Anbu Travel Stories- Part 2 | from Sulthan Bathery to Edakkal Caves

On Sunday morning(17 Mar 2019), at 7: a.m we all started to travel from Sterling, Sulthan Bathery to Edakkal caves. The Edakkal caves in Wayanad are located almost 14 kilometers from Sulthan Bathery.

We reached Edakkal caves at morning 9: a.m... When you reached to Edakkal caves there are some vehicle parking lots are there, from that lot you can park your vehicle's. Since from a kilometer before the premises vehicles are not allowed. Also, there is a fee for parking your vehicle. Once you park your vehicle start walking in the landscape road in the direction of the caves. While walking on that road you can see a beautiful view and you will feel a fresh breeze the entire way.

At the end of the walk, you will reach a ticket counter. Get your tickets here. As you take your tickets and enter inside the premises through the entry gate. You have to take numerous stairs. While walking on the stairs with my gangs we all took some group pictures, solo pictures, and again we happily walked on the stairs. While I reached to the top level of the stairs when I looked down and saw the ground view, I felt like fainting, some of the buddies caught my hands and said... be careful Anbu... then I'm alright and we all continued to walk on the stairs.

There are a combination of stairs cut of the stone and also manmade steel stairs in between the stones to provide connectivity.

Once you reach the foothill of Edakkal caves, the stairs get steeper and uneven. As we entered the cave, we could see a large number of figures engraved on the walls of the caves. There are many engravings we were awestruck for a long time.

Edakkal caves are Ancient Natural caves and major attractions of Wayanad. As I researched about these caves on the internet, dating this art is very difficult and may range anywhere between 2000 BCE to 4000 BCE.

In fact, some of these carvings and writings are beloved to have linkage with the Indus Valley Civilizations. I'm an Ancient Lover, I love to research about our ancient lifestyles, culture, and tradition also How they live their life in ancient days? So, I'm very excited about gathering information about the cave from the securities guard.

Here I linked the video link what he said to us...

The Edakkal caves are at Ambukutty mala. It is an ancient rock shelter formed naturally out of a strange disposition of three huge boulders making one rest on the other two with its bottom jutting out in between and serving as the roof. Edakkal literally means a stone in between.

From my observation in the carvings, I saw some religious man/leader, a healer/doctors, women, a four-wheel cart climbing a slope, a ladder steps, a millipede/snake etc.. Look below... Here I add some carving pictures.

After visiting the cave we all came out and took some pictures and we all continued the walk through the stairs. After we all reached the ground level of the stair again we walked on the landscape road.

Both the side of the walkway are, however, lined with several local shops. Many of these sell refreshments drinks like buttermilk, coconut water, tea, coffee, etc...

While walking on the landscape road you will need some of the drinks refreshing yourself... While returning from the cave I tasted buttermilk from one shop it's not a, as usual, buttermilk I felt it's something different taste and I like it a lot... Believe me, it's very cold and spicy buttermilk, I think everyone loved that taste. If you like buying things when on your trip, this is a perfect spot. Since it had several local shops selling mementos, locally made handbags, wooden handicrafts, and kitchen accessories, spices, coffee, tea, and several other assortments.

I'm not interested to buy any items but friends compelled me to buy some spices so I bought some spices and I loved the wooden coffee trays. while buying coffee trays the shopkeeper sis said it's useful for your marriage alliance function, I laughed and said to her... marriage, Ha Ha lol I won't do that mistake, also I'm not interested in marriages. After that, we bought all those things walked on that landscape roads.

I saw a hat from one shop. I loved it a lot so I bought and wore that hat. It's perfectly matched with my outfits. After wore that hat everyone said to me, you look like an Elizabeth Rani... I too said everyone my outfits are matched and similar to Madharasapatinam film heroines. I was flying in the air, Also I was so exultation up. While I'm seeing myself in a mirror often I fall in love with myself. On that day I love myself more than the normal days and I roamed with those outfits in that resort till midnight.

After visiting the cave we all went to Wayanad heritage museum. I will continue it in the next post.