Kickassome Trek to Karnataka's highest peak - Mullayanagiri

     Every girl is a story in herself…Caught in between a thousand things – she is always looking for that one chance where life takes her to a very ‘filmy-mode’..in the sense – go out to a place she has never been before, explore new people, live out that tiny little weirdo in her – in short – be herself, at least for a while! And then one fine day, in the middle of her monotonous life, a mail pops into her mailbox about an all-woman 2-day trek. She runs through her trail of thoughts, signs up for it, and then waits…

     Well, every girl is a story in herself J Caught in between a thousand things and emotions – she is always looking for that one chance where life takes her to her personal freedom..she has her own tiny wishes, wants to feel and experience different things with people she wishes to.  Putting everything aside, one fine day she plans to step out of the monotonity, plans up stuff, announces an all-woman 2-day trek, and then waits…

Time has come. The shortlist is out. The wait is over. She knows it's time to live-out-loud. She packs up...

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     12 such women, technically called ‘Wowies’ :P meet up at the Shantala Silk House on the night of Friday, 7th November. The trip is : in and around Chikkamagaluru. The main destination is ‘Mullayanagiri – the highest peak of Karnataka’. And the actual trip story begins here….

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     In that hustle-bustle of a typical Friday-night Bangalore traffic..

     Even before Moyee or I could give instructions, the team of wowies were already done with luggage-loading inside the TT and were all-set! Waaahhh – berry quick – I was amazed! The group had a mix of first timers and familiar faces.

     After a team pic at the start, we started our journey from Bangalore, towards Kemmanagundi (Chikmagalur). Most of them had seemingly busy days with meetings and stuff; and hence chose to take a nap during the journey. (guess I was the only one irritating everyone with the apples that I had got for dinner, at every other halt :P) Moyee and I took rounds of ‘stay-awake’  during the journey, as watch-women :P

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Day 1: Saturday

Early Morning: Entry in the Homestay and yum breakfast!!

     Somewhere around 4.45 am the next morning, even before the sun had risen, we reached the Homestay, and received a very warm welcome from the Homestay couple. After unloading the luggages, we took rest for a while in our respective rooms, and then gathered for a chit-chat during the sunrise-time. Three of my most-pampered enemies joined in the chit-chat: Nono, Popo and Popi (very fondly named by li’l Champ Vaishnavi) ! Ok – so these are (not-so-for-me) friendly doggies of the Homestay owners – that freaked me out every time I found them around me! 

     Stories of dogs, and then adventures, beach trekking and biking brought us into the spirit of trekking…and then made us discover the word ‘Assomme’ :D Post a lip-smacking, yummy breakfast from homestay, we headed out to Kalhatti falls with our Homestay guide. Nono and Popi also followed us throughout. Pit-stops, helping hands, pic-stops, jokes happened all the way through the falls when we finally reached the peak. Somewhere on the way is when we modified the term ‘Assomme’ (that sounded little awkward) to ‘Kickassomme’ (thiss! Really has a punch!:P)

Team chilling at homestay, before breakfast : Day-1

The super-cool kiddo!

Kalhatti Falls & the Fun:

     Introduction – after spending over 12 hours together, we finally conducted the formality of the introduction round. Keeping in mind the range of age groups, we included ‘favorite color, favourite fruit and hobby’ as a must-talk-about in this round [Moyee discovered that we were a lot of ‘aam’ junta – I mean, ‘mango-liking’ people among us :P]

     No sooner did the introduction round get over, than we found the roars of the waterfalls calling us ;). Juby was the first one to hop and reach the falls. Motivated by her, a few of us (including me, myself!) hopped in too :D and Gosh!! The ice cold water of the falls, literally gave us a chill down the spine – purely a WOW moment of the trip. After experiencing total numbness and absolute shivers at times, we successfully found a way to counter the freezing chill water – called as ‘Phubying’ (named after the participant from whom we discovered this :P) [well, its nothing but an art of blowing air from your mouth :P] With a literal ‘super-cool’ experience and photo-sessions, we headed back to our homestay for Lunch.

Trek to Kalhatti falls

Kalhatti Falls 

Ice-cold water!!

Well - that's Phubying ;) :P

Lunch: The Homestay food was one of the highlights of the trip. [so yum that we organizers even considered slashing out the rest of the day’s plan and have a nice sleep for the entire day!;)].  

Rose-garden and Z-point: Post lunch, we headed out for the Rose-Garden late in the afternoon, at  Kemmangundi (that was half an hour journey from the Homestay) and our ‘animal-instincts’ suddenly woke up wide. On reaching the peak of the garden (yeah it has a small elevation, from where you can view the Z-point at a distance), we posed like we were never human beings and what more – gave a free entertainment to the public who were watching us now and then [but then, who cares – life’s truly filmy at times – jo karna hai kar lo ;)]. 

