by 
I had asked if it was a good idea to go to Kerala in the rains. Turns out it was. The three days we spent in Wayanad, the weather was perfect. Grey and cloudy, some would call it – I saw it as moody and romantic. And the last day, when we were getting ready to leave, the sun actually came out to say goodbye and come back. Oh, I will.
We stayed at the Annapara homestay – end of a mud road, only five rooms, no electricity, weak mobile signal, a fantastic cook. Bliss. And right in front of our room, the Chembra peak, covered in right mossy green. And a smaller peak right next to it, forever playing hide and seek with the mist and clouds – we did not get to see the actual peak in all the time we were there. Annapara, meaning the elephant rock, perhaps named after that very hill? We’ll never know.
We were lucky enough to have the place entirely to ourselves on the first day, when the rest of the world was busy at work and dreaming of the long weekend to come. A long walk in the muddy narrow trails of the estate (spread over 400 acres) with Praveen, our guide from Annapara pointing out the trees and flowers and the occasional rare birds – and the tiny leeches all along the way.
Out of the gate and to the right, coffee and tea plantations. Some pepper and vanilla too. But it is the tea plantations that are most visually appealing; they sprawl over the hills in a thick green carpet, with thin silveroak trees scattered in between in an indifferent manner – and best of all the women at work in the plantations, carefully plucking the tea leaves, heads protected by plastic against any sudden downpours. Shy smiles directed at my camera and nervous looks directed at the supervisor, who finally thaws when I start chatting with him.
And the noises – crickets, cicadas and some extremely rude argumentative birds, right in front of my room. And the flowers, a riot of colors, each begging me to invest in that SLR and macro lens now.
And the mellow light of lanterns hung in the verandah late at night.
To leave all that and get back to the real world. Three days later, I am still fighting the withdrawal symptoms…
yeah i know what you mean by that macro lens. the cameraman in SL used his macro lens on one of the flowers and boy!, did it look stunning !
niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice …
kerala … I remember not too long ago – a bong in our team mentioned that Kerala was greener than West Bengal … and that meant a lot coming from a hard-core bong!!
super-cool description of the place …
and as usual – love the saturation in your pics 🙂
how come no pic of Vamsi sticking his head out of the green hedges 😀
Your photos are awesome and the surroundings are wonderful.
Looks more like Assam tea plantations. No ?
great pics charu …. reminded me of my trip to coonoor years ago. not surprised you didnt wanna come back ..
Nice photographs and it fills one who has traveled to these misty, green hills with nostalgia.
WOW! that one shot of the temple with the people sitting, is simply amazing. Thats a great Pic. congrats! Great post, the pics were spectacular. BTW I found a new site I think you should post your story/pics on, its called baraaza.com
So check it out and keep the good pics comin’ 🙂
harini, yes! and I see you have been macroing with your camera these days!
Sach, tea plantations look the same everywhere I guess… want to visit coonoor too – soon!
cuckoo, thank you, as always 🙂
venky, yes, head sticking photo shall be mailed to you – all in good time!
kp, thanks! I am already nostalgic about that trip 🙂
Tony, thanks so much – will check out baraaza.com – are you associated with it in any manner?
Glad you enjoyed this. I always liked Wayanad during the rains.. 🙂
Hi, good photos. Did you go trekking anywhere near by ? Any pointers on the cost of accomdation ?
Hi,
nice photos good narration.
i would like to some more details of annapara.. like
wht is the rent for one day and check in and out timings……
we r planning for 3 days in the last weekend of january.
like to spend there for three days in annapara
How would it be to visit waynad in month of july?