Travel Adventures: Wayanad (Part 2)

After the missed baby elephant sighting, during our trip to Thirunelly temple, we were eagerly (if warily) on the lookout for elephants on the drive into Muthanga Sanctuary. We saw common monkeys, white monkeys, black monkeys, deer, Malabar giant squirrels and wild boar. Nary a glimpse of an elephant.

Subair, our driver, took this rather personally. He has not failed to sight an elephant on one of his trips to the sanctuary. This failure was unacceptable. He tried everything, from scrutinising every movement deep in the forest (we saw a peacock, or at least its departing backside!), and going slow at their favourite haunts to actually halting the jeep to wait for a glimpse  of the animal (a risky proposition in the forest. Rumour was that a man trying to photograph a jumbo ventured a little too deep into the forest and was mauled by a tiger and this was supposed to have happened a few days ago, a few metres from where we were trying to spot giant squirrels!). In hindsight, over multiple journeys I’ve noticed a pattern, there always seems to be a tiger attack a few metres away, just a few days ago, whichever part of the country we happen to be in!

Subair’s desperation was also caused by the fact that except me, no one had spotted the young elephant the previous day. This, despite the fact that it had been mere metres away from the jeep (prompting Subair, not the elephant, to flee which led to the missed opportunity for the rest of the family. Can’t blame him. Wouldn’t want a scared jumbo or its angry mother after us!)

Anyway, this was the last leg of our trip. We had started the day with a visit to Kanthampara Waterfalls, a visual treat with bird calls abounding (though they all preferred to remain anonymous!). It was fun going down the water-beaten rocks (Mom made it too!). I kept telling myself ‘I’m a goat!’ as I laboriously made my way after Subair who clambered up and down like the herbivore. He kept taunting us about our ‘fabulous’ balance and general cowardice (my cowardice actually ;)).

We hardly felt like leaving the place but mother hen was clucking (sorry Dad! ;)). So, off went we to Edakkal Caves. (After seeing our faltering attempts at slithering down the rocks Subair shot down our plan of going to Meenmutty Falls. It only happens to be a three-tiered waterfall, dubbed ‘a very tough trek’ :P).

Anyway, Edakkal… wow! I’ve never ever climbed and slithered up and down rocks like I did that day! Scary? That’s not the word! The ‘I’m a goat’ mantra came back along with ‘I don’t like this!’ (Hate going down any place. Going up is fine, don’t ask me why!) We clambered up steep rocks on legs trembling with strain. A slight slip and down we would have gone to where we could see buses plying on roads, like toys!

Mom bravely made her way to mid-point but the way further was tough even for us, so no way were we taking Mom along. She was tired too. She didn’t argue at all (this after childhood tales of running like a goat over rocks to her school 5 km away!). Dad was a trooper. Despite his asthma, diabetes and arthritis he gamely plodded on.

All that climbing led us to an ancient naturally-made gigantic crevice in the rocks, formed by an earthquake. ‘Edakkal’ is literally a mammoth rock ‘kal’ (roughly as tall as a three-storey building) stuck between ‘eda’ two rocks, right over our heads! The modern discovery of the area was in 1890 by a Britisher, Fred Fawcett. It has writing in what we were told was Tamil-Brahmi script (barely legible) which basically said ‘some king who killed a tiger (a great feat for those times) was here’.

Crude hieroglyph-like carvings (I now know as petroglyphs: basically rocks engravings) of women, deer and wheels could also be discerned. Some of these date back 7,000-8,000 years according to Wikipedia depicting elephants, queens, tools, etc, with a possible link to the Indus Valley Civilization. While others are from 3rd-4th century BCE.

The view from the top was panoramic. You could see the entire countryside as well as ‘phantom rock’ (a rock balanced on the very tip of another rock) in the distance. The exercise was so tiring, I expected every bone, muscle, hair and nail to ache (I only slightly exaggerate).

Last part, coming soon!

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The gigantic rock stuck between two rocks 'edakkal' at the Edakkal Caves in Wayanad, Kerala, India. Image Courtesy: Abin jv at Malayalam Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons