Wayanad - Truly God's own country

After my trip to Mumbai for the NM admissions, I was back in Namma Bengalooru to celebrate Ugadi. The Hindu New Year. I was also back on the same day for one more reason. Road Trip to Wayanad. Since Ugadi was on a Friday, we had an extended weekend and that meant more time for the trip. But most of us (including me) wanted to celebrate Ugadi at home. So we agreed to leave after the 'habbada oota' on Friday afternoon.

But the planning was not easy sailing by any stretch of imagination. Just getting people to agree on matters (mostly trivial) was a humongous task. It was like 8 people pulling a cart in 8 different directions. Sometimes the mailchains(mode of communication) used to go so out of topic that people would start to get confused why it all started!

But finally we had 8 of them on board. Sathish, Madhu KV, Aditya, Ravi, Vikram, Sujith, Prashanth and myself making it a all BMS gang. Couple of them did opt out due to personal commitments (Ani, Ketchup and Vijet)

Everyone was asked to assemble at my place at 2:30PM. And to my shock, everyone was there! Adi had picked KV, KP and Ravi from his house and Sat, Vikram and Sujith came directly to my house. Adi had taken his Swift and I had taken my Swift. So we left Bangalore at 3 PM hoping for a 'Swift' journey.

The Mysore road was pretty empty and we kept a very nice pace through out. We took a small coffee break near Maddur. Apart from that there were no stops in the entire journey. We had booked a room in Kalapetta which is one of the bigger towns in Wayanad. People had told me that it would take 6 hours to reach Kalapetta. Considering the night journey in the latter part I had told the Chandragiri Inn (hotel where we stayed) that I would reach by 10 PM and would do dinner on the way.

After Mysore road, we took the Ring Road to join Ooty road (NH 212). The stretch of road from Mysore to Nanjangud is not that good. Though there are no potholes, the tarmac is not smooth either. But after Nanjangud, the road becomes a heaven to drive. At Gundulpet, we took a right deviation towards Bandipur-->Manthunga-->Sultan Bathery-->Kalpetta. The road is excellent throughout and the weather was cool. A pleasant surprise for us. We reached Kalpetta at 7:30 PM. Just 5 hrs 30 mins drive including a short break. I realized that we had ripped a little, but we were happy to have reached early.

We settled down in the room. The room was good. Fully carpeted, excellent bathroom with all modern fittings, cable TV, double bed and a small balcony. We had booked 3 such rooms which cost us Rs 550/- per day. Indeed Chandragiri Inn is a nice budget hotel at the center of the town. After that we went to Haritagiri for dinner. This is the part of Kerla I hate. The food, where ever you go in Kerla is pathetic for tourists (the locals do enjoy it :-)) It feels that every food is immersed in coconut oil. Everything smells like the oiled head of a Mallu. After dinner we went back to the room, played some Uhno cards and slept. We had planned lot of things for the next morning.

As usual we were late in getting ready and behind the schedule. We had planned to cover Soochipura falls, Meenmutty falls, Pookode Lake, Likkidi view points and if time permitted an Ayurvedic massage. We had breakfast at Woodlands hotel. This is the worst hotel I have seen regarding service. It has just 1 chef who takes all the orders. But even sadder part is he prepares everything order by order. So if two people have ordered dosas he wont put it together, but he will put one dosa first and then again put another dosa after severing the first one. Dumbos! Drive to Soochipura falls was mesmerizing. The winding roads through tea plantations was pleasure to the eyes. After 30 mins of traveling we reached the falls. We had to walk couple of kilometers on steps to reach the falls. But once we reached the falls, we were shocked to see the crowd. Its was extremely crowded. There was not even a inch of space under the falls. Most of them did not want to get into the water there and continue to Meenmutty falls. But after waiting for sometime, we decided to get down. Even the crowd had reduced by this time. And what a wonderful decision it turned out to be. The Soochipura falls is heaven on earth. Although the rocks are damn slippery near the falls, its all worth the effort. All the 8 of us got under the falls. Although couple of them did manage to fall (including me), there were no serious incidents. The climb back was tiring. The sun was out in full force and that meant all our energy was sapped by now. So was most of our enthu. We had lunch is a very bad restaurant who took a total 1 hour to serve pathetic food. By this time half of them wanted to skip Meenmutty falls(not me). So a coin was tossed to make a decision. They won, so Meenmutty was skipped :-(

We headed back to our room, and it started raining. I guess in Wayanad it never rains, it only pours! Each drop was like a small rock. It was a short thunder storm. After it subdued, we headed towards Pookode Lake. Its an amazing lake. Very serene. Nice picnic spot with boating and stuff. But for a bunch of hooligans like us, its a boring place. The boating was suspended and later closed due to the rain. We took a walk around the lake, ate some stuff and since there was lot of time left, we came back to the room hoping for an Ayurvedic massage. But the crowd beat us there again. To our disappointment all the places were fully booked for the night. So we just had dinner, and slept blissfully.

