God's Own Country, Kerala (Nov 2013)

As against the regular campings which I do in national forests, this Diwali, we decided to have a family trip to one of the most beautiful states of India. Thanking Kumar H V and CHD, I had done all my necessary hotel bookings on the day prior to the travel. I was nervous and excited about the journey as it was the longest car journey that I ever had. My last longest journey by car was less than 2/3rd of this. Also after reading blogs and photos of the friends who had been to Kerala, I was very much anxious to witness and capture the emerald beauty of the nature.

The overall plan was ...

Travel Plan

Day 1 - On 31st October at 4AM sharp we started our journey as per the routes planned by Kumar HV. I started the journey using the older Katraj – Satara road as I stay close to it. The condition of the road till the end of Katraj ghat is very bad. To my surprise before reaching the Katraj ghat, I saw a porcupine running along the road just before the Katraj tunnel. This was rare sighting for me just within 15 minutes from start of my journey. This is the first time I have seen this animal in open. On first day, the plan was to reach Krishnagiri, TN. Its about 950Km from Pune. The target was steep. But NH-4 was too good and it never felt as burden till I exited the Nice Road of Bangalore. With couple of Petrol halts and one Food halt we reached Bangalore at 4.00PM. The road is Makkhan post Kagal. There are generally very less number of vehicles on the roads post Kagal till Tumkur. No long queues on the Tolls. After Tumkur, the Bangalore traffic starts, but still you can drive at 100 kmph. Nice road is the outer ring road for Bangalore. Its worth to pay the toll of Rs. 155 on there as you can bypass the pathetic traffic conditions of Bangalore. The Nice road is awesome. I can compare it with some of the freeways of Britain / USA. Still it has lot of traffic, but it was moving. When I took E City exit towards Hosur, I had to face the heavy traffic of Bangalore.

I was not tired at all till I reach here. I even had a call with Kumar to discuss if I can go further to Krishnagiri as soon as I hit the Nice road. He suggested me 'Salem'. But the Bangalore traffic near Hosur made me standstill for long time. I almost lost an hour + time in there. I think, most of the folks from TN who work in Bangalore, were traveling to their natives for Diwali vacation. Finally we rolled-back our decision about Salem and halted at Krishnagiri as planned. I checked in at 7 PM and called off that day with @950km on the trip meter..

Day 2 we packed up breakfast and started early as per the advice from all the experienced folks. We crossed Dindigul and took exit for Sembatti, Vathalagundu, Periakulam, Theni. The roads post the Dindigul exit is not in well condition. I had to come below 50kmph. Also lot many villages alongside the road and the colorful buses of Kerala / Tamilnadu were nightmare. 

Highway Passes through Villages

Most awesome drivers in Lungi were the folks on TVS 50. They are next best to some of the Pune drivers who can take sharp turns without any notice. In Pune, I had seen similar drivers on Scooty / Activa taking sharp turns by looking at the sales board on the shop, Chitale Mithai shop or even fresh green vegetables :). Don't mind, I own Activa. God bless all such drivers!! Good that I was used to these driving styles from my hometown! At 2 o’clock, I got first ever surprise when the road to Munnar from there was closed. The folks on the check post were not knowing Hindi and English. But their communication was good enough to tell me that the road is blocked till 5PM. Again I dialed Kumar to tell about the situation. He suggested me a different road which I followed. I came back till Theni and took Cambum, Nedumkandam, Poopara, Periakanal and Munnar. Till Cambum, the road condition is not good. Thereafter, its ghat road and there is not much traffic except the Jeep drivers. Next time when you travel, please make sure that road from Theni is open. Below is a little map for your help..

Dindigul - Munnar

As soon as you reach near Munnar, you get to see the Tea plantation and lush green surrounding.

Tea

The moment I reached Munnar, I took multiple stops and photos on the way to capture the scenic beauty. The place is so clean and lush green that it was just too difficult for me to rush to hotel without any halts. The journey post Nedumkandam to Munnar was awesome. I reached hotel when it was almost dark. We then planned for the next day.

