These days we travel at the spur of the moment. One such
travel was to Thekkady and Munnar at Kerala. We got our Beast (vehicle)
cleaned, and took him out for a spin; he loves to travel! Our route from
Bangalore was: Bangalore > Hosur > Krishnagiri > Salem > Dindigul
> Theni > deviation to Thekkady. The direction map is available on Google
Maps. This trip was for five days; first stop Thekkady, and second stop Munnar.
With a promise to return to this place, we drove out of
Munnar; took the Bodi route to reach Theni, and then retraced our journey to
Bangalore. The drive down the hill was on bad roads; there must have been
landslides earlier and the government seems to be widening the ghat roads.
Hardly was there any traffic on that road. It's so much better to be away from
the crowded roads.
The roads were peaceful because we travelled on a working
day. We stopped at Adiyar Anand Bhavan (AAB) for breakfast, and drove nonstop
till we reached Thekkady. The weather was humid till we reached the hill and
forest range. Trees had bloomed pretty flowers, and that attracted birds and
small animals. Who doesn't like the spring season?
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| Waterfalls, bamboo, and different trees |
Thekkady is filled with resorts and hotels of all kinds.
Ensure that you book accommodation well in advance. You can find spice shops,
massage centres, handicraft stores, and tours agencies. Don't get scammed;
check details about anything and everything before availing services. The place
has Periyar Tiger reserve, Periyar lake, Gavi forest reserve, and many more
tourist stops. On the day we arrived, we familiarized ourselves with the place.
We walked a lot, sighted lovely birds, a family of wild boars, langoors, and malabar squirrel. At evening, we saw Kathakali and Kalaripayattu
shows. Kathakali is a form of dance; the two performers were wonderful.
Kalaripayattu is ancient martial arts of Kerala; Rashid and his team were
excellent. We relished Kerala cuisine.
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| Kalaripayattu weapons and artist performing with fire, and Kathakali performance |
The next day, we decided to visit the Gavi forest reserve.
The jeep arrived at 5.30 am, we hopped on to it, and set to gamble our luck to
see wild animals. We saw the dawn break on a super cold morning. The reserve
opens by 6.00 or 6.30 am for visitors. At the check post, we paid entry fees,
and waited in queue (along with 6-7 jeeps) to enter the reserve. Remember that
there are no toilets anywhere in that area; you'll have to surrender to Nature.
At last, the gate opened. The vehicles adhered to the speed
limit (say of 30kms/hr). Our heads would turn all over to sight an animal.
Slightest sound, say falling of a dried
leaf, we would get eager, and assume that some animal must be moving. After a
while, you'll realize that the vehicle noise might have forced the wild animals
to go deeper in to the forest. Or that we weren't lucky to spot animals.
However, the forest itself looked beautiful, with trees and
grassland. We heard calls of birds but couldn't stop to get a glimpse of the
birds. We aren't supposed to get down from the jeeps at the reserve. At one
point, we saw all jeeps parked, and people looking down the valley and clicking
photos. We dashed out of the jeep, and looked. And looked. Not at the elephants
because there were none; but at the beautiful landscape. Stunning!
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| Glimpse of Gavi |
Our drive continued till we reached Gavi reserve. The forest
department had organized breakfast for the tourists. Neat toilets and washrooms
were available. The lake looked inviting. The flowers at the garden looked
pretty. We trekked a little on our own before breakfast; saw langoors and
birds. We had an option of trekking inside the jungle for 1 hour, 2 hours, or 3
hours; we opted for 3 hours. We were assigned a guide of some sorts to
accompany us during the trek. We began our trek puffing and panting. Leeches
entered our shoes and socks; it was their breakfast time too! Two foreigners,
who had opted for similar trek option, offered us a band-aid; that was cute.
During our trek, the guide gave no commentary about flora
and fauna. It was just about searching for wild life (without luck). Because we love
the trees, we enjoyed our trek. Each tree is different. We found litter of
civet cat and of elephants. My husband also spotted a deer. We saw remains of
wild jackfruits that monkeys and langoors had eaten. We saw tiny insects, which
I can't identify. We admired wild flowers. We heard calls of birds, and of
hornbills fighting. The colours of the forest were absolutely brilliant. By the
time we completed our trek, our stomachs were growling. The forest department
has lunch spread out for us; decent spread of dishes. We had options to row a
boat and visit spice garden; we dropped both options and returned to Thekkady.
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| Wild board, nest of wild ants, spider's web, langoor, deer, and squirrel |
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| Yet another glimpse of Gavi |
The next day we headed towards Munnar. We took the
Thekkady-Anavilasam road. The journey was pleasant. Spice gardens and estates
filled the area. We checked in to a resort at Munnar and explored the tea
estate. Because we had already visited Munnar and seen the tourist spots, we
decided to chill at the resort and visit the neighbouring resorts. The resorts
try to sell all types of sight-seeing plans; evaluate before falling for the tours
plans.
When the tourist crowd heads out for sight-seeing tours,
there is peace at the resort and surrounding areas. We took our camera, wore
our shoes, and walked. How much we have walked we don't know; but the walks
were amazing! The tea estates are primarily owned by TATA enterprise; you need
permission to enter the estates; however, you can walk on the public roads that
form a border to the estates. We met natives, spoke to them, sat on cement
benches looking at the estates, and clicked photos. Yes, we sighted several
birds during our self-created bird-watching session. Our lunch was excellent.
We met some interesting people who knew to converse light. We were thoroughly
rejuvenated. Tranquillity at its best! |
| Tea estates at Munnar |
Bangalore welcomed us with slow-moving traffic and honking
noise. We woke up to reality - Holiday was over! We smiled thinking about how
much our pets would have missed us. They would want our complete attention the
minute we stepped in to the house. We had gifts - spices, tea, chocolates,
sweets, and banana chips - for our family and friends members; would be nice to
see a
smile on their faces. That's fun too.
Joining Photo Theme for Thursday - Landscape.
smile on their faces. That's fun too.
Joining Photo Theme for Thursday - Landscape.
Regards,
Asha
Asha
