Uff!! I am just back from an awsm and tiring road trip to coorg alias the Scotland of India, I can't vouch for the name, but its a very beautiful place indeed. Well, this was a trip to remember for everything it had to offer.
An unlikely group with 3 docs, an architect-the planner, an HR and an engineer aka me. All girls group, all busy working professionals, planned on a weekday, with hardly any solid plan. The main plan was to visit a place called Thadiyandamol(i know its hard to pronounce), to join an adventure camp. The rest of the trip was to be impromptu and all we had was a map with directions missing, a car to travel, and the spirit of "Go gals! enjoy your freedom" attitude.
The Route:
8:10:8: Begin
1 AM: We set off from Bangalore, picked up rest of the gals, and we were off on Mysore Road. Plan was to have takeaways from CoffeeDay on the way and reach Mysore by 4AM.
Missed the 24hr coffeeday and reached Mysore at 3:30AM. Not a bad start at all.
A: Lost
3:30 AM - Reaching mysore was a piece of cake, it was one long stretch of road, what was found difficult was to move on to Hunsur Road to carry on with our journey. At 3:30AM, we have asked every living waking soul on the road(mainly the security guards) trying to get onto the Hunsur Road. We did that eventually an hour later.
B: Wrong turn
4:00Am - Based on the directionless map and a verbose of How-to-Get-There instructions, we were to reach VirajPet and move on to Nagarhole then to Irupu falls. Well, we made it to the Irupu falls but purely based on the signboards, missing out on the instructions without realizing it.!!!We never made it to Virajpet afterall.
C: Thru NagarHole
5:30 Am - The morning was freaking cold and the fog had dimmed the vision. At the entrance of Nagarhole, we waited for the gates to be opened for half an hour. And it was then we had a slight 'Eureka moment' that we were just girls in a car all alone in the middle of the forest. This would not have bothered us so much if there wasn't a group of idiots in another car waiting with us at the gates. Well, smart that we were, we stayed miles away from them. But still there was a nagging feel.
P took turn to drive thru the forest roads, this was her first time on a tavera, and our driver was all too glad to take a break from driving, but we weren't, we had our hearts in the throat!!
We spotted herds of deers and stag, oh! they were awesome.
D: Empty Stomach
11:00 AM - We were all visibly tired, hadnt slept well the nite and still in our work clothes of the previous day's. We needed some refuelling for our body. Lays, krackjack, good day are good but not when you are really hungry. Few miles from Nagarhole called Kutta we were told of a hotel for breakfast. But sadly, the place just repulsed us and we had to make do with a pack of marie and nutrichoice and head on to Irupu falls. Again with constant help from the localites on the directions we reached Irupu. Its a mile long walk from the parking lot to the falls thru the forest. And yes, we did meet our group of idiots here too:(. And we made sure we stuck with each other and enjoyed things to ourselves without letting them spoil it for us. And we did the same. It was a pleasure to the eyes to see the gushing water flow down the rocky mountain. We had our moments in the water (trying hard not to get wet miserably), and shot a million photographs- drama queens that we all were headed by the bigger of the lot-P.
Irupu
E: To eat or not to eat
Noon - we were visibly famished. We were confused whether to break for food or travel to the camp and eat. We confused the guy at the camp too.
F: Almost there
Sometime noon - Ok, I was getting that "Are we there yet?" jitters already. For GodSake's! I was hungry, and the ghat sections make me sick. Oh! yes I have motion sickness and so does my sister, its in the blood you see, I stayed put near the window all the time.
G: Destination Base Camp
AfterNoon -With greater difficulty and a hard time pronouncing the name of the destination (Thadiyandamol) we got on track. The roads to the camp was just wide enuf for our vehicle to go. Any mistake, the vehicle would have been scratched and scathed beyond recognition. Was a real tuff job for the kid -the driver, but we managed to reach the camp. It was a huge open space with a creek in the middle of the coffee plantation. We met the crew, and freshened ourselves up - change of clothes was all we did. And finally the food. Ah! was I happy :)
The itinerary of the camp was simple: we were to do trekking,boating, rappelling and a night safari - all to be done until the noon of the next day. And we managed to pull it off all in one go the same day.
Boating - We did a bit of boating in the creek, well I stopped rowing on the way back after a lil squabble with my sis, but moreso coz my wrists were crying out with pain- followed ofcourse with multiple photo shoot.
Day Ride -The organizer-S came in rite in time after the coffee/tea and we were to start with the rappeling, but before that we were in for a surprise that the adventure would begin a lil earlier than we thot. We boarded the open truck and S drove us past thru the plantation on the tiny roads at high speeds and we were holding to the railings of the truck and to our dear lives, screaming, giggling, were all a part. The wind brushed through our face. It truly was a Krissh/SuperMan moment, well ofcourse without the cape and the weird dress.
Rappeling - Rappelling wasn't new to me. The first time I tried, I quit just after I was harnessed, I was only 9 then. The second time I did was in Savandurga- another adventure camp I had been to last year, and I did a pretty good descent. But this was different, it was a 180 foot rock just close to the water fall, the rock was slippery coz of the moss, the vision was not great coz of the water sprinkling from the fall, and the angle was an amazing 90 deg. To everyone's surprise all of us did a cool descent off the rock, and yes posed for the photgraphs too.:) Were we adventurous or what??!!
Night Ride - The girl in the movie "The girl next door" asks the guy, "What is the craziest thing you have done in your life?". This is the one for me. This is the one for all 6 of us.
10 PM - Dinner and sleep. Still no proper plan for the next day
H: Abbi Falls
10 AM: Bid adieu to the crew, and started off from the camp, and the plan was to check out another water fall near Coorg called the Abbi falls. Again with lots of help with the localites reached Coorg and went to Abbi. Amazing water fall this was, it was wider than irupu and the water was more forceful. Did our photoshoot, ate some junk and had our pleasant peaceful
moment, before we headed back to coorg.
1 PM: Quick Lunch, towards KushalNagar.
I: Instintive Turn
1:30 PM : Heading towards Kushalnagar, we took an impromptu turn to Dubare- an elephant sanctuary for a quick elephant ride. Once there, realized that the rides were post 4:30. So instead hopped into a boat with a guide for a lil micro-rafting. This time I rowed.:). Few took a dip in the water, and took there first swimming lesson from the sole swimmer, and yes posed well for the camera too.
J: Way to Golden Temple
3 PM: We dint want to miss the Golden Temple near Kushalnagar. A huge piece of land in coorg has been given to the Tibetian refuge, once u enter the place it almost feels like you are in tibet. The temple is great, even with the loads of ppl and noise, it inflicts some kind of peace into you. Wish we could stay a little while more there, but time was a constraint and we started our journey back Home.
K: Back Home Tired
5PM : Wasnt very eventful, except for missing out on the CoffeeDay yet again, and a major confusion on the final accounting.
Thanks to the extra 3 years of math I studied, we tallied the numbers good enuf and all was well. We did a bit of review of the snaps taken.
9.10.8: End
10 PM: I was the first one to be dropped, went home, bathed and slept like a log till the next morning. Wish I could chuck office.
