Juwal Bose Says

This was the last day as we had decided to skip Chembra trek, Pakshipathalam and Kanthampara falls. will be visiting Wayanad again for these treks with some of my trekking friends. So first was Banasura sagar dam which was the larges earth dam in Asia. Now i was not much particular about this as there was nothing much to do at the dam. We later found out that there was speedboating option at the dam site.
We took bus to Pandijarethara from Kalpetta. From padinjarethara it was 2 kms walk on the roadside to the dam. Now we didnt take the necessary deviation towards the dam and ended up at a different spot. This made things more wonderful as we gt the chance to walk by the side of the reservoir and trek onto small hills which ended at some rock quarries.

From Wayanad Dec 21 08

We followed lorry trails and walked through the dense vegetation by the reservoir and explored some scenic points. We could see the boating and the dam to the side and we saved the ticket charges also. There was no person in sight and the whole land was barren with lots of domestic cows and goats scattered here and there.

From Wayanad Dec 21 08

We walked back to the town adn got a bus back to Kalpetta. After food we got on a bus to sultan bethery and from there to Muthanga. The timing at the Wildlife sanctuary was from 3-5 in the after noon. There was a shortage for guides and hence the queue for the tickets were not moving. We got our tickets at 4.45 and got on to the jeep with our guide ‘balan’. It was 1.15 hours of jeep guided tour inside the forest for 22 kms.Again it was 10 rs for entry, rs 25 for camera rs 100 for the guide and then rs 300 for the jeep. Now take care to get as many companions to share the jeep charges. We had t handle it ourselves. We were concerned as the place was on the border to karnataka and buses seemed less. This was the last stop for many buses, but the guide told us that there are lots of buses.

We got in the jeep and the guide was sanding outside dangling onto the jeep sigting different animals for us. He spotted Elephant herds, lots of Deers, Wild Bison, Mountain squirrels, Huge termite houses and peacocks. We saw some beautiful peacock flights and encountered a herd of elephants passing the jeep trail. On our way back we tried to negotiate the jeep rates to no avail.

From Wayanad Dec 21 08

All through the journey across wayanad we could see a lot of Adivasis who are real jungle people. The locals say that adivasis are well off as they are getting all kinds of allowances from the Govt. Adivasis would work hard and spent money at Toddy shops and Civil suplies beverages shops. They cant be molested or attacked as it was a bailless arrest for 30 days. I also heard that there were orphanages dedicated to children of these adivasis, courtesy of many forest officers and other govt officials.

So there ended our Wayanad trip and we returned home on the xmas day.