Date: Mar 17-18, 2007
Mission: Trek to Chembra Peak (~2100 mts), the highest peak in Wayanad.
Prologue: This trek was not decided till the evening of Mar 16, Friday for the simple reason that there were no seats in any bus going towards Wayanad. Somehow I became the organizer of this trek ! Finally 5 of us (Me, Suny, Karthik, Raghuram L and his friend Prakash) took the Tuticorin-Mysore express on Mar 17, Saturday at 7 am and were in Mysore by 10 am. After a good breakfast at Mysore we boarded a (Kerala)RTC bus going to Kozhikode from Mysore to Kalpetta at 11 am. This bus was coming from Bangalore ! Consequence of ill-planned trek: no seats were available till Sultan Bathery (~110 kms from Mysore). Going via Bandipur and Muthanga wildlife sancutary, we reached Kalpetta (140 kms from Mysore) at ~3 pm. Our centre of activity was Meppady ~10 kms from Kalpetta and we were there by 3.30 pm. Raghu had done some half-hearted attempt to trek to VellariMalla peak in Wayanad before but not to Chembra and knew the places.
Day 1
This was summer and our Chembra trek was scheduled next day early morning which was the only way we could hit the peak. After obtaining the forest dept. permission to trek to Chembra we found the one and only lodge in Meppady. The room was clean and had a TV set so that we could watch the ill fated India-Bangladesh WC match. With nothing worthwhile to do till night, we hired a taxi and went to Soochipura waterfalls expecting a small trickle of water. To my surprise there was quite an amount of water.
Day 2
Next day we got up early and after hearing the Men in Blue's surrender to Bangladesh and Pakistan's exit from WC we left the lodge at 6.30 am. We took auto(s) for ~7 kms to the Chembra estate which was the starting point. The sunrise looked great with mist and clouds on top of hills with tea estates. Me and Raghu came out of the auto and started clicking fotos in all directions. We started the uphill climb at 7.15 am from the watch tower. A local group of people soon overtook us. We reached the famous heart shaped lake at 8.15 am. Water was dirty and not potable. The Chembra peak looke
d inviting with clouds around the peak. Even at the lake we were above the clouds.
After a brief halt we started again. There were 3 mountains to be conquered before hitting Chembra. The scenery till the 2nd mountain was dry with grass destroyed by forest fires. Once we passed the 2nd mountain it became greener. We were also to witness a spectacle. The sun had almost come up and the clouds were moving up or evaporating right in front of us. One side of Chembra was completely covered by white clouds while on the other there was g
reen dense forest. We met a group of Foreigners going down who said they had ascended Chembra from south but it was very steep. The climb near the peak was steep with loose stones and we had to crawl a bit. Prakash was getting tired and need some dose of motivation to reach the peak. We hit the peak at ~10 am. Here there was lot of greenery on all sides. The local people who had overtook us in the beginning had climbed down Chembra ahead and had started ascending another peak in front of us which was higher than Chembra ! They were shouting and I couldn't understand the intent of it. There was another peak beyond that one which we later came to 
know as VellariMalla (~2300 mts) but it didn't belong to Wayanad dt. Even the peak to the left of us was almost at the same height as Chembra. A solo trekker reached the peak after some time and he said he climbed the peak in 1 hr 30 mins (of course...he didn't have any backpack) ! We had bread slices and some oranges for breakfast and decided to climb down from south. We had to follow the forest fire line and it would lead to the heart shaped lake. A guide who reached the peak with his customers told us not to venture into forest where we could find bisons, leopards and not to mention cobras.
We started our descent at 11 am. We reached the forest fire line in just 5 mins. From here the trail turned left and it became steeper with slope of ~70 deg. But the tall grass assisted us from slipping and gave us a grip. Of course there was no possibility of sighting any wild animals with so many people (including us and the local group who wer
e sitting in the forest) making hell lot of noises. The trail turned left again and now we were moving between the valley of Chembra and other peak almost same as the height of Chembra. The solo trekker soon overtook us. The path till the lake was good where we moved between tall grasses and had adequate shades. After a brief halt at the lake we started again and we reached near the watch tower at ~2 pm. The path from lake to the watch tower was dry and boring with hot sun beating us down. We met lot of people who were climbing and I was sure nobody would have hit the peak in this weather.
We managed to convince a jeep fellow (hired by someone else) to drop us to Meppady. We caught a bus to Kalpetta and were having a good Malayali vegetarian lunch there at 3 pm. All of us wanted to be in Blore by night (especially Raghu who said there was ChandraGrahan at 5 am next morning and he had to be at home by that time !) . We waited for more than 1 hr at Kalpetta for a bus to Mysore. Folks in our group were becoming restless thinking that I was supposed to manufacture a bus right there and take them to Blore. Finally (Kerala)RTC arrived at 4.45 pm and we were in Mysore to have dinner at 8.30 pm. A KSRTC bus brought us to Majestic by 12.45 am. This is very good trek especially if done soon after monsoon.
