Yelagiri & Hognekkal falls

This was an unplanned trip with many spontaneous decisions and a mixed crowd ! Few of us planned to visit Gopalswamy betta. The group size kept increasing and finally I booked a TT since there were 12 of us. 2 hrs  before the travel, we got to know that trekking has been banned in Gopalswamy betta and it would be a waste of time going till there. A quick change in plan resulted in a memorable trip to Yelagiri and Hognekkal falls.

*ing : Johnson, Vijay, Nish, Sandeep, Sooraj, Bhavya, Ramya, Charu, Deepak, Supreet, Richa and me

                                     

July 7th : We started our journey from Bangalore by midnight. The TT was filled with a group of strangers (most of them were meeting each other for the 1st time, me being the connecting link :D). Though all were silent initially, by the time we crossed Hosur, everyone was geared up to play dumb charads. This was more of an ice breaker session. For 3 hours, the game went on without a break and by 4 am all of us decided to have a quick nap which didnt last long as we reached our destination ! We had booked a room in Hotel Ashoka (must appreciate the hospitality !!).

The night long dumb charads session resulted in a sleepy morning ! Most of them were dead tired. Since we had to complete trekking before the sun rises, we freshened up and quickly started our journey ! The hotel authorities guided us with the trekking spot. The trek was a bit straining coz we forgot to carry water bottles !! After a 2 hours trek, we reached the hill top. It was very peaceful around the temple premises on the hill top. We started off with our monkey business climbing trees and rocks posing for pics :P After about an hours time, we headed back to the bottom of the hill. The return trek didnt take much time !!



After returning from the trek, we checked out of the hotel and headed towards Hognekkal falls which was an instant plan. Only concern was that Ramya was not keeping well. However, she insisted on continuing with the waterfall plan. Cheers to her spirit :)

Though Hognekkal was a repeat destination for many of them, it was a different experience with a new group ! After a bargaining session with the coracle riders, we got into the coracles and rowed towards the falls. On the way we saw the spot where Abhishek Bachhan dives during his intro in the movie "Raavan".

We were allowed to spend some time in the water. All of us got into the water and played for a while. Sandeep even found a Rs.50 note flowing in the water which was later utilized to buy snacks :D. The law of nature says "To gain something you have to lose something". We got a Rs.50 note but instead lost a diamond ring (Supreet) and a gold ring (Charu) which was a costly deal ! After spending about an hour in the water, we headed back to our parking lot and our return journey started.

We reached Bangalore late night, had dinner in electronic city and reached home by midnight ! With this, a memorable unplanned trip came to an end.

                                           

Xtreme Zone Paintball

A weekend getaway with a fun filled gang is something that most of us would love to do ! Paintball is something that  all of us wanted to but had never tried earlier. We got an info in advance that if we form a group of 10+, we could have an exclusive session for our own group and wouldnt be mixed with strangers. So we decided to go ahead with our coorg gang with few additions and subtractions !

*ing :- Abhith, Vj, Johnson, Kiran, Vidya, Ramya, Swetha, Nishchitha, Megha, Manu, Vimal, Prashanth, Ashok and me.

We left from Hebal by about 10am and reached Angasana resort (close to BMSIT College) by 11. Our organizer (Chetan) was ready to give us instructions but we had to hold on for sometime since Vimal, Manu and Ashok were yet to reach. As soon as they reached, we formed 2 groups (Johnson, Ramya, Vj, Vidya, Manu, Kiran, myself in one group and the rest in the other group).On receiving instructions, we were all geared up for a firing session.

The game that we played was known as "Elimination" wherein one group had to eliminate the other by shooting each of the team members twice. For those of you who dont know what paintball is - Its a game wherein you shoot each other with pellets and these pellets bursts splashing a colour on the surface where it hits !. Both the teams had the same strategy "dodge till the other team lose waste sufficient bullets and then start firing. But since both the teams had the same strategy, nobody fired and finally the organizers had to interrupt asking us to shoot each other instead of just hiding and sitting :D. We kept running from one bunker to the other which made us feel like we were armed militants fighting for our nation ! :D.. Most of the time we would aim someone and shoot but it would be the poor trees that would receive a firing ... i pity the trees in our war field :D ... After about 45 minutes of shooting, the game came to an end and our team emerged victorious.

Soon after the paintball session we had a team building activity wherein the 2 teams were made to stand in a straight line parallel to each other. The one who stood last in the 2 lines had to go to the organizer who would toss a coin and assign head/tail to the 2 team reps. They had to pass on the msg to the one in front of them with sign language (the one in front wasnt allowed to turn back and look at the one behind while communicating) and each one passed it to the other in a chain. Finally the one in the front had to shout out head or tail. Though it sounded silly, it was fun while playing this. It was best of 3. Our team won the 1st one and the other team won the 2nd won. Final one was a tie breaker which we won !!

