Dandeli

About

Dandeli is a district in Northern Karnataka. The place is known for its waterfalls, white water rafting and the numerous other activities in the jungle. Its well connected from Bangalore ( and other parts of Karnataka) with umpteen KSRTC busues plying. However the best way to get there is to take the overnight train , hop off at Alnavar and take a ride to Dandeli. If u prefer to be more adventurous , there are other ways to get there too.

When

April 25-26-27 , 2008

Who

Ashish , Gaurav , Anshul , Prajna , Bharti , Jyoti , Radha , Divya , Madhav , Mansoor, Krishna , Suhas and Me (Deepak)

There was always the desire to go rafting and what better than the waters of the Kali river. It was with this thought in mind that we hit upon Dandeli. Post some quick phone calls , it was decided upon taking up the package offered by Jungle Lodges which included rafting , rappeling , a midnight trek , camping and some touristy rides. But I was told that Karwar was closeby too and it being a long weekend it was decided .. after numerous discussions about the "risks" involved in missing a train/bus/lorry/jeep/bullock cart/whatever , we decided to hit the Bangalore - Kundapur - Karwar - Dandeli circuit. It took a lot of convincing from me of the "Scenic Beauty" involved in the route and this name has stuck with me ever since. For a change we also decided to use the train-buses available instead of hiring the usual "Munna" TT service..

The D day arrived. But as usual Prajna had this "brilliant" :) idea of kickstarting our trip with "Secret Santa" and so a few days prior to the D-day , we had chits distributed amongst us of the people we were "destined" to gift something. So when the day arrived , as we came to office ,all of us had something sitting in our cube. My secret santa(no names here) decided to make a miniature model of the Train ride we were supposed to take from Kundapur to Karwar. It was a cute piece of work with "Scenic Beauty" adorning the model. Still sits in my cube today and people pass by with bemused expressions!! Each one had his own gift and tale to tell with someone even getting his own personalized video!! Appu had also made his grand entry ..!!


Gifts done , it was business as usual at work. We also had one person backing off and one new addition which thankfully evened up and almost gave us a fright. Finally we left for the Bus Station at around 8 and got into the comfy Volvo which would take us to Kundapur. The ride didn't start off with the greatest of feeling but I just let the thought fly away assuring myself that the journey - the place - the feeling of getting lost in the jungle would heal "whatever-whoever".I was sure it would. Since it wasn't our own private ride, no naach-gaana here and so we killed time playing a quiet game or two. Me, Gaurav , Krishna and Divya started playing this game of telling a story and suddenly things started getting senti-ish and with the arrival of Mysore , the game ended. Oh btw , we passed by good ol RV on the way..

Post Mysore , most of them drifted off to sleep but it was a pretty night and I lay awake taking it all with my phone a.k.a everything in 1 ,giving me company. The route started getting a little bumpier and better too.. We were passing "CoorG" .. Haven't been to this place actually and one place high on my list is a visit to the Kushalnagar Monastery and the Talcauvery.. I assured myself quietly that I'l be here sometime again and watched the bus sped past Madikeri ( the district hq of coorg). I could make out that we were descending with the bus taking twists and turns and the abyss towards one side gleaming in the moonlight( was a full moon night I think..check the calenders).. I might have drifted off to sleep probably coz the next time I saw out , the sun was breaking out and the roadposts said "Manipal".. The road was by the sea and as Surathkal , Udupi went past, we reached Kundapur and it was time to say Tata to the bus. I must admit the Volvo is one comfy bus except for the bad legroom...

The bus was on time and we had an hour or so before the train .. So much for the "risk" taking.After meandering on the road for sometime , we spotted a hotel and decided to freshen up. After polishing off some idlis and after a divine cup of coffee , we decided to head to the station. There were thoughts of gatecrashing into Krishna's home but we took pity and decided we'll spare him the thought for a later time. On reaching the station we still had a good 45mins left and so decided to play a quick game of cricket.





Teams decided , we were down to business.. Darn the match actually went to the wire with a bowl out deciding the fate, with the local junta giving some support. Exhausted , we returned to the platform and waited for the elusive train.

Finally when the train arrived , it was a run to the coach since the stop was barely a few mins and we were off.. After lazing around for some time and no scenic beauty we got down to business of dumb-charades and other earthly stuff..There were a few folks in the adjacent compartment who started dancing suddenly...

