Nine friends, 2 cars, and one destination - Jungle Mount Adventures which is the boot camp of Tadiyandamol peak.
Saturday:
04:45 AM : My alarm rings. I am indeed alarmed as I had just had 4 hours of sleep.
05:20 AM : My SX4 gives a thundering roar in the early morning silence as I turn my keys.
05:35 AM : I am at office, our meeting point. Astonished to find out that I was the first person there. Start making frantic calls to others.
06:20 AM : Everyone is slowly trickling in. Already delayed by an hour. I give the general directions to Darshan and tell him to take the NICE road to reach Bangalore-Mysore road.
06:45 AM : My SX4 touches 180kmph. I am thrilled. My highest till date. Quite ironic that it is the same measurement as a quarter ;-). So I was HIGH on a quarter.
07:15 AM : Darshan fuels up his tank. Also the first group photo.
08:00 AM : Stop at the famous Mysore Mylari Hotel for breakfast. As usual the dosa was delicious.
09:00 AM : Stop in Maddur to pick up "stuff".
10:00 AM : Waiting for Darshan at the Mysore bypass near Srirangapatna. This road eventually saves us at least half an hour.
10:30 AM : Hit SH88 Mysore - Hunsur road. Awesome asphalt quality. Extremely smooth journey on this road.
Noon : Deviation to SH88A Hunsur Virajpet. Road is bad. Lots of potholes. Dusty road. And a very aggressive bus driver ahead of us.
01:15 PM : Finally arrive at Jungle Mount Adventures, after repeatedly asking for exact directions.
03:00 PM : Feeling very relaxed after a decent lunch. Waiting to do Waterfall Rappelling. But Sagar( the owner) calls and tells we can do canoeing and swimming in the river now and the rappelling the next day.
03:15 PM : Start wearing Life Jackets. As always I am the first to get into water :-)
04:15 PM : After a fun filled and a tiring swim in the ice cold water, we get out to try the canoes.
05:15 PM : A horrifying experience. Our canoe hits the bank of the river, and that startles two snakes, which fall of a tree onto the bank. They were long and fat. Our instincts kick in and we start to row towards the middle. But regret later that we failed to take snaps of the snake :-(
06:00 PM : Take a cold bath. Still some discussions on the snake and what we would have done, if it had fallen in the boat instead of the river bank.
07:00 PM : Finally our mobiles start to catch some signal. Call back home to report my safe arrival.
07:45 PM : The camp fire starts. So so does our party.
08:00 - 10:30 PM : The timeline garbled due to toxication. Just remember the outlines. Did manage to embarrass myself many times :-(
10:45 PM : The most thrilling drive of my life... wait the most thrilling experience of my life starts. Sagar takes us on a 'Night Adventure Drive' on the slopes of Tadiyandamol. None of are prepared for that kind of drive in his 4X4. He switches off his head lights, uses a pen torch intermittently and drives at speeds of 80kmph. We hold on to our dear lives. Lots of memorable dialogues come out. Unfortunately not recorded as we were praying for our dear lives.
Sunday:
00:30 AM : The "Death Drive" finished 30 minutes ago. But still talking about it. Remember laughing a lot, but not sure why!
01:00 AM : I think I went to sleep. Must confirm this with sober people :-)
07:00 AM : My alarm goes off again. And to my surprise I'm completely normal. No residues from last night. Pray to god (I do this everyday :-D)
08:00 AM : I am ready. Take a walk in the morning chill. But the sun rays are strong and pinching. Thinking of the hot day ahead. And again I'm the first (lazy buggers ;-))
09:00 AM : Most of them are up and ready by this time. Talk on what happened yesterday. They manage to convince me that I cried :-(
09:45 AM : Pooris are refreshing. Finished my most important meal of the day
10:00 AM : Mr. Muttu accompanies us to show us the way to waterfalls where we are supposed to do rappelling.
