We’d been to Coorg and planned to visit Nagarhole. We got our cab confirmed and the driver promised to be there at 4am! Yes, that early ‘coz we wanted to be at the national park by 6am! As planned, we all got up and checked out at the middle of the night, bundled into the Indica. In spite of my layered clothing, I was feeling pretty chill. And, it was quite misty too as we stood outside out hotel. 

We happily started off – I never thought it would be one of the crazier rides I’ve ever done. Dense fog/mist, small roads, blaring headlights, sharp bends, and patches with more potholes than tar – what more can you ask for a crazy trip. Oh! don’t forget the time – 4am – so, darkness too. 

Turn a bend and we were out of a town – and had the dense fog in front of us. It was like a white sheet a few meters in front of our car. As tired as I was, I was wondering how on earth the driver was still on the road and I’d doze.. a few minutes later, we are far from civilization, they din’t even bother adding streetlights. So, once in a while, the fog would light up – like the headlight of a train in a tunnel. Our driver would pull over to the side – as far as he could – and blink lights hoping the truck/bus driver would notice the car in front. 

Once that vehicle goes by, we’d continue our ride in the dark with the white sheet leading us! I didn’t realize I had dozed off until we reached this final stretch of the road -that was as bumpy as any can be. Any of our city roads mutilated by the civic roads would be put to shame. It was as if no two inches were at the same level. From there on, it was a slow, painful, bumpy ride – through the mist. Hoping against hope we’d turn a corner and find the park.
 

From Coorg

Two and a half hours later, we finally reached the park around 6:30am. Phew! Wasn’t I relieved to be off that ride. Sadly, the park itself didn’t turn up anything as interesting as this ride. We had a crazy ride back to Mysore too – but, I guess, I’ll save that for another day!

When I started from Hyderabad, last Friday, the plan was to trek at Kodachadri. But I refused to go – I don’t want to donate my precious blood to the leaches there! I’d rather go there well prepared – gumboots et al So, having shelved that plan, we had to come up with an alternate plan.

I was already on my way to Bangalore, so I called up an old friend of mine who had a litter of puppies at home! After a photoshoot at his place, we moved on hoping to find gumboots in Bangalore – but then, it was getting late. So, we decided to go to Jog Falls (via Shimoga). I was eager to compare my photos with my pre-SLR days

We reached Shimoga close to 10pm (after a 6.5 hour bus ride from Bangalore) and found a room at one of the hotels opposite the bus stand. The next morning we left for Jog Falls – 2.5 hours from Shimoga. It seemed to be a sunny day – so different from our last visit when we were drenched by the time we reached the entrance! Though, the sunny day was to last for just about 10 minutes – I guess there is nothing called a sunny day at Jog! Yup, soon there was a heavy downpour – I began to wonder if we’d be able to trek at all!

We started once the rain abated – we had to walk a little further to find our way down – the normal path was closed because work is going on. They are laying concrete steps all the way to the bottom! God save this beautiful place once that’s done and the whole world can go all the way down to dump their waste! I’d hate to see this place get crowded and dirty.

Anyways, soon we reached the stairs (which is work-in-progress) – you get on it and start walking. It’s not like a trek anymore And then, all of a sudden, the stairs end! Well, they haven’t finished it yet. So, instead of concrete steps, you walk along gaping holes with iron bars sticking out! Their idea of making up for the lost adventure so far? I don’t know! But, if you are going there, you better watch your step! After walking around a number of such holes, I began to wonder if it was worth it all – this place looked so mutilated and here we were carrying our cameras and tripods …

There was point when it was pouring like crazy, the holes dug up for the stairs looked like a never-ending mess, and I thought we should turn around. But then, we moved on – and reached the base of the falls! I still remember standing there wondering if we should go on – the bag seemed heavier, the camera seemed bulkier, we seemed to be carrying way too many things … and it looked like the downpour would never stop. Looking back, I think I can begin to understand what climbers/trekkers feel when the weather isn’t the best!

