Hitting back the roads of Dehradun

Morning was busy with every one getting ready to start an early descent. The kitchen staff were now preparing the most delicious Parathas with Egg Burji. I was so glad I eat egg, the combo tasted so well. The demand & supply was never balanced & naturally a long queue waited right outside the kitchen tent for their turn to get a hot paratha on the plate. Must say I ate greedily! One of the Parathas from Suma's hand got grabbed by the dog battalion and there was roar in crowd feeling sorry for suma or a display of anger for the negligence.  The dogs ran away with it & swallowed within seconds.

The pace of the team to reach the base camp & start their next journey towards different places was high enough not letting us take much break. The group was almost running down the trail. And finally Sankri was visible, not too far on the downhill. On reaching the Base camp, we waited patiently outside the IH office till a hot tea & biscuits came in. Raj Mohan ji was here to welcome us with a clean shave looking much younger than he looked before. The ceremony to distribute certificates started with the crowd cheering after calling out each name who would proudly come up to collect his token of accomplishment from Raj Mohan ji & Bharti.

 Meanwhile our luggage got loaded into the vehicles which would drive us back to Dehradun. The last night we had planned that we would visit Rishikesh & Haridwar. The drive back to Dehradun was much easier with a small nap albeit curvy roads. The tired body made no complaints for the bad roads and slept quietly till it reached the city of Dehradun by night almost at dinner time. We checked into a hotel close to railway station and helped ourselves with food in a ok-ok kinda hotel. After a long time we would be getting to sleep on a bed, dirty though but who cared. Sleep had to win over all odds around. 

The next day was to drive not more than 1 hour to reach Rishikesh. Ram – Lakshman Jhula was since long in my travel list. For its serene ganga following below these bridges, the beauty is beyond consumption. The Sun spared none but it was welcoming. This place as well is crowded with Phirangees roaming in odd colored clothes. Many young lads throw themselves on this river bank drinking alcohol in a place with is otherwise known for its spiritual richness. Numerous yogis have made this place their home and hence considered to be THE place for anyone who is looking out for spiritual growth. Several times in the past I had thought of coming here find a guru to learn Yoga, now I was forced to think twice.

Haridwar wasn’t too far but it was already evening & had to skip the visit to the temple with a hope to  visit these places again. We drove back to Dehradun to catch a night train back to Delhi. We met Danny, Imran & Shimoo in the railway station who had watched Dabaang-2 to kill time in the city that day. We reached Delhi the next day morning around 8AM. Danny & Imran departed to airport while Shimoo had all time on earth to accompany us to Akshardam. Yes! I finally made it to this beautiful temple.

The very first sight of this temple is breath taking. The security was pretty appreciating, me & Suma got all possible strange looks for the tracks and huge shoes we wore. The temple has a long garden stretched out. Cleanliness was prominent at every corner of the temple complex. User friendly boards, audio tapes helps one enjoy every statue and architecture throughout. I so much wish a similar setup in our heritage temples back in Karnataka. It would be so appealing if places like Hampi, Halebidu, belur, Aihole, Patadakalu and many more places having their stories put across in such simple way for everybody to understand and appreciate. Without even our knowledge we had spent close to 6hrs in this place. The story of Swamy Narayan depicted in the form of a movie is so creative. Except for the evening’s musical fountain we missed nothing in this place.

We took an auto back to Nizamuddin station from where me & Suma were to catch Rajdhani express. We both were so very excited about this train journey right from the beginning of this holiday. We had dinner outside the railway station, a uniquely awesome ambienceof this place helped us kill time. Shimoo dropped us near the train & said bye to us from here to catch a bus to Ambala. He was fun to be with & a great company in Delhi.  We occupied the side lower and upper birth and sat there the whole day & night watching the train cutting across the length of this country. We never checked our mobile phones or watches for time. Slept for more than half of the journey and plugged my ears to some good music. Book dint taste me much than sleeping like a lazy bug. I dint even realize that it was the start of a new year when we got down at Yeshwantpur railway station in the morning of Jan 1^st 2013. It’s a Happy wala New Year!! 

