[hrag]

One scary thing that happened when we went for boating was the scare of a crocodile. Well no one saw it clearly, but me and wifey felt that we saw something in the water. The bubbles forming on the surface of the water was similar to what is shown in the wild life channels on tv.
...
Phew! we still can't forget those tense moments.

I *think* this was the adventure. Nicely written, saleem_k!

[deky]

Congratulations on completing a year of Your marriage, It seems you guys had a great time.
Also, doesnt it get cold with the clouds and the hills, as i see no one in the pic wearing any woolens?

[saleem_k]

rjstyles69 - Dude, are you only waiting for the adventure? Then I would say - Patience is a virtue . Till then enjoy the travelogue, see the pics, read the comments, and have fun.

hrag - No, that wasn't the adventure. If you feel so, then you can consider as one of the adventures! There are 2 more days to go for that adventure to happen.

deky - Thanks deky. It wasn't that cold. It was in mid 20s centigrade and very pleasant.

[saleem_k]

Day 2 of our iterinary had Banasura Sagar lake and Tholpetty wildlife sanctuary in the list. We started off from our place at around 9:00 AM. First we went to the lake and dam, where we can do speed-boating, walk around and enjoy the views. This lake is surround by beautiful mountains and is a very very scenic place.

An unfortunate incident that happened here is that our cam fell down and stopped working for a while. That was the most disappointing thing to happen on the second day itself. This happened after we arrived at the lake, walked some distance to reach the boating spot, just 2-3 mins before we climbed into the speed boat. It was very disappointing because we felt it can't be repaired in Wayanad.

We thought of taking care of the cam later and enjoy the boating for now. Frankly speaking, we couldn't take our mind off our damaged cam but still I would say the boating was wonderful. Fortunately the cam started working after we came back from the boating but the lens would not close completely, although the cam was switching off. However, we realised that the cam was taking pics in a blurry wave at normal zoom, while the pics were clear when we zoomed on the image. So we thought of managing like that with our cam.

Now for some pics taken before the cam slipped from our hands.

All set for the day!


Organic bananas. These were regularly on our menu during breakfast


Near B'Sagar lake. Wonderful place, scenic views. We can walk along this path or there is Jeep facility to take people till the boating point. We preferred to walk and I believe that is the best way to enjoy this place.


The lake, I believe is formed after constructing the dam. There are lot of islands in this lake which suggests that they are submerged mountains, which probably came under the water after constructing a dam.


It's a long walk though!


The last pic when the cam was working.


The next place we went to was Tholpetty wildlife sanctuary. This sanctuary is home to deers, elephants, langurs, bears and tigers among others.


Langur, this one climbed on this tree in a flash.


Can you see anything?


Is that an elephant?


Indeed it is!


This was all that we did on this day. We headed back to our homestay. It was not a very tiring day, but a bit disappointing. will continue later...

[snaronikar]

Ummm...nicely written and good pics. Will wait for that adventure and lets hope it to be a fun filled, scary, chilling, mind blogging one...

[Surprise]

Good thing you took long walks to explore things. I have been noticing a recent trend were many people on tour, JUst wanted to see everything as they step down from the vehicle.

ON ADVENTURE PART:

Even if it is, it won't. Thats my guess as all of us are waiting for the adventurous part

[saleem_k]

Hi Guys,
Sorry, I was loaded with the usual year end deliverables, which had me going to office on the weekend and I just couldn’t take time out to write the remaining part.

So the 3rd day was dedicated entirely to Chembra peak. To go to this place, I believe you have to take prior permission, probably because one has to pass through private property. This was the best part of the our trip and this is where the adventure happened. On this day, we were lucky enough to get a 15x zoom Sony Digi cam, which the kind owner was generous to lend us. The only thing we had to do was replace the memory card with our card and use this cam. It worked perfectly.

