Was putting my library to order today, when I came upon
these entries in my diary from a trip to Wayanad, Kerala. Here goes.
31.03.2010
What a day! We started our journey in a jeep and that put an
automatic smile on my face. It had been drizzling since morning and after a
chilly night, the weather didn’t have the heart to continue being hot and dry.
So, we had an AC climate (mom’s words!) throughout the day! J
Started out by going towards Banasura Dam (supposed to be
the second-largest earth dam in Asia) but we had low expectations since
travellers prefer going to other places. Nothing new about the dam per se BUT
(and that’s a big one!) it was here that I saw like a million birds! AND (that’s
another biggie) had an exhilarating ride around the dam on a speed boat.
Exhilarating because the wind in my hair and the rain against my face made it
so.
From here, we went on to Pazhassi Raja’s Burial site (a
warrior whose legend is told to this day). It was a place full of the loveliest
flowers. Saw a blue and yellow parrot pair and got a chance to pose with a bow
and arrow (the place had weapons used during the Raja’s time).
Our next halt was (the long-awaited) Kuruvadweep or Kuruva Island. (Yes! The setting of YogYodhas, an action-adventure comic series I created for Tinkle comics). I
confess, I had these blissful visions of Kirrin Island from Enid Blyton’s
Famous Five series :P. The place is full of bamboos. It
was a little walk in the woods with still water running (okay! Standing still)
parallel to the road. It made me think of the bayous in the US (read a lot
about them) and later learnt the place, like the bayous, is home to alligators!
There were loads of scope for adventure with these crossing over
stepping stones and fallen logs. But the most fun for us were two things. One
was rafting (5 mins only) yet the rafter (no idea what he is technically
called) allowed us to steer the raft (not difficult since he was there plus we
only had to pull the raft by holding onto the rope that ran overhead,
connecting trees bank-to-bank). The second fun part was rowing the boat back to
the jetty from the island (mom and I had a go though we often sent the boat
spinning in circles! ;) Sappu, on her part, found all the trees she could
climb (of which there were plenty, like every fourth one!).
Image Courtesy: Vinayaraj, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Our last trip was to Thirunelly temple. The route passes
through the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary and Tholpetty Sanctuary. AND!!! We saw
wild boar, lots of deer, two stags and I saw a young elephant (whose sudden
trumpeting had our hearts jumping to our throats. We expected it to burst out of the
bushes any moment or worse, attract the attention of its mother who was sure to
charge at our jeep!). Subair, our driver, lost no time in speeding away.
As for the birds, here is a list of the different birds I
saw that day: 1) yellow sparrow-sized 3) crested bulbul 3) the lesser coucal 4)brown
(pheasant?) 5) magpie robin 6) Asian palm swift 7) green-blue parakeet 8)
yellow parakeet 9) black-brown small bird 10) pigeon-sized blue-grey bird and
many, many more.
P.S. Didn’t see any crows, sparrows or pigeons!
P.P.S. Want to learn to row!
Image Courtesy: Outlander07, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
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