On the summit of Kedarkantha

When ever I am writing about the day of summit I am as excited as I am on the day of climbing it. All of us would have had imagined the peak in our own way, and would wait for this day to actually experience it & no wonder the summit is way beyond one’s imagination. It is difficult to capture its beauty with anything be it with words, a camera or your beautiful eyes.

With yesterday’s good night sleep we were full of energy to conquer the summit. With our crampons on, walking on the snow became much easier. With its fine grip it was difficult to fall off balance. The climb started early by 7am. The weather was clear with enough chill to keep us shivering as we reached summit. Initially I managed to walk without my gloves but soon the blow of wind was so quickly made my hands go numb. I then managed to play with my camera with my gloves on. We stopped to see Raj Mohan running on the edges of the mountain and climbing the trees like a monkey to catch signals on his walkie-talkie. He seemed least worried about the steep cliffs and slippery snow, having been on these mountains since his childhood made him feel at home.

Raj Mohan Ji

As we reached the summit, the blow of cold wind increased. Few among us with woodland shoes had tough time keeping away the ice & the wet shoes troubled them for the rest of the day with frozen feet.

The summit was spread wide enough to accommodate all the climbers on it. Right on top a typical arrangement of flat stones in a square on which a trishul was crowned. Few prayer beeds hung on this trishul and Gharwali people being extremely god-fearing will not entertain even the slightest disrespect towards god. Raj Mohan ji on reaching summit, kneeled down and spent some time quiet closing his eyes, moving his lips chanting the prayers. Inspite of being a non-believer of this whole setup, I was feeling good to see someone pray so innocently & the summit offers all its positive energy by just being there.

Few escaped from the crowd to catch some quiet time to embrace the beauty around. While Raj Mohan Ji patiently waited till the last climber reached the top and then took us around naming each peak surrounding us with its altitude, distance of trek & difficulty levels. The list seemed never ending!! The story of shiva being on this peak get its name after him. After all this Q&A seesions, we celebrated our joy clicking pictures and quickly started to get down the mountain back to the base camp.

The snow was very dry not letting us enjoy a good slide. We still managed to slide down short distances at the cost of hurting our back sometimes. Back in Kedarkantha Base camp, a yummy lunch welcomed us. My Schoolmate Mahesh was in the next batch which had already arrived at the KK Base camp. His friends had cursed me throughout their trek for suggesting this trek. I could see their frustration of being in this cold instead of enjoying a nice holiday on their bikes. This was not their cup of coffee.

Wished them luck for the rest of the trek. And we started our descent to Har gaon. Unlike ascent, descent pushes me to the sweeper group. I enjoy this one too. Bharthi got along to add more fun to the descent. We shared a belly laugh imaging sliding down till the Har gaon camp. She had plan to crash land on the snow near the campsite, dust the snow from her body & in full style, get ready to welcome the others while they drag their body towards the camp. :D

Har gaon was a beautiful place to relax after the summit but this was lot more colder and windy than the previous night. We threw the bags into our tents and went straight to get some warmth around the fire. The fire was not lit up yet, troubled few people in the group and I still remember how rudely this guy(I don’t want to mention his name) demanded the campsite person to get the fire ready right away. I felt extremely sorry for Pavan(Raj Mohan ji’s son) for becoming a target. Providing this basic facility itself is way too difficult than we imagine & instead of being grateful we offer no sensitivity for human values. Over the night I saw Pavan & another guy walking into the dark holding huge bottles to bring drinking water for us. My heart sank in pain. When it was impossible for all of us to stay away from fire even for a minute these people are struggling so much for our well being. I can probably not forget Pavan’s helpless face for long time. 

 From left, Pavan & Thirappan Ji.

As the sun went down, the sky changed its color every second. It was mesmerizing to see the nature so beautiful & dynamic. 

