The first class trip (17 – 19 Sept, 2010) – Day 2.

Day 2 - 18/09/2010

The goal of getting ready by 6 AM couldn’t be achieved due to many unforeseen hindrances. :P Finally we checked out of the lodge at about 7.30 AM and headed towards Mullayanagiri. We had our breakfast near the Excise Dept. check post. Our vehicle was stopped by the officials as all the inhabitants were SAM_0842 youngsters. After a casual check of the vehicle for any sort of “theertha’s” they let us move on. ;) Even though the roads to the top were quite good, driving was difficult due to the deep valleys on one side. A slight mistake and you would end up in places where humans would never want to go. :( Ares where landslides had occurred earlier were marked out. Have to appreciate the person responsible for this. :) As we kept on moving higher and higher, fog started to decrease the visibility. About 1-2 km’s from the top most point, we decided to walk the remaining distance. :) Everyone got down the vehicle, and told the driver to take it to the top. We started our walk to the top. :) The walk was one good experience. You could feel the fog on across your face. The sun, occasionally peeping and making it warm. Wonderful sceneries in the deep valleys. Cows grazing looked as small as ants. We were nearing the highest point in Karntaka. :) After series of photo sessions, finally we reached the point, after which we had to climb steps to reach the top most point. All vehicles had to be parked here itself. Quite nice arrangements have been made for vehicle parking. We started climbing the steps. Somehow groups got formed and different groups started climbing the steps at different speeds. I reached the peak first, followed by Priyesh. Next to reach was Dushyanth. Forgot the order in which others reached. :( On the top you have a well maintained temple. You could look at the Bababudangiri ranges from the top of the peak. The peak provides you with such top class scenic beauty that you feel the 460 steps climb is worth its every drop of sweat! (Of course you dont sweat in those temperatures). We ventured out of the temple compound( after wearing our shoes, as the a board there demanded us to remove the footwear for even entering the compound) and came across two caves. Information about the cave is, that its about 52 km’s deep and leads you to the bottom of the peak. We skipped checking the genuineness of the information and got back after just venturing a small distance in the cave, due to absence of flashlights. :( We finally decided to descend downwards at about 11 and reached the bottom soon. Just as we reached the bottom, Dushyanth and Manjunath got into some frenzy and started scaling another smaller peak nearby. Everyone followed them to the other peak following a muddy path formed due to previous trekkers. On the top, everyone got involved into burst photo sessions. We wound up in about 30 mins and again came down. People got some more photographs clicked. We headed to our vehicle.

Our next destination was Bababudangiri. We reached it around 12 noon. Datthatreya Peeta was closed due to some construction work. We moved forward to Manikhyadhara falls. Most of the people wanted to have a swim. DSC00445 The obstruction to this event was caused due to this sign board. We couldnt decide whether we surely need to throw our clothes there or is it dependent on our choice. Anyways, none of us dared to swim, and we started walking dejectedly. :( Fun though was induced by our own ancestors. A monkey snatched someone’s inner wear :P and refused to part with it. The monkey was stubborn and we had to return without the “thing”. :( As we headed out of Bababudangiri, we came across a lake. Since our aspirations of swim hadn been satisfied, we decided to full fill it here. Reddy was the first person to venture, followed by Rakesh and finally me. The water was ice cold as it was stationery, but very clean. :) Someone even tasted it and told its sweet. None of the others tried the taste. :P Eventually everyone except Wilson were in the water. After playing around for sometime we dried off ourselves and returned to the van. It was already 2 pm. Swim had made most of us hungry. :( We were dejected to find out that there was no proper place to have food around. So, we decided to have it in Kemmangundi and proceeded with our journey. The road was horrible, but our anthyakshari game kept us unmindful about the road. New songs were created, extra sentences were added to songs, with the only intention of not loosing. Just about 1km behind Kemmangundi, we stopped for having tea.

There were these 2-3 roadside stalls which sold you tea, biscuits and omelettes. The attraction of the place was the dogs. They demanded share in everything you ate. ;) We named them Andrew Symonds, Gilchrist and few other names also and headed towards Kemmangundi hill station. We reached there by 4 and went to visit a view point. The view was fine. A few pictures were clicked and we headed back to the vegetarian canteen for our lunch. Had lunch and went to the nearby Nisarga homestay and booked ourselves a room. It again was a big one with 9 beds. The rooms were cheap and well maintained. We cancelled the visit to Z point as it already was dark and we were not ready to get attacked by leaches. :P We decided to call it a day and everyone settled themselves in the room. :) We arranged a campfire for the night between 10 pm and 12 pm.

Later some of us went back to the canteen to have dinner. When we returned it was almost time for the campfire, but it was a disappointed since the campfire was not a properly organised one. We had to move very close to the fire due to space constraints and the smoke irritated the eyes. Nevertheless, we had fun. We returned to our rooms by midnight. Most of them went off to sleep. Reddy, Rakesh, Jayram and Chetan chose to play cards. I chose to watch the game, due to my lack of knowledge of any card game. :( Even I lost interest looking at the game, and decided to call it a day.They played around till 2 pm, and some talking by Rakesh made me woke up. So we decided to wake everyone up at 2 pm in the night. :P One by one, everyone was made to get up by hook or crook. The different expressions by different people was extremely funny. :P Finally everybody slept off at 3 am, without any promises for the next day.

Quite interestingly, Andrew Symonds and Gilchrisht were found waiting tor us outside our room in the night. They wanted to show their love for the biscuits we offered them and most probably wanted to guard our room also. Sadly Symonds had to fight with another dog(mostly Bhajji). Disappointingly Bhajji lost. It had to happen since our Symonds was very strong and well built. :P Unfortunately, have no pics of any of the dogs. :(

Some pictures:

Mullayangiri

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Acrobatics

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Maanikhyadhara Falls

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Lake for swimming and campfire pictures.

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7 comments:

Chethan said...

"theertha" hahaha :P
Mullayangiri pics look awesome \m/
Wilson should consider auditioning for the next pepsodent ad :P

Manoj Bhat said...

@Chetan...
Wilson can also join some dance show!! Quite good at tapanguchi! :P

Unknown said...

priyesh great maga..benkige rod hakthidanala yappa deoovvrre!!

Neenirabekittu said...

Eradne dinadu chennagide ... photege chennaagi hodeddira...( Dude you done very good job, Your " Pravsa kathana" is awesome, Kannige kattuvanta baravanige)

Manoj Bhat said...

@^ Thanku maga. :)

Ramprasad Karanth said...

Is that all ? Or there is a 3rd day ??

Manoj Bhat said...

@^ There is a third day. Will post soon. :)

 

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