Ethina Buja – A pleasant trek

Day 1: 24 Dec 2010 – Bangalore to Kokkada

    

    After much cancellations and dropping out, five of us (Tintin, MoMS, Sai, Nuthan and ppr) were finally off to conquer Ethina Buja. Ethina Buja is located in Sishila, a small village in Belthangadi taluk of Dakshina Kannada District near Dharmastala. The actual trek distance is 16kms. Catching the 10:51pm KSRTC Sarige Express bus on 24th which eventually and naturally followed IST to start an hour late. The bus takes the Bangalore – Nelamangala – Kunigal – Channarayapatana – Hassan – Sakaleshpura – Shiradi – Kokkada – Dharmasthala route and the roads are in pretty bad condition. So, we braced yourselves for bad backs the next day. 

Day 2: 25 Dec 2010 – Kokkada – Sishila – Ethina Buja

    We reached Kokkada at 7:30am and hired a jeep costing Rs.350 to our organizer, Gopu Gokale’s house in Sishila. There were a few other gangs who had already arrived to trek Amedhikallu and Ombattu gudda. We freshened ourselves and had a good breakfast of Idlis and had chapatis packed for our lunch. Lingappa was assigned as our guide. Unlike Kp, Kodachadri and other peaks, there is no clear cut path at a few places and it is advisable to take a guide along.

    The trail starts from Sishila village. One has to take an auto/jeep from Sishila bus stand to reach the base of the peak which is at about 6kms from bus stand. But we took an auto up-to our guide’s house which is a good 2 km away from the start of the trek path. At 10:30am we were up wearing our shield shaped tents like shields and bamboo sticks as swords and started the trek… 🙂

Start of the trek from Lingappa’s house to the base of the peak

    The initial trail is through a muddy road and light forest cover and the trail itself is pretty wide. After the first 30 min of the trek we come across a stream which can be crossed easily as the water height is a maximum of 3 feet. The small stream continues to run parallel for the next few minutes of our climb. The forest cover turns thick and the trail starts to thin out and by 1pm and a good two and a half hours into the climb we took a break at an open space and gobbled up our chapatis. 

The actual trail starts from here

The small stream at the start of the trek

Thick tree cover

First site of Ethina Buja along the trek trail

    By this time, the sun was out at all its glory and the humidity very high. It is better if you don’t wear thick clothing for late starts in this trek. The fatigue did get to me after lunch and the journey very slow. We took lots of water breaks. There are a couple of gooseberry trees (Bettada nellikayi) along the route. They taste good with salt. By 2pm, we reached the start of trail with tall grasses and no tree cover. This gave the first clear sight of the surrounding peaks. By 3:30pm, we reached the base where we dumped our luggage and tents. Rested for a good 30 minutes. There is a small stream with drinking water available. So filled up all our bottles. At 4:30 without any luggage to weigh us down, climbed the peak in 25 minutes.

The last grass-land. The peak is about 1 hour from here

    As the name suggests, Ethina Buja means the shoulder of the ox. The peak is quite steep and we have to climb over boulders. The view is good with Amethikkallu, Ombattu gudda and several other peaks clearly visible. The Sishileshwara temple is visible from the peak and is about 2km from our camping site. We grabbed a few snaps and got down before sunset as the climb down becomes difficult as the visibility reduces. We watched a beautiful and amazing sunset with the sun getting behind the Amedhikallu peak and casting the shadow of Ethina Buja on the other side of where we stood. While we were watching the sunset, our guide was busy collecting firewood. We went back to the camping site to setup tents and a campfire was raging in no time. I(ppr) was forced to be a cook… 😛 and I think, did a decent job of cooking Maggi for the 6 of us. Hot Maggi on a cold night. Mmmmmmmmmmmm.. was very tasty… This is what we can call as boasting…:D We had bourbon biscuits, oranges and apples for desert. The stars were out and dazzling and I swear we cannot see so many stars out in the sky here at Bangalore. We settled in one of the tents to played UNO till 9pm, by which time our guide was busy snoring away, fast asleep in one of the tents.

Sunset with the Ethina Buja covering half the screen..

L to R – Sunset, Amethikal and Ethina buja…

 

Day 3: 26 Dec 2010 –  Ethina Buja – Sishila – Kokkada – Dharmasthala – Bangalore

    We were woken up by an excited Nuthan who was on his first trek, to catch the sunrise. The timing was just about perfect. We watched one of the most beautiful sunrises with cloud covering most of the surrounding peaks. One of the million reasons why we love trekking in the western ghats – the beautiful sunrise and sunset. 

Sun rise at Ethina Buja

Cloud cover in the surrounding peaks

The orange glow to the sky is beautiful to wathc with cloud cover everywhere…

Flowers and mist at sun-rise

15 minutes of picture perfect scenery during sunrise

    By 8:30am we had packed up and started the return part of the trek. The trek down is pretty non-strenuous. An easy trek down, not even small rocks and boulders to worry about which was the case in Kp. By 12pm we reached the stream and jumped in to wash away all the grime accumulated in the trek. It was 30 minutes in the cool water under the warm sun, and the small falls created near boulders acting as a massage to the strained muscles. 

MoMS pic being taken by me and those are our shadows at sunrise..

Dew drops on a spider web

     Another 2km trek down to our guide Linagappa’s house. Paid him his fee of Rs.1000 (which in acutal should have been 700) and took an auto back to Gopu Gokale’s house. The masala butter milk provided after the trek is very good and after a short bath, gulped down hot sambar and rasam rice. The food and facilities cost 150 per head which is pretty reasonable considering the fact that they arranged for guide, breakfast and lunch on first day and lunch on second day. We caught the only bus from Sishila bus-stand to Kokkada 4pm. Many KSRTC buses traverse the Kokkada-Dharmasthala route and if you dont want to wait then there are several jeeps plying the route and we caught one of them to travel the 16km journey in 30 minutes in jam packed conditions of-course… i.e, 16 people including the driver in a single jeep… 😛

    Visited the Manjunatha swamy temple in Dharmasthala before catching the 9:30pm bus back to Bangalore which again followed IST to start 45 minutes late.

Trek gang – L to R – Sai, Nuthan, MoMS(Vineeth), me (ppr) and Tintin (NIthin) at our organizer Gopu Gokale’s house

Points to be noted:

1. Total trek distance – 4km on road + 16km on the hill = 20kms.
• Time taken for climb = 5 hours maximum. It can be done in 4 to 4 & 1/2 hours if we start early morning and carrying light luggage
• Time taken to trek down = 3 hours max.
2. Total cost 1500 per head including the bus charges.
3. Organiser in Sishila – Gopu Gokhale – 9483211246
4. Try to reach Kokkada before 7am as there is a bus to Sishila which turns of to be just Rs.12 per head instead of the Rs.300 you have to shell out on a jeep. Similarly 4pm return bus from Sishila to Kokkada.

Photos link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/ppr.bms/EthinaBuja#

http://picasaweb.google.com/unithinbhat/EthinaBhujaTrek#

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The Street Lawyer

    John Grisham’s 9th novel released in 1998 hits a raw nerve into the reader with this Legal thriller. Michael Brock is a wealthy anti-trust lawyer at Washington DC law firm Drake & Sweeney. The plot starts with a homeless man calling himself “Mister” enters the office holding a loaded gun and what appears as dynamite around his waist. He takes nine lawyers hostage including Michael. He is eventually shot by a sniper while Mike who acts as Mister’s messenger tries to pick up food. But before his death, Mister asked questions about how much each of the lawyers earned which could be said as filthy rich and how much they had donated to the homeless which turned out to be close to nothing.

    These questions make Mike uncomfortable and he decides to pay a visit to the 14th Street Legal clinic where Mordecai Green, Sofia Mendoza and Abraham Lebow work as lawyers-cum-social workers for the homeless. A few days later, Mordecai calls Mike and asks for a favor to help the homeless shelter which is filled to the brim in the cold February winter. Here, he meets a family of  a single mother and four children. He buys gifts to the family (a few essentials and toys) to give it to them the next time he meets. But, they perish in a car, which they use to sleep at nights, inhaling carbon-monoxide while keeping the engine running to keep themselves warm. This is the tipping point in Mike’s career.

    Mike finds about the illegal eviction at a warehouse bought by the TAG group that was being sold to the postal service. He is helped by Hector Palma – a paralegal for Braden Chance who handles the real estate division. These evictions forced Mister, the family and 15 other people back onto the cold capital streets. Mike steals the file from the firm and joins the 14th Street Legal clinic. Then Mike and Mordecai sue Drake & Sweeney for $10million for illegal eviction and the death of the family. Meanwhile the firm does everything in its power to get the file back with the help of DC police. Mike also befriends Ruby a homeless woman and a drug addict, fighting for the right to visiting her son, who is with his foster parents. The story goes about how Mike can get accustomed to the his new life as “street-lawyer” from the life of a rich lawyer in a big firm. and how he can help people like Ruby to get out of their addiction. The debate about the file and about Mike’s legal career and his life goes on for a long time. The file is the most crucial of elements in the story. Whether Mike returns the file and saves his career or does the firm, terrified of trail, reaches for a settlement is what the story is all about.

    A good read and it can be easily applied into our lives. We have to think over about where we are in our career paths and whether we are truly happy with our work. The most important being what we are doing to help the needy. I would rate it as 7/10.

Lakshadweep – Nature’s Nirvana to the living

    Ask a person to name a place where he wants to relax and enjoy the natures beauty. The answer most definitely will be a beach. Now to this, if we add a cruise boat, less inhabited islands in the middle of an ocean, beautiful white sandy beaches, the amazing blue water lagoons, corals, colorful marine life, snorkeling, kayaking…. need I say more.. By this time, I guess, you get the picture….. 🙂

    The Seven of us Tintin, MoMS, Monks, Finny, Boyz, Shantu and ppr set out on one of our dream journeys – A cruise to the enchanting Lakshadweep islands.

Overview of the islands:

    Lakshadweep is the tiniest Union Territory of India and is an archipelago consisting of 12 atolls, 3 reefs and 5 submerged banks. Lakshadweep islands lie about 220 to 440kms off the Kerala coast. The islands are connected to mainland by passenger ships and flights operated from Kochi. The islands have a total area of 32 sq kms and the lagoons enclosed by the atolls cover an area of 4200 sq kms. Its territorial waters extend to 20,000 sq.kms. Only 10 of these islands namely, Agatti, Amini, Andrott, Bitra, Chetlat, Kadmat, Kalpeni, Kavaratti, Kiltan and Minicoy are inhabited. Southwest monsoons from June to September bring plenty of rainfall to the islands. Months from October to May are good times for visiting.

