Wayanad On Bikes

We are a gang of 6 bikers who have been going on a number of trips to quite some places in and around Mysore. We have already been to Coorg, Gopalaswami Betta, Ooty, and Seethanadi (White Water Rafting) near Mangalore on our bikes and when we suggested Wayanad for our next trip, we had quite some people who got interested. After a lot of planning we had 10 guys,

1. Girish Krishnamurthy (captain of our team)
2. Prem Krishnan Narayan (organizer)
3. Vinayak Kapoor
4. Bhupinder Singh Chawla
5. Nagayya Guddadmath
6. Vebhore Garg
7. Gautam Chawla
8. Abhishek S Kulkarni
9. Abhijit Burnwal and
10. Justin Paul, that’s me

to chill out @ Wayanad.

We started off at about 9:00 AM on Saturday through our favorite Mysore-Gundulpet road to reach Sulthan Bathery at about 11:30 AM. This route has become our favorite since the roads are pretty smooth and you feel like you are gliding on it. There were moments when we were struggling to keep our speeds on our Pulsar’s and Apache’s when Girish would, effortlessly, glide past us on his Bullet Thunderbird; we will always envy him for that.

It was when we reached the Karnataka-Kerala border that we realized that the best is yet to come. The roads through the National Forests of Bandipur and Muthunga were totally mesmerizing. We could not control us from losing control and hitting the top gears. Talking about speeds, I must warn you that you should not ride at high speeds because of the high risks of accidents. We too were pretty cautious with our Helmets properly strapped on; we all have ridden a bike for more than 7 years but still you always have to be a little bit more cautious. I had never seen so much green in my life. Everywhere, it was green and then it started drizzling a bit and we thought we were in paradise.

Once, we reached Wayanad, we had our plans sorted out and we moved over to the Edakkal Caves. These caves are called Edakkal because they have been formed of a huge stone suspended between 2 stones. You can see pictures engraved on the stones that are supposed to be from the Neolithic age. But the actual thrill came when we climbed up the huge hill that is part of the caves. The hill was high; too high (and I am not joking), we were gasping for breath when we reached the top.

Our sweat paid off when we reached the top. The scenery from the top is breath-taking. It is said that you can see the borders of the three states from the hill top.

After trekking our way down from the mountain, we went to the cottage that was booked for us at a place called Valley View, Meppadi. The road to our cottage was filled with tea estates that shone in the mist caused by the light drizzle and we could only think that, yes, this is GOD’S OWN COUNTRY. However, we were in for one more shock. I must say that it was a shock; we could never have imagined that such a place could exist.

Our cottage was perched on top of a hill, with a huge mountain directly in from of us and a deep gorge in between with a river flowing through it. There was mist; a lot of it, which was hiding the mountain for a few seconds and then clearing off for a while. Once the mist cleared, we could see a waterfall and the dense vegetation on that mountain. A truly awesome view, we will not be able to forget that place for quite some time.

The next day, we had a visit to a falls, Kanthampara falls, nearby. We could not venture into the waters since it was slippery and the water rapids were too fast. All we could is enjoy the view and then it was time for us to head back to Mysore.

I had heard quite a few people telling me that Kerala is awesome, but it was only after we had out hang out in Wayanad that I realized how true that was. The scenic beauty of all the places leaves a lasting impression. You will want to return back and spend some more time there; but, time is a luxury that people like us never enjoy. All I can say for sure is that Kerala is “GOD’S OWN COUNTRY”.

To view the photos of the trip, please click here.