Trip with Ten
A long awaited trip sure was worth every second!
A gang of ten batch-mates meeting after a few years, a place filled with just too many scenic beauties, and three cameras to capture the memories.... in short.... a delightful and one of the most memorable trips for a travel enthusiast like me.
It all started when a friend proposed the idea of a trip to Chikmagalur.
Initially 16 guys were thought to be attending but finally the number stopped at 10.
Rajeev booked train tickets for Sagar, me and himself for onward journey from Hyderabad to Bengaluru and bus tickets for return journey.
An unexpected rain forced Rajeev and me to board the MMTS train from Begampet to Kacheguda and Sagar joined us there. The train journey was smooth and we arrived some 1:30 hrs late at Bengaluru.
Poor Ganga waited for us in the station for more than 2 hrs. We boarded the Tempo van (Thanks to Ganga for all the preparations) and reached Jaggu's place. There 11 of us met and had a few photo sessions and brief conversations. Sita dint join us for the trip and so the ten of us boarded the van all set for the trip.
10 batchmates, 3 dSLR cameras, cloudy atmosphere and a beautiful route made the 5 hour long journey to Chikmagalur a less tiring one. The homestay looked great both from the outside and inside.
On inquiring about any trekking places nearby which we could visit then itself, the host told us that if we start off without wasting much time, we could visit Mullayanagiri peak.
We all boarded the van and reached the trek starting point in an hour. During the travel, Jaggu started off the comparison with their previous trip - '8 months back... same plan, same faces... ppl fell many times. Now, same story repeat' :D
The peak is the highest one in Karnataka and most of the time the place is covered with clouds. The place is very beautiful and everyone got pumped up! After a short photo session everyone started off the trek.
DNV got his nick 'Bhairava' for obvious reasons :P DNV, Vamsi and me were leading while others took their time to trek on the gravel path. Through out the trek, the atmosphere seemed more like a foggy morning. In a few minutes, we all got separated out. The visibility is so less that in a few minutes one would feel as if one is the only person around. The howling winds, a fresh looking path, a secluded place...to me, the feeling all along was similar to that when we played football in rain. After we reached the steps leading to a temple on the top, we felt strong winds reaching upto 100 kmph speed. Stretching the hands and enjoying the gush of wind on the face is something we all enjoyed....except for Sagar. He got scared that he might get carried away and so refrained from moving ahead. We all moved ahead, clicked so many snaps, reached the top, visited the temple and the checked for leeches. We had none on us. The return trek felt almost the same and the visibility faded. The ones who reached the van first came for those of us who are still on the way and picked us up.
We were greeted at the homestay with the campfire setting. The host prepared Biryani and Sambar for us.
Having biryani at the campfire on a cold night is a great experience.
We sat there till the fire lasted and then got back to the rooms. It was at this time Sagar observed that both his pants got fresh blood stains. Probably he picked up a leech while he waited for us at the steps. Everyone had a sound sleep that night.
The next day morning we woke up at 6 AM and started off to Hebbe falls
We reached the spot at around 11 AM and then hired a jeep to go to the falls.
The jeep driver dropped us at two downhill treks so that we could enjoy the walk in the woods and take some snaps. And sure enough, we relished each and every step we took in the woods. We took some real good snaps.
This time also DNV and I were the first ones to reach the pickup points while others took too long. Probably the baggage and cameras forced them to be extra careful.
We took some more snaps and finally reached the place.
The driver told us that the water would be falling from some 600 ft and that the depth of water would be around 10 ft. When asked about leeches, he adviced us to apply shampoo to the body before entering the water to avoid leeches. I thought of going into the water and enjoy swimming after a long gap, as I am now aware of the preventive measure. The path to the falls is also very beautiful!
But to my surprise, after crossing the first canal, I noticed a leech sticking to my shoe trying to reach the sock. I flicked it off and then noticed another one on the other leg which is already climbing up the sock. After flicking that one off, I checked below my knees and noticed that one leech already managed to pierce my skin and started sucking my blood. After flicking off that one, I dropped my idea of getting into the water. After crossing another canal, I noticed another leech on one of my socks. All along the narrow damp path, I watched carefully for leeches before laying a step and I noticed so many of them moving on the path. And after reaching the falls, Sagar (Mabbu), Vamsi, DNV applied shampoo and got into the waters while I held the bag and clothes watching over my feet. I was too freaked out to put the bag on the ground as I was afraid that the leeches would find their way to the bag.
And so, I couldn't enjoy the sight of the beautiful falls whole-heartedly as I was looking at my feet more frequently than at the falls. In the meanwhile, the rest of the gang also arrived. They too checked for leeches, removed some from the socks, shoes and even pants.
Even while going back we had to cross the two canals and one more leech got onto my shoe.
Phew... We reached the jeep and checked our legs thoroughly for leeches and there were none.
While heading back to the van, we noticed the horrible road and the reason why everyone insisted to go by jeep. We had lunch at a dhaba and reached Bengaluru by 8 PM.
Rajeev, Sagar and I reached the boarding point by 10 PM and waited for our bus to come.
But......
It never came!
Or rather, it wasn't supposed to come.
The reason - there is NO bus from Mysore to Hyd at 11 PM on sunday night.
As I mentioned before, (well you might have discarded this info long ago) Rajeev was the one who booked the ticket. At 10:45 PM a Mysore-Blr-Hyd bus came and they told me that the bus is scheduled to depart at 10:45 itself. As Rajeev had the ticket, I asked him to go and check with them. After some time, he came back very slowly with his face down. He said - 'I would tell you one thing if you wont scold me'. We asked if we missed the bus. He told us to check the date on the ticket. It showed '1-Jul-2011'. And we were waiting for that bus on '3-Jul-2011'. Need I say anything more? Sagar and me had a good laugh. We thought of checking for other buses (as there are many buses to Hyd at that time and we could hear 'Hyderabad Hyderabad' clearly) but Rajeev told that this one had vacant seats.
