Finally myself and my friend Suhas decided to take up a Trekking Expedition to Chembra Peak in Wayanad Dist of Kerala on 29 Th of October.

I did a little bit of research work thru the Internet and collected some information about its location, route etc. Thanks to some input from Mr.Sandeep Unnimadhavan (http://usandeep.com) , who is a Pro in Trekking, which came in handy to plan the Trek.

Luckily I got a Guide’s Number somewhere from some website. His name is Mr.Pavithran. I called him up and informed about our arrival there so that he can take the necessary Permissions from the Forest Department well in advance.

So with all the necessary preparation we were both raring to go and were waiting for the D-day.

            But on the previous night, there was a heavy downpour in Bangalore and many others who knew about our trek advised us not to continue and to postpone our trek.

I was really disappointed at this, but did not loose hope. I immediately called up our Guide Mr.Pavithran at 10 Pm in the night and enquired about the weather over there at Wayanad. His reply was music to my ears as he said the weather over there was pleasant and asked us to carry on as per our plan. I had a chat with Suhas regarding this and we decided to carry on come what may.

At this point I would like to convey you one small bit of missing information, that is, everybody else who told us to postpone the trip knew that we were going to Wayanad in a Two wheeler, that was the reason for their concern.

            So we planned to start early morning on 29^th at 5.00 Am. and we started on the dot, with the Cyclonic Clouds looming large over our heads, on the Suzuki Fiero.

We zoomed past on the Bangalore-Mysore Road which was just perfect for driving and in no time reached KAMAT LOKARUCHI just after Ramanagaram. Had a good breakfast of IDLY, VADA & DOSA with hot piping Coffee.

For your information, this restaurant is open very very early in the morning as early as 5.30 AM.

So after “fueling up our tanks”, we drove straight to MYSORE and took a right turn at the Ring Road Junction and headed to Nanjangud. From there we took the Ooty road till Gundlpet and then took a right turn towards Sulthan Bathery, which is in KERALA.

The road was good and within no time we reached a Check post, which was at the border of Karnataka and Kerala. Just as we entered Kerala, the topology changed so drastically with cool winds blowing and lush evergreen forest around that we realized the meaning of the term “ GODS OWN COUNTRY “.

The roads on the other side of the border are worth mentioning. Even though Kerala receives more rainfall, that too Wayanad being a Cachement Area, the Roads are its best and encourage everyone to keep on traveling as far as possible enjoying the nature’s beauty beside.

We reached our destination Kalpetta, the meter clocking around 280Kms, and checked into one hotel named “ EVERGLADES “. It was a decent hotel with basic facilities, neat and clean. Decided to have lunch and ventured out. This place (and most of Kerala) is like a nightmare for pure vegetarians as there are no adequate hotels, which serve only pure vegitarian cuisine. This town Kalpetta had only one Restaurant, which served pure veg stuff, and its called “ AFFAS “ (a strange name indeed). As I had been to this place before I knew about it, and being a strict veggie, we setout to AFFAS. But as luck would have it, a sign, which read “CLOSED FOR RENOVATION”, welcomed us.

So needless to say we had our lunch in the same hotel where we stayed and started off our “Exploration “.

We first went to POOKOT LAKE. It’s a natural lake with small hills all around. The water was filled to the brim with good monsoon that season. We did not go boating instead walked around the path, which circled the lake. It was really an enchanting experience.

Then we headed towards the View Point at Lakkidi. Enroute we visited the CHAIN TREE where according to a legend some Spirit is being tied using IRON CHAINS!!!! and hence the name CHAIN TREE.

The Viewpoint at Lakkidi was not so great because of the heavy mist. We could make out the rolling hills of Western Ghats. On clearer day we were told that one could see the Sea from there as CALICUT was 80 KMs away..

It was 3 in the afternoon and we decided to go back to our hotel…on the way we saw a signboard indicating all the places around wayanad. Upon gazing the map we came to know that almost all the places were towards one side. Only a waterfall called “SCOOCHIPARA “ was a bit away in the opposite direction.

