Friday, August 31, 2007

Waynaad....A walk in the clouds....

This was my third trek with in a month and already i could hear some words from my parents, but still i wanted to go.... i didn't wanted to miss any place....


This trip was eventually planned by CSP as he gets limited options to take a break from his work. The plan was to visit Edakaal Caves, Meenmatty Falls, Waynad.. Trek to Chambaa peak and if time permits visit Soojipoora falls... At the end we couldnot make it to soojipoora falls....

We started off from bangalore very late as the distance to be covered was not much, and we reached edakaal caves by 6.30 in the morning as expected the weather was very pleasant with light drizzle.... we had to wait till 9 to start climbing the peak...so after refreshing ourself and having breakfast we started off to the peak,

The feel of the thin air was very refreshing....the way to the caves was really good rains had made the rocks a bit slippery otherwise human interference has made it lot easier to go even with your family. Things which attracted me inside the caves was a split between huge rocks...i cannot explain how it looked like but it was great..... we started moving ahead from cave towards the peak of the mountain peak..... certain places in between were really hard to climb and our lakshmi did struggle a lot..... but what i like about him is he never gives up he did come to the top....but when i say he never gives up he missed the most spectacular part of the trip...meenmatty falls hehehe.....

On top of the mountain i managed to sit on top of a big rock and feel the breeze but the silence was being constantly disturbed by our team bootha..... by her own songs how sad..... once we were down we started moving towards our next destination meenmatty falls...in between we stoped at place to have wonderful lunch......

The way to meenmatty falls initially began with a walk along the tea gardens....it was pleasant to have a look at the entire valley.... at the end of the tea garden there was a tricky path to switch in order to move towards the falls.... i think this is were a bunch of guys missed and came back telling us there is no way to the falls ....poor guys don't even know what they missed.... Rather than these guys sripada and lakshmi opted to sit at a place and sleep ...... guys u missed something really great .....

Once we reached the place i tried to click some snaps but it was really difficult because i was completely wet and as soon as i opened my camera it used to get filled with water...... never mind i did take some snaps..... but the place was very slippery and very dangerous....

I had never seen any falls as ferocious as this..... probably because it had rained heavily and the falls was in its fully glory and also we were standing just in front of the falls....it made it even more scary because if u slip you gonna meet the fury of the falls so was the condition.....it was sooo good that we could open the eyes properly..... because of the water splashing on your face..... just one thing what an amazing falls..... good thing is that these places are still hidden and not many people venture into these places.......

On the way back there was a small stream were in we managed to get into water and have some fun...... this is were vicky and viji just stood below myself and diwi and i remember them telling the water is a bit salty hehehehehe......

We stopped our day at a small town...were in we booked 2 rooms and few guys opted to sleep in the bus itself...... we slipped to bed pretty early and had a good sleep..... our next day's destination was chamba peak....

Well here i think we started from hotel very late..... probably because a few of them were new to team.... we need to have proper rules to be on time so that we can give more time with what we had come for rather than in hotel rooms.....

After taking the permission from the forest officer we started moving towards the chemba peak... it was an amazing experience moving through the tea estates... a view to cherish in the light rain...... a feel of walking in the clouds.... a feel of touching the clouds.... amazing view.....amazing place.....

We did take a break at a small place were in there is a small lake in the shape of heart.... i don't know weather it is man mad or natural but its very good to see it from top really looks like a heart..... the trek to chemba peak was not very difficult for our team probably because now almost every one has some good experience under his belt and we reached the peak pretty soon.... it was clouds every were...... and a small drizzle added to the fun..... i felt like i need a viper on my glasses to keep in clean.... a feel of that thin air going through your lungs is something i cannot explain one can only experience it.....

After a small photo session we started descending down it was very slippery and almost every one slipped once or twice.... but eventually nothing happened to anyone...

It was the end of our trek and we started moving back towards bangalore after a wonderful dinner.

One good thing this time was the bus we arranged was lot more better only thing was the TV/battery was not working fine and we couldn't enjoy the Bond movie....

Well the scenic beauty was sooo great that i plan to go here by bike ......probably this december??

