18th March 2010 -
My wife said "how about you postponing your so called "into the wild" trip. Phew, I didn't know what to say, but did not want to make her sad too, I said, well OK then. I was like you are near the shores of Nicaragua and the sea becomes silent.
But something happened that I did not intend to hear, she said, I think you could go ahead as planned but I am not really comfortable you going alone. HURRAY, I felt I won a lottery. My mind was back into "BUSY" state thinking about the plan.
But I wanted to see who could accompany me for this event, so that she would also be comfortable. I called up a few of my friends, and none agreed with such a short notice. I did not have a comment for them either. My friend at work agreed for the next weekend, but my eagerness knew no bounds.
But then, a couple of my friends scared me so much that I started visualizing about all possible obstructions, some of them were, me getting stuck with:
- Naxals
- Wild animals
- Sun burns
- Dehydration
- Going mad (not easily)
- Accidents
- Falling from a cliff
- Hanging on to a tree and playing a pendulum, waiting for HELP
Aaah!, none of them, definitely not a good scene.
Well, I took them into my mind, but not so much that they would become real showstoppers.
Work got too hectic at office that day and I did not manage to do any work on my trip, I cursed myself a lot of it.
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19th March 2010 -
So it was pretty much that I would do this alone, as I really wanted me to go out there ALONE. Came to work little early to manage my plans as well along with work.
I did a lot of work this day and evaluated the contenders one after the other. I want to share some of the information I gathered:
Kumara Parvatha
- 1714 mtrs
- 280+ kms from BLR
- I have done this before and the experience is awesome
- Overnight stay on peak is a dream come true (but I had no tent)
- No water source after Bhattarmane
- Summer trek can be very dehydrating due to very very less water sources
- Beautiful sunrise and sunset
- More people around (specially in the weekends)
- difficulty level little higher than other coordinates
- trek more drive less
Kodachadri
- 1343 mtrs
- 400 kms from BLR
- descent trek time
- Good place to go, irrespective of the season (
good point there)
- Mountain side, grass covered slopes
- Water could be seen in a some falls, even though it is summer
- awesome sunset!
- Trek more, drive less
- less people around
Mulayangiri
- 1930 mtrs (tallest in the western ghats)
- 250+ kms from BLR
- trek time (2 options trek - DRIVE!!!!!)
- Good place to go, but in summer, suggested to reach atop before noon
- No water sources
With these options, I wanted to settle for Kodachadri and browsed through some online information, I must say here that Sandeep's blogs were definitely informative and gave a lot of information, nevertheless other websites as well, Google has been the world's best friend ever!
Quick link to Sandeep's world:
Sandeep 's World >> Sandeep Unnimadhavan's Home page
I took some prints of data and by evening, I was all set.
It was 7PM and I was still at work, had to meet my wife, she was at her mom's house, go home, pack and GET SET GO!!!!
My collegues started making fool of me, some tried to scare me and one guy was almost successful, but my mind, as always said "nevermind".
Suddenly, something stuck to my brain, I thought about "RudraSen" and what can one think about him, you got it... his Photography skills, my one of the best thread has always been: "The Auto-Image thread" and I thank him for his contribution to the thread.
Ok, so whats up with it? Mullayangiri, the best spot, the difference being, Max can join me right up to the top and he poses well, so plans changed in no minute and I was set to head towards Chikmaglur.
At 9.45PM, I was busy packing up and suddenly I get a call from my friend Sanjay and he says he would be interested and he was in. But he stays in Mysore and we planned to meet up in Hassan.
So, I left home at 10.45PM, after an adieu to my wife, she was not in tears, but I was thinking all possible things, w.r.t obstructions mentioned above, and smiled at her.
Since I am put up in Basaveshwaranagar, I wanted to take Magadi route to reach Hassan as I heard a lot of good things about this route.
Checked Max, he was fine, and looked more enthu than me, well that's what you need.
I straight headed to HP near home and filled in GAS, checked AIR and there you go, all set.
I hit the road at around 11PM, reset my trip reader to 0.
Magadi road strech:
- It's good, nice experience
- Initial 15-20 mins there is work going and keeps you bumping, otherwise its a dream drive
- The curves are sharp than normal
- Look out for those buses which have started taking this route, so more heavier the vehicles are, faster the service tenure for the roads
It was a pleasant drive, was driving moderate speed, and reached Hassan at about 1.45AM, met my friend Sanjay, he jumped in and we set towards Chikmaglur.
I could see that he was little wondering about what was happening, that it was too instantaneous, but he was alright.
Interesting things about Sanjay:
- He is an experienced Rally driver, he is basically from Belthangadi, but stays most of the time in Coimbatore, so you know thats the place, where most of these things happen
- He is a very good photographer and I have learnt a lot from him
We headed to Chikmaglur after a very good tea break in Hassan, the bus stand had a shop which served good tea, I had 2 glasses.
Finally we reached Chikmaglur about 2.45AM and it was getting colder. We took the route to Mulayangiri, but since it was getting too colder, we thought we would stop near some place, take a nap and proceed.
We stopped near a place called, "Kaimara", under the main circle's lamppost, it was 3.10AM, in the meanwhile, Sanjay and me started discussing about paranormal stuff and it did get onto our nerves, with the background score of dogs (some barking, some houling/crying, birds sounds), but the experience was WOW.
I took out my camera and had a shot of the place:
Below the lamp-post:
Sanjay took this shot and it was damn cold and we were shivering:
We slept there until it was 4.45AM, all that we could hear were their sounds, you know who we are talking about!
...more to come