Make "Way" for Wayanad : Day -2

Day-2
After letting our soul fly from dawn to dusk,our excitement was still at peak.We started our second day by eating "Puttu" for breakfast and freshly started our journey for the first spot of the second day.

EDAKKAL CAVES
They lie 1,200 metres above sea level on Ambukutty Mala, beside an ancient trade route connecting the high mountains of Mysore to the ports of the Malabar coast.

View from Edakkal Caves

By the time we reached the spot,the sun was right above our head and we started taking the steep route upwards to reach the cave. Given the time of the day,we made several pitstops to refuel our arid throats and keep going.

After a hour long walk we found ourselves in the main crowd attraction spot in the whole location, only then we realized we wasted all our energy and time to just to see a dark spot with rocks all around.

Edakkal Caves

We swiftly started coming back since we were already let down by the spot and we were hungry as well.

Having a quick-lunch we hurried up to the next spot to cheerup ourselves, but unfortunately we had to bare arrogant and rather too aggressive driver all through the way.






BANASURA SAGAR DAM

So the next location in the list was modified and we opted to spend sometime enjoying the view of the dam.
We had to travel for an hour to reach there and the dam seemed to spread its arms widely and waiting there to embrace its visitors.

Banasura Dam

In the dam's reservoir there was a set of islands, we were told that those islands were formed when the reservoir submerged the surrounding areas.More interestingly, Google-Bhai told me "It is the largest earth dam in India and the second largest of its kind in Asia" [Ab Google-bhai ne kaha he toh maan na hi padega ;)]

We spent a couple of hours in the dam and it was completely filled with cheerful moments. We ran,we jumped, we played,we rolled over and enjoyed a spectacular view of the sunset. All the visitors were lost looking at our "Madness" and few of them were very happy and nostalgic that they actually forgot that the spot is famous for the dam..Damn!! :D


We were totally energized on our way back to room-stay and it overshadowed our disappointment earlier in the morning.

CELEBRATION TIME

We always have that one friend among us who says - "This is my last trip with y'all,Im getting married :'(". Well, we too had one of them in our group,so we thought to surprise her with a cake-cut and more importantly it was also the birth-day of one of our friend's Mom.
We picked up two cakes from a bakery on the way and hid it under the seat until it was actually supposed to be revealed.[This Part was Challenging :D]

So we celebrated the cake-cutting ceremony and ended it by giving facial to each other.
It was already late at night but "Pitcchurr abhi bhaaki thi yaar ;)"

CAMP FIRE
Here we are,spending the most awaited time in the trip and we have always loved camp-fire in the trip.It reveals the hidden talents of all.

Campfire in Wayanad Homestay

The camp fire was started and we formally started it by forming a circle around it and briskly walking in a circle, it reminded me of my "ring-a-roses" game :D
The fire was increasing with our enthu and we all were dancing like a group of wild penguins.It was then, We(Boys) came up with an idea of giving a performance to entertain(Challenge) girls in the group.
The stage was all set, we all had a strategic discussion for couple of minutes and everyone started running inside.
"Lungi Dance" started to play slowly in the speakers and girls were all amused and probably mumbled "Are they doing a rehersal inside?"
In no time, we all flew in with our planned outfit to the stage. We carried curtains,towels,bedspreads or anything which resembles "Lungi".

Lungi Dance : Yo Yo Wayanad

The dance came out in such a way that few of us even went to an extent of considering the participation in "Dancing-Reality Shows" lol :D
So it was payback time. Now, we compelled girls to perform for us and prove us they too have some talents to showcase.
We planned it so well, and started shuffling between the item numbers :D

After all the fun-time, we had a great time chit-chatting over tasty dinner around the campfire.
Finally,when the fire went down, we realized it was time to sleep.

So we carried happy-fun filled moments to sleep on second day with a hope of adding a few more moments the next day before coming back to Bangalore

Make "Way" for Wayanad : Day 1

Every IT slave admits with the quote "The first five days after weekend are very hard"
We wanted a change, wanted to spread out our arms and shout "Life is Beautiful" and we decided to go on a 3-day trip.

After surfing through the places that fall under our desired schedule and budget, we found out "God's Own Place" would be the best option, in no time we zeroed in on Wayanad  and started our journey to the Land of Paddy Fields on 16th Jan 2014.