I could spot a thing or two such as the Murudeshwar idol in the horizon. A few tunnels in the route also gave some entertainment with the howling echoing through and the feeling of poking ur head out of the window(been doing it for some 20yrs now and yet it gives me the kick) ,watching the end of the tunnel in the yonder with the bright streaks of sunlight, sitting/standing by the door , by and letting the wind sweep you away,watching the bridges and numerous stations go by ..sheer delights of a train journey especially in the Indian Railways.. At one of the stops in the middle of nowhere , I actually went to the engine and asked the driver about the famed "Konkan" route and was told that the section in Goa and Maharashtra was the best..So much for my scenic beauty !! We finally reached Karwar around 12pm and were exhausted. It was hot and humid too. An auto took us to a hotel where we crashed off..

I was woken up from slumber by the TT guy who wanted to know when to send the vehicle when I thought he already knew that we were already miles away from Bangalore..After initially asking him to not take the trouble of sending anything,further probing and I gotto realize that he was referring to someone from the Richmond Circle office and I quickly asked him to check with the right person lest some poor souls were left TT-less..!! Awake now and hungry , post a cold shower we had lunch at 4pm and topped it off with some divine ice cream( who ever invented this should live forever in peace). Post lunch we decided to hit the beach and were off to the Rabindranath Beach of Karwar.



After a round of frizbee and post losing the frizbee , some caricatures sessions in the sand , watching the orange sun set admist a picture postcard setting at Karwar beach , we were back at the hotel. Post a Quick dinner, our ride to Jungle lodges had arrived and off we went.

The road was admist dense forests and it was really quiet enroute..That was outside..Inside was the usual gaana session on in full volume . Probably this scared the animals away too as we could only spot some wild cats enroute.We finally reached the jungle and its resort "Stanley Farm House" post midnight. The arrangments were pretty decent I must and we were also showed our tents set admist the wilderness. We were also told that elephants sometimes frequent the place!! Since this was the first time in the tents for most of us , we were pretty excited about the whole thing though Krishna's tent had some wild life loitering inside which made him the only poor soul to sleep in the room instead..:).. We finally hit the sack I mean the tent at 2am or so. My roommate or rather tentmate was Mansoor for the 2 days. After scanning around for friendly wildlife and listening silently for any cat-calls / elephants ,we were asleep in no time though it was pretty hot inside the tents..Day 1 had ended...




Canine alert!!

I awoke with almost a jolt the next day as there were threats being shouted off about letting loose a dog into our tents.. It was almost 7 am and there were still a couple of lazy bones still asleep.. After strolling around and a game of "chidiya ud" , some breakfast and catching up with the sights and sounds of the morning , we were set to go rafting !!!! It was the first time for most of us and we really had no clue about what was in store..We reached the banks of the "Kali" river. A round of do's and dont's followed and then we were asked to put on our rafting gear and grab the paddles. A war cry later , we were split into 2 teams and we got into our respective rafts. After paddling in still water till we reached the middle of the river, we were issued a stream of instructions and how to's . And then all of a sudden the instructor says this " Jump off the rafts and float" !!!. The waters were ice cold even in May and I didn't even know how to swim properly though we had the protective suits on.. Yet we were pushed off into the cold waters of the Kali.It was a chilling but fun thing to float in the river and then jump into the raft holding on to the rails. There were a slew of other instructions but I was too excite to concentrate!! Training done and a war cry later , we were off.. There were I think around 8 rapids and 2 of them supposedly big!! The synchronization to be achieved while navigating the raft ,the postures to be adopted while different phases , all were being shouted out as we hit one rapid after another. It was out of the world to experience water hitting you with all the force as the raft wobbled along. Divya even fell off the raft at one instance!! . There was this rapid where we were told to stop and navigate against the current and hit the rapid head on.. Once we did so , we held on as the waters of the Kali just swept our faces and everything else with such force which just cant be described in words here.. Finally we had successfully negotiated all 8 rapids and our tryst with the raft ended.. I wanted to do it all again but sadly had to jump off.. After some water splashing , rhyme singing in the water , we got into the ride which took us back to the farm house. It was an adrenline pumping experience and was worth every rapid literally.
Since lunch was sometime away , we decided to play for a while and hence started the game of "pithu" .. This went on for an hour or so till no one could stand .