Lakshadweep islands in Arabian sea

History of the Islands:

    Lakshadweep’s history has both Islam and Hindu roots. According to one legend, the islands were discovered when the last king of Kerala, Cheraman Perumal. The king was converted to Islam by the force of Arab merchants and he sailed from the coastal city of Kochi for Mecca. When the king didnt return, search parties were sent. During a storm, the sailors found refuge on an island known as Bangaram during the storm. They moved to a larger Island (Agatti) to stay until the weather improved. The crew recorded many islands present along the way. When the news spread, a group of Hindu sailors found the island Amini.

    Another legend says that Saint Ubaidullah, had a dream that Prophet Mohammed wanted him to go to Jeddah. During his journey a storm wrecked his ship and he floated ashore the island Amini on a plank of wood. It is said that Saint Ubaidullah spread Islam on the island, after falling in love with one of the islanders.

The Coral Reef package:

    A five-day cruise, organized by SPORTS, is on a 2 month old passenger ship “M.V.Lakshadweep Sea” which takes tourists to Kadmat, Kalpeni and Kavaratti for day excursion. Day time is spent on the islands and night on the ship. The initial journey takes 14 to 18 hours depending on island chosen for journey. The organized activities include shore excursions, kayaking, snorkelling and other water sports, folk dances and cultural activities in all three islands.

Now the actual experience of the trip.

Day 1: 24 Nov 2010, Bangalore to Ernakulam

    The seven of us left Bangalore to Ernakulam junction by Kochuveli express at 5-15pm. UNO cards were the order of the day and played for about 4 hours non-stop before retiring.

Day 2: 25 Nov 2010, Ernakulam and the cruise begins

    We reached Ernakulam junction at  about 4-15am, but our scheduled time to collect our cruise passes at the Willingdon island was 8:30am. So, we spent time in the station charging our mobile phones and reading newspaper. Had breakfast with the menu-board displaying Gopi-65 and GopiManjurian.. 😀 (thankfully none of our names have either b or c :P)

    At 7:00am, we took a single auto cramped with 8 people including the driver to reach Willingdon island  which costed 200 bucks and a 20 minute ride along the pot hole ridden road. The island is well guarded by the central security forces particularly the entry of vehicles being monitored. A person at the Lakshadweep office mentioned us to return back at 9:30 and we spent time roaming around the island at one point losing the way to Lakshadweep office. Being a government organized cruise, we werent holding up high hopes of a  good treatment. But much to our surprise, the employees at the office were as un-government-ly as one can be :P. They treated us well and answered all our questions before handing over the cruise tickets along with baggage stickers, a complimentary T-shirt and cap. We moved to baggage check-in counter which is a 5 minute ride in the van which they had kept ready. Here, MoMS befriended Tom, a Lithuanian on a solo Indian tour, also coming on this cruise. This guy, a finance adviser, could afford two to three big trips a year and had already covered half the countries in the world!! 

Our cruise “Lakshadweep Sea”

     After the baggage check, we were taken along a bus for a 10 minute ride into the  Kochi wharf. We boarded the 45-day old, “Lakshadweep Sea” at 11:30am which was waiting for us at the dock. The ship carried 32 tourists along with a hundred other regular passengers in First and second classes.

My bunker/cabin 137

    Our lunch on the ship was tasty enough to continue our good home-food appetite. The cruise began at 4pm with us saying goodbyes to the mainland of the great Indian peninsula. We sighted a few dolphins during the initial journey which escaped our cameras. The ship’s decks was a maze to us and we explored the 4 decks . Then the 7 of us and Tom passed time playing Hollywood-movie-only dumb-charades and UNO before having dinner and crashing into our beds in the dormitory. The dormitory is like a sleeper class in  an Indian train but with only lower and upper berth. There are no three pin sockets in the ship. So, better carry a spike buster.

The very small pool of rain-water on the deck vibrating to the engine every few seconds

Sunset

Trail left behind by our ship

Day 3: 26 Nov 2010, Kadamat island

    Everyone of us was woken by an over-excited Shantu to watch our first sunrise on a cruise. When we went out, our spirits went from excitement to gloom in a jiffy. The signs looked ominous. It had rained the previous night and dark clouds were hovering around and it was drizzling quite heavily. Kadamat was on sight. Had our breakfast and moved to islands on a motorboat. Kadmat is 8 km long and only 550 meters wide at its broadest point. 

Beautiful sunrise with Kadamat visible

     Since the islands are surrounded by corals, the ships are docked quite a few meters behind and the approach to the island is only by motorboat. By this time, the drizzle had changed to rain. The island was inviting but the weather gods were not yet. We were welcomed by the organizers and the re-freshener was tender-coconut water. We entered the beach in the rain. The drizzle stopped the sun came out and woaaaahhhhhh what a sight… The white sandy beach, the shallow aqua-blue lagoons ideal for water sports such as scuba diving and snorkeling, the sun shining. Then the fun began. We were handed life-jackets and let loose on the island. We attacked the beautiful beach and entered the water like wild dogs. Here we played semi-dodgeball/volleyball which ended when Shantu accidentally hit Tintin in the face and then ran into the beach fearing reaction as though a volcano was about to erupt and crash landed and had a few gulps of sea water… 😀 

    We ran around the coast for a few minutes. Snorkeled for 15 min, with the help of an instructor who led us to the corals. It was our first time snorkeling and even the 15min of marine life watching was an experience to relish. We kayaked for a good hour and by this time, the guys were itching to go for scuba diving.  At the Water Sports Institute on the island, we were disappointed to find that scuba diving for amateurs cost 2.5K for 30min and at a depth of 2m which was not worth them money. We still had 2 more islands  where we could check out scuba diving. So, we left to have our lunch served and played beach volleyball for an hour to kill time.

    The next itinerary, was a ride along the island to visit the local factories and few scenic spots. We visited the coir factory, coconut powder factory and the north tip of the island, which is a quite and pleasant place to click away pics in your camera. Then it was sand-castle building time.. ppr and MoMS had a competition and ppr won it outright… 😀 Our MoMS’s pal Tom was staying for 6-days in the island. Lucky dude. Returned to the ship at 6:30. Had a hot shower before a good dinner. Played poker before retiring again.

North tip

Algae on a rock

Day 4: 27 Nov 2010, Kalpeni island

    Kalpeni along with two small islets of Tilakkam and Pitti and the uninhabited island of Cheriyam in the north form a single atoll. Our second day began in the almost the exact same way the first day had begun. A Cloud filled sky -reach island by motor boat – have tender coconut water upon arrival.

    Then we were taken to the small islet and were provided snorkeling gear. We snorkeled away for a good 3 hours unsupervised in the lagoon. It was wonderful to experience school of fishes, fishes protecting their home(corals) when you go near them, fish of different hues including many multicolored ones and one which looked like an eel and also few small zebra striped snakes.

 

    Returned to the main island. Had our lunch and again it was time for Volleyball. Then we were treated to folk dances – Kolkali and Parichakali from a group of islanders wearing Man-U football jerseys. One old thatha was 73 years and he danced away happily showing no signs of exhaustion. 

Folk aritists with 7 of us

shantu and ppr with the Folk artist

   It was time to tour the island. We visited the Khadi and Baniyan(T-shirt) factory. The cotton T-shirt cost a maximum of Rs.70. If those were brought to Bangalore one could make a killing profit surely. Then we visited the Lighthouse. Atop the Lighthouse, we get a magnificent view of the island, fully covered in green and blue. The green coconut tree tops and the blue lagoons in the sea. Then we went to the North most tip. We spent time collecting shells and conches/conchs. Had an amazing sunset view of the lagoons though the sun was still hiding behind clouds. We returned back to the ship, to finish our shower and dinner. It was time to play antyakshari, that is sing away Hindi-Kannada-Telugu-Tamil songs aloud like maniacs and again played poker and slept awaiting our last destination

At north most point in Kalpeni

Day 5: 28 Nov 2010, Kavaratti island and return to Kochi

    Kavaratti, the capital of Lakshadweep is the most developed among the islands. The beaches are long and the lagoons are huge. Again a repetition on reaching the island by boat at 8am. A Cloud filled sky -reach island by motor boat – have tender coconut water upon arrival. But as expected, there was a crowd in the beach unlike the other two islands. Tourists from M.V.Arabian Sea joined us for the day. We were to be taken on glass-bottomed boats but since there was place for only a few, we decided it was again fun at the beach time. We did a few stunts to get good snaps but Monks won it big time with is over-the-head flip. Played Football and had first hand experience of being tackled in almost rugby style. We should have mentioned to Shantu that it was football and not rugby that we were playing.. 😛

My second sand castle 🙂

     It was Kayaking time. We enjoyed this for a couple of hours before being called ashore, as it was our turn to visit the lagoons in glass-bottomed boats. Had a good sighting of marine life including clown fish, blue surgeon, turtles and many colorful fishes whose names i don’t remember.. 😛 By the time we returned it was 2pm and lunch time. 

A blue surgeon fish in a blue lagoon

    Our tour of Kavaratti began by first visiting the Marine Aquarium and Museum. Sting ray and bull whale were the new sightings here. We also saw a huge skeletal remains of a sperm whale. The desalination plant was the second in itinerary and it was time for Boyz to quiz the local guide and he would have written a thesis on the subject had we stayed back for a couple of minutes more. Then a ride along the narrow but well maintained concrete roads. We saw a huge cargo ship stuck amidst the corals. Upon return to our base, we were treated to Folk dance by the kids. 

Folk dance by the kids

     Even before the trip had begun, we were planning and waiting for an opportunity to push Shantu into the sea. Now the opportunity presented itself perfectly. 😀 Shantu was wearing a new set of dry clothes and we dumped him into the sea water before we jumped into it one last time. People all along the way were staring at us as if we were lunatics… which we were of-course… 😛 On return to ship, a  terrible thought hit us so hard that we were sad for quite sometime. “We had reached the end of the trip”!!!! Only the return journey was pending. We revisited the islands in our head and our heart was filled with bliss that we are one of those lucky few who have visited these islands and enjoyed its beauty. Went to sleep one last time on my bunker (no.137).

Our last sunset on the ship

Day 6: 29 Nov 2010, Kochi tour and Kochi to Bangalore

    I got up around 7am to find that the other six had watched a good sunrise better than the previous 4 days. We reached Kochi harbor at 9am. Unaware that people had disembarked, we played UNO for an hour before getting down to find not a creature in sight except the auto-wallahs.