Since we work as a group and reside scatteredly we had multiple pickup points, after passing it all we finally left Bangalore late in the midnight. Call it "Over Excitement" or "Deep Curiosity" most of us had sleepless overnight to read the navigation from Bangalore to Wayanad.

As a matter of fact, we were aware that Mysore comes on our way, we did not miss the opportunity to spend sometime outside The Mysore Palace. We got down, had couple of shots(camera :P) and got in quicker than "Quikr" :D

Cafe Coffee Day, Gundlupet

At 4am,our Tempo Traveller halted near a CCD(Cafe Coffee Day) somewhere in the forest. My GPS told me it's 2kms away from Gundlupet and 20min away from Kerala Check-point.Since those check-points open sharply at 6(atleast few Govt. employees work) we had to spend couple of hours in that CCD.But a few of us spent sometime there and opted to take a walk upto Gundlupet, because we never wanted to sit in a CCD and kill flies when on trip.There was a light drizzle on the way and we enjoyed our 45min walk to Gundlupet.

It was 5.45am when our tempo reached the check-point (after picking us from Gundlupet),spending sometime with those Govt officials, our sim cards received a "Welcome To Kerala" message, which indeed was taunting "You are on Roaming,You Moron".

We checked-in into a beautiful homestay at half an hour past 8 in the morning and the homestay manager greeted us with a ear to ear smile on his face.

Homestay in Wayanad, where we spent 3 days

Day-1

We were given "Pooris" for breakfast and the whole load vanished within minutes.As per the initial plan,our first place in Wayanad was Chembra Peak. We sticked on to the plan and headed straight to Chembra Peak right after breakfast.On our way, we crossed many Coffee estates and it was a very beautiful sight, we stopped in few places to increase the snap counts and we reached our destination.

Beauty of Wayand - Coffee Estates

CHEMBRA PEAK

Chembra Peak,it's a trekking spot which has a "Heart-shaped"(not for medical students) lake atop hill.
We began our trek and when we reached mid-way we started wishing "Kaash!! ek lift hota". It was a herculean-task for all the lazy-pot bellies like us and lifetime achievement for few malnutritioned.We trekked for 90mins and reached the lake, the water was so cold that it was so tempting to jump into it and spend the rest of the day there,but since it was "too" tidy, we ended up just washing our faces.

Heart shaped lake atop Chembra Peak

After spending sometime atop the hill and spontaneously increasing snap count, we realized some drums rolling in our belly indicating it's time to trek back.For people, who beleive trekking down would be easier than trekking up Chembra Peak would break your belief. It becomes almost impossible to trek down with steep land and shivery body(HUNGER).

Bamboo Hotel

Pot-bellies(We) lost the battle by sweating profusely while trekking up and malnutritioned group lost the battle on the way back,their team members were levelling the ground at regular intervals.

Best Place to Relax and Meditate,
you can find this on the way to Chembra Peak

After a heavy workout(Trekking), we were too hungry to travel so we decided to eat in a hotel nearby.The hotel/mess/whatever was very different from normal ones,the seats,the tables,counter everything was built using bamboo woods.The ambience was so mesmerising that we were lost in our thoughts,only when our tastebuds were shouting for help we came out of our day dream.
If you recharge a machine,it starts working better but it is the other way with us(humans).




We all were fully recharged and started feeling very sleepy,but our driver had other things in mind.His way of driving not only deprived us from our sleep but also made us nauseated.It was an hour long journey from there to the next spot.

SOOCHIPURA FALLS

Soochipra Falls,Wayanad

Since we had a tireful day, we were really excited on reaching the falls. Packing the spare clothes,we started walking towards the falls from entrance.It was a mini-trek to reach the falls and our already punctured body started aching badly,finally we were at the falls.Jumping into the falls and soaking our bodies in the cold water was refreshing.We tried to headstop the falls and had a very good natural massage.

Coming out of falls,we had a hot tea in the shop
nearby and headed straight back to our homestay.


Trekking-Heavy Meals-Fall Bath-Hot Tea,
ended our first day happily with a perfect combination.

More to come in following days. Stay Tuned ;)