KemmannuGunDi - Hebbe Falls - MuLLayyanagiri -

Friday, 13th June 2008

- 2:00 PM

Subrahmanya Arcade (My office)

(Friend of mine calls me)

Friend: "Hey, sorry for calling you up on the last day and inviting you for the trip.. would you be interested?"

Me: "Dude, just because few seats are left unoccupied, are you asking me this? Not really intended me to come on the trip huh?"

Friend: "ha ha ha..nothing like that, I thought someone else would call you"

Me: "Well, today I have a telecon with my US peers and a customer, so if this issue gets fixed will be able to come. But chances are 10%.. "

- 8:00 PM

Me: "Hey I can't come for the trip, I have to stay back in the office since we are supposed to have a net meeting with the customer..Now the chances are 5% that I can make it for the trip..If some miracle happens and the issue gets resolved, I will join last moment!"

Friend:"Welll..okay...."

-9:15 PM

A mail from a US peer: "Hi Prashant, the net meeting is over, the steps provided by you guys seemed to work just fine"

Me: "Sir (to my colleague), I will go home and try to catch up with my friends for the trip"

And thats it, my 5% chances turned out to be 200% to make it for, what I call a wonderful wonderful trip to KemmannugunDi, a hill station distant 40Kms from Chikkamagaluru.

Started from Bangalore at 11:30PM in the night from my pol, vijayanagar, the 21 seater containing the mixture of the generations drove us to Chikkamagaluru. Yes, there weren't only friends but friends' friends, friend's parents in-laws, son, husband..

Mullayyanagiri was the first place to be visited on the list - It would have been a second visit to the highest peak, but still I didn't mind - My second visit to the same place started giving me a different feeling as the bus started trekking the hill :-). This time around it was drizzling there. There was a small tree bent towards the middle of the road obstructing the way for our cute bus. I was more than happy to help the cleaner, to move the tree upstraight to make way for ourselves. Great feeling!!

As and when I saw the places we trekked through last time around, I was showing my friends, "see this is how we came last time..." 2 months back it was a clear sky, with bright sun throughout out trek. This time no trekking; We had the bus.. On the way we got down at a view point to inaugurate our photo sessions!

Before reaching Mullayyanagiri, there comes a place called, SitaLLayyanagiri, from where we can trek to the peak - it takes about half an hour to 45 mins. I asked who wants to get down and try to trek through the clouds. All youngies stood up and said "Let's go"! And as expected it turned out to be an amazing experience. C'mon who wouldn't like walking through the clouds.. Few of the troop who had never seen such a scenic beauty were already on the sky, it was so good to hear a Northie praising my state Karnataka for the first time..

"Amazing, fabulous, ultimate, heaven.." these are words I could hear frequently on our way up the hill.

Our bus which took some people in it did not manage to reach the peak, since the driver got threatened by the high speed blowing wind and clouds. He stopped it in the middle of the way itself. Trust me it was really scary, I man could have been easily flew away with the wind.. But still our other teammates and their parents, made an effort to get down and walk till the top. We were relieved to see them near the top.

Now came the most challenging part of this trek. A man can stand on the earth and look up to see the clouds moving - we could see them all around us... so much of fog and blowing wind which could take anyone away easily.. Few guys from the other troop warned us "don't go..very risky..hammering wind!" Initially we were hesitant. But then I said, we should climb few steps up and come back if it gets diffcult. Slowly and steadily we managed to climb up few steps, after a while, it was a moment of life or death. Had we not held each other's hands we could have gone with the wind! majority of us decided that we should go back, but there were 3 people who wanted to make it to the top. We took a deep breath and said "Time to climb down".. as we turned our face down to climb down, the 3 of them who were interested, just ran up the steps. Now a big dilemma, "Shall we also go or wait for them (if at all they come back)?" - I said "we should also go up to see these guys are there" - We made it to the peak point somehow and grabbed a cup of "requested tea" at the top [ priest's house on the top].

There were showers for some time, and as soon as it slowed down we fastened our pace to climb down the steps. What a memorable and scariest experience!

Next place on the list was BababuDangiri, a holy place basically. Way to BababuDangiri was unforgettable. It really makes you wonder; look through the window of the bus and see numerous cloud formations and their meet with the hills, some milky clouds look sliding down the hills, way down you see the trees which give guest appearance when the clouds are away.. I know I can't explain all this like the writers do or the Discovery Channel's presentation of the scenic beauties.. That's why I put a lot of photos to make myself more expressive :). Well, for a moment I felt I am blessed to be still in India unlike others going out of the country in hunt of success!

