We booked a vehicle and we were set to leave, 7:00 PM on Friday night, driver called me and informed me that the path to Wayanad which goes through Gundlupet and Sultan batery will be blocked as night driving is banned in the Bandipur region.
Our plan was to reach Kalpetta by 6: 00 AM on Saturday and start trekking at least by 7:00. So it was a severe hit on our plan.
Then I decided that we will leave Bangalore by 12:00 AM and plan to reach Bandipur checkpoint by 4:00 AM as we had to pick Karthik from Mysore on the way.
Vehicle came to my home by 11:45 PM, had to pick up Ram, Kummi, Swarup and Viru from various parts of Bangalore … so finally we left Bangalore by 1:15 AM.
Driver was in no mood to drive that night as he was feeling sleepy for most part of the night and frustrated us to the maximum! We managed to reach Mysore by 5:30 AM !!! Ghosh! Almost 4 hrs to reach Mysore. Thanks to our driver Srinivas who likes sleeping
We reached Meppady by 10:30 AM.
After taking 1 hr to get fresh up, headed straight to Chembra peak. Took permission from the forest officials to trek and camp and started our trekking by 1:15 PM.
Sid was a first time trekker and he had a torrid time trekking!
Yes, one thing to mention here is that, we went till the tower in our vehicle and then from there we started trekking. Since it was very sunny, we didn’t carry any rain jacket with us(turning point uh!!!)
From tower, slowly we started to climb the peak as the way is not that tough compared to my Kodachaadri trekking!
When we had climbed about 1/4 the of the distance, we saw a small lake, which is very beautiful. Misty weather... clouds moving over the lake and we enjoyed the view which was superb!!!
And there was a fabulous love shape lake! This lake is naturally in the heart shape and it is said that this lake never gets dried up. The view is really good.
By this time, there was a small drizzle … we continued our trekking and we were almost at the peak when it started raining. But we were without any protection!!!
So we forcefully started to descend the peak reluctantly as it was already 3:30 PM and it could take more time for us to descend than to climb as the surface was very slippery!!!
We managed to reach to the tower by 6:30 PM and by the time we reached tower, it was complete dark there. We were completely drenched and our plan to put up tent was a flop show…
With no other option, we left to the Meppady town to find a lodge. Thankfully, we found one to rest. We had a good sleep as everyone was tired and wanting to rest.
Next day, the only good thing for us was the visit to Banasura Dam.
We spent some time in the dam and headed back to Bangalore. Our plan to visit Meenmutty falls didn’t workout as it involved some walk(a small trek) for which guys were not ready
All in all, a revisit to Wayanad is for sure as I must say this trip was a incomplete one.