Was it worth it – definitely! It’s such a great feeling the first time you step in to the stream after the trek – though, you’d get your shoes wet in the process! It’s not a good idea to walk barefoot because of the sharp stones. It is such an awesome experience to stand there in the middle of gushing waters and look up at the waters falling all around you – to be surrounded by nothing but rocks, shrubs and water!

Soon, it was time to make our way up -with the rain for company. It rained so hard… the waterfall turned brown… was awesome to look at! It had barely stopped raining when we were on the last stretch – a pretty steep climb. We made it over the wall and it started pouring again!

We waited for the rain to stop and then dashed to the hotel – only to find they had nothing interesting We got out

PS: v2 – is visit #2 not version 2

A much delayed post about my first trip this year – after mistakenly deleting my draft and having to reboot in the middle of the second unsaved version, here is my third attempt!

The first long weekend of the year was just two weeks into the year and I wanted to travel – the place was Gokarna. So, on Jan 11, we set off to Hubli from Hyderabad. The plan was Hyderabad – Hubli – Karwar – Gokarna. We reached Hubli and missed the bus to Gokarna! The bus to Ankola was ready to leave, and were told that we can reach Gokarna from there.

Soon, we were out of the concrete jungle and on to some nice roads. After a couple of stops, the bus halted for a break at Yeswantpur. We got to know that the Gokarna bus was the one right next to us and those who are traveling to Gokarna can get in, so we swapped buses midway!

Soon, we came to a long line of lorries and tankers hampered by work on the ghat roads, with passenger vehicles trying to get ahead of them. Before we were out of that, I had lost count of the number of tankers I’d seen. Finally, we reached Gokarna at 1pm!

After lunch, introductions, and a good wash at the hotel, we rested for a while and then set off to the Om beach that evening. They (autos) charge 100 Rs to get to most of the beaches. The beaches are out of the town (except the main beach) and the approach roads are quite scenic. You travel on hilly roads and walk down to the beach

We walked around the beach and waited for the sun to go down for some sunset pictures. In the meantime, we went on a boat ride – saw the other beaches from the boat, trying to plan the next two days.

After the boat ride, the guys went for a swim and I had all the time to walk around the beach with my Olympus C770 and my friend’s Panasonic FZ50. Close to sunset, we climbed the rocks and watched the sun set over the ocean. After the sun went down, we got back, had an early dinner, and returned to the hotel.

Day 2: We decided to go to the Kudle Beach first. Another auto, another winding road, another beautiful beach. I’ve seen a clean beach before (think Pichavaram) and many dirty beaches (think Chennai). But, Gokarna is unbeatable for the amount of life on the beach – that is, life other than human life. You can find fishes, seaweeds; we found whalebones (according to Abhijeet) and colorful rocks too. You can walk around the beach all day and not be bored, i.e., if you look at all the little things around you.

We had our lunch in one of the shanties that offered Mexican, Italian, Israeli cuisines – at a very reasonable price. After lunch, we had some yummy apple pie (?) After lunch, I went back to relaxing in the shade and my friend spent time watching fishes in a pool of water (it ended when he saw someone peeing into his warm pool!)

I sat there watching the waves, the rocks, the beach, the people – and after getting into the water, my friend didn’t want to go to any other beach. So, he spent the day in the water – swimming, searching for fishes, seaweeds, crabs I spent the day taking pictures of everything.

Soon enough, they found a seaweed – and Amir crowned Abhijeet with the seaweed. Right away, we heard someone screaming “Thieves! Thieves!!” She came swimming, got her seaweed crown and swam back to her parents – much to our amusement! And when she got out of the water, she crowned one of the rocks as the prince and the guardian of the crown. Sweet! A few minutes later, the seaweed was back home in the seawater, thanks to Amir!

Another evening, another walk up the road, another day ends!

Day 3: It was time to return – but before our long journey back home, we had about half a day to spare. We decided to check out the Main Beach (aka Gokarna Beach) besides the temple as it was the closest and we didn’t have an entire day to spare. We’d also checked out – didn’t make sense to be carrying things around! We walked to the beach, and found a shady spot between two boats.

When I reached this beach behind the temple, I couldn’t but compare and contrast this beach with what I saw over the last two days. The Main Beach is something from which a traveler can stay away – it is the noisy, dirty, and polluted beach. The other beaches are equally calm, clean, and beautiful. The Main Beach is very much like one of the Chennai beaches.

The temple is surrounded by a lot of shops selling souvenirs, beads, bangles from camel bones, even tiger nails! I am not sure how authentic they are – but, one thing that may put away local (ie, Indian) travelers is the price! Almost all shops seem to exist for the foreign traveler – I can easily find most of those beads/chains and bangles in Hyderabad/Chennai. Somehow, quite surprisingly, Gokarna still has the run-down, old town look – there aren’t many new, high-rise building. In fact, most of the buildings on the main street look as if they may fall apart anytime.

After walking around the town for a while, we decided to get back – had lunch on our way and reached the bus stand. We went to Ankola from Gokarna – which proved to be another crazy ride. From Ankola, it was another bus to Hubli. The new bus stand at Hubli was a disappointment – it was unused, dark, had very few shops, and was out of the town! If I go again, I will save myself the trouble and wait at the old bus stand. Another bus, another long journey, another day and we were back in Hyderabad. We rushed home to prepare for another day at work!

It is an amazing place for a relaxed weekend – the only thing that keeps me from going there every other weekend is the journey and the distance – It is a place worth visiting but not good for a weekend trip, at least not from Hyderabad.

July 12, 2007

Finally, the day came to travel – to pick up my bag and do some traveling. It was serious travel after quite some time and was looking forward to this day. From Hyderabad, it was just the two of us, me and my friend, going to Hospet. We reached Hospet around 6:30 am – almost an hour behind schedule. But then, it didn’t really matter because we were waiting for another two to join us – Amir and his friend.

Hampi
As we were getting off the bus at Hampi, we were swamped by tourist operators and guides. It took some effort to get out of that crowd offering guides, hotels, and even books about Hampi. That was the first minute in Hampi.

Setting out and setbacks!
Soon we set off to see the ruins in and around Hampi. We walked to the nearest ruins – three temples. We walked around, went in – all the while clicking away with our digital cameras – thanks to the unlimited (almost) storage space! We came back to the entrance and my buddy began to set his tripod for his medium format camera – and there came the watchman saying we should have prior permission to use tripods. He said we can get permission from the Archeological Society. So, off we went to get the permission, only to be told there that they do not have the authority and we have to get the permission in Bangalore! However, they also said that we should be able to use the tripod in most of the places.

Going around Hampi
At the end of the day, we came to the river. Need to say, the steps aren’t the cleanest. I was wondering if the buffaloes and elephants use the steps to the river!

The Mango Tree and dinnerHaving heard a lot about The Mango Tree from people who’d already been to Hampi, I was quite curious to check it out. It wasn’t just about the food – I was told that the ambience and the view is great too. And, I wasn’t disappointed. If you really want to wind down when you are at Hampi, you should go to this place. And remember to sit outside (on the floor) under the tree – overlooking the river. You get an awesome view from that place of the river and the hills.

So, it was at Mango Tree that we spent more than 2 hours there – chatting, joking, getting to know each other, and, of course, relishing the food. It was the first time I mixed lime soda for myself! And not surprisingly, it bubbled over after which I learnt to be careful mixing lime, salt and soda. For me, that evening is filled with a lot of memories – plenty of little things… like Prathibha reacting to a cat as if it were a monster (am sure she’s not gonna like this:), Amir making us sit still for 30 seconds coz of the low shutter speed, sharing the food, trying to figure out if that white thing they served was mayonnaise or chutney, ….

Click here, for more Pictures of Hampi