This was one of the toughest treks I had ever done and the same applied to my better half. We never expected that it would be so tough when we started the trek. Soon we realized our fitness levels were not up to the mark and it would get tougher as we get higher and higher. Nevertheless we thought we’ll do it, trek at least till the peak that we were seeing. We never realized that it was not the peak that we had to go to but another one, which was much higher.

The thing about trekking here is that you feel you are almost there but the winding path, with sudden elevations, lot of rough climbs and the rocks and et all, make the trek very tough. But as you go higher and higher, the exhaustion turns into elation and eventually the satisfaction of making it till that point is worth experiencing. Since we were doing this kind of a trek for the first time, the joy we felt was immense. Yeah, we didn’t go all the way to the Chembra peak but we covered a lot. Maybe next time we would do the entire trek, till then we would increase our fitness levels so that we can go ahead confidently.

I have posted my comments about the pics and wherever an explanation is required, I have done so. Ah… about the adventure, well I will post it at the pic which shows the place where this adventure happened. There are lot of pics so please bear with me.

Enjoy the climb.

OOOOOOOPS! Can the moderators please let me know if there is any maximum limit of pics or anything? Coz i'm unable to upload pics. All pics are well below 1MB and the upload window suddenly goes blank once I click on "Upload" and nothing happens. The status bar displays "Done" and the window is just blank. This has happened for about 3-4 times today. When I say refresh I have to upload the pics all over again. Any solution?

This is the only pic which got uploaded. This is the point where you have to stop and take the ticket.

[saleem_k]

Hi Guys, I have been trying since 3 days but there is some problem with uploading pics. The upload window after I hit "upload" just goes blank and nothing happens. I will type in my adventure here but I'm disappointed that I'm unable to upload because this was the most beautiful place of the trip.

Well the adventure happened like this. We started trekking and we thought that the peak that is visible is the place till we had to trek. Well, little did we know that we were wrong. That peak wasn't Chembra peak and it was just1/3rd of the actual distance to the peak. However, while trekking we reached a certain distance till the top and we had to go around this peak and not on this peak. There was a trekking trail, very narrow, with grass on both sides, sometimes big rocks to climb, sudden elevations, which are muddy and rocky at the same time. On the way we saw some bright colored bugs, which were bigger than the grasshoppers that we see in our cities, and looked bulkier. Don't know what exactly they were. I took a pic too, if possible I'll try later to upload the pic.

The trekking trail is not straight and often winding, a little bit like the ghat roads. Although these type of trails are not many. There are shortcuts too but they require a little atheticism, which wifey lacked and hence, we had to go in the winding route. I must appreciate the guide here, who was climbing so easily. Probably he got used to climbing regularly and hence, didn't feel the exhaustion that we were feeling. We took quite some breaks and then at one point we realised that we were not carrying waterbottle in my back pack. We had about 4 oranges in the bag and we decided to have them and continue as we were not feeling very thirsty even after climbing a significant distance. We had an orange each and gave one to the guide too.

We started our trek again after about 5 -7 mins of rest. The trek became a little difficult here with steep climbs and water flowing at a couple of places. Soon we realised that we were going behind the peak that we initially thought is our destination. After some treacherous climbs we saw the real Chembra peak. It was still almost double the distance that we climbed.

Now the landscape in the front presented us one more challenge. No, we decided not to go till the peak as it was quite far and we didn't have neither energy or time to do that trek. There was one more elevation in front of us, which wasn't very steep, but definitely was a little steep to climb. The guide told us that after this climb, there is a heart-shaped lake. We initially thought that there must be some lake somewhere far off, which is visible in that form. so we decided not to go till there. We were almost through with the trek and then we realised that instead of going for this climb to view the lake, we would rather go towards our right to the peak that we thought to be our destination, as it was appearing very near. We told the guide, and in the meantime our driver and one of the guys, from the homestay who came to help with the permission, were also with us, to go ahead if they want to while we will go to this peak.

