Photography Experiments

Wayanad-God’s Own Country

Phew! It has been such a long and tough battle with my lethargy to start blogging… Finally, after a month of paid joblessness, I emerge as the winner and here comes my first blog. I am glad to start with undoubtedly one of my most memorable trips... Wayanad.

It all started with a simple conversation over lunch among a bunch of frustrated professionals… “I need a break! I am bugged with this work! Let’s plan for a trip to some place... What do you say?”

Then the discussion over phones … “which place”,“Wayanad or Coorg?”, “one day trip or more than a day?”, “should we go or not?”, “are we going or not?”, “who is joining?” and “who is not?” “When should we go?” “I will not be able to join, u guys carry on!”… This happened for almost a week until finally the “D” day arrived …

Day 1: Late evening on 27th July 2007

Scene 1: Seven people waiting at different parts of Bangalore, cursing one guy for his “punctuality”! It was a near endless wait for Prashant, the organizer, to arrive with the tempo traveler. Though this time he was late only by an hour and beacuse of Shylaja , but even longer waits for him and the vehicle has now become a routine before any trip we plan to go together! All thanks to Prashant!!!

Gang of Eight (GOE) - Sriram (Photographer and Guide), Prashant (Organizer and Singer), Shylaja (Ms. Chatter Box), Surajit (Mr. Silent), Sangeetha (Photographer), myself (photographer, another chatter box!), Hari (Entertainer and Co-Organizer as claimed by himself), Lawrence (Mr. Punctual) and not to forget our driver Raghu, with amazing sense of humor, exhibiting his skills at the wheel, started our journey in a tempo traveler… “Where to” was still a million dollar question, till we reached Mysore!!! That’s precisely where we decided our destination and took the road leading to this wonderful place called Wayanad in God’s Own Country, Kerala.

Wayanad: Wayanad is one of the districts in Kerala that have been able to retain its pristine nature and is about 280km from Bangalore. The etymology of the word Wayanad is Vayal (paddy) Naad (land); 'Land of Paddy Fields'.

Just the way any journey with a group of friends would go, this too had a lot of fun element to it... singing songs, teasing each other, anthakshri, the never concluding argument – Girls vs Boys, etc…kept us awake through the journey. Prashant and I had a continuous chat about our terrible experiences with our Managers at office how it motivated us to try harder to move out of the organization... As expected, the conversation did not hold the interest of many for long... When they had enough it, they either switched to peeping out of the window in the dark enjoying the starry sky and dreaming or closely watching Raghu’s driving talent on road or the most natural thing- sleeping.

The journey through Bandipur forest was a little adventurous and definitely pulled back everyone’s attention as we had a treacherous encounter with a herd of elephants in the wild... One baby elephant,most certainly confused and scared, loudly trumpeting started running towards our vehicle and luckily Raghu managed to speed us away to safety...After that we hardly slept awaiting more such encounters and of course, Prashant and I got back to our incessant topic of discussion.

Day 2: 28th July 2007

We reached our base location, Kalpeta (Headquarters of Wayanad district) at around 3:45 am. It was a beautiful, dark and silent morning with a light drizzle and the rain drops glittering below the street lights As we had not made prior arrangements for our stay, we had to hunt for a hotel at that hour, with the off beam directions given by our guide,Sriram.

We walked around aimlessly on the derelict streets of Kalpeta only to find a lone open tea shop (Nair tea kadai). Lot has been talked about and made fun of in movies about these tea shops and their superfluous dedication to work. This time we got the real taste of it… Hats-off to the tea shop owner’s enthusiasm towards work... there was not a soul awake in the entire town at that wee hours but this guy was religiously preparing tea for, don’t know whom! We were undoubtedly his first customers for the day unless there was some driver from a passing truck would have stopped by to have a cup of tea that morning. All said and done, the hot cup of Cardamom tea on the lonely street, on a drizzly and frigid morning, was one of the best I have sipped so far!

Our search for a hotel ended right where we started… there was a hotel at the place where we had parked our vehicle which we had failed to spot in the dark… we had to heartlessly wake up the reception chap for the rooms. We relaxed for a while and then pushed ourselves to get ready and geared up by 9:30 am. Had our breakfast in a restaurant near by which had delicious buffet with traditional Kerala delicacies which the guys hogged on like crazy… call it more than paisa vasool!!!

