Waah Waah Wayanad...

Wayanad :
    

     " Wayanad District in the north-east of Kerala, India, was formed on 1 November 1980 as the 12th district by carving out areas from Kozhikode and Kannur districts. Kalpetta is the district headquarters as well as the only municipal town in the district. The region was known as Mayakshetra (Maya's land) in the earliest records. Mayakshetra evolved into Mayanad and finally to Wayanad. The Folk etymology of the word says it is a combination of Vayal (paddy field) and Naad (land), making it 'The Land of Paddy Fields'. There are many indigenous tribal in this area. It is set high on the Western Ghats with altitudes ranging from 700 to 2100 m. It is the least populous district in Kerala.

  Wayanad district stands on the southern tip of the Deccan plateau and its chief glory is the majestic rugged terrain of the Western Ghats, with lofty ridges interspersed with dense forest, tangled jungles and deep valleys. Quite a large area of the district is covered by forest but the continued and indiscriminate exploitation of the natural resources point towards an imminent environmental crisis.it has huge amount of deciduous forest, dry along moist. Snuggled a midst the Western Ghats Mountains, Wayanad is one of the exquisite hill stations of Kerala. It is a revenue state due to foreign exchange of cash crops such as vanilla, tea, coffee, pepper, cardamom and many other condiments. Wayanad shelters endangered species as it has an amazing range of flora and fauna. "

    This was a much awaited trip for us for couple of reasons, first trip in our new car and we were going for a vacation after a year. We made our plannings preparations well in advance.  We booked accommodation in http://jungleretreatwayanad.com/index.htm  well in advance. We had booked their wild life package (26th Oct 2012 - 29th Oct 2012). 

Route map

  Day 1 (26-10-2012) :

     We woke up early at 4:15 AM and got ready by 5:45 AM. We were welcomed by deserted Mysore road and we had a smooth sail. we had our breakfast at Kamath Upahar and reached Hunsur by 9:30 AM. We had a grand welcome into Nagarhole national Park.

Welcoming us to Nagarhole National Park

   From here my wife took over the drivers seat helping me to concentrate on my camera. But unfortunately we could only find few deer on the way and nothing else.  We drove carefully respecting the rules of the jungle and avoiding the potholes on the road.

   Spotted deer

  We crossed Nagarhole and entered Kerala via Kutta. I took over the drivers seat again disappointed with the less than expected spotting we had in Nagarhole and reached Jungle Retreat at 12:30 PM. Had a nice lunch at 2:00 PM and took some rest till 4:00 PM. 

   Woke up in the evening and went to the watch tower in the resort's property and watched the sun go down.

Sunset at Wayanad

  Went for a night safari in the jeep along with another family and spotted some elephants, deer and a bison. 

Spotted this elephant in night safari

  When we returned from safari we had a new guest in the resort.

Frog in Jungle retreat

   We had a tasty dinner and went for sleep. A leisure day to start the vacation.

  Day 2 (27-10-2012) :

   Woke up at 6:00 AM and found the weather to be really cold. Went to the watch tower to try my luck.

Sun was rising in the horizon

  Mist was settling down

   Waking up early and walk to the watch tower was worth it as i spotted a wild boar in the next field.

Wild boar

  By this time sun was out, went back to the room where hot cup of coffee was waiting for me.

View of the resort from the watch tower

There is a pond next to the resort 

  After the coffee went for a walk around the resort property. Weather was still cold and over night mist had settled on all the plants around us.

 Our day's schedule was safari at Nagarhole, but because of High Court orders safari was suspended. So after our breakfast went for a walk near the resort on the road side.

There was this small shop near the resort

Wild flower 

Caterpillar hanging from the tree

A langoor was watching us from the tree top

   We walked for about couple of kilometers and turned and walked back. Once we reached the resort entrance decided to continue our walk in the opposite direction. We were warned to be bit careful as the other side we were about walk was frequented by wild life.  Walking was easy as weather was good and road side had enough shades from the big trees around. When we walked for about a kilometer we spotted a bison almost 100 mts away from us. It threatened to charge at us, we waited and watched it cross the road and walk into the forest on the other side.