Beautifully captured by Kunal

 The cold was too unbearable and the campfire seemed the best place to spend our night. But strangely Snowy & two other dogs kept barking every now & then keeping us wonder if there were any animals close to the camp site. We flashed torch lights into the dark to see nothing but snow all around. As we stood around facing the fire, our back would freeze and forced to turn around to make it feel better. After several rounds of facing and turning back to fire, Danny came up with an idea to stand with your side facing the fire. Ah this one worked. Ghost stories soon occupied the discussions after we ran out of topics to munch on. And finally when it was too late to sit around the fire any longer we went into our tents and locked ourselves inside the sleeping bags. Our dog battalion barked the whole night keeping us almost awake throughout.  

On reaching KedarKantha Base camp

At this moment I was only happy that there were just two more nights to be spent in the sleeping bag. Morning when I came out of the tent to pour in some hot tea into my cup I realized that it wasn't me alone but the whole team had a similar plight the previous night. One would say I could sleep for only two hours while the other would sulk for not getting sleep even for a minute.

I had no other option but to make some deal with my heavy bag to stop it troubling me further. JP Sir had a huge army bag which was to go on Mule. So a jacket and couple of extra clothes of mine perfectly got fitted into his bag. And my back was much happier after this. By the time we could start our next day’s trek, 2 of them in the team had decided to go back to the base camp. My stomach was upset from last evening which dint let me eat Chole-Bathura for breakfast. I had to sustain with my energy bars and fruits. Since it was only me & Suma as women population, Bharti was extra sweet to us. She could very easily make out if even one of us had not come to the dinning area. She would call out for us loudly if she doesn’t sight us around for while… :D That was very nice of this lady.

  

It was very late like 10:00am we started the day’s trek. It was an easier climb than yesterday. And with the lighter backpack and smooth walk on snow we reached Kedarkantha Base camp. The tents were laid on a flat surface and everything around you is just snow. The Christmas celebrations were evident in all the tents with a santa cap on all of them. And a snow man beside our tents. There was enough sun to keep us warm till dusk. The camp leader of this camp, here comes the most impressive person in this trek, Raj Mohan Ji. Its difficult to describe him but he was a synonym of qualities like Dynamic, quick, sharp, strong, humble & lots more. I only remember when he started to speak & he went on & on till we completed the trek. His voice was in the background almost throughout from now on, even when he was not around. He gave us instructions on using the crampons and basic facilities available at the campsite. Bharti was in high spirits to make another Snow man in the ice. The ice was as dry as sand, it was difficult to make even a small snow ball forget a man standing with a huge tummy. We then decided to make a snow mountain and dressed it like a man. And then started the snow bullets bombarding on us. We played till almost the previous batch left the camp after their successful summit.

Just when I was ready with few more fresh layers of clothes, I heard RajMohan ji calling for us to assemble on the snow. I could not afford getting my clothes wet, I quickly pulled out few layers and was back in 2 mins. We all cursed and wondered what on earth was he making us do on the snow now. Will he make us slide or yet another snow man ???? Unfolding the surprise he went on to demonstrate how to save ourselves from avalanche. Interesting! I was now hiding myself behind the tall guys for not becoming his subject. Unfortunately my tiny stature made it convenient to conduct his experiment on me. Even before I could realize, I was sleeping inside a sleeping bag covered all over with thick blanket of snow. The moment my face was covered my mind started racing to get out of it, my mind shouted inside my head to just throw away all the snow pressed on me right away & get out of that bag. With great difficulty I held back my otherwise reactive mind to stay calm for a while and very politely told Raj Mohanji to keep my face uncovered. I am dead Claustrophobic. Recollecting that scene even now makes me uncomfortable. A little while from then, I realized how warm the ice can actually make you feel inside this Igloo. I was the “Igloo-women” of our batch.

