So we reached Shantala Silk House on Friday,
ready to be greeted by Virandar and Sreemoyee and few casual intros with the
other group who were ready for their massive Kumara Parvata trek. As we were
waiting for our TT, there were a lot friendly folks meeting each other. Finally
at around 10:30PM we departed from Bangalore leaving behind another person who
was supposed to join us (don’t recall the name, who was apparently lost near
majestic in order to reach us).
Now comes the knowing each other part. We
were told to introduce our names using dumb charades; it was very funny to do
that! Finally got to know my new friends abode, Virandar, Sreemoyee, Ashwin,
Vaibhav, Mayank, Dinesh, Sushmita, Shwetha, Syed and our journey to
Virajpet began accompanied by our superfast TT driver.
As we flew past others on the road thanks to
our over courageous TT driver, most of us sank in their seats for a
slumber.
As we were 65 kms away from Virajpet, the
driver soon gave up and dozed off for 2 hours straight and it was 2:30 am, I
was way surprised to see him reach so soon, that’s 4 hours! This is great head
start for a superfast trek, honestly! Then soon the driver woke up and by
4:30am we were at Virajpet bus stand again to sleep for some more time as we
were too early compared to our ETA at Virajpet. So as we were waiting for our
ticking clocks, finally began to freshen up at 6:00 am and all of us were ready
for a fresh morning tea… err… or Dosa!!! That was Swetha’s response for whether
she wanted tea or coffee… no she wanted Dosa… We were like… huh!!! some
giggles aside.
Right after chai, we headed for hotels which
were ready to be open for breakfast. Finally someone opened a hotel at sharp
7:00 am, only to be greeted with freshly made heaps of idly’s, vada’s,
Mangalore buns and Rice bath. Straight away all of us ordered idly-vada’s,
sadly Shwetha couldn’t get her dosa, so she settled down with idly’s. we
quickly gobbled up, packed rice bath and rice purls for lunch and hurtled our
way towards the TT. As we settled in, Virandar and Mayank starting asking
science related questions. ;) but there was one response which really puzzled
us off, question was what does ‘O’ stands for in H2O(chemical symbol of water,
for someone who don’t know ;P), our madam Sreemoyee, told that is “Ozone”!! we
were like…. What!?!... and giggled off!! While Virandar calling her Alia Bhat,
Part 2… LOL!! we continued discussing some general topics, and we finally
reached at the base of Tadiandmol, parked the TT near the palace (more on that
later). Took our bags cobbled up things we could pack and off we started.
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| Lunch time |
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| Me in the peak |
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| We |
As we set foot along, we were joined in by a
bunch of college students, with no trekking gear, heck no water bottles too!!!
As we headed towards the peak like uncles and aunties… LOL! We were greeted
with the best view of the Coorg.
Soon the climb began amidst the greenery,
small waterfalls, fresh coffee berries, the fast trekkers hurtled ahead, and we
were going at a reasonably slow pace, sipping in water. All the shutterbugs
began to work along.
As we moved ahead, Sreemoyee pointed out the
peak. I told to myself, this is not going to be easy. It seemed far away
looming over us. We made it to the half point, to meet Virandar and the others,
took ample rest and some quick snack and off we started. With the peak locked
on to our targets, the adrenaline rush was enough to propel us through
accompanied by the greenery around. To reach the peak we had to cross dry
slippery rocks, forest part, where the roots of the trees formed steps. I asked
myself wonder how those kids made it with their non-trekking gear,
astonishing!!! And soon we made it to the peak by noon, which was pretty much a
feat in itself, carrying our pot bellies, and bags.
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| Nalknad Palace |
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| Nalknad Palace |
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| Nalknad Palace |
Took some rest and started posing for our
shutterbugs, we started making some fun slo-mo videos, laughed our hearts out.
Some got pretty spiritual and got lost in the openness the peak presented us
with. Soon we started our descent towards the halfway point to have our lunch,
made it to the halfway point to be surprised. That rice bath we packed we
packed was lip smacking delicious!!! With jokes and fun abound, we soon reached
the base by 4:30pm, and decided to visit the Nalknad Palace built in 1792. The
palace had two levels with low doorways, dark rooms and ceilings decorated with
paintings, much different from the idea that a alace usually evokes. After a
small de-tour, we headed towards Bangalore, playing an interesting game called
Mafia, moderated by Sreemoyee. Soon the game ended with a bang, played really
well by Ashwin and Sushmita. Soon Ashwin got off at Virjapet and Syed near
Mysore, and we stopped for dinner at Adigas. Soon after a heavy dinner we set
foot to Bangalore, this is where things got interesting. We started discussing
about paranormal experiences between each of us. With goose bumps on, slowly
the discussion hurried towards spirituality and finally with atoms, solar
systems and science!!
Made it to Bangalore, as we bid adieu to our
new found friends. Our memories remained where it stood. The destination
(Tadiandamol) had remained the same but the journey was far from what we had
imagined it to be. All the surprises had made the trip even more memorable, all
this in a day. This indeed was a superfast trek!
Really grateful for Virandar and Sreemoyee
for arranging such a fun and memorable trip. Hope to have such an eventful trip
once again!
