During Diwali 2017, we 3 travelled to Wayanad for 4 days and 3 nights. Plan was to cover Wayanad in first two days and next two days in Mysore.
All preparations like packing the clothes, food, filling petrol and all was done previous day. We started at 5:20 AM on Day 1 from Bannerghatta Road and reached Nanjanagud by 8:30 AM after crossing Mysore. During this 3 hour journey, we had covered more than 180 Kms with just one small stop for Tea and Snacks.
We had our Breakfast in Nanjangud and started at around 9:00 AM to Wayanad. We were in Wayanad by 10:30 AM where we stopped again for another cup of tea and break for Car. We had to reach our resort -
Chateau Woods(CWoods) @ Sentinel Rock Estates, Chooralmala near Meppadi. It took us almost 2 hours to reach this place and we were there at 12:30 PM. Overall, we took 7 hours to drive with some short breaks. Road from Wayanad Muthanga area to Chooralmala was not very good in some stretches and it was also having winding hilly roads.
CWoods is a beatiful homestay cum resort on this hills for Chooralmala. Soochipara falls is very close to this place. Actually road to CWoods passes through Soochipara falls road after which we enter the Sentinel Rock Estate which is owned by a private company for tea plantation. So, around the estate you could find complete tea gardens. CWoods not only has a house with 4 rooms but 3 cottages which are little at a higher pedestals from where the view of the mountains is better. But these are mostly small rooms for couples.
We stayed in a Luxury Room (costing 7616 per day with only breakfast) which was on par with the rooms in 5 star hotels with a huge open balcony from where the view of the mountains was splendid. This had a king size bed, huge sitting area with TV inside the room too. There was spacious bathroom with the enclosed bath area.
CWoods had a small Swimming Pool, small CampFire Area near the house, A fishing pond and poultry and duck farm in a 300 metres walking distance. Inside the main house, they also had pool table, foosball table, carrom board and other board games. They also had PlayStation. We mad best use of all these facilities. We went to the Fishing Pond twice and could catch a fish on the second day. Support staff helped us with meat to catch the fish.
Package here was only for the room and morning breakfast. Rest all we had to order and pay separately. While the website mentions the Kerala speciality food, Kitchen could hardly offer any choice. However, after much deliberation and pursuation with the Kitchen staff, we could Wheat parothas and Kerala Chicken curry and Ghee Rice for Dinner. We did not have afternoon lunch or evening snacks at this place. But we simply chilled out with the biscuits we had brought and prepared and drank coffee from the kettle available in the room.
We simply enjoyed the nature around us for almost day here. I went for a morning walk around the tea gardens. There was a temple on one end and mosque on the other end of the garden. There was also small water stream going next the resort due to the rains in the past week. I could see a squirrel playing around and lots of butterflies.
This is the best place to relax and just enjoy the nature and we just did that. We played games available, went for a stroll once in the evening and next morning.
Next day morning, after breakfast, we started towards Soochipara Falls. It took us half an hour to reach the parking lot of the falls. We parked in the first parking lot that we got. We could have actually gone further and parked closer to the Falls gate. This is the same in many places in Wayanad. There are many private parking lots which would be further from the actual spot. But yes, if you dint get the parking in the closer lots, we could use these farther ones. They all charge the parking fees. It is better to park in the closest parking lot so that you get to walk less. This is what i did in other locations.
Soochipara falls is a beatiful and roaring falls amidst the thick forest. There is a nice walking path created by the Forest Dept with stoned path and steps. It is about 1 to 1.5 Kms of walk. While coming back the walk is steep. You could actually take swimming clothes and get into the pond next to the falls. It is safe as Forest officials are around and they dont allow us to strand near the falls. But we get to be in water and get the cool breeze of falls. Entire walking path is covered with thick forest and you would be refreshed in that surrounding. Entry fee is 25 per person I guess. And it takes about an hour to see the falls and come back. But if you want to spend time in the falls, it can take longer based on how much do you want to spend. On reaching the parking lot you will find a couple of stalls selling domestic delicacies and specialities and there are few restaurants too. I liked the restaurant next to the fish spa where we had lunch. They served us hot kerala meals and a fish fry. That was fairly cheaper too. We also went to fish spa as we were doing it for the first time. We enjoyed the fish eating our feat. We also shopped for some articles.
After our lunch at 2:00 PM we started from Soochipara Falls to Banasura Dam. This was on the other end of Kalpetta. We had to cross the Kalpetta town and reach this place. We took almost 2 hours to reach this dam. We parked close to the gate to the dam. We had to walk about 1 Km to reach the actual spot at the dam. But there were Jeep and Van facilities to reach the top of the Dam. We took the Van for 10 Rs. per head. Entry fee to the dam was about 40Rs. per head. From the top of the dam, there was beatiful view of the catchment area. Entire area was looking like a huge river with small islands in our view. There was boating and speed boating. But by the time we reached they had closed down the boating. There was a huge park for kids to play with various other options available for time pass, like huge swings, fish spa, kiosks etc.
Wind was blowing heavily on top of the dam. It was nice to spend the evening there. Around 5:00 PM, we returned back from the dam, had the omelette in a shop, shopped for some local articles and returned back to Kalpetta. After an hours drive we reached our hotel in Kalpetta.
Misty Hills Resort and Spa - It is a old apartment complex converted into a Hotel. While there is no Resport like facilities, they have created open restaurant, some space for kids to play, hammock etc. Rooms were okay but they had all the facilities in the room and were clean. We paid 1700 for the Non A/C room + 250 for extra bed. Next morning, we had to pay for the breakfast we had ordered. Owner of the place - Lal was very good in providing information and taking care of us. Whatever we ordered we got it quickly. We had our dinner at one of the hotels on the main road of Kalpetta named 1952. We had Wheat parothas and chicken curry.
If you plan to spend only a night in the hotel, this is the best hotel stay in Kalpetta. It is right in the middle of the town. Kalpetta is closely connected all the tourist spots. The next big town is Sulthan Battery. There you can get better hotels. But it is little far from lot of tourist spots.
Next day morning, we got ready. Had our breakfast in the hotel itself. While the service was slow, food was good. We got a huge ghee roast dosa which we struggled to finish. We some how did not get the usual Kerala breakfast consisting of Appams, Puttu, with Kadala Curry. Around 10:00 AM we started from Kalpetta and reached a place called Phantom Rock. We could not see the hill or rock from the road but the person at the tea stall told that we had to take one small way up the next to the road. We could have taken our car but we did not. We just moved from that place and reached the next spot
Edacal Caves - This is one of the main tourist spots in Wayanad. This is cave created by the two slanting rocks. It has rock paintings dating back to centuries. Forest department has created nice paths and steps. We had to pay Rs. 30 each as the entry fee. There is almost steep walk of 1 Km or 2 to reach the entry point of the rock. People were exhausted by the time we reached the spot and we too. Ammu and Agu said they cannot climb with me. So, I went alone. However, after reaching the Rock spot I felt, they could have come to see the rock after reaching almost the spot. So, I went back, bought tickets for them and asked them to come up with me. When we reached the mouth of the rock only we were there, so we could get some good pics inside the rock. There are two levels inside the rock. First level is just one area where few tens of us could live easily. May be poeple lived like that. Then there is second level, which we had to still climb steps and reach. After reaching this place, we had to climb down to reach the place where there rock carvings or paintings. Even this is a huge area but it has opening on top. So, water could easily seep in. Since, it was not raining, we could see this place. It was crowded when we visited this place. There were people, school kids everywhere. Pathway to the cave has a lot of food stalls and shops where we could buy articles and food. We did some shopping on our way back. Got into the car and started to reach Museum a few kilo metres away.
Wayanad Heritage Museum a big house converted into a museum with photos, statues and artifacts collected in and around Wayanad. It is a nice place to visit. Visit should not take more than half an hour and entry fee was Rs. 25 per person. After the visit to the museum, we drove back to Edakal Caves and stopped at house converted into hotel for lunch. We had a nice lunch with Chicken and Fish Fry. They serve unlimited veg and fish curry meals and you could order any other dish with the meal.
After the meal, at about 2:30 PM in the afternoon, I drove continuously towards Mysore. I did not stop anywhere even in the Muthanga Forest area. No forest officials stopped us too. We crossed Muthanga forest in Kerala, Bandipur in Karnataka, crossed Gundlupet, crossed Nanjanagud and reached Mysore by 4:30 PM.
Avadoota Datta Peetham Campus
We reached the Peetham Campus by 4:45 PM. There is a huge parking area within the campus where we praked our car. This campus has two huge temples, a museum, Shuka Vana and Bonsai Garden. It also has the canteen and ample area to roam around. We could actually spend more than half a day in this campus. Since, we had reached late, we had to finish our visit faster. So, we first visited Shuka Vana as we were told that it was a great place to be. There are thousands of parrots ranging from sizes to colours to breeds were being looked after here. We had to look around them as in zoo. There were two sections where we could photographed with the parrots. There was no entry fee. However, for one photo for 3 of us, we had to pay Rs. 130. We had to first stand in the long queue to get photogrpahed and then to collect the photo there were multiple queues. But everything was organised and managed well. There were hundreds of people attending to photos, queues, parrots etc. You could easily spend about 1 to 2 hours in this place based on the photographs you want to take and crowd during the time of the visit. Opposite to Shuka Vana there was Bonsai Garden. It was beatifully architectured and place. We had to pay Rs. 30 per head to enter the garden. We spent about half an hour in this place and again we could spend about 1 hour easily here.
All preparations like packing the clothes, food, filling petrol and all was done previous day. We started at 5:20 AM on Day 1 from Bannerghatta Road and reached Nanjanagud by 8:30 AM after crossing Mysore. During this 3 hour journey, we had covered more than 180 Kms with just one small stop for Tea and Snacks.
We had our Breakfast in Nanjangud and started at around 9:00 AM to Wayanad. We were in Wayanad by 10:30 AM where we stopped again for another cup of tea and break for Car. We had to reach our resort -
Chateau Woods(CWoods) @ Sentinel Rock Estates, Chooralmala near Meppadi. It took us almost 2 hours to reach this place and we were there at 12:30 PM. Overall, we took 7 hours to drive with some short breaks. Road from Wayanad Muthanga area to Chooralmala was not very good in some stretches and it was also having winding hilly roads.
CWoods is a beatiful homestay cum resort on this hills for Chooralmala. Soochipara falls is very close to this place. Actually road to CWoods passes through Soochipara falls road after which we enter the Sentinel Rock Estate which is owned by a private company for tea plantation. So, around the estate you could find complete tea gardens. CWoods not only has a house with 4 rooms but 3 cottages which are little at a higher pedestals from where the view of the mountains is better. But these are mostly small rooms for couples.
We stayed in a Luxury Room (costing 7616 per day with only breakfast) which was on par with the rooms in 5 star hotels with a huge open balcony from where the view of the mountains was splendid. This had a king size bed, huge sitting area with TV inside the room too. There was spacious bathroom with the enclosed bath area.
CWoods had a small Swimming Pool, small CampFire Area near the house, A fishing pond and poultry and duck farm in a 300 metres walking distance. Inside the main house, they also had pool table, foosball table, carrom board and other board games. They also had PlayStation. We mad best use of all these facilities. We went to the Fishing Pond twice and could catch a fish on the second day. Support staff helped us with meat to catch the fish.
Package here was only for the room and morning breakfast. Rest all we had to order and pay separately. While the website mentions the Kerala speciality food, Kitchen could hardly offer any choice. However, after much deliberation and pursuation with the Kitchen staff, we could Wheat parothas and Kerala Chicken curry and Ghee Rice for Dinner. We did not have afternoon lunch or evening snacks at this place. But we simply chilled out with the biscuits we had brought and prepared and drank coffee from the kettle available in the room.
We simply enjoyed the nature around us for almost day here. I went for a morning walk around the tea gardens. There was a temple on one end and mosque on the other end of the garden. There was also small water stream going next the resort due to the rains in the past week. I could see a squirrel playing around and lots of butterflies.
This is the best place to relax and just enjoy the nature and we just did that. We played games available, went for a stroll once in the evening and next morning.
Next day morning, after breakfast, we started towards Soochipara Falls. It took us half an hour to reach the parking lot of the falls. We parked in the first parking lot that we got. We could have actually gone further and parked closer to the Falls gate. This is the same in many places in Wayanad. There are many private parking lots which would be further from the actual spot. But yes, if you dint get the parking in the closer lots, we could use these farther ones. They all charge the parking fees. It is better to park in the closest parking lot so that you get to walk less. This is what i did in other locations.
Soochipara falls is a beatiful and roaring falls amidst the thick forest. There is a nice walking path created by the Forest Dept with stoned path and steps. It is about 1 to 1.5 Kms of walk. While coming back the walk is steep. You could actually take swimming clothes and get into the pond next to the falls. It is safe as Forest officials are around and they dont allow us to strand near the falls. But we get to be in water and get the cool breeze of falls. Entire walking path is covered with thick forest and you would be refreshed in that surrounding. Entry fee is 25 per person I guess. And it takes about an hour to see the falls and come back. But if you want to spend time in the falls, it can take longer based on how much do you want to spend. On reaching the parking lot you will find a couple of stalls selling domestic delicacies and specialities and there are few restaurants too. I liked the restaurant next to the fish spa where we had lunch. They served us hot kerala meals and a fish fry. That was fairly cheaper too. We also went to fish spa as we were doing it for the first time. We enjoyed the fish eating our feat. We also shopped for some articles.
After our lunch at 2:00 PM we started from Soochipara Falls to Banasura Dam. This was on the other end of Kalpetta. We had to cross the Kalpetta town and reach this place. We took almost 2 hours to reach this dam. We parked close to the gate to the dam. We had to walk about 1 Km to reach the actual spot at the dam. But there were Jeep and Van facilities to reach the top of the Dam. We took the Van for 10 Rs. per head. Entry fee to the dam was about 40Rs. per head. From the top of the dam, there was beatiful view of the catchment area. Entire area was looking like a huge river with small islands in our view. There was boating and speed boating. But by the time we reached they had closed down the boating. There was a huge park for kids to play with various other options available for time pass, like huge swings, fish spa, kiosks etc.