It was 40kms from that point and we decided to finish it off too as we came to know that there was not much of trekking to be done to reach the falls.

We reached SCOOCHIPARA around 5, driving thru the winding roads, which passed thru many tea plantations. We were tempted to stop at each bend but the lack of time made us to just drive thru with only one stop for photos.

We made it just in time as the light was fading quickly, had a nice look at the falls and then we started back. The return journey to Kalpetta was thru pitch Darkness with only the bike headlight to guide us. Upon reaching Kalpetta we met out guide Pavithran who told us that everthing was ready for the trek and that one more person Mr.Suresh will guide us early next morning. So 6Am was the time fixed by our guide and we nodded at his suggestions and had a good dinner and went to sleep.

Early next morning we got up at 5, I looked outside the window only to find that the CHEMBRA PEAK was engulfed with mist and we could not make out where it was!!!!

After finishing our daily morning chores, I just glanced at my watch, which showed that it was exactly 6. At the same time our doorbell rang and I opened it to find out Guide Mr.Suresh standing there with a smiling face. Really did not expect such Punctuality from him!

We discussed about the trek and had a light breakfast and started off in an auto towards MEEPADI, the starting point of the trek. Its about 6-8 kms from Kalpetta and upon reaching there he took us to the Forest Dept Office from where we collected the PASS for the Trek after filling a ledger which asked for some information about the trekkers.

We went up the hill in the auto thru CHEMBRA TEA ESTATE and stopped at one point. We told that this was the starting point of the trek.

We Started off out trek with great enthusiasm and started climbing very fast until we were tired. The whole trek can be divided into 3 parts.

Part 1:

This Part involves the initial trek wherein the path is filled with shrubs and big trees and was slightly slippery. There was no mist at this point.

Part 2:

This part is the half waypoint where one can see a small lake, which is in the shape of a Heart. According to our Guide this is a MAN-MADE lake, some British Army man was responsible for this lake (in memory of his wife a-la TAJMAHAL). But others also said it was a natural one. The debate is a never-ending one though.

Wether it was man-made or not it was beautiful and we spent some time here taking photos and clearing our legs off the leeches, which by then had picked up our scent!!!!

We thought that we were the first ones that day to reach to that point, but to our astonishment we could see some 2-3 people moving very very far ahead.

At first we thought they were climbing up…but minutes later we saw that they were heading back. We met those people and we taken by surprise to see a young couple and a Guide. The Couple were on their HONEYMOON and had planned a Trek!!!!…

They told that the way further up was very very slippery and the visibility was very poor and said that we better to return back.

At that point we were very disappointed as we were so close yet so far!!!

Guess what upon speaking to them we came to know that it was the Husband who was

 not able to climb up, the wife was all raring to go J.

We decide to carry on inspite of the warning and started a very steep uphill task.

Part 3:

This is the most difficult of the three parts and the terrain was full of Grass, which was

Some 6-8 feet in height and covered the path which we were supposed to trek.

The path was very very slippery and with great difficulty we reached the top at last.

There was a sense of achievement as soon as we reached the top and we both shouted at

The top of our voices….we spent some time at the summit where the visibility was near

Zero, tore into the bread, bun & biscuits, which we carried along.

There were some plastic covers and some dirty papers littered around, my friend Suhas

Promptly collected all of those and put inside our backpacks so that we could carry it back all the way down. What a Noble Thought!!!!!!!

We started to descend and were amazed to see the nature around, as there were Shola forest and Grasslands, typical of the Western Ghats.

We reached the Start point, called up the Auto guy and reached back the hotel and rested.

It took nearly 8 hrs of continuous trekking to “conquer” The MIGHTY CHEMBRA!!!!

The next day we visited the KANTHAPARA, MEENUMUTTY, EDKAL CAVES and KURUVA DWEEP regarding which I will write in my next TREK-LOG.