They struggled to cut down a tree to feed the fire. I almost felt dead waiting for fire to be put on, I took refuge inside the kitchen tent. Once again, his experiences in Indian army, stories about the life in army, siachen and several other stories kept us listening to him with amazement. Raj Mohanji would go on. We assembled around the campfire again after dinner for few more stories. And then most of them decided to catch bed and compensate for yesterday’s loss of sleep. Few of us had no hopes of getting any sleep and we preferred to stay around the fire than to stay stagnant inside the cold sleeping bag waiting for another night to get over. Sitting around the fire was an awesome pastime. Exploring everybody’s hidden talents. Ha ha J I had strong plans to kill Danny at the end of the campfire session for teasing me about everything I was telling. Shimoo would go silent the moment I asked him anything about Jaguar. I kept eating his head and he begged me to spare him. In between these conversations, JP sir would choose to share his experiences on his past treks. Shubhoo tried to make an excuse and get into his tent but he wasn’t let to break the campfire promise. We fixed the time to get into tents as 10:30PM but the interesting sessions, stories, discussions, arguments & what not, forced us to extend it till 11PM.

The tents were set with sleeping bags and all we did was to drape the two layers of sleeping bags on us and waited for the sleep to conquer us. To my surprise, the sleeping bag almost felt like a cradle and I dozed off in no time and slept like a baby.

Journey to Juda ka Taalab

At a very relaxed pace, the whole team assembled near the tea shop at 8AM. Few among us moved their backpack on Mules to the higher camps. It was obvious that I would carry the backpack myself but this turned out to be a bad decision later during the trek.

As a part of green trail, Me & Shubhojit carried gunny bags to pick up plastics thrown on the trails. By 8:30AM we started our first day trek to the next camp. One strange thing during the trek was there was one dog who would join us in every batch. It seemed as if the dog community in Sankri had decided to send one of their representatives with us for every batch. Snowy was incharge of our team :P He was really a sweet dog. I had never seen a dog so polite and quiet. He always led the team with a winner’s spirit.

Today’s trek was mostly a climb so turned out a little difficult more because of my heavy back pack. I managed to stay ahead with small steps but every step charged heavy to my shoulders. I blamed myself for carrying some many clothes but meanwhile felt that the temperatures would demand them. I was wrong. It was a costly learning.

By this time we knew each others pace and aligned accordingly. The sweeper group wasn’t so slow in reaching our rest point. We peeled out oranges and bananas while resting on the first few patches of snow. We took another pit stop 15 mins before reaching the camp, near a frozen lake. Bharti became an easy target for all the snowballs. One huge ball of snow which missed Bharti came and landed right on my left part of head and I was like “Where am I? & Who am I??” for a second. By early noon we had reached Juda-ka-taalab.

Don't miss to see Danny & Shimoo flaunting their accomplishment :P

  Ten tents pitched on patches of ice. And the lake (hence the name JUDA KA TAALAB) was adjacent to the camp right next. A picture perfect place for all the cameramen. We were hungry and as promised by the organizers, we had paneer subzi for lunch. Delicious food never lets you stop eating. May be the cold also demands more. Post lunch, our cameras were out clicking the beautiful pictures of the camp site and surroundings. One side of the lake’s bank was covered with snow completely while the other was still dry. We sat on the grass embracing the sun shine. With time the sun moved down and the very next moment you would feel cold forcing you to move up the mountain where it was still sunny. This game continued till we reached almost top of the mountain and finally when we saw the sun on the tip of those tall trees we surrendered to settle down trembling in cold. Provided we humans could climb with ease, I’m sure all 30 of us would have been clinging onto 30 tall trees till the sun was gone.                                                      

                                                                                       

                                                                   - Above photo clicked by Kunal Shinde

               

This is when I actually got to explore our trek lead. Bharti had a story which I so much wanted to hear. At one moment I felt she is speaking of my future. Brave women with lots of dreams and passion, yet a long way to go. I admired her for the – “think different & dream” attitude. At the end of this conversation I was in a totally feel good state of mind.