Our agenda for the next morning was to finish Edkkal caves and drive back home. So we had breakfast in Kalapetta and checked out of our rooms. After a short drive to Edkkal caves, we started our hike. The climb to the caves is steep and strenuous. There is nothing much to see in the caves. Some prehistoric carvings that none of us bothered about. I felt the actual cave part was very small for it to become such a big tourist attraction. But later I realized that it was not just the caves that interested people, but the trek after the caves to the peak of the hill. The climb does get pretty tough at certain points, but nothing unmanageable. The climb to the top was tiring and people from our group started to drop off in the middle. First casualty was Sujith. No big surprise there. Next to drop off were KV and KP. Again no big surprise. The rest reached the top of the peak. The local maxima. The view was wonderful. The climb down was easier that I thought it would be.

The drive back to Bangalore was as pleasurable as the drive to Wayanad had been. Relaxing. That was the theme of our trip. Apart from the climb to Edakkal caves rest of the trip was so relaxing that at times I felt we were outright lazy. In all it was a fun filled trip, with loads of wonderful memories. Although the place did have its charm, it was the company of these amazing friends that made this trip a pleasure. Looking forward for the next trip :-)

Gokarna - A true paradise

Paradise might be an understatement for this awesome place. It was love at first sight for me. It was almost sunset by the time we reached Gokarna. The effects of traveling had started to show on our fragile bodies. But once we hit the winding roads of the hills of Gokarna, every body ache we had was forgotten in a hurry. I immediately felt relaxed. Gokarna amazes me because of this very inherent quality of its. It can bring peace to the most disturbed soul on the planet. It has a calming effect that I have yet to come across in any other tourist place. Even the Sun seemed to be sedated. The bright yellow star was muffled crimson red. It is very unlike any place I have visited till now.

Quick layout of the beaches of Gokarna. There are four major beaches. OM, Kudle, Half-moon and Paradise. Om beach is the biggest, most famous and thus the most populated among them. Half-moon and Paradise cannot be reached through cars due to lack of roads. You have two options. Either trek through the hills or take a boat.

After parking our car in front of OM beach, we took the winding steps that lead us to the beach. It was tranquility personified. I am sure I could have spent an entire week watching the waves crash on the rocks. OM beach lived up to its reputation. Its soft white sand is any beach goers delight. It was softer than my pillow. Sad part is we could not find any accommodation there. We decided to find accommodation in Paradise beach. And boy oh boy, was it a blessing in disguise or what! I am simply out of words on how beautiful the Paradise beach is. It is what we call in Kannada "Anvartha nama". It was almost dark by the time we reached it by boat. Actually I wanted to trek the distance. But sadly Bala was in no condition to do the trek. So we hired a boat. With minimal clothes stuffed in our carry on bags, along with cameras and torches, we headed to Paradise beach.

Once we reached Paradise beach, we found a beach side shack, that was willing to accommodate 6 people for just Rs. 200. It has to be said, without electricity, pillows, sheets and just a basic floor mat, it was not luxury by and stretch of imagination. But it was the kind of stay that I had hoped for. The foreigners there are more liberal in their dressing, and this we found out as soon as we entered ;-). We were the only 'desi' people in the entire shack, which had approx 10 rooms. We got settled in, changed to our shorts and headed to the beach (i mean we stepped out of the shack). And to our total shock, it was deserted. Not a single soul on the beach. It was like having a private beach all to ourselves. For obvious reasons the movie 'The Beach' kept on playing in my mind for some time. The sky was crystal clear, with thousands of stars dotting the sky. We could hear the guitar and the flute being played in adjacent shacks. I was really tempted to play flute there (and maybe impress some chicks ;-P ). It was time for us to start our long dinner. The starters were ordered. They were hot and delicious. Till then, I had not realized that the owner (Anil) of the shack was the waiter, the cook and the cleaner. He was all-in-one to the truest sense. Then it was time for the bonfire. This was something that I'll cherish for a long time. Bonfire on a 'private' beach. We sang, we joked, we laughed (more so because of the 'fruit' drinks). The food was ordered. We ordered mexican, italian, chinese, continental, thai etc. And all of it VEG. Anil was so good, he prepared everything from scratch, just for us. Hot delicious food in that remote place was the highlight of the night. Of course there were lots of 'wisdom' from Viji. The night ended pretty well. We finally managed to get inside our own rooms :-D All of us made pacts that we would be celebrating the bachelor's party in this place. Satisfied with the pact, I forced myself to sleep.

