Wayanad: Activities
You're welcome to relax in your host's home until the next meal is ready, but you would be leaving the natural beauty of your village and all the activities it has to offer on the proverbial table. So with help of the friendly, English speaking guides and the resident SaveAGrammer, include any/ all of the following activities to make your stay unforgettable.
Kuruva Island
Get taken on an environmentally friendly, non-motorised barge across the Kabini River, onto Kuruva Island: an island with multiple land-locked spots created by rivulets flowing through the island. Have fun trying to cross the rivulets, if you are sure footed enough, by jumping over the rocks as water flows beneath your feet!
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Pack a picnic lunch and spend a day there. There is a small entry fee into the island.
Farm Activities
Depending on when you visit, you can witness the harvesting season or the thrashing of the grain. There is a small mill that de-husks the grain in the farmer's plot itself.
You can help to milk the cow if you are game, draw water from the well or assist the lady of the house in her household activities.
Kalari Payattu
This martial art dates back to the 2nd and 3rd centuries BC and is a discipline that combines aspects of self defense using the physical body as well as weapons. Its graceful movements are more like watching a dance rather than a deadly method of self defense.
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You can visit a Kalari (the venue of teaching) and even learn a few movements during your visit to Wayanad.
Cooking Lessons*
Learn to cook a few of the simple and delectable dishes that you taste. Learn to grind using the manual stone and pestle, or of course, the 'mixi' that now most Indians use. Kerala cuisine is delicious and very different from what you think of as regular Indian cuisine.
Ancient Temple Trails*
You could follow the scent of the flowers or follow one of our mapped out Wildflower Walks to identify unique varieties of flowers growing unbashedly in the valley. Rhododendrons, peach blossoms, apple blossoms and carpets of daisy like flowers.
This is when you can whip out your DSLR and finally put that macro mode to good use.
Hiking*
Wayanad is in the middle of thick tropical jungles and the locals can tell you stories about the elephants that come to drink water in the Kabini or the occasional tiger that lurks around. There are government run wildlife sancturies that charge an entrance fee and can be combined with the trip to the Tirunelli or Trissleri temples.
Nearby, there is also the famous Appam maker, who makes a famous Kerala sweet known for miles around.
Local Community Tour
Wayanad is home to the largest population of tribal people in Kerala. This residential school featured here is run on donations for tribal children in the area.
If you have something you can teach the local school children, do let us know. We would be delighted to arrange a couple of hours for you with them.
*Activities not included in the standard SaveAGram stay and to be paid for separately in advance