Kerala is known as God’s own country, wayanad is aptly known as God’s own district.

A mist formation suspended in green valley. The slight drizzle cleaning any dirt on tea plantations. The atmospheric green color appearing a little over saturated. Clouds silhouetted with orange color from sun rise and set. A perfect heavenly setting to relax and enjoy the place unwinding myself.

This was visible after a long journey of about 8 hours which was comfortable in a luxury bus which was to cross 2 forests on way, Bandipur and Muthanga. Our journey started late around 9 am waiting at office from 6:30 am. It was a group of around 30 team members who finally came.

Reaching at around 4pm we quickly freshened up and headed to lunch tables as we were really hungry. In the last outing also, food was one thing we created problems for us. This time was little better as the group was big and we could custom order the buffet layout. A hearty meal and we headed off the unknown areas around Orchard Holiday homes into tea plantations.

Reaching the holiday resort was a mesmerizing experience. On our start from Bangalore at 9 am it was getting hot due to the month of May. On our way to wayanad, we stopped at couple of places where we started sweating. But on reaching wayanad district, it started raining and the mercury levels started falling down. The resort was right behind the Hotel Management college in Lakki ahead of Vythri.

Our bus had to be parked inside the college as the road was not motor-able for the huge bus to traverse that route. We were transferred to multiple smaller version 4 wheel drives along with our luggage. The next 3 km of route was the best of the trip. The road was not tarred making it bumpy. The width was really narrow and maneuvering the vehicle seemed difficult as the driver could not see beyond 5 feet due to misty environment.

The navigation seemed to be difficult as the hairpin bends we not helping in any estimation. Luckily I was not next to driver fearing a pit fall down the valley with tea plantations on all slopes visible around. It took us about 15 minutes to cover the distance and we had a great time.

After having lunch, as we were venturing into the tea plantations, it started raining and I rushed back to resort to protect my camera. With no camera now, along with another team member I started heading in the opposite direction to tea plantations now. We kept walking and further walking. There was a place where we encountered a locked barricade and ignored it. It was already 6 pm and the valley was making the area dark faster. We then decided to head back as no human traces were seen on way and the forest was becoming dense. The rain could have led to insects and worms come out on the surface.

We then headed to our rooms relaxing before the bonfire party time which lasted for more than 2 hours. After dinner we retired to our rooms hoping for some rest. The folks started assembling in our rooms and then the environment was setup for housie session. We played 2 good rounds enjoying completely before getting dead tired. That was the time when i had to just slide in the bed and fall dead asleep in no time.

The morning was early around 6 am with just 5 hours of sleep, heading straight back to the team plantations. I went for a long early morning walk and shot many photos which was an energizing moment and gratifying too.

On the breakfast table, we decided to go to Meenmutty waterfalls. The team was with their family members including kids. The walk down to the waterfalls was hectic and the climb up was draining. I was feeling ok but the people around were completely tired and literally dead. The folks carrying their kids down handed over them to the forest guards who accompanied us to the waterfalls. The guards escorting the tourists was something we all appreciated as it would have been difficult for us to go otherwise.

That was the last destination for the weekend trip to wayanad for us. We stopped on way for lunch where we encountered very heavy small burst of rain with gusty winds. Then we started the long journey back home reaching past midnight.

A thoroughly enjoyable experience and fun times with the whole team.

The trip photos can be found in the trip photo gallery here.

An engineer by profession and an avid traveler by choice! A photographer by passion!

I have been roaming many different parts of India and UAE in life. The galleries have been posted after my visits but they seem to be deep embedded in the blogs. I have created an index for all these travel galleries which should help in easier navigation for all visitors to my blog.

From the heritage ruins of Hampi to the glittering cityscape of Dubai all have been linked to this index which can be accessed from the link below.

CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE GALLERY INDEX

I have been requested to post some photos also of the trip to Wayanad for a sneak preview of the place before actually visiting it. This gave me the idea to give up on photo sharing sites like flickr, picasa and others and share the photos on my site itself. It somehow feels easier as I have more control and hot linking to them is also easy.

You can view the photos of my Wayanad trip by clicking on the image below.

Just sit back, relax and enjoy the photos!

If you are looking for a travelogue on Wayanad with places of tourist interest and activities to be done in the city you can see my travelogue HERE.

A map showing the route and distance within the city can be found at my other blog post which can be viewed HERE.

This post follows from my earlier trip to wayanad.

I had mentioned about a map being created by a local person for directions. I have created a digital version of the map and can be viewed below. Click on it to see a bigger version.

The map highlights the places that we visited. It also gives you an approximate idea of the direction to plan the day journeys. You can also get an idea of the distances between different places.

For more details, the map was created in Adobe Fireworks CS4. It might not be the best application for this purpose but I am quite comfortable using that application and use it wherever possible.

I have posted a set of images from my trip to Wayanad. You can view the complete gallery HERE.

If you are looking for a travelogue on Wayanad with places of tourist interest and activities to be done in the city you can see my travelogue HERE.

Wayanad is a small place in northern part of Kerala. It is a perfect weekend getaway as you just refresh yourself in the beautiful surroundings of ‘God’s own country’.

The trip was planned on a extended weekend for 3 days. It was an exciting one as it was the first completely unplanned trip. I was quite excited about this journey and we had a good time.

I have attached a pdf document which talks about all the journey details like transportation, stay, areas of interest and other small details.VIEW/DOWNLOAD travelogue here. It is around 320Kb so just be a little patient.

Have a fun time reading this document and make sure you plan one trip to this place. soon! I am quite confident that this document can be treated as a guide map for a traveler to Wayanad and they will have a fun time. Feel free to point out areas of improvement which I will start incorporating in my other travelogues.

A tourist map of Wayanad can be found here

I have posted a set of images from my trip to Wayanad. You can view the complete gallery HERE.

A map showing the route and distance within the city can be found at my other blog post which can be viewed HERE.