Alphonso

Rambles at the Demon's Feet to Whispers of Banasura

This is a lovely opportunity to explore a slice of South India’s famous shola forests in the Wayanad region. This forest-grassland ecosystem is distinctive for its all-year-round verdure. The trees here are distinctive for being stunted, yet they feature many branches with small, leathery leaves. The leaves on maturity display a range of autumnal colours. A drone would return you images of their rounded and dense canopies in a variety of hues— a prominent characteristic of shola forests. Their upper regions in the Western Ghats are marked by grasslands, known as Shola grasslands. 

Shola forests, most importantly, are the friends of the farmers in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. That’s because they are also distinctive for conserving water, harvested from the Southwest and Northeast monsoons, and are thus also known as the water towers of the uplands of the Nilgiris and the Cauvery River delta. 

  • A wonderful introduction to shola forests— the unique water towers of Kerala and Tamil Nadu
  • Photops galore of this forested setting in the foothills of the Banasura range in Kerala
  • Leaving footprints in a rainforest and ruminations on coffee and pepper trails

This morning, you will drive off to the foothills of the Banasura range in the Wayanad region. The hills are very popular with trekkers. Leaving your vehicle behind, you’ll set off on a memorable walk. It’s a 5-hour walk; the climb up is just medium pressure.  Breathing in large doses of oxygen into your lungs and abandoning your senses to the serenity and magic of the forest, you’ll feel a change come over you as you enter the jungle. Forest bathing or Shirin Yoko is at its most precious in the first moments!

Moving on slowly, you’ll skirt past a small rural community to enter the shola forest with your naturalist guiding you along the way. The trail opens up to stunning views of the Banasura hills. After a short break in a forest clearing, you’ll start climbing up steadily, enjoying the sounds and sights of the forest along the way. The last 200m of the trail is covered by gravel and leads on to Frog Rock (Thavala Para in Malyalam), where you’ll break for lunch, drinking in the spectacular panoramas that unfold before you. The trail leads downhill, marching through a rainforest and then carries in through tracks in coffee and pepper plantations.  Use this opportunity for a bit more forest bathing before heading back in the vehicle, awaiting you at the end of the walk.

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