Spotted bison during our walk

  We started our walk back as people working in the forest asked us not to go walking any further. We reached resort after a long walk. It was worth it and spotting the bison was a wonderful experience.

Someone had expressed their love on the tree

  We had a wonderful lunch and we were informed that safari in Nagarhole was opened to public. We got ready and went for the safari.

Our ride for all safaris

  When we reached Nagarhole officials informed that safari is yet to open as the road condition inside the National Park is damaged due to recent rains. We returned back disappointed.

    Went for a guided walk in the near by forest after returning from Nagarhole. Spotted some deer and wild boar during this evening walk.

A family of wild boar

Spotted the spotted deer

A colorful Cricket

Pug mark on the way

An interesting tree

Mobile Mitayi Shop

   When we returned from the walk, it was already dark, had a hot cup of coffee and rested for a while. Went for night safari again, but found nothing interesting. But the family which went next spotted a tiger near the same place where we spotted the bison during our morning walk. So those pug marks we saw in our evening walk must be of same cat.  Had hot kerala parata for dinner and retired to bed.

Found this dung beetle out side our room in the night

  Day 3 (28-10-2012) :

    We woke up at 6:30 AM. It was trekking day for us. As per the schedule we had 15 KM trekking to Pakshipathalam. It was going to be our first trekking experience, hence we were skeptical about how we would cope with it. Got ready had our breakfast and got into the jeep to reach the starting point. 

     We reached the forest office and payed the fees and met our guide for the day.

We found this huge spider out side the forest department office

   We started our trekking at 9:00 AM. We climbed slowly still with doubts about how the day would unfold and if we can make it. First couple of kilometers were inside dense forest and involved steep climb. We had a couple of leeches attack us, but we were quicker than them . Spotted them early enough and no harm was done.

We crossed few small streams on the way

We found him on his morning walk

       Once we finished our first leg of climb we reached the flatter terrain. From here the view of the surroundings were breath taking and had a cool breeze flowing. All the tiredness was gone in a flash.

Panoramic view of the surroundings

  From here next couple of kilometers was much easier to walk. We were out in the sun now with grasses replacing the tall trees. But we had cool breeze flowing across which made our trekking less tiresome.

Path ahead

    At the half way point there was a huge watch tower, i climbed it. Wind was so strong that the watch tower was swaying slightly. Once i climbed up, the view of the surrounding was breath taking. The link below will show the panoramic view from the watch tower.

Link for Panoramic View from the watch tower

Link for Video from watch tower

   

Watch tower

  Got down from the watch tower rather reluctantly and continued with trekking.  From here we had tall grasses around us and had to solely depend on guide to find the right direction.

Surrounded by tall grass

We crossed one more stream of water

Wild flowers on the way

Green grass and blue sky

One more Panoramic view from the grassland

   We reached Pakshipathalam at 1:00 PM after 4 hours of trekking. At the entrance there is Garudappa rock. I climbed this rock to soak in the nature's beauty.

Garudappa Rock

View from Garudappa Rock

  Climbed down from Garudappa Rock and continued our journey towards the bat cave. From here to bat cave is the most exhausting journey as it it literally rock climbing. 

Rocky bat cave @ Pakshipathalam 

Once inside the cave saw a lot of bats resting there. My wife waited outside as getting into the cave was too much of a physical strain for her.

Link for video of bat cave @ Pakshipathalam

  After coming out of the cave, we had our lunch which we had packed for us from the resort. We rested for a while and started our walk back at 2:45 PM.

Wild flower

Herd of Elephants grasing on the far hill

Plucked some amla and had it with water

   We walked back to the Thiruvanneli temple where our pickup jeep was waiting for us. Return walk took us 2 hours 45 mintues. Thanked our guide and came back to the resort at 6:00 PM. Dipped our legs in hot water and rested for a while. Had dinner and slept early. A wonderful trekking experience.