Day 3 - The main thing which was high on my list was the Eravikulam National Park. The unique shola grassland ecosystem of the western ghats where we could spot the Niligiri thar. We wanted to visit this place as early as we could to avoid the rush. Reached there early in the morning post breakfast. There are forest buses which take you to the next check post called Rajamala. From there we have to trek for 1-2 kms. The road gives you glimpse of the lovely Western Ghats. You could touch the clouds on the way. The clean and cool atmosphere, green surroundings, tall cloud cladded mountains, small water streams need no more explanation to the phrase “Kerala, Gods’s own Country”.

Good Morning Munnar

Rocky Mountains

Rajmala

Habitat for Nilgiri Thar

We were fortunate to even spot herd of Niligiri Thars which was my first ever sighting. The beautiful animals are capable of walking / climbing up and down through the rocky patches. We could not see them doing any of these activities though. But their sight while grazing on the grassland was pleasing!!

Nilgiri Thar

Nilgiri Thar

Also on the way there were many beautiful and rare species of herbs and shrubs. I tried to capture few of the rare flowers.

ID?

ID?

ID?

ID?

ID?

Cynotis Tuberosa / आभाळी

ID?

While coming back from the Eravikulam, my car’s front tyre showed low air pressure. I was equipped with the puncture kit. But I did not find the puncture point. When I started feeling the drift, I decided to take the car on the jack. I changed the wheel and went back to the town to get it repaired. This costed me 1 hour :( . On the same day decided to buy following 2 things before my next long trip – Hydraulic Jack and the Tyre inflator :)

Puncture :(

Due to this we skipped the plan to visit the Tata Tea factory. We had a lunch in one of the nearby restaurants and decided to cover the rest of the points around Munnar. We saw Echo point, Cattle Farm, Mattupetty Dam and Top Station. More than the destination, this road is awesome. On Top station as we reached, it was totally covered with Fog / clouds. I was driving through the clouds. We could not see much from the Top station but did not regret reaching there at all!!

Emerald Beauty

Munnar roads

What's your height

Some Fall Colors

On the top of Mattupetty Dam

Mattupetty Dam

Tea Estate

Green All Around

While coming back, I saw a guard continuously staring at the hill. If he would have been a tourist, I could have ignored him. But I thought, he must be seeing something unusual. I slowed down my car and tried to see in the direction he was looking. I could not see anything. So I decided to pull out my car on the roadside and walked out. To my surprise there were 3 -4 elephants grazing on the grass on the small hillock on my right. That was dream come true. We stopped there for almost 30 minutes to see them grazing along.. Due to me and my camera, many of the tourist started stopping on the road and then I decided to see-off the elephants. 

Wild Elephant

Wild Elephant

It was already 4.30PM when we returned in Munnar. The weather was overcast and there were some lightnings as well. So we thought of heading back to hotel. But saw a board of Kathakalli cultural program on the road. Checked the clock and it was just started at 5PM and we were just 5 minutes late. We ran to the counter and purchased the tickets. It was awesome program. A new experience to all of us!! 

Kathakali

So with immense beauty of nature, wild animals and the cultural program we wrapped up the Munnar trip and headed back to hotel. To all of us, Munnar was the most beautiful place in the Kerala Trip.

Day 4 – We made this as a practice to check out earlier in morning and reach the destination earlier. This principal was followed throughout the trip. We packed the breakfast, had tea and left Munnar at 7 AM. Munnar is even fresher in the morning. While leaving Munnar also we took multiple stops to capture the greenery with layers of fog.

We were on the way to Periyar / Thekadi. The road till Nedumkandam was kind of known to me. There is a big waterfall on the way. Thereafter we took Puliyanmala, Kumili and Thekadi road. 

Goodbye Munnar

Fog playing with the Green!