A feeling of bliss..

By the time we reached the place called "Datta peeTha" I was done with a nap. The chill cold weather woke me up and my hungry stomache made me grab a Pulav packet and after that I could not stop myself searching for a tea shop in the vicinity. I managed to get one and had 4 cups of hot hot tea :-)

Once we were done with the Darshan (visit) to the temple, it was time to go to KemmannugunDi. On the way "Mungaaru Male" was enjoyed by all of us, with lot of cheering for Ganesh and all the songs. As I wanted it to be, we reached the place when the movie reached a part where Ganesh gets acceptance from the girl for his proposal :-) "A happy ending" I said as the driver switched off the tv.

So far I felt I was on the sky, in fact I was!! I could feel the ground when I touched the soil. With a set of very good organisers for the trip, everything was set right for accommodation etc.. As we reached the guest house, there was a huge queue for... you know for what.. ;-)

Next on the list was Z-point, the next day, but we were unfortunate to miss going there because of rain and fog.

Next it was Hebbe falls right after the breakfast. We walked for a km to get jeeps to Hebbe falls which is approx 8 KMs from that place. The jeep drive was so amazing and seeing stupendous fields of grass on the way made me feel really happy. Hats off to the drivers who manage to take us through, through such a bad mud road, and high speed wind. Jeep dropped us near a guest house from where the falls was again around 2 kms away. This 2 kms way to the falls in this weather is outstanding. With so many water streams on the way which you have to cross, and the steepy little hills which you climb give you undoubtedly a great feeling. Not to forget few leeches who give you few unforgettable memories when stuck to your legs to suck your very sweer blood :0)

Just as we turned right from a curve on the way, we were shown the great hebbe falls by mother nature and the two eyes were really not enough to catch the beauty of it. Hebbe really rocks between the picturesque nature of hills and trees..

Only few of us escaped leech attack, some realized late in the jeep when they thought their leg was itching.

Back to KemmannugunDi on a jeep drive, lunch at the guest house restaurent, a group photo, a visit to a small holy place "Kallatigiri falls" on the way back to b'lore and then back to bengaluru, a city full of IT people, ended our trip without any hassles!! All thanks to the wonderful organisers who took take care of every possible things to make this trip a big success!! Right from snacks to entertaining us with "Jab we met", "Mungaaru MaLe", and "Tom and Jerry" - They had made all arrangements!!

My mind is still not out of that wind and clouds....it takes a lot of time to pull myself out of such a masti-misty trip (that's how someone called it on the trip)....

People stare at the peak and say "How can someone climb up to that point?"

I stand on the peak and say "Why can't you climb up and play with the clouds?"

Visit for few more snaps -

http://www.orkut.com/Album.aspx?uid=9534179928671722591&aid=1213868753]

Cheers!

"Trek to the Highest Peak of Karnataka"

Place: Mullayyanagiri, 20kms from Chikamagaluru.

Chikkamagaluru is certainly one of the famous places in Karnataka, for the coffee estates and the exuberant hill stations... How to go: Lot of Buses are there, Raj Hamsa, Volvo, Semi delux (from B'lore)

less than 6 hours of journey from Bangalore.

Stay and food - is good - Plenty of good lodges and hotels.

Date: 11th and 12th of Apr 2008 Place near chikkamagaluru, called Mullayyanagiri is the highest peak in Karanataka, which is just adjacent to the Bababudangiri hill ranges!

This trip came as a treat for me since it had been a long time since I went out for a trip (mostly 4 months). And as usual this one also left some memories to cherish about for lifetime :0) It all started with my neighbour uncle who has a big yoga gang of his, when he told me about this trek. I immediately said "I am in" since I was waiting for it. I like this gang since it has all generation of people from 20 to 50 years old :o) So certainly it is a good experience and exciting one too to see aged people climbing the hills faster than we do.

We all (19 of us) started from Bangalore at around 11pm after a lot of last minute hassles for searching the bus in jam packed KSRTS bus stand. Since there were 3 continuous holidays, we had to fiddle with a lot of traffic and we could beat the traffic just in time and boarded the bus in last minute.

