A monsoon trip worth remembering

Today morning around 8 am my wife and her cousins picked me up from my home in Panoor for a trip that we planned. Though it was a planned trip, this was one trip that didn't go exactly as planned. Yet, it turned out to be one of the most memorable and fulfilling trips embarked upon. 

Whenever I would talk about my place in Kerala with my friends and colleagues in Mumbai, I would state that I come from northern Kerala and not from southern Kerala where all the tourist spots are. However, today's trip was a real eye opener for me. There are so many unexplored places close to my home, which can be explored in under 2 hours drive. I hardly ever heard any of my relatives talk about these places. I wonder why these places are still not top tourist destinations. 

The selfish me thinks that it was good that these places are not on the tourist map as it meant that there is no crowding at these places and we could enjoy peacefully and cover long distances in less time. The first place we visited was Edayar.  This place is close to Kuthuparamba and about 30 minutes drive from my home. Then from there we took the Nedumpoil Manathavady road. All along the road there were beautiful places. On this route we got to see a nice water fall. 

Below are few other pics on this route.

We had lunch at Kutiyadi and were actually thinking of going back home and skipping Vazhamala. We were initially thinking of targeting it for some other day. However, after some quick discussion we decided to visit Vazhamala today itself. A wise decision in the end as this place turned out to be the icing on the cake.

Vazhamala which is just 40 minutes drive from my home in Panoor was the biggest surprise for me. An awesome place, so close to my home and still never heard of by me until a day back. We actually took the wrong road on way to Vazhamala but then this place in the photo below is where we reached despite being on the wrong path. A testimony to the fact that at times, it is good that things do not go as planned. 

Check out the below video of Vazhamala which we reached after doing course correction. The views from this place are mind blowing. We actually missed out exploring a point at Vazhamala but it could be covered only by walking and it would have taken 30 minutes one way. So, we chose to come back again for it.