Tour De Kerala
This was a wonderful experience of my life, really it is!! It's all triggered on a very lighter note when my buddy friend asked me if I want to join him for Tour De KERALA(though we visited only northern part of it). As it was just a matter of couple of days that too a weekend, I nodded and put my dukes up without a second thought. We were supposed to start on Friday evening and expected to reach SULTHAN BATHERY by 7am in the Saturday morning.
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Bus was at 8:50pm. With keeping in account the
amount of traffic on the way to Shantinagar bus depot, we decided to leave
office at least couple of hours before. But this Friday was no different where
we get to stop by some critical issues. We were about to wrap our things up in
a hurry to leave for the day and head towards bus stand, the heavy rain stopped
us short. To get rid of this situation our HERO (Mr.Praveen) came to our rescue
who not only drove us through but also reached us well before expected time.
Nobody doubts that he can beat Ferrari’s Schumacher even with his i20.
After having our dinner, we headed towards little untidy and
congested KSRTC bus. Though it started in time, not only driver but the bus
itself was too lazy to run beyond 10km/hr. For a while I thought if this continues,
we will never be going to reach our destination. Almost after 2hrs of journey,
the bus started to run in its intended speed and I had a sigh of relief. Nearly
at about 4 in the morning our bus stopped in the dark jungle. Everybody was in
deep sleep except me (I didn’t get sleep throughout the journey) and noises of
snoring were coming from all around in the bus. Suddenly an old man sitting
couple of sits back from us started making weird sounds of his snore. It was
scarier than the deepest jungle. Every breeze of cold was making me shiver when
it used to pass by my ears. No blankets had been provided as we were travelling
in the high class bus. Now, that snoring sound was irritating me. For a moment
I thought I should cut his neck. With much of despair I got out of the bus.
And here was a surprise!! There was a huge jam.
Long queues of vehicles were there as far as my eyes could able to see. We were
in the Bandipur forest. Here outside the bus,
there were no sounds of snoring neither did the humming of engines of those
heavy vehicles. Few bikers were making their ways through those narrow gaps
between the vehicles and making their all possible efforts to reach to a
vantage point. Other than the bikers the only sound I could able to hear now
was that of some wood-boring-beetles. It was freezing cold outside. To
accompany me or what, an old man from our bus also got down. More and more
vehicles were accumulating behind us. In another 5-10 minutes my friend joined
us. He asked an old man if he knows why there was a jam. “As dictated by the
government here as a part of wildlife dictation efforts, this section of road
in jungle is blocked for 6pm to 6am to not to disturb animals in the jungle”,
the old man enlightened us. Basically restriction was imposed due to the
disturbance and fatality to the wildlife caused by the speeding vehicles. The
cold was becoming unbearable now so, I and my friend decided to get into the
bus.
Only after ensuring there are no more snoring sounds we
reached up to our sits. It was almost quarter past 6 in the morning vehicles
started moving. We were at about 40km away from SULTHAN BATHERY. It was a treat
for the eyes to see such a beautiful nature as we entered in KERALA. With no
surprise, heavy rain welcomed us as soon as we got down at SULTHAN BATHERY and
I pulled out my all weapons (rain jacket & ESPIRIT umbrellaJ) to protect myself
from the shelling.
Our plan was to get into some hotel in the morning and get
ready to explore the nearby places. So far everything was going fine according
to our plans. Thanks to Arun (our trip manager). He got us into a nearby hotel
and in next hour or so we left the hotel room to move to the next location. We
had our breakfast at one of the udupi hotel.
Now we had to catch some vehicle which can drive and guide
us through the places nearby. We hired one jeep.
The driver explained us well about
the package and about the places which we can cover till the evening. And here
starts our adventures. We headed towards Edakkal Caves near Kalpetta. Edakkal
caves are situated on the Ambukuthi Mountains at a distance of about 16 km from
Sulthan Bathery. Located at an altitude of 1000m above MSL,
is a set of three caves, considered to be one amongst the earliest sites of
human settlement on the face of the planet.
Each of these caves has numerous ancient stone scripts, various animal
and human figurines, symbols, ancient weaponry figures et cetera depicted on
the walls. These depictions, estimated to be over 7000 years old, have
contemporaries only in Stiriya in the European Alps and a few places in Africa.
We crossed the line: There was a kind of fencing has been
made right above the point where caves can be seen. Nobody was allowed to cross
the fencing. Still almost 200 meters steep must be there and we decided to
reach up to the top of the hill crossing the end line. It was really a fun and
we were feeling vivacious as we reached the top. After spending some more time there, we
started climbing down the hill. It was very tough as all of us were struggling
because of the cramped legs. Even after reaching down the hill, we were
starving and strolling.
We got into our vehicle and moved towards next juncture. But
before going any further we jumped into a nearby hotel where we had Kerala
chicken curry, parotta and rice.
After eating lavishly we headed towards Pookot Lake, about 13 kms from
Kalpetta, is undoubtedly the most beautiful tourist spot in the whole of
Wayanad.
The lake nestles in the lap of mountains surrounding it. Boating in the Pookot Lake is a memorable experience. We did a kind of rafting in the lake in the rain shower.
Tall trees and dense forests that line along the pathway around the lake provide a visual treat. A freshwater aquarium with a large variety of fish is an added attraction.
The lake nestles in the lap of mountains surrounding it. Boating in the Pookot Lake is a memorable experience. We did a kind of rafting in the lake in the rain shower.
Tall trees and dense forests that line along the pathway around the lake provide a visual treat. A freshwater aquarium with a large variety of fish is an added attraction.
We were very tired now and were in no position to roam
around more. We returned back to our hotel room where we had left our
belongings in the morning. Next day we had to attend one of our friend’s
marriage. The place of marriage was too far from the place where we were. The
hotel room had been booked for us in the town of marriage. It was required for
us now to travel over the night to reach there. It was almost 80-85kms of
journey and no buses/cars were available in the evening. At last we hired an
auto and travelled through the foggy hill and dense forest to reach to the
other town.
After attending a marriage and nice Kerala food
we started our journey back to home town BANGALORE.
This was one of the memorable expeditions for me as I enjoyed lots of adventures and a delicious food in Kerala.
This was one of the memorable expeditions for me as I enjoyed lots of adventures and a delicious food in Kerala.
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6 comments:
Nice write-up... You are fast becoming a tour-de-force in blog writing... ;-)
Thanks Sanket
Good Narration about the Trip.Rocking with your words always............
Glad to read the fine linings...
Yeah Yeah its good to see all the events captured in right words..
keep it up...
want to see more n more write-ups
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