Oh how we longed to be out of the city and back in the warm, peaceful bosom of nature. We aren’t much ones for hustle and bustle, and far prefer the sounds of the birds singing, leaves blowing in the wind, or waves crashing against the beach.

Day 13 – travel to Wayanad

It was, then, with some relief that we boarded our train from Ernakulam Junction to Kozhikode (new factoid: zh makes an r sound, so pronounced Korikode), formerly Calicut. Now train veterans, having completed just two small journeys, we found our correct spot on the platform and made our way to our designated seats in the not too shabby AC Chair Coach. I confidently waved down each chai or coffee wala as they came past, each time getting another incredibly sugary few gulps of a hot drink for a mere 10 rupees – 10p to us. Billie was able to sleep while I read, and we braved some train samosas which were so wonderfully delicious. You get three for 30 rupees – I will let you do the maths this time, but it was the bargain of a lifetime and of course I had to have a second batch.

From Kozhikode, we had a taxi driver waiting for us who, after we’d wandered around the car park a few times in the hot sun, made himself known with a big smile and off we went. Another Vishnu, so we immediately warmed to him. As we left the coast and drove inland, the roads got windier (more wiggly, not more breezy) and we climbed uphill. We were arriving into the Western Ghats, a large mountain range which spans much of South-West India. It was jaw-droppingly beautiful and our books went out the window, not literally, as the mountainous landscape grabbed our attention.

Our ‘farmstay’, Nature’s Lap, was nestled in the most gorgeous tea plantation, with coffee planted in the grounds too. It had a lovely, colourful garden and a private waterfall. The building we stayed in was modern and recently built – the bed was our comfiest yet, it had AC and, by far most importantly, it had a balcony with a built in hammock which was fiercely guarded by whichever of us managed to snag it initially. From our balcony was a wild area of various trees and it happened to be a bird haven – there has been nowhere nicer to sit and read our e-books, chat or do a crossword. Kochi was now a distant memory.

As we’d spent most of the day travelling, it was nearly sunset and we decided to simply walk through the tea plantation that bordered our farmstay. There’s a fabulous tree that’s silhouetted against the sky with tea bushes in front of it that I just had to photograph every time we left and arrived as the light always made it seem dramatic in a different way…

We walked down to the bridge that signified the exit of our plantation and the beginning of a road, and found many birds flitting in the trees over the river that ran beneath us. We stayed here a while and were soon joined by a couple of guys who arrived on a scooter; one of them had a similar long lens to mine – they were here to photograph birds. I was elated, as you might imagine, that our very accommodation locale was essentially a birding destination. I snapped this beauty of a female orange minivet which is confusingly yellow… the males are actually orange.

We saw kingfishers, oriental magpie-robins, wagtails and many more. As we were quite remote, with no restaurants within walking distance, it was offered that all our meals be provided by our neighbour, which we accepted and ordered off a sort of mini menu a day in advance. By the last day there, the food had been so good, we just asked her to pick whatever she wanted to cook, such was our trust in her. All our meals came in a bag filled with great tupperware or metal containers. Our rice or bread and veggies in a large tupperware, our sambar or curry in a metal container and some tea (we opted for ginger tea every night) in a thermosflask. We’d carry this down to the little stream outside our homestay where there was a little table under a thatched roof with a light and serve it out. We’d wash it all up afterwards and give it back to her when she delivered the next meal bag with a smile later in the day. It was a lovely little routine.

Day 14 – Wayanad

Wayanad is quite a large region in the Western Ghats. We were certain we’d get a scooter and be free among the mountains to explore hikes, waterfalls and everything inbetween. We were told by the one and only scooter company in the area that we needed an International Driving Permit to hire a scooter or as they (and frankly we) call them ‘scooties’. I figured this was a bit of paperwork filling on their app, and decided we should go to their office in Meppadi and had no doubt we would leave with a scooty somehow. Before even opening my mouth to say hello the man said “do you have an IDP?” and so our scooting dreams were squashed. We tried our rickshaw driver and our farmstay host, thinking someone would text their mate who would pop over with a scooter, but ’twas not the case. A scooty was beyond reach, and so we were resigned to getting rickshaws everywhere, which led to lots of pointing at maps explaining where we wanted to go because nobody knew our farmstay or, it seemed, anywhere we actually wanted to go.

