I love to talk - 7

tender travelogue

Last monsoon we went to a hill station named WAYANAD situated in Kerala, God's own land. The hill station of Wayanad in the north of Kerala is breathtakingly beautiful without being at all overrun by tourists. The winding road up the Southern Ghats to Wayanad is particularly remarkable with its astounding views all the way to the sea over the Deccan Plateau. It is as if God was relaxing with a canvas and a painting palette and was very happy. He kept on stroking the canvas with an extravaganza of green and blue pouring out all his divine imagination and the result was Wayanad!

Wayanad’s altitudes of 750-2100m are covered with spice plantations, paddy fields and moss green forests. It is mainly populated by tribal people whose originality and simplicity can be felt prominent. Wayanad’s plantations are reputed to produce the best pepper in the world. The magnificent landscape of the place offers ample opportunities for forgetting yourself and all your worries. The waterfalls are as if a direct descent from the heights of heaven.

We started from Mysore around 7 am in the morning and with a few tea and coffee breaks in between, reached Wayanad around 2pm. The tall bamboo and saal trees formed a natural tunnel on the highway and the journey by car was stunningly spectacular. By the time we reached our destination the surrounding was enveloped in a mysterious mist. This was a pleasant surprise. The entire landscape looked heavenly. From a distance the occasional trumpeting of an elephant was being heard, giving us a real raw jungle thrill. All in all, I realized it was indeed God’s Own Country.

The place we stayed at is Misty Heights and it was a real Home-stay. Misty Heights is located just west of Vythiri in tea country. The property is situated beside a small brook in the mountains cultivated in tea, coffee and arecanuts. As the website proclaims, it is really "A Natural Paradise, away in the lap of nature. A totally dedicated eco-homestay built on a hilly area with all basic facilities..You can view the surrounding hills and valleys covered with Ever Green Tropical Rain Forests in different hues of green ...."

The quiet calm rustic life of Vythiri, the cool oxygen fresh, mint-scented mountain air, the lush green landscape, the birds' twitter and the tranquility of the place easily transported me in a state where all the usual mundane worries seemed really trivial and meaningless.

The host couple at Misty Heights was welcoming and warm. You might not get room service at your beck and call but the moment you would go downstairs you were received with a warm smile and your need for food and otherwise, would be taken care of lovingly. Breakfast was with warm cuppa tea or coffee and soft hot Kerala appam which was so very tasty that you gonna crave for it even later at home. You could have fresh vegetables and hot chicken curry for lunch or dinner, all from their own fresh garden and farm. The adjacent brook was an attraction in itself and sitting beside it you could spot huge fish all around as they would create a lot of bubbles if some fish food was being thrown and the owner with his pleasant smile would inform you that the fish you had for lunch was from this stream. For my son the utmost attraction of this home-stay was the beautiful birds and the ducks and chickens quacking and chirping all over the courtyard and the huge Labrador with its two one-month old puppies, a Dalmatian and Labrador hybrid.

Night would be a quiet affair as a pitch inky darkness would engulf everything and all you would be left with is the sound of rainfall nonstop yet sonorous, the whispers of drizzle on the quiet leaves, the cricket call and a strange suppressed humming noise that only jungle can produce. But if you are a loner like me you would instantly fall in love with nature's own ethereal sound.

On the whole Wayanad with its aroma of spices and verdant mountains sharply outlined against a clear blue sky, often shrouded in an atmospheric low mist would be a stay worth a life time.