Monday, March 05, 2007

Kodachadri -- Mountain Roarers

It was some time now since i was left with nature... was getting a bit restless not doing what i wanted. After having a look at what life is all about and how it turns around for an individual i was a bit disturbed and wanted to sleep in the adobe of mother nature... wanted to c what all she can show this time around. Thanx to my cousine who introduced me to a great bunch of people who were trekking to kodachadri. This time around the team was very big it was around 28 people. I was trying to measure each individual, personality but yes very few interested me... all of them were great people but just one person i felt was a bit different...but the bad thing about me is i think everyone remembered my name and i still have problems with the names of all the individuals... i should say sorry for my mistake in that..





This time i will not mention the names of all the team mates since it would be pratial on my side to not name the people i dont remember. I got a phone call at around 8pm on 2nd march 2006 to be at the navrang bus stop in 15 min. I was ready for the treck and was at the bus stop as mentioned by my cousine pavan. But to my surprise i couldnot find anyone till 9, good thing was having a look at how people were running around the streets some had a simle in their face might be a sign of satisfaction for the day... some had pain of something and some were just living....dont even know what they r doing... At around 9 .. i met a good human i should say this... a good human whoz eyes were a bit different.... i met sharada prasad ..CSP as everyone calls him... along with manju and chitra... had a breif introduction...of the new members...and called up to know the status of the bus...they just had left majestic... in few minutes of time i met another pair of people shubha and pradeep.
It was around 9.40 the bus arrived and we got into the bus other than my cousine pavan everyone were new to me and i didnot know anyone... i tried to speak to a few people like chandru whos face i remembered as a kid in the streets of chitradurga playing cricket... yes he had grown up now.... i settled in my seat... then a small introduction program was started to introduce each member of the team it was a good session atleast to know few of them... After a breif introduction many of them went to sleep... some how i couldnot sleep for a long time was watching outside the window...giving some food for my thoughts at times i could see few people in the bus crying of itching all thanx to bed bugs the badly hit persoan was chitra,CSP and manju i belive... many others toooo had problems.... some how not a single bug bit either me or my cousine, felt like we have got the best seat in the bus...hahaha. At around 2-2.30 i closed my eyes and was lost in my sleep...next thing i know is we were seeing a sunrise some where after shimoga....
We reached Nittur at around 8am. We reached a wrong place for the begining of the treck we also thought of getting ourself refreshed and fill our stomach with the morning breakfast. Here it was a bit of fun...few of the team members got on top of the bus.. and we started going towards nittur again.... it was an amazing experince sitting on top of the bus and going... a feel of the current rural india....I could even hear one of the villager telling y r u people sitting on top when u have so much space inside....
After refreshing ourselves we started for our treck at around 10 and started moving towards our first destination "hitlu mane falls", meaning back yard water falls.... dont know how it got that name... on the way we could see a small snake..should be a rat snake.... it got scared seeing soooo many people even though no one wanted to harm it and everyone were only interested in taking photos or seeing it....it was the natural tendency for the poor snake to get scared.... it might have feared a lot looking at us... we took some snaps of the snake and told a byee for the cute one...
I also saw a cute gubbi....which was very good in giving phose for my camera.... just thought where r these wonderful birds now? i remember seeing a lot of these in my childhood but i never see one in bangalore now... Also i found one more bird i dont know the name but it was very cute...I saw a very small bird dont know its name but i saw it going in side a hybiscus flower it was very very small and i couldnot capture in my camera.... wanted to touch tat but y disturb once freedom...
I saw a small school with around 10 kids...couldnot find the trace of any teacher around..they were looking at us as strangers...i took a snap and every kid didnot forget to give phose for the same. I forgot could have given some choclates for the kids.... on the way i could feel the real hard work being put by the farmers of india to feed us...it was an amaing view of the green rice fields..... i was thinking like, a man is always in need of what he is not having with him.... looking at us they might have felt like these young guys are real mad people they get so much money still they come to these forests to spend their weekends but they might not be knowing that we earn and earn but can only eat the food prepared from the output of their hard work and money canot be a substitute for food... We should respect them because they do the work of devine satisfaction.... but the bad thing is they dont have enough money... felt yes one day i tooooo want to take up some land and cultivate my own land and eat the food prepared of the stuffs i have grown... tat time i will really enjoy because its the product of my hardwork....
At around 1.30 we reached the hitlu mane falls... it was a beautiful falls hidden in the deep woods... it was great feeling seeing a falls all of a sudden inside the woods...the water was falling from a good height but there was not much pressure and hence it was an invitation for us to take bath... initially i thought of not wetting my clothes then felt this is what i have missed at times and i should learn from my previous mistakes... took out my clothes and got into water...it was cold and pleasent a feeling of removing ur body pain in minutes....the rocks were very slipery and few of the team mates did taste that...like myself i sliped and got my shoes wet... chandra sliped and got a sprain on his back...pavan sliped and had a bummpy ride... but it was very unfortunate for girls who were only spectators to our enjoyment... all in all it was a very good experience...it was the first time i took bath under a waterfalls... wanted to sit there for some time...The best thing was the formation of a rainbow above our head... it was very beautiful to watch and also there was a small curve in the rocks where in if u sit inside then the water from the falls will fall through in front of you and you can c the falls coming down just in front of ur eyes, you not even being touched...
The best part of the treck started from this place no one knew how to move from this place towards kodachadri...only hint was we needed to move towards right.... but in the mean time we entered a thick forest...the routes were not clear and we even missed a few people who went ahead to look for the route and didnot come back on time to give more fear to us.... also girls struggled to climb these mountains.... it was a bit slippery as well...with loose soil..at around 3.30 with some effort we managed to come of out the forest and took some rest on the grass lands... covering the peak of the mountain.... It was here we met our missed frnds aswell .... also we got the signal from where we called up bhatta for the route and got some satisfactory reply that we are on the right path....From here we started climbing through these grasslands....These are called elephant grass....these can even grow till the height of around 4-5 feet so many a times these are heavn for some of the animals for hunting like snakes, wild buffalo, wil boars or even can be some thing like a leapord...i didnot find anyof them but yes i did find few big holes on the ground in between these grass they might be home for some snakes as well.....
The climb was very steep and everyone struggled a bit to climb to the top...from the top we could see the road track which will go to kodachadri this was our mark to go....we started moving towards the road and reached there at around 5.30. From here we walked on the mud roads and reached kodachadri at around 6.30. Every one were tired and bhat told he was very tensed for us that we got lost in the forest. He also told us a story where in few people from bangalore had got lost in the forest and it took almost 3 days to trace them back..... he served us with some coffee/tea and then with a good dinner....