     After spending some time at the view point; we moved back to our route and trekked to the Z-point (about 1.5 kms)! Somehow, our timing turned out to be accurate, and we happened to reach the peak dot at the Sunset J [Mission accomplished!]. After spending few minutes at the peak posing for pics, we descended to the base at dusk and then started our journey back towards the Homestay where Fooooood-n-Fun was awaiting us….

A team pic at Rose-garden peak

Camp-fire, wedding stories, dance-n-dinner:

     It was the twilight hour. Back at the homestay, the girls had now refreshed from the entire day’s fun. But the ‘raat was still baaki ...and so was day-1 ka picture, dost!!’  ;). And, it continued over the camp-fire; plates of bhajjis and Manchurians; when our lady, Moyee, opened her favourite topic of --  ummm…well…errrrr…‘shaadi’ :P The next few hours turned out to be sweet and touching, when the girls freely shared their unique and interesting wedding-stories (some love, some arranged). And the yet-to-be-married ones shared their totally amazing ‘partner preferences’ (well, let me not get into details here:P) [I told ya in my previous blogs, that women do bond over Food and family :P].

     To seal the session with more energy, we had a round of dance and thumkas; again random photo-session and then sat for Dinner [the mention of the homestay food itself is enough for mouth-watering!!!]. Over the delicious food, we discussed plans for Day-2 and then retired to our beds…

Kickassome Day-1 ends….

Day-2 begins here….

The Mullayanagiri Trek:

     With a filled tummy and a heavy heart, we checked out of the Homestay, post breakfast (of course, with a heavenly memory of the foooood!). Our Day -2 destination was – the Mullayanagiri peak (the highest peak of Karnataka). Due to some incorrect directions from the localites, we landed up at the base of another hill adjacent to Mullayanagiri viz. Sitayanagiri; instead of Sarpa-dari (that was our intended  start-point). However, in order to not waste much time traveling in TT , we decided to start our trek from Sitayanagiri itself (post sufficient enquiries); and made our start-point (Sarpa-daari) as our target-end-point :P  [There is a path that connects both the hills, and so if u land up at the wrong hill, dont worry, you've just earned a bonus trek - just like we did  :P]

     Throughout the trek it was an amazing team work. The girls spent 5 awesome hours covering the double-hills of Sitayanagiri and Mullyanagiri by  - Holding hands, cracking jokes, dancing to jab-we-met songs, breaks for food, route tracking by the leads (Moyee, Juby and jayasree), few breaks for pics,  hilarious crisis-management of Rashmi’s peeled shoe-sole; and yoodling like tarzan (just for fun ;)) – it was truly a ‘be-totally-yourself’ time for the girls!! :D. The sweeping team reached the Sarpa daari base by 4.00pm – and with a victorious photo-session, we headed out for the next destination – Baba Budanagiri.

Thats Mullayanagiri 

and that's Sarpa-daari (yayyy...we reached !! :D)

Baba Buddanagiri and Maanikyadaara:

     We reached the Maanikyadara falls in the evening. This is a small water-fall that comes after crossing the Baba Budanagiri hill. After spending few minutes outside the falls, we took a snack-break in a stall at the Fall entrance [the group hadn’t had a proper lunch break and were now hungry :)]

     Post the snack-break we travelled back to Baba Budanagiri to visit the dargah (also called as Datta peetha). Some of us went inside the dargah to experience a peaceful ambience and collected balls of the red-mud (that is believed to heal skin problems); from a dedicated spot inside the dargah. It was dusk again..our trip was almost coming to an end..With some mixed feelings still inside us, we started our journey back to Bangalore.

Chickamagaluru and return:

     On our journey enroute Bangalore, we stopped at Chickamagaluru to kill some time strolling around; and then have dinner. Well, every lane of the town had a golgappa stall; and by the time we crossed the 5^th or 6^th lane, most of us got tempted to intrude into one such stall [WOWies by default are bhukkads u see ;)]. After strolling for some more time into the unknown streets, we entered a restaurant for dinner (again the girls had a great time laughing-for-no-reason during the wait time!!). Post-dinner, we walked towards our TT, had a feedback session, settled inside the TT and then continued our return journey to Bangalore – with wonderful memories in mind, and mixed feelings inside our hearts…:):)

Veg foodies...

Non-veg foodiess...

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     Monday morning: Back to Bangalore and she winds up her trip with loads of memories..

     She just had an unbelievable weekend! It was more of some sort of 'dream-come-true' - it felt unbelievable to think that she'd just did all those things over the weekend that just went by - explored a place she had never been before, met new people she had never seen before! Again, with mixed emotions, she hugged and bid adieu to her fellow travellers and made a promise of meeting them some other time in some other travel..