Day 4 (29-10-2012) :

   We woke up early at 5:00 AM. This was our last day of the vacation. Got ready and went for Tholpetty Safari at 6:30 AM.  As it was early morning we were hoping for better sighting. Our jeep was one of the first vehicles to enter the national park in the morning. But we could not spot anything other than few deer and peacock.

Information about Tholpetty safari

Sighting peacock during safari

  Reached the resort back after the safari, had our breakfast and packed our bag for the return journey. We took a different route this time. Route : Tholpetty - Sulthan Battery - Gundlupet - Malavalli - Kanakpura - Bangalore . This route is bit longer but you encounter hardly any traffic here and can avoid the weekend traffic on Mysore road. We also picked some fresh vegetables from the farmers after lunch near Gundlupet. We reached home at 6:00 PM with mixed feelings about the 4 days we had spent in Wayanad. Spotting the bison during our early morning walk and trek to Pakshipatham being the high point of  the tour and very less spotting of wild life during our safaris being the low point.

Review about Jungle Retreat:

  This is a wonderful place to relax. Being very close to nature it gives you "in the wild" feeling. In fact one of the family had trouble sleeping in the night because of all the noises  made by the monkeys on the roof. Food served was average and lacked variety. All in all price is a class above what you get there. 

Waah Waah Wayanad...

good to be in goa

GOA (Palolem) :-

 Goa needs no introduction. Its in all travelers list of must visits; a holiday destination in world map. And we were there too.

 Planning for this trip happened well in advance and we had booked our sea facing hut at The Nest, Palolem more than a month in advance. We had planned this trip for the early part of the holiday season in Goa to beat the crowd which gathers during the later part of the season. In Goa these temporary setup of sea side huts come up after the monsoon and they stay till end of May. 

Day 1 ( 27/10/2011) :-

  

   We left home at 5:30 PM and reached Majestic bus stand by 7:00 PM. Our bus was scheduled for 7:30 PM. We left from Bangalore in time. Had a good dinner on the way in hotel Anand Bihar. We reached Canacona at 6:30 AM.

Day 2 ( 28/10/2011) :-

  We took an auto to Palolem and reached The Nest at 7:00 AM. Here people were still sleeping after previous night's work and were not expecting us to arrive there early morning. Our room was not ready yet so were given a temporary room to keep our luggage and freshen up.

The Nest

  We freshened up and went for a walk, had our breakfast in Udupi hotel and returned back to the room. Mohan promised our sea facing hut by evening. Extended monsoon had delayed construction work and most of the rooms were still under construction. We went for a walk on the beach side, took some pictures and returned back tired.

One of many beach side huts

These huts are as colorful as Goa is

Waiting for the sailor

Palolem beach

We came back to room, took bath and went out to explore the other side of the sea shore. Water was clean and with clear sky on top of it, entire beach was looking blue. This has to be the one of the cleanest beaches i have seen.

Blue is the color

Beautiful beach

Curlew Sandpiper

 Nature at its best

  Walking in the sun and lack of sleep because of over night journey had made us tired by now. We went back to the hut and had a power nap for half an hour. It was time for lunch, had our lunch in the restaurant. Sat in the shades on the beach side restaurant for some time, had a coffee and went out for a walk again. Did some shopping and went for boating on the back waters near the beach. This boat ride is of one hour and you get to see some birds here.

Boat ride at Palolem

The balancing rock

The bee eaters

Pied Kingfisher

   After the boat ride we went to the shopping area and did some shopping. It was time for sunset now. We returned back to the beach and waited for the sunset to unfold. It was bit cloudy so we could not see the sun go down. Never the less sky was very colorful and we enjoyed our walk back to the our room.

 Once we returned we were given a permanent room. This room was better than our temporary room. But unfortunately we could not get the sea facing hut which we had booked earlier as these rooms were not set up yet. We shifted our luggage to the new room,  went out again and had our dinner in Cuba Restaurant. Came back and retired for the day.

Day 3 ( 29/10/2011) :-

  Woke up early and enjoyed my morning coffee and the calmness of the sea. After bath and breakfast hired a scooter and left for Madgao. Our first pit stop was Agonda beach. Agonda beach was calm with very less tourists, but it lacked the liveliness of Palolem. We took some pictures and left from there.