"Pithu"



Not really "Idhar Udhar"


After finishing lunch and lazing around , passing time doing craft :) , we were set for the next big thing "Rappeling"!!!.




On reaching the hillock and standing over it , I started getting doubts if I could actually do this. The fear of heights had hit me again.. We were showed a demo and then it was our turn.. Mansoor went first and could finish it with no sweat.I tried to break it down to a 6-step process and I realized the 1st step was all that I had to brave and the rest should be fine. Armed with this , I decided to go .. I guess 4th or 5th.. The start of the climb down was scary to be simple.. Standing at the edge of the hillock with 2 ropes to hold on to isn't something I had dreamt of doing..All kinds of doubts like "what if my grip loosens? What if I forget for a split second that one shouldn't look down :) " ,cropped up.. Finally deciding that it was now or never , I took the first nervous stride down and slowly released the rope and was slightly vertical for a moment. This was Step 1 which was the scariest and 5 secs later I was horizontal again , feet gripping the rocks and hands gripping onto the ropes.. Though I wasnt 100% horizontal .. the way they show it on TV .. , yet it was a comfortable climb down.. But with my reputation of screwing up did show up , when after hitting a stone at the bottom , I left the rope for a split second and there I went slipping down till I gathered control. This was the only mistake I had made . The instructor said I was going good and should have concentrated more.. But I was happy , I had conquered my fear and done something I was very nervous about initially. The rest of the time was spent looking at the others achieve the same thing and barring 1 or 2 , everyone did a good job. It was dark now and we returned to the resort.


The camp fire was young.. A game of musical chairs ensued.. Me n Ashish ended up breaking a chair in the process.. Musical chairs done , it was time for some random dance sequences.. .Gaurav was as usual leading at his best with the others following.. What followed was a session of each one adding a new step to the story...replete with fixing bulbs and turning taps.. and completing the whole story. Exhausted we just collapsed on the grass and gazed at the star lit night sky till dinner was set.. Post dinner , we left for a night trek in the jungles.. Being summer , it was pretty hot as we waded our way past streams , spotting wild cats and scaring the birds away with the whistles and sounds made by us.. The torches were the only source of light and it was pitch dark all the way ( like as if you expect lights in the jungles).. Was disappointing in the end as we ended up spotting only a wild cat or two after nearly an hour of trekking through the jungles.. Back to the farm house , no one had the energy to talk also and all we were thinking of was to crash in our tents.. Thankfully for Krishna, his tent was all his for tonight with no wild life for company.. Thus ended Day 2 .. tired but an accomplishment filled day for most of us.. This was a day I would remember for a long time for sure..


It was almost 9 when I opened my eyes on a Sunday morning.. Atleast for most of us.. Quick breakfast and formalities done ,we left for a trek . This was a long and tiring trek in the midst of the jungles.. A few started singing along too but after a while the heat got to most of them.. After what seemed like eternity , what greeted us was out of the world.. Out before us was this beach like place with water all over.. After an initial skirmish where a few of the gang had turned adivasis , all of us headed for the water like fish.




No one was ready to leave the place and only after being told that what was next was even better did we listen and marched along. The trek back was actually quicker , informative as I gotto see how the insides of a crab look like and shorter and only then did we realize that we had been tricked into taking the long onward route :).. The next stop was a Jacuzee.. I knew jacuzees existed in a Spa and was curious to see what this was.. I was assuming this was another of those over commercialized places... But after travelling in the coracle and when I saw what was termed the jacuzzee I had to eat my words..



Set admist some rocks was rapid currents of the Kali. I could barely hold on to myself and was afraid the currents might sweep me away. It actually felt healing as you lay down in the water and felt the rapid currents hit you.. This was another out of the world experience ( I'm running out of metaphors). I forgot , we were joined by Anusha , an adorable little girl , in all these activities ,splashing water at us , trekking along with us.., who despite her age turned out to be braver than most of us :).. We bade goodbye to Anusha and headed back..