We headed towards a viewpoint some 40 minutes north-east by rickshaw which reportedly had a nice walk to get to the top. All we really wanted to do was walk in the beautiful nature all around us with no other major distractions and this seemed the place to do it. With a 50 rupee entry fee (50p) we entered Cheengeri Mala. There were a series of white flags on posts to clearly mark the route to the viewpoint and we immediately started climbing a steep, rocky landscape. The sun was quite hot at this point, but we were chuffed to be out and about.

Cheengari Mala

We reached a particularly steep bit where a ropes had been tied to rocks further up and left to dangle down for walkers to use to climb, and we felt very adventurous indeed climbing up the short section of about 5 meters.

More great views later and we were faced with another rope climbing section, this one MUCH longer, perhaps 50 meters or so. We ploughed onwards bravely, and it actually wasn’t that steep and we could drop the rope from time to time and walk up under our own steam. It was here we reached the top, with beautiful views all round. We saw other peaks in the area and a lovely view down onto the Karapuzha Reservoir below.

We stayed here a good half hour before descending, which was kind of harder than ascending in that weird way it often is. At the bottom we munched on some samosas we’d brought with us and had a look at maps to decide our next movement. We saw that Edakkal Caves was a mere 20 minutes away, one of the premier sights of Wayanad. We decided to head there, and walked along the road until a rickshaw passed us and we gratefully waved it down.

Edakkal Caves was immediately more touristy than our previous empty mountainside, and the fairly steep road up was lined with stalls selling souvenirs, spices, drinks and fresh fruit. More importantly, there were monkeys! We stopped to photograph them – my favourite was the adorable baby, while Billie enjoyed the youngster who carried around a little blanket (often having to guard it from other little scamps). He would hilariously cover his face with it and run around the branches like some sort of monkey ghost dressed up for halloween.

Further up, we finally reached Edakkal Caves. We waited quite a long time for some other really loud tourists to go through first and then went in ourselves. First a small pre-cave, which Billie looked like an explorer in.

And then onto the main cave which houses Neolithic, Stone Age carvings said to be at least eight thousand years old – 6000BC to 10000BC being the possible range. These are extremely rare and are one of two examples in all of Southern India. It is said they are on an ancient trade route leading from Mysuru to the coastal ports and that a settlement was likely once here. Very cool indeed, but it was hard to imagine what it was like then when a group of, no joke, about 30 Indian tourists were all trying to take one enormous group photo in the cave. This involved much logistical shouting, which somewhat ruined the ambience.

We left the cave and realised we’d probably overdone it, both flagging a bit. We walked back down the big hill road and bought cold water and some fresh pineapple from a stall which revived us enough to order a cab into the nearest town for a late lunch.

We had planned to climb a sunset point nearby, but realised we’d done enough for one day and not to push it – also the sky looked hazy and a good sunset felt unlikely. We arranged a rickshaw back to our farmstay and watched the birds on our bridge. The same man from the previous evening was there again and he told me about some of the local birds and we shared some of our photos with each other.

Day 15 – Wayanad ft. Tamil Nadu and the Nilgiri Hills

Despite being an absolutely stunning place, we were really struggling to find nice, nature walks with no strings attached. I’d reached out the day previous to a local birding guide and we’d arranged a tour for tomorrow (day 16). I’d also asked him if he had any recommendations and he put me in touch with a man who could give us a guided 6km walk around beautiful tea plantations, forest and waterfalls. Apparently elephants were in the area so we needed the guide. It sounded great, and the idea of elephants was exciting too. We arranged for taxi driver Vishnu to take us to our starting point which, it turned out, wasn’t in Kerala at all…

And so it was we crossed the border to Tamil Nadu, the state east of Kerala, merely by driving for about 40 minutes. Once we’d crossed the border, our meeting point at Wentworth Cafe was mere minutes away. We were greeted by our lovely guide, Prabhakar, along with two unexpected companions: a guide for the guide, who was heavily moustached and carried a machete to clear the way ahead and spot any dangerous lurking elephants, and our guides brother who we somewhat bonded with and looked close to tears when we eventually said goodbye repeatedly saying “god bless you”.