Wind was blowing heavily on top of the dam. It was nice to spend the evening there. Around 5:00 PM, we returned back from the dam, had the omelette in a shop, shopped for some local articles and returned back to Kalpetta. After an hours drive we reached our hotel in Kalpetta.
Misty Hills Resort and Spa - It is a old apartment complex converted into a Hotel. While there is no Resport like facilities, they have created open restaurant, some space for kids to play, hammock etc. Rooms were okay but they had all the facilities in the room and were clean. We paid 1700 for the Non A/C room + 250 for extra bed. Next morning, we had to pay for the breakfast we had ordered. Owner of the place - Lal was very good in providing information and taking care of us. Whatever we ordered we got it quickly. We had our dinner at one of the hotels on the main road of Kalpetta named 1952. We had Wheat parothas and chicken curry.
If you plan to spend only a night in the hotel, this is the best hotel stay in Kalpetta. It is right in the middle of the town. Kalpetta is closely connected all the tourist spots. The next big town is Sulthan Battery. There you can get better hotels. But it is little far from lot of tourist spots.
Next day morning, we got ready. Had our breakfast in the hotel itself. While the service was slow, food was good. We got a huge ghee roast dosa which we struggled to finish. We some how did not get the usual Kerala breakfast consisting of Appams, Puttu, with Kadala Curry. Around 10:00 AM we started from Kalpetta and reached a place called Phantom Rock. We could not see the hill or rock from the road but the person at the tea stall told that we had to take one small way up the next to the road. We could have taken our car but we did not. We just moved from that place and reached the next spot
Edacal Caves - This is one of the main tourist spots in Wayanad. This is cave created by the two slanting rocks. It has rock paintings dating back to centuries. Forest department has created nice paths and steps. We had to pay Rs. 30 each as the entry fee. There is almost steep walk of 1 Km or 2 to reach the entry point of the rock. People were exhausted by the time we reached the spot and we too. Ammu and Agu said they cannot climb with me. So, I went alone. However, after reaching the Rock spot I felt, they could have come to see the rock after reaching almost the spot. So, I went back, bought tickets for them and asked them to come up with me. When we reached the mouth of the rock only we were there, so we could get some good pics inside the rock. There are two levels inside the rock. First level is just one area where few tens of us could live easily. May be poeple lived like that. Then there is second level, which we had to still climb steps and reach. After reaching this place, we had to climb down to reach the place where there rock carvings or paintings. Even this is a huge area but it has opening on top. So, water could easily seep in. Since, it was not raining, we could see this place. It was crowded when we visited this place. There were people, school kids everywhere. Pathway to the cave has a lot of food stalls and shops where we could buy articles and food. We did some shopping on our way back. Got into the car and started to reach Museum a few kilo metres away.
Wayanad Heritage Museum a big house converted into a museum with photos, statues and artifacts collected in and around Wayanad. It is a nice place to visit. Visit should not take more than half an hour and entry fee was Rs. 25 per person. After the visit to the museum, we drove back to Edakal Caves and stopped at house converted into hotel for lunch. We had a nice lunch with Chicken and Fish Fry. They serve unlimited veg and fish curry meals and you could order any other dish with the meal.
After the meal, at about 2:30 PM in the afternoon, I drove continuously towards Mysore. I did not stop anywhere even in the Muthanga Forest area. No forest officials stopped us too. We crossed Muthanga forest in Kerala, Bandipur in Karnataka, crossed Gundlupet, crossed Nanjanagud and reached Mysore by 4:30 PM.
Avadoota Datta Peetham Campus
We reached the Peetham Campus by 4:45 PM. There is a huge parking area within the campus where we praked our car. This campus has two huge temples, a museum, Shuka Vana and Bonsai Garden. It also has the canteen and ample area to roam around. We could actually spend more than half a day in this campus. Since, we had reached late, we had to finish our visit faster. So, we first visited Shuka Vana as we were told that it was a great place to be. There are thousands of parrots ranging from sizes to colours to breeds were being looked after here. We had to look around them as in zoo. There were two sections where we could photographed with the parrots. There was no entry fee. However, for one photo for 3 of us, we had to pay Rs. 130. We had to first stand in the long queue to get photogrpahed and then to collect the photo there were multiple queues. But everything was organised and managed well. There were hundreds of people attending to photos, queues, parrots etc. You could easily spend about 1 to 2 hours in this place based on the photographs you want to take and crowd during the time of the visit. Opposite to Shuka Vana there was Bonsai Garden. It was beatifully architectured and place. We had to pay Rs. 30 per head to enter the garden. We spent about half an hour in this place and again we could spend about 1 hour easily here.
No comments:
Post a Comment