Kochi dock

     Hired autos to reach Kochi fort as we had 7 hours of time to kill, before we boarded the bus to Bangalore. We visited St.Francis church, the one time resting place of Vasco-da-gama and then Santa Cruz Basilica. Had a huge lunch before heading towards Jewish Synagogue by bus. It was a different experience to visit Kochi. It has less Indian features about its structures, its people and its culture. Finally, boarded the Ernakulam-Bangalore 5-45pm bus only to be told that the Tyre was punctured. After a delay of 45 minutes, we were away and arrived home at 10:30am to bunk one more half a days work.. 😀

St.Francis Church

Santa Cruz Basilica

Highlights: Shashi’s stunts, Boyz losing his camera pouch along with memorycard and getting it back, Dumping Shantu in water, Finnys singing talent, MoMS fantabulous poses and Tintins pics… 🙂

Boyz, Monks, Shantu, MoMS, Finny, ppr and Tintin

    I am sure all 7 of us will agree that this was one of the most amazing trips we even had. Though not as  strenuous or adventurous as the treks, we sure had our fill of nature to last us a lifetime and we cant wait to go on a cruise again.
 
Things to remember while going on this cruise:

1. A small over the shoulder bag to carry your dry clothes when visiting the islands
2. Sunscreen if you dont want to get too much tan like us.. 😛
3. 1 spike buster
4. Deck of cards, UNO and other small games to pass your time
5. Not much cash required on the cruise unless you want to scuba dive. 1K would be a more than sufficient
6. A pair of good chappals is a must
7. And other regular stuff which you usually carry for trips

Cost of trip: 14K = 13k for the cruise and 1k for travel 

More details on:
http://www.lakshadweeptourism.com/
There is a list of agents in the website whom you can contact to book a cruise.

Pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/ppr.bms/Lakshadweep#

http://picasaweb.google.com/unithinbhat/LakshadweepCruise#

http://picasaweb.google.com/shashidharvg/Lakshadweep#

And finally, Kumaraparvatha Conquered!!

    Our Thotti gang were considering the option of naming 2 particular spots/trips as jinxed. The BR/MM hills and the second being the famous Kumaraparvata, fondly christened as KP by avid trekkers. Being the second tallest peak in the western ghats of Karnataka at a height of 1712m(5624 ft), it was always under our Bucket or Thotti list for the places to be covered. Our initial plan of scaling the KP in feb turned out to be a damp squib, as Tintin, our trip leader traveled to Korea and most of us had to come to work that weekend. We thought it was just a coincidence. Come Oct 1 and we decided to go for it once again. Our worst fears came true when the “Ayodhya verdict” was postponed to Sept 30, the day before the trek. And to add to that, there were 5 drop-outs from the 9 actual members of the trip. Now, even the non-believers in superstition were wary of commenting on the topic.. 😛 We were hoping and praying to god in our own selfish worlds, to not let the verdict stop the running of the 11pm KSRTC bus on Oct 1 to Somvarpet. God answered our prayers and the High court of Allahabad decided to give a Panchayat decision, to satisfy every section of society, except the hardliners.. 🙂

As nothing eventful happened on the ensuing day, we got the “Go-ahead” from our homes for the trip.

Day 1 – 1 Oct 2010 – Bangalore to Somvarpet

    The 7 of us consisting of Tintin(Nithin), MoMS(Vineeth), Raghu, Praveen, Boyz(harish), Harsha and ppr(me) met at the KSRTC bus terminus at 10pm with our tents, sleeping bags, food, water bottles and rucksacks carrying more weight than the ones which we took for a 10 day Himalayan trip. I am still wondering why this is the case!! Boyz arrived with a school bag with only 1 set of clothing and nothing else.. Kudos to him for taking the trip so “lightly”.. pun intended.. 😛

Day 2 – 2 Oct 2010 – Somvarpet to Pushpagiri

    There are two different routes to climb KP. One being through Kukke Subramanya (Dakshin Kannada or South Canara) and the other from Somvarpet(Madikeri or Coorg) side. We chose the latter side for the climb and Kukke side for the descent. The bus reached at 6am on 2nd Oct. Incidentally we climbed the beautiful Kodachadri the same day exactly an year ago.. 🙂

    We had breakfast at a hotel near the bus-stand and covered the 25km, 1 hour journey to Beedahalli, in the private bus which started at 7:15am with the tickets costing 20 per head. The distance to be covered in the first day was 13kms. The first part of the trek was from Beedahalli to Heggade mane, which is a 5kms walk along the asphalt road. Within the first km of the trek, we found a stream. Everyone of us jumped in and the water was good and cool. We prepared ourselves for the trek, changing to tracks and applying sunna (slaked lime), tobacco and salt to our socks and shoes, to protect ourselves from the dreaded leeches of KP.

The stream at the start of the trek

Heggade mane

   Moving on, we found the peaks ahead of us, with paddy fields on the sides of the road and Cardamon strewn across the road on plastic sheets to be dried. On reaching Heggade mane, we can find Kumarahalli temple, from where the actual trail starts.

Kumarahalli temple

    This route is mud laden and on traveling 2kms further, we reached the forest department check-post by 11am. Here we shelled out 115 per head as entry fee and gave a written memo saying that the forest department was in no way responsible if we get lost or if we were attacked by wild animals. We have been to quite a few treks, but this was the first time such a disclaimer/memo was asked.

Forest department check-post signboard

    Just on crossing the check-post, we came across the hanging bridge with a stream flowing underneath. We can fill up our water-bottles here, as this is the last watering point before the peak. The change in scenery begins instantaneously after crossing the bridge. We enter thick cover of trees with very little sun-rays hitting the ground and the path is totally filled with dried leaves and twigs and wet due to rain i.e, and ideal ground for leeches to thrive.

Hanging wodden bridge near the check-post

Walk through the forest

Dense fog covering the entire canopy

    We reached the first of the three boulders which is inclined at a moderate angle and we took our first break here, as the leeches are very few on the boulders. By this time, I was feeling very tired, with MoMS mentioning we return back if I can’t continue walking further. After a quick bite of energy-bar/chocolate and sip of glucose water moved ahead to the next boulder, which is much steeper. And to our luck as soon as we came in sight of the boulder, the skies opened up. The wet boulder is pretty hard to navigate. So we circum-navigated it around the edge by catching hold of the few bushes to pull ourselves upward. Another 2 hour journey comprising of two more boulders we reached the point where a signboard mentioned 0.75Km to Pushpagiri. One last push and we reached the peak at 4pm, to an amazing sense and feeling of completion only to be taken over by an urgency to erect the tents as the subsided rain was again ready to show us its prowess.
  
    There was one other gang of 7 who trekked with us during the last part of the trek. They had come with just a Tarpaulin to save themselves from the rain. They settled in a small rocky patch and we took the softer greens around the temple at the peak. By 6pm the rains subsided to give us the chance to watch one of the best sunsets. Had a lun-ner/di-nch (lunch-dinner) of chapati and akki-roti and passed time by playing UNO. My amazing streak of not having a leech bite till KP was broken within the tent, as 5 leeches took the revenge. MoMS, Raghu and Tintin who shared the bigger tent with me, were pretty amused/satisfied with the turn of events.. 😛 Slept around 8pm in the cramped up tent with the rainwater entering into our sleeping bags and waking us up a number of times.

View from the top

Enchanting Sunset

Another pic of the Sunset

Day 3 – 3 Oct 2010 – Pushpagiri to Kukke Subramanya

    Woke up at 5:30 to a beautiful view of clouds above the lower mountain ranges around us. By 8am we had clicked a few pics, packed the tents and were ready to move and cover the 14km return journey. The other gang had used the Tarpaulin both as a bed as well as a cover for them in the night’s rain.
  

Early morning view of the lower ranges surrounding KP

Looks like a scene fit for a fantasy movie

Top row(L to R) – Raghu, boyz, harsha. Sitting(L to R) – tintin, MoMS, Ppr, Praveen

Cloud cover

    We tried to call the Bhattara mane to enquire about the route to be taken to Kukke as there was no clear demarcation but it was to no avail. We made a mistake and took the same route through which we climbed to confirm if there was any deviations to Kukke. On traveling 1km downward, one of the guys from the other gang found a point in a blog printout mentioning us to take the route towards the watering point near the top of the peak. Reached back to the peak where we found the mentioned deviation and a sign on the boulder showing the direction to Kukke marked in yellow paint.
  
    On first sight, we were very disappointed to find a huge boulder sloping downwards, with no clear end in sight. We feared that we had to travel back 3kms along the Beedahalli route till the point where, a bypass of 6.5km was present to Girigadde, where Bhattara mane is present along the Kukke route. But after a few minutes of looking around, we found a small but steep route along the right side of the boulder from the top. After the descent, a few filled up their water-bottles in the water source, which is a small water fall along the boulder. On an hours trek, we reached the famous Kallinamantapa i.e, a stone structure capable of holding up a tent, where we again rested for a few minutes. There is a second water point near a trough in the ground which is clearly visible from the mantapa.

Kallinamantapa

    From here the trail goes towards the Bhattara mane amidst a place called Girigadde. The route is mainly filled with grasslands spread over the hills. This stretch seems to be under the rain-shadow region and only grass grows here. But the path is strewn with small rocks and boulders which strain our ankles and knees during the descent.

Wat a view!!

Descent through the grasslands to Bhattara mane

Mounds and mounds of grasslands

    By 11:30, we reached the Forest department check-post on this side of the trek and showed them our permission receipt. From here, it is a 5 minute walk to Bhattara mane. We had called him up and booked for food a couple of days in advance. The food costs 60 per head and it tastes pretty good after a day spent on packed food.

Bhattara mane

    We were ready to leave by 1:30pm. This last part of the trek covers 6km. By an hour we had made good ground along the thick forests but the leech count is pretty less compared to the Beedahalli route. With 2kms to go along the forest, I hurt my knee and thigh muscle in two separate incidences. Harsha skidded quite a few times and praveen fell flat and hurt his knee too.. 😛 (the jinx version was still running through our minds). This made the journey painfully slow. MoMS, the guy who always comes with the last guy (a back-marker as he fondly calls, obviously lifted from F1 terms.. :P) as a support, was there again encouraging all the way. Took more than an hour to cover the last km of the forest stretch by which time, Tintin and Raghav had gone ahead to book the room for us to freshen up. Reached the end of the trek at 4pm. Then, it is another 1km journey to Kukke Subramanya town. Freshened ourselves up and visited the famous temple before catching the 8:45pm KSRTC bus to Bangalore.

