Much needed break

After a week long deliberation and discussions, Anirudh, Sathish, Madhu K V and myself decided that we needed to take that much needed and deserved break. But the planning was not a smooth ride. We had half of our college gang dropping out of the trip for different reasons (but the most ridiculous one was given by Adi). Then we had the rains. Unfortunately for us it started pelting down that week, and in course flooding most of the Karnataka rivers. But none of this mattered for us, as we were determined to have a blast!

We decided to go to Kemmangundi, which is a hill station in the Western Ghats. We had booked the Horticulture department cottages by phone. Even though the weather forecasts showed torrential downpour near Kemmangundi, we decided to try our luck. So the jaunt started on 14th August (all of us had applied leave except Sathish). Everyone assembled at my home at 6:15 AM. We filled the tank of my Swift and loaded our bags and were on road by 6:40 AM. We took the NICE corridor road till Nelamangala (this 40 km distance took 30 mins to cover). From there we took the Tumkur road. The road was awesome, even with the intermittent rain. We had our breakfast at the Kamat restaurant just before Tumkur. After Tumkur we took the Bangalore-Honnavar road which is narrower (single lane - which takes a couple of turns to get adjusted to) and of inferior quality. We constantly clocked around 70km/hr.


Our first pit-stop came after the town of Gubbi (famous for the theater artists). We stopped near a field where farmers were sowing paddy. It was a nice experience to watch it, marred only by Sathish's obsessive nature to take individual pics. We continued our journey towards Kemmangundi, with a second pit-stop in front of a sunflower field. After this there was a scary moment on the road. I decided to overtake a Scorpio, who was much slower than me, but not letting me go through. I saw a lorry from the opposite side, but calculated that I could overtake the Scorpio. But that person, seeing me overtaking suddenly increased his speed. The result was that I went pretty close to the lorry. But the scarier thing was that a Tata Sumo was trying to overtake the lorry from the opposite side. It was a pretty close shave.

We reached the town of Birur which is 230kms from Bangalore. There we took a deviation to the left to a small village called Lingadahalli(16kms from Birur). The road started to get worse from here. Due to the constant downpour and also bad quality of roads, there were more pits than tarred road. Reaching Lingadahalli, we saw a deviation board (about 1km) towards Kemmangundi. This road was even worse, but it prepared us for the next 20kms upward climb to Kemmangundi. We stopped on the way (this was where Sathish called office to tell he wasn't coming) to take in the magnificent view of the hills. There was a cool breeze. I remember mentioning atleast a couple of times that I wished I had my office desk there.




Next stop was the Kalhatti falls or the Kallhatgiri falls. It is a stepped falls. So even though it falls from a height of 160 feet, there are a lot of places where one can get under the falls. The falls is more famous for its temple. There was some kind of big pooja going on there. So we had to be content at having the darshan from a distance. We started to trek to the top of the falls. We found a secluded place, where only 4 of us could enjoy the water. I think the temperature of water was below 10 degree. With my first step in the water, my feet went numb dude to the chill water. It was the best waterfall I had ever been to. I wished we could have stayed in the water a bit longer, but we were hungry and it was already 2:00 PM. We were hoping that we would get a nice hot meal in Kemmangundi.








After enjoying the euphoria, we headed upwards. Slowly but steadily the fog grew thicker. At first we started encountering running water on the road. It was actually fun to see that. But after some time we saw a couple of uprooted trees and some landslides. It was a scary drive to the top. But once we reached the top the view was spectacular. It made us get rid of all the tensions in our mind.

We reached the cottages and we were in for a shock. The rooms(or so called rooms) were the most disappointing part of the trip. It was no more cleaner than a godown. More over there was no power in entire Kemmangundi. We somehow digested this fact and felt it was our destiny to stay in this place and went for lunch. Comparing the canteen to the room, the room seemed to be heaven. This canteen seemed like a place where they feed criminals in jail. I haven't been there or tasted that food, but I guess nothing can be better than what was served to us!

Around this time it started raining. Only people who have been to these places know what rain really means. In the Malnad region, when it rains, it pours. And it pours for hours together. Unfortunately for us, the weather forecast for once proved to be right. But the bad room, pathetic food or the rain was not enough to deter our enthusiasm. We ventured out in the rain for a trek to a tourist spot called Z-point. Half way through the trip we realized that there were other creatures that was living on our blood. We had leeches all over our shoes and socks. We made a hasty retreat to the godown. We were wet, cold, and all our warm clothes were wet now. Some of them did not even have a dry pair of socks. We were occupied through out the evening with removing leeches from our shoes. It was a fun exercise in retrospect. Sathish acting like a girl. KV acting like a child. Me and Ani trying to teach them that a leech bite would not kill them. I am disappointed to say that we failed miserably. Sathish at one point used the torch as a focus light to put a foot down!

We settled on the beds(as it seemed to be the only safe point). We had lot of caching up to do. Some of them had moved on a lot in the last few months, and it was time to share all the experiences. We had lays and biscuit for dinner, as we decided we would not eat at that god forbidden place ever again. We slept pretty early, as we had plans for early next morning.

We got up at 6:00AM the next morning, and started climbing down by 7:00AM. Me and Ani had hot tea during the downward journey. It was still raining when we had started our journey, and we expected more landslides because of the rain. But we were lucky and we hit Lingadahalli by 8:00AM. We took a right deviation near Lingadahalli towards Chickmagalur. The road was of top quality. Especially the ghat section roads were a real surprise after the roads of Kemmangundi. We had breakfast in Chickmagalur.

From there we went to Belur(50kms). There is a temple in Belur of Sri Channakeshava which is famous for the stone carvings on the temple's outer wall. The road was pretty decent and the journey was smooth. Although I have been to Belur several times now, it was the first time for KV and Sathish. But every time I go there, I feel dumbstruck. When you first see the carvings on the stone, the architecture, and the imagination sculpturer, and the fact that it was done in 10th century, with such under developed tools, makes one feel that God has done this in the hands of man. Those who have never been to Belur will never get to know what stone sculptures really are. From the top the temple is seen as a 8 rayed star. The pillars inside the temple are all of different design. Its like every sculpturer is trying to better another one. The outside of the temple has carvings that depict a story. The Mahabaratha, Ramayana, Sri Bhagavath have all been depicted in stone carvings.























From here we went towards Hassan(60kms). Again, it was an awesome road. We had our lunch in Hassan and continued towards Bangalore. On the way, we decided to visit Shravanabelagola. It is a place of worship of the Jain's. But for us, it is the place of the largest monolithic stone statue in the world. Shravanabelagola can be reached by taking a deviation to the right on the Mangalore-Bangalore highway after the town of Channarayapatna. We have to take the State Highway for around 20kms. We have to climb a hill on steps to have a glimpse of this mammoth
yet beautiful statue of Bahubali. It is said that the dimensions of each part of the statue if reduced to that of a 6 foot man, would result in the perfect features for a man. At the top there is matap, where we rested for some time. The weather was really good, and we ate some of the things that we had carried to the top.

We left Shravanabelagola at around 3:30PM, and continued our journey towards Bangalore. We reached Bangalore at around 6:00 PM. We had covered 620Kms in the entire journey. In all it was a real fun trip, with lot of adventures, beautiful places, and most important of all with amazing friends.

Cheers guys,
We Rock!