With this, she prepared to coil back to the routine and the same old e-mails [perhaps, waiting for another such e-mail that would change her life for a weekend atleast ;)]

Well! Every girl is a story in herself….:) Some of her chapters just have a 'WOW' flavor to it ...:) \m/

BTC-WOW touches the highest peak of Karnataka - at Mullayanagiri peak!

Credits: 

--> Sreemoyee (for having waited an entire day; for my confirmation on this trip – would have definitely missed something big, if you hadn’t waited –  Thank You! :) ). 

--> Channa and Chaits – for all the offline support in planning and organizing this trip. Wouldn’t have been a success without your timely advises and supportJ.

-->  Captain Ajju – well, I’ve got nothing to explain here. This trip was dedicated to you!

Photo credits: Juby


Cheers!
Swatz...

A Photographer’s Paradise – Organizers Trip to Badami!

A Photographer’s Paradise – Organizers Trip to Badami!

To begin with, I’d say that some walks are just about…

…coming face-to-face with timeless beauty,

… watching the power of standing strong even in times of destruction,

…treading those roads which men of strength have walked, but are now, just in our hearts…

     Well, I had been longing since a while – to have a peaceful walk straight down the Historical Heritages. And AihoLe (pronounce : ayi-Ho-Ley) / Badami was on the top of my List (mainly for Line number 3 mentioned above).  Hadn’t shared this thought with anyone though (rather, left it on time to play it), but when one fine day, in between those tangled thread of mails (on Organizers’ trip-locations), when I read : ‘Location finalized to Badami’ – I was like – woaaaah! Life does throw surprises at you…

Train journey: Gang-of-bhukkads

Golgumbaaz express: (16535) : A troupe of 10 bhukkads: Even before the introduction round (ow..we had 2 ex-organizers – Shruthi n Dinesh; and a new one – Raja - too!), we started the ritual of hogging (this time, with a break of 5-minutes after finishing each snack – that went on for an hour and a half, until it was time for dinner). Chaitanya and Shubhroto tried playing the ‘gentlemen’ initially (by pretending as if they weren’t a part of us, the gluttons); but later gave up. Shubhroto joined openly by confessing  – ‘I was not hungry, but after watching you guys I am also feeling like eating something’. While our silent-killer Chaits went a step ahead by quietly snatching the popcorn pack from my hand; when Hiren & I were busy digging into chips.

The night went by – with the game of UNO (that awakened the strategist out of Subbu, and the Babaji out of Hiren); and then some gossips – and finally we wished each other a Good night and slipped into our dreamworld…

Day 1: Pattadakallu, AihoLe:

     Our Day 1 trip started with settling down at a lodge in Badami (we had planned caves visit for Day 2). After a quick refreshment and breakfast, we started out in the auto that Chaits n Channa had hired for the day. First destination was the Banashankari Temple. This temple’s existence is dated back to 7^th Century AD, and is an abode to a form of the ‘Goddess of Forest’. After finishing our ‘darshan’ and a brief photo session near a lake opposite to our temple, we headed out for our next destination, in the same auto. Our Biker guy Subbu seemed so overwhelmed with the temple darshan, that he could not stop asking for his ‘Arati’, ‘Aradhana’, ‘Pooja’ and finally ‘Prarthana’ throughout our travel to the next destination. The next visit was to an Ashrama.

Banashankari Temple

Team at Banashankari temple

Maharatha - at the Ashrama

     The village of Badami, in itself turned out to be a mesmerizing place. When you are travelling from one sight-seeing spot to another, it gives you a feel as if you yourself have entered inside some scenic artwork [reminded me of the regular sceneries we used to paint in school days – with hills, birds flying across the hills, bore wells, women carrying piles of hay (jowar in real), and squirrels and trees around :P].

     Our next visit was at an Ashrama near Banashankari temple. This had a Maharatha – that is built splendidly; and a Samadhi of a Jain priest of those ages. Another round of randomn photography and amazing comments at the Trucks-with-dhinkchak-music-systems; we headed out for Pattadakallu. And Our Real Trip began…

…And our photographers got equipped with their DSLR’s and tripods.

Pattadakallu – This place has a group of quaint temple monuments built during the Chalukyan ages – the main gopuras of which have been strategically destroyed in wars. It also has a number shrines of Shivalingas – each having a nandi facing it – again heads of which have been destroyed. Despite the destructions, the place offered picturesque display of the intricately designed structures, murals and sculptures carved on the columns and walls – that have still stood strong and still stay beautiful. These are basically craft-works on tales picked from Hindu mythology (some of which are known – loads of which are lost down the ages). Pattadakallu is listed as one of the World Heritage Sites by UNESCO.

