Way Up To Wayanad

For more pictures, see the album.

From Cochin, we hit the road up to Wayanad in the western Ghats. It was only 280km away, but took us 10 hours to get there because of traffic, speed bumps and other shenanigans that fall under the "incredible India" category.

In the morning after the drive, we met with Sabu, our guide for the next couple of days. He's primarily a farmer, who farms his family's spice plantation, while one the side he guides people around the area. He's incredibly knowledgeable about the region and knows some great little gems. On our first day with him, we started a little later since it was New Years day. We started by going to see some geoglyphs made a few thousand years ago in a cave. They were scratched into the sandstone walls with different groups using the cave over time. As a result, new people would overwrite some of the older carvings and you end up with a sequence of carving overlaid on each other.

After the geoglyphs we stopped for a quick walk in a tea plantation. The tea is gorgeous and grown in the side of the hills. The individual bushes can be over 100 years old, but they are pruned to keep them manageable since only the new growth leaves are used for making tea. The result is a chetah-like pattern of topiaries tea buses blanked the hillside. Interspersed between the tea bushes are some silver oaks that provide a little bit of shade because apparently the tea does better when there is some shade. Unfortunately, the majority of the tea in the area is turned into dust. That's literally what it's called: "tea dust". Then it is used the Indian/British way, namely over-steep it, dump in a half a cup of milk and a wad of sugar until it's barely discernible as tea.

After checking out the tea, we had lunch at a little restaurant in a side village that Sabu knew about. The four of us (Catherine, Sabu, our driver and I) had a filling, tasty thali meal with many sides that cost less that 200 rupees (about $3). Even the touristy places are cheap, but when you look at normal places to eat, they are downright criminally cheap.

After lunch, we went for a hike almost through the jungle. Hiking is rare in India partially because the jungle can be relatively dangerous with animals from poisonous snakes to elephants that you don't want to surprise. Also, most Indians just don't seem to think of it as something fun to do. So, it was challenging to get a hike like what we're used to. Sabu did a pretty good job. The normal hike is to go up to the top of the highest peak in the area, however, the park service was only letting people go up half way since some Maoist extremists were sighted in the area. Plus, being New Years, the remaining distance would be quite busy. So Sabu took us to an area right on the edge of the wilderness where we walked along a road that alternately wounds its way between spice plantations and wilderness forest. We got to see a number of the local giant squirrels that have huge tails and hang out in the trees. We also saw a hawk and as it was flying by, the squirrels would scream in order to warn their buddies.

After the hike, we headed back to the hotel, although on the way, we went by our driver's house where we were invited in to meet his family and have some tea. It was a fun and unexpected privilege. His wife is finishing her nursing degree in Bangalore and was home for the holidays while their 5 year old son was playing with the neighbors. We all talked about our lives and the differences between western and indian culture (e.g. arranged marriage)

The next day, we woke up very early to meet Sabu at 5am for a jeep safari. Animals are most active around dusk and dawn and the sanctuary opens at 7am, so we needed an early start. The back of the jeep has a short ceiling so we spent a lot of time crouching and shivering in the pre-dawn chill, but we started by going along some side roads that were outside the park but that Sabu knew often have wildlife on them. We saw plenty of spotted dear. In the park itself, we saw a wild elephant munching away along with a tribe of monkeys and some birds. After leaving the park, we drove around some more outside and stumbled across a group of elephants making their way down a valley. There was about 8 of them including 2 young ones. It was magical to watch them.

For breakfast, we stopped at a hole in the wall near the park entrance. They only made idly with sambar and chutney. All of which was cooked over an open flame. You pay by the number of Idlis that you eat and it was delicious and cheap. Meal for 4, 120 rupees ($2).

After breakfast, we made a quick stop at a local temple set on a rise with a view of peaks all the way around. It was easy to see why they built a temple there. After that, we went to a small sanctuary composed of a chain of islands in the middle of a river. You take a barge across to one of the main islands and local people often wade int he river so it was a little bit of a madhouse. On the island itself there were a couple of colonies of butterflies. Literally thousands of them twisting through the air in a magical dance. There was also a crocodile basking in the sun. Apparently they don't go after all the people wading.

After the island, we had lunch an amazing lunch at call-ahead restaurant. It's run by this couple who made food once a day and only if you've called ahead to place an order. They go all out. We had a full meal of kerelan rice doused in sambar and served on a banana leaf with a ton of sides including tamarind, ginger chutney, raita, cucumber, pickled beats, caramelized onions, dal, veg curries, dry veg dishes, coconut and cabbage. It was beautiful and delicious. There is no way we would have been able to go to this place if Sabu hadn't taken us there.

After our late lunch, we headed back to the hotel with a couple of stops along the way to pick things up. Our day finished relatively early, but then again, it also started very early.