Weekend in the woods...

Long since i posted something, but this is about the right time to do that... had an amazing trip this weekend, from a planned one, it turned to totally unplanned, and it turned out to be as good as it can get...

We (me, mahesh, vivek and shyam) decided to go to kemmanagundi, supposedly the best kept secret of karnataka, a beautiful little hill station, in chickmaglur district. Distance from mysore was about 230 kilometers. So we thought we could drive down. Start early on saturday morning, reach by afternoon stay there, and come back on sunday afternoon. In between we were supposed to make short trips to some nearby waterfalls. That was what it was... it turned out to be totally different from it...

We did start on saturday morning, but not as early as we thought we could.. had to travel on hunsur road, and were cursing the roughness and unevenness of the road. We had to take a deviation to hassan from it, and as soon as we got on to that road, we had a road surface as good as the best road surface we could find anywhere in India. We were glad and were chasing the road at 100 for a while... then we witnessed the true colors of what can be karnataka. What was lying in waiting for us was the opposite of the best surface. There wasn't even a surface, there was no tar on the road, it was like one of those village roads, which bullock carts would be using. That stretch was there for about 2 kilometers. And then we had the same kind of super surface once again... We just hoped that it doesnt get back to the worst surface again, and luckily for us it didnt happen again... atleast not for long. Only inside some town and city limits was the road bad, until chickmaglur...

To say the truth, the road got better and better as we went further, maybe because we were reaching the parts of the road where the work is complete... we could see that there were proper signs on the road, there was a line in the middle, and on the sides, there were reflectors along the central white line, the curves had dividers, almost as good as anywhere else in the world 9(for a 2 lane road that is)... One more good thing was there wasn't any traffic at all, the road just kept winding through the hills of karnataka and you could see kilometers ahead on the straight stretches. Every one or two kilometers one bullock cart or one KSRTC bus was all that we could see on the road. As we moved on, the road seemed to get better, because the sides of the road got greener and greener, with the generous amount of rain that it had been recieving for the past few weeks. The scenery reminded us of travelling in europe, with hills and mountains in the distance, and vast grass covered land and cultivated fields that formed regular patterns as far as your eyes could see... "marvellous" is all we could say. We were being treated to a feast for our eyes, and on top of that, the road was also as good as it can get. It was much more than what we had bargained for, too good to believe i would say.

We reached our destination at around 130. Checked into a hotel and then had sumptous lunch... We had already altered our plan slightly, and decided to go for a safari at bhadra tiger reserve (32 kilometers from chickmaglur). That was planned for sunday morning. We would initially go to kemmangundi, and then come back to the hotel, watch the weekend world cup action, sleep off and get up early and drive to the tiger reserve. That was the plan, but the security guard at the hotel, who was very knowledgeable about the distances and places suggested that we should take the safari in the evening, instead of morning. That would reduce the travel time for us. We found that logical and set out for the tiger reserve at 3 PM. It was supposed to be an hours drive. We thought we could make it in about 50 minutes so that we will be in time for the 4PM safari, if we drive a little fast. The road was pretty decent, good surface, and width enough for 2 vehicles to go past. But, the farther we went away, then narrower the road became, and more the pootholes on it... Sometime later the road totally disappeared, and we were constantly on 1st and second gears. Finally after 1 hour of driving, as the security guard told us earlier, we did manage to reach there. A big dissapointment awaited us at the place, as there was no safari that day, as the safari jeep had been taken for emergency repairs.

We then tried to strike a deal, thought we could somehow get to stay there, inside the forest, in one of the cottages or the dormitory. According to the people there, it was running full for the day, and the guest haven't turned up yet. We pleaded and maskafied them for a while, they RADIOED the head office and kept on asking, and ultimately got permission to give us the instructors room for the night. It was a 2 bedroom place and the four of us were more than willing to adjust for the fun and thrill of the place. We had to arrange for dinner, and the person over there said there is a family which cooks for the guest. We wanted non veg food, and he had a hen which he would kill and cook for us. But it was 3.75 kilos or more, and for the three of us it was just too much. So we decided to go to the nearby village and buy chicken, as well as some basic things for the night stay like candles, match box, mosquito coil etc. Shyam and vivek went to get it, and the forest guard accompanied them. The way to the village was more terrible than the route we had travelled so far, and the guard made that more miserable by telling them how a wild elephant had picked up someone and crushed him to death, and even showed them the spot where it all happened. By the time they were back, it was about 530. The forest guard suggested we should visit the inspection bungalow. It was about 3 kilometers uphill. We wanted to walk, but he said the car would go up there. Little did we know what was up next...