     While the photographers got busy capturing shots; I had a nice time looking around and feeling amazed at the fact that I was face-to-face with something that was existing even centuries ago – timelessness! [Sculptures, Ancient architecture, Mythology and History had always been a fascination!]. We had loads of time to bask into the place, but suddenly our organizer Chaits started getting a bit restless. After spending sufficient time – we packed up to leave Pattadakallu – on instructions by a bit-restless Chaitanya (we later know why :P)

Pattadakallu-1

Pattadakallu

     It was afternoon (close to 1:00pm). Our next spot was AihoLe. In the morning, it was decided that we would be skipping lunch; however our plans was suddenly changed by Chaits – reasons still unknown. We would be going to a dhaba nearby AihoLe for lunch and then visit the Heritage site.  Nevertheless, we agreed and continued our travel full-on fun with ‘Ae-Raja’; Subrata-turned Shubhroto-turned Subbu-turned Subbanna’s quest for his Prarthana (phew!); some leg pulling session to Shruthi and so on and so forth. We took 2 tables and ordered dry and soft jowar rottis (speciality of the place); along with some other dishes. While we were waiting for the food to arrive and casually chit-chatting; the sound of a very familiar bike caught our attention – and Lo! Here arrives Captain Virander proudly in his Harley, along with  Deepthy. 

     We howled and clapped at the surprise entry (and now understood all that restlessness and sudden-plan-changes made by Chaitanya – hummm..so he was aware of if, and was co-ordinating secretly with him all this while). With the two joining us, there was no derth of the already fun-environment (just that there were more number of PJs now :P). We were still waiting for our food, when again Captain Viru surprised me by handing over the BTC pull over that I had ordered. [Well, this was again a surprise because of the confusion that I had created, over my pullover’s delivery; in the group chat the previous evening. Chaits had forgotten to get it, and poor Viru had to bear the consequences : of dramatically riding all the way  some 500 kms on his Harley and delivering it :P]

     Post lunch – we headed out for AihoLe. And it started pouring heavily. After an hour’s wait inside a lone temple right opposite to our destination spot; we entered the temple complex when the downpour reduced a bit. This place, again, had a group of temples built in Chalukyan era; with Inscriptions and sculptures of the Mythological tales. Inside the same complex, we made a visit to the museum that have preserved some of the sculptures of gods and goddesses; and provides information on the excavated site.

AihoLe excavated site

The sculpted columns - AihoLe.

     It started to rain again. The heavy downpour did not show any signs of stopping or slowing down since then; hence we cancelled our further visit plans (that was a bit of disappointment to our photographers) – and decided to get back to our lodge at Badami – now some 30 kms away.  The journey on the way turned out to be out-and-out hilarious: the take-of-the-hour being ‘the cover’ comment that Ritu had made on me! [Hiren and Raja couldnot control falling and laughing about it!]

     After returning to our lodge, we refreshed ourselves; had dinner; and then gathered to play our savior game of UNO. And with the game – all the true colors of the group appeared :P. Chaitanya’s conspiracy to corner me in the game (I had to ensure I did not sit beside him in future rounds :P); our Advocate Shruthi madam’s Liar’ing; Channa and Shubhroto – the strategists (read cheaters); and Hiren’s Babaji avatar with his rut ‘Bhagwan sabka hota hai’  - all this ensured the fun was on till the end. After pathetically losing all the rounds of the game, I finally won one last round – and then we all decided to crash down our respective beds; and get prepared for the next day’s trip.

Day 2: Badami Caves:

     Day 2 was quite a dry and sunny day. It again, began our day with breakfast’n’chai – and then a walk up to the Badami Fort. Our BTC cameramen and women were all in action again with full enthu. Hard core climber Hiren now was little happy that he got to ‘Climb’ at least somewhere :P The Badami hill is an absolutely stunning region to tread into! What makes the place more beautiful is the red soiled region that makes the entire region naturally colored and attractive. 

     I immediately immersed myself into the ambience of the place – my thoughts revolved around a lot of things, as I made my way peacefully through the alleys and steps: people, human efforts, Nature’s way of showing us examples of strength etc etc. With not much public around, we had a great time admiring the grandeur work; and also cracking stupid jokes; clicking loads of pictures and having fun. Ritz and I started our punar-janmon ki katha related to the place, when Shruthi and Viru suddenly realized that they too had been with us in that previous birth (yeah..so some of us BTCians are previous-birth-se-mile-hue jaani dushman hain :P)! The view from the top was vividly attractive; as we could see the entire Bhootnath Cave temple (our next destination) from the top. Our photographers continued hopping and clicking pics (when some of us non-photographers happily posed for them along with the sculptures :P)