Signboard signalling end of trek

Kukke Subramanya temple

A relatively easy trek made eventful by my lack of physical fitness. 🙂

    Kp is one of the most challenging and enduring treks in the western ghats. It gives one immense satisfaction in conquering the peak. The sunset, the sunrise, the rain, the nature’s beauty, the deep forest cover, the vast grasslands, the view of the surrounding hills, super cool and sweet water in the stream, a gang of friends and trekking over 2 days. Well what else can one ask for?? Trekking is an addiction –  a beautiful one at that.

Expenses: approximately 1200 per head (600 bus from Bangalore to Somvarpet and back + 115 forest entry fee + food expenses)

Trek distance: 27kms -> Beedahalli to Pushpagiri = 13Km and Pushpagiri to Kukke Subramania = 14kms

Links to Pics:
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/unithinbhat/Kumaraparvatha#
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/ragupalankar/KPTrip#

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The basics of Football

    I have tried to put down the basics of “The beautiful game” football(soccer) below. The football pitch has the  dimensions as below. Look at it once before you read any further to have a better grasp.

Football pitch

The game:

    The “beautiful” game is played over a period of 90 minutes split in two halves of 45 minutes each. The two teams change sides after each half. The basic objective of the game is to score as many goals as possible, by driving the ball into opponents goal.

Players:

    There are two teams with 11 players on each side and 3 substitutions possible per match. A team usually comprises of a goal keeper (goalie), defenders, midfielders and forwards. Each squad announced has a maximum strength of 25 players, with each comprising of 3 goal keepers and rest making up the defenders, midfielders and forwards.

Manchester United squad of 2010-11 and its officials

Officials:

    Each team has a manager who is responsible for the handling of the team. He is answerable to the club owner. A Manager’s responsibilities also include:

• Planning the strategy of every match.
• Formation of the team and style of play including the positions.
• Selecting a players lineup for matches including the substitutes.
• Passing on instructions to the players during the game.
• Delegating the duties to first team coach and the coaching and medical staff.
• Buying and selling players in the transfer market, including loaning of players to other clubs.
• Scouting for young and talented players for eventual training in the youth academy or the reserves team.

Referee:

    Simply put, the guy responsible for the game and who looks after the game to be played in the right spirit. The referee has “full authority to enforce the Laws of the Game in connection with the match to which he has been appointed” (Law 5), and the referee’s decisions regarding facts connected with play are final, so far as the result of the game is concerned (Courtesy wikipedia). The referee depends on his whistle to control the state of play and signalling events such as half time, end of play etc.

    There are 2 linesman, one on each side of the sidelines to assist the referee in free kick, throw-ins and all possible stop-and-restart situations. There is a fourth official to assist him during substitutions, displaying additional time and controlling of managers, who vent their ire, when emotion gets the better of them.
    “Diagonal system of control” is a system where the referee and the lines-man (or assistant referees) split the footballing pitch into the quarters as shown below for controlling the game.

Diagonal system of control

Yellow/Red cards:

    The referee is most renowned for the yellow/red cards displayed during a game. The referee notes down the players details in a notebook and hence we got the name “Booking” and term the player as “Booked”. Yellow indicates misconduct/warning/caution. In most tournaments, the number of yellow cards are accumulated over a sequence of matches. This results in suspension of the player for a number of subsequent matches. The number of matches for which the player is suspended, depends on the offense committed and by a committee that looks into the issue. The seven reasons for a caution are:

1. Unsporting behaviour
2. Dissent by word or action
3. Persistently infringing the laws of the game
4. Delaying the restart of play
5. Failing to respect the required distance of a corner kick or free kick
6. Entering or re-entering the field of play without the referee’s permission
7. Deliberately leaving the field of play without the referee’s permission

Yellow card

    Red card indicates a send-off which means the player cannot participate in the match any longer and the affected team plays one player short. There are two ways a player can receive a red card which are direct and indirect red. A Direct red results in disqualification of the offending player for one or more of subsequent matches. The number of matches for which he is suspended depends on the offense committed and by a committee that looks into the issue. An Indirect red is obtained when a player receives two successive yellow cards in a game. The seven reasons for a send-off are:

1. Serious foul play (a violent foul)
2. Violent conduct (any other act of violence)
3. Spitting at anyone
4. A deliberate handling offense, to deny an obvious goal-scoring opportunity, by any player other than a goalkeeper in his own penalty area
5. Committing an offense that denies an opponent an obvious goal-scoring opportunity (informally known as a professional foul)
6. Using offensive, insulting or abusive language or gestures
7. Receiving a second caution (yellow card) in one game.

One of the most infamous Red cards

Free kick:

    Free kicks are used in restarting plays when a foul is committed or play has stopped due to some technicality. There are two kinds of free kicks available.

Indirect Free kick: In this type of free kick, the player cannot score a goal directly and has to pass the ball for the play to continue. The ball must be stationary prior to being kicked. Opponents must remain 10 yards from the ball. It is awarded during one of the following scenarios:

• Touching the ball a second time following a restart
• The keeper touching the ball with his hands when a teammate has used his foot to pass it back to the keeper
• Offside
• When play is stopped to caution or send-off a player when no specific foul has occurred such as for dissent.

Indirect free kick

Direct Free kick: In this type of free kick, the player can score a goal directly and it is not compulsory to pass the ball for the play to continue. It is awarded when a player commits a foul outside the penalty area. The rules are pretty much similar. The ball must be stationary prior to being kicked. Opponents must remain 10 yards from the ball. Usually the opponents try to prevent the goal by forming a wall which is a stream of players standing next to each other. This way the goal keeper covers one side of the goal and the wall covering the other side. You find the some of the best free kick takers in the direct free kicks where the player has the opportunity to score by blasting the ball or curling it across the goalkeeper or over the wall or passing it onto another player away from the wall.

Direct free kick with a wall of 6 players

Penalty kick:

    A penalty is a free kick taken within the 18 yard box at a distance of 12 yards infront of the goal. The only players allowed within the 18 yard box are the goal keeper to defend his goal and the penalty taker. The location where the foul is originally committed determines whether the penalty is awarded and not dependent on where the ball is positioned. Once the penalty is taken and it misses the goal, then the penalty taker can touch the ball only after another player for either of the sides touch it before him. This way foul play can be avoided by the offending team, where-in the penalty taker can move the ball around in the box to confuse the goal keeper before scoring. And the goal keeper should be stationed along the goalline until the kick is taken else it is retaken if the taker misses scoring the goal. This way foul play can be avoided by the defending team during penalty.

Penalty kick

Throw-ins:

    When the ball crosses one of the sidelines, the player from a team other than the team whose player touched the ball last, can use his hands to throw the ball into play, from outside the playing area i.e, the sidelines.

Throw in

Goal kick:

    If the ball crosses the goal line after being last touched by a member of the team that is attacking that goal, the defending team is awarded a goal kick. It can be taken from anywhere within a small 6-yard box contained within the 18-yard penalty box, as long as it is on the same side of the goal where the ball left the field. A goal kick is taken usually by the goal keeper or one of the defenders to belt the ball away as a good defending tactic.

Goal kick

Corner kick:

    If the ball crosses the goal line after being last touched by a member of the team that is defending that goal, the attacking team is awarded a Corner kick usually referred to as a Corner. It is taken from the corner of the field which is the intersection of the sideline and the goal line. It follows the same concept of free kick where a player good at passing, curls the ball into the penalty box for goal scoring opportunities.

Corner kick

Offside:

    If a currently attacking team player (usually a forward) wanders into a position between the final defender and the goalkeeper when the pass is made to him then, it is termed offside. When you watch football the next time, try to look at the replays played for offsides. You can clearly observe the demarcation line marked, exactly at the last defender and the position where the forward was in respect to this area/line when the pass occurred. If the forward was ahead of the defender then offside else normal play continues. If an offside is found then an indirect free kick is awarded to the defending team.

2 players with the blue jersey are outside the last defender when the pass is made. Hence Offside

Extra-time and Penalty shoot out:

    These two are used to ascertain clear winners in a match which is played usually as a knockout. At the end of regulation time if both the teams are in a state of deadlock of having the same score line then the match is continued after 90 minutes to Extra-time where two halves of 15 minutes each are played to ascertain who has a better scoreline at the end of the given time. If the winner could not determined by Extra-time then we move to Penalty shootout. It differs from normal penalties in the rule that all players other than the goalkeeper and penalty taker should be at the center-circle of the pitch. The procedure followed is mentioned below:

• All kicks are taken in one end of the pitch.
• A toss decides who takes the penalty first.
• Teams take penalty kicks alternatively for a count of 5 kicks.
• No player can take the kick twice until all eligible players in the team have taken the kick at-least once.
• If a ball is saved or missed then it cannot be re-kicked in.
• At the end of five kicks if the score line is still deadlocked then we move to “Sudden death” where in a single kick from both sides is taken to decide which team won the game.

Penalty shoot-out

IPL 4 player retention prediction

    With the IPL4 auctions starting in November, I will put-in my list of players, who will be retained by the clubs. The new rule suggests that, each of the initial 8 IPL teams, can retain 4 of their existing players, which includes 3 Indians and 1 foreigner. The list was made upon my belief that, each of these players, are almost guaranteed to have a starting place, in any of the IPL teams. Here is the list:

Royal Challengers Bangalore

1.     Praveen Kumar
2.     Robin Uthappa or Virat Kohli
3.     Anil Kumble
4.     Ross Taylor or Jaques Kallis

Mumbai Indians

1.     Sachin Tendulkar
2.     Zaheer Khan
3.     Harbhajan Singh
4.     Lasith Malinga or Kieron Pollard

Chennai Super Kings

1.     Mahender Singh Dhoni
2.     Suresh Raina
3.     R Ashwin
4.     Albie Morkel or Michael Hussey

Deccan Chargers

1.     Pragyan Ojha
2.     Rohit Sharma
3.     RP Singh
4.     Adam Gilchrist

Delhi Daredevils

1.     Goutam Gambhir
2.     Virender Sehwag
3.     Ashish Nehra
4.     Dirk Nannes   

Kings XI Punjab

1.     Irfan Pathan
2.     Yuvraj Singh
3.     PP Chawla
4.     Kumar Sangakkara or Mahela Jayawardene   

Rajasthan Royals

1.     Yousuf Pathan
2.     Munaf Patel
3.     SK Trivedi
4.     Shane Watson or Shane warne

Kolkata Knight Riders

1.     Sourav Ganguly
2.     Murali Kartik
3.     Ishant Sharma
4.     Chris Gayle or Brendon McCullum

    There are some players who are too good to be ignored. In those cases, I have added them in the “or” option. Come this November, let us see what percentage of players I have got correctly…. 🙂

Will we, wont we?? The 2010 CWG – India’s pride at stake

    Come 3 October, 2010, India is “supposed!!” to host the Opening ceremony of the quadrennial event, The Commonwealth Games (CWG). This is the first big event to be held the India since the 1982 Asian games. With exactly 4 weeks to go before the start of the Commonwealth games 2010, let us check the overview of the games.

