Time: 10 pm
Location: KSRTC Bus Stand,
Status: Trip yet to start
The journey was to start, the journey with the unknown, and the journey in which I knew only a single face. But the single face was yet to arrive.
Yes, I was standing right next to a bubbly crowd waiting for my friend like a stranger in the party. Finally he arrives with a delay of 20 mins to the destined spot only to ask me if I met the others. By the way, the friend I am talking about is Santhosh.
How the hell am I to know that the small little happily screaming crowd right next to me was the one who I was to travel with?
By the time I was introduced to the entire team of travelers (sorry wanderers), the small little happily screaming crowd had become big.
17 + 1 was the crowd, the 1 being me.
The journey started at 11 pm with a bang! Bang? Hey it’s just the bus door which got closed.
Destination: Tarikere
The bus journey included introduction, keeping the others in the bus disturbed, midnight snacks and lots more fun stuffs.
Have any of you seen ceramic rust? Yes we had our first sight of it on Saturday Dawn. The room that we had taken contained a rusted water closet. The rusted water closet found several comments which could not keep us off laughing. And an ironic thing is that, this lodge was the best in town.
After the morning rituals, we had tea in a nearby canteen.
Saturday: 7th July/2007
Time: 7:30 am
Destination:
Location: Kalhatti falls is a pilgrim place near Kalhattipura which is 20 km south of Tarikere town in Chikmaglur district.
The journey to Kalhatti falls contained the bus journey and walk. Now coming to the best part of this was the bus journey. The journey was more of a song party, the songs ranging from Kishore Kumar to the latest party songs.
Though the water falls that we could visibly see was very little, the very sight of water flowing was pleasing.
Time: 9:30 am
Destination: Kemmangundi
The bus was supposed to arrive at Kalhatti stop at around 9:45am. Since we had little free time here, we decided to have our breakfast. The late arrival of bus to the stop added to our advantage in helping us to finish our food by then.
The drive to Kemmangundi typically compensated for the amount of noise which prevailed in the previous bus journey. This time none of us had any energy left to show off our singing or any other skills. Basically it was a short nap. Actually I don’t know what the others were doing as I was asleep. J
At 11:00 am we were in Kemmangundi all rejuvenated with energy to start off our best thing of the entire trip.
Tour De Hebbe (Hebbe Falls)
Location: A downhill trek of about 8 km from Raj Bhavan takes one to Hebbe Falls where water streams down from a height of 168 meters in two stages to form Dodda Hebbe (Big Falls) and Chikka Hebbe (Small Falls).
The chill weather prompted all of us to ask for a cup of hot tea/coffee. We actually spent a lot of time doing absolutely nothing. After a long wait, we wouldn’t have actually thought about the entire wait if the tea/coffee was at least lip smacking.
The time lost is lost, but why did it have a mention in my blog?
This was when we had our first encounter with the blood sucking leech at a dangerous spot.
Since none of us knew the route we chose to take a guide with us to be on a safer side.
Special Mention: Siriyal, The Trek Manager
Sexy drizzle, cool breeze, wet mud, tiny puddles and finally not forgetting to mention the silent sizzler, The Leech.
The leech party
In silence I crawl,
No one can feel my prowl.
Life is tasty, life is yumm,
I relish blood serum.
Happiness is what I see, happiness is what I feel,
Blood is wine to me, Human is shrine to me,
Blood Blood is all I preach
After all I am a leech
Eighteen of us and a few more other groups being present would surely make the leech smile. Their hunger is all that they quench and since they are not poisonous lets not make them sound like criminals. Now moving away from the talk about the leeches…
Beautiful forest lands, mind boggling contour & the tall standing trees made the trek a little too amazing. Being an 8 Km trek (If you take the road, its 12Kms) on a rugged terrain required a person quite some effort to enjoy the fruits.
The mountains were cloud clad, so forget the horizon even the person leading the troop was no where in sight. The whole climate added to the pleasure and with such romantic weather, Thank god… my girl was not around.
As we reached the end of the trek, we had to cross numerous flowing water bodies to get to the other end. With the force of the water being quite some amount, it was a tough job to keep anchored to your feet.
There is a saying which goes like, “With every pain you get pleasure at the end”.
But ours was, “With pleasure you get enormous pleasure”.
Declaration:
As we were tired, we preferred to travel by jeep instead of trekking up. Now since we had to catch a train from Birur, we came down in the same jeep till this place.
After dinner and loads of fun games in the station, we caught Shimoga – Bangalore Express at 12 midnight. The train journey in the general compartment was a fun of its own kind.
Time: 4:50 am
Location:
Status: Successful trip
