The Road to nowhere

Venue - Sakleshpur, a deserted road
Time - 8:30 PM, Dec 26, 08
Background - A scarlett red Swift, 4 friends, a carton of beers and coke, 80 kmph, a starry night

A cardboard box magically appeared, filled itself up with 4 bottles KF premium, a 1,.5l Coke bottle and a DSP Black. Courtesy of a local wine shop. The Swift came to a total stop on a small tar road winding through the dark countryside. Paddy(?) farms on both sides of the road. Hardly any space for another car to pass. But it was a deserted road. What are the chances that another car would pass by at that time of the night in that part of the country on that particular night? Well mathematically speaking, tending to nil, nada, zero, sonne, null, cipher. The boot was thrown open. Flickering hazard lights playing proxy to strobe lights. Sony Xplod acting as DJ. The Verve - Catching the butterfly, Porcupine Tree - Arriving Somewhere but not here - playing back to back. Clear sky punctured by a thousand radiant stars to form a million patterns. Total pyschaedelic moment. Fifteen minutes of pure intense heaven.

Verily one of the best moments in the trip. Much obliged guys. Hope we have more such moments :)

Mood - Dave Matthews Band - If I had it all

White Water Rafting? at the Sita Nadi, Agumbe, July 19-20, 08

After a two month break following the Wayanad trip in May, we finally got together again for a WWR trip at the Sita river in Agumbe. While this is probably not the best sites to be doing this, it is the closest, one that we could go in a weekend and come back.

It is generally an uphill task to get everyone to be free at the same time and after a month of advanced planning the dates were set for the third week of July. By the way, this was also the first trip that I organised fully on my own right from finding out details of the trip, book the rafting and the bus tickets. Phew! Tiresome work, but I was determined to make the trip see light of day.

Agumbe is known as the Chirapunji of the south understandably because of the rainfall that it receives during the monsoons. This water is supposed to feed the Sita river as it gushes its way to the Arabian sea forging its way through rapids (or thats what we thought).



Since we had the Saturday to ourselves, we got off at Someshwar. This is a view of the Agumbe ghats from Someshwar at eight in the morning. By the way Adarsh tells us that the hills are not exactly Ghats but just the end of the Deccan plateau from where we descend to the coastal plains in the west. He could be right. Agumbe is just about 850m high which is actually the same height as Bangalore. We initially planned to stay over at Anil's uncle's place at Someshwar but then decided to stay over at the top.

Agumbe has four very scenic falls - Kuudlu Theerta, Onake Abbey, Sirimane falls and Jogi gundi. Of course all of them can only be accessed by a trek which is a very good thing because we don't want bumbling tourists to spoil their pristine beauty by littering the place. However since I was with a group of friends who prefer beer slugging to a three km trek anyday, we had to go the one which had the least trekking to do which was Jogi Gundi.


Nikhil, it is in fact Jogi Gundi and not Joga Gundi like you insisted. Check it up on the net. Don't simply argue unnecessarily. Apparently a rishi 'Jogi' meditated here after which it got its name. Hardly a big falls, but it was a very secluded place surrounded by really tall trees on one side and a fast flowing river on the other. And we had the place all to ourselves. The last time we came here, Nikhil and I jumped off the rock some fifteen feet high straight into the Gundi. This time around, it was too slippery to venture up the rocks. Although the guide/driver told us not to get anywhere near the falls, I usually cannot rest until I have had a dip right below the falls wherever it is. So we did make it there and pose for a few pictures too. Adarsh had the brilliant idea that we should all take off everything we had on. The adventurous lads that we were, we all dived in, removed our undies and even waved them in the air in exultation which was captured on camera for posterity. The difficult part is to try and put the undies back on while staying in deep water since you have nothing to balance on and you can't afford to come out of the water with nothing on!

All in all, a refreshing experience to swim in ice cold water with nothing but nature around you. A delight for the cubicle sitting techie.

Adarsh knew a bajjiwallah near the Sunset Point since his native place is close to Agumbe. Our next stop was there. We quickly became his VIPs and were treated to 58 (35 mangalore bajjis which tasted more like uddina vadas and 23 masala vadas) vadas. With six guys, thats an average of almost 10 per head! We were all confident that it would have touched three digit figures had we not ordered lunch at our hotel in advance which we had yet to eat! Just to give you a comparison, our bajji bills came up to Rs. 160 while our full plate meal lunch was Rs. 108!