After reaching Chikkamagaluru in the early morning at around 4:30am, we started searching for lodge, so that we could take bath and start the trek fresh and fast. I don't know why many lodges were full that day; after a lot of difficulty and a walk of 1 km we could get a lodge.

After having heavy breakfast, all started walking towards Mullayyanagiri, I asked everyone, "why can't we go till the starting point by bus?" - but who will listen? - They started walking on the roads - with a standard dialogue - "Enappa ishtu young aagi, aagalla antheera?"

I tried to walk for a km or so and then 6 of us got into a local transport and reached the place called "kaimara" from which the peak is 14 kms. A left turn from there leads to the peak, and Kemmannugundi etc... places. None of us knew the exact starting point for the trek. So we kept on walking on the main road. In between whomever we met, asked them where is the "Kaalu daari" to go to Mullayyanagiri. Everybody told us a different way and we ended up walking more distance than we were supposed to. Someone said we have to go through coffee estates, others pushed us on to the mail road again.

One memorable incident happened which was witnessed by all 6 of us. I don't think anybody would believe this other than we 6, if i tell the story. As we went down to take the short cut, I got see a cobra on my left side, in a small bath room sized room. One of us took out a camera to zoom it and capture the snake.. The snake moved back and did hide itself beneath a step like structure. It popped up again to see whats happening outside, since all of us were staring at it, it moved fast towards the door and disappeared for a while.. .Next moment we had the biggest shock to experience.. Who would expect a snake to climb up the door and close it showing its face to the stunned spectators! Trust me it was the scariest moment I have ever witnessed in my life so far.

Only we know how careful we were for the next half of the trek. A local man was giggling at our unhealthy efforts of climbing the steep regions. We had to walk a long distance and more over it was almost a bus route, nevertheless we thoroughly enjoyed it as we got to see many eye-catching view points, views of 2 beautiful lakes (one of which is supposed to have been shown in "Gaaliapata"), ice cold stream of water to relieve our suffered legs..

After a few more steps we reached a place called "SitaLayyana BeTTa" - where there is a shiva temple. We opened up the eatables that my mom has packed up for us, and we had a peaceful lunch sitting under the tree. By the way, what happened to the other 13 people whom we left behind?? - I called them up to hear that they are almost near the peak. I was surprised!! We left them 4 kms behind and we are lagging behind by atleast 1 hour. We had taken a round about trip to the hill :o)

After taking rest for a while we climbed up 3 more hills to get the ziz-zag view of the steps to the highest peak. btw there is a temple at the the top of Mullayyanagiri, called "Mullayyana MaTha".

When we reached our gang on the top, most of them were flat down - Their snoring sleep could disturb birds flying around. :o) They had actually trekked the hill stright up which was almost 75 digrees. I also took the opportunity and slept off for 2 hours. When I got up at around 6:30pm, others were trying some photography, when sun was closing down for the day. We had a great evening discussing all gossip news, pulling each other's legs, teasing someone who was over the phone for 2 hours on top of the hill!

We stayed back over the hill for the night - it was an amzing experience - No vehicles around - no pollution - every breath we took was so sweet and satisfying - a dim moon light - blurred view of the perimeter of the Bababudangiri hills - sparkling bright stars of course - Not only on top but when we looked down, Chikkamagalur's lightings looked like a necklace filled with rich jewellary - refelction of the road lights in the distant lakes - Words can't explain better than the live experince.

The guy who takes care of the temple (priest), gave us shelter for the night and food to make us feel even better. Next day morning, after wishing a sweet morning to the raising star, the Sun, we thought it is time to leave, and immediately we started back our journey. We trekked down few hills for 2 kms and then waited for a bus to Chikkamagaluru. We reached back home at 5pm, after we boarded bus at around 12pm.

Though it was burning hot season we didn't feel so, since it had rained the whole week before the day we went there. We could see more greenery just because of that one week's rain. Thanks to two of my colleagues who made it for this trek. So 2 more guys added to this trip list. Someday, somewhere villagers will see a huge crowd attacking a hill nearby and definitely get scared! :0)

One more unforgettable trip added to my list to make it more rich and make me say "Yes, I am really having an amazing journey through my life".

