To maximize our stay in Wayanad we thought of driving to Wayanad on 18th itself, but we were informed that after 6pm driving beyond Muthanga wildlife sanctuary is prohibited. So we decided to reach Mysore the previous day and the next day morning drive to Wayanad, which in fact worked out well for us. We reached Mysore on 18th evening, visited K.R.S and stayed in a nearby Hotel that night.
I had booked our stay in a home stay “Sarah Jones” which belongs to Ashish’s uncle. The stay at Sarah Jones was pleasant w.r.t. it’s location which is surrounded by lush green vegetation all around. Also the facility was kept quite clean. But one has to drive half a kilometer through a patchy mud road to reach this facility which was bad and rain had made this more miserable. Another biggest problem I found was, nothing (like hotels, glossary shops etc) was available in the surroundings and to make it more miserable Sarah Jones did not have a cook to prepare food for you. Since we had no intention of cooking there, it was disappointing. However the staff was kind enough to arrange food from outside.
19th we could not visit any place as it started raining and all that we could do was to play badminton, chess and cricket for a while and went to Sultan Batheri for dinner.On 20th we visited Soochipura waterfalls, Pookot Lake and Banasura Sagar Dam. Out of the three, Soochipura waterfalls we enjoyed the most (my kid Abhinav in particular). This falls is more or less like a Horsetail Waterfall. We could also get into the cold water stream, swim a bit and enjoy the water getting sprinkled all over. But reaching the location (and coming back) was no good fun, as we had to carry Abhinav who was
just 2 yrs then. Reaching the falls required more than 2 kms of walk across the mountain and more than hundred uneven steps.
Pookot Lake was no special for us as we had visited similar lakes in Ooty and Munnar. Neither had we found worth in spending money in taking a boat ride! The Aquarium there had hardly anything special to see. My friend Dr. Shesha in fact has much beautiful fishes in his aquarium at his clinic ;-)
Banasura Sagar Dam I would say is pretty good. Many small islands with the background of Banasura hill covered by thick cloud was producing a great sight. So the walking through the dam was quite enjoyable. This is the largest earth dam in India it seems. The speed boat ride was also pretty good, in the sense that, while going around those tiny green islands covered by cloud was indeed looking great!
The next day, we wanted to return to Bangalore. So morning we visited “Edakkal Caves”. Reaching the top was more challenging than coming back from Soochipura falls! I managed to carry Abhinav for about 25% of the total distance, where they issue tickets. Little above to the ticket counter, there is a cleft. We decided not to carry Abhinav beyond this point as we found this would be risky. Since Abhinav was reluctant to stay with Vivek and Sahana, we had to split. I and Vivek went to the top first and later Vivek again accompanied Mukta and Sahana.
By the time we came back (to the point beyond which private vehicles are not allowed), it was already around 1pm. When we were about to move out of that place, Mukta asked me about my Camera which I had deposited at the counter and forgot to get it back! Errrrrrr….I again had to board the Jeep and run to reach the ticket counter! The authorities were kind enough not to charge me extra for this trip :-)
By the time we reached Sulthan Batheri for lunch it was around 2pm. We thought of visiting Muthanga Wildlife sanctuary but by the time we reached the Muthanga check post, it started drizzling and later started raining heavily. So all that we did there after was drive back to Bangalore.
Overall we enjoyed.Within this 2 day trip we could not visit many places. And visiting places like Chembra Peak was not possible at that point of time and there was no intention too! In any case driving in Kerala is really fun. You feel like stopping every now and then and take some pics!
Will visit again!
