As I decided, I came back to this place...When I went over there, this place was not visited by much people because it was not as popular.. But soon after the movie (Ordinary-Malayalam), visits to this place went viral... Luckily for 'The Wonder' (Gavi), The people who are responsible to look after it, were responsible enough.. As per their rules, They didn't let more than a hundred people per day to adore its beauty.. This helped in maintaining it and saving it from being destroyed that easy...
We reached there the day before... From we, I mean Me, Razi and Pravi... The things needed for us to visit and look at 'The Wonder' (forest pass, vehicle, etc.) was provided by our Tour Operator who we recruited from Kumaly.. We were informed that the jeep which is going to tour us through 'The Wonder' will arrive at five in the morning.. Even though we decided to get up at four and get ready for the adventure waiting for us, we weren't able to get up due to the extreme cold or let me say, umm our laziness. And as its result we got ready to move by 5.30... Hehehe...... As planned before we took off from our place which was fourteen kilometers away. First of all situation over there was like more of darkness and fog that made it nearly impossible for us to follow the way, but luckily we got a good driver who knew the routes and drove as fast as he could to reach our destination in time, Vallakkadavu Check post..
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| This is us.. This is our Destiny... This is how we fly.. :) |
Talking about Vallakkadavu it can be defined as one of the entrance to 'The Wonder' and it is a part of Periyar Tiger reserve too. There is one more way to reach Gavi, it is through Angamoozhi checkpost. Gavi is situated in the Ranni tehsil under the Ranni reserve forest division of Seethathodu Village..It was February and the cold was more than enough but bearable!! We removed jeep covers not considering the cold, and thus made it easier for us to enjoy the scenery..When the gates had opened for us visitors, it wasn't too crowdy.. The vehicles were also 2-3 in numbers as there was a strict rule related to the entry of number vehicles in 'The Wonder'..!
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| Drive.. Anyone?? :) |
The Tamilians who were sent away from Sri Lanka during the Civil War also live at Gavi.. The Cardamom plantations in gavi was looked by these people.! They also helped the outsiders to tour 'The Wonder'!!The only place where the travelers and tourists could stay in Gavi is the Forest Mansion of Kerala Forest Development Corperation (KFDC), which has to be booked in advance..!
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| From Gavi View Point.. |
After crossing the green + beautiful meadows of 'The Wonder', we reached the Gavi Eco-Tourism Center at 8 AM... In order to move further it was important for us to register over there.. We wrote our names and address and came out of the building....
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| Busy talking... |
The tourism department provided all the tourists with breakfast and lunch... its taste was very much delectable... Its still there in my heart... After finishing it and hanging out there for a while we left for trekking at 9.30. To reach the forest we had to travel in a fiber boat.
From the starting of the forests there were footprints of elephants... Just as we walked, a guide came to us with two foreigners and randomly gave us an advice saying not to make much noise... And the next second he started making the most noises, we found it funny.. Even though we did want to speak back we didn't do that as a respect to his age and the forest rules too..!!
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| Boat me Boat!!! |
The forest was magnificent, thick and deep... There was even a brook flowing in which we washed our faces... we felt cool and wonderful after that... All the soothing and beautiful things in 'The Wonder' kept us from being exhausted even after kilometers and kilometers of walking...
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| How great can you be??? THIS Great??? |
Plastics were in a very low number in this beautiful place being the reason that not much humans have visited the place. On the way to Agasthyakoodam, one of such places, we got upset seeing such a beautiful place with junk all over... It is us, travellers, who have to maintain the places well and protect our nature which could even be called as a national treasure...
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| Adventure on Thought.. :) |
This time for, the vacation me and Pravi had already pre-planned about going for a tour...That is the reason for Pravi bringing sleeping bags and tent even though luggage weight for his flight had exceeded. Because of this, Pravi compelled to put the tent on. We assembled the tent on the spot we found out with in ten minutes.
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| Sleepy?? Not anymore.. |
After relaxing for over 20 minutes we carried on with our walking..... The only thing which we were upset of was that we couldn't even see a deer, but the hair raising experience of the cold breeze over there was so awesome that no words can be used to define it... the walk leads us to the other part of the jungle where we called our jeep driver to pick us up...
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| Garden ^_^ |
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| Garden Again.. ^_^ |
'Ponnambala Medu' and 'Sabarimala' could be seen from there the only difference was that the 'Sabarimala' was nearer..! Time was nearly 4 PM and time for us to bid our 'Wonder' our Adieu.. We dropped Razi at the bus stop at Kumily and started our journey to Punalur, Pravi's house.. On our way back we were again able to see monkeys and other such animals... The world seemed too small to the beauty of these forests.. I had never seen such a younger greenery ever... We watched all our directions to know if we can identify any of the creepers, herbs, shrubs, etc. Even though nameless they were, they seemed just perfect to it.. We decided to come again.. This was not the last time..
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| Can you guess??? ~An Elephant.... |
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| Malabar Giant Suirrel.. :) |
We went past the Vallakadavu Checkpost, out to our next destination.. :)
Disclaimer:-
Reading this you could have understood that 'The Wonder' is a place full of greenery, peace, etc., And mainly a place where you can totally enjoy the nature... So please dont come over here as a part of your dashing vacationl.. It is a place perfect to seek your inner self..
Dont please be angry if the staff wont let you in.. The only thing they mean is to save our own beautiful Gavi.. We are responsible to save it..
Thankyou.. ^_^
~Little_Angel (Editor Of English Side!!)
<3 ^_^ :)
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Translated version of my Malayalam travel blog post (click here to see the original untranslated post) by Miss Ab Baalan