"Yaana", "Sirsi", "Om Beach"

Place: Sirsi, 400kms from Bangalore Route: Find out from the net ;-) Facilities: Sirsi has got good hotels for stay and food Team: As it can be seen in the picture, a bunch of highly enthusiastic, people started from Bangalore on 11th Jan, 2008 which was supposed be our first trip for the year 2008! Yes! What else could have been a better way to start off 2008 than visiting some mesmerizing locations like Yaana, Sirsi and Om Beach.

With the same old set of people, there were few new faces adding delight to our freaky troop! Thanks to Trishna and Chandra Kala for joining us. As usual, Prashant (myself), Lawrence, Manasvi, Sangeetha, Surajit, Shylaja, and Meetha were all set for this long journey. SriHarsha was supposed to join us from Sirsi. FRIDAY LATE EVENING!! After a 2 days trip to Wayanad and a day's trip to Skandagiri, it was Manasvi and Sangeetha's responsibility (owned by themselves) to arrange for the next trip , whose result was a 2 days trip to a place called Sirsi. Sirsi is a place distant around 400 kms from Bangalore. We wanted to explore "yaana" and few were desperate to go to one beach atleast ( we decided "Om" beach ). Well, the place was decided, and now we had to arrange for the cab. We decided to hire the same driver whom we took to Wayanad, since we were all impressed with his driving skills. Raghu, the driver, managed to come back from Shabarimalai on friday morning, and after sleeping for some hours he was geared up to start his driving towards Sirsi on the same evening. Raghu came to my place in Vijayanagar at around 10PM, we started towards the organiser's house to pick them up. Next we had to pick up Shyli and Chandra Kala, they were waiting for the cab in Rajajinagar, and we were told the landmark of the place where they were waiting. - "Take a left turn near Jyothi Bakery, keep driving for 5 MINUTES, you will find us" !!!! I said " okkkaayyy"! Luckily it was Raghu's galli, so he knew where exactly to drive! After all of us settled in the tempo traveller, all of a sudden I got a shock seeing that the number of guys for the trip is too less. It always happens with this troop. I just asked shyli who has so many friends all over bangalore, to arrange for some more Gents for the trip. After introduction with each other (there were some new faces), and after the most important thing, "paisa vasool" we started discussing the plan for Saturday and Sunday, "where to go first??" , "when do we reach om beach??" etc et॥ I was for, going to some water fall, and Sahasralinga on Saturday, and on Sunday, early morning trek to Yaana and then to OM beach। This plan looks so neat to me now also but I don't know why it did not strike anyone else

that time, few sat passive! All of them were so excited that they wanted to go to yaana first on Saturday! I thought it would be better to sit quiet, and not to have the altercation going on, since it would spoil the entire trip!

All this while Raghu (driver) was alright, he was driving well, and somewhere in the middle of the journey he stopped the TT near a garage to check the condition of the tyers। All set and now Raghu got back to TT। Unfortunately, he was unable to start. After repeated attempts of repairing the wiring, and also getting a nearby garage man, his attempts failed. We had to do some circus there then, with only minimum number of guys (3), we had to push the TT hoping that it will start. Nothing helped, we wasted 2 hours there. Then Raghu had a very good option of phone a friend, he did call up his expert friend and somehow managed to start the TT towards Sirsi.

SATURDAY MORNING!! Raghu again had to make us wait for 2 hours on Saturday morning for some repair work, and made us reach Sirsi at 10:30 AM which was very late! Now again, I started convincing that we should not go to Yaana that day since it was already too late, and we were tired. According to me Sunday was a good day to start off to Yaana early morning, and enjoy most of it. Again the plan looks so neat now also, I don't know why others did not co operate!! :-) We waited for "Sree Harsha" who was supposed to land in sirsi all the way from Hyderabad, thanks to him, he had arranged for our lunch. We collected lunch from Harsha's dada, and decided that we will go to Harsha's place to have lunch. It was a typical antique house, beautiful in the middle of green trees. As we entered his house, we all for sure wanted to take a nap! it was really a great feeling to be sitting in Harsha's house, so cold so peaceful. Harsha's family showed us a great hospitality, they really did take a good care of us. Harsha reached home when we were having our lunch. He also joined my opposition party saying that we will go to yaana first. It was already 3 o' clock. I said okay, "we will go to Yaana" :-).