The logo:

The 19 venues for the games are as below:

    *     Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Delhi – Athletics, lawn bowls and weightlifting also hosts the Opening and Closing ceremonies.
    *     Dhyan Chand National Stadium – Hockey
    *     Indira Gandhi Arena – Archery, cycling, gymnastics, wrestling
    *     Delhi University sports complex – Rugby sevens
    *     Thyagaraj Stadium – Netball
    *     Siri Fort Sports Complex – Badminton, Squash
    *     Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range – Shooting
    *     Talkatora Stadium – Boxing
    *     SPM Swimming Pool Complex – Aquatics
    *     RK Khanna Tennis Complex – Tennis
    *     Yamuna Sports Complex – Table tennis

Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium

Games Village is situated close to the famous Akshardham temple. The facilities included are:

    *     14 blocks, 34 residential towers having 1168 AC apartments with 4008 bedrooms for the guests.
    *     The Main Dining Hall with a seating capacity of 2300, capable of serving 22000 meals daily.
    *     A Polyclinic to provide Medical services.
    *     Fitness center, Bank, post office, general store and a hair salon.
    *     Prayer rooms for all faiths.
    *     Facilities for athletes to train for athletics, aquatics, weightlifting and wrestling.

Sheru the mascot – “represents the modern Indian, proud of his nation’s ancient heritage and a fierce competitor but with integrity and honesty”.

“Jiyo Utho Badho Jeeto” – The official song composed by A R Rahman.

Trouble before the games: 

    Our motto during the bidding of the CWG was “New Frontiers and Friendships”. What we meant by New frontier was, stooping so low at organizing these games, that new frontiers of in-capabilities and corruption were faced at all levels possible. Manishanker Aiyer, the former Minister of Youth and Sports Affairs, was one of the first to talk rather be a whistle blower, about the delay in the preparation for the games. He said that he would be “unhappy” if the Games were a success and wished for the “Commonwealth games to be spoiled.” and hoped “the expenses could have been utilized for ensuring a better sporting future for Indian children by providing them sports training”. Now, this could as well be a political tactic. But there is some truth in that. Once a hole was made in the wall, however small it was, the rats or rather the media were waiting to grab the opportunity for increasing their TRP ratings for the next one month, went in and took the place apart. Thus came story after story of inefficiencies and troubles which the Organizing Committee face even at the present moment and hopefully will not for the next whole month once the games begin.

    1) Corruption allegation – Works awarded to ineligible agencies. Higher prices awarded for works. Items incurred for rent at a cost much higher than what it would have cost to purchase them. Poor quality of work.

    2) Half built Stadiums – 13 of the 19 venues behind the final schedule of August 31.
    Venue safety at Jawaharlal Nehru stadium, or any other stadium, where the CVC (Central Vigilance Commission) report suggested use of sub-standard materials and fabricated case results. Safety certifications undelivered on other completed stadiums.

    3) Damage in the track itself due to heavy rains – needs to be rectified by the IAAF.
    The Scoring systems not ready – TSR (Thomas Scoring and Results) equipment which are the actual Scoring systems during the games are unready. TRS is the technology responsible for storing data and  recording timings. Now add the cameras and communications to that list. Thankfully, the deadline for this is October 3.
   
    4) Games village unready – For Instance, Catering is not yet ready for Sept 16, when the officials around 300 to 400 members from various countries arrive, which is just 10 days away.

    5) Is the security in the stadium compromised because of the delay?
    The home ministry revealed that the security agencies will not have access to the stadiums till September 8, which implies they have only one week to install the systems required for monitoring and securing the Games against the actual request of 4 weeks. Now the security agency has to work 4 times faster which implies forget sleep for the next 45 days.
  
    6) Rains creating havoc with roads – reports of roads caving-in found all over the news papers.
  
    7) Delhi traffic – can the athletes reach the venues on time? Solution suggested is for a dedicated lane for the games and free metro & bus transport for people with games tickets. This is a good idea. But will the people of Delhi for once, show some common sense and follow that??
  
    8) 1221 Dengue cases this year which is the highest in last five years and against a handful last year. What if the athletes are hit??
  
    9) “Jiyo Utho Badho Jeeto” – The official song composed by A R Rahman ran into trouble with politicians and games organizers combining to condemn the song, for lacking enthusiasm and not appealing to the global audience, like the super-hit “waka waka” of Shakira fame for the FIFA world cup. Rahman seems to be reworking on that. I wonder what the committee were doing, till Rahman went public about the song. Couldn’t they have had a preview of that and asked him to change before he went public. Surely, stupidity levels are reaching sky limit.
  
    Now how can we add some salt to the wound and readily the athletes put their hands up to be counted and add more shame:
    10)  Doping shame –
        4 wrestlers, shot-putter in CWG squad fail dope test.
        Three swimmers, including two in CWG team fail dope test.
      
    11) Big star athletes pulling out of the event citing various reasons. To name a few:

    * Usain Bolt. for people who haven’t heard of him – World and Olympic record holder in the 100m, the 200m & 4x100m relay.
    *  Mo Farah of England – Two-time European champion long distance runner.
    *  David Rudisha of Kenya – 800m world record holder.
    *  Shelly-Ann Fraser of Jamaica – 100m reigning Olympic champion and World champion.
    *  Chris Hoy of Britain – multiple world champion and Olympic Games gold medal winner.

    12) Terror threat to the games – Whenever there is a mega event, these are quite common. But with Maoists joining the band to say: “Why should only jihadis scare our people, we should do it too”, the alarms for another “Munich” have been ringing for quite some time.

     These games are not about winning or losing medals. It is about showing your culture to the rest of the world. And I believe, we have lost out on a big opportunity in this front with these huge glitches or rather potholes in the planning and execution. But with this atleast, there are some positives. The athletes at the national level have atleast a good stadium to win a few medals in Asian and the next CWG if not the Olympics. The people of Delhi have a good new airport terminal, better roads and amenities such a excess power than what was present before the games.


 Now comes the big question. Will we, wont we host good games???

    I was under the delusion that maybe in another 20 years we would have been capable of hosting the Olympics or the FIFA world cup. But looking at the sorry state of affairs, that seems inevitably “over-confident”. The organizing committee is on “Hope, pray and work your asses off” mode. Now hope is a big word here. For that hope to turn into reality, we as Indians, as always, need to pull the stuff together, during the last few days and deliver the “average” games atleast. Forget comparing ourselves to Beijing or Melbourne or Manchester games. This is the matter of national pride. If the games are even a partial failure, it will be talked about for decades to come. When a tiny nation like South Africa could handle the FIFA world cup, then we can too. It all depends on the efforts the Delhi government, the security agencies, the contractors, suppliers, labor force, volunteers and especially the athletes to put their best efforts through. The rest depends on the Rain god, mosquitoes and as usual, most importantly, the conduct of the people of Delhi. Now I and hope you too join the organizing committee and a nation in their prayers for a successful games.. 🙂

A visit to God’s own country – Munnar, Thekkady and Allepey

Day 0/1 – 19/20 Aug 2010 – Bangalore -> Ernakulam -> Munnar

    Thotti gang on a trip again but this time not a bike ride. The group comprising of Tintin, manjanna, Chandu, Ummi, Jenny and Ppr (tats me.. :)) started the journey to Ernakulam by 8.06pm KSRTC (read as Karnataka not Kerala road transport. I don’t know why two neighboring states have the same name for their transport services!!) bus from Mysore road satellite bus stand. The bus reached a few hours late and took us to the Ernakulam bus terminus at 11am the next day instead of the expected arrival time of 7am. The cab(Innova with ac..not that we required the ac this time of the year though.. :P), that we had booked for the next four days, was ready, with Sujoi as the driver, to take the vehicle through its paces. Had breakfast at a local restaurant and started our 135 Kms, four hour journey to Munnar.  

Vallara waterfalls

 

Cheeyappara waterfalls

    The name Munnar is pronounced “Moon-aar” meaning “Three rivers” which is derived so, as it lies in the confluence of three mountain rivers Mudrapuzha, Nallathanni and Kundala. The place was a summer retreat to the British Raj. The Ernakulam – Munnar route extends through Thripunithra, Muvattupuzha, Kothamangalam, Neriamangalam, Adimali and Pallivasal. The journey is through the beautiful tea estates, gushing water falls Vallara and Cheeyapara (Cheeyappara waterfalls cascades down in seven steps), one scenic spot following the other, after each hairpin bend and the ride for the most part is most pleasing to the eye. Visited the Pallivasal waterfall before the short journey to View point which wasn’t much of a view considering the fact that the fog at this point in time had reduced the visibility to almost 10meters. Had a good tea and a bun to go with it (our rural Indian istyle.. :P). Moved ahead to Spring Dale resorts in Devikulam, which is a small town, situated 7kms from the Munnar town, at around 5pm. The rooms are decent but a bit costly considering that they charged 955 for a double room, with an extra person for a single day. With nothing to do for another good 5 hours and no place to visit because of the fading light and fog, decide to roam around the town. I must say that this town is very small compared to any place I have visited before except may be the Himalayan villages. We walk for 20 minutes along the main road and reach the end of the town which had around 10 shops and 2 non-veg restaurants. None of us were ready to take the risk of having food there as 5 of the gang were vegans. Went back to the hotel around 7:30 with a few snacks. Ordered food in the resort and watched “Italian job”.. 🙂 The food was edible, not tasty. Finished the movie and called it a day.

Enroute to Munnar

Statue of the Mahatma in Devikulam

Day 2 – 21 Aug 2010 – A survey of the Munnar beauty

    Woke up at 8am, to find Ummi already up. Finished the morning chores and had bread, butter, jam and tea combo for breakfast. Started to move around 9:30am. While planning the trip, our tintin had listed so many places in Munnar to visit, that finally he placed a few names as optional in the list. We were disappointed that we were going to miss many good places due to the delayed bus the previous day.
   