Badami - entrance

Walking into the alley  between the fort rocks

Some of  the BTC Marvels - standing on top of Badami Marvels ;)

Bhootnath Cave Temples:

     Located right opposite to the fort, the Bhootnath Cave temple is a perfect epitome of Beauty. Some of our guys – Channa, Hiren and Viru chose to take a dive in the lake, before heading out towards the caves. This is a group of 4 caves, each having a sanctum sanctorum, a mandapa, a verandah and pillars. The cave temples also bear exquisite carvings, sculptures and beautiful murals – a perfect treat for the lenses of both -  photographers’ and story-seekers like me J

Inside Badami cave temple

 
















   
   













 




 


     The walk specifically to this cave temple felt peaceful and soothing – I could not believe I was actually right here – to one of my dream destinations (that was still - just with me!) To add to the feeling was the magnificent surrounding that we couldn’t stop appreciating. Our photographers went zoom with their Visual talents, capturing all that they could out of the place. We spent a couple of hours soaking into these marvels; and it was time for us to push off for lunch.

  Walked down a hotel for lunch, again had a blast of fun-round with the group – sharing previous trek stories, cracking some doubly-meaningful jokes,  and digging into each others’ plates. Back there in our room at the lodge, we did our final packing (some of the folks rested in the time that was left, and the rest again tuned into the game of UNO). Had a small meeting where we discussed stuff, and then headed out for our return journey, calling it a peaceful-weekend-Getaway. So, if you are someone who loves to bask into timeless pieces of beauty, or a passionate Photographer - AihoLe / Badami / Pattadakallu ought to be in your 'must-visit' list - and your quest for that peace and creative urges will certainly be fulfilled ;) :P

     Well, the entire trip was fully-loaded with surprises, yet again fun with people; while accomplishing my personal quest. In the end it was just a : 'some-things-just-happen-perfectly-for-you'...Finding all that we were seeking out of the trip, and loads of memories; we bid each other adieu and continued with our tasks on Monday morning...

Some of the after-effects of the trip:

1. Shubhroto is still addicted to the ‘sounds like’ rule of Dumb charades (this was during return journey)

2.  Hiren & Raja still imagine things when they think of the ‘cover’ story and burst out..

3. Photographers: Channa, Ritz, Chaitanya still admire their photographic skills; and are making        plans for the next appetite for their creative juices..

4.   Dinesh is still waiting with his ‘Application-pending’ status :P [would not like to mention anything further for ‘peace’ sake :P]

       Ahh..yes…and adding to my souvenir collection (be it from our History-making 2-day WOW trip; or the unexpected events at this Badami trip) -  my BTC pullover’s gonna bear the special stamp of this : ‘Delivered via harleydavidson courier services: C & V’… ;)

Cheers!

A traveller...

Theme song of the trip: With no doubt, a beautiful number by my icon Dr. Rajkumar - 'huttidare...' that talks of these marvels of Karnataka :)

Photo credits: Channa, Chaitanya, Ritu

Madhugiri Hills - A trek covered right on time!

Trek. Drama. Action! – an all-in-one package this event was – with a bunch of 12 enthusiastic women out on an adventurous spree to the Madhugiri Hills.

The wowie' 12! 

The 12 shortlisted girls (including organizers) gathered at the Shantala silk house at the specified time, and started out for the destination ‘dot-on-time-at-7.00 am’ (yeah…the participants did impress us with their sense of sharp timing! Kudos!). After picking up our Annadaatas (Asha n Shalini duo), we started our Introduction session. This time again, we had a mix of first-timers, and experienced trekkers – all equally excited about the trip. The intro round succeeded some gyaan sessions by Ritz and me – about the place, the trek level, and to the first-timers on how to handle themselves while trekking. Kept the gyaan session short-n-sweet (for obvious reasons:P), and then we shared stories on how Ritz and I had met as stranger-trekmates and happened to team-up for organizing a trek this day; Ritz ‘king-kong-lady’ title (this has a connection in the later part of the trek:P); our Annadaatas; Wow-ki-basanti-who-never-danced; and other WOW experiences that brought smiles to our participants faces. This was followed by a short dance session and then the ever-hilarious game of Dumb Charades.

The rest of the hour (until we reached our destination) was full of laughter with hilarious acting-and-guessing talents displayed by each participant. [Well..where else can you imagine the movie ‘Gladiator’  turning into ‘colgate’,  ‘we-ate-yesterday’, ‘fridge-me-rakha-hua-khaana’,’omelette-kaise-banaate-hain’…!!! Well…2 and a half hours of our travel  passed with this ice-breaking session, and by the time we got down at our destination for breakfast, we were kinda no-more-strangers ;)

Our destination peak..at a distance

Post the breakfast, we started the climb at 10.30 am.