We reached yaana pretty late in the evening, at around 4:30. We hardly had any time left for the sunset, so we walked fast on the smooth track till the beautiful rocks. In the short time we had there, we tried to do some adventure by climbing few rocks, doing some crazy jumps here and there. Yaana is really a beautiful place. It is a nature’s wonder. Known for two gigantic rock formations of a height of 90 meters and 120 meters respectively called "Mohini Shikhara" and "Bhairaveshwara Shikhara". Half way up the side of Bhairaveshwara rock there is a deep cave measuring three meters at the entrance where Bhairaveshwara, the local deity is sanctified. Encircled by thickly wooded forest, it is a trekker’s paradise. There is a proper road (mud road though), from the starting place till these rocks. So it did not require much of energy from us. Before we could say that we should go further to explore some more of Yaana, it was already getting darker. We headed back and entered a temple, the "pujari" told us the story behind the "yaana", why is it named so, why the rocks have got that shape. He told perceptions of different people about the history of Yaana, Mohini Shikhara and Bhairaveshwara Shikhar , I donot remember even one story! We started walking back since it was getting darker. I had a lot of fun making some weird noise in the forest. All the way we walked listening to the music and answering great questions of "Question Queen" meeta. We headed back to the hotel we stayed in and it was a time to say good bye to our friend, Harsha, on the way. Really it was a great help from him, making the arrangements for stay and food and also showing such a wonderful hospitality at his house. Thanks Harsha! During the dinner I was just grinning sitting at a corner, and talking to myself saying that "see i knew that we couldn't have seen more of Yaana if we go there today" ! But it was too late and all I could do was sit and feel bad! However, I enjoyed the short time that we had at yaana. It was great fun! SUNDAY!! Next day morning, we had to get ready fast to start for the second day's journey. After experimenting with tasting new types of items in breakfast (MisaL pav, Banaana bun etc etc), we, headed towards a place called as "Sahasralinga", which is situated close to Sirsi (about 15 kms). Manasvi and Sangeetha had something to regret for, they forgot to pay for a glass of milk they bought from the hotel! Sahasralinga is a pilgrimage place in the Sirsi Taluk in the district of Uttara Kannada. "Sahasralinga" = "Sahasra" meaning thousand + "Lingam" . There are thousands of "Linga's" in a small water body. Lingam is a symbol of worship of the Hindu God, Shiva and its on the auspicious day of Mahashivaratri when thousands of pilgrims visit Sahasralinga to offer their prayers to Shiva. Each lingam here has a carving of Nandi facing it. We could get into the water there, we just went around for a while playing with the water and doing some photography experiments. I remember last time I visited the same place just after my second PUC, I made a borrowed camera soak into the running water. I tried my best to dry the camera and change the battery, but it did not work. Keeping the old memories in mind, I was very careful about meeta's camera which I was holding this time. She had given the responsibility of this camera to me, for the obvious reason of taking her beautiful snaps. The last moment while coming out of the lake, I lost control over my legs, I slipped in the water, and well.. I soaked in the water. Though I had 2 cell phones in my Jeans pockets, I was more worried about the meeta's camera. I remember how I managed to hold the camera up though I was flat in the flowing water. Some how I came out of it and camera was still working. Unfortunately my brand new w580i cell phone and my grand old samsung cell phones, were shutdown for a long time, until Lawrence made them dry dismantling each and every part of the phones and exposing it to Sun. I was happy to see both of them working later in the evening. I was quite happy that I enjoyed spending time in Sahasralinga, and managed to capture some "Kodak Moments"! Trishna and I had a competition to throw the flat stones on the still water to beat each other's count of number of bounces! It made me remember my school days when I used to do this quite often. It feels so good to do such things which I did in my childhood, and its all possible because I take out time for myself to go out of Bangalore, and live the life I always want to. It was a very pleasant morning for all of us and we all liked the place. We have so much of craze about photography (self and nature), that we didn't bother about cow's sh** and just stood near a bench and took some photographs. The most funniest part of it was when Trishna saw that sh** and sreamed "oh my god..chee...its a fresh sh**".... I just could not control my laughter!

After having a great time at Sahasralinga, we wanted to see some water fall, but again Driver and most of others, were like, "It will be too late to reach Om beach if see a water fall". This time I didn't want to hear all of that. I got down from the cab and enquired about "Unchalli" falls, and the distance to Om beach from there. According to my calculation we could have reached Om beach well before 4 PM in the evening. So we headed towards, Unchalli falls, around 30 kms from Sirsi, which is the one of the biggest tourist attractions near Sirsi. The waterfall is a 116 meter drop and offers spectacular views at all times of the year it seems!

