Cont :
We are in Thalaserry Bus depot now, Oh yeah.. I missed this, I was also searching for the PM as he seems to be not there.
We found our PM in the bus depot enquiry. He was enquiring about the bus routes to Wayanad. The staff pointed his fingers towards a yellow private mufsil bus and said it will take to the Wayanad. He also told that it is 35 Km’s and will take about an hour as it’s a hills journey. We came to that the place where we got down from the train is the nearest place to Wayanad and we have saved almost 3 hrs of our journey. The bus is about to start in 30 Minutes and the next one is after 90 minutes.
Now the PM got saved for not waking for us in Calicut and the guy who devised the plan to get down at Calicut gone missing. Lol. Anyway, now we got something else to worry. Our team mates mobile needs to be returned by the autowala. Though we are not sure whether he will come or not , we have to try(wait). We have waited for more than 45 minutes obviously missing our bus because the autowala said he has gone for a long trip. Finally the autowala came as he promised and returned my friends mobile, we thanked him a lot and paid the charge from Bus depot to Railway station.
We got the next bus to Wayanad and comfortably seated near windows to sight the sceneries as we were told that each and every kilometer of Wayanad is beautiful. Its true, when the Bus started and passed few Kilometers we were thrilled with excitements. Its Wayanad district, and it started with full of greeneries and small streams. Very soon we were in the start of hills, when the bus started climbing on the hills the real excitement begins. The wind is cool, fresh and we felt like a bird which is flying above a beautiful heaven.
There are lots and lots of giant trees where I couldn’t recollect all the names, such as teak, oak, eucalyptus etc.. with some common forest Bushes which also looked amazingly beautiful. We enjoyed the 1 hr plus journey even though we didn’t took our breakfast, the fresh air kept us very active and fresh.
We got down at Wayanad Bus depot around noon and enquired people over there for accommodation. Luckily we got rooms available in a tourist home just opposite to the Wayanad Bus depot. The rooms are good, neat and clean and we were surprised to see the voucher too, It came closely to 300 per day where 3 can stay in the room. And this is the benefit of being a bachelor, don worry about the accommodation and all..you can make it on your way.
The room is good and we got refreshed and we went to a near by restaurant to have our lunch. Our plan is to plan the places that we can visit in remaining days. Finally we ended up with stomach full and empty minds as no one doesn’t had any clue what to do. We came out and picked up a near by tourist guide / travel’s driver for enquiring the spots near by.
That guy was good as being a localite he understood us and he gave us some tips. He said that there is a island near by and it’s a good place see and spend some time. The other place he said to us is “Patchi paathalam”, and it got quiet a long distance too. Now the plan is to visit the near by island spend the time over there and return back to our tourist home for dinner. Since “Patchi paathalam” got some distance and its not possible to reach back the same day we decided to visit it the next day.
We enquired for a “Tavera” for our transportation with the travels guy who gave us the places, but the negotiation didn’t go well. We hired a Jeep (Mahindra 4x4) for 150 Rs/- and also the way is rough and tough and we liked it bit adventures that way. The Jeep driver was able to speak Tamil and he was so kind too. He also guided us towards planning for the “Patchi paadalam” trip. He also gave his mobile number to us so and asked us to call incase if we have stuck some without transportation.
Anyway, we have started our journey to the island from our Wayanad tourist home in a Mahindra 4x4 Jeep. We were excited towards the journey as its going to be a hill ride. Its not exactly that kind of mountain ride, after a few kilometers of bird watching, some good hairpin bends we entered into plains. WOWWWW!!! What a scene. As far as we can see, its only paddy, full green… not getting any words to describe the beauty. There is a small path in the large, wide open paddy field and our Jeep is going through it. The Road is not good, as I said its very rough and tough only. Few a kilometers later, we entered into forest range. Its neat, calm and chill.
We have reached a plain place where we had some petty shops and a forest ranger check post saying beware of wild animals. The Jeep driver dropped us there and gave his number, asked us to call back to get back to our tourist home. We got some snacks in the petty shops near by and started walking towards the so called island through the check post. With in some minutes walk we reached a forest river which was flowing more with red muddy water due to recent heavy rainfall.
A govt. tourism enhancement boat house was there where we can pay and get tickets to cross the river and reach the island.
We got the tickets and waited for the boat. Its really not a boat, it’s a Raft what they supplied to cross the river. They have tied a long, big rope against the river opposite bank tress. We have to hold the rope and pull our raft towards the other bank. (If you leave the rope..then no hope ..You are with the forest river). We crossed the river and reached the island with the help of rope and raft!!successfully..!!! (For now don’t worry about return). Lol
Actually its not a very big island. The forest river is flowing through different branches which made it as a island. It also has small streams running inside it, where we had small beautiful wooden bridges to cross it. It also had Bamboo houses , small bamboo towers and teak, Oak park setups describing few landmarks with in a forest. With this kind of setups the Island looks amazingly beautiful and very interesting to roam around and spend time. We guys were jumping here and there, running, chasing, having photo sessions here and there.. basically lots of fun.
We walked quite a long distance in the island and reached the other bank of it. We had the same rope and raft setup so that we can cross to the opposite side. The other side seems to be even more beautiful with a large valley one side and paddy fields on plain.
Much relaxed and excited it took more time for us to come out from the place.It was a nice place to spend time. We came back to our tourist home with some memorable moments and pics.
Thanks to the jeep wala who came back for us and picked up from there on a telephone call. And now we have plenty of time to plan for tomorrows trip.