Agonda beach

 We went to Kolva beach in search of paragliding. Kolva was crowded and paragliding was expensive there. We cold not even find a decent place to have lunch in Kolva. We happened to meet a guy called Antony who asked us to go to Marjoda and meet Shanthi for paragliding. We went to Marjoda. It was lunch time, we feasted ourselves to Tandoori Mashroom and Veg Pulav in Raja's Paradise, Marjoda and went looking for Shanthi. We bargained for a decent price and did paragliding. It was a wonderful experience and a great adventure. Susham's only purpose of this tour and long pending dream was finally fulfilled.

Kolva beach

Paragliding

 After having a birds view of the Kolva beach we started our return ride back to Palolem. On our way did some shopping and returned back at 5:15 PM. A total of 105 KMs of ride. Road was narrow but in good condition. We took some rest and went for a walk after sunset.

Beautiful late evening sky

A colorful night at Palolem 

  It rained a bit on that evening, after rain stopped we had our dinner, played cards till mid night and went to sleep.

Day 4 ( 30/10/2011) :-

  Woke up early and went to the beach. Went to sea and enjoyed the sea water for about an hour. Came out fully drenched. 

Dunlin

Palolem beach, early morning

  We took bath and went for breakfast. Had heavy breakfast at German Bakery. Pan cakes were so big and filling, it made us lazy. We spent rest of the day sitting on the sea shore, reading book, drinking lime soda and Sprite to digest the breakfast. Skipped lunch and had some snacks in the evening. Went out for a walk, clicked some pictures, collected sea shells and returned to the room.

Palolem beach

Palolem beach

  We came back, rested for a while and sat outside to watch the sunset.

  We had our dinner, sat on the sea shore till mid night and went to sleep. Perfect lazy day.

Palolem beach at mid night

Day 5 ( 31/10/2011) :-

 Again a lazy day where we did nothing other than eating, sleeping and sitting on the sea shore. Last morning of this trip started with enjoying the sea water. After almost an of enjoying our sea bath, freshened up and had our break fast in Udupi hotel. 

Morning walk

Came back sat on the sea shore, read book, did some general discussions till lunch. After lunch took an afternoon nap and got up by 4:30 PM. After the evening coffee, went for a walk, did shopping, had an ice cream, came back and sat out side waiting for the sun to go down.

 At 6:45 PM we packed our bags and did final settlement. We were informed by Mohan that the train will arrive at Canacona 8:00 PM. We took an auto from Palolem to Canacona railway station. When we reached there, we were informed that the train has already left. We rushed to the bus stand and got the last bus for the day to Madgaon. This would have not been possible without the help of the auto driver who helped us. We reached Madgaon railway station and train left at 10:30 PM. We reached Bangalore at 11:30 AM on 01/11/2011 and reached home by 1:00 PM.  Though we had to deal with some confusion in the final minutes in Goa, all in all a wonderful trip. Goa, we will be back again.

Review about The Nest:

  This is one of the many sea shore huts available in Palolem. We had booked well in advance and asked specifically for the first hut facing the sea we eventually did not get it as that hut was under construction when we arrived there. But the one which was provided to was in good condition. They have a decent choice of food if you wish to eat there. Food is bit expensive, but it is the case every where in Goa. If you are looking for south indian breakfast only choice is Udupi Hotel at Kanakona which is 2KMs away. These huts come with basic creature comfort and if you are too concerned about safety better choice is a resort or a hotel. But the staff there informed that there has been no case of theft from these huts, however they recommend to keep all the jewelry and electronic gadgets safe and you can leave your laptops or other belongings with the staff when you are venturing out and collect it back on return. These huts keeps reminding you that you are next to the sea every minute day in day out.  These huts being temporary setups there bathroom fittings and electric fittings are prone to malfunction. If you plan to stay in any of the beach huts in Goa, please check all the electric and bathroom fittings and see if they are functioning before checking in.