The beautiful gateway to Fortitude:

Madhugiri Fort : Entered the Gate, climbed the initial stretch of steps, and the place already started giving an ‘out-of-the-world’ feeling (probably because this is one of those rarest places that have the Fort remnants standing strong right from the trek-base! In many cases, you find the remains only at the hill-top!). Half of the trek path is a clear steppy way (a stretch of steps with railings as well), with beautiful view- points and a couple of doorways (that was apt for breaks, to beat the heat). The rest half of the climb, is a challenge that defines the ‘moderate’ level of the trek (steep terrain – no support – help each other - rely on your own confidence :P!)

Trek base - right outside the Fort Gate

View-point

The steppy region with metal railings

We cleared the first half of the trek cracking jokes, pulling legs, finishing others’ snacks, helping a lone trekker from Netherlands with first-aid (proud of the WOW team for this!), exploring viewpoints and photo sessions with our Wow models :P

The next half was when we had to pull up our socks – as organizers, as participants, and more importantly – as Trekkers! Surprisingly, with each others’ support and a bit of hand-holding here and there, the girls cracked this stretch down more easily than expected! The scenic view and the hovering clouds played motivation factor for this stretch.

Peak, Adventure, Monkey-business, Lunch:

The place, being a real epitome of fortitude, has a complete stretch of fort wall remnants intact along the boundary, at the peak – which means its a great fun for tree-climbers, fence-climbers, gate-jumpers (basically, people good at monkey businesses:P).  After taking a nice walk across the Fort wall, we got down the fort wall like some ‘chipkalis’ (lizards) under expert supervision of Ritz and Jayashree – and this..was truly one of the ‘thrilling moments’ of our adventure – doing something differently! The cheer on everyone’s faces was worth all the hand-holding and supporting one another. And what more – I got an additional line to pen down in my blog, on request by participant Shaily, quoting here – “its all about daring to do what you thought you cannot” :P

Walk across the fort wall

Experts climbing everywhere they could!

After exploring the other parts of the peak and photo-session rounds, we landed to a shaded place (the peak’s entrance) and opened our lunch packets (Thanks to our Annadaatas who had packed nice sandwiches, appam and sweets..they have always brought a ‘special’ feel of our treks with their love – this time it was truly unconditional love :P  – oops, I mean, we ate away all of the food they had brought for us ruthlessly and later felt sorry for it L!)). It did not take too long for the girls to figure out that the organizers are really ‘bhukkads’; from the way Ritz and I were fighting over our food-parcels :P

A pic post lunch :P

After lunch, we had another round of climbing-activity (well..I gave up..and tried my hands at photography, while Ritz took care of the climbers :P!), and then we started to descend.

Descend – the ‘rain trek’:

Again, with an awesome team effort, we descended the challenging stretch by applying techniques at certain places, and supporting each other. It started to get a bit cloudy, when we reached the steppy terrain. At a distance from our hill, we watched rains pouring down the civilization – a spectacular view it was!

View from the top

View from the top!

Just when we reached the stretch of the metal-railings, we realized that the rains that we were enjoying from the distance was actually approaching us – and throughout this steppy stretch – our trek turned into a de facto rain-trek :P [technically, my first ever rain-trek:P]. This added to our challenge, nevertheless, we faced it and, managed to descend down till one of the doorways all safe! Again surprisingly, the rains stopped exactly when we reached the end of the railings-area (which made our further descend more peaceful!) Met our annadaatas who were waiting for us at a doorway, and continued our further descend.

The continuation of the ‘king-kong’ story:

Post all the thrill and adventure we had had throughout the day, the final stretch of descend felt rather peaceful! [it was truly like the Jab we met scene – ‘hey bhagwan, ab life thodi si boring bana do:P’. But it did not last long. I was sweeping the team, when suddenly few girls stopped and remarked in chorus – ‘Swatz..your story was right!’ Well..the girls had really taken note of the ‘king-kong-lady’ story and giggled looking at Ritz and me when they spotted a bunch of monkeys preceeding us on the last stretch. We had to wait, until the monkeys finally settled down at their adda (making a way for us to descend down) :P. Reached the base safe and sound, and explored an old 'us-zamaane-ka-jail' and headed out for chai.

Base, refreshments, Feedback and return journey:

Finally, after completing the series of adventures, experiencing all the three climates in a single day, we took our much deserved chai-break. Quickly, we wound up and got into our TT for the return journey. With whatever energy we were left with, we took the Feedback session (and  re-named ‘thumbs up’ to ‘Facebook-Like’ impressed by the comments that we got :P) and settled down our seats for a nap. This time again, I was the first one to get down on the way. With a promise of meeting in some other trek, some other time, got down from the TT and took my way to my abode.