We had barely enough money in our pockets to afford the tickets. Rajeev was still in shock, unable to believe the blunder he managed to pull off.
After settling in the seats, Rajeev told us how he approached the bus conductors and how one of the drivers pointed out the date in the ticket to him.
We recalled some horrible and sarcastic journeys from the past and then dozed off.
PS: A few Hindi lines crossed my mind when I was at the highest peak in Karnataka. Most probably those would make it to the blog in my next post :)
A gang of ten batch-mates meeting after a few years, a place filled with just too many scenic beauties, and three cameras to capture the memories.... in short.... a delightful and one of the most memorable trips for a travel enthusiast like me.
It all started when a friend proposed the idea of a trip to Chikmagalur.
Initially 16 guys were thought to be attending but finally the number stopped at 10.
Rajeev booked train tickets for Sagar, me and himself for onward journey from Hyderabad to Bengaluru and bus tickets for return journey.
An unexpected rain forced Rajeev and me to board the MMTS train from Begampet to Kacheguda and Sagar joined us there. The train journey was smooth and we arrived some 1:30 hrs late at Bengaluru.
Poor Ganga waited for us in the station for more than 2 hrs. We boarded the Tempo van (Thanks to Ganga for all the preparations) and reached Jaggu's place. There 11 of us met and had a few photo sessions and brief conversations. Sita dint join us for the trip and so the ten of us boarded the van all set for the trip.
We all boarded the van and reached the trek starting point in an hour. During the travel, Jaggu started off the comparison with their previous trip - '8 months back... same plan, same faces... ppl fell many times. Now, same story repeat' :D
The peak is the highest one in Karnataka and most of the time the place is covered with clouds. The place is very beautiful and everyone got pumped up! After a short photo session everyone started off the trek.
We were greeted at the homestay with the campfire setting. The host prepared Biryani and Sambar for us.
Having biryani at the campfire on a cold night is a great experience.
The next day morning we woke up at 6 AM and started off to Hebbe falls
We reached the spot at around 11 AM and then hired a jeep to go to the falls.
The jeep driver dropped us at two downhill treks so that we could enjoy the walk in the woods and take some snaps. And sure enough, we relished each and every step we took in the woods. We took some real good snaps.
This time also DNV and I were the first ones to reach the pickup points while others took too long. Probably the baggage and cameras forced them to be extra careful.
We took some more snaps and finally reached the place.
The driver told us that the water would be falling from some 600 ft and that the depth of water would be around 10 ft. When asked about leeches, he adviced us to apply shampoo to the body before entering the water to avoid leeches. I thought of going into the water and enjoy swimming after a long gap, as I am now aware of the preventive measure. The path to the falls is also very beautiful!
But to my surprise, after crossing the first canal, I noticed a leech sticking to my shoe trying to reach the sock. I flicked it off and then noticed another one on the other leg which is already climbing up the sock. After flicking that one off, I checked below my knees and noticed that one leech already managed to pierce my skin and started sucking my blood. After flicking off that one, I dropped my idea of getting into the water. After crossing another canal, I noticed another leech on one of my socks. All along the narrow damp path, I watched carefully for leeches before laying a step and I noticed so many of them moving on the path. And after reaching the falls, Sagar (Mabbu), Vamsi, DNV applied shampoo and got into the waters while I held the bag and clothes watching over my feet. I was too freaked out to put the bag on the ground as I was afraid that the leeches would find their way to the bag.
And so, I couldn't enjoy the sight of the beautiful falls whole-heartedly as I was looking at my feet more frequently than at the falls. In the meanwhile, the rest of the gang also arrived. They too checked for leeches, removed some from the socks, shoes and even pants.
Even while going back we had to cross the two canals and one more leech got onto my shoe.
Phew... We reached the jeep and checked our legs thoroughly for leeches and there were none.
While heading back to the van, we noticed the horrible road and the reason why everyone insisted to go by jeep. We had lunch at a dhaba and reached Bengaluru by 8 PM.
Rajeev, Sagar and I reached the boarding point by 10 PM and waited for our bus to come.
But......
It never came!
Or rather, it wasn't supposed to come.
The reason - there is NO bus from Mysore to Hyd at 11 PM on sunday night.
As I mentioned before, (well you might have discarded this info long ago) Rajeev was the one who booked the ticket. At 10:45 PM a Mysore-Blr-Hyd bus came and they told me that the bus is scheduled to depart at 10:45 itself. As Rajeev had the ticket, I asked him to go and check with them. After some time, he came back very slowly with his face down. He said - 'I would tell you one thing if you wont scold me'. We asked if we missed the bus. He told us to check the date on the ticket. It showed '1-Jul-2011'. And we were waiting for that bus on '3-Jul-2011'. Need I say anything more? Sagar and me had a good laugh. We thought of checking for other buses (as there are many buses to Hyd at that time and we could hear 'Hyderabad Hyderabad' clearly) but Rajeev told that this one had vacant seats.
We had barely enough money in our pockets to afford the tickets. Rajeev was still in shock, unable to believe the blunder he managed to pull off.
After settling in the seats, Rajeev told us how he approached the bus conductors and how one of the drivers pointed out the date in the ticket to him.
We recalled some horrible and sarcastic journeys from the past and then dozed off.
PS: A few Hindi lines crossed my mind when I was at the highest peak in Karnataka. Most probably those would make it to the blog in my next post :)
nice... leeches are a pain in the ass!
ReplyDeleteyeyey lagggy!