    We began day with the visit to Eravikulam (Rajamalai) National Park, which is a 30min drive from our hotel. Brought tickets costing 35 each and 25 per camera. A mini bus took us to about half way on the Anamudi peak (anai mudi means the forehead of the elephant), the highest peak in South India at 2695 meters, which is a part of the national park. From this point on, we had to trek along the well laid out road. Our expectations were very high for the trek, as we are avid trekkers. But the trek rather it should be called a walk, lasted a mere 15 minutes, when a sign board displayed said “Here is the limit”. This indicated the end of the walk. I was mightily disappointed, as I was hoping for a decent trek. Though nothing should be taken away from the beauty of the peak. There is a water fall en-route along with beautiful greenery all along the way. We found a few Nilgiri Tahr(the endangered mountain goats). The place was a bit crowded and this easily scared the goats to run away.We returned in the same route through the mini-bus, to find a huge line along the ticket counter. We were lucky to have missed the queue.. 🙂

   

Tea estates enroute to Anamudi

Endangered Nilgiri Tahr

Anamudi waterfall

Anamudi

    Chewed onto some corn and continued our journey. Came back to Munnar to book timings for our massages. Then we covered 
1) Kundala lake
2) Aruvikkad waterfalls near kundala
3) Mattupetti Dam
4) Echo Point
5) Nyamakad Waterfalls
6) Anayirankal Dam which has the Tata Tea Plantations
7) Shooting point
8) Photo Point
9) Top Station where the rare Nilakurinji (strobilanthus) flower that blooms every 12 years is present and
10) Pothamedu View Point.
not necessarily in the same order.

Echo point

Top station

Mattupetti Dam

  Boating facility is available in Kundala. With a bit of luck, we can find wild elephants that come to drink water along the shores of this lake. Had lunch at a hotel near Kundala. By the time we turned back it was almost 5pm and had started raining. So, decide to skip the remaining few places such as Blossom Park and Atukkad Waterfalls which were pending. At this point we wondered, why we were disappointed in the morning, that we would be missing many places. Went back to the hotel only to return back for our 7pm massages. Had dinner of chapatis and fried rice, before having a good night sleep with the massage taking effect.. 😛

Day 3 – 22 Aug 2010 – Munnar -> Thekkady -> Periyar Wildlife sanctuary -> Alleppey

    Started our third day at 9:30 with a ride of about 4 hour covering 110km, from Devikulam to Periyar. Visited the Power House waterfalls, which is at around 15kms from Devikulam. The entire route is covered with spice plantations such as Coffee, cardamon, pepper, cinnamon(chakke), vanilla, nutmeg(Jaikaaya) and ginger. Had breakfast along the way at around 11am, before moving to the Thekkady town where we bought the food items necessary for the safari, which was spread across our lunch time. 

Sambar

Bison

   Our inital plan was to take a cruise ride along the Periyar river and hope that we found a few wild animals in the ride. But our driver knew a contact in Periyar National park also called Thekkady/Kumily/Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary/Periyar Tiger Reserve, which is one of the finest wildlife reserves in India. The actual rates are 950 for a trek along the road and 1800 for a jeep ride. To our good luck the forest guards were on leave and there was only one guard on duty. The driver through his contact arranged for a jeep ride for 500 per head and that too along a route not allowed to public generally and requires permission from the forest officer. This was an amazing stroke of luck. The 17 km ride through the forest, along the mud laden road with leaves, branches and water puddles along the way added to the Monitor Lizard, Bisons, Sambars, Gaur, Nilgiri Langur (black monkeys), elephants and lot of birds which we were lucky to spot. Since this route is not taken usually for the safari, the wild animals were found all along the road and ran as soon as it heard the sound of the jeep, along the many hair pin bends. We weren’t able to click many pictures, as Manjanna’s cam broke, when he accidentally sat on it.. 😦 His 20x zoom cam would have been ideal for this ride. We first sighted the Sambar deer along a hill. Next the a bison herd which were quite far to the naked eye. Then the Nilgiri Langurs. After this we had a quite period of about half an hour where we couldn’t sight any animals except the occasional birds. The ride on this part was through thick grasslands which reminded us of Ali Bugyal in the Roopkund trip. Jenny, Chandu and Ummi were bitten by leeches. Jenny in particular was well taken care by the forest department guy who accompanied us.. 😉 Then we found 2 herds of elephants at two different mounds happily grazing away with no tensions other than when to have the next meal.. 🙂 Took a few pics before having our lunch of fruit cake. 

   

Elephant herd at Periyar sanctuary

Ummi, Ppr, Manjanna, Tintin and Chandu at the Periyar national park

    Another point to note here is that, the Sabarimala hills are visible from this point, which is around 7kms and the path to it is clearly visible. To our dumb luck, there was too much cloud cover which blocked the view of the temple. We returned back to our jeeps and rode the 17km back journey. We found a herd of three Bisons about 10 feet in front of us. The beautiful and majestic beast waited for a moment before carrying on in its path. At 5:30 pm we exited the sanctuary. Then began our journey to Allapphuzza, which is a 165km, 5 hour ride from Thekkady. The roads along the backwaters is well what can i say straight as if a scale was used all along the way to design this road.. 😛 Reached Gowri residency where we had booked the rooms only to directed by the middleman to Snehadara residency with costs of 500 per room and an additional 150 for the extra person. The rooms are clean and the walls and the roof made of bamboo. Had a good nights rest.

Day 4 – 23 Aug 2010 – Allepey -> Ernakulam -> Bangalore

    Allapphuzza alias Alleppey was also called the Venice of the East by Marco Polo for obvious reasons. The backwaters, lagoons, canals, small streams and  lush green coconut palms all along the way is the one differentiating factor when compared to rest of the states with western ghats. Kuttanad, the rice bowl of Kerala with the paddy fields stretching to infinity belongs to this region.
   
    We got up and freshened ourselves before gobbling up half a dozen Idiyappams for breakfast. Being the day of the Onam festival, which is celebrated with much fervor through out Kerala, irrespective of religion, found almost all shops shut down. Went to the backwaters to book a speed boat at 350 per hour for 3 hours. Enjoyed the scenic, lazy ride through the backwaters. Imagine the situation in Bangalore where the roads are replaced by water ways, the potholes and humps replaced by green weeds and the BMTC’s replaced by bus boats. This is the exact state. We roamed around the main water way, deviated into small gullies and then came back in another main water way. A laziness took over us after the first 1 hour and the cool breeze added to it.. By the time we finished the ride at 1:45, we were a pack of hungry, sleepy guys… 

   

A house boat

The famous backwater of Alleppey

A bus boat

Kuttanad, the never ending paddy fields

    Reached the nearest hotel to find that the Onasadya was over and they had only normal meals. Onasadya is the grand feast prepared for the Onam celebration. The meal consists of nine courses with 11 to 13 essential dishes. We were pretty disappointed to have missed out on a feast on Onam being in the heart of Kerala. Moved back to our rooms, packed our luggage and started our return leg of the journey with a 90km, 2 hour ride from Allapphuzza to Ernakulam to take 5.45pm bus to Bangalore and reached home at 8:30am the next day, to finish the round trip.

Thotti gang -> Jenny, Chandu, Tintin, Manjanna, me(Ppr) and Ummi

    This was one of the most non hectic trips we undertook till now. All we  did was ride in the cab, go to a nice place, take a few pics, again climb back into the cab to visit another sight. A pleasant trip amidst all the rides and adventures.

Expenses:
Hotel cost along with food for the 4 days and 3 nights = Rs.6000 for 6.
Transportation cost:

• Bangalore to Erankulam and back via KSRTC costs around Rs.800 per head.
• Innova costs around Rs.1300 per day for the first 80km and then an additional cost of 13 Rs for every excess km. This came upto 680 kms costing us Rs.10K

Total distance covered = 1900kms
Total cost of trip = Rs.6000 per head.


Link to pics:
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/unithinbhat/Kerala?feat=email#
http://picasaweb.google.com/manjunathmb/KeralaTrip#
http://picasaweb.google.com/ppr.bms/Munnar?authkey=Gv1sRgCMOG1vrm1buqKg#

The love of my life… :)

    I named the topic in such a way that it would create the enthusiasm in guys to go ahead and read the blog. The love of my life is ………. “Sports” ofcourse.. 😛

    Yup.. I am one of those crazy sport’s fanatics who loves watching sports. Be it cricket, football, baseball, rugby, american football, basketball, ice hockey, hockey, athletics, tennis… generally all sports provided by Espn and Ten sports which are incidentally the only two channels that provide a combination of different sports in India and more importantly the only two that are available in my house… Every day I read the news paper in reverse order just for the simple reason that the sports page is the last.

The sports page records people’s accomplishments; the front page has nothing but man’s failures – Earl Warren

    My first love was Cricket and the first match I saw was the 1992 worldcup finals between Eng and Pak..
I dont know the reason for this; it could be media attention or the sheer class of the player I loved Sachin’s style of play from the moment i saw him play.. Right from his exploits in Pak as a 16 year old to the ongoing Srilankan tour I never felt more in awe of any cricketer more than Sachin.. Some people might call me naive.. maybe thats what I am.. i say this to them: A player who has given his best for 20 years at the highest possible level and still does is a true champ. Is he the best in business is a discussion and fight that can go on for the next few generations. But to me  the hero who was the light at the end of the tunnel when world cricket was rocked by fixing allegations. Imagine the situation if Sachin was dragged into it. That would have been the end of Cricket in India for sure. There are a number of different statistics which can be put up to say he is one of the best. But why bother? There are too many shows, sites and blogs already doing that. The biggest dream for many true Indian fans would be for Sachin to hold aloft the worldcup at the Wankhede on 2nd April, 2011.

I have seen God, he bats at no. 4 for India – Mathew Hayden

    What is sports if we dont have speed.. Formula 1 and Motogp fulfills the criteria. Ferrari and now Force India draw my prayers and hopes. I am proud that a team with an Indian owner is present in F1 – the pinnacle of Motorsports. There will soon be a day when the Indian anthem is sung at the constructors/drivers presentation ceremony of a Grandprix. In motogp we have Japanese bikes ruling the roost. The thing which the F1 lacks is in the number of overtaking manouvers. Though the research that goes into Motogp is nowhere comparable to F1, the former wins peoples heart as almost half of the pack have the machines required to win the race. It purely comes down to the drivers individual skill and the ability to sustain pressure for long duration.