The foremost thing on our itinerary (which was prepared just minutes ago) was famous Chembara Peak, which is the highest peak in Kerala. At the foothill of the mountain was the forest department office from whom we had to obtain permission and luckily managed to get it, of course with a lot of warning as it was rainy season and they feared landslides and worse. There was a slight drizzle all along but it did not prevent us from deciding to risk the trek and we soon realized that we made the unsurpassed decision.
The road to the foot hills of Chembara was a narrow trail amidst the incredible green blanket of tea. We stopped by a petite and yet beautiful falls on the point of where we had to begin our trek. Most of us were comfortable trekking except for enthusiastic Shylaja who needed a helping hand as she was a first time trekker which she enjoyed thoroughly. Our journey on foot was a breath taking experience as the rain was playing hide and seek with the clouds and mountains. We had a few guests luxuriously trekking along with no effort… the leaches, which we did manage to get rid of. Enroute to the peak, amidst the picturesque greenery, was a heart shaped lake, so beautifully crafted by nature that I prefer to call it as “Heart of God’s Own Country”.

The path took us over peaks of four mountains before we caught a glimpse of our destination (The Chembara peak). The chain of mountains along Western Ghats with foliage coverlet making up for the scenic beauty was a delight to photographers on board.

The awesome climate soon changed its colors and rain began hammering down heavily, by then only 4 trekkers had managed to reach the summit and the rest were almost there. But alas! We had to head out journey back to the foothills. This time around, Lawrence was the caretaker of Shylaja who gave tips on where to place her foot, one to right and one to left, and she followed only to have a bad fall. Seeing our sopping wet and muddy clothes, Raghu was skeptical to let us in to the vehicle but we left him with no choice!

We reached the hotel for a break. The break turned out to be really bizarre for Prashant and Lawrence. A stranger, woman aged around 30, barged into their room catching the guys totally off guard. She refused to leave the room despite of numerous polite requests (“Please go out of the room”) by Lawrence! Finally the guys managed to throw her out of the room by threatening her to call the reception guy. Hari was in the bath, later regretted not to be a part of the drama. After all this, most of the guys wanted to have early dinner instead of lunch... but we were starving... that resulted in a lot of confusion. We left to our next place on list, Banasura Dam, surviving on bananas and chocolates. By the time we reached, it was too late and we were not allowed inside... Our guys gave best shot of their negotiating skills to enter that place but all in vain. Hopefully we will make it in time to the dam next time we go to Wayanad, if we do!

On our way back to hotel, Hari probably had an amnesia attack, which made him forget that he was no longer

lecturer in college as he earlier was and started off with a long and confusing lecture and weird quiz to find birthday and also strange funda on birthdays!! The server at hotel where we had gone for dinner was taken by surprise when we asked him when his birthday… all to disprove Hari’s funda. Believe me; we left no stone unturned to prove his funda wrong. At the restaurant, a family from Bangalore was having quiet celebration of the Dr. Father’s birthday. We shamelessly invited ourselves to be part of their celebration and ate a major chunk of the cake they had ordered. All thanks to Hari this time!!! At the dinner table, talks about going for long walk after dinner, play cards were all heard. But none materialized as the first thing everyone did after dinner was to hit the bed, all exhausted.

Day 3: 29th July 2007
Last day of the trip, started fresh and early with a heavy breakfast again. My guess is, had the restaurant guy known that we are still around, he would have definitely had second thoughts on the buffet breakfast!
The journey was set towards Phookat Lake which was surrounded by all trees and thick vegetation, making it beautiful. This blue paradise is nestled among the mountains of Western Ghat and was like a droplet of water secluded within a thick forest. We enjoyed boating and kayaking in the silent waters of the lake, occasionally disturbed by the light drizzle. Sangita, Shylaja and I went for a horse ride, not a long one though. It was just a walk on the road sheltered under the leaves of the huge trees, around the lake. There were a few shops there which sold cardamom and other spices where some of us shopped.

Then next place to visit on our agenda was Soojipara falls, which got a delayed as I fell sick and had to visit a doctor. We had to walk down a lot of steps for quite a distance which seemed longer and certainly tiring after the Chembara trek on day before. The pain in the legs was running up the nerves but it all vanished at the first sight of the falls.

From Soojipara, we started the journey back to Bangalore. Prashant took over as the official singer for the trip. Ever ready to sing all the requests (demanded) by Shylaja, “Tadap tadap ke” and “Juda ho ke bhi” being of high demand ones… One must say, he has a soothing voice which needs a little fine tuning for success. Everyone participated in the anthakshari, especially Sriram with his old tamil songs took the icing on cake. Recognizing the immense interest of the photographers, Raghu stopped the vehicle near a beautiful field of Marigold flowers. All cameras came into action for so long that Raghu had to force us into the vehicle again. The next stop before reaching namma Bengaluru, was at Maddur, for the delicious Maddur Vada.

Apart from the trekkers, Raghu also did a good job in entertain us through out our journey with his witty jokes. All thanks to Prashant, the organizer of such a wonderful trip...of course with the help of others who joined for the trip! This trip has been a memorable one for each one of us mainly because it has set the momentum for many trips we have gone from then and many more to come…

Thanks to Kumar, Sriram and Sangeetha who have helped me in recollecting the events and giving their suggestions to make my first blog better.

On public demand!! Picture of "Raghu"