Let me tell you all that we were the only ones on this trek today. Not a single soul was around. I believe this trek is not very popular because of the kind of trekking it involves and also because it takes up the whole day. Also one more major factor which I think is the reason for the deserted look is because it was Thursday, a week day. The weather was awesome, not chilly but cool and very breezy. Our sweat vanished and also the exhaustion was quite less now. The cool breeze was giving us all the required energy to trek further and we did.

Coming back to the trekking, the guide and the two other guys said they'll go only till a little further distance, while we can go to this peak towards our right, which was quite near now. So wifey and I decided to go here and spend some time sitting on top of this peak. The only problem was that there was no trail to go to this peak so we had to wade through knee-length grass which at some places was even higher, almost up to the waist. Wifey was ready then asked me whether its safe to go in the grass like this coz we were not able to see the ground and we were not able to make out clearly as to on what we were stepping.

I told her that it should probably be fine and we started going in slowly. Slowly because I was placing each step carefully so that I can make out that the ground I'm stepping on is safe and solid. I was holding wifey's hand who was coming behind me and placing her steps in the same place where I was placing. Well, one more thing is that when we were going in we realised that the grass at some places was like as if someone stomped on so we decided to take the same path.

After going in for about 10-12 steps, we suddenly saw an open area, one step in front of us, kind of circular, without any grass. My first instinct was to know why only here it was like that and whether there was some pit or anything like that. When I kept one step forward, I looked down towards the top left side of this circular area and saw another colorful bug, except for the fact that his was much bigger, more than double the size that we saw earlier. As soon as I saw this I stopped and said "Wow, just hold on?" to my wife as I wanted to make sure that his bug was harmless. Wifey stopped, right behind me. Then suddenly don't know why, I felt like looking towards the right side of this circular area and lo, what I saw, kind of sent warning signals to all parts of my body. I saw a small pit like structure and staring out of that I saw a little python. Yes, a little python, that was curiously staring at me and swaying a little. My first instinct was to send my wife back the same path that we came because the first thought that came to my mind was whether this little one's parents are somewhere around. This thing was very concerning because we were not able to see anything in the grass around us. The only thing we could do was go back in the some path that we came till here. Wifey almost started running when i told her that there is a snake. I didn't tell her that it was a small python.

Well, if you are asking me how come I'm so sure that it was a python, its because I have seen such a python in our zoo and also in numerous shows on the wildlife channels on tv. I can easily recognise some snakes, coz I like snakes and this time there was no mistaking that it was definitely a python. Maybe all pythons have a similar design.

So we safely made our way back till we came to the trail that we originally diverted from. It was a scary experience at the same time an exciting one. Exciting probably because nothing untoward happened. Scary coz we suddenly realised that there could be some big pythons around this place. This was an exciting thought too.

We then thought that we better climb the little hill and see the heart-shaped lake. So we trekked further, knowing the fact that we still had one orange inside my backpack. It was relatively easy climbing this little elevated landscape and what we saw then not only was a pleasant surprise but a great relief. The lake was actually a pond, formed in the midst of the hill and we could go near it. It was an awesome feeling seeing this lake because it was almost heart-shaped, not perfect though but worth seeing. We went near the lake and drank water and washed our faces. Believe me guys, the water was very cool, it was like as if I was drinking water taken out from the fridge. But yes, the water was very cool and very sweet, very fresh. We washed our faces, drank enough water to last till we trekked back down. We didn’t need the orange now. Kept it in case we really need while on the way back. We stayed at this place, saw the peak of Chembra, which was mesmerizing. It was sometimes covered by clouds, sometimes became very clear. Took a few pics here, sat down at the open place near this lake, which was little rocky, but quite a nice place to sit, then we realized what we are missing in our daily life. Peace and calm like this, fresh air, greenery, the laid-back feeling, one cannot compare this with what we experience in our cities. There was some inner happiness here, and we were really happy that we made it till here although it took around 2.5 hours.