The next event was an interesting one. The 2 teams had to form a circle holding hands. There was a ring looped in the chain and we had to pass on the ring from one person to the other without leaving our hands and the one team that took the least time in completing one full round would win. This was a thrilling one and our team emerged victorious beating the other team by 3 seconds !

The final event was another interesting one where each team had to form a train holding each others shoulders. Except the one in the end, all were blindfolded and 3 spongeballs were scattered here and there. The one in the end (who wasnt blindfolded) had to communicate with a sign language (without speaking a word). While playing this we realized how miserable life would be for the blind ! Fro a change, the other team won this team and they had a good strategy.

With this the paintball session came to an end and we headed towards Friends dhaba to have lunch. While having lunch we got to hear some more of the stoneman experiences from Prashant !! After lunch we had to part ways. Abhith, Vj, Nish, Swetha and Megha headed towards our college (Sir MVIT) to spend some time there and then returned home. The rest of us decided to go to Ascendis Mall in Whitefield to play Bowling. By about 8pm all the fun came to an end and we returned home after an eventful day. Thanks to all those who made it ....cheers :). Our experience with xtreme zone could be rated as 4/5 and this is for sure a recommended place for those who have plans to play paintball could try this. http://extremezoneindia.com/paintball/paintball-bangalore-angsana/pricing.html

Coorg

New yr bash at Coorg Coffee Flower Estate - A memorable new yr celebration it was !! This trip was a mix of action, romance, comedy, dance, adventure ..in a nut shell a complete entertainer !! It was more like a blockbuster movie with a superb star cast but a disappointing climax :P

The plan started off 1 month in advance and the tickets were booked by 23rd ... 14 of us were all set for the new yr bash not knowing whats awaiting us in Scotland of the East - Coorg.

We started our jounrney on 30th Dec at about 4 pm from BEL circle. Abhith, Mani, Harshitha and me boarded from BEL circle. We picked up Megha from Hebal, Ramya from Bapoosapalya, Prashanth and Sunitha from Marathahalli, Vimal from Belandur and finally Bharath from BTM layout. Johnson, Kiran, Vidya and Jacob came in Jacobs car. We had a good time playing games like Dumb charades and Anthakshari during our journey. We reached Kushalnagar by about 1am and tried contacting the resort guys for directions. Meanwhile few cops stopped by for an enquiry. This gave the initial negative vibe !! They shot lot of questions which created a small tension but then we handled it without facing any issues from them. On receiving directions to the resort, we reached there by about 2am. Though we were initially praying that atleast 50 of them should be there in the resort to create some noise and fun, we were shocked to know that there were more than 300 of them in a place which could accommodate a max of 150 ! Thankfully gals got a room for themselves but guys had a tough time coz we had to stay in a tent which was more like a refugee camp coz there were about 20 of them staying in the same tent !!! We werent even provided blankets (At this point I need to highlight that Prashant slept with his jacket as a pillow in freezing cold weather and realized early morning that he could have put on his jacket and slept instead of shivering the whole night :D )

31st Dec 2011 : We woke up at about 7am and had a good laugh at our refugee experience. Breakfast was prepared and all of us were disappointed when we heard that we would be served "upma" but surprisingly it tasted good and we enjoyed the breakfast sitting by the poolside. We then planned to visit chikilihole backwaters which was just 5kms away from the resort. Expectations were quite high but the thrill didnt last long once we reached there coz it was just a normal reservoir with barely anything to do. Abhith, Johnson, Bharat and me started popping stones over the water which is something that we tend to do when we see water ! After spending about an hr at the backwaters, we returned to the resort for lunch by 12:30.

The organizers informed us that lunch would be served only by 2pm so we decided to play some childhood games like lagori. We started of with a warm up session by playing volleyball and then started off with lagori. It was fun to relive our childhood days. Since we had a good team size, it was fun to play. Abihth, Megha, Harshitha, Johnson, Prashant, Mani and me were in 1 group and the rest were in the other group. Our group comfortably defeated them with a score of 3-1 !! :D

At 2pm we had lunch and then headed towards Dubaare for rafting. Swimming in deep water with life jackets has been a common factor in most of our trips in 2011. Though the place looked quite good, it was a bit disappointing that there were no rapids. We had to do rafting in still water but the interesting part was that there was a spot where we could jump into the water and swim with life jackets. This undoutedly was the best part of the trip. Prashant and Sunitha stayed back since they werent interested in rafting. Rest of us thoroughly enjoyed this part of the trip.