Thanks to Ritz for planning such a wonderful place and trek (yayyy! BTC and WOW covered one of the most beautiful trek destinations Madhugiri right on time (before the ban was implemented) !). Congratulations on your first trek as an Organizer :P Special thanks to Yogita for helping us out in all aspects, you were a great support indeed! J

Thanks to each team member, it was individual effort and each other’s support that made the event fun, adventurous and memorable! :D

A Special mention to Asha-Shalini duo for being an awesome sport and as usual our annadaatas J WOW is all about knowing yourself, your confidence, and making the right decisions! Hats off!

Well…and..this post cannot be complete without thanking our BTC Team for having believed in us on orgainizing this event!

Cheers!

P.C: Ritz, Shaily, and self!

WOW agent on a BTC night-trek to Nandi Range

Friday 18th April, at around 3.45pm:

The scene at Kempe Gowda bus stand, platform 12, terminal 3 was quite hazy. Both Captain Virander and I knew none of the participants that were to arrive. [ok! So Viru knew another guy, Varun, whom I hadn’t known!]. The rest were all gonna be – BTC first timers (most of them first-time trekkers too!).

After a rather vague introduction to each other, the group of 12 BTCians boarded the Chikballapur bus and landed at destination. Took an auto where we packed ourselves like primary school kids and reached a hotel near the base of our trek. Again, the evening snacks-time was little blur -> basically we all were on our own, randomly exchanging conversations while Capt Viru was busy with his own bit of  ‘organizing tasks’. Post snacks, we had a formal round of introduction / take-100-breaks assurance / Rules & regulations; and finally started walking towards the hill.

So, here ends the ‘vague’ part of the journey (that was pretty much expected among people all-new to each other).

Characters and Fun – will come, one-by-one. Read on:P !!

The Group - and the story...:)

At around 6.30 pm:

We started climbing. These 2 Odiya ‘jigri-dosts’ Anand and Rahul, alongwith Saurabh, opened up conversations straight by enquiring more about WOW treks – what kinda events, how are they organized, what levels and blah blah – which I answered with full pride (thanking that our leader was not anywhere around us – else we would get the same old ‘WOW-is-a-part-of-BTC’ blasting from him :P!). At the first pit-stop is when we all got into the core-trekking groove [all puffed-panted and warmed up!].

The difficulty level of the Nandi range is slightly moderate [with steep climbs at certain spots that will challenge your stamina]. Few stretches of bushy-walks are a slight relief in between the climbs - that will help you keep going. The  breeze of air at the open regions of the climb, were a bliss while the core workout was happening!

We continued climbing further, with few halts in between (and the guys discussing everything – from Visa processing, to bikes, to Swiss-bank, photography to topics I never understood and don’t remember at all!). It grew dark as we reached the base of our destination-peak. We had another halt there. And Neeraj aka Neer opened up the topic on grave encounters. A little scared I was with all this, but Neer’s opening of the story with ‘once there was a couple – a girl and a guy’ convinced me it was gonna be a ‘comedy of horrors’! :D After 2 stories, we continued climbing further, and surprisingly reached the peak at around 9.15pm (almost an hour earlier than planned), despite sufficient breaks – yayy! An achievement :D!

The Peak &  the Ice-breaking session:

We settled down, had a nice view of the civilization down-there, enjoyed the short drizzle, had a photo session; and then gathered  for another round of ‘knowing-more-about-each-other’. We had more than sufficient time to kill and we did that efficiently by talking a range of topics - ‘I am Rachit from Kashmir, but I am not a terrorist’; ‘My name is Rahul, but I am not SRK’; Vijay, Abhishek, Neer & Rachit’s sincere Job descriptions; Viru’s love affair with Harley; Neer’s list of girlfriends and his designer role with Allen Solly; Saurabh’s ‘state-of-confusion-in-life’ and so on and so forth. Now-and-then, poor Rachit had to ‘remind’ people to talk more about ‘themselves’ and ‘why did they decide to trek’ and that this was not a job interview :P. Post this session, we changed our spot to a more closed one (for dinner) and had nice Maggi-break.

Campfire - post the dinner :D

12:00 am : Camp-fire and the ‘blast’ :D

After dinner, we collected dry woods from the surrounding; and then lit the camp-fire. And with the camp-fire, the load of fun began!

