Wayanad- Things to do

I visited Wayanad in the year 2005 and there could be a lot of changes to the tourism of that area now. If I didn't put my experience into words, I wouldn't be doing justice to one of the most beautiful places on earth. The idea to visit Wayanad started because of my search to stay in 'Tree houses'. I could call it my childhood fantasy to live on a Tree house. My web search led me to located Treehouses at Idukki and Wayanad in Kerala, India. We chose to go to Wayanad and booked ourselves for two nights stay at a cottage and one night stay at the Treetop House at the Jungle Park Resort, Vythiri, Wayanad. Nestled amidst the blissfully preserved tropical rain forest, the Tree houses are about 86 feet high.

We alighted at Kozhikode Railway Station and headed towards Wayanad by the Resort's car. We travelled through the town of Kozhikode and then the hairpin roads to Wayanad. The ride to the Resort from Vythiri- NH17 was by an yesteryear Jeep through an unpaved road, giving the path the rustic feel. The wobbling ride was indeed a good shake up!….and we had a good laugh all way through. During the ride through the gradient trails we saw some coffee plants and wild orchids among the tall tropical trees. The stay at the Cottage was an experience, with no neighbours, no phone, no TV, total cut off from the outer world. When night falls all you can hear is the insects chirping and night birds call. Next morning, there was the cool mountain mist cutting the visibility till noon. We spotted the Malabar Giant Squirrel on a tree near our cottage and some beautiful birds.

 During our stay there we had gone for some sightseeings. We visited the Edakkal Caves. It is a prehistoric Neolithic cave with petroglyphs of inhabitants of different eras. Archaeological excavation has unearthed many articles like pottery, stone carvings and even coins used by people of different centuries and these are displayed at the Information Centre. Caves are about 1200 feet above sea level and the etchings and paintings of the caves throw light on the different periods people inhabited the caves. Climbing up the hill along the caves, we could see the three state borders between Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

Wayanad has six main tribes, Mullakurumar, Uralikurumar, Kattunaikan, Paniyas, Adiyas, Kurichiyar. Mullakurumars are better educated among all the tribes and some of them hold government jobs. Some of them have their own land for cultivation and are good hunters too. Uralikurumar are the rarest artisan tribe in Kerala. They are skilled potters, blacksmiths and make baskets and mats with reeds and bamboo. We bought some articles made by them and also the forest flower honey collected by the Taen (Honey) Kurumars. These indigenous people have vast knowledge about nature which we are losing out eventually in the long run. There was an unusual migration of the Coastal Tribes of Nicobar Islands to the nearby hill almost one week before the tsunami struck the Island in the year 2011. There was not a single casualty reported of the tribe during the calamity but there was loss of property and lives of the civilised people in the Island. So is the case in Japan, with the sophisticated Early Earthquake Warning Systems there has been 15883 confirmed deaths, 6145 injured and 2667 people missing. Sometimes, I wonder, are these studies of modern science taking us anywhere!

Our next visit was to the Thirunelli Temple which is more than 3000 years old and situated on the banks of Papanashini River. There is literary evidence that Thirunelli was an important town and pilgrim centre in the South during the reign of Tamil Chera King. This ancient Temple is dedicated to Lord Vishnu and popular for its ritual offering for the ancestors. The belief goes that by bathing in the Papanashini River our sins (read as diseases) are cleansed. It is believed to be the Bacteriophage present in the river that account for its antibacterial nature. On the day of our visit there was an offering of food in the temple and we had it along with many Paniya tribes who are coffee plantation labourers. Visit to the Muthanga Wildlife Sanctuary was a wonderful experience. We saw a herd of elephants protectively helping the calves to cross the road in the sanctuary. On the way back we spotted two wild lone elephants on the roadside. They are supposedly more violent in nature. 

Elephants at Sanctuary

Our last day stay was at the Treetop House. To go up to the Tree House we are to climb on to a bird cage like structure and when the big plastic bag with water is completely filled up on top, it comes down and we go up, similarly when the water bag is empty the bag goes up and we come down along the pulley, an indigenous cane lift working with a unique counter weight of water. The water filled in the bag is from the natural streams flowing down the hills which is channelled through bamboo pipes to the bag. The entire resort is Eco friendly and made of locally available materials. They lit kerosene lamps at night and there is a natural pool area where water is collected from the meandering stream. We had two bedroom house with balcony overlooking the canopies of the thick tropical forest. With all facilities of a modern house, Tree house is built with bamboos, reeds and coir. House is covered with nets to avoid uninvited inhabitants of the tree to enter the house, especially monkeys. Of course, not forgetting the fact that it is we, the humans, who are the intruders in their space. Food is not served at the treetop house, so after an early dinner we set off to sleep on our tree house. It was an awesome experience and a fantasy come true. If there is one place I would like to revisit, it would definitely be this tranquil lush tropical forest at Vythiri.