By about 6pm we left from there and reached the resort by about 7pm. All of us barged into the room to get dressed up for the DJ night. Just as we entered the room, the organizer asked us to vacate the room. There were a few unpleasent conversations between our group and the organizer coz the facilities in Coffee flower resort was PATHETIC !! We were finally given an alternate room where we all dressed up quickly and headed towards the dance floor for the DJ night.

We had a terrific time dancing since we hadnt danced for quite a while. We were finally relieved that there was something good about the resort. But this positive feeling didnt last long coz the power went off by 10pm. We then got to know that there were lot of issues going on outside the dance floor. Localites around the resort cut the power cable, threatened people with knives and even threw bricks on few of them. We were all shocked and scared about what was going around. Cops had also come within no time. The party was now heading towards a disaster. We were just hoping that the dj night picks up at midnight atleast. But to our disappointment, at 12am Jan 1st when whole of India was celebrating, we were sitting in pitch dark wondering what to do. 10 seconds before 12, I started a countdown and Johnson was ready with the party popper. At the count of 1, Johnson bursted a party popper and all those who had gathered around cheered and clapped. We then witnessed some fireworks. After this, we had dinner and noticed that lot of them had gathered around 1 guy. Abhith and me went there to see what had happened. The organizer was getting abused for ruining a new yr celebration for the 350 of them who had gathered there. For a moment I got animated and utilized all the kannada vocabulary that was familiar to me. I felt glad that my 3rd Language in school was kannada coz it turned handy while shouting at that guy. (But Im sure that the rest of the crowd could figure out that kannada was not my 2nd lang for sure coz it was that pathetic :P). The crowd even started manhandling the organizer threatening him to refund the money. By then his supporters arrived to the seen and the organizer managed to disappear from the crowd. We had no clue how and where he disappeared amidst such a big crowd ! A furious mob barged into his house and messed up his furniture ! We even saw few pple running away with his LCD tv and other electronic equipments !! We reazlied that it wasnt safe to stay there any longer and hence left from there by about 1:30 am. On our way, a white color maruthi van blocked us and few guys got out of the van. All of us sitting inside were horrified wondering whats going on. Everyone was speechless !! But in a few moments we realized that they were not blocking our way and instead were trying to cut across the road. There was a big sigh of relief :D. We reached Mysore by about 3:30am and our plan was to halt at Mysore.
Once we reached Mysore few of them had the opinion of returning to Blore and few decided to stay back. Johnson, Kiran, Vidya and Jacob stayed back, the rest of us headed towards Maddur CCD. 

Jan 1st 2012 - Johnson and gang spent jan 1st in Mysore at Planetx. The rest of us spent time till about 9am in Maddur CCD . We played the game Truth or Truth (a simpler version of truth or dare coz we didnt have the energy to take up dares :P ). We had lot of fun listening to Prashants stone theory and got to know lot of dark secrets in each others lives of which Prashants casanovic experiences were the highlight !! Abhith pledged that on jan 2013 he would take Prashants place :D ... In memory of the gyan that we received from the love guru, we named Jan 1st as the Stoners day :D The stoneman murders was an icing in compensation for the disappointing new yr celebration that we experienced in Coffee flower resort !

Morals of the story :
a. Never book a dj night without prior track records - It could ruin your new Yr !!
b. Never drop by COFFEE FLOWER RESORT coz they provide the worst ever facilities that you could think off
c. Tony mon still remembers Kannada to a certain extent :D
d. Group with which you travel matters a lot (We had some amount of fun only coz the group was good !!)
e. Playing childhood games once in a while is very entertaining and helps relive childhood days !!
f. Stone theory is something that one should be aware of before you start flirting :P (As stated by the Love guru aka stoneman Prashanth )

Nelliyampathy and Dhoni falls

Oct 2010 : It was Thasneems wedding so Sakthi, Vinoth and me decided to goto Kerala to attend the wedding. The wedding was in Palakkad (Palghat) which is popular for Silent Valley which is the main tourist attraction there. We also gathered few details from Thasneem and charted out a plan to visit Nelliyampathy, Dhoni falls and Silent valley.

After closing out on our tasks in office we rushed home to pack our bags. Our bus was in the night from Shantinagar bus stand and we all assembled there by about 9pm.

