Trip to god's own country

If someone ask me where do i want to spend my old days the answer would definitely be kerala. Last weekend was one of the most memorable time of my life. Organizing a trip is not that difficult job with the set of the people who came to wayanad. 15 tickets booked, 13 of the them made to central on-time. 13 really funny people whom i would like to trip again.

Friday evening 5pm train from central to kozhikode, good that working guys made it on time. When it comes to maverickz train journey would start with drinks and this trip is no exception. Reached kozhikode by 4.30am, since we had booked a mini van it was no so difficult when it came to journey. Our driver didn't make us wait so long and he was best driver i have ever seen, so much friendly with real humanity.

We started in the mini van with tamil songs, stopped at a local tea shop to have a "valliya chaya", but it wasn't good.

We moved on to the top most point in wayanad to shoot some snaps. It was full of mist and drizzling all the way, great scenery to shoot out.

Best pose of the site:


Reached hotel Mint flower by 8.30, we also had booked the hotel earlier so it was easy for us. Its a 15 people dormitory quite big, bit costly.

After every one got ready we were prepared to roam around wayanad. Our driver suggested few places for the first day, so we went according to his plan. It didn't rain in the morning, clear sky, sun is out but yet cold climate.

Our first place of visit is jain temple. Its a small temple built in 13 century, no one was really interested but since the driver said it was built in 13 century every one decided to spend just 5 minutes inside, as all were interested to visit the peaks and falls.

Best pose of Jain temple:

Eppadi kovil la nattu vacha sela mathiri irukan parunga. Ithula po potta shorts vera.

We moved on to eddakal caves. On the way is the elephant rock.

The elephant rock:

It looks more like a dinosaurs to me. Can you feel? the eyes the head the body resembles elephant.

By 10.30am we reached eddakal caves. There was only one jeep to transport people to the start of the caves. 5 people can travel at a time for 40 rupees, since we are many he have to do 3 trips. It was just one km walk to the start of the caves, so we decided to walk. It was very steep and every one was tired, almost out of energy at the beginning of caves. The path to the caves was even more tiresome, as every one has carry their belly along with them.

Best pose of edakkal caves:

Ithula thoppi vera........

A rare documentary:


Cast: Jacki and selva
Camera man: Rajesh

After edakkal caves it was socchipara water falls. But on the way we went to Pantom rock. It's just few rocks stacked one above the other.

Best pose of Phantom rock:

Check out the cowboy in the still.

After Phantom rock it was a museum. It a very small museum with few rock sculptures and traditional kerala things.

Best pose near museum:

The lady rock:

Can you see a lady lying down face up?

On the way we had food and few of the guys went for tody.

Well!!! who can stop this from flowing?

Socchipara water falls is one of the great falls i have ever seen. The way to the falls was easy for some distance, later on it was muddy and slippery. The falls and its sound is so thundering we cant even stand before the falls to bath. The only way to bath is a small place were stagnant water resides.

Best pose of socchipara water falls:

Glimpse of the falls:


Every one took bath in the falls and 2 of us donated blood for leeches. After waterfalls everyone was eagerly waiting to take rest in the hotel. So we returned to hotel very early at around 6.30pm.

Sunday morning we got up before the sun, vacated the mint flower and went to Munthunga wildlife sanctuary to spot wild animals. It was 7.45 am in the morning we took the forest jeep and traveled just to find a bunch of deers. We couldn't see any animals other than the deer, we thought at least we can spot wild elephant but end up spotting only its shit along the road.

Well some people saw Otteri Nari. On the way back from the sanctuary few of us spotted a bear crossing the mysore highway.

Best pose near sanctuary:

The sanctuary was disappointing, we moved on and booked another hotel. Since every one got up early this day no one took bath, we got freshed up in the new hotel. This hotel was cheap half the price of the previous one. After one hour we started our journey to Banasagar dam.

Banasagar Dam is a very huge dam built out of just mud. Its the largest in wayanad. We just stepped into the dam and it started raining. Everyone happily got drenched in the rain. It was a very good place for photo session, lot of pictures lot of solo stills, group stills, rainy shots...

We also went for speed boating in the dam. 15 minutes of ride in the boat, it was raining and very cold indeed.

Best Pose of Banasagar Dam:

Camera man fall @ Banasagar dam:


It was around 6pm and we started to Thirunelli temple. To reach the temple we had to cross a 20km stretch forest area.

Can anyone say what the two light at the center look like to you? well it a wild elephant, on the way to thirnelli temple we spotted two elephants.

As the morning sanctuary was disappointing this one got interesting. Thar roads with both sides forest, no streets light and it was full darkness with just the vehicle light you have to spot elephants. We managed to spot elephants in 4 different locations. This ride was like a night safari, very thrilling and adventurous. At one spot an elephant trumpet and we were cruising in our mini van far away from it. It was a dangerous and risky ride but most memorable one of the trip.

Best Pose of the forest area:

After the adventurous ride, we reached the hotel at 10pm and took rest. Monday morning we have a tight schedule, train to Chennai at 5.40pm so have to plan accordingly.

We started late at around 10am. The first location was pookot lake. The lake is not very huge, it was drizzling and fortunately i took my umbrella so we could capture some snaps with my cam. We took pedal boat 2 per boat for 20 minutes. It was very cool ride, spent more than 40 minutes in the lake no one was there expect maverick guys.

Best pose of Pookot lake:

To me this photo looks like a fisher-man in Thailand out for fishing. My best snap of the day.

Love for Indra:
It was around 12.30 pm and we left pookat lake. On the way down from wayanad hills is the Thusaragiri water falls.

We reached thusaragiri waterfalls by 2 pm. Thusaragiri water falls is a slippery ride through the waters, had to bath carefully no protections around. This falls is also very good and the water was very cold .

Glimpse of Thusaragiri falls:


It was about 2.45 pm and we left the falls to have food. Its a small unnamed hut restaurant near the waterfalls and we had the best food of the past 3 days. Black fish fry, wow even even now i am mouth watering. 3.3o pm we left from the falls have to reach station by 5.40.

Now is the challenge, before entering the falls the driver told us if we can start by 3.00 pm it will be easy to catch the train.

We bid adieu to wayanad hills. It was 5.15 pm and we calculated the mini van charges and we were just 3 kms away from station. Guess what it was traffic jam, 5.30 pm, we are yet to reach the station, good amount of traffic. With rash driving the driver got us to the station at 5.37pm, we entered the train and it started moving.

Not so good, we expected a train run chase sequence but ended smoothly.

3 days 834 photos on my cam alone. Total 1300 photos in 2 districts of kerala. Everyone had very good time and was elated to spend 3 days from their hectic office lives.

I love kerala. Hope to have more visits as we didn't have time to visit half of the tourist spots in wayanad.