When we were back near the campfire, the rest of them were already around the fire enjoying a hot cup of tea. We then thought of quick activities. JP suggested that we play “Dog game” which made the group go LOL for a long time. Memory game with our names and then prefixing it with adjective came in next. The major activities after the day’s trek was to sit around the fire and warm up. With night fall we were comfortably seated close enough to feel the warmth of the fire. Every hour we checked the dipping mercury levels in the thermometer.                                        

This was when almost 50% of us were cursing ourselves for taking up this trek during this mad winter. Most of us made strong promises not to repeat such blunders in future. Few imagined how otherwise they would been sleeping like a baby in their cozy beds back home. Such was the night’s cold. It dipped till -4 degrees that night and the cold breeze added so much to worsen the condition. The tents were not better than outside, few had plans to sit around the fire till dawn than to go sleep in the cold tents.

    

                         

                                                            - Beautifully captured by Kunal 

This night I hardly must have slept for an hour or two. I could not move my body as the sleeping bags dint let us. I would feel suffocated if I cover my face while if I don’t my nose would freeze in cold. My toes were frozen the whole night not letting me catch sleep. This was worse than what I expected. I wasn’t felling any good that night till my alarm started at 5:30AM. I realized that I was sleeping only now. I cursed for not keeping it in silent, I dint want to move my hands out of the sleeping bag. And finally it was another day. 

Bangalore to Sankri - Kedarkantha

No wonder Himalayas is always my top choice when it comes to spending a long holiday. It’s more than just trek or travel or holiday when I am in Himalayas. Sarpass opened a plethora of peaks in Himalayan range to my to-do list. This time I was in Himalayas not for answers to my questions but for a quieter mind. On a lighter part, this trip was not just greeting a new peak in Himalayan range but also to meet and make new friends.

With Aravind’s suggestion to go with Indiahikes and a little browsing for other information I was convinced to do a winter trek in kedarkantha, near Dehradun with IH. It was initially me alone, Suma joined at the last minute. This time there was bear minimum things to shop and everything except one thing fell in place. The winter cold brought second thoughts about my survival in the trek. I had never before experienced negative temperatures. I was worried and at the same time thrilled. Fitness was'nt a big concern as the daily trek distances was short.

Few things I greatly appreciate about IH, they initiated mails to share our contacts and our cities. This was a great relief for me as I was traveling alone. Bharti, our bubli beautiful trek lead had kept us well informed of the DO’s & Don’t’s for the trek with a series of mails. I remember receiving a mail few days before our trek telling the snowfall in Base camp and the discussions regarding the higher camps getting tougher to reach. With all these correspondence, we knew well in advance how to prepare for the situations far there. They responded quickly for all our queries, small, big, serious or stupid.

We flew to Delhi on Sunday afternoon. The capital was burning hot with the protest against the Gang rape happened just a week back while the temperature soared low and the city was dark by 6PM. With a pre-paid taxi we both safely landed with our luggages at the NDLS railway station. I had skipped my noon lunch for some stupid reason which made it more difficult to bear the cold. We walked around the station and found a small shop and had hot parota with dal curry. For the next one week I knew we would be having pretty much the same menu. I was preparing myself for it.

Back in the railway station we waited in the entrance for close to 3hrs till JP(read as JayPrakash) joined us. Those 3 hours probably will always remind me of what is Delhi’s cold. We restlessly watched the display board for our train till it finally showed up to reach the station on platform 14. We moved to platform 14 and parked our luggage near S3 coach where JP joined us. In no time Charming Chaitanya & Vasuki from Bangalore exchanged greetings. Followed by Prakash and his brothers Ananth & Srikanth. It was a sense a safety and at home feeling to meet them before we boarded the train 11:55PM to dehradun.

I must mention about this city – Dehradun. When we were kids, we played a game called Business which had a list of cities to which we moved our players. And one of the places on this Business was Dehradun with a RestHouse. While playing this game I still remember wondering that one day I would truly visit these places. So As soon as I got the train at this city I recollected those memories with a child-like smile on my face. It was just that I am playing the game of life this time. Or may be some one else playing a game with me as a player.