Our unlikely band struck across immediately stunning tea plantations, with beautiful rolling hills forming verdant vistas – it was already our favourite thing we’d done in Wayanad and we were only five minutes in.

It turned out we were on Wentworth Tea Estate and Prabhakar was part of the tourism team and had started these walks up to earn them some extra dosh. As such, they were filming us on their phones (without permission, mind) as we walked through the estate and soon, down past a river with beautiful falls.

We didn’t mind the filming too much as they were very friendly and we were in paradise. We saw Nilgiri Langurs at a distance (sorry, no pics) which were really large and black. Quite human-like and great to see. The path got fairly narrow and untrodden, and the moustache man started earning his keep as we had to pause several times for him to cut the way ahead clear for us. Meanwhile, Prabhakar and his brother found us walking sticks from amongst the undergrowth to further boost our adventurous spirit.

One incredibly cool aspect of the walk, that I think is really undersold, is the fact that it crosses between Kerala and Tamil Nadu several times, and even has little markers on the ground to show that. Of course, we each posed with one foot in each state; it would have been a disservice to you, our loyal readers, if we hadn’t!

Furthermore, the walk also crosses the exact border of the Western Ghats and the Nilgiri Hills (something to do with the Deccan Plateau) and we crossed to and from them several times, though sadly there wasn’t a physical indicator of this for us to photograph for you.

We didn’t see any elephants in the end, which was a shame mostly because it was just so bloody beautiful and it would have been quite something to have seen them walking through the plantations as the sun was setting. The estate seemingly have a good relationship with the elephants, creating elephant ‘corridors’ for them to roam through. They’re probably quickly learning that the elephants will attract more tourism too, what with the trek being called ‘Elephant Trail 6.0’.

After three sweaty hours, we arrived back at Wentworth Cafe where Vishnu awaited us. We were plied with tea from the estate and Prabhakar asked if I would (forced me to) say a few words about my experience on camera. As you might expect, this ended up on YouTube; for your viewing pleasure, and at my expense, here it is:

A stunning day! Wayanad had already blown our expectations out the water. But there is no rest for the wicked, as we had to be up at 6:15 the following morning for our birding tour with lovely Sabu.

Day 16 – Wayanad ft. Birds

Sabu saved the day really, what with putting us in touch with Prabhakar and also finding time to bird with us for a couple of hours. Hilariously, we were to meet Sabu at St. Joseph’s Church in Rippon, about 20 minutes away. Our rickshaw driver pumped out the high-pitched traditional Indian music as we blazed through the pink-lit plantations at sunrise – surreal.

Sabu awaited us at the church in Rippon and we immediately set off. Within moments he’d spotted an Indian Grey Hornbill in a faraway tree. An auspicious start, though the distance was too great for a worthy pic. He had great eyes and we were soon spotting birds left right and centre.

One highlight was what he claimed is the world’s smallest woodpecker, but upon fact-checking, I have discovered it is not, but it is pretty bloody small and is India’s smallest. The Indian Pygmy Woodpecker. I didn’t get a good pic, but I did take this lovely video.

Rippon was a funny place, certainly more affluent than the surrounding areas we’d seen, and there was a sort of nod to the white picket fences of the English countryside.

Sabu left us to dash off to guide a big group of tourists round the Edakkal Caves – but left us right at a waterfall which he suggested we check out before returning to the farmstay.

It was our last day in Wayanad and, birding done, we didn’t have energy for doing much more than our short walk to the bird bridge at sunset, as per our ritual. Tomorrow, we were to be picked up by Vishnu and taken to Nagarhole Tiger Reserve, just across the border in Karnataka (yet another Indian state) where we will be looking for (you guessed it) tigers!

See you next time!

Pic that didn’t make it: