Tadiyandamol

At around 9:00 pm my friend joined me at the bus stop.Six of us met and exchanged the usual pleasantaries. We booked the ticket for Virajpet 11:45 pm bus (the red bus). Red bus because all other buses were reserved. Although some of my friends had some inhibitions in traveling by red bus they had to do with it since it was the only available bus. So finally the bus started at 11:45pm.I couldn't sleep until 3:00am coz my mind had been preoccupied by many thoughts of the next day's trek and some pleasant nostalgic memories. Finally by the time I woke up it was 5:15am and Looo we were at the Virajpet busstop.We all got down with our paraphernalia and finished the morning chores and set for the private bus stop. We reached the private bus stop at 6:00 AM. We were looking for our bus and in the process I spotted 4 aliens who could easily be traced back to the concrete jungle called "BANGALORE".And to my surprise one among them was a girl (A brave and adventurous girl of course).Even they were waiting for the same bus. So we all boarded the bus by 7:15 AM.

At around 8:00am we got down at the stop called Nalanad Palace. It is told that the king of this place had constructed this palace(now it look like a haunted tiled house). He had this as his hideout from the enemies. We brushed out teeth and set off for the palace. After some 15 minutes of walk we reached there. We settled down there to have our breakfast. Nearby was a school and the kids there were giving us a intruders look. We finished our breakfast and had our bath.(yeah a change of tradition--taking bath after breakfast!!!).And here was the first encounter between us and the ubiquitous leeches. They had their taste of blood. I could hear one leech whisper to another after sucking the blood. It said "These damn city dwellers are of no good, their blood is polluted" "lets not allow our kids to have such food". The other group has already left for the destination. Since we planned to stay that night there itself we took our own time.

Finally after the bath we all set to conquer yet another highest peak. After a long time i was enjoying the aroma of the country side. The coffee plantations on either side of us waved at us as though they were welcoming us. There were orange trees inside the plantations. Though we thought of plucking them, we decided otherwise for the fear of being caught. There were no people around also to ask for the permission. We slowly started to climb and as we climbed we felt the heat of the sun. Midway we sat down to take rest. One of us prepared the lemon juice out of the lemon we had taken. Drank it, refreshed ourselves and set off again. On the way we came across a lot of good sceneries and promptly we captured all of them in our camera.

After some time we came to a grassland where lot of wild cows were grazing. Suddenly they started to run here and there!!!!.WE immediately stopped and took some 10 steps backwards. Since i was in the front i thought that those wild cows may have spotted some wild animal and they are running. After some 5 minutes ,nothing turned up. Later on we came to know that we were the wild animals that they feared of. So we continued without any fear of wild animals. To our dismay some 3 bison's starting coming towards us as though to ask for our passports and visas.

We stopped there itself and threw some stones to frighten them away. They went away thinking that these two legged animals are the most dangerous(coz they know how to attack from rear too).

     As we moved further and further the peak appeared to move away from us. We had to trek 10 kms uphill and mind you the sceneries are worth trekking even 50 kms uphill. At around 4:00pm we came across a large boulder and a stream nearby, and this was supposed to be the last stream and we would not get water anywhere else until we reach the peak. So we landed all our gears and got ready to play the role of cooks. We cooked Maggie noodles and Lemon rice and ate the chapattis took with us. It was a great experience to cook and eat in the midst of the jungle.

After we had our lunch we rested for a while on a huge boulder nearby. And the other group which had set off much before had already scaled the peak and were coming back, but with two foreigners. We asked the route from there and slowly started to climb again. After ten minutes we lost our way. We were in a confusion. HERE DID start a new problem. one of my friends broke down. I mean to say he was physically and mentally exhausted. He adamantly said that he would go back from there and he would not continue anymore. WE were in midst of a jungle. You cannot leave that guy there and go; meanwhile u cannot stay there with him too. Because that place was infested with leeches. It was around 6:15, the day was fast turning into night. The sun was preparing to go to sleep. I put all my efforts in persuading him and taking him along with me.

