Trip or something like it

One early Sunday morning

Vishnu Bhagwan (not the god, but one crazy friend) wakes me from my slumber to tell he has left home and is on the way to pick up our German colleagues who were accompanying us on our trip to bluff falls and talakad. I think he picked them... what the hell... he did pick them from their hotel - 3 of them Martin my lead, Klaus his lead and Wolfgang his manager.

Sachin the Sutta man (cos we are smoking all the time together)... the shop in front of us always has business as long as we are in SAP. Well, he was also picked up. Last but not the least; even I got picked after a brisk 1 km walk from home. Greetings exchanged, we were on the way.

I had not had breakfast; thankfully Sutta man had got some paratha... had it gleefully. Then, we were on our way to our first destination - Bluff Falls.

The roads were a mixed emotion... sometimes too bad, sometimes exceptionally good - Sutta man always saying these roads are still better than koramangala. Bluff at last.

Bluff was overflowing with water... we were not allowed to go down to the waters. As one sign said... "THIS IS A WATERFALL... NOT A SWIMMING POOL". Ppl give gyaan in the weirdest of ways don’t they??

Then, we decided that we will go to other side of the waterfall as we saw lots of ppl swimming around. It was a 15km ride down there. Once we got there, we all changed into something more appropriate and headed down. There were lots of ppl and we all soon became one with them.

We decided to go to foot of the waterfall (it like the mouth of the volcano he he) and had to cross a strong current. Klaus I forgot to mention was unwell and was fasting almost the whole day. Now, he decided he wanted to come with us. We were crossing the river holding hands so that none of us would get washed away. Klaus the daring wanted to go all the way alone...didn’t want any help and soon enough was in the water. Luckily for him, we were there to get him up and running. But, I really admired his strength to do it by himself, in spite of being sick.

We went to the other side, had a lot of fun standing right under the waterfall, and me the NGC photographer went clicking snaps there too. We came back, climbed back with some effort, and were off the place.

Think this is getting a bit long, so cutting the long story short, our next place was talakad where we played some football (fuss ball as the Deutschlanders call it) on the sand. We drew 4-4. We took a guided tour of the place, visited some temples and headed back home. Dinner on the way, and I was dropped home by 11.30.

Overall nice day it was. :D

Life is always about walking .. a little too much

Mission: A Trek to Nandi Hills

0830 hrs
Madivala

Six latecomers namely Senthil, Rashmi, Suman aka Usman Bhai, Shekar aka Fingis Khan, Shyju the married and Kiran aka me meet at madivala... the team plans to trek 5000 feet to the top of Nandi Hills. We get a bus to the main bus station.

0915 hrs
majestic bus station

we miss the direct bus to the hills, so we take a bus to the nearby town of chikkaballapur. We arrive there at 1130 hrs, and decide to take a bus to the foothill town of sultanpet.

Sultanpet is a small village which we pass through to reach the climbing point to the hills. This was a quiet little village, where people were staring at us as if we had just landed from Timbuktu.
A 3 km really took its toll esp. on me, since I don’t do a lot of walking.

1215 hrs
foothills of the hills

I change into something more comfortable and we start the climb to the top. The steps were uneven and the climb was too strenuous. I can't clearly remember how many time shyju passed out on the way :D ( Marriage can take its toll on stamina)

at last with much effort. Too much of puffing and panting, after clicking a ton of photos we reached the top. To think of it, none of us had the brains to have carried a bottle of water. We rushed to the hotel to have our lunch. The waiter made us wait for almost half hour for our food, the genius had to be told for everything. He would get the plate without the spoon.. The spoon would arrive after asking him 4-5 times... think u get the picture.

Lunch eventually ended what seemed an eternity. Then, we decided to visit the nearby temple, which went on without much issue.

Then we visited the tipu's drop... from where the loser used to apparently push off prisoners. We sat on a DANGER sign and took some snaps. Then we went to explore the place a bit more. We played football for a while with a tennis ball ( someone forgot to get a bat !!!)

Then started the story of descent - someone told us the last bus to Bangalore was at 1730 hrs. We rather I started walking fast toward the bus station, with these people basking away in the Saturday evening sun. Obviously, we missed our bus and had to walk down.

1745 hrs
road of nandi hills

all of us are already tired as there are 41 curves (hairpin bends) to reach the bottom. We were looking for shortcuts and found some. Some were lucky and we were descending rapidly.... then our luck ran out... and we got lost in some forest. rashmi and me set out discovery mission, with Usman Bhai shouting "Lets mark this place, so that we know where to return in case we lose our way" (as if were in the evergreen dark jungles of Zaire !!!).















Climbing steep rocks, wading through thorny shrubs, tall trees, fading light we made it... me jumping with joy as if I was Cannavaro who had just lifted the Jules Rimet trophy. Then we decided that shortcuts were out and took our long journey down on the road. Dusk slowly became night and playing football again on the road(with the tennis ball :D) passing the ball as if we were Ronaldo and Adriano we reached the bottom of the hill.

We were so exhausted, went to a bar and bought some Fanta (decent aren’t wee ??) waited for a bus for half hour. After what seemed like a millennium the bus came, and we were now on our way to doddaballapur. Climbed the hill from chikkaballapur side, and come down the doddaballapur side.. Clear geniuses we are !!! From there a bus back to Bangalore, and back.

2230 hrs
back at home sound asleep, conserving energy for a trip the next day to bluff and talakad.