There was a pending visit to Sintheri rocks to check out some Stalagmites but most of the junta were dead tired and just wanted to relax before we called it a day. So we did and after a reallly loooong lunch , it was finally time to say Bye to Dandeli and Stanley farm.. Costs settled , we settled down in our ride .Our train was from Hubli and it was a 2.5 hr drive I think from Dandeli to Hubli.. It was a ride worth remembering as each one had to say a few words describing the rest and it was actually nice to hear people associate with quite a few things which you were never aware of. Finally Hubli arrived and our train was waiting .. No one was in the mood to sleep and so after a quick hog , we settled down to dumb charades and some mild masti in the train.. This went on till almost 2 in the night and slowly one by one people started leaving the game and settling down in their berths.. By 2 , all the lights were out and next thing I remember was waking up and finding that Malleswaram had gone by. My attempt at saving 20 bucks had just crashed.. We finally reached the City Station at around 8 or 9 in the morning . Bidding "tata" and promising to catch up in office in a few hours time , we finally boarded the autos taking us home..
Trip 2.0 - Dandeli had come to an end and one mindblowing trip it was.. . The advent of Appu , the sunset at Karwar , the currents of the river Kali , conquering your fear of heights , the jacuzee experience ... all in all a trip which left us with tons of memories .. .. . .

Mulliyangiri - Chikmagalore

About :

Chikmagalore is nestled somewhere close to the western ghats and is the gateway to the Malnad region of Karnataka. This region is bestowed with coffee plantatations , dense forests with hardly any sunlight penetrating throught.. Its a trekkers delight and more info can be searched for online..

When : 29-30 Nov 2008

How to get there :

A very good bus service from Bangalore but just be sure u take possibly the last bus out of Kempegowda bus station else you would find yourself in Chic-magalore at unearthly hours with not a coffee in sight. The last Rajahamsa leaves at 23:30 and takes you there by 5:30 and is possibly the best way to go there.

It all started when the call within me got stronger as it had been months since I had done a real trek with the rainy season done. So when Diwakar calls up and asks "macha trip barthiya ... all I said was "Yes Yes" .. Then started the planning phase and with a few names floating around we finally settled for Mulliyangiri..proclaimed the highest peak between the Anaimudi peak of Nilgiris in the south and Himalayas in the north. Enough said , you can find all this in the tons of blogs online..


So here we were .. Avinash , Shashi , Prashanth , Sampath , Vishwas , Diwakar, Vishwanath, Deepak(me)

at the Majestic Bus Station and here I was late as usual giving them a last minute scare.After the customary exchange of hi's , we got into the waiting Rajahamsa and it was a comfortable drive to Chikmagalore with the occasional rain in between.


The bus reached sharp at 5am and it wasnt till I got my coffee that I was actually awake. Prashanth suggested we stay at his hostel and we readily agreed given the cost cutting mode we were in these days..Blame it on the recession.. Bad joke.. Lets move on.. Wat was told to me as a 3km walk turned out to be a 6km walk at 5 am in the morning of a couple of half awake guys.. The only source of entertainment was a dog which walked us right till the hostel room!!It got its reward of human biscuits too.. After watching the Mumbai story continue on for a while and debating on the ways to end terrorism :) , we came back to reality.

After getting done with the freshening process and being treated to a sumptous breakfast..not bad for a hostel.. , we started off for our destination. After reaching the place where we had to board a bus to the trek starting point , we realized that we also need to pack our lunch. During this , we also missed our bus and cursing our luck we waited till we hopped into a bus which took us to Kaimara. The Sarpdhari or the start of the snake shaped path to the top was a 6km walk away.. As we walked along and after a few encounters with ahem :) , we finally started waving to
every passing vehicle till a friendly "uncle" in a jeep stopped by and we gladly accepted . We drove along till we reached the arch ,, which signalled the start of the trek. After bidding tata to "friendly uncle" , we finally commenced our trek.


Smoke rings.. do u see any ..

It was almost 10 in the morning and there was mist all around. After ambling along for some time, blowing smoke rings for kicks , we reached a fork.. This is a trekkers delight .. Of choosing the wrong path , reaching a deep scary abyss and returning back.Thats wat a few of us did while the rest had taken the path on the right which was the right path.. The trek got more exciting now and due to the rain and mist , the path had also become quite slippery .