We had to get down and walk for a while, around 2 kms, to go to the view point. I was thrilled to see the ghats, and on the left side, a milky water falls gushing through the beautiful western ghats and falling from a huge height!! huhhhhhh....a sigh of relief, that we did not miss seeing this wonderful breathtaking view. Then the photography started, focused photography covering the water falls next to the cheeks, next to their flying hair etc etc.. We again snapped some golden moments,and it was time for us to get back to the cab, since shyli was in hurry to jump into the sea water. We walked back slowly, Lawrence pulling some tired bodies along with him ;-). Before getting into the cab, all of us confused a shopkeeper with the number of banaanas that we ate. Everybody was hungry, and just could not stop themselves saying "I want one more"!! Shopkeeper also took the advantage of it and grabbed extra money! Now comes the most interesting part of the trip and the climax, much awaited Om Beach. Shyli wanted to swim and I was wondering "how could she swim in the beach". We reached Gokarna after travelling for 3 hours from Unchalli Falls. All thru this journey, I had a great time answering great questions from QQ(question queen), the best one being "Is this beach same as the someshwar beach?"....Of course all the beaches will be the same. You will see sea water and a sand on the sides ;-) As we had planned, we went to Om beach 2 hours before the sunset. I could not see the roaring waves of sea hitting the shores! Initially I was unhappy about it. I could see that there is some rock extending more towards the sea away from the beach. Few of us decided to go there for a while, the rocks were all dirty with bottles and rotten things all over. I really curse those people who spoil such a wonderful place. We sat facing the sun for sometime, we took some photographs again, and later I could hear that some one was calling us "oye oye".... Two local guys came with full of anger scolding me left and right, asking me how could I even dare to go to that place, I was the only guy in few of us who went and sat there, those local guys were targetting me and scolding, I tried to cool his temper saying that we could not see the display boards that its a "Danger Spot". I have heard of many instances where many people lost their lives in that spot.

We moved out from that place, started searching for Shyli, Lawrence and Surajit, and we could see that there was some swimming training going on by an untrained trainer (Lawrence) teaching a highly enthusiastic student (shyli), while Surajit was taking fun out of this. I could not resist myself getting into water,so couldn't others. I remember Lawrence and Surajit had great time, with both of them being trainers for sometime, and then being boats for most of the other time. There was one more troop, where those guys were wondering "what s happening out there?" . I can't really explain, in words what was the scene there! Having mentioned that, don't imagine anything else!!

We had great time at Om beach, few learnt the art of floating in the water (including me) and few learnt a little bit of swimming. Few looked excited and turned towards me and said "Hey don't move, let me see whether I can swim and reach this small distance!", It was one of the best sun sets I've ever experienced in my life! Floating in the crystal clear water and seeing the sun go down the horizon was just an amazing feeling!! After all the fun we had, nobody wanted to come out of swimming pool like beach, and I kept saying "some more time some more time".... Unfortunately, we had to come out and start our journey towards b'lore to make sure we reach early morning of Monday to go to office (Unfortunately!!). It was too late for us to start back from there, since we had to go to office the next day ( Monday ). We started back from there at around 7 PM. Raghu told, we will be reaching bangalore very late in the morning. Because of Raghu we had to wait for two more hours till he got his extra tyre ready in Kumata. On top of all this, when the entire world was sleeping (including us), Raghu said "why not me??"! He parked his TT on a road side and told me that he will sleep for sometime, and guess what that "sometime" turned out to be more than 2 hours and we were really really late, in reaching Bangalore! But I believe Raghu is a good driver and he drives carefully keeping our safety in his mind. It doesn't harm us if we reach 2 hours late to Bangalore than taking a risk by driving rash! So Raghu, again a good job done! and I bet, you will be our regular driver from now on (provided we don't see cockroaches in your TT again) ! We all carried great memories (as always) back home from Sirsi, yaana, sahasralinga, and Om beach, and Sangeetha carried an extra element apart from those memories, a doubt, "Why the hell was Tempo Traveller shaking when guys were changing their dress!" (after coming out of Om beach ) kudos to the trip team once again! and hope to see you all soon in our next adventurous meet!!

