So far we visited both Edakkal Caves and Jain temple in Wayanad. And now we are en-route towards Soochipara Falls (also known as Sentinel Rock Water Falls). We reach the falls by around 3:00 pm and buy the entry tickets. As we are students we were supposed to get a concession,but unfortunately,as we had forgotten to take the relevant papers we had to pay the full amount. And like always you have to pay extra for your digital camera (If this goes on i'm thinking that i'll pay around the same amount it cost me to buy one of these). So, tickets in hand we move towards the falls which is some 2 to 2.5 kms away from our parking area. Ok! its not so bad right? Its only a couple of thousand meters. Walk on!!!!!
We're almost there and i have Harish and Jijo with me. A quick picture captures the mountains veiled in mist and the forest as far as the eye can see. It was Harish who had earlier said that he feels this trip is more like a pilgrimage than a (study)tour. He said this while we were walking towards the waterfall and i think it must have been the exhaustion from climbing the Eddakal Caves and the long walks reminding of Sabarimala that resulted in such an observation. Honestly i have to agree with him. But when you're with friends its fun, and you feel like you can take on the world. As for me i felt that this long walk towards the waterfall was worth it. At first it was like any other waterfall,a huge curtain of water all white and foamy gushing down. But then came our old friend the rain.I scurried towards a shed like structure for the fear of my camera getting wet.But the sunlight hadn't gone when it started to rain,soon enough the waterfall became breathtakingly beautiful wearing a rainbow and click!This is what i got. So by 4:00 pm we start making our way back to the bus in small groups.
There was a however a slight problem, the way towards the falls was a sloping one going down. So you know how that works,you go down,you have to come up. As beautiful and serene the place was,the way back nearly broke our backs and i clearly remember,that,at one point i was pushing SR up a slope.And my camera was running out of power. SR was in a rather good mood and tried to climb up a tree,why? I have no idea!(He almost fell down,and was hanging like a monkey).He still had those red chappals and specs. This is the last photo i took before my camera died.It shows the cobbled path i had talked about.Its still a bit foggy. From here it was straight back to our hotel. As promised the rooms were ready and we moved out of our dormitory. It was a good room(it even had a living room!)
As planned we are supposed to go see a movie at 9:00 pm and that gives us very little time to take a bath and have dinner. We(myself, Binu,Ayyappa, MC and Akhil) had the room to ourselves and took turns in using the bathroom. Later Binu and I, along with MC and Ayyappa found a vegetarian hotel and ordered our dinner with only 30 minutes to go before the movie starts. Our curry comes first,and we were so hungry that we finished it and when our chapatis came we had to order another one. Settling the bill and walking out we have less that 10 minutes until showtime.Only one thing to do...RUN!!! So we ran,jumping over broken gutter slabs and dodging people on the footpaths of Sultan Bathery....
We're almost there when we're joined by Micheal and gang who are also running, I'm pretty sure that the people on the streets must have thought that we were being chased by Micheal's gang. And then Micheal yells to us all to take a detour to the left into a dark alley and that its a short cut. Ok,what the hell,we do it and soon enough we're running through this dark lane. And i still dont know how he knew there was such a shortcut because all of a sudden we pop out into a road head first and there it is-the theater.
As for the movie it was a romantic film by the name Thattathin Marayathu .The same old wine in a new bottle. Boy meets a girls,almost killing her by accident,then falls in love with her. They both have contrasting backgrounds and to make matters worse she's a Muslim and he's a Hindu(Oooh, big surprise there!).And it ends with a stupid happily ever after.The only difference is in the style of presentation,narration of the movie, and the music. Its the same cliched stuff being tried again by a group of youngsters. I was actually so bored that i walked out during the interval(along with Binu and Harish) and went back to our hotel. On our way back we stopped for കട്ടന് കാപ്പി !! YAY!!
When we got back it was almost 10:30 pm and then we slept.......
TO BE CONT"D......
Actually it wasn't so bad,it was a cobbled path all the way to the falls,surrounded by greenery on both sides. It's a serene setting,the only sound ,that of the jungle and the endless roar of the waterfall in the distance.
We're almost there and i have Harish and Jijo with me. A quick picture captures the mountains veiled in mist and the forest as far as the eye can see. It was Harish who had earlier said that he feels this trip is more like a pilgrimage than a (study)tour. He said this while we were walking towards the waterfall and i think it must have been the exhaustion from climbing the Eddakal Caves and the long walks reminding of Sabarimala that resulted in such an observation. Honestly i have to agree with him. But when you're with friends its fun, and you feel like you can take on the world. As for me i felt that this long walk towards the waterfall was worth it. At first it was like any other waterfall,a huge curtain of water all white and foamy gushing down. But then came our old friend the rain.I scurried towards a shed like structure for the fear of my camera getting wet.But the sunlight hadn't gone when it started to rain,soon enough the waterfall became breathtakingly beautiful wearing a rainbow and click!This is what i got. So by 4:00 pm we start making our way back to the bus in small groups.
There was a however a slight problem, the way towards the falls was a sloping one going down. So you know how that works,you go down,you have to come up. As beautiful and serene the place was,the way back nearly broke our backs and i clearly remember,that,at one point i was pushing SR up a slope.And my camera was running out of power. SR was in a rather good mood and tried to climb up a tree,why? I have no idea!(He almost fell down,and was hanging like a monkey).He still had those red chappals and specs. This is the last photo i took before my camera died.It shows the cobbled path i had talked about.Its still a bit foggy. From here it was straight back to our hotel. As promised the rooms were ready and we moved out of our dormitory. It was a good room(it even had a living room!) |
| The cobbled path amidst the forest |
 |
| The 'living room' in our room |
As planned we are supposed to go see a movie at 9:00 pm and that gives us very little time to take a bath and have dinner. We(myself, Binu,Ayyappa, MC and Akhil) had the room to ourselves and took turns in using the bathroom. Later Binu and I, along with MC and Ayyappa found a vegetarian hotel and ordered our dinner with only 30 minutes to go before the movie starts. Our curry comes first,and we were so hungry that we finished it and when our chapatis came we had to order another one. Settling the bill and walking out we have less that 10 minutes until showtime.Only one thing to do...RUN!!! So we ran,jumping over broken gutter slabs and dodging people on the footpaths of Sultan Bathery....
We're almost there when we're joined by Micheal and gang who are also running, I'm pretty sure that the people on the streets must have thought that we were being chased by Micheal's gang. And then Micheal yells to us all to take a detour to the left into a dark alley and that its a short cut. Ok,what the hell,we do it and soon enough we're running through this dark lane. And i still dont know how he knew there was such a shortcut because all of a sudden we pop out into a road head first and there it is-the theater.
As for the movie it was a romantic film by the name Thattathin Marayathu .The same old wine in a new bottle. Boy meets a girls,almost killing her by accident,then falls in love with her. They both have contrasting backgrounds and to make matters worse she's a Muslim and he's a Hindu(Oooh, big surprise there!).And it ends with a stupid happily ever after.The only difference is in the style of presentation,narration of the movie, and the music. Its the same cliched stuff being tried again by a group of youngsters. I was actually so bored that i walked out during the interval(along with Binu and Harish) and went back to our hotel. On our way back we stopped for കട്ടന് കാപ്പി !! YAY!!
When we got back it was almost 10:30 pm and then we slept.......
TO BE CONT"D......