It was just a steep uphill drive, and the road was non present, and there were stones in the middle of the dirt track that the forest guard called road. With all 5 of us sitting in the car, the body started hitting the stones, and we could hear metal sound intermittently. Shyam was driving, and i was getting shocks everytime i hear one stone hit...We continued going up, and the slippery road was making the car skid at times, but we managed to crawl up to the inspection bungalow. What awaited us there was worth the struggle up the road. It was on a hill top and the view from there was scintillating. The mist covered blue hills was as refreshing a sight as you can ever see... We got lost in the beauty of the place and admired it for about half an hour..Then we had to go back, we did not want to.. but according to the guard it was booked for the night by some forest officer...We drove back, and the sounds from the stones hitting the car were getting greater and greater, owing to the greater down hill speed. At some place when trying to avoid a big stone, the fron tyre got into a small ditch, and the three of us at the back had to get down from the car, and put stones in the ditch and make it go back on the road, or whatever was supposed to be the road. Three of us decided to walk back and the two others went in the car, which it seems was smooth after the car lost weight. We went back to the place, moved to the room and were chit chatting there when dinner was served. We had the sumptous dinner, had a little bit of chat and slept off peacefully. It was long since we were in a place where there was no electricity, no mobile network, no cable tv, none of the pleasures of life. But the relative quietness of the jungle, and the slightly cool environment was more than enough to make us all sleep off... I got up at around 530 AM, and went and disturbed the forest guard for a morning safari. The jeep had still not come back, so we decided to take a private jeep, for which we had to go back to the village from where we had got the chicken and other essentials the previous night.

We drove to that place, and realised why it took 1 hour for shyam and vivek the day before. I had to continually shift between first and second gears for all of the 6 kilometers or so. We left our car at the village and took the jeep back to the safari. The safari drive was fast and furious, and topsy turvy! the jeep was going horizontally at many places due to the slippery conditions, but the driver somehow managed to keep it vertical and not fall. We must have spotted a few hundred deers, some bison, and some wild pigs etc during the safari, tigers were deep in the forest, and jeep wouldnt go because of the extreme wet conditions. We visited the biggest teak tree of karnataka, which was deep in the forest (72 meters tall and 5.5 metres round), and another inspection bungalow, deep in the jungles, which surprisingly was made in 1910. We came back to the village, had breakfast from a small shop there, which to the pleasant surprise of me and shyam, was run by a mallu! Where on earth will you not find our "Swantham naatukar"...

We finished the payments at the resort, and made the decision to come back in pleasant weather... Drove back to chcikmaglur, stopped at every place which looked beautiful or photogenic. We got back to the hotel (the one where we had got a room the previous afternoon), and managed to checkout 5 minutes before 24 hours got over. The next destination was baba budanagiri. It was supposed to be 35 kilometers from chickmaglur, and we set out on the route. Once the ghat section started, we saw a board which said ghat roads damaged by heavy rains and drive very carefully. We were in no more mood for adventure, especially with the car, and so decided to go back.

The road back was when we could stop and go a lot, because we were in no big hurry.. Mahesh was supposed to get down at hassan and catch a bus to banagalore, which he forgot( he had dozed off), and we too forgot. We again stopped at every place that looked beautiful... Took snaps, enjoyed the moment and had a super drive back. We enjoyed the road back even more, and i dont know what was the difference, maybe the fact that we didnt have to go really fast...

Of course, at hassan, there was this lady on the scooter, or was it some other location?? dont remember clearly... anyway mahesh went fida over her.. she honked at us from the side when we had nowhere to go... then we flashed our headlights when we went past her later... all of us looked out of the window and gave her a big wave when we crossed her! she was smiling like she is really really happy :) Vivek bid her bye bye when she crossed the road, and she waved back.. mahesh had worn my cap just at the right time.. tricks to impress!

We reached mysore at 745, dropped mahesh at the bus station. Dropped shyam off at his place and me and vivek reached home at 8. I some how sat through the england match till about 80 minutes and then slept off. Couldnt wake up later and watch the netherlands portugal match, but luckily, there was a replay in the morning, which i could watch. The war torn car, i gave it off for service and routine checkup today morning... Am totally surprised to find there isnt any problem, not with the alignment, the suspension or the tyres, no fault at all! hats off to maruti suzuki swift! It gave me an amazing mileage of 16.5 kilometers to the liter over the last 24 hours. That included some 20 kilometers of ghat roads, 20 kilometers of city roads, 10 kilometer of no roads, and 175 of good highway...

Dont feel like working, or being in the world of pleasures and convenience.. would be great if we could live in the forest and do nothing for a week ;).

Check out the pics at

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/vineethvazhayil/album?.dir=7e59