Fun phase 1: BTC’s traditional ‘first-timer’ ragging session:

Varun, Viru and I (being the only oldies in the group) – called out the freshers one-by-one for dance performance. We realized that we again had a bundle of talents, when the freshers (after a bit of hesitation) finally came in full form, and freaked themselves out dancing to the extent of ‘Baby-doll’ moves [baby-doll = Rachit’s initiative]. That was later followed by Neer's spontaneous acts of proposing the camp-fire [he actually proposed the camp-fire in a brilliant flow of apt dialogs] blowed our minds off :D

Aratrik, stole the show with his act of proposing Viru in a gay-style, his dialog – “Upar chaand hai, neeche aag (pointing to the camp-fire, of course). Ab bol bhi do” became the highlight of the entire trip! :D [poor captain, had to openly declare that he’s straight! :D]

The dance-club (or the Club Baby-doll, if you want to call it) closed at around 1.30 am [no strict deadlines as such, just that we audience – Varun, Akshay, myself and Saurabh started getting little bored of watching repetitive moves]; and we moved on to playing dumb-charades.

Fun phase 2: Dumb-charades:

The guys, high on fun-dose by now, displayed their brilliant acting talents. Rahul's ‘Chickoo-ko-hindi-me-kya-bolte-hain’ wala acting; Anand's 'book-reading' for 3 continous minutes (that kept us totally blank throughout); Rachit’s  ‘monkey’ing around (until Aratrik rightly came across the word ‘Forest’); and Vijay acting ‘Baba Ramdev ki Jai’ (on a totally unrelated movie title) – were some of the highlights! :D

None gave up on distracting the other with funny comments and guesses, but finally we won:P [we = the team of Rachit, Rahul, Anand, Neer, Aratrik and myself \m/].

After an hour of a hilarious session, few decided to sleep. The rest of us moved onto a new game ‘Maafia’

Fun phase 3: Maafia:

With the first 2 failed attempts of the game [considering that most of us were new to it], we finally took form and had an amazing time playing the 3^rd and the 4^th round. Aratrik and Abhishek took the role of god by turns and the gods played really awesome! Rachit (the target always), Rahul (the next target always:P), Saurabh, Abhishek and Anand’s debates got so intense; that towards the end Viru woke up from his sleep [probably to check on what was going on :D]. Whilst 'I' had a good time watching the guys standing in a circle, arguing like school boys over a damn-little game:D The heated debate abruptly silenced down only when Varun's sudden snore scared the hell outta us!

Time passed..It was close to 4.00 a.m. [which meant there was still time left]. We dispersed again, few to our original peak spot (where we had dropped our bags), and few to the other ends of the peak. In few minutes, everyone started dozing off one-by-one. Well, I did not want to be the only watchman in the troupe, and so I started waking up people one-by-one without letting them sleep [thankfully the pro photographer Varun (still half-sleepy), got instantly hooked to his cam with Rahul and Neer as his models]. Anand, Saurabh and Vijay did a hide-and-sleep every now-and-then; waking up, changing places, looking here-n-there, and sleep again –  and it was all kiddish and fun, till the dawn finally broke :D [BTCians – please note -> Captain Viru again slept; failing all of Varun’s and my attempts of waking him up!]

Breaking dawn, the Sun-rise and the Descend:

After spending the long 9 hours on the peak, (by somehow keeping the folks awake for the last 2 hours)..the Light finally dawned in. We all hopped towards the East side of the peak, and witnessed a beautiful sun-rise. The early-morning view was just mesmerizing .... spectacular...and in Neer's words 'pure Happiness' !! :-)

After another photo-session, we packed our bags and headed down-the-hill. Descend, again was much earlier than expected (with sufficient breaks). We had our breakfast and a feedback session, reminisced all the 'comedy-of-errors' that had happened since the last evening; and then headed towards Bangalore with hopes and promises of meeting in some other trek, some other day / evening...

Breaking - Dawn!

....And then a Beautiful Sunrise - pure Happiness...

And thus, Me - the only WOW member in the group had an amazzzing time watching a crazy BTC 'world of men' on the top of a hill, rejoicing their 'first-trek-ever' (that took me down-the-memory-lane of Rayakottai - my first ever trek); while side-by-side I was accomplishing my own purpose and personal challenge I had set from this trek :)

Descend - after a memorable experience! :)

Wouldn't be exaggerating if I say that, every moment of this trek was purely 'childhood thrills re-lived' :) B-)

Virander - you deserve all the credits for managing pretty much everything single-handedly. Hats off and thank you!

To all the other guys - you did a splendid job as first-timers, and thanks for the sporting spirit shown, ensuring a safe-trek for the entire group :)

And finally,

Trust I still have a long way to go, and loads to learn yet, but I'd like to pause and make a special mention to Captain Ajju and Kriba (WOW Organizers), for having hand-held me in my initial steps of trekking l! :) It felt unbelievable to have moved beyond the 'first-timer' feeling! :)

Cheers!

Swatz

P.C: Varun Shankar