We sat there for around 15-20 mins, and decided to go back. While going back I wanted to check the python pit again because the first time I was too concerned about going back and couldn’t click a pic even though the camera was hanging around my neck. This time I wanted to go in buy wifey dear warned me not to take chances. Although I was confident that I could handle even a bigger python if attacked, my only concern was that there could be more than one. Also, since the trek down would again take an hour or more easily I didn’t wanted to take chances so decided not to go in again and take the risk. We had to come down the same trail and while passing that spot where we ventured into our adventure earlier, I felt some excitement again that we were passing python land again. I can only describe this feeling right now, but at that moment the excitement the adrenalin rush was very high.

We started to trek down and on the way wifey dear twised her ankle at one place but was brave enough to start again and at another place, yours truly slipped and almost fell but controlled wit the help of hands. Trekking down wasn’t as easy as we thought it would be. It took us around 1.5 hours to trek down and believe me guys, it is very easy to trek down, although it looks like. Yes, you won’t be very exhausted but you should be careful about where you are stepping coz you might lose balance or in a worst case twist your ankle and hurt youself.

Lastly I would like to commend my wife, who although didn’t have such trekking experience earlier, did all this and never complained. At one place she even twisted her ankle while on the way back but she still managed to complete the remaining trek without any problem.

This was all for this day. The next day was a trip to Organic farm, a trek along the paddy fields and little bit of forest and Kuruva island, where we couldn’t spend much time though.

I will once again try and upload the pics if possible, about the next one day there is nothing much to talk about. The pics would have done most of the talking.

Hope you guys enjoyed the pics and the experience. Thanks to everyone for bearing with me.

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by saleem_k

Chain Tree, one of the tourist spots. This tree is supposed to be some cursed tree with a history. The chains put on this tree is to pacify some tribal's soul who was supposedly toppling vehicles at this point. Some pujas were performed to pacify this soul and chains put on this tree. It is believed that as the tree grows the chain also grows along with it.

The story is that the soul of the tribal who showed the Brits the path to build a road up to Wayanad lives on at this tree, where he was hung by the Brits after he showed them the route. There is also another version that the tribal hung himself at this tree from remorse as the Brits used this path to get into Wayanad and kill Pazhassi Raja who famously launched guerilla attacks on them from his base in Wayanad.

Anyway, after the road was built all vehicles that used the road toppled off at this point - at least this is the story. So they got this exorcist to tie the soul up to the tree, etcetera, etcetera.

[saleem_k]

Hi everyone,

I was finally able to upload some pics of those taken at Chembra peak. I guess probably my thread suffered from an overkill of pics because I noticed that inspite of so many scenic pics, there are not many comments or replies to this thread. hmmmmm feel like

since everyone already suffered an overkill enjoy some more pics!


The point where we take ticket and permission to trek.


View enroute to the point from where we need to trek.


Another view


Can you see a building like structure far away. We had to walk till there from the point where we took this pic. The climb starts from that tower.


Posing on the rock


The trek starts


See the landscape change as we go higher


Can you see the tower? :-)


Initially we thought this was our destination, but we had to go around this.


There were lot of such bugs around here.


One of the views from above.


Can you still spot the tower?


This is another view...


Can you see one more peak at the top-left corner of the pic. There are two peaks actually, the one to the extreme left is the Chembra peak. The place from where I took this pic is behind the peak we saw earlier. Towards our right after about 7-8 steps, was the python pit on which we were about to step on.


Will continue later....

[saleem_k]

Hi Guys,

Finally i have arrived at the end of the trip. The next day after Chembra peak was our final day in Wayanad. We visited the owner's organic farm, small trek through forest and paddy fields and a visit to Kuruva island.

Kuruva island is spread in an area of 950 acres and has 64 islands strewn across it, as per the information provided.

Pics follow.

We finally arrive at the heart-shaped pond. The water was so cool, fresh and sweet. It was just awesome!!!


View of Chembra peak from the lake. There is a route to trek all the way to the peak.


The weather suddenly turned rainy. Fortunately it only drizzled.


Now can you identify the heart shape of the lake? Well, it's not perfect


climbing down, wasn't as easy as we thought.


