The beautiful soul of India

GREEN PARADISE OF KERALA

WAYANAD

A human soul needs to be recharged once it is drained just

like how we recharge the batteries of our electric gadgets.

Keeping this crystal clear in my mind I wanted to recharge

myself and my family member’s sick and tired souls, so I

came up with an idea to go on a Christmas vacation.

According to me Travelling amidst the nature is the best way

to refresh and recharge ourselves. After quite a long debate

on choosing our destination we finally agreed to go to

Wayanad.

Embellishing the northern hills of Kerala is the district of

Wayanad, tucked high on the Western Ghats with breath-

taking hairpin bends and scenic, untouched natural beauty of

nature. I was truly enchanted with the sudden glimpses of

green peaks that crossed through our windows. The travel

was long but definitely wasn’t tiring with all those

mesmerizing views and fresh fragrance of coffee beans.

On the misty early morning of 27 th , December ,2020 we

started our car engine at 5’o clock from Channarayapatna

(my hometown to which we had arrived the previous day).

The early morning was truly very foggy as it has to be in the

Malnad region. At about an hour we saw the sun reporting

for work. Now, the paddy fields came into light and traces of

fog were still hovering above the crops. We entered the

Kodagu district and searched for good hotels at Gonikoppa

but we couldn’t find any decent restaurants. After a good

hour of finding, we settled at an Udupi Guruprasad Hotel, but

we were disappointed at seeing the state of the hotel, it was

very dirty and the food was average. We had a light breakfast

and continued our journey. Next came the good old Kutta (a

village in Coorg) which brings me happy recollections of my

visit there many years back. You can also take a day’s stop

and stay in Kutta for a night because it has some truly

adventurous activities like Night Safari and I am sure you will

enjoy the weather there. If you decide to stay in Kutta then

‘Spice garden homestay’ will do good.

Tip 1- Make a note of good restaurants on your way to

destination beforehand.

Tip 2- You can also visit some of the waterfalls like Iruppu

waterfalls on the way to Wayanad

The lush green coffee estates and the cool weather was truly

relaxing. If you are travelling anywhere with cool weather,

then you must experience the wind washing through your

face by keeping the windows wide open. Once we crossed

the Karnataka state through Kodagu district, we entered

Kerala passing through the bordering parts of Nagarhole

Tiger Reserve. After an hour we entered the green paradise

of Kerala, Wayanad. Wayanad is the only state which shares

its border with both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Wayanad

Tiger Reserve forest was the first one to welcome us with its

safari jeeps lined up at the side. When we were about an

hour away from the resort that we had booked, we decided

to take a detour to Thirunelli Temple. It is a very old temple

located in the mesmerizing Brahmagiri hills which is

dedicated to lord Vishnu for which it has also got the name

has the ‘Kashi of south’. It is simply pristine, peaceful and

tranquil temple to visit. After one hour being spent in this

ancient magnificent temple we retarded back to our route

and I took charge of making a note of some good-looking

restaurant for lunch. After a flash of an hour, we reached the

entrance gate of the glorious Vythiri Village Resort. The

moment I had been waiting had arrived and I longed to

explore the thirty acres of the resort campus. The very polite

resort staff welcomed us with a refreshing cup of lemon tea

and we completed the check-in formalities with all our

temperature checked and our luggage’s sanitised. After

receiving our room card, we entered it with tired faces after

quite a long journey and a joyful detour. The rooms were

spacious and clean, outlooking the green patch of trees and

an archery podium. Later in the evening we left for The

Banasura Dam, it is the largest earth dam in India and the

second largest of its kind in Asia. The dam is made up of

massive stacks of stones and boulders. It had green peaks

surrounding and it was truly a cool walk along the dam. The

adventurous activity that took place there was the Zip-line. It

was actually the longest zipline in Wayanad. I first resisted

but then I felt that I should make the best of our trip and

finally there I was fully decked up with safety gears. If anyone

is visiting the Banasura Dam then you must experience the

thrilling Zipline. I went on shrieking wow!! Which attracted a

lot of glances from below me. Finally, it was time to bid a bye

to the Dam with a message that it made our first evening in

Wayanad a memorable one. After returning to the resort, we

saw that there was a musical night being arranged and at the

sight of this I felt excited and couldn’t wait any longer for it to

start. Delicious food on the hand and melodious music in the

ears we called it a day hoping what the next day had in store

for us.

Tip 2 if you are visiting Wayanad- Make your reservation at

Vythiri village resort because it is situated amidst green

scenery around it and offers a good service with delicious

food and neat campus

The next day I started out with Archery, though it was a first-

time experience for me I did exceptionally well.

It can be called as bad luck because we got to know that

some of the famous tourist spots like Chembra peak, Edakkal

caves etc... were closed for public due to Covid-19. (I think

one must visit Edakkal caves because though I haven’t visited

it myself due to COVID-19, but I have read great reviews

about it saying it dates back to stone age and marks as the

important historical place). However, we decided to stay at

the resort and have the best time at home away from home.

The resort had some unique restaurants like sky restaurant

and boat restaurant, the iconic hanging bridge gave us the

best background for some of the beautiful pictures that we

took. It was an all in all a wonderful and mind-blowing

experience to be experienced. Though I learned from google

that Kerala’s weather during December would be cool, it

wasn’t cool at all rather I found myself sweating under the

scorching sun.

The next day we hit the road again but towards another city

of Kerala that is Kozhikode or Calicut. It is in the coastal side

of Kerala. This time we crossed a beautiful view of the hairpin

bends from a far spot on the way to Calicut which was

slightly covered by fog. After a session of taking photos, we

started off to our destination. It was just a two-hour journey

and we reached our hotel – Taj gateway exactly at afternoon.

The hotel was very calm and we checked in. In the evening

we went out to relax ourselves at the Kozhikode beach. The

beach was bit crowded but never tiring to play with the

waves. With the water on our legs and the Kerala sun on our

heads we sat and watched the sunset which held our

attention for a long time. Later we left the beach which

crafted our evening so beautifully.

The next day we had to bid Kerala a final bye. The holiday

that started with uncertainty gave us everlasting memories

that got added to my travel diary.

Families serve as the best travel companions. Laughing

together, enjoying together and experiencing together are

the best things that you can do in your holidays.

(We couldn’t visit many beautiful places of Wayanad due to

the current pandemic but it was surely a promising time

spent together with my family)

Travel more and know more because if you never travel you

will never know, so go there is the whole world outside.

GO EXPLORE!!