Wayanad!

Nothing scares me more than being monotonous and predictable. So my trip to Waynad shall be narrated mostly by images than words. Because this trip was more felt by what we witnessed than what we did.

On November 1^st, in two cars, my friends from college and us left Bangalore at around 5:00 AM. Route – Bangalore-Mysore (Bypass to Ooty) – Nanjangud-Gundlupet-Sultan Battery. I think this update from my friend on Trip Advisor explains the route and the resort better. – Here! 

Cyclone Neelam drenched the whole area and perhaps thus the drive was simply beautiful especially through the Bandipura/Muthanga forest area.

A wild elephant stared at us for 5 minutes as it probably waited for us to leave before it could cross the road.

The view from our Karapuzha Village resort room was beautiful.

 

After a good Kerala lunch we drove to Pookote lake which was covered in mist. Occasional clearing of sky made this a beautiful boating experience on the lake.

But at Banasura sagar dam it was pouring. Exactly when we reached there it began raining heavily and we had to take a ride back on a local jeep. However it was a nice experience.

Catching up  on updates from friends with lot of talking till midnight ended the first  day.

After a nice buffet breakfast, we headed to Chembra peak base approximately 20 Km from our resort.

On our way we stopped at this picturesque view.

 

Permissions at base and a guide to accompany us ended the formalities at the gate. We drove across the beautiful tea estate until the start point for the trek.

Chembra Peak was completely painted in green on this day and the mist covered and uncovered the peaks continuously.

The heart shaped lake is the first attraction on this hill.

I was disappointed that we could not trek to the peak. One of the guides who accompanied another group was lazy to take them to peak so he gave them reasons that it was slippery and dangerous. Even though our guide was willing to take us to the top he made a big deal of it.  

So we relaxed near the lake and took our standard “for the blog” picture.

 

And clicked more pictures. That is when I saw this beautiful cloud formation.

So I went a little closer.

 

Hungry we stopped at one of the towns and the name of the hotel made me smile. So we decided to eat there and I had some excellent Ghee rice and egg burji.

After a drive for another one hour and a walk for 3 km’s we watched Soochipara waterfalls.

Dumb charades and more talking ended that evening too!

Next day we left Waynad and drove back. On the way we decided to drive up Gopalswamy Betta but instead ended up having a big fight with security guards at the base as they were acting really rude while checking every car for plastic and wanted to us to throw every single one of them. So instead we drove back home. 

Waynad with the Neelam effect was very beautiful and made me want to return back again and it is always very enjoyable when we travel in big groups especially when they are your friends since 16 years.