Phew! finally made it. We reached the foot of the hill safely, with one or two slips on the way.


The final day's pics are as follows:

The owner's obedient dogs. They will not step out of the cage until the owner asks them to.


Weaver bird's nest. Don't know if this is the actual name of this bird.


Another view with high zoom.


Passion fruit.


Snake skin we found during the forest trek. If you notice it is pretty long, which meant there was some big snake around there somewhere.


The skin feels just like as if you are touching a cheap quality plastic cover. Tried to find out which snake but the head wasn't there.


view of the paddy fields.


This was in one corner of the paddy field


Kuruva Island. We have to travel from one island to another in boats. This boat wsn't very convincing as you can see in the next pic.


See how the water comes onto this. This isn't a boat, maybe you could call it a raft.


View of the water between the islands.


After the Kuruva island visit, we went to a ruined Jain temple, which is now closed and we were told that we can't go inside as there could be poisonous snakes. There were barricades near the entry point.

After this we went home, and since we shifted to a cottage on the last day, we watched the news and learnt about the Mumbai terror attacks. We were scheduled to go on a night safari, however, we didn't feel like and stayed back and watched the news instead.

Next day we started at 11:30PM from the Blooms resort and reached B'lore by 4:30PM. Our train was at 6PM and we reachd Hyderabad next day at 5:30 AM, greeted by rains.

I hope you all enjoyed the trip and the pics. Do give me feedback so that I can improve upon my loopholes and probably post a much better travelogue the next time.

Thanks for bearing with me.

[Lukeskywalker]

Hey Saleem, nothing wrong with the pics, in fact there are some very good scenic snaps, out here in the travelogue section there is nothing called overkill of snaps, as you must know pictures speak more about a place than the narration itself.
Good trip you've had there.
Regards,
Hari.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Great travelogue... thanks!

Have not been to that part of Kerala, and you certainly make it sound, and look, attractive!

Enjoyed seeing that batch of pictures after reading the description, although it must have been frustrating for you trying to upload them.

[BomBatt]

Nice travelogue Saleem. Excellent narration and photograhs. I really enjoyed it .

Brings back memories of Bangalore - Wayanad trip we did in 2006. I wanted to post some pics but waited untill you finished posting all your photos. Did not want to hijack your thread. Saleem, I hope you don't mind.

We did this on my 2002 make Bajaj Caliber Croma


Edakkallu guddada male (a movie directed by famous Kannada film director Puttanna Kanagal)



Kuruva Iland





A view of Chambara peak


Soochipara (?) falls



Lake (don't remember name)



Chain tree



These are clicked on a manual camera and digitized in a photo studio. Hence excuse me guys for very low resolution pics.

[saleem_k]

Lukeskywalker - Thank you for your comments. Yes, I agree that pics speak lot more than the narration. It was frustrating for me coz i wasn't able to upload the pics for some unknown reason. Later, I tried after some days and it worked so I uploaded the remaining pics too.

Thad E Ginathom - Waynad is a good place to be in. For ppl like me, it would probably look much more attractive because we are from Hyderabad and here and around Hyderabad, the landscape is very much different compared to Kerala. I really loved Kerala landscape, there's so much greenery around. Our experience was enhanced by the place we stayed in, we loved the food, the services, and the people in the resort. They didn't let us down.

BomBatt - I'm glad you liked it sir! Absolutely no issues, you are free to hijack this thread. I felt like "Wow" when I read that you did this trip on a bike. That's absolutely awesome! I would love to do the same and believe me that would be like one of my dreams come true. I really envy you for this. The pics are quite clear so do not worry about the quality.

By the way, wasn't it strainful on the bike? How much time it took for you people to reach Waynad frm B'lore? Weren't you scared while going through the Muthanga sanctuary road and some other forest roads in Kerala? I think probably in the near future, we will do a similar trip in our car, with our friends, most probably. Not yet started planning, but it is definitely on our cards.

Guys, thank you all for your encouraging comments. cheers: