Weekend getaway from Bangalore - Wayanad, Kerala

Weekend getaway from Bangalore to Wayanad, Kerala : -

Wayanad is a district in Northern Part of Kerala. It can be reached from Bangalore, Mysore or Cochin by land. Do note that there is no town by name Wayanad, and Kalpetta is the district headquarters. To reach Kalpetta from Bangalore, drive to Mysore and take the Ooty road from Mysore till Gundlupet. You need to turn right at Gundlupet and take the Kozhikode road to reach Kalpetta. Kalpetta offers some decent accommodation and is a good place to stay for visiting all the places in Wayanad. It is around 250km from Bangalore.Some of the places to see in Wayanad include Edakkal caves(around 15km from Kalpetta), Phookot Lake(around 10km south of Kalpetta) and Meenmutty falls(around 25km). For those who are looking for a trek, Chembra peak is an ideal place. Another place to trek is the Brahmagiri Peak and Pakshi Pathalam, both of which start from Tirunelli temple. There are a couple of wildlife sanctuaries in Wayanad - The Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary and Tholpetty Wildlife Sanctuary. Once you reach Wayanad and settle down, information is easily available on all these places, so don't worry much and just head there. Access to wildlife sanctuaries is with permission and you require jeeps to get inside. You can take your own vehicle or hire one at any of the towns - Kalpetta or Sultan Battery.

Here is a trip report of a long journey I & my 3 colleagues from HP Bangalore made in Feb 2007.We called this trip as Manager's weekend getaway. The idea of the trip was to just go someplace so we chose Wayanad,Kerala.All 4 of us packed our bags and carried a paper print out of the places which we intend to visit those 2 days (Sat & Sun) and started our drive in a Toyota Qualis which we hired on Friday evening after work. It was late in the evening when we started from Bangalore and reached Mysore around 2 am.Had a stop over for 30 mins near Mysore Palace,which was totally illuminated at night.

Mysore Palace at night 2 am

The Mysore Palace looked magnificiant with the illumination,clicked a few photographs and then proceeded our way to Wayanad.

We reached Sultan Battery ,the place where we had booked our resort around 4 am early morning on Saturday.We had booked the resort named ORCHID RESORT a day in advance from via ; kerala.com .Orchid Resort is an Eco-friendly Heritage Inn ideally located amidst Vanilla plantation on the bank of Noolpuzha river.We just checked in and crashed for the day after having a hot cuppa of Nescafe.

ORCHID RESORT,Wayanad (Pool View)

Next day morning we stared off our trip at 10 am after an amazing breakfast and headed for Edakkal caves. It is a hill with rock formations with some carvings supposed to have been made a thousand years ago. The hill also offers some views of the landscape all around.We also did climb up the hill and had a look at the rock formations which bring in rest of the tourists. The rock formations are called caves, but I would not say cave would be the correct description for them. We could not take our own vehicle on the hill on top,we have to hire a jeep run by the Govt. there to go up the hill or walk the stretch.So we hired a jeep and its preety cheap Rs 10 per head one way.

Edakkal caves-Base

Jeep Journey to the top of Edakkal Caves

Trekking route to reach on top of Edakkal caves

Photo taken Inside Edakkal Caves (Carvings)

Narrow passage to get in the cave

View from top of Edakkal caves

We spent almost 3 hours of the day at Edakal and returned to Sultan Battery for lunch and headed to Jubliee (Its a resturant ) & after lunch headed towards Meenmutty waterfall. Meenmutty waterfall is around 30km from Kalpetta. It is not for the easy going traveller and requires descending down a very steep slope to have a look at the fall. The climb back can be exhausting, but the views of the valley below and the hills far away are worthwhile. The waterfall had plenty of water when we were there,but we decided to move on from there as we wanted to visit Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary .Going to the fall requires some walking and it is better to plan it as a whole day trip. We then headed towards Muthanga wildlife sanctuary and reached the sanctuary at 4.30 pm.We had a option to take our own vehicle inside the forest area along with a guide by paying the entry charges and guide's fees for a 90 minute ride or a ride in the sanctuary's bus,but we opted for our own vehicle and started off our jungle adventure at 5 pm.Better known as the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary, Muthanga is unique for the colours of the forests change with the seasons. Bordering the Mudumulai Sanctuary in Tamil Nadu and Nagarhole and Bandipur Sanctuaries in Karnataka, the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary is spread over 344 sq km and is about 16 km east of Sulthan Bathery in Wayanad. Elephants, spotted deer, gaur, sambar, sloth bear and many varieties of birds and reptiles were spotted by us in this santuary here.As you go on wildlife tours to the Muthanga Wildlife sanctuary you will notice tiny colorful butterflies flitting on sweet flowers and pretty shrubs. As the name suggests, you could station yourself at Waynad to visit the Sanctuary.

We returned back to the resort by 8 pm and had a shower and chilled ourselves with some refreshing Toddy, Beer along with some potato chips & later on for a amazing dinner comprising of Hot Phulka Roti's and Dal tadka &Veg pulav ,with salad and raita and some sabzi alongside the swimming pool.

The next day(Sunday) we checked out from the resort after a late breakfast at 12 pm and headed towards Bandipur Wildlife Sanctuary. {Bandipur Tiger Reserve, situated in the Mysore district of Karnataka, lies adjacent to Mudumalai in Tamil Nadu and Wynaad in Kerala. The terrain is punctuated with hills and small hillocks}

We had a few stopovers on route towards Bandipur for some photo sessions as we spotted a few Elephants near a lake side.The drive on the route was amazing.The roads are fantastically laid and its a paradise to drive on those roads surrounded by trees and bushes.

We reached Bandhipur around 3 pm and after some refreshments hired a open jeep for a safari ride for 2 hours.This sanctuary has elephants, gaur, wild boars, sambhars, spotted deers,peacocks.monkeys .But we were unfortunante to spot tigers & leopards.

We enjoyed our 2 hour safari ride & later we had a jolly good elephant ride for 15 mins and after that had some hot chaaya and biscuits & then straight headed towards Bangalore. 

 On route stopped over at Mysore Kamath hotel for a nice yummy dinner thali and then back on trail to Bangalore. 

 We reached Bangalore by 1 am early Monday morning and I should say it was a nice wonderful journey which we will all cherish for long.