This is one photo of the trees by the road to Shimoga on Agumbe which I feel resembles Switzerland, thought to be honest I have never visited yet. This is just to reiterate to people that you don't need to go all the way to Switzerland to experience beauty like this. Its right here in Karnataka.

Dinner and breakfast consisted of piping hot neer dosas, buns and steaming idlis with some lip smacking sagoo at the Hotel Ganesh Prasad. Amazing food! Glad we didn't stay over at the Sita Nadi camp. Would have missed all this amazing food. When we go back to Agumbe the next time, there is no doubt as to where to head for food.

Even the crappy 'Mallya Residency' that we stayed at had this beautiful view from the balcony early in the morning on Sunday. We were initially given to understand that this was a 'resort' which we naturally assumed was Vijay Mallya's. We only later discovered that it was a run down two story lodge. But it served our purpose well enough. We are not luxe travellers in any case. A warm bed and a roof will suffice.

Sita Nadi as seen from the camp. The rafting was a far cry from white water. Poor monsoons this year played spoilt sport and 80% of the time we had to row hard. The biggest rapids lasted a couple of minutes at most. However, the small blue raft that we used for the first half of the run did splash enough water to excite us once every while. We dived into the cool waters for a swim every half hour to break the monotony of the rowing. Our rafting guide Karan from Nepal introduced us to the back somersault of the raft which I was convinced to learn. Once I had got a hang of it, I couldn't stop doing it and this became the adrenalin thrill of the ride. Nikhil and me even managed to get videos of us doing the back flip. Learning how to pull yourself back onto the raft was also a big thrill. I was the only one in the group who could manage it. Others had to be pulled back on by someone inside the raft.


In the beginning all of us were fighting to get the front seats in the raft since that was where all the action would be. Nikhil and me even pushed each other of the boat even before we started off. But post lunch, people were fighting to stay at the back since they wanted to nap! The second boat after lunch was a bigger grey boat which felt like a Merc and we could hardly feel any of the rapids on it. They seemed like supressed speed breakers. Our guide Karan did get friendly with us after a while and told us a lot of interesting stories about the rafting in the north. In Nepal, there is apparently a rapid named 'Dead Man'. Any guy who falls of his raft in that raft is a dead man. Which is how it got his name. He also said that the Nepalese rafting guides are very much in demand for their services throughout the world.

The entire rafting actually lasted from ten in the morning to five thirty in the evening! Thoroughly exhausted at the end of it. But the trip was definitely a change from the usual trekking trips. Around four o' clock in the evening, we got off the rafts and lay down on a island rock in the middle of the river. All of us dozed off for almost half an hour under the warm sun. After that Macy was reluctant to get back into the raft and get wet again. But he had no choice. After the end of all the rafting, we had to carry the raft on our heads uphill for about 100 metres to load it back on the jeep.

As I edit this piece a couple of weeks later, Agumbe reported heavy rains in the last week of July and the first week of August. My only complaint is that if we had gone there a couple of weeks later, the rafting would have given us a better thrill. Oh well, there is always a next time!

Wayanad - May 23-24, 2008

Who would have thought that May would be the time to go for a trek. The peak of summer and I was expecting everything to be looking brown and dead or at least half dead. Kudos to Satya for landing up in Bangalore from Pune and insisting that we go on a trek while he was here for the weekend. After several attempts to book B. R. hills resort by Adarsh was a failure, we had no choice but to go to Wayanad. Two cars it was- a brand new Red Swift that Nikhil had recently purchased and Rohit's 'new' second hand Esteem- these were our rides to Wayanad.

I will not go into all the minute by minute details of the trip due to the lack of patience on my part and also because I am writing most of this sitting in my cube in office on a Monday morning when I am supposed to be working diligently. Therefore, only the highlights of the trips will be exposed to the limited readership of my blog.

We started off on Friday night, and inspite of our plans to start off at 6 PM, we only left Bangalore at 8:30 PM. Night halt in Mysore with the notable event being our dinner. We had idli's at a gaadiwallah outside the bus stand! We asked for four plates of idlis and he gave us four plates with four idlis each. My joke for the day was that if we had asked for ten plates, he would have given us ten plates with ten idlis on each plate. Dumb, I know, but that is the level of my jokes usuallly. Four idlis per plate plus masala vada plus tea!Total dinner cost for 10 guys came out to 135 rupees!

