Travel Adventures: Wayanad (Part 3)

That day, the original plan was to go to Karapuzha Dam then to Amalaveyil Farm, then Soochipara Waterfalls and last head to Pookode Lake. Sappu and I wanted to go back to Kuruvadweep aka Kuruva Island for some more rafting but had decided to sacrifice it (grudgingly) so that mom could go to the Farm (since mom loves gardening).

But (heehee) after we went to Karapuzha (just about okay after all the sightseeing we’d done the previous days) when we proceeded to the Farm, it was… closed! It was Good Friday. A holiday! Yoohoo! So, off we went to Kuruva!

Frankly… I was a little apprehensive (places rarely match up to our charmed memories of them, on a second visit) and when we reached there it seemed like every other person on Earth had landed there (it WAS Easter weekend!). But fortunately, it being lunchtime by the time we reached, many were returning after a morning visit. So we got our boat and off we went. Headed straight to the rafting area… EAGERLY. Had to work hard to persuade Dad to join us. His kneejerk reaction is ‘no’ to any suggestion with the slightest shade of adventure (curious, considering all the adventures he had in his childhood which we didn’t know at the time!). Anyway, the experience was… DIVINE!

Floating slowly and silently over the nearly-still waters, with branches screening us in green light and water tickling our feet when it washed onto the bamboo raft… ah! The destination was a row of rocks but our rafter/boatman took us farther up. One and a half hour of bliss! He also showed us a tortoise surfacing, briefly. Rafting done, we happily went back to the mainland for lunch. We ate at Ashwathy where we’d had a rice meal on our previous visit (the onion pickle was… yum!).

Then we were racing against time to reach Soochipara before 5. Got there and trekked downhill (stopping for pineapple slices floating in a mixture of vinegar, sugar and green chillies) to see the tiny trickle that was all that remained of the waterfall (it was dry season after all).

On the day we were leaving for home, we were to set off early for Kozhikode station, so that we could get in a visit Pookode Lake at Vythiri (what a lovely place!). It was a picturesque walk through verdant woods with the water to one side, lilies floating pretty. Wished we'd had more time to enjoy it fully.

We picked up some great banana chips on the way. Considering they are fried snacks, there was barely any oil on them, not even when they were kept on tissue paper. Which is why I could earnestly tell my friend, Savio, (on our return) that the chips were fried in water and he bought it! Hee hee! It's true when they say the easiest to dupe is a prankster ;)

P.S. Keralites are developing a liking for bright, garish colours for their houses. It could be, as Sappu said, an attempt to save power at night. You wouldn’t need lights on the road, with those houses standing as beacons!

Note: This is from a trip in 2010. The colour palette seems to have toned down since then. :D

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The Soochipara Waterfall aka the Sentinel Falls in full flow in Wayanad, Kerala, south Image Courtesy: Dumphasizer, CC BY-SA 2.0 httpscreativecommons.orglicensesby-sa2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.