23rd Oct - We reached Palakkaad early in the morning and started hunting for a good lodge to freshen up. The wedding was on sunday so we had 1 full day to roam around the place. We planned to cover Nelliyampathy and Silent valley on sat, attend the wedding on sunday and from the wedding hall head towards Dhoni falls and then leave to Blore by night. We found a lodge without much difficulty. On enquiring with the localites, we got to know that there was a high probability of Silent valley being closed due to some harthaal. (Harthaal is something very common in Kerala. Like they say, when Saddaam Hussain was killed, Kerala would be probably be the 1st place to declare Harthaal coz Mallus just need a reason to declare a harthaal :D). Disappointed to know about this, we decided to visit only Nelliyampathy falls on day 1. Oct was supposedly one of the best times to visit this place due to the weather. We hired a jeep and left to Nelliyampathi. The route to the view point was a horrifying experience since there was barely any road. We had to go on some mudlands. Sakthi was interested to know how beef tastes like (Beef is more popular in Kerala than Chicken) and so we parcelled some beef fry from a tea stall on the way. Sakth loved the taste of it and in no time finished the whole thing :D. Once we reached the destination we realized that there is nothing much to do here. All we could do is - admire the beauty of nature. We spent quite a lot of time at this spot since we had nothing much to do on returning to our lodge. It was quite pleasing to relax on a grassland high above the madding crowd in a pleasent atmosphere with no worries or thoughts in our minds ! Wish I was a poet or a writer coz the atmosphere was perfect for some literary thoughts.

After we were done with our photo shoots and nature admirations, we headed back towards our lodge. On our way back we tried some exclusive kerala dishes like Pazhampori and unniappam since Vinoth and Sakthi were here for the 1st time. We also went out for some shopping since Vinoth wanted to buy a kerala saree for his sister in law as a gift. After all the shopping, we reached our lodge by about 9pm and crashed on bed.

24th Oct : This was my 1st experience in attending a muslim wedding so I had a nice time witnessing it. By about 1pm we were done with the lunch (not to forget Sakthi's embarrassment when he was denied an extra chicken piece during the lunch :D). We then headed towards Dhoni falls which was very near to the wedding hall. We got to know from localites that we had to walk quite a lot to reach the falls. All set for the mini trek we got into an auto and left to Dhoni falls. On reaching there, we started walking towards the falls and we had to walk more than we had assumed ! After an hours effort, we finally reached the falls which had claimed few lives coz of its innocent looks. The pond in front of the falls looked very calm and pleasent but it is supposedly very risky to swim in it coz of the water pressure and the immense deapth underneath. None of us were good swimmers and we also didnt have any spare clothes. And we didnt see any of the tourists getting into the water. So we just spent time sitting on the rocks admiring the beauty around. After spending about an hr, we started our return journey and reached the starting point within no time. We lazily roamed around Palakkaad coz we were done with what we had planned to. By night we boarded the bus and reached Bangalore on monday early morn.

Cyclemon adventures

Bike trips had become something very common and the new trend was a different breed of bikes - cycles !! Abhith was the 1st to buy in our group, followed by Vj, Nish, Me and then Sneha.

Abhith and Vj had been to several cycle trips before I bought my Schwinn Searcher Sport. Few of their trips included Nandi hills, yessarghatta, Pondycherry and so on... After I got my cycle, we planned our 1st trip to Hessarghatta.

Hessarghatta : Located about 25kms from Mathikere, I had to cycle a total of about 50 kms and this being my debut cycle trip, I wondered if it is doable !! But once I started off, I realized that this could be done easily. Vj, Abhith and me started cycling by about 4pm. We kept cycling without many breaks and reached Hessarghatta quite early. We 1st visited the lake and halted for a few mins. Since there was nothing much to do there, we headed towards Nrithyagram which was about 2-3 kms from the lake. Nrithyagram is popularly known as the dance gurukul and is something unique in India !! Dancers stay and practice dance throughout the yr and its a very peaceful place. But we were a bit late to enter the gurukul since we reached there quite late. Since our intention was cycling and not to visit the gurukul, we werent disappointed !! We halted near the gurukul for a while and thats when we met 2 kids who admired our bikes wondering if we would give them a chance to ride them for the appreciation they gave. But sad for them, we had to disappoint them stating that they were too young to ride a gear cycle. We had a funny conversation with them for a while and then bid good bye to them after taking a pic with them.

MVIT : An obivious cycle trip would be to our coll which was about 21 kms from my home. Cycling to coll was something that we had planned during the last sem of our college but it didnt work out and we thought that this plan would always remain as a dream. Finally our dream came true !! When I travelled by bike to coll during coll days I never felt the distance but I realized how far it is when I went cycling :D. We left home after lunch and took our own time to reach coll. At coll we spent some time in the ground where we used to slog during exams. We even cycled around the campus and posed like we were peeing in front of the mech block to trigger the mechies on Facebook :D. We spent time in coll till late eve and once it got dark we returned home.