Hope our new teammates ,we can say our team guest Ranga and Tulsi got a break from their US life and enjoyed with their indian friends :-)

Team members : CSP,Diwi,Raghu,Sripada,Viji,Jyothi,Girish, Prabhanjan,Chitra,Prathiba,Vivek,Lakshmi,Ranga,Tulsi,Vikram,Nikil,
Harsha,Binish and myself Poorna

Funny Moments :
1. Viji and Viky's salt water experience...under the falls hehehehe...
2. Diwi explaining the 2 foreigners in our bus about him in UK.... even though they were not at all interested....diwi u rather need to concentrate on CSP first to get him out of you way hehehe
3. Both Diwi and CSP carrying the walky talky and are together on peak leaving the rest behind
4. Investigation by police family raghu(201),diwi(301) and sripada(401).... adding a new member lady rambo -- jyoti(101) as lady police.
5. Gaaaana kaage getting the award as Ganaaaa kogile from giri :-(
6. Non Stop entertainment by Diwi...

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

JOG Falls

I might be traveling a lot, but somehow i am having a feeling that i am missing something very badly....need to find that very fast other wise i will waste lots of my energy..... somehow i feel like i am missing myself or probably my loneliness when i am with my friends..... a thought why i go and what i wanna find in these places... i know for sure that its not just that i wanna enjoy with my friends.....there is something beyond this....

Looking at the media information about heavy rains and the photo of overflowing jog falls, an immediate plan was made by myself and gilli that we will visit jog. But few more of our team mates wanted to join us... As we didn't have a great plan for the trip we decided for a KSRTC bus for our two and fro journey...
It was planned for a one day trip and hence we didn't had to worry about stay. Our team this time included Gilli, shripad, chandra, sahana, priya,shilpi,prathiba,loki,harsha and myself poorna.... We reached sagar early morning and got down only to know that shilpi forgot her mobile in the bus...

We reached jog falls at around 6.45am, we still could feel the cooool breeze covered with mist all around because of the falls and falls was not visible properly ....however the initial look of the falls had brought along with it the disappointment as this was not the falls we expected at this point of the season.... at least not me....however i decided to enjoy the way it is.... i decided to go down along with shilpi and prathiba.... few others did start however due to rains they restrained back..... going down was not bad at all after sooo many treks in our credit we reached down pretty soon..... i was pretty lucky that once i reached down the skies were clear and i could see the majestic jog from bottom.... huge rocks... roaring water falling on the biased rocks and slipping between the rocks....it was simply amazing view....

What i missed here was to take bath below the water falls, as i don't know swimming and i saw a big pool of water to go near the falls i didn't take the risk to go below the falls however the saddest thing was there was a proper way to go near it.... i just saw it when i came back on top again......

The best part of the trip were 2 things one watching jog from below and the other going to the top and standing at a place were the water falls down..... here i should mention that loki and sripada took a great risk to jump the falls and go to the other end it was very risky and the worst news was the same day one person died trying to jump from the same spot.....

Bending down and watching the water touch the ground and also trying to locate the place were we were standing was really great.... we could even see a beautiful rainbow ..... myself and chandru were active clicking the photos.....

After jog falls we moved towards Linganmakki dam and also from there we went to have a look at honnemardu back waters....the river was overflowing due to the recent rains and by the looks itself it was evident that it was very risky to get into water........but still shilpi and priya got down to take a dip in the water......

But at the end somehow felt like jog was a bit overcrowded.....probably due to the publicity given my the media ....lack of infrastructure to handle that crowd.... lack of civic sense for the people who turn up there... and also a mistake i have been telling to the MR team... in order to reach the destination we are forgetting to enjoy the present....felt we could have spent some more time in and around jog....

Wat I did Today.....

I had gone to hotel capitol just behind my office in cunningham road for attending a conference.... i was coming back on the footpath i saw a young man he looked like he is educated and also probably he might be employed but he didn't have legs and he was sitting and watching others who were busy walking and 1000s of vehicles on the road....he looked lost thinking how to cross the road or whom to ask for the help.....i observed him from a distance 100s passed him....and he was thinking how to ask help.....
probably something good struck me i went and asked may i help u... it was the only thing he wanted to listen i believe he asked sir can you please help me cross the road.... i agreed and lifted him in my hands and walked across the road.... 100s probably might have watched me... but i felt bad that none would have come forward to do tat....or probably someone might have helped as well....i believe we have some responsibilities towards the society and nothing wrong in giving it...
But at the end i felt a bit relived that i did something good today....