We stayed in a very dilapidated cheap section of Mysore, but the lodge rooms were dirt cheap and we only needed them for the night, so we can't really complain. Besides, we also had a lot of fun that night, but that part is not public domain knowledge. Contact me personally for details. ;)


This pic below is a view of the Muthanga wildlife reserve once we enter Kerala. This is actually Kerala's part of the Bandipur wildlife reserve. As you can see, the roads are a pleasure to drive on and the bamboo canopy that formed overhead was a treat for the eyes. Everything was actually lush green because the pre-monsoon showers had hit about two weeks back.


We ignored the signages which asked us not to stop on the way through the forest (supposedly because animal crossings could happen across the road). All of us spent time posing for individual and group pics in the forest. Rohit tried to prove why he was assistant director for Kuselan by attempting to show us his prowess with the camera. This pic here is a great group pic, probably the only one in the trip with Satya being notably missing since he was the photographer for this pic. Notice that the guys without the cool shades are the ones who are naturally cool and don't need any extra apparel to look 'cool'. ;)


I kept insisting that the forest office at Mepaddi would give us trouble. I told Satya they wouldn't let us climb Chembra citing one excuse or the other. Told him to call up the office from Bangalore itself to arrange for permission in advance. He didn't and I chided him for it. We walked into the forest office late morning on Saturday without giving any prior notice. Surprisingly, the officer didn't even try to stop us. We told him - "Sir, we want to climb Chembra today." He said " Sign in that register with your address and you can be on your way. Also add the registration number for your cars." That was it! I almost went red in the face. It was so simple this time! Last time they said forest fire problems and what not. Just wouldn't let us go up. Finally, we did go up and camp near the lake for the night last time, but that's another story.

This is one of the pics on the first stage of the climb. I had read on someone's blog that the climb to the peak was done in seven stages. In Sundi's words, Chembra is an ideal example of a pseudo peak. A 'pseudo peak' is one in which the actual peak is always hidden from your view. You always see some peakish thing and think thats the end, but when you get there, you realise its only a temporary maxima, and the peak lies behind and higher. So as I was saying, we were expecting seven stages of this with the lake at the second stage. I diligently kept count of the stages and kept egging my friends on. But after I had counted almost 9-10 stages and the peak was still out of reach, I gave up counting since it no longer made any sense. Nobody was believing me anymore.

A sneak peak through the fog at the peak from the heart shaped lake or at least what you think is the peak at this point. The real peak is in fact several stages away and probably not even visible from the lake.

Half an hour on the way, we reached a lake that was actually more of a puddle. And the guys were really pissed that this was the lake I was talking about. The guys had even brought along their swimming trunks expecting to jump into the lake. I was pretty sure that wasn't the lake since I knew that the lake never dried up throughout the year and the position of the lake was also different from what I remembered from the last time. But I wasn't sure enough to insist that this was the wrong lake. Ten-fifteen minutes later, we finally hit the real lake and I was jubilant. I pointed out the lake to Macy and declared - 'See, the lake doesn't dry up. I knew it wouldn't violate that rule. Its the law of the lake!!!' And Macy gave a smirk but I had turned out to be right!

A beautiful view of the heart shaped lake from above, half-way to the peak. The weather by the way was absolutely amazing. Can you believe this picture was actually taken around 2 PM in the afternoon!!! It also drizzled a couple of times during the trek and made the path slippery. Thankfully, not enough to make the water start flowing down the path. That would have really made things dangerous.


Some amazing pics again as the clouds closed in around us...

Thirty minutes more to the peak and Satya gave up. He actually would have made it. But the soles on both his shoes were almost missing and he wanted to save what was left of it for the climb back down. So we shed our bags where he stayed on and continued up. It was a huge relief to shed the extra weight. I have to say Satya's experience there alone would also have been equally worth dying for. Imagine being alone on the mountain with only silence around you. Freaky! Satya told us afterward that though we were far away, he could hear us all clearly talking like we were just ten metres away!

