Well... this one'll be a long one, no doubt about it...!!! So will be putting it in parts.
Much before I came to the college, after my fling with Chennai, I had this thought lingering in my head, 'this is the last year in the college and I better make it the most memorable one'.
Guess what..!! One of the ways of doing that was to have frequent class trips, spending more quality time with the people closest to me in the college (counting the fact that I feel myself a little too much attached to my class).
So, after I got done with my placements and the class also got free from their engagements (placements, GRE,TOEFL etc. etc.), I sat down planning for an outing for us.
After scanning places throughout Karnataka and calculating pros 'n' cons for each of 'em we 'finally finalized'(after 5 date changes) down on KODACHADRI.
After a no. of class mssgs, personal calls to evry one, face 2 face persuasions and plenty of hours put in planning, 27 out of 34 of us set out for the trip on 26th morning.
The plan was simple-- a day trek to the Kodachadri peak, spending a night there, trek down to the Arishinagundi Falls and finally back to college on 27th evening.
We knew it will be a difficult trip, so got ourselves ready for it... shoes, jackets, eatables, salt to shut out leeches, glucose, ORS etc everything in place.
PART I
DAY 1-- 26 October
The trip started with a visit to the famous MOOKAMBIKA TEMPLE in Kollur, which I wanted to happen to pray for a safe outing for the class. It was really a beautiful temple, of which I realized much later that I'd been earlier.
Next stop was the Karakatte Gate, the starting point of our trek. Few group pics and the climb began. 10 mins into the trek and I heard the first of the 'many to come' frightened screams, the tormentor being Mr. Leech and the tormented being Christina, who for reasons out of my head, didn't come in proper footings and so became an easy n the first target. Socks from Sandy and sandals from Shenoy made her resume the journey, though she kept checking for any other leeches after every 20 m she transversed.
After a very easy trek, when compared to what we faced later, we reached our first pit stop-- Santosh Hotel, don't go by the name, it's just a small eatery u get only pre-ordered meals, else be ready to have IDLIs(which we had to content ourselves with).
Post lunch, the real climb started...steep inclinations paved with rocks, slippery mud, sapping overhead sun. Everything took a toll on each of us, the worst hit was Shenoy. After cramps, he was hardly able to snail his limbs but was brave enough to continue, thanks to GOGO and Tripathi along with decent amounts of glucose and ORS, who helped him and his 'really heavily stuffed bag'(despite clear warnings against it).
Snap shooting hundreds of scenics, joking around, plenty of breaks (esp with Shenoy) to reinstate energy levels and shouts of being together so as to not get lost; we made up to the guest house. Salutes to the first batch, the front runners, comprising of Darshan,Pani,Deepti,Ro and Deba, who made to the guest well before the tottering last batch, the one of Shenoy,GOGO,Bansal,Sanj,Dipankar,Raj,Arati and me.
Ohh...!!! What an achievement after 3.5 hrs of muscle swelling climb. Everyone fell down onto whatever slim bedding (only for the sake of being called one) they got.
With discussions galore about the mountain victory and a bit of nursing ourselves during the 45 mins rest at the guest house, we started the last phase of climb to the peak. Shenoy, Christina and Sandy decided to stay at the guest house. This was the most beautiful part of the whole climbing experience, with a top of world feeling with cold ambiance. Amazing scenes of multi-shaded green mountains. At the peak was the sunset point and a small temple which supposedly was Shankaracharya's meditation habitat. In absolute harmony with nature, a secluded heaven; no questions why Shankaracharya chose the place.
Spending some time there, though missing sunset :( for reasons of it getting dark, we left the place and came back to the guest house.
Now started the evening quota of fun, Tripathi’s fundae on Christina (his frank opinions) which ultimately got summarized distortedly by us to the ‘vicious circle- dumb—tease—gets angry—becomes even cuter---so like her---so dumb ‘. Our version of WWE, with GOGO and Sandy’s tag team losing to the ‘lankies’, Alok and Shiva and as in most of the fights, the referee—me here—getting thrashed :(. Some good songs from Indu and Darshan, with me in chorus. A decent dinner followed by few hours by the bonfire. Nothing better to finish off a tiring day with.
Next to come was a shivering night and the never forgettable day ahead, which will be in the next post.