10:45 AM : After travelling through back breaking roads, similar to surface of moon, we arrive at the water fall. But the water fall is beautiful, and to our disappointment, just after our arrival a college trip manages to arrive. Bad timing :-(
11:15 AM : After a short trek and a bit of confusion we meet Sagar, who is preparing the gear for the rappelling. It looks a bit scary from the top.
11:30 AM : Sagar gives us the DO's and DO NOT's of rappelling. A very educative talk.
12:15 PM : My turn comes. I am the last to do that. Not that I was afraid or anything. Nidhi opts out and regrets later. Awesome sight from the top. Take a lot of Orkut profile snaps.
01:00 PM : Bid farewell to Sagar and head towards Kushalnagar. Roads are much better. But we end up going in circles for sometime.
03:00 PM : Reach Kushalnagar. See Nisargadhama on the way and decide to have lunch over there. Did not foresee that we would be losing so much time in it :-(
04:15 PM : Finish our lunch. Food was hot but not tasty. Leave Nisargadhama to go to Tibetan Monastery in Bayalkuppe.
04:30 PM : Arrival in the Tibetan settlement. My second time here in 6 months. I get a bit nostalgic, and end up acting as a tour guide :-(
06:00 PM : After some refreshments, we decide to head home. Again I give the general directions to Darshan I hit the road. Want to cover up as much as possible in day light. I hate driving in the night.
10:00 PM : Reach Kamat Lokaruchi on the Mysore road near Ramanagaram. Stop over for dinner. Awesome food.
11:00 PM : Leave Kamat and head towards office.
12:00 Midnight : Arrive in office.
Monday:
12:10 AM : I get a call. Darshan has a flat tyre just in front of the office. Have to give it to him for the timing.
12:20 AM : Changed to the spare tyre. Took some final snaps and left the place with the sad knowledge that we had to come to the same place to work tomorrow morning.
Will upload the photos soon :-)
Saturday:
04:45 AM : My alarm rings. I am indeed alarmed as I had just had 4 hours of sleep.
05:20 AM : My SX4 gives a thundering roar in the early morning silence as I turn my keys.
05:35 AM : I am at office, our meeting point. Astonished to find out that I was the first person there. Start making frantic calls to others.
06:20 AM : Everyone is slowly trickling in. Already delayed by an hour. I give the general directions to Darshan and tell him to take the NICE road to reach Bangalore-Mysore road.
06:45 AM : My SX4 touches 180kmph. I am thrilled. My highest till date. Quite ironic that it is the same measurement as a quarter ;-). So I was HIGH on a quarter.
07:15 AM : Darshan fuels up his tank. Also the first group photo.
08:00 AM : Stop at the famous Mysore Mylari Hotel for breakfast. As usual the dosa was delicious.
09:00 AM : Stop in Maddur to pick up "stuff".
10:00 AM : Waiting for Darshan at the Mysore bypass near Srirangapatna. This road eventually saves us at least half an hour.
10:30 AM : Hit SH88 Mysore - Hunsur road. Awesome asphalt quality. Extremely smooth journey on this road.
Noon : Deviation to SH88A Hunsur Virajpet. Road is bad. Lots of potholes. Dusty road. And a very aggressive bus driver ahead of us.
01:15 PM : Finally arrive at Jungle Mount Adventures, after repeatedly asking for exact directions.
03:00 PM : Feeling very relaxed after a decent lunch. Waiting to do Waterfall Rappelling. But Sagar( the owner) calls and tells we can do canoeing and swimming in the river now and the rappelling the next day.
03:15 PM : Start wearing Life Jackets. As always I am the first to get into water :-)
04:15 PM : After a fun filled and a tiring swim in the ice cold water, we get out to try the canoes.
05:15 PM : A horrifying experience. Our canoe hits the bank of the river, and that startles two snakes, which fall of a tree onto the bank. They were long and fat. Our instincts kick in and we start to row towards the middle. But regret later that we failed to take snaps of the snake :-(
06:00 PM : Take a cold bath. Still some discussions on the snake and what we would have done, if it had fallen in the boat instead of the river bank.