We finally reached the peak at exactly 3:30 PM. Two and half hours to the top just like I had promised to Satya and Macy! Macy and Atul were the first to make it. They finally reached the top and declared that there was nothing ahead to scale. We were on the peak finally! Only five of us made it to the peak - Macy, Adarsh, Atul, Mithun and me. We all gave out whoops of joy and I removed my sleeveless tee ( actually its just a vest) and flung it on a nearby rock.

The last time I came to Chembra with NITK guys, I didn't make it all the way to the top. The wind speeds were really bad and I was scared to death. Besides, we were also carrying heavy loads that time.

After that, I did some 360 degree videos of the peak accompanied by my critically acclaimed commentary. It was really silent up there and we were on top of Wayanad. We were on a high, 2200m to be exact! :) (Think i flicked that line from someone.)

Ten minutes after we reached the peak, the clouds closed in all around us and we were actually engulfed in the clouds. It was raining below but we were above the rain!

This was were we had our most dangerous encounter on the trip. Lightning and thunder ensued. Suddenly, Adarsh exclaimed that he felt something. Like something brushed past him. We didn't really understand what he meant or was getting at. Then a couple of minutes later, another lightning strike in the distance. And suddenly all of us felt it (except Macy); it was like some electric charge passing against us. Static discharge happening around us due to the lightning strike! Then Adarsh clicked a photo of my hair, and sure enough, it was all standing up. This continued two-three more times and Adarsh and me were getting really freaked out. We originally planned to stay on the peak till 4:30 at least. But I talked him out of it. Then we all decided to just sit silent for five minutes, close our eyes and enjoy the silence and the clean air. We were in the middle of that when suddenly it hit us again; the discharge, and it was huge this time! Literally like a small slap on the back. Three seconds later, thunder rumbled in the distance. We remembered our physics- light travels much faster then sound. All of us cried out in unison. Macy also felt it this time. We made a beeline for the path and started scrambling down as fast as we could go. It was only after we came below the cloud line did we heave a sigh of relief. I remarked that we should all go to a temple after we reached home and thank the Lord for getting us back down safely that day!

The climb down was uneventful except for this fearsome lad below. Spotted by Satya, a big dark green shiny scorpion, larger than the size of my palm. This picture shows you his fearsome claws and tail pointing upwards in a 'warrior pose' ready to strike. I have to say that the scorpion had actually scuttled to the side harmlessly. But then Adarsh threw a stone at it just to scare it away just in case. Instead of scuttling away, it broke into a defensive pose ready to strike. Even if I took one step forward, it countered by moving towards us. Finally, the five of us (Satya had already passed ahead) had to abandon the path and move through the grass to avoid the big venomous guy. Credits to a dear friend of mine for using some editing skills to remove the blur in the picture. Needless to say, I should have taken the photo in Macro mode to get better detail, but I wasn't really thinking clearly at that point of time.

We finally reached the watch tower at 5 PM where we joined the remaining four people who had not even made it to the lake because they were too tired. Lack of physical fitness and some vices to blame for that. After recounting our experiences to these guys, we made to car and back on our way to Kalpetta to get a hot bath, some much needed dinner and a comfy bed to sleep on after. We did stop on the way where i caught this heavenly picture of sunset. I could only imagine how good it would have looked from the top!!!

Next day was Soochipara waterfalls after getting up really late and a lazy breakfast. Nice falls with scope for bathing and getting some massage for the sore limbs. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves here. Only complaint was that the falls was a little too accessible to the public, so there was a crowd at the water. We could have gone to Meenmutty which is a much better falls and secluded since its not that easily accessible, but of course no one was in the mood for a trek that day.

On our way back to Bangalore after that. We did stop once in Muthanga wildlife reserve since there was a rumour of a Bison spotting. And though we could see something in the distance in the forest, we couldn't say for sure if it was a Bison or just an ordinary ox.

At one point during the drive back, it did pour so heavily, that visibility was nearly down to zero with the rain actually moving sidewards.

Dinner at Shivalli Tiffin Rooms where I had the tried and tested Bisi Bele Bath and Masala Dosa to round off the memorable trip.

Thanks again to Satya for inspiring all the guys to make it to the trip. Here's to hoping we can do atleast one trip a month from now on! Keep up the enthusiasm guys!