As soon as we reached outside the railway station we realized almost all trekkers heading towards KK trek were traveling in the same train. There were 5 Cabs waiting for us in front of Grand hotel just outside the station. 6 of us in each cab started our day journey towards Sankri, our base camp. We passed via one of most famous hill station Mussoorie. Once we crossed Mussoorie there were endless number of mountains we crossed. The drive was extremely scenic with mountains growing on after the other as we drove along the mountains. There were valleys running between the mountains. These snow-fed rivers were almost dry at this part of the year as it was winter. We could hardly see thin line of water flowing between the rocks on the far mountains. At certain places, the roads connecting two mountains were under construction. The curvy roads made our stomach experience a rollercoaster. At few points the driver stopped letting us click pictures. Unless your stomach is not angry about the drive, it is one of the best roads to enjoy a long drive listening to some soft music. I enjoyed watching those mountain ranges till lunch time and post lunch I dozed off. The scene was the same endless mountains even after I was awake. At few places the contrast of sky and the mountains were magical. The sky was clear blue at times and little later small patches of cloud scattered in the sky. Blissful scene to watch. Our cabs was the last one to reach Sankri.

Our accommodations were arranged in SwargaRohini hotel. The room was cozy little kingdom for the night. After quick fresh-up we went around the place. This place was again surrounded by mountains. Sipping a cup of hot tea, we stood watching the sunset behind the mountain far on west. We met Rahul & Bharti who informed us to gather for briefing. The room was filled with 30 excited trekkers along with the organizers Rahul & Bharti.

A short round of introduction about IndiaHikes organization and about each of us. It was dinner time and I missed the count of hot chapathis I galloped. The night sleep was sure to come in that soft bed.

Kavi Mane Karedaga...

After a couple of unsuccessful attempts to drive to shimoga with friends I decided to drop oh no postpone the plan till my love becomes mine. Fingers crossed!! But shimoga refused to get out of my mind. Travel freaks were busy to join & hence it was my sis, bro & Suma who made it along with me. Plan took strength only the previous day when Chaitra helped me book tatkal tickets. Unlike all my jaunts the plan was not so concrete except for two specific places that was a “must” visit.

Shimoga’s chilled morning woke me up when the train was near Badravathi. I had some how missed to carry warm clothes this time in spite of being aware of December weather. This made me tremble in cold. On reaching the station, the vehicle which was booked was waiting for us and in no time we reached University campus where we had booked a room. The cold made us doze off again in the rooms. But nevertheless we all managed to get ready by 7:30am to kick start.

A light breakfast in shimoga city, we next stopped for a little while at Gajanur dam. Almost every dam I have been in the recent past are closed for visitors for security reasons. The dam is long spread across the breadth of the Tunga river.

Sakkarebaylu – elephant camp was all welcoming with few elephants already taking bath in the river. Elephants are one of my favorites creations of god. Sixty year old Geetha was just then fresh after a bath. She patiently posed for the pictures while 90 year old Indira was still in water letting shakeeb her mahout, brush the mud out of her body. Me & Suma pulled our pants and got into this business. Every time Indira moved her body we were scared & stepped back to check if she was fine with us & checked with mahout about every action she did. This huge animal always fascinates me. I admire those tiny eyes which gives a feeling that she is so monotonous meanwhile pious. The mahouts very keenly answered all our queries. They really loved those animals and loved taking care of them.

I was busy playing with my camera & in no time there were 11 elephants taking bath one after the other and lined up to greet visitors. Each one had beautiful names, Indira, geetha, Nethra, kaveri, Kapila, new tusker, saagar, Ganga, Amrutha, Surya, Aale (a goddess in Nepal, named by an nepali officer). Surya, the youngest in the herd played with all the other elephants in the family. He was just 2.5year old and was to start his schooling shortly. Every morning mahouts have tough time bringing him out of water. It was so funny to see the way he made mahout run behind him to catch him. We were not very happy leaving this place, watching those huge animals playing, following his master’s commands was so much fun. The journey in the not-so-cosy car was still so beautiful because of the scenic beauty of the place.