As we climbed higher , the view below got prettier and scarier too. There was a stretch where to your right was a deep deep abyss and to ur left you only had some creepers to hold on to and the path was wide enough for a single person to walk and was slippery too.. One slip and you would attain nirvana. After some scary moments , we reached a lonely tree. The sight was out of a postcard. Heavy mist all around and this tree standing out fearlessly , it all felt worth it.. One could just about see the contours of the mountains in the mist around and it was 11am !!


one of the numerous breaks...


discovery of the last bottle of water

The path got a little more predictable from now and was laden with stones giving a better grip. However it did get a trifle steep at places where some amateurs like me had to hold on to every stone for grip. There was a sensation in me to fly away but I came back to my senses quickly.

The weather was perfect with the sun still hiding and the clouds giving us company. I was told about a change in vegetation with altitude and I could make it out clearly here.The Shola grasses , the mist laden webs .. this was something out of the world. After numerous such breaks ,, we finally could see the temple on the peak.



Feeling the ice cold water in the temple admist ice cold winds hitting your face was something which cant be penned down. Water never felt so better :)
The trek had taken us 2 hours to reach the very top and we were hungry . The packed stuff disappeared in no time n the dog ( its everywhere) was left cursing its fate.
There was also a cave nearby but we couldn't explore much of it due to the poor visibility.





After playing for a while with a cat which mysteriously appeared and spending some time in the temple , we bade goodbye and start the walk down along the motorable path. The haematitie laden slopes and the the near zero visibility slowly changed to a warm , sunny afternoon .

After walking for what seemed eternity , we finally reached the starting point of the trek where again a jeep suddenly metamorphosed out of nowwhere. However we had a problem . There was no room for me. I was egged on by the jeep guy to stand on the footboard behind and enjoy the view and said Wokay .. so be it. This was probably one of the best jeep rides I had been in. As the jeep turned, twisted along the mountain slopes with the wind kissing my face , I had a panoramic view of the world around me. I was really sad the jeep ride came to an end.Aradhna ( if uv seen the movie) types feel u can say.. wat was that song btw :):)

Post a bus journey , we were back in Chikmagalore , tired but content. We now had a few hours to kill and a brilliant thought emerged. "Lets go for a movie" , found support amongst the junta.With a few guys backing off ultimately Diwakar , Shashi , Vishwas and Me decided to go watch Dostana ( i now think a kannada movie in a shady theatre would have made more sense). After asking some hazaar junta for directions ,we reached our destindation .Though the theatre wasnt shady enough , it did well for Chikmagalore. The movie was one stupid work though with only "desi girl' offering a glimmer of hope.. returned back to the hostel , tired . After a quick dinner , as I was off to crash, I was told that it was someone's birthday and there was the usual birthday "cake + smear cake on face ( no one can say there was none on mine dat day :-) - whack " tradition typical of any hostel. Post this , I could hardly keep my eyes open and missed an important piece of information which had arrived courtesy the air waves , which I'l make up for quickly enough :) :) . End of Day 1

Day 2 started off pretty early... After polishing off some dosas at the hostel ( I must say again they were pretty good for a hostel mess ) , we were off on a touristy day . First stop was a temple where apparently sanskrit the language of god . Amazing that such places still exist ( I know of a village near Shimoga , Karnataka where Sanskrit is the language spoken commonly ).
Then post some chai paani we headed off to Bababudangiri . The route suddenly got cold and misty with clouds all around.



( Easy to quote Robert Frost in such a surrounding ,, it was as if the scene was right out his words ) . We couldnt see the Datta Peetha due to the mist and continued on to a waterfall. There we were told that its a tradition of anyone who wants to take a shower under the waterfall needs to ditch his clothee forever :-) .. Anyways after some usual snaps and banter around , we headed back to Datta Peetha which was slighltly visible now. But I must say , it was very windy and the ice cold winds made it a great place. I still rue not going to Gaali Kere ( Wind - Lake in Kannada) in this weather.

A quick decision was made to go to Kemmangundi next . A little gaana , listen to gaana and we were at Kemmangundi and hunger was coming now .. A shack nearby was the only option and we gleefully took it .


1 plate "chitra-anna" (a.k.a picture rice literally) -Rs.15 .
Getting shooed off - priceless
matter of survival of the fittest..