    Now to the American sports. Not that they were born in America but the fact these games at the highest possible levels here gives me the license to call them American. Basketball, Baseball, American football you name it; they are the best in business. The Celtics vs Lakers rivalry is big as it gets. Michael Jordan has been my all time favorite. His Nike jump image promoting the “Air Jordan” brand has been the wallpaper in my phone for as long as i remember.. 😀 Lebron James has talent but like Sachin not able to achieve much in a team. But Kobe like Ricky Ponting in cricket has the luxury of a better team in Lakers.

    If there is one sport which is sheer class is tennis. Roger I consider the best in the current generation. 16 titles at the age of 28 shows what a player he has been.

Whoever said, ‘It’s not whether you win or lose that counts,’ probably lost. -Martina Navratilova

    Now I have saved the sport that has been my favorite to the last.
Football – the beautiful game: Defined as a game that can take your breath away, raise individuals to position of demi-gods or bring them down to earth and drag them to a shell. This amazing game has been my favorite, overtaking even cricket, which in my school days wouldn’t have believed that it would happen. The agility of the EPL, the beauty of La Liga, the grit of Bundesliga and the drama of Serie A is just addictive. I am sorry to not have added any other leagues as the telecasting in India is limited to only these. Even with these restrictions my weekends are left unfulfilled without a few of the beautiful games. Manchester United and Barcelona have been my favorite clubs since I started watching the sport. The tension, the passing, the pain, the joy, the exhaustion felt by the players are as if experienced by me. 

We are inclined that if we watch a football game or baseball game, we have taken part in it -John F. Kennedy, 1961

FIFA worldcup is the biggest event in the planet earth. I consider it the best on the pure basis of the sheer number of countries that love to watchworldcup qualifying groups is tremendous.

Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it’s much more serious than that. – Bill Shankly

It is a well known fact that the South Americans produce the best footballers in the world. But then again football is not just about goals. It is also about tactics and strategies.Here is where the Europeans score. The amount of background work that goes into a football match is too big. Every players movement, passes to, takes passes from, goals scored from the list goes on.. everything is watched recorded. Then they are provided on the plate for the coach who is the orchestrator. The players are just the actors in this huge setup. unlike other sports the coach and his staff have a big say in the outcome of a match. That’s the reason we can see so many big teams lose matches against team little known of or teams whose skills are much lower. People consider the 2010 finals as boring. But I loved it. Let me give a simple example of why so: Robben plays on the right for the Dutch and during the entire match for the sole reason of blocking Robben’s run we had Capdevilla who never over ran him and supported Villa on the left. This caused all the Spanish attack to come from the right. A simple tactical move of not allowing a defender to not do over-lapping  runs allowed the Spanish to successfully block the biggest danger to them but at the cost of not allowing David Villa their best player in the tournament to sit idle for an entire match. Result Spain win thanks to Andre Iniesta who had no such marking like Robben had on the Spanish right.

I know some people have better knowledge than me in most of these sports. But I love sports in general too much to bother about the comments..:)

Love sports. Live sports.

Roopkund – A Himalayan Odyssey

Our gang’s tagline should be – Nithin plans and we follow… The story is the same almost every time. This time was no different. Around 3 months ago our Tintin came up with a trekking plan to which his bro too was going for. I was skeptical at first thinking of the arduous journey but, agreed on the point that once booked we can get full refund of the fee if we cancel 15 days before the trip (inspite of me being a trek lover). Paid the amount and registered for the “Roopkund trek” from India hikes.

Most of the guys in our “Thotti gang” were ready for the trip. Decided to go ahead on the trip all fears forgotten looking at the enthusiasm in the gang. When u decide to go on such a trip the costs are above normal. Sheiki never bothered to read any mails regarding the trip to such a point that during the last week he even missed the mail where we decided to buy all the essential stuff for the trek. He finally managed to do so in the last few days.. 😛

Day 1: Jun 4, 2010 -> Bangalore to Delhi.

The D-day arrived. The gang comprising of Tintin (Nithin), Sheiki (Maneesh not Meneesh :P), Harsha, Manju, D-bug (Deepak), Chandu, Abhi, Sachin, Monk(Shashi) and myself (Prasanna alias ppr) met at the BIAL for the 10:30 flight by Indigo. Checked in the rucksacks and boarded the flight which amazingly didn’t even offer a single peanut during the entire flight. We were pretty hungry within half-an-hour of the flight and found Sheiki as the perfect bakara. We decided to have a in-flight treat where the attendants sold cold-old-parathas, sandwich and juices which i must say are pretty bland and over-the-top prices. Had an uneventful flight and reached Delhi by afternoon to be greeted by a gust of hot air. For folks like me who are visiting Delhi for the first time found it as if i was standing next to a boiler spewing out steam…

Our train to Kathgodam was scheduled at 10:30. So, had time enough to visit the Qutub-minar and the Akshardam temple. We were unfortunate to have missed the visit to the main temple in Akshardam though, as we were late in reaching there. Manjanna’s record as a last minute shopper continued to be intact with him buying sun-caps for us in Chandni chowk. Met up with a group of 6 cousins Kishen, Siddharth, Anish, Abhishek, Kshama and Kausalya along with Anser and Sagar who were part of the gang belonging to Jun 5 batch of this years trek. Had a simple dinner of bread-jam and bananas and we boarded the Raniketh express to Kathgodam.

Day 2: Jun 5, 2010 -> Delhi – Kathgodam – Loharjung.

Altitude: 2530m

The train reached a couple of hours late to which we had no complaints for once as we had a goodnight’s rest before the long bus journey. Met up with “The Doctors” Vinay and Harish who were the last 2 of the Jun 5 batch. The bus was ready when we arrived and we already were able to observe the difference between the hot-crowded Delhi to the cool-peaceful-town of Kathgodam. The entire route of 260 kms was through the ghat section with us having breakfast at a small town called Bhowali. The ride was very scenic with Manjanna taking every oppurtunity to click his cam. We had lunch at Kausani by which time most of us were tired of the ride and feared some of us might decide to throw-up omlettes in the bus..:P So to take our mind of that and to kill time decided to play “Mafia” organized by our “Games co-ordinator” Monk. I must admit that the game sounded pretty boring as he explained but, when we started playing we were totally engrossed and didn’t know how time flew. Within no time we were in the outskirts of Loharjung and the snow capped Himalayan peaks (Trishul) clearly visible. Finally we arrived at Loharjung after an 8 hour bus ride through the ghat-section. We were recieved by Dr.Ankit who was our camp manager at Loharjung which is incidentally the base camp and starting point for the trek.Had an hours rest before we were briefed by Ankit and Dinesh about the stories and significance of Loharjung and Roopkund. Recieved our trek passes and caps. (Sheiki’s dialogue: thu sumne 60 rupayee waste madidri cap mele… 😉 )

Our rooms were at a higher elevation than the rest of the rooms and the 8 of us excluding manju and harsha settled and had a good nights rest before the trek.

Day 3: Jun 6, 2010 -> Loharjung-Didina.

Altitude: 2600m

The day finally arrived for which we had prepared for months. Left out all the unnecessary items in a spare bag and started moving towards our first destination Didina at 7:30am. Dr.Swapnil was our guide and manager for the trek along with Pradyumanji and Narendraji. The route taken is named as the “Curzon trail”, most of the first part of the days trek was downward gradient with all of us grabbing sticks for our support. Mules carried our tents and spare jackets. All along the way we can observe red flowers shaped like lotus. These are Rhododendrons which are used by locals to make a drink called braas and believes to be good for health. Had breakfast of Poori near a Raun Bagad iron bridge over Kali river at 10am. Then the ascent began. The journey from here on was tedious and very slow. We took mini break about midway in the ascent and started wondering about the toughness of the trek in the coming days. The entire route is a zig-zag with approximately 52 such turns. Finally, we reached Didina around 12:30pm. Though, the trek was moderate, we were exhausted. Had braas juice (Rhododendrons) which tasted like a mixture of sherbet and cough syrup. Some guys in the gang had two cups of this too and blamed the drink for their cough later that day. 😛 Our stay was a dormitory with all 10 of the gang settling in the ground floor and the rest in the floor above. To kill time we decided to play cricket in the open field next to our camp. With 10 per team, Swapnil and Raju bhayya(caretaker of our mules) as captains we started the game. Manju had a ball on the mouth moment with Sheiki smashing the hard tennis ball straight into manjanna’s face. Thankfully nothing serious happened. We won the match by 2 runs even with Harsha’s reminiscence of Steve Bucknor’s umpiring in India vs Aussie. Had a campfire setup by 7 and dinner at 8:30. Slept like a kid on this night.

Day 4: Jun 7, 2010 -> Didina-Ali Bugyal-Bedni Bugyal.

Altitude: 3354m

We were woken up again at 5am and finished the day’s essentials. Swapnil explained that this was the toughest day in our trek and had our body warmed up by doing some streching excercises. Ali Bugyal is clearly visible from the camp. Bugyal meant grassland or meadow and can be clearly differentiated even from Didina with the change from dark green forests to the light green meadows. The climb looked menacing to say the least. Swapnil said that it would be difficult for people to complete the entire trek if we take more than 7 hours on this day. So, a few people were allowed to leave 30 minutes ahead to make some ground in the trek. Had Poori for breakfast and were ready to leave. 10 minutes into the trek and we wished we were back in the warm bed in the dormitory. The climb took the breath out of us and were panting and resting. Then we began to ascend slowly through the Oak forest at a steady pace with the group separating into various gangs based on speed. The trees are covered with moss and dead leaves muffled our footsteps all along the way. There are around 106 zigzags to be taken to reach Ali Bugyal. With the cool breeze helping us and water bottles acting as our saviors took 2-1/2 hours to reach. The view from here is nothing short of amazing. Green meadows, with Trishul forming the backdrop, Didina visible way below and Loharjung visible far away to the left. Forgot all our tiredness in a jiffy. Took some good snaps and had our breakfast of parathas and moved toward Bedini. The walk was totally along the meadows which we enjoyed a lot. We saw wild mules grazing away happily. The last 15 minutes is a descent and taking snaps all along the way reached Bedini by 12:45pm. We had hot tomato soup which tasted good. The weather took a drastic turn within minutes of our arrival. Heavy rains engulfed us and we settled in our tents. Few of the guys came in totally drenched. Thanks to our organizers, we had our lunch and dinner within the tent. In between we had a few minutes relief where we stretched our muscles and roamed around the campsite with its beautiful view. It rained the entire night and our tent started to spray water on our faces to wake us up every few minutes. Thankfully the tent held out for the entire night and we had the rest we needed before the trek the next day.