The morning was even more serene compared to the night. The beach was even more beautiful. So were the people who had started dotting it. I felt sad to leave that place. Although it was planned to be a 1 night stay, I wanted to stay longer in that place. But I left Paradise beach, knowing fully well that I'll be there in the near future. With that thought in mind we reached our car on Om beach. Our talk had changed to Goa, more beaches, more babes and of course of Ravi joining our trip. We left Gokarna fully rejuvinated. More on Goa in the next post.

Cheers

Jog - An experience to treasure

After reading about the famous Jog Falls for many years in school, listening about its beauty in numerous folk songs and "bhaava geethe's ", I was literally ashamed that I had not for once in my life seen this place. Its splendor showcased in the movie "Mungaaru Male" was the tipping point. Being a true "Kannadiga" at heart, I could no longer take this embarrassment.

As soon as the planning for Goa trip started, I was keen on visiting this place. I got to know from various sources that the water was merely trickling in the falls. Yet, my mind was convinced that I had to visit it. And what a wonderful decision it turned out to be!

I knew I could not see Jog in its full glory, when you stand at the viewing platform and just admire the mother nature at its best. But, at some level, I always want to feel the waterfall by getting under it, and not by just being a spectator. Another thing I like about waterfalls is how secluded it is and how less crowded it is. Although Jog is not secluded by any stretch of imagination, thankfully it was tourist free. When we climbed down, we were met with a 800 ft water fall, which ended in a big pool of ice cold clear green water (it was quite deep). I thought god had made this place for us to enjoy the bath. This time, I was not the first to get in :-( . But swimming in ice cold morning in that natural pool was the most thrilling experience till then. After a pretty tiring swim me, bala, srinath and viji finally came up to the falls. I was constantly thinking "shit no one is here to take a photo of this". Only later I came to realize that no photo was required, since that image is permanently etched in my mind. Going under the falls was really an out-of-body experience for me. It felt like a thousand soft hands were massaging every muscle in my body. I could not stay under the falls for long as I was shivering like hell. The swim back was nice and relaxing.

While we were almost near the falls, Bala complained of nausea. But I felt he had gotten over it. Boy oh boy! Was I wrong. Once out of the water, I saw his skin turn yellow. I knew he was dehydrated. Only then did I realize that we had not carried any drinking water. Bala was so tired, he was almost sleep walking his way up the steps. Every 10 steps he had to take rest. Every drop of water/soda/juice was puked out. He slept for 20 minutes in shade when we were half way up. We did some orkut profiling photos. Seeing the rainbow in front of the falls was the icing on the cake. By this time, the tourists had started to pour in. I was really concerned about Bala's health. We had an entire trip to look forward to and the excitement had just begun. We carried him on our shoulders for the rest of the journey to the top. It was definitely the low point of the entire trip.

Now I believe, every person should visit Jog falls on two separate occasions. One during the peak monsoon or just after the monsoons in the month of September. And one more time in winter in the months of December and January. So come this September, anyone is planning to visit Jog can expect me there :-D

We left Jog with the knowledge that we will be back here in 7 months time. One of the best waterfalls I have ever been to. Gokarna was the next destination. More on it in the next post.

PS : This is my 50th post on the blog. So cheers to it :-)

And then there were Seven

Ufff!
It has been a planning marathon. For the last two weeks, we have made plans after plans, some new, some updating, some scraping, and finally some changing so much, it looked like new ones.

Ever since I got to know that I had a extended weekend holiday (credit to Republic Day), my mind was reeling with holiday possibilities. With 6 months of constant exams, I was so desperate to go out, I started asking everyone I knew, for a trip.

Ravi (IIM-A 1st year student), one of my closest friends was here for the New Year, and that was when the plan to do a Goa trip started. It was a long cherished dream of me, Bala, Srinath and Ravi. Initially we wanted to do this trip, with just the four of us. Since Ravi would be joining us in Goa directly from Ahmedabad, the rest of us decided to do this the 'Dil Chata Hai' way. Driving to Goa would be in itself an experience to remember. Till then it was FOUR.

Driving in my SX4 would mean there would be 2 vacant seats for the journey. This would imply extra cost per head. So we decided to call up common friends to join us. First it was Atul who gave the thumbs up. Then we were FIVE.

Viji and Naga decided to hold back their response and kept us guessing. Pnadey initially gave a thumbs up. So there were SIX.