These views don't allow me to drive..

With Sunlight

Waterfall while saying goodbye to Munnar

Green Landscape

Remote island

The road till Kumili is very scenic. In one of the patches there was a huge fog and it was tough to see beyond 50 meters. On the way we saw many birds like Emerald Dove, Spotted Dove, Racket Tailed Drongo, Flameback Woodpecker, Roufous treepie, Rock Thrush etc. No pictures :( as I could not handle 2 machines (SX4 and Canon) at the same time ;)

Thick Fog

We reached Periyar at 11. We had booked Periyar House. This place is inside the national park. If you are staying outside, you need to queue up to enter the gate and then you have to purchase the boat ride tickets. My main intention here was the boat ride only. So we did not target any other activities like Elephant ride etc. As we crossed the gate, we were welcomed by the Sambar deers. It was so close that I could capture it in my wide angle lens (18-55). I was excited to see the deer so close. 

Periya Gate

Sambar Deer welcoming us!

There are lot many bonnet macaques in this region. Instructions are written on the hotel windows and doors to keep those closed all the time. These naughty monkeys, who can steal the food from your hand, bags and even from your rooms. Also they come in the windows and try to see if you have any food stuff near the window or anyone interested in feeding them. Here, my kids had some knowledge sharing sessions with them across the window of our room :). 

Bilateral Talks!

I even had seen the monkeys stilling the food stuff from many of the folks. As they come near, many folks throw out the food stuff and try to stay away from them. But now these creatures are so fond of the human food that, I have captured one such Pepsi lover on the tree. thanks God that their brains are not yet developed to open the bottle cap.

Yehi hai Right Choice Baby!!

We had some rest and head out for restaurant as the restaurant inside was not having any seafood available. When we came back inside the jungle gate, I saw the Nilgiri langur for the first time in wild.

We have booked the boat ride at 3.30PM, which is the last one. We enjoyed the afternoon by having a small walk to the backyard of the hotel, where there is a water body behind the thick forest. The hotel was average and maintained by KTDC, the location and the surrounding was awesome.

At 3.30PM, We went for the Boat ride. There are 4 boats of different sizes start from here. I found those overcrowded and bit noisy if you want to see the wild life. But at the start point itself we could see a large sized herd of Sambar deer, Indian Gaur and Elephants grazing across the water body.

Elephant Herd

More Harbivora

Boat Ride!

The boat ride in the jungle was also a nice experience. This boat ride is on the backwaters of the Periyar dam. This dam was built long back by British. On both sides of the water, there is thick forest and is home for many wild animals including tigers and leopards. The sighting of the carnivorous animals is very rare though. The boat guide has seen the tiger way back in September. We saw Wild boars, Turtles, Monitor Lizard and more deer in this journey. We even saw birds like grey heron, common kingfisher, White breasted kingfisher, Grey and White Wagtails, Large Cormorant nesting etc on the way. The view from the boat was very fascinating. But the icing on the cake was the thunderstorm experience in water. The boats are equipped to prevent you from getting wet. The side curtains restricted our view by keeping us dry. But soon in 15 mins the rains were off and the surrounding became more clean and greener.

Classic View

Nature at its best!

Cormorant Nesting

Thunderstorms at Periyar

Day 5- We said good bye to Periyar and started for Allepy in the morning. I took the road as Kumili, Parunthampara, Kuttikanam, Kanjirapalli, Changanaserry, Alapuzha Boat Jetty. The road condition is OK. On this road, I had my first ever meeting with the Kerala RTO. They had their white Innova parked on left side and asked me to stop. I had all required documents with me, so was very confident. But they told me that I was over speeding. As usual, I told them that I was at 40kmpl ;). Then he showed me the person standing on the other side of the road had a speed gun installed on a tripod and was taking reading of all the vehicles. I had seen the board with the road speed of 30 on that road. I asked him what was my speed. He told me 75kmph. Then I asked him what is the speed limit even though I had read it as 30. And to my surprise he told me 70. It was tough to negotiate with the officer who was not very conversant with Hindi and Marathi. So I paid the charges of 400 bucks and kept my car at exactly 70km till I reach Allepy. But I did not see any other Police vehicle till the end of my journey. I took a shopping halt at Changanaserry to pickup lot of banana chips which we actually finished before our return journey :)

We reached hotel after crossing few of the flyovers to see the back waters and some house boats. We reached hotel, took some rest, lunch and then headed to the Jetty from where we took 2 hours of the backwater ride in the Allepy. The boat driver was very kind and had offered my kids to drive the boat. My son did not came out of the driving cabin for more than 1 hr, as he was just enjoying driving the boat. The back water is the river water and meets the Arabian sea. We could see 4 districts of Kerala from the back waters. We had also seen the place where the Nehru snake boat completion gets held every years. Even saw one of the practice snake boats along the journey. People leaving across the canal on back water have built a small ramp and they pump out the water from one side to the canal. That way one side of the water has a level below sea level. There the farmers do rice farming. This place is called as a rice bowl of India and is very famous as that’s the only place where the farming is done below sea level. We got to see the awesome beauty of nature and huge water fronts from the nice cozy boat. By the time we returned, sun was setting and I could capture some of the skyscapes in different colors. From the boat we had seen different birds like pond heron, cormorants, drongo, barbets, flame back woodpecker and egrets. Many people prefer to stay on the house boat. I think you have a good group of 2-3 families, it would be most enjoyable.

Skillful Driver!

Backwaters

Houseboat

Reflections

Rice Bowl of India

Sun sets at Allepy

Sun sets at Allepy

Day 6 -The plan from here was not typical. We wanted to head north to see the Ahirapalli Waterfall. From the images I had seen on the net were forced me to add it in my plan. The road I took to reach here was Alapuzha, Kochi BP, Ernakulam - Vytilla, Chalakudy, Athirapalli Waterfall. Again the road condition to reach here is nice. No hurdles. There is check post before the falls and you have to pay the entry fee for Waterfall entry. A beautiful gate is built of Bamboo near the entrance. The small walk of 10 minutes take you to the place from where you can see the fall from the top. This is more of a side view of the fall and does not give you the real size of the fall. Still the noise it creates can you some idea.. 

Athirapalli

But the real beauty of this massive waterfall can be seen from its bottom. We had to do a climb down the hill to reach to the lower level. From this point you could see the massive size of the fall. You could actually see 3 falls in this season. I think, in Monsoon, this would doubled in size where these 3 falls swells to make it one single huge fall. As you reach down there the small sparkling of the waterfall makes you wet as you go near to it. I think this is one of the biggest waterfalls I have seen in India. As I went close to the fall, my camera started getting wet, so I have to hide it and enjoy the fall. this is the last record shot I took before packing it in my backpack..

Athirapalli Waterfall

Here as well there is lot of nuisance of these monkeys. Our ice cream candies were pulled out by few monkeys, before we could finish those. I found one board called Echo Shop guarded by these Echo Agent :)

Really Eco

Our destination for that night was Valaparai, TN. This was the last point where we should have had our lunch. But we said, lets go ahead and see if we find the food elsewhere. We were wrong, as there are no good hotels on the road and the road goes through thick forest. Thanks to the banana chips which we managed to buy while leaving from Alleppy and some Diwali sweets that my wife had made and packed for this trip. Drive is just awesome on these roads. I enjoyed driving slowly enjoying the scenic beauty along the road.

Roadside

Natural Tunnel

On the way, I had spotted the stork billed Kingfisher across the road. Then I pulled off from the road and took changed the lens on my camera (100-400) to take the shot of this lovely bird. It was far and the overcast weather, did not give me good photos.

Stork Billed Kingfisher

Also on the way, we got to see many Nilgiri Langoors. But these are bit shy. Still I got to catch this fellow on my camera. 

