Doomsday to XMAS... Merry Merry Merry (Wayanad-Kannur trip)

A crazy person who travels is better than a wise man who lies down idle. With our mind stuck on adventure, and our hands whirling our bike's accelerator we started our trip towards Kerala early morning at 4 am. With no solid plan of our trip the 8 members, Ashish, Pankaj, Pawan, Nand, Atul, Awadhesh, Vipul and me were riding through the dark towards Mysore from Bangalore.

Just getting out, 3:00 am

 It was too cold and after sometime the hands were no longer part of our body. We stopped after Mandya, and it was still dark, grabbed a cup of tea and went ahead. With mysore coming closer, the next morning to Doomsday was greeted by the first rays of sun. The fields around mysore and srirangpatna were all glittering with the sun rays. It took us sometime to reach Mysore as we had two first time riders with us. We had breakfast at Mysore, and our opportunists Pawan and Pankaj, utilized the waiting time to their fullest.

We headed towards wayanad via nanjangud- gundlupet- sultan batheri- kalpetta. The road was very nice and scenic. Infact after Gundlupet, we entered the Bandipur forest area, though late during the day but still the road was pretty awesome. Alas, that we were not able to spot any animals at that time apart from the regular dog, cows and  monkeys.

Though the time was not favorable but the route surely was. We reached Sultan Batheri by 2:00 had kerala meals there, our first choice for lunch and luckily the food was also OK OK. After a tummy overflowing lunch we headed towards kalpetta, and had no idea where to go from there. We had an idea of camping overnight somewhere in wayanad, and wanted to select a riverside location. There is when GPS came in, and I was looking at all the small streams close by to us. With no proper location in sight and the overhead sun going for the kill, we decided to move on towards Soochipara falls. The route to falls from Kalpetta is all what wayanad is about. Small curvy roads in the midst of tea gardens with the chembra peak peeking from every nook and corner made our day.

We reached Meppadi, a small town from where most of the tourist spots are close by. A right turn from Meppadi and a 13 km drive along the tea gardens took us to the falls. There is a ticket entry to the waterfalls but the money given is worth it as the government has made pretty nice arrangements and pathway to the falls. The waterfall itself is a pretty nice experience setter. The water was pretty cold and hence served a nice Jacuzzi for all of us. A nice experience of waterfall after the Jog falls.

By the time we left the waterfalls, it got pretty dark. We straight away headed towards our camping spot which was about 2 km down hill from the waterfalls. Set out the tent and started our work for a campfire.

The night in the tent was a pretty hard experience as the temperatures were quite low and and we were not equipped with blankets. The cold night went by and a goldish morning woke us up. The morning troll along the tea estate was an awesome and a must not leave experience.

The morning after packing we went to Meppadi where we hired a room, got fresh, had some breakfast and then left for Edakkal caves about 25 km from Meppadi. The root again was nice, via Vaduvanchal and had Kanthipara waterfalls, Meenmutty falls, all along the way. But the caves themselves had nothing to offer. Sunday afternoon, a big rush was there and a huge queue in the sun made it a very bad spot selection.

Painting from the Edakkal caves

After that we decided to go to the Pookote lake which was 40 km from the caves. On our way we found the phantom rock too. It's a rock standing on the cliff of a small hill, giving it's name. We went ahead towards the lake and got across Vythiri, a small hill station and a nature's gateway in wayanad. The resorts in vythiri are simply ecstatic. We reached the entrance of the lake and there was a police checking going on there, 2 of us were not wearing helmets and hence were fined. The lake is not that great a place but the self row raft boat truly made it worth a place to visit. There is a nice park surrounding the lake where you can get elephant rides too. There is an aquarium and a small nursery too. 

Next to the lake is a beautiful sunset view point called as the Calicut view point. It's a stupendous combination of human architecture and nature's. The hill point where the descend to Calicut starts and in that valley you can see the sun setting. Though we missed the sunset but the essence of it was still there.The next morning we decided to go to Sunrise valley, which is about 13 km from Meppadi on the way to Vaduvanchal. There is a right turn about 8 km from Meppadi towards vaduvanchal for the sunrise valley. Sign boards are there to guide you. the road after that is very bad, with a lot of bumps and holes, and there is a sudden end to the road. We reached the end of the road by 5:30 am and it was still pretty dark. We were not able to spot the way to the valley and there was only jungle visible. We saw a lady walking around her house, so we asked her about the way to the valley. To our surprise, she called her husband who came with a torch and showed us the way to the view point along the jungle without asking for any favors. Hats off to Kerala is what we exclaimed at that moment. You can slide down along the view point to get a clear picture of the valley, there is a stream flowing below which adds to the beauty and ambiance  Be careful while descending and ascending though!!

After that we headed towards Chembra peak as we were sure that none of other mates would have woken up by that time. The road to the peak is very bad but compensated by breathtaking views of the hill and valley. You have to take a ticket though to go to the top, even as a visitor, some 20 rs per person, and if trekking than 500 rs per 10 people. Unfortunately we were not able to make the trek due to shortage of time, but even driving in the morning breeze along that so called road made our effort look valiant.

A colorful parrot spotted on the way to Chembra peak

After that we were on our way to Kannur, a 120 km drive, but the route was pretty bad and the overhead sun made it even worse. We left meppadi by 10 30 odd, and reached kannur by 4. A horrible time lapse and  a pretty slow pace. We followed the way to kalpetta-tharuvana- kuttiady- thalassery- kannur. The road at some places was from the cities and had to go through city traffic, somewhere the road was under construction and then it was a 10 hair pin bend road through the periyar forest reserve. As we reached Kannur, our friend Rohith joined us there, and took us to Kannur fort. A fort built by portugese in 1505. Not much of a construction there but a beautiful view of Arabian sea made it worth watching.

Arabian sea face at the fort

Rohith Awadhesh, JAI and VEERU

A view from the fort wall

Full moon sky at the drive in beach

After the fort we headed towards the Drive in beach in kannur, about 10 km from the main city, a paradise for the leisure lovers. A beach made to drive vehicles on, with no immense crowd and a platform to sit and relax. We landed on a resort there, which was quite cheap to it's standards, and crashed the whole night there. Next morning was when we did the photo session of the action at the drive in beach.

 We left kannur by 11 after having breakfast, and followed the way to Kannur- Iritty-Virajpet-Hunsur-Mysore-Bangalore. As soon as you enter the karnataka border the next 80 km of road is horrible and pretty hard to drive on at a brisk pace. On my way back, my bike got jammed just about 30 km before bangalore.
Shockingly had to park the bike at a petrol pump in bidadi and took my way back on a bus. Next day went back just to get the bike repaired.

A beautiful lake near Iritty

All is well when end is well, though in the end we had a mishap of bike not functioning, but still the trip was too good, with the main highlight of the drive in beach where we sat late night drinking beer and sharing stories. The beautiful roads which we drove on and hence another place conquered in south India on bike.