The drive to kuppalli was quiet long. We stopped in front of one of the most beautiful houses in kuppalli. No wonder a poet like Kuvempu had so many inspirations right in this place to write such great epics in kannada. The very air feels so pious & poetic. I would say the place still got so much of positive energy. To describe this place is not in my reach but it was way beautiful than what I had imagined it to be. The moment I stepped in I was spell bound. It’s like a dream. We call this style of houses as “Thotti-mane” in our colloquial language. Every small thing starting from the utensils used, till the mantap that was used in kuvempu’s wedding is so carefully preserved for the generations to come. Every corner in this house has a story to narrate. First floor has a long story on the wall. From the poet’s childhood till his last few days of life is portrayed with pictures. A room is dedicated for the books this great man wrote in his life span. The volumes are so huge that I think one life is not sufficient to relish reading all his work. Me & Suma sat for a while enjoying being there. We picked up few of his books & by very instinct I wrote few lines in kannada about this awesome place in the feedback book.

On our way back, we had a light lunch in the canteen very next to Kavi mane. Very tasty full meal & puliogre was served. We visited kavishaila. Kuvempu rests here forever. Thejaswi’s burial place is also monumented close by.

KavaleDurga (I must suggest to read more about the beautiful history of this place on internet) was the second must visit place I had in my list. This is an old fort with a beautiful view of Varahi backwaters. The fort is still not so famous to the visitors fortunately & hence very clean. Initially we entered a farm & was skeptical for being on the right path. The fort is covered with thick forest and hence the view never reveals its beauty hidden in it. We trekked a short distance and finally found the entrance of the fort with two circular bastions and found a notice board giving a brief description of this fort. We barely had an idea about the distance to reach the top. Since it was already evening & the sun was almost bidding bye for the day we had to put less effort to reach the top. On the way we happened to see few beautiful temples and structures giving a hint of the king’s era. The steps are uneven as we climb up. 

Finally when you reach the top of the hill there were two things which caught my attention. One is the beautiful view of the back water spread over vast area & a single rock standing with a small shrine. The shape of this rock is eye-catching. The time of the day we were on the top was perfect to enjoy the sun setting while the breeze would start getting colder. There was no tinge of dark covering the sky yet, so it perfect time to capture pictures of the surrounding landscape. I enjoyed taking pictures and wanted to spend a good amount of time. Provided it was just me with my typical Travel Freaks hanging out there, I would have enjoyed sitting there till I would say bye to the last ray of the sun for the day but my sis stood up to warn for getting down before dark consumes the sky. We also had to spare the driver waiting for us down there so I agreed.

We drove back to reach shimoga at around 7:30pm. Our unplanned trip had a gap to be filled, our return tickets were not yet confirmed. After having seen the impossibility to book train tickets & packed night buses, we decided to book the evening bus to Bangalore. So tomorrow we have just half a day to visit places.

Our driver was param-bhakth of Goddess Sigandureshwari. During my previous visit to shimoga, we had dropped the plan of visiting this place as it was crowded like mad. So this time my driver suggested to catch the first launch which takes us to the other side of the river. As always I was sure to enjoy the launch ride and the serenity early in the morning than anything else but was not too sure of getting people ready by 5:30am. But to my surprise we were all set to start off on time but ofcourse we dozed off in the car. I could not keep myself awake inspite of knowing how beautiful the early morning ride to sagara would be. Bad me. But initially the visibility was very less due to the fog and hardly could to see anything on the road-side.

The first launch was packed with people & we managed to sneak in. The bus & few other vehicles accompanied us to cross the river. The view was great but effort to catch the view of the surrounding nature was difficult in that crowded launch. On reaching the other side we had a light breakfast and enjoyed a bumpy ride in a vehicle which was in an almost-crashing-down condition. The driver ridding this van looked like he was never introduced to the breaks in his vehicle or may be he had sworn on god not to use it or in worst case this vehicle never had one. I was glad we were alive and the first thing I did as soon as I entered the temple was to thank the goddess for this. The temple is very beautiful & people explained her to be a strong goddess who can fulfill all your wishes. As always I can only laugh at all those explanations of being strong & weak gods and those hundred stories they have to prove it. We purchased laddu prashad and started back. This ride was another chance to test our good fortune, this was even more bumpier than the previous one. Back near the launch we managed to catch the corners & so I could capture few good pictures of the place around. We treated ourselves with buttermilk after reaching back.

