a KSRTC khataaara bus...Lets go back to some town and try our luck dere.

We were back to sultan Bathery, had some good lunch at peppermint, people guided us to the Bus Garage of the town, it was a festival sunday, place totaly crowded.whole trip has been fantastic till now .. exit seems to be a tough one.While waiting for the bus, an old porter "Majid Khan" Approached us .. "hindi" "hindi" .."Ae Duniya ke rakhwale " he praised all the hindi speaking crowd ,kerala, India ,world ,God..he asssured I will get u a seat.. 2 buses came same story fully packed...its 3.30.. Lets hire cab and go back, for tat we need some one who speak malyali as we had tough time communicating taxi walaa earlier day. We approached this couple going to mysore, " Arjun" was his name , he agreed and we 4 agrred to share a cab, meanwhile these 2 young fellows going to bangalore like us, asked if thye can join..finally we hired a big Xylo and all of us 6 were on way to Mysore.Meanwhile Arjun stopped the driver some were on way and showed us the scenic flow of river Kabini.It started raining now,I took few shots and we started back to Mysore with all Good memories.

Guys!! Fortunately last moment I dropped plan to drive to Wayanad, tat turned out to be a good decsion.Roads were to steep, narrow moreover jungle for many kms .. so if you are driving, park your car in hotel itself , hire a cab I would recomend a jeep though😊. Since my trip I have become diehard fan of mahindra jeeps..Plan to get one some time 😊.
Do visit Wayanad,it makes your feel Kodaikanal,ooty,connor 😊 All at 1 place

---

Photos

StarBucks Coffee
Starbucks Coffee @ Waynad !!

Mr Sishupal
He is the care taker at ancient jain Temple.A very learned & kind person.