07:00 PM : Finally our mobiles start to catch some signal. Call back home to report my safe arrival.
07:45 PM : The camp fire starts. So so does our party.
08:00 - 10:30 PM : The timeline garbled due to toxication. Just remember the outlines. Did manage to embarrass myself many times :-(
10:45 PM : The most thrilling drive of my life... wait the most thrilling experience of my life starts. Sagar takes us on a 'Night Adventure Drive' on the slopes of Tadiyandamol. None of are prepared for that kind of drive in his 4X4. He switches off his head lights, uses a pen torch intermittently and drives at speeds of 80kmph. We hold on to our dear lives. Lots of memorable dialogues come out. Unfortunately not recorded as we were praying for our dear lives.
Sunday:
00:30 AM : The "Death Drive" finished 30 minutes ago. But still talking about it. Remember laughing a lot, but not sure why!
01:00 AM : I think I went to sleep. Must confirm this with sober people :-)
07:00 AM : My alarm goes off again. And to my surprise I'm completely normal. No residues from last night. Pray to god (I do this everyday :-D)
08:00 AM : I am ready. Take a walk in the morning chill. But the sun rays are strong and pinching. Thinking of the hot day ahead. And again I'm the first (lazy buggers ;-))
09:00 AM : Most of them are up and ready by this time. Talk on what happened yesterday. They manage to convince me that I cried :-(
09:45 AM : Pooris are refreshing. Finished my most important meal of the day
10:00 AM : Mr. Muttu accompanies us to show us the way to waterfalls where we are supposed to do rappelling.
10:45 AM : After travelling through back breaking roads, similar to surface of moon, we arrive at the water fall. But the water fall is beautiful, and to our disappointment, just after our arrival a college trip manages to arrive. Bad timing :-(
11:15 AM : After a short trek and a bit of confusion we meet Sagar, who is preparing the gear for the rappelling. It looks a bit scary from the top.
11:30 AM : Sagar gives us the DO's and DO NOT's of rappelling. A very educative talk.
12:15 PM : My turn comes. I am the last to do that. Not that I was afraid or anything. Nidhi opts out and regrets later. Awesome sight from the top. Take a lot of Orkut profile snaps.
01:00 PM : Bid farewell to Sagar and head towards Kushalnagar. Roads are much better. But we end up going in circles for sometime.
03:00 PM : Reach Kushalnagar. See Nisargadhama on the way and decide to have lunch over there. Did not foresee that we would be losing so much time in it :-(
04:15 PM : Finish our lunch. Food was hot but not tasty. Leave Nisargadhama to go to Tibetan Monastery in Bayalkuppe.
04:30 PM : Arrival in the Tibetan settlement. My second time here in 6 months. I get a bit nostalgic, and end up acting as a tour guide :-(
06:00 PM : After some refreshments, we decide to head home. Again I give the general directions to Darshan I hit the road. Want to cover up as much as possible in day light. I hate driving in the night.
10:00 PM : Reach Kamat Lokaruchi on the Mysore road near Ramanagaram. Stop over for dinner. Awesome food.
11:00 PM : Leave Kamat and head towards office.
12:00 Midnight : Arrive in office.
Monday:
12:10 AM : I get a call. Darshan has a flat tyre just in front of the office. Have to give it to him for the timing.
12:20 AM : Changed to the spare tyre. Took some final snaps and left the place with the sad knowledge that we had to come to the same place to work tomorrow morning.
Will upload the photos soon :-)
3 comments:
One of the best trip in my life.. wonderful and a chilling experience.. when i had a glance at the snake, my mind took a sec to register it was real and my heart skipped a beat.. oh man, we were so close.. awesome experience..
Dude as usual u are always earlier than others and no wonder u made frantic calls to others :)
@madhu : nan magane... ninu yav trip gu barbeda... how do u know that im always earlier than others?
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