Naga finally succumbed to the temptations and caved in. So there were SEVEN :-) . By this time we had ditched our plans to travel by my SX4. 6 grown men and a giant, even my SX4 cant handle that :-(. We had started to pursue other modes of transport. Self driven SUV's, Taxi's, Train and even Bus. Bus was unanimously ruled out. The waiting list in train was shocking. And to our surprise the Tatkal was also not available. So that was ruled out. Since it was our dream to drive to Goa, we pursued the Self driven vehicle concept till the end. But it turned out to be a costly affair. The rent itself was Rs 3000/- per day. This excluding the petrol bill. Although I was a bit disappointed, our only option was a taxi.

By now, even Viji was tempted to come. So there were EIGHT. But unfortunately Pandey had other commitments, so he had to drop out :-(. Finally there were SEVEN of us, six of us approaching Goa from Bangalore and one coming from Ahmedabad.

In between there were plans to go to Dandeli. That was scraped. The Gokarna part was planned, re-planned, scraped and again planned. The much hyped Goa part has had lots of planning. Hope it lives up to its expectations.

The planning itself has been so eventful. My eyes are gleaming, dreaming of the sunshine and sand.

Two Worlds

In the past 6 months, I have come to realize one thing. That I'm living in two completely different worlds ruled by two completely different concept of 'TIME'! Surprised? Well read on...

This stuck me when I started pursue my new year resolution. More introspection! It is safe to say that, even now, I don't understand myself completely. But I'm at a better place than I was 6 months ago. But with constant introspection, I came to scrutinize my every single move, every dialogue. Every conversation I had participated in had to go under the hammer of my scrutiny. I fear I'm getting to a place where I am my worst critic. Enough rambling, and back to the topic of the post.

I consider my world is ruled by two times. There is the 'Mechanical Time' and there is the 'Body Time'. Former is the rigid, unyielding and predetermined, just like a clock that goes tick tock, tick tock, tick tock. The other is free, instinctive, responsive, where I make up my mind as time flows.

Many a times I feel that this mechanical time does not exist. I feel that I live life as it comes by. At these times, the 'time' is ruled by my heartbeat rather than the metallic pendulum of a clock. At these times, I really feel in touch with my emotions. The time is ruled by my desires and moods. At these times, I feel that the time flies by when it has to, like when I'm in a exam. And the same time will slow down when I'm relaxing, like when I'm on a trip, helping me to take in every single detail of nature.

Then there are 'times' when I feel I'm so predictable, that I could be easily confused with a robot. I wake up at the strike of 6 AM, do morning chores by the clock. When my stomach growls, I look at the clock to see if it is time to eat! When I'm seeing a boring sitcom, I see the time to check when it will end, rather than switching it off. It is like I have been programmed to do it. I begin to feel that my body is not a collection of wild magic, but just a collection of bones, muscles and nerves which are all hard coded before hand about their purpose at that particular time. As such the body is ordered by the laws of physics rather that laws of nature. The body at these times is a thing to be ordered, not obeyed.

I have come to understand that existence in these two worlds is inevitable. But having experienced the joy of the world with 'Body Time', I have come to despise the events that I have to 'perform' in the world of 'Mechanical Time'.
I also believe that Time in general is the only absolute thing in the world. It is an infinite ruler. It is the same for everyone rich or poor, good or bad, irrespective of religion or race. A second is a second is a second. It is the basis on which we even base our religious belief. Like the concept of 'Yuga' in the Hindu mythology.

Dream Weekends?

There was a time not so long ago that I used to detest weekends. Those were my school days. Days when I looked forward to the Mondays. The hatred towards weekends were due to the fact that, I would miss chatting and playing with my friends for two whole days. More dreadful were the winter and summer vacations. Two months of idling and killing time was such a waste for me back then.

But things change. And when they do, they change dramatically. Its a 180 degree turnaround now. Friday evenings are the best part of the whole week. Sunday evenings are the worst. I never realized till I started to work that 'Monday Blues' could happen to me. In fact I have met very few people who do not have it.

It does not mean that I don't like to work, nor does it mean that I don't like to hang around with my colleagues in office. It's just that, I hate being in that closed environment. I sometimes get the feeling of a bonded laborer, sometimes of a prisoner. Working in a cubicle tends to tie me down. It has nothing to do with claustrophobia. Cubicle spurs my unhappiness. What ever the reason the bottom line is that I feel that I'm not 'free'.

But that feeling changes to euphoria once the Friday evening mist sets in. The drive back home becomes so much more enjoyable. I tend to feel that freedom awaits me. It's the best feeling I have in the week. So much so that I tend to plan activities of the next weekend all through out the week. Rarely has there been a weekend in the last 1 year where I had absolutely no plans.
Even small things done during the weekend make me happy. Things so small that I would have taken these for granted not so long back. But this is not the worst part. The worst part is I don't know how to change this dangerous trend and again start looking forward to the MONDAYS!

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!