Nilgiri Langur

We reached Valaparai in the evening. We stayed in the one of the home stay, which had a great view. Valaparai is just like Munnar. It had lot of Tea estates and not many tourist. I love such virgin places where there are less of crowd and more of nature. Even the view from my room was amazing..

Valparai

Day 7 - In the morning, we wake up with the chirp of many birds. I got to see the spotted dove on the roof of the neighboring building roof.

Spotted Dove

In the morning we started towards our next destination. It was Wayanad - Sulthan Bathery. In last 2 destinations, its more of the road to the destination than the destination itself. It was again very scenic drive passing through thick foliage. Even spotted the elephant dungs at various places on the road. The route take for this journey was , Pollachi, Palakkad, Mannarkkad, Perinthalmanna, Nilambur, Nadugani, Cherambadi, Vythiri. Other route goes via Ooty. But we had been to Ooty earlier, so decide to go via Nilambur.

Classic Roads of Kerala

But were not very lucky to spot any wild life around. On the road spotted many rubber and palm trees. Palm oil is extracted from the seeds of these palm fruits.

Palm Oil Seed

Day 8 - Wayanad is another nice spot with less number tourists. It had many of the attractions. Edakkal caves was one of the things that we wanted to visit. But the overall journey was taking a toll on the kids. So we skipped the attractions and decided to have only one jungle ride the next day morning. It was the jeep drive through the Muthanga range. It was a 1 hour drive on the bumpy road where none other vehicle than Mahindra jeep can travel. The road was so uneven that I decide to give the rest to my camera. Couple of photographs clicked there are as follows

Wayanad

Tuskar but Tame :(

Spotted Deer

Day 9 - In the afternoon, we discussed about the things to do hereon. We decided that we should now head back. So in the afternoon, post lunch we started our journey back. The planned destination was Hubli. the road take was Manathavady, Kutta, Nagahole, Hunsur, Mysore BP Ring Road, Bellur Cross, Huliyar, Davangere, Haveri, Hubli

We traveled through the Nagarhole National Reserve to Coorg / Mysoor. The place is full of wild life, but could not spot any creatures as it was hot afternoon there. We tried to stop at places to hear the sounds, but the jungle was quiet.

We stopped at Mysore at around 4PM and had lunch. The road till NH4 has lot many speed breakers. Its tough to deal with those in the dark. I could have taken the Bangalore Nice road to hit NH-4. That would have saved my time. But due to the prior experience of Bangalore traffic, I decide against it. I reached Hubli at 12 in night.

Day 10 - In morning we had a grate South Indian breakfast. I think this quality of South Indian food is not available anywhere else. We had multiple dishes of Medu Wada, Paper Dosa, Puri bhaji. After visiting one of our family friends in Hubli, we left Hubli at 12 noon. We stopped at Kolhapur to have a lunch and then left for our final sprint to Pune.

Paper Dosa

From Kolhapur to Pune driving in a daytime is like a playing a cars game on computer. All types of crazy drivers drive on this road. I am not sure what happens to all the drivers as they cross Satara. Most of these drivers drive as if they are racing against Shumi. They can overtake you in the queue at toll gate. You find all those multitasking drivers who feel they can talk on mobile, text friends, listen to loud music, and even smooching and boozing all at 80+ kmph. I can understand some of this behavior as the road from Mahabaleshwar (the place famous for bachelor parties as well as recommended for your 3rd / 4th / later honeymoons) meets NH4 here and all those who don't want to come out of *THAT* mood remain in that mood till they reach Pune ;) . Saving myself from all such craziness, and waiting for 20 minutes each at 2 big toll gates, I reached home by 8 PM. 

And to my surprise, the trip meter at my parking slot showed a magic figure. May be my car also got to know that it was the trip to the "GOD'S OWN COUNTRY"..

3333.3

Thanks for all of those who reached till here..