A few mins later I guess we were forcibly shunted off as the shack ran out of supplies.. We then took off to Kalhatti falls .


Monkey to junta log : "Scram...!!"

On reaching there , I was personally disappointed with the place as it was a commercial disaster and not an unspoilt secret of nature. Some of them wanted to trek for a while and go to the water. I also injured my leg in the process . It was really sad to see people leaving behind crates/broken bottles of beer .. The whole beauty of the place was getting tarnished. However the water in the upper reaches was slightly better and few of them jumped at it while I rested my bleeding toes.. The waterfall reminded me of Irpu Falls in Coorg with its step like structure.



After spending a hour or so there and some arbit pics beside some coffee seed :) .. we were back in the vehicle and decided to call it a day and head back to Chikmagalore.

We finally reached the KSRTC bus station in Chikmagalore at 5 . Spotting a restaurant closeby , we had a quick hog before pushing our way into a bus and crashing off . The bus left Chikmagalore at 5:41pm and as it made its way through the sunflower laden fields and as it started raining , a feeling of contentness swept me . When I got down at Navrang Theatre stop , it was midnight. I was dead tired and so dint even bother wat the rick guy asked for the fare and the only thing I remember next was waking up the next day and realizing "11 am .. Oh no..late to office on a monday morning!! not again .. sigh :) . . arbid .

Wayanad

About Wayanad

Wayanad is a district in Northern Kerala nestled amidst the beautiful Western Ghats . Its known for its "scenic" beauty ( :-) can't miss referring to this one ) and has a plethora of stuff on offer.

When : 21-22-23 March 2008

How to get there

Wayanad is 6 hrs drive from Bangalore . There are ample buses plying but my take would be to hire your own vehicle or even better drive all the way down .If u have a bike , thats even better

Formalities set aside , lets get into business..

One warm afternoon as I kept staring at my waves sitting in my cube , something suddenly hit me . It was close to a year since I had gone on a trek of some sort and this set off a chain of events which culminated in this blog ... Frantic search of places ensued , blogs ( thanks for them ) read and a couple of enquiries lead to a choice of places of which Wayanad was one of them ..
I had a couple of things in mind when I chose this place and I was just hoping I wouldn't be let down.. This was followed by tying up all loose ends such as travel , places to stay , learning some mallu-english ( think Prajna would agree after all those uncountable phone calls to people I dont even recollect now ) and finally a picture was emerging out ...

Day before the trip , I sat down and composed the last email which was sent out to a surprised few who dint even know where this place existed .. A few of us had made up our mind that come what may ,, rain or shine , we are going ahead ...

What then followed was an eager wait for the day to arrive .. Most of us were pretty excited from the morning itself and I guess we hardly spent time in our cubes .. Post lunch Mansoor, Suhas , Krishna , Prajna n Me headed out ,with Commercial Street close to office ,to pick up stuff to drink and eat .. It was a beautiful day with a slight drizzle on and so we ended spending all our time loafing around Commercial street ... It was 6pm by then and we only had a couple of hours before we left ..
Thankfully for me not a single one backed out!! It was finally time to say Tata to our comps..
The wait for the TT had began.. Some of killed time playing TT , a lil of the Wii , some soccer before the Pizza arrived and finally our ride had arrived .

Travellers :
Suhas , Mansoor , Krishna , Anshul , Gaurav , Ashish , Madhav , Bharti , Prajna , Radha , Shilpa and Deepak( Me)
who finally made it to the trip..

It was I think 10: 30 p.m by the time we left AMD's Poddar Facility and headed out to Richmond Road to pick up our last travellers - Bharti and Madhav, from the Mantri Facility on Richmond Road . A slight drizzle had begun to fall and after a quick refuelling we were finally headed out of Bangalore and its maddening traffic.

Traffic was slow as usual on Mysore Road and we crawled tilll RV .. Yes,, each time I go past my college RVCE ,, it brings back a lot of memories and it was the same that day .. We picked up pace there on things seemed smooth till we had our first flat tyre !! Things were happening already..