Mission: Trek to Chembra Peak (~2100 mts), the highest peak in Wayanad.
Prologue: This trek was not decided till the evening of Mar 16, Friday for the simple reason that there were no seats in any bus going towards Wayanad. Somehow I became the organizer of this trek ! Finally 5 of us (Me, Suny, Karthik, Raghuram L and his friend Prakash) took the Tuticorin-Mysore express on Mar 17, Saturday at 7 am and were in Mysore by 10 am. After a good breakfast at Mysore we boarded a (Kerala)RTC bus going to Kozhikode from Mysore to Kalpetta at 11 am. This bus was coming from Bangalore ! Consequence of ill-planned trek: no seats were available till Sultan Bathery (~110 kms from Mysore). Going via Bandipur and Muthanga wildlife sancutary, we reached Kalpetta (140 kms from Mysore) at ~3 pm. Our centre of activity was Meppady ~10 kms from Kalpetta and we were there by 3.30 pm. Raghu had done some half-hearted attempt to trek to VellariMalla peak in Wayanad before but not to Chembra and knew the places.
Day 1
This was summer and our Chembra trek was scheduled next day early morning which was the only way we could hit the peak. After obtaining the forest dept. permission to trek to Chembra we found the one and only lodge in Meppady. The room was clean and had a TV set so that we could watch the ill fated India-Bangladesh WC match. With nothing worthwhile to do till night, we hired a taxi and went to Soochipura waterfalls expecting a small trickle of water. To my surprise there was quite an amount of water.
Day 2
Next day we got up early and after hearing the Men in Blue's surrender to Bangladesh and Pakistan's exit from WC we left the lodge at 6.30 am. We took auto(s) for ~7 kms to the Chembra estate which was the starting point. The sunrise looked great with mist and clouds on top of hills with tea estates. Me and Raghu came out of the auto and started clicking fotos in all directions. We started the uphill climb at 7.15 am from the watch tower. A local group of people soon overtook us. We reached the famous heart shaped lake at 8.15 am. Water was dirty and not potable. The Chembra peak looke
d inviting with clouds around the peak. Even at the lake we were above the clouds.After a brief halt we started again. There were 3 mountains to be conquered before hitting Chembra. The scenery till the 2nd mountain was dry with grass destroyed by forest fires. Once we passed the 2nd mountain it became greener. We were also to witness a spectacle. The sun had almost come up and the clouds were moving up or evaporating right in front of us. One side of Chembra was completely covered by white clouds while on the other there was g
reen dense forest. We met a group of Foreigners going down who said they had ascended Chembra from south but it was very steep. The climb near the peak was steep with loose stones and we had to crawl a bit. Prakash was getting tired and need some dose of motivation to reach the peak. We hit the peak at ~10 am. Here there was lot of greenery on all sides. The local people who had overtook us in the beginning had climbed down Chembra ahead and had started ascending another peak in front of us which was higher than Chembra ! They were shouting and I couldn't understand the intent of it. There was another peak beyond that one which we later came to 
know as VellariMalla (~2300 mts) but it didn't belong to Wayanad dt. Even the peak to the left of us was almost at the same height as Chembra. A solo trekker reached the peak after some time and he said he climbed the peak in 1 hr 30 mins (of course...he didn't have any backpack) ! We had bread slices and some oranges for breakfast and decided to climb down from south. We had to follow the forest fire line and it would lead to the heart shaped lake. A guide who reached the peak with his customers told us not to venture into forest where we could find bisons, leopards and not to mention cobras.
We started our descent at 11 am. We reached the forest fire line in just 5 mins. From here the trail turned left and it became steeper with slope of ~70 deg. But the tall grass assisted us from slipping and gave us a grip. Of course there was no possibility of sighting any wild animals with so many people (including us and the local group who wer
e sitting in the forest) making hell lot of noises. The trail turned left again and now we were moving between the valley of Chembra and other peak almost same as the height of Chembra. The solo trekker soon overtook us. The path till the lake was good where we moved between tall grasses and had adequate shades. After a brief halt at the lake we started again and we reached near the watch tower at ~2 pm. The path from lake to the watch tower was dry and boring with hot sun beating us down. We met lot of people who were climbing and I was sure nobody would have hit the peak in this weather.
We managed to convince a jeep fellow (hired by someone else) to drop us to Meppady. We caught a bus to Kalpetta and were having a good Malayali vegetarian lunch there at 3 pm. All of us wanted to be in Blore by night (especially Raghu who said there was ChandraGrahan at 5 am next morning and he had to be at home by that time !) . We waited for more than 1 hr at Kalpetta for a bus to Mysore. Folks in our group were becoming restless thinking that I was supposed to manufacture a bus right there and take them to Blore. Finally (Kerala)RTC arrived at 4.45 pm and we were in Mysore to have dinner at 8.30 pm. A KSRTC bus brought us to Majestic by 12.45 am. This is very good trek especially if done soon after monsoon.
Cost per person : Rs 675
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