Day 5: Jun 8, 2010 -> Bedni Bugyal-Ghora Lotani.

Altitude: 3906m

Due to the easy trek we had on this day we were woken up only at 6am and spent time slowly packing our bags and transferring 50% of our luggage to the mule. 😛 Sandip was our guide from Bedini to the entire climb till Roopkund. The entire day’s rain had done one good thing; It cleared up the weather for us. According to the locals, the weather turns bad every 3 to 4 days. The trek started with a gradual ascend with us crossing the Bedni Kund(kund refers to local tank or lake). Then it became much flatter and very easy to walk. We trotted along the path and reached midway around 1-1/2 hours. Here the guides started searching for a special root called keeda jadee which they sell in the market for 100 to 300 which is sold in-turn to China who use them in energy drinks. Me and manju tried our hand in finding one for about 15 min but were unsuccessful as expected..:D We waited for about an hour here as our organizers could not book the metal roof tents and had to set up the tents manually. We moved towards the destination which is gradual downward descent from this point and reached the tents by 1 hour. The view here again is good with a water source nearby and the next days route to Kalu Vinayak visible clearly. The weather was perfect for the entire day. We roamed around the camp site with our heads and foot covered as our tents were very warm and caused headaches and feverish feeling to any1 who stayed inside. Went for an evening walk to the forest huts; which incidentally, we were unable to book. They sold chocolate, biscuit and Omelet at decent price. We had our fair share and returned back to the camp by 7pm. Had dinner and went to bed early as we had nothing else to do.

Day 6: Jun 9, 2010 -> Ghora Lotani-Kalu Vinayak-Bhagwabasa.

Altitude: 4375m

Woke at 5am after the easy trek the previous day with the fears of fever and headaches long gone. By 8 we started moving to our first destination Kalu Vinayak which refers to the shrine of Lord Ganesha which has a black idol. The climb is steep and our movement was slow. The meadows ended midway where we waited for the entire gang to assemble and started moving towards the rougher terrain.The route is again a zig-zag and we saw the first sense of snow. Met a lot of piligrims from the nearby villages who came here to say their prayers. Reached the Kalu Vinayak with the Chota keluva temple along the way. Said our prayers for our safe climb and return and moved towards Bhagwabasa. Normal to oak forests to meadows to rough terrain to snow. What a change in a few days!! I loved this part of the trek. Me, Tintin and sheiki had a sooper walk. Had a snowfight. Took several pics along our way. There are stone huts built by locals which we can observe to our left along the way. Finally reached the destination with the amazing view of snow covered peaks all around us by 12:30pm. Here we had the forest huts booked. All 20 of us settled in one while the guides and cook took up another. Had maggi for lunch which tasted good after days of roti-dal. Sandip entertained with Stories of Roopkund and his card tricks. Had a big snow fight with most of the gang participating and enjoying. Many were on the snow for the first time in their lives. While the weather outside changed to a hail storm, we played a few games and had our dinner inside before we slept in the cramped up tent.

Day 7: Jun 10, 2010 -> Bhagwabasa-Roopkund-Ghoralotani-Bedini.

Altitude: 4844m

The day started with clear weather with a white sheet of snow all around our campsite. The moutain terrain which the previous day was a mixture of black and white had changed to total white. We had to get up and start moving by 5am if we had to reach Roopkund and travel further to Junargali. Looking at the state of snow Sandip decided it was unsafe to go to Junargali and setup our last destination as Roopkund. We left with no luggages for the first time since we arrived. Had mango juice, energy bar and chocolates for our climb. We started around 7:30am with a group moving ahead of us to keep pace. The walk on the snow was moderately difficult with steep ascent at a couple of places. We assembled before the final onslought to Roopkund which had the steepest climb in the entire trek. The climb was very steep to say the least and we panted to take in breaths every few steps. The climb was very slow and every1 made it to the top in about 30 to 45 minutes. The sense of accomplishment of reaching the destination was beyond words. We were happy and hi-fived each other. Slided down the gully towards the Roopkund pond which lies at a lower altitude to the point where we had settled i.e, Roopkund is basically a crater in the midst of the mountains. We could only find a few bones but not skeletons as the lake was totally frozen. Had our Breakfast of parathas which many opted not to have. If you considered one bite good enough then even I had breakfast.. 😛 Then began the journey downward back to Bhagwabasa with the melting snow making things worse. The descent was very very slow with one person making a nuisance of himself. The monk decided to be a part of himalayan folklore and slid along a gully with scared shouts of “Maga Maga” from Abhi. I must admit that at this point I lost hope of seeing “The Monk” again and sat down where ever I was. Every1 were dumbstruck. Then Deepak saw him hanging at the edge of the cliff with the help of his stick and called Sandip who raced down the terrain at Bolt’s speed and brought him to safety. A storm had started by this time and we moved even slowly than before for the fear of skidding down. After about 30 minutes the storm subsided we trotted happily to Bhagwabasa where we had dinner and rested for a few hours before we moved back to Bedini which is not difficult as the gradient is downward and path not snow laden after Kalu Vinayak. How wrong was I !!!!! I storm which subsided picked up full force by the 1st hour of the return trek. Hail storm beating down our face, our ponchos flying all over the place, Drenched from top to bottom, walking-skidding along the way reached Ghora Lotani. Here the cold got to me and my movement was limited. I consulted Sandip who was staying back here to assist the next group to Roopkund the next day. He adviced me to stay back and move to Bedini the next day. Slept in wet clothes that night. The locals were very helpful. One guy gave me his dry shirt for which i cannot thank enough and wont forget. Took a paracetamol and rested for 9 solid hours.

Day 8: Jun 11, 2010 ->Ghoralotani-Bedini-Wan-Loharjung.

Woke up shivering the next day. Sandip had asked me to rent a mule and not take chances with my health. I did that and left by 7am and reached Bedini by 8:30. The gang welcomed me as though I had won a prize to which I was embarrased a lot. Thanks to friends even weaknesses of the moment can be forgotten. Tintin created a “Bollywood moment !!” ( as the Monk called it 🙂 ) by lending me his jacket and after hour-an-hour the shivering subsided. Had breakfast and by 9:30 we were ready to move. The trek is full descent and Me, Monk and Tintin formed a gang and ran across the Oak forest laden route taking shortcuts all the time and for a change not allowing the mules to overtake us..:D But after a distance the stress on our toes and knees started to take effect and we had to eventually slow down. Here we can again observe a lot of Rhododendrons. We reached Ghairoli Patal which is a concrete building halfway into the descent and had chocolates hidden away in Harsha’s bag…:P After about 2 hours trek we reached the Neel ganga river where we dipped our aching feet. The water is cold and tastes sweet. Stayed here for about 30 mins. Then the ascent to Won starts. After the fast climb down the upward climb was at a gradual pace and the route is quite confusing at places. We had to stop at quite a few places to confirm the directions. Most routes take you to Wan but who would want to take a longer route??? 😉 Here we could find huge pine trees which could be easily more than 50 years by the looks of their height. Saw a lot of kids along the way who were very well-mannered and said namaste with folded hands to every passer. I cursed myself for having eaten the couple of chocos. The kids would have enjoyed them. The descent after the 30 min climb was swift and we reached the jeeps awating us. After an hours drive reached Loharjung to be greeted and congratulated by Ankit for the successful completion of the trek. Had lunch at 4pm and roamed around the town. Had hot jelabis and pakodas at Narendarji’s (our guide during the 2nd phase of the trek) shop. The sweaters here are pretty good and cheap than any place I know of or have been to. Bought a couple of them and returned to our rooms. Collected our certificates and called it a day.

Altitude and hours taken for the trek:

Day 9: Jun 12, 2010 ->Loharjung-Rishikesh.

Our bus started to move by 7:30am. We had said our goodbyes to Patwalji, his wife and son the previous day. Loaded our luggages on the bus and moved to Rishikesh. The driver, I guess had registered to participate in slow-driving competition so practised that for the most part of our return journey. Dropped us in Rishikesh around 6pm where we bid our goodbyes to the other 10 members of our batch. Got a room for not so reasonable price. But the rooms were good and hot water for 24 hours. Everyone washed off the dirt accumulated since the past 9 days. Yes u heard it right. The past 9 days!!! Now it was D-bugs turn for the treat and Ice-creams were good is all I can say. Watched my first football match in this worldcup. Eng drew to USA. 2 hours sleep wasted to watch a dull match. Slept cursing the English…

Day 10: Jun 13, 2010 ->Rishikesh-Haridwar.

Woke up at 6 to visit Lakshman Jhula and the Bhara mandir. It was pretty empty at & in the morning. Had breakfast and reached the red chillies office by 8:30. We had booked for rafting “Kodiyala down:” 35 km rafting in Ganga. We were pretty excited. It had one grade four rapid. Reached the starting point by jeep. Had a wonderful time rafting. We even dived from a 15-20 feet cliff into Ganga. Lunch was provided by the organizers. Reached back to Rishikesh after 4 hour rafting at 5pm. We had earlier decided to visit Haridwar temple but now that was not feasible so visited the Ram Jhula and had some snacks there. The dinner was in the famous Chotiwala restaurant. The food was not so good but the Lassi rocked!!! The best lassi I had in quite some time. By this time we were in crunch time mode as we had 2 hours to reach Haridwar in-order to catch the Mussorie express to Delhi. To our bad luck the autos were not ready to take us to Haridwar. We took the help of Red chillies cabbie who dumped us to haridwar for 800 bucks. Reached station on time and caught the train to have a good nights rest.

Day 11: Jun 14, 2010 ->Haridwar-Delhi-Bangalore.

The train reached Delhi 1/2 an hour late and we caught a metro to Central Secretariat. Had breakfast in the metro station and took an auto to the Delhi Palam airport. The route takes you through the important offices in Delhi where you can see the Rajpath, consulates of most of the countries. Monk and Manjanna gave their treat in Pizza hut. Boarded the plane and landed in Bangalore. Home sweet home!!!

P.S: Once again thanks to Nithin for organizing and Sheiki – Chandan & D-bug – Abhi – Sachin combo in providing so much laughter all along the trip. Monk – the Games coordinator for preventing many “Omelettes” in the bus. Harsha and manju for being yourselves.

Best of luck to Deepak and Sheiki for their US bound Aspirations and to Monk for his new work. I Dont know when this gang will again be able to go on such a trip!! 😦

This was one of the best trips and treks we have undertaken. I wouldn’t think twice in doing it all over again…