However by this time Gaurav was in his elements , inventing game after game .. We graduated from playing 5/6/7 up to a game whose name I can't even remember .. Basically one guy described and the other had to imagine n draw it and people were guessing .. Here was Radha with her directions like 17.5 degrees etc ... We then moved on to an antakshari of places .. Now this is when people started inventing places and we went to the extent of citing the local market .. ( Azadpur Mandi for starters or Yeshwantpur ) and Ashish was really at it this time coming out with places probably even fables wont have!!!

By now the road had become quite bumpy and it was close to 4 in the morning and most of the others drifted off to sleep... I usually never sleep in a bus and so here I was watching the beautiful night sky. .

It was 4:30 am when we crossed the Kerala State Check Post and we had finally arrived . What greeted me was stunning .. In Mid March , we had dense fog and the visibility had nearly gone down to a few metres.. I woke up a few and all of us just looked stunned at what we greeted us. Wayanad had given us its first glimpse .. .We zipped past Sultan Batheri and reached our base camp Kalpetta at 5 a.m . We had booked 3 rooms and since we reached early , we had to kill a little time in the bus itself. Most of them were tired and with a little of prodding we managed to get our rooms a good 2 hrs early..



A small note about the hotel .. Hotel Affas as the signboard says was a truly good find and all I can say is "Thank You" to the good samaritan , from whom I gotto know about this place ..
Most of us dint know what happened after as we crashed straight on our beds and it was almost 8:30 before we opened our eyes .. Krishna woke up first and the others followed . By the way , people in the other rooms were still fast asleep with no intention of seeing the morning sun..




After the usual freshening up , we headed out for breakfast around 10 I guess . It was Holi that day and so we thought the Hotel guy was playing a joke on us by giving us colored water .. But we later realized it was "root bear" . Post breakfast we debated n debated on what to see and what not to see and finally headed out to Soochipura falls.

The weather was amazingly cool for March with a slight drizzle and we headed out to Soochipira Waterfalls... The waterfalls can be reached after a slightly longish walk down a hill but it was worth it .. Here we had our first victim.. Ashish hurt his leg trying to impress someone which was followed by Mansoor beginning his saga of injuries.... The walk uphill saw Bharti n Mansoor climb trees ..etc .. Then all of a sudden there was this sudden burst of colour on my face . I looked back only to find Suhas all smeared in gulal . So , someone had come out with this brilliant idea of playing Holi in Wayanad and here we were running helter skelter throwing color .. The locals just stood bemused !! .. I have played a lot of Holi before however this was unique ..




It was almost 4 by the time we reached the hotel again .. Post a quick nap n lunch , we headed to Pookot Lake only to find that Wayanad shuts shop by 7 pm !! However some one suggested going to a viewpoint close by and what greeted us there was mind blowing. We had a bird's eye view of the winding road from Wayanad and the steepness of the landscape made me jittery !! However It was a sight to see.. Satisfied that we had achieved something , we headed back to the hotel . Each one had a song to sing in the ride back ( moi excluded :) ) and Anshul's flute too had us captivated .. A quick dinner and we decided to head out and check out Kalpetta ..





Think the cops thought we meant trouble and we were actually warned to head back..
So we trooped back to the hotel and with no one in a mood to sleep , we started our usual round of games . We started off with Dumb Charades and it was then that we gotto see somthing which definitely can't be described.. It was Krishna's depiction of " I always knew what you did last summer" and all I can say was this is part of Dumb Charades folk lore ... This was followed by the game we call " Village" where as usual we dint find the killer . It was almost 3 when we hit the sack ..This ended Day 1 and we had just about started with no idea on what was to folow..

Day 2 was meant to be the best of the 3 days planned .It was meant to be a trek to the Chembra Peak..

Suhas was determined to head out early and he was the first one to wake up followed by Krishna n then Me .. The others were still sleeping and a couple of loud thumps on the door and threats by Krishna meant all were awake ... Post a quick breakfast , we were about to embark when it started pouring .. A thought just crossed my mind whether we would make it but I was determined to go ahead.Come what may!! We headed out the Chembra estate which was the base camp .It was then that Wayanad showed us her beauty. The rain made it a chilly day and the drive up the estate was amongst the clouds..It was almost as if we were touching the clouds..
It was only after we reached the base camp that we were told we needed the estate officer's permission and so we had no other option but to head back.. Meanwhile I was trying to catch the morning mist in my camera and here came Bharti who wished to captured in as many pics .. Hmm. Plus we also had Krishna with his matrimonial pics .

