Wild Elephants in Wayanad

I again had the opportunity to get out of the city for a few days, so some of my friends and I made our way to Wayanad, which is the northern district of Kerala, the state that borders Karnataka to the south. Wayanad is home to an amazing wildlife sanctuary located within a remote rainforest reserve, and also to lots of coffee, tea, and other spice plantations. Like Coorg, it is a beautiful and tranquil place to visit where you have ample opportunity to reacquaint yourself with nature.



Unfortunately the planning and organization of the outing was not so tranquil (suffice it to say that anything that could go wrong did go wrong), but all of the stress and confusion was washed away once we set off driving through the mountains. We spent only a full day there, but we had the chance to visit a really nice waterfall, go on a wild goose-chase ending at an ancient temple, and enjoy a couple of nice long drives through the mountains. The highlight of the trip though was the drive back. As we were leaving, what I assume to be the daily afternoon downpour came, and with it came a drop in the temperatures from the high 90s to the mid to low 80s, making for a very nice cool down. As a result of the comfortable
afternoon temperatures, the wild animals in the sanctuary became active, and we were treated to many sightings on the trip back, including around a dozen elephants (including a couple of fuzzy babies)! It was too cool, they were just lumbering around in the forest eating, paying all of us absolutely no attention. It sometimes really strikes me how different this place is, down to the crops and animals that one sees when out and about. I think that the only thing that is the same is the cows (although they have some varieties here that I have never seen before). Here is a short list of the crops that I saw being grown here (for the farmers out there reading this blog, yep Dad, this is for you): rice paddy, coconuts, palms, mangoes, tea (the first two pics are of a tea plantation), coffee (the third pic is of coffee flowers), pepper (the vine growing up the foremost tree in the first pic is a pepper plant), betel nut, and bananas. The wildlife included elephants, monkeys, wild pigs, deer (though a different species that we are accustomed to hitting with our cars), and the ubiquitous cow.



We had good fun, but either Neha or Gayatri is in charge of planning the next!