Fun Midst Nature : Chikamagaluru & Bhadra – Part 1

Hi Friends,

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Amazing, awesome, fun-filled, adventurous, superb clicks and what not, were our feelings when we returned to the city on an evening with showers just coming to end. What a beautiful trip! The fun still lasts in my mind and heart. Now sitting in dark on my terrace with minimal light falling on face, looking at sky from the corner of an eye, trying to remember all possible happenings, I bring you this adventurous (leechy) trip with enthusiasm. We shall start off this story in our simple photography terms “Okayna, Readyna…Click Madla?” – Clicheekk!

“Is the plan still on?” echoed many times in our WhatsApp group. This is because of timely in and out of the members who at beginning confirmed they were coming for this tour. Finally 4 were ready to hit the highway, Deepak, Amit, Naveen and ofcourse the last being myself. To know about these three fun-loving guys, you need to meet them in person. “Where do we go?” was our next question. After hours of phone calls, message exchanges for almost a week, we circled one place. But, little did we know that this will turn out to be turmoil in a funny way.

On a cloudy afternoon, I was working at my office. Deepak called me to give me a contact number, asked me to discuss with a person whose name was Peter.

After a tiring day at my office, I had to run back to home and pack my bags to start this adventurous yet fun trip. My friends were waiting near a point which was mutually agreed. I ran to the place disconnecting their continuous calls. There stands a metallic grey Innova, inside – with all the three heads turning behind and looking for me.

Starting off with Hi-Hello, we began our journey at 1830 HRS on a Friday evening. Stuck badly in traffic, we were discussing on what next to be done. We had to purchase some food stuffs to enjoy the journey; we stopped the car just few kilometres away and ordered stuff. Meanwhile Amit whom we sweetly call as “Alan” for his mischievous acts all the time, gifted us a memorable thing with which the loud burst of laughter travelled across its way out from the car. For a second, I thought even my shoe is enjoying our weird jokes by laughing out from its heart & soul (sole). “Oh Shit! It was split apart!”

We had already lost lot of time roaming around in the city; we had to reach our designation before midnight. “I want to buy a pair of shoes” I urged many times, friends said they will stop if they find a shop.

Finally we were on a highway after tackling the wee hour’s traffic for a long time. It was the time to roll down windows and let the fresh air in. While the drive was awesome and wheels were spinning smooth, we started to talk about mishaps and horrifying incidents. The horror stories began to unfold gradually by each of them explaining their experiences. The real life ‘Conjuring’ version of Amit was quite scary. Listening to this Naveen was very curious and wanted to experience the ghostly existence & it went on till watching you-tube videos on phones. I said “Guess Peter will be waiting for us”. Amit asked furiously “Who is this Peter?”

Who is Peter, where do we find him, how will he be, is he reachable? These were the series of questions fell in front of us.

We were hungry; we started to look for restaurants. There goes one… two… three… all noticing after they pass by. Finally we found one elegantly lighted restaurant on our right side. We had to take a U-turn to reach this and we did it. With some good food, at the table Naveen says “let’s keep the horror stories for the journey, don’t discuss it here” and started saying about one more horror story. We had good time sitting on the top floor with a pleasant view of highway on one side.

As we came down and got into the car, “Hey, how did you come to restaurant, bare footed?” asked Amit. I said “you got nice pair of shoes dude” and smiled at him. “Oye!” was the shout from him.  Well, I never got any shop on the highway to buy a new pair of shoes.

We reached an intersection on the highway, to take wrong turn. We took a road which not even looked to be a State Highway, pitch dark with only head lights on the road, green trees passing by. We saw empty bus stops (shelters) in the middle of woods. GPS were switched on in almost all phones. The road was so bad that, at one point of time it seemed like dead-end. But fun was never a dead-end. Our first lost route starts from here.

Hours later, we reached a good road and finally we were at Chikamagaluru at around 0130 HRS. It was time to look out for a hotel, as the hotel owner of RajMahal with whom we had talk earlier refrained from his words to give us a room. We finally found Hotel Rest Inn and paid for a decent sized room for 7 hours of sleep.

Soon after settling down in room, we switched on TV for football match, but unfortunately the match was over. We thought of watching the classic movie “Hangover”. We un-mounted TV from the wall, placed it down on table just to fix pen drive. We had lots of fun while watching and also started referring our friend’s name to the characters in movie. I am sure we might have made the other guests’ night sleepless with our loud talks and laughs. We all slept around 3000 HRS to wake up for an adventurous trek.

0730 HRS, every one out in their trekking wears. I was all-ready minus shoes. Looking at my face, Deepak said “Dude, no shop will be open at this hour to buy shoes” and modestly offered his shoes if I had no problems. But I put down this offer and was okay with the sandals which Amit had carried with him along with his pair of shoes. We then headed towards a restaurant for our early morning breakfast. While others were looking for good restaurant to eat, my hunger was to get shoes for the trek. We found a restaurant and had Idlis, Vadas and a cup of refreshing Chikmagaluru coffee.

Opening the doors, taking our positions, we started off to Mulliayanagiri, Karnataka’s highest peak and probably is the highest peak between the Himalayas and Nilgiris. It was an awesome drive atop the hill though the visibility was pretty poor due to mist around this hill. We began to trek from first temple which is found on the hill. We captured beautiful pictures, while we were hiking up the hill. With dews resting on the body, we were actually walking along the clouds.

Walking on the man-made pathways midst the beautiful lush green plants, waiting for Amit who was a bit slow hiking up the hill, by calling him “Alan, where are you?” (Alan is a character from the movie Hangover) was something which cannot be forgotten and valued in the long years ahead. I loved the trek; we took a break sitting on a rock there. There was an attack by the leech on Naveen which was so bad; it seemed that the blood had promised leech that it shall keep flowing without stopping. Brave by his heart who wanted to experience the ghosts around, this was nothing for him.

Deepak, who led the course, was questioned time and again whether he was taking us in the right direction or we were lost even this time. But he was confident enough and finally we reached near the steps. It was photography time; we captured copious photos sitting, standing, and laying our back on the rocks there.

Moving ahead, stepping up the hill to reach the highest point. By this time it was drizzling and I must admit it was truly a magnificent sight for the eyes. Soon after reaching the top/ end point, we rested there for good amount of time. With all of us feeling refreshed, there were some more poses to the camera. Getting down from this spectacular peak was also fun. Hot bhajjiya (fried snack or fritter) and coffee downhill made our taste buds happier after this long trek.

It was the time to call Mr.Peter, but unfortunately we were not able to do so because of poor network strength. Putting on the reverse gear, making hard efforts to turn the car and passing ahead the sharp curves, finally it was the time to lay back on the seats. Yes like all do, we took out the black machines, switched them on, touched on the play button, this was how it looked:

 

This isn’t the end, definitely not. The fun has just begun; I will continue this amazing experience and series of adventure in my next part. I hope you all liked this one. Please do share your views by commenting on this blog post.

Also I request you all to share this post to your friends and family only if you have liked it. Yes! I said it right, share only if you like.

For all my fellow travellers, itinerary of this trip with necessary details will be shared in my next part of this story. Please keep looking for this space for more.

Thanks for visiting and sharing my blog. I shall be back soon with more.

Love,

VK