Gaurav , Prajna n Mansoor decided to take an imaginary short cut and join us half way down while the rest of us went down in the bus.. The short cut proved otherwise and we never gotto see these people again !! They have a tale to tell of their own of the things they encountered.
After the drive down , the next thing to do was to find the estate officer which we did after learning a smatter of broken malayalam .. Since it was raining we also ended up doing some shopping and here's when I heard an interesting tale . Apparently a group of campers had forgot to douse a campfire properly and there was this sight of the burning Chembra Peak . From then on there was no camping allowed there and one need permission to trek. That explains why we goofed up . Anyways it was 12 noon by the time we again made it to the top and thankfully Gaurav , Prajna n Mansoor were there too with their tales..

Finally we were all set to go and I had this rush of adrenaline flow . The weather had relented a bit but still the sun was hidden behind the dense clouds .. I thought we were really lucky to trek in such weather in March. . Some of the girls were apprehensive about the Leeches but I was happy none of them held back and were raring to go like all of us and so we set out to conquer Chembra...





The trek started admist a lot of mist around and as we climbed up it got better and better.. It was tough to find a good grip too and when it started raining , all hell broke loose.. There were streams of water gushing down and people kept falling.. But we kept climbing along till we hit something called a "love lake" ..



The "Love Lake"


It was incredible to see a heart shaped lake at such a height.. With rain poring down and with freezing cold , we decided to call it quits here though the peak beckoned me.. By then pangs of hunger had struck and inspite of the freezing cold , icy winds blowing over n pouring rain , a make shift dhaba was setup under an umbrella with Anshul the main chef.. It was truly a sight to see everyone grabbing the first loaf of bread offered and within minutes we had wolfed down everything we had.. Bread never tasted better , I swear.



After the heavenly lunch beneath the umbrella

A few customary pics later , it was time to say alvida to the love lake n the peak and we started the journey down. The journey down was pretty rapid , literally with people falling off , sliding along and we were back to the TT in no time.
The journey back to the hotel was spent in silence ( quite unusual for us) as everyone was exhausted after quite an eventful day where the trek itself was in doubt.. After lazing away in the hotel for a few hours , it was time for the Wayanad Awards session to commence.



There were quite a few skirmishes esp with the funny bone awards ( which is debated even today) and things would have hottened up.. A few performances and a few awards n a few games later , it was time to end a tiring albeit well spent day.. Day 2 came to an eventful end.

Yawn.. it was a lazy beginning to Day 3 with aching limbs .. But we decided to head down to wat was proclaimed as one of the largest natural dams.. Yeah the dam n all was fine but whats the deal for us there.. Tats the question which arose in my mind.. Post some naach gaana , we reached our destination.. Armed with a tennis ball n a football we set out to make the most of what lay in store.. There was a speed boat ride on offer there but there was a long wait for it. We needed to kill time . Initially it started off with angling stones into the dam waters and to watch them dance along and then suddenly someone got this brainwave of an idea to pitch some wickets there and start off a game of cricket..



The war cry


Cricket in progress..




This turned into a full fledged free for all with new rules being framed every moment. It was time for the speed boat drive which was amazing fun but we just wanted to get on with the game we had to complete. We also had junta crowding around and shouting on.. Finally it was time to call it stumps and head back.. After a divine "fundae" a.k.a ice cream , we headed off back to the hotel . The next few hrs were spent roaming around , catching a few sights around and then a loong loong dinner at some place I dont even remember the name of now..
We left for Bangalore , tired but contended. However the story doesnt end here.. We were at Maddur's CCD at 1 am itself and we definitely had to kill a few hours.




There was a fundae session by Krishna on blowing smoke rings and it was almost 3 am by the time we left CCD. Reached Bangalore in the wee hours and dropping off everyone at their places..This ended a trip which was gives each one of us a high whenever we think of it..

Intro...

Let me start off by saying that I've come back to blogging after a gap of .. hmm . .I guess 4 years .. Good old engineering takes its toll.. As the title says , the travel bug is kind of fond of me and keeps biting me often and this blog would try to put all my thoughts into a place ..