Chapter 17
Trip to Shimoga

This was the best of the 3 trips. Reason, it was more adventuresome.

Had a great fight at home only to get permission for the trip. Atlast, got my bags packing and left for Busstand. Caught the bus at around 11:45. When waiting for the bus, met 2 new friends who had accompanied us on the trip - Mapi and Adi. Others were Chubby, Sibin, Karthik Sr., Kishore and myself on a mission to conquer the peak of Kodachaadri. So, our journey started off on 11:45 on 27th Apr night. We were laughing all the while in the bus cracking PJs. We were specialists in that. We reached Shimoga at around 6am. Journey was pretty tiresome. Then we thought of having our breakfast and then leave to a place called Nagara where we had booked a forest guest house.

We couldnt find a decent hotel anywhere near busstand at 6am and had to settle with some khaakha hotel. After that we got to know about the bus which leaves to Nagara from some locals. The bus was pretty much crowded when we left Shimoga. Nagara is a place outside Shimoga which is around 75kms from Shimoga. They said it was around 2 hours journey by bus. So, the bus left at 8:30. We had to stand in the crowded bus. Wow man..... It looks like that they show in some movies, completely packed with people, people sitting on top of the bus and enjoying the drive. After a struggle of 3 hours, we finally got a place to sit for however short period the leftover journey was. We got to sit for only 15 mins. We thought the journey from Bangalore to Shimoga was tiring, that was nowhere near to the strain we underwent in this journey. It was 3 hour long stress. We got down and directly went straight into some bench kept in the busstop and slept there. It was that tiresome. Only then I got to know about my mobile. Shit!! I lost it in the bus. We tried our best to track it down but in vain. This was the only bitter part in the whole of my trip.

Then we moved into forest guest house and thanks to that forest ranger who helped us a lot in the entire trip organising places to visit, arranging food, accompanying us etc etc. Atlast we were provided some beds to rest our body. It had gained so much potential energy just standing in tht crowded bus. We then waited for the first person who gets up and starts getting ready.. No one was in a mood to take bath, ofcourse, everyone wanted to rest. After a loooong wait, Aditya went to bath. Then everybody else followed. After getting ready, we were dropped to some hotel around 3 kms from the guest house.

I hadnt described the guest house right. It was somewhere in the midst of jungle. Pretty close was some deserted house which looked scary even at day times. The entire forest area was inhabited by naxalites(that is what forest rangers claimed). Man, we were pretty lucky, we didnt meet any(Or rather should I say, they were lucky?). The guest house was in an island. There was only one road which led to this guest house and it was surrounded by a beautiful river. We fell in love with this place at the first sight itself.

Coming back to the trip, we had our lunch and left for Mani Dam. Dam was beautiful. Spent sometime over there, got to know how electricity is being generated. And left to visit a water fall. We reached some highway by around 5:00. The supposed to be water fall was on the footpath of the highway. That waterfall was quite huge but if there was some water, then it would have been better. It seemed like tap water flowing from hilltop.

We tried to climb the steep hill using the roots and rocks. Sibin and Mapi did it successfully but I dont know what they were. Spidermen or something?!!! Mapi is real spiderman. Clings onto anything and everything.. climbs everything... never gets tired... I dont know the secret behind his energy.. But hats off to his skill. He climed onto a steep rock.. Almost 90 degrees to ground very easily. I still dont understand how he could manage to do it.

Coming back to climbing the water fall hill. Sibin and Mapi had almost climbed up and were out of sight and also werent responding to our calls. Me and Chubby had started a rescue mission and starting to climb the hill. Rescue mission because, we had heard enough of Naxalite stories over there and were worried about the naxalites ofcourse ;-) God should have saved them if they had met Sibin. After we started rescue mission, we heard Adi calling us and said Sibin was not worth the rescue mission and asked us to get down. We got down and waited for them in the road. After around 30 mins of waiting, we saw them running down the road. They had actually reached the top of the road.

We then left back for guest house. Just then it started to rain light showers. We reached guest house and it was damn beautiful sight. Sunset was awesome and also to see the lightning in the twilight was amazing. No words actually to describe the scene. Sibin and Mapi had gone to town to get ball and some snacks. So, rest of us sat outside, enjoyed the nature and started cracking jokes, talking about our school days etc etc. It was fun. Then we walked to the town after Sibin and Mapi came back to have food. This was after the drinks break ofcourse ;-).

We walked to only decent hotel which was in the town and somewhere close to 4 kms from guest house in the dark. We came across 2-3 deserted houses. They looked damn creepy during night. We finally reached hotel. Had our food, came back to the guest house and slept. Everyone were damn tired. Everyone slept like a log.

Day 2
We got up at around 6:00 am. Man, I had the best night's sleep in previous night. Got ready by around 7:30 am and left for kodachaadri. We had our breakfast and then left for kodachaadri - around 40 kms from guest house. We reached the place by around 8:30. Started our trek instantly. The path which led to tht peak was very dusty and it was too steep. Because of the dust, we thought of going midst jungle. Actually we got lost once or twice. It was hot sun. The place was dusty. No signs of water, no one around. It was really difficult for us. And on top of this, it was 120 degrees steep, and we had to go on like this for 9 kms.

The place was quite slippery as well. After a long trek of around 3 hours 30 mins, we reached the top. Thanks to those cab drivers who gave us some water inbetween. We were totally exhausted and also dehydrated. We got some place to sleep. Water was superb. It almost tasted like amruta at that moment for us. Some people suggested one more trek place which was around 2 kms from tht place. But me and karthik preferred to stay back. They returned at around 3:30. We had our food and then we booked a cab to go down. No one had tht much stamina to go down walking again. I didnt have any.

So, we reached the car, which was waiting for us at around 4:15 and we left for some place where we could take bathe. He took us to some temple which had a beautiful pond. I played with water till it was time. Time for me to get back home. I had chosen to come back on Sun and they had planned to continue their trip as it was holiday for them. I had office the next day. :-(
So, I bid farewell to them and wished them so that they have a great trip and came back to Nagara. From there same old 3 hour crowded jorney, same old bus, but only difference is tht I dint have a mobile to loose.

I reached Shimoga at 10 and had my dinner, met my colleague there. And more to good news, he was a proud father on the same day. Good for him. Came back to bangalore at 5am. and got back home at around 5:30. slept for a while and then had to run to office. That whole day I was dozing off at my desk as I hadnt had enough sleep for 2 days. Thus came to and end of my story.
Hope you enjoyed reading it.