Wayanad

Posted by Nbhat

Wanted to blog about the trip for a long time... Never managed to do so and its almost 6 months now. It was another event full trip with the duo Prem and Som .. Visited Muthunga, Soochipara falls, Edakkal caves and Kuruva islands
High points -

• Managed to get home stay quite close to the Muthunga wild life sanctuary. As the cottages were booked or ventured to stay in tree house. It was an experience. Rest room was on the ground and bed room on the tree and bucket and a pulley to take our paraphernalia to the top.
  

  It took nearly an hour and lot of adjustments to take this snap without flash in the moon light.

  
  
• Food at the home stay was simple and tasty. Taught the cook how to make pea-nut masala
• We enjoyed the drive to Soochipara falls on winding roads through scenic Harrison tea estate, though we were getting restless due to the ever changing directions given by locals.
  

  From Wayanad

  
  
• Thankfully the security guy at the Edkkal caves explained the stone carvings/painitings or whatever you call. Who is the king, queen etc.
• Kuruva island is great place for birding - prize sighting was the racket tailed drongo. Others bird watchers had found 3-4 Black Baza. Its serene, calm and not that commercialized.

Low points

• Biggest disappointment was the wildlife safari. We had asked Jeep guy to come at 6:00 clock to take us to the sanctuary. By the time he arrived it was 7:00 and by the time we went inside it was already 7:30 and every one had gone to their hidings. We did not even sight one Cheetal. Only wildlife we could see was Adjoint Stork and elephant from far away.
• Getting directions turned out be very difficult due to language barriers. Even when we managed to convey we got different answers from every individual answered. Adding to the confusion were the milestones side by side showing different distances! At some stretch there were 3 sets of milestones with its own distance. I guess its real democracy out there. 1 meter might be 100 cm for some and 90 cm for other.
• We could not visit the Chembra peak which is supposed to give very scenic view.

Here is the link to the notes I collected before the trip about Wayanad

Wayanad