Stay @ Rippon Mount Resorts, Wayanad

During last October we with other couple went to Wayanad . We initially thought to stay at Green Paradise Resorts. As we did not get Kabani cottages in Green Paradise, we choose Rippon Mount Resorts for our stay at Wayanad.

Our decision to choose Rippon proved to be correct. The whole experience at Rippon Mount resorts was awesome except the journey to the resort.

It was almost 6 or 6.30 pm by the time we reach Meppady. We did not estimate that it would be dark by that time. It was too dark added to that it was heavily raining. We took lil halt in Meppady as it was dangerous to drive in that heavy rain. Then we started our journey to reach the resort enquiring the localities about the route. We are almost reached the resort with the help of localities and Resorts’ sign boards.

There we saw a mud road with no proper way; it was a sharp slope and was very difficult to take reverse or U turn. As it was dark, rainy and no proper road ahead in that forest area and could not see any one else in that place we thought we missed the route and landed in the deep forest. Thankfully we had our Airtel signal, then we called resort enquiry twice and they came till our vehicle with torch lights to take us to the resort. These torch lights are like sun rays some timesJ. This was a thrilling experience

By the time we reach the resort it was almost 8.30 as it was too dark we did not adventure to see the surrounding places. We had good dinner in Kerala style and took rest.

We wake up lil early in the morning and went to see surrounding places with our Cams. The Resort is on top of the Rippon hill facing the famous Soochipara waterfalls. The view is breathtaking from the suicide point.... it’s really nice to see the mist moving around and the sky touching the mountain, where the mountains are partially seen.

We took many photos in the resort and ventured to walk outside the resort for some time. This forest walk was a nice experience. We could hear live screaming, roaring of many animals from long distances during our walk. After walking for some time we came back to the resort had our breakfast and started back our tour from resort to see other places in Wayanad

I will write a Travelogue on This Kerala Trip soon. And check http://www.ripponmountresorts.com/ for more details on this resort.

Hogenakkal Waterfalls

Last Republic Day we went to Hogenakkal Waterfalls.

One of my classmates Suresh called me on Friday night for Hogenakkal Waterfalls trip with his colleagues on that next Tuesday i.e. Republic Day. I simply accepted it without any other thought as I was planning for the same for a year or so.

But on the Monday evening he called up again and said the trip is cancelled as one of his colleagues is not well. I was disappointed. As a last chance we checked with other friends. Finally one other classmate Subbu and our common friend Vardha also joined with us for the trip.

Suresh, Subbu, Vardha and me started on 26th Jan early morning. We cached Ernakulam Express from Bangalore Cantonment railway station to Dharmapuri at 6.30AM. Dharmapuri is the nearest railway station to reach Hogenakkal Waterfalls.

We reached Dharmapuri around 8.30AM. After having good Breakfast with Mottu Dosai (Egg Dosa) and Pongal near Dharmapuri bus station, started journey to Hogenakkal by bus. It was around one and half an hour journey to that place.

After getting out of bus, as usual many localites surrounded us offering boat services and Oil massage services. We did not pick any one of them for the service.

We directly went to waterfalls and started walking around the place. There were many guys having oil massage. But we did not go for that as the surrounding environment looks very dirty.










There is a small waterfall near the entrance. This is not the main Hogenakkal Waterfall. After a walk for 10 mins on the rocks we can see other waterfalls named as Cini Waterfalls and Main waterfalls.









Another view of this waterfalls











You can see main waterfalls atop of these hilly rocks or you can hire a boat service.

We hired a boat service. It is round boat. We call it as teppa in Telugu language. We paid Rs500/- for a 3 hours service.










We got into the boat. Subbu, Suresh, Vardha and Boatwala sit four sides of the boat and I managed in the middle.












First we visited to Main waterfalls. Waterfalls are smaller as it was not a rainy season. We managed to go near the water fall and get wet beneath the falls.












Then we had a circular boat ride near the waterfalls. This was amazing.






There was a shop with cool drinks and snacks in a boat in this lake. We purchased one bottle of Sprite and 2 Lays packets for Rs150/-. After having snacks we went around the lake for some time. During this boat ride we went to a hill. This is Karnataka and Tamil Nadu Border. That side of the Hill is Karnataka and this side is Tamil Nadu. We had some Tender coconuts on top of the hill and come back to boat.








One of our friends wanted to have a bath in the lake. So we went to a place which is convenient for bath. We came out of boat, took some photo graphs and started enjoying high at this place. One friend started swimming (Actually he know very little swimming). Other two started capturing photographs around this place. I started enjoying with Sunbath.




I just started with my sunbath, but I could not enjoy it as one of my friends lost his gold ring while swimming. We searched for that for an hour or so. As you know we could not get it back.

Finally we started our journey back to hill top to catch bus to Dharmapuri. While going back we have seen a small cave where a Tamil/Telugu Film Jaganmohini starring Namitha & Raja was pictured.

We could not catch Train back to Bangalore. So we reached Bangalore around 12.00AM night by bus.

Facilities available in Hogenakkal
Accommodation - No Accommodation available
Food - Average, Roasted fishes are available all over this place
Transportation - State run Buses are available, but not very frequent