Another round of sleep in the car while we drove to Ikkeri temple. My favorite temple in sagara. For it has so many memories of my childhood attached with this place. The best one amongst all is to crawl down that huge Basava’s leg which is right in front of the temple. I still remember me & my cousins did that with so much ease and enjoyed doing it again n again. Today it is neither allowed to do so nor can I. The temple is just too beautiful and like any other has a lot of history. It was peak noon and sun was not letting me sleep in the car. We did a mistake of choosing lion safari over another beautiful temple kelladi nearby. Bad decisions are always a part of an unplanned travels. We reached lion safari by late afternoon & was left with no enthusiasm to see anything. Atleast I was too tired to walk any distance, strange of me. I choose to sit near the park till the others were back after greeting some cheetahs, black panthers and pythons.

 Back in our rooms to fresh up. Sumanth did a small round of self-photography, mutual photography. Don’t ask for its meanings, I am sure you’ll kill yourself after the explanations. ROFL!! Our empty stomachs demanded some snacks before boarding the bus, the driver was not too sure of finding anything at that time of the day but finally he decided to take us to dosa point. Here is the best thing happened, Benne Dosa!!! Benne Masala Dosa to be precise. It was soooo yummy that we could not stop for one. As always a round of tea to settle things in the tummy and we reached bus station by 5:00PM.

We thanked our driver for his great hospitality. Throughout the journey he was more excited than any of us. We had booked a KSRTC Rajahamsa, the lesser I talk about it the better. We reached Bangalore by 12:30AM. We had enough time to catch sleep before another busy Monday could start.

Throughout the trip I missed Travel Freaks & as promised we shall have to be there soon! Let's drive > Shimoga!!! 

Post Kudremukh trek

Time for some fun after a strenuous trek the previous day. A sunny morning started with all the other trekking groups packing their bags and left Sathish’s house all for ourselves. Morning tea prepared in firewood stove tasted so good. You feel like having it every hour. We sat outside the house stretching ourselves and feeling the warm sun on our skin. Our plan for the day was to relax till noon and start towards Hornadu by evening. A yummy veg-pulav with raitha was loaded tummy full followed by another round of hot tea.

 

A dip in nearby falls was a perfect relaxation plan. Not more than 2 mins walk from the house is this small stream of water. The water was chilling cold inspite of the sun shining so bright. We walked for a while on the rocky bank till we reached a pool deep enough to enjoy a swim. One by one we all got down into the water. The cold water sent tickles up our body as we stepped deeper. Few swam to reach opposite end of the pool and found a small natural Jacuzzi a little ahead. We all followed them and enjoyed a great massage in the water. Water flow was strong enough to carry yourself in the current. After spending time enjoying the chilled pool of water, we were back home for another round of bath in hot water.

We sat outside the house enjoying lovely songs pavan’s mobile was playing. Suhas was busy with Osho’s The book of understanding. After a light lunch we drove towards Hornadu. The temple is crowded during the weekends. We stood in the queue for the darshan of the beautiful idol of Annapoorneshwari goddess. Few had a long list of items to buy from this place which is very famous for its coffee & variety of spieces.  The temple prashad is served even before the Mahamangalarthi. Waiting in the queue for prashad, Manish turned to be great entertainer with his mimcry of several Mr.Bean’s episodes. The younger crowd never looked tired till the end. They taught few of us their own invented “cha” language. Suhas, Ajay & Pavan were amazed and wanted to try their hand learning the new tongue. It all seemed like a coded language to me. I was in my own world recollecting few Yograj Bhat’s melodies, Suhas always helps me appreciate movies & music.

 

We started our journey back to Bangalore by 8:30pm. The journey initially was fun filled with Manish’s singing and others joined for anthakshari. The driver took us round and round around the chikkamagalur city as he dint know the route towards bangalore. Smart people sat with their Smart phones and directed him with routes. Guys hardly slept till early morning. We reached Bangalore not very late.