Earlier everyone had plans of sleeping outside in the open air thats what even i wished.... but bhatta warned it is not advisable to sleep in open air in kodachadri as the wild goddess is on hunt... felt a bit ridiculos y will the god hurt her kids? stupid thoughts...now i regret for not sleeping outside.... should have slept outside atleast could have met the god hahahaha... let me do tat next time.....but yes wat so ever we think still the fear factor does creap into the human mind.... the reason was... batta's session was followed up with our horror movie director chandra with various stories and adding spice to it was shuba with her big opened anxious eyes hahahaha... i went to attend natures call at around 10 alone outside and i felt yes i am a bit afraid... i was having a look around.... felt like how much confidence and corrage the light gives us....on a morning everyone is ready to c what is next but when the light goes off...the fear creaps in.... Once i closed my eyes last thing i heard was an alram from a mobile from the person sleeping next to me at around 5.15.

We started towards the peak at around 5.30 to watch the sunrise....what a coincidence we got the spectacular view of the eclipse. The moon was covered.... felt good seeing it.... till date was never allowed to watch one... The breeze was very high... and also some places were very narrow to walk easily...few of the team members got scared and decided to watch the sunrise from their current position itself....
We reached the peak around 6 it was a flat land and a good place to sit to watch the sunrise.... i could see and feel the whole valley.... i feel the breeze pass through my body....giving me a feel of flying in the air...
At around 6.30 - 6.40 the sun slowly started coming out of the clouds... what a view... i was very thrilled at the concept of this colour change.... i had seen the sun rise at various places and everytime i see.... i see something different....the first rays when they fall they have some thing in it.... After having a photo session we started moving back to bhatta's house for breakfast...
After getting ourself refreshed and completing the morning breakfast we started moving back...we took a different and easier root this time around... we started moving down at good pace and reached down at around 2.30 in various patches.
Our next destination was Marvanthe beach....so we decided to have food at kundapura... Even though i had heard lot about marvanthe and even though i am native of south canara i never got the oppurtunity to see this wonderfull beach....its on one side of the national highway just adds to its beauty....
Every one was very hungry and had lots of food in kundapur and few even got food packed for dinner as we had no plans of stopping for dinner. Once in marvante i decided that i will not sit and take snaps...i will get into water it was long long time since i played in the sea.... just handed over my camera and jumped into water.... This beach was spectacular it generated huge waves...i was imagining the power of water....each wave can throw every individual on its path.... amazing... tried to stand by it...tried to understand the concept... even the reverse current was very high...thats y this place has taken soo many people into its adobe... if you are struck then there is no way you can fight this strength of water...we all enjoyed a lot and then after changing our clothes we started moving back towards bangalore....
The last part of the trip was a small dance session in the bus....no one was willing to dance... only talk talk and talk...even though i dont know a single step of dancing i came out telling i am gonna start....well that was good enough for others....hahaha i atleast made sooo many people dance till around 10...and best dancer with lots of expression was won by sripad for his govinda dance hahahaha....and best singer award was won by CSP for singing full full kannada songs....
At the end a big tanx to our photographer frnd chandru for teaching me a very good option in my camera which i missed a lot...never knew i had that option....thanx again...
We reached bangalore at around 7 and started moving towards our respective homes...end of a wonderful treck....
since this was the end now i will try to mention the names of all the teammates who made up for the wonderful journey....let me try to recollect the same.....and pls frnds forgive me if i have missed ur names....
Halli mestru - CSP/Sharada prasad, Travel agent/organiser -loki, Choori chikka -- nikil, Photographer - chandru, Samsari - Manju, Pakoda - pavan, Body builder - harsha, CK/Mr.bean - praveen, Gilli - raghupati, Tigane chitra - Chitra (TC), Tomato - shruti, Mensinkai - pallavi, ABN amro - Ashwini, Belly Dancer - Lakshmi narasimha, Silent - smitha, Gujju bhai - Dhruv,Phose rani - shuba, Avala geleya - Pradeep,Ashwini V(ivara bagge enu gotilla edru sikkidre smile kodtare aste), Govinda Dancer - Sripad , Schummi - Raj(schummi yako gotilla), Moti - Kusuma(Magu alta ide oodwards kodi), Tronix2 - Suma , Pramod, Bharti,Vivek,Aravind,Sunil and me Guruji - Poorna(any other names most welcomed).

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