"iter itineris": "Yaana", "Sirsi", "Om Beach"

"iter itineris": "Yaana", "Sirsi", "Om Beach"

"Skandagiri" , "KalavarahaLLi"

Place: Skandagiri

Route: From Bangalore to Chikkaballapur, near bus stand take a left turn,drive further 2-3 kms, you will reach the starting point.
Facilities: There are facilities like parking, guides to show the route now. Food not available.
Trekking difficulty: Moderate

We desperately wanted a break from work, wanted to go out of Bangalore. Many of us wanted to go for a two days trip, and few weren't getting permission for 2 days. Finally we decided for a one day trip. Now, where to go? Mekedatu?, Bheemeshwari?, Muttatti?, or an unexplored Skandagiri. We had heard of night trekking/moon light trekking to this place called as Skandagiri which is situated around 80 Kms from Bangalore, very close to Chiakkaballapur. The troop decided that we should go to Skandagiri.

I asked every one of (8 people) us to be ready at 6:30 in the morning, I have always maintained my image of reaching late on all occasions, be it a celebration, a party, or a movie. I don't know why, but when it comes to "punctuality" I am always late. To change the perception that my friends had about me, I decided to take the responsibility of arranging a cab and asked the driver to come early in the morning. I was just waiting to tell all my friends, "Look I am on time today" .... Unfortunately , driver did not turn up to my place even at 7, later I got to know that he had switched off his cell. I had to arrange for a new cab and pick up everyone at 830am, poor people, they were waiting there for 2 hours. It was as though the driver helped me to maintain my image!! Well my friends had lot of fun in the early morning waiting for the cab, some went for a walk, few stood outside the Bangalore Central mall looking at uncles and aunties of morning walk, few just kept on calling me up and asking me when is the cab reaching their place, few decided in the morning that they want to make it for the trip.

We started off at 9 AM from Bangalore after everybody boarded the cab. Pretty short journey it was. We reached the place at 1030am. It was a humid day. One of my friends, looking at the hill asked "Whats the fun in climbing this up and down". Yes you are right! It was her first such adventure which looked so stupid to her :-). A guy (Pradeep- 9241188420) came to us convincing us to make him our guide. We negotiated with him to pay him 200 rs for this job.

Oh I forgot to mention one more thing, it was my friend's birthday who was also part of this trip. We managed to buy a cake for her, and had planned to celebrate her b'day on top of the hill. It was a pretty moderately difficult trekking, but we enjoyed it as we went up further. We got some relief by the wind, since it was humid down the hill. We gave our legs some rest during the trek. Though it was a sunny day we enjoyed the trek to the fullest.

We all started getting hungry, and knowing that we had a cake, we decided to celebrate her birthday on the way itself. To our surprise the cake had completely melt and became a cream. I still remember the way we attacked the melted cake, how we troubled the person who gets a phone call, singing "happy birthday to you" whenever birthday girl received a call. We had not done any arrangement for the food so on reaching the top, we had to buy costly "hill side" dishes and had a cup of costly tea. :-)

It was really a beautiful view, though there were no clouds, all of us sat silent like never before. Obviously, who would want to spoil the peace of silence? We were just waiting for our one more favorite trip mate, rain, sitting on those long posts. We could see that black clouds are rushing towards this hill and within another 2 minutes it started raining heavily. My my...it was such scary rain, water drops hitting us left and right, all of us hurried and rushed to find a place to hide ourselves from this rain. We managed to get a place below a rock. The scenic beauty and the fields which were looking like paintings from the hill, got completely covered with clouds. We could see a huge cloud formation touching the Nandhi hills opposite to this hill. On the right side, we could see the clouds rushing through rocks.. overall it was a great experience and though we were all feeling chill cold, it was chilling memory for our minds. Now that our wish is fulfilled ( rain ), we started trekking downwards. It didn't require much of the skills and effort as we were pushing ourselves fast. Some of us were learning trekking skills "left, right left" steps though!

Its a great place to chill out on a day's outing. If you love nature, this place is a must visit.

I trekked this hill once again recently, went on a night trek. It was also a good experience, but watch out for snakes!! We trekked from night 1am to 3 am and waited to see the sun rise. Though sun disappointed us, it was very good to be covered with clouds, felt high on earth!!

Relaxing on Skandagiri hill has left soothing memories!!