FINALLY WE REACHED THE PEAK AT AROUND 6:40PM.WOW!!!! it was really worth trekking all that 10kms putting up with the leeches and the like. The clouds were sailing near by and the cool breeze was simply exhilirating.Those were some of my wonderful moments of life. There stood the absolute beauty of nature defying the odds. We sat there for some time. I was very much interested in staying there for the night.(ie. on the peak itself). It was very windy and very cold. Seeing the place my friends didn't want to stay there. We all decided to come back to the big boulder and spend our night on it. It was already 6:30pm and it was almost dark. We still had to cross a jungle to reach that boulder. We all hurried down but before we entered the jungle it was too dark. The path was barely visible. WE had only two torches (that too pen torches) among us. And to our dismay even those torches were running out of cells. One guy took a torch and lead the way. The last guy had another torch. We entered the jungle and walked fast stepping blindly on anything that came our way. We came out of the jungle, but here started another problem.

The guy in the front stopped suddenly and said --"Hey guys the path is no more visible and I think we have lost our way". Even though it was dark I could still see the horrified faces of my friends. I knew pretty well that we have just went off course by some 400 yards that's all. And also I knew that united we stay no beast in this jungle dares to attack us. Even in that situation one guy (a true IBM mind I must say) struck upon a wonderful idea. He asked for the old banian which we had to supplement cooking, and wrapped it to a stick and doused it with some kerosene and lit it. Hurrah!!! we had a torch light now, we began moving in what seemed to appear as the right direction.

From a distance we could see something huge like a boulder. Some were of the opinion that it was a bush and some that it was a boulder. I threw a stone at it to confirm, and it turned out to be a bush. We once again lost hope but still continued our quest of searching the boulder. After some ten minutes of walk we finally came to the boulder. The horrified faces seemed relaxed now.

Immediately we began collecting firewood to put up a camp fire. We collected the firewood as fast as we could and looo it was dancing time again(altough none of us had the energy to dance) We just sat around the fire and warmed ourselves. Then we ate some bread and jam and the lemon rice which we had prepared in the afternoon.

This boulder was an ideal place to spend our night. It was around ten feet from ground and six to seven people could sleep on it. It was ideal because the animals couldn't have climbed easily. One more wonder was that the local Radio City had penetrated that jungle too. As we sat chatting about the usual boys stuff (about girls, love life, marriage etc..) and listening to radio city we came across a striking marvel of nature. The moon rise; yes the moon rise. It was absolutely beautiful; no wonder it had made its presence felt in many of the songs, poems and alike. Slowly the entire forest was engulfed with moonlight. Even that didn't last long the clouds once again deprived us the chance to enjoy the beauty of moon. (As though the clouds are the boy friends of the moon).

Now was the time to sleep. We put on all the available warm clothing and initially we thought that two would don the job of sentry till midnight and two afterwards. But we were so exhausted that no one ready for becoming the sentry. We all slept inside a huge plastic cover. We had to sleep a tight sleep; yes the tight sleep (without moving too much). If at all u tried to move you would fall off from the boulder. I don't know about the others but I had a good sleep.

I don't know about the others but I had a good sleep. And in the morning I had a surprising news. My friend told me that some animal yelled from somewhere and he immediately woke up frightened. We had told everyone that if anything untoward happens wake us all .We had some big sticks and knives with us. But that guy thought of not disturbing us and he gathered courage and slept with his eyes and ears open.

The next day we saw the splendid sun playing hide and seek with the clouds, rather chasing them away coz they were giving stiff competition to get the moon. Also we saw two guys climbing down the peak. We took our binoculars to see them and were surprised to see them with a rifle in their hand. Initially we thought them to be forest rangers. But they turned out to be the usual hunters. We finished out morning rituals and set down the hill back to our rooms. We reached the bus station by 11:45 am. Out of six 2 were very tired and they wanted to go back to Bangalore's we sent them and continued to Irpu falls.
This happens to lie very close to Kerala border. We hired a local jeep and went to that falls. We had only one hour left to enjoy that falls. We took bath there; the falls made us have wonderful massage which relieved us of our pain. We came back from the Irpu falls without being completely satisfied. The one good thing is, there is a good trekking spot there too. (Hopefully we'll go there the next time). We all came back to Bangalore around 11:30pm.
And yet another wonderful trekking had come to an end.

  CREATED BY: DHANANJAYA[email protected]