Hessarghatta revisited : Once Sneha got a cycle, we planned our next cycle trip and we had initially decided to cycle around the IISc campus. But after a few discussions we changed our plans and revisited Hessarghatta which is the best destinations for cyclists in Bangalore ! Like last time, we started off with the Hessarghatta lake and this time we started off in the morning. Once we reached the lake, we planned to revisit the Nrithyagram and for a change decided to go cycling on the grasslands (the lake had dried and now it was a grassland) to reach Nrithyagram. It wasnt as easy as we thought coz its difficult to cycle on a grassland !! But it was fun cycling coz the field was all ours. We had all the time to cycle and rest when we wished to. We spent nearly 45 minutes to cover 2kms :D. Finally we reached the Nrithyagram and this time we reached just before the closing time (On sundays it closes by lunch). Though we entered inside, we were asked to leave immediately since it was the closing time. After a few clicks we left from there, went to a dhaba for lunch and then returned home.

Mysore : We planned for a long distance cycling and headed towards Mysore though our plan was Chennai initially. The details of our Mysore cycle trip is there in my prev blog.

High petrol rates and the ever increasing traffic is an indication that cycles deserve some attention !! Happy to know that Bangalore Metro is also supporting this by providing cycles on rent at every Metro station !!

Mysore trip on a cycle !

Couple of yrs back Abhith had cycled from Chennai to Bangalore and since then many of us developed a craze towards cycling. I was the last to buy and I am a proud owner of a Schwinn Searcher Sport !!
We planned a cycle trip from Bangalore to Chennai and a group was formed in no time. Abhith, Vj, Bharat, Naveen, Johnson and me. Johnson had to hire a cycle and the rest of us had our own cycles. Considering the climatic conditions we decided that Chennai would be too tough so we changed our destination to Ooty. Since Ooty had lot of up hill cycling we felt it would be highly impractical to reach there considering that few of us were first timers. So we finalized on Wayanad and off we left on Nov 12th early morning. The starting point was my place. Abhith and Vj stayed over at my place the prev night. Johnson and Naveen reached home at 5 in the morning. Bharat planned to join us from Mysore road since that was nearer for him.

All set for a cyclothon, we left at 5:30am. Our 1st pitstop was at kadumane which was 35 kms from my place. We had our breakfast there. All of us were as fresh as we were when we started. None of us felt tired covering 35 kms which built up our spirits. We filled our tummies with iddly, vada and dosa. We ate just enough to fill our tummies coz cycling with a heavy stomach would be tough.





We took our next break after cycling for another 20kms. Our legs were still intact and we were still energetic. Surprisingly Johnson managed to cycle comfortably though this was his 1st cycle trip. The next pitstop was after another 20kms. By now we had covered 75kms and our legs had started to ache a bit. At this point we had halted at McD. More than our legs, our butts ached and this literally was a 'pain in the ass' :D. But we were still optimistic of cycling to wayanad. The next stretch was a tiring one coz it was getting hotter and we cycled continuously for another 25kms. So our 4th stop was when we covered 100kms ! At this point we were quite exhausted.

It was time for lunch. We ate quite a lot since we spent lot of energy cycling in the hot sun ! The lunch break was quite a long one. After a long break we continued our journey. The next 20kms was hectic ! It was uphil most of the time. To make it worse, our stomachs were full. We realized that at this rate Wayanad would not be possible since we had to returm to Bangalore the next day. With great difficulty we covered the next 20kms. Abhith, Vj, Bharat and Naveen had gone much ahead of me and Johnson was far behind. I was cycling all alone and my source of inspiration was the tachometer ! Every now and then I used to check my meter and encourage myself that i have 2/3rd of the distance and there is just some more to go. After crossing about 115kms i gave up seeing the big uphill road ahead of me. I decided that its time i get off my seat and started walking for a while. I went pushing my cycle for a few kms and finally spotted few cycles parked on the roadside. When I went closer I realized that Abhith, Vj, Bharat and Naveen were resting under a tree completely exhausted. I was glad that I was not the only one to crash :D. We halted there till about 5pm since we found it very difficult to cycle. The 20kms after lunch was a horrifying experience.

At about 5pm we made up our mind that our next stop would be in Mysore! I couldnt sit and ride coz my back was hurting. So I stood and rode the next 20kms !! Thankfully the next 20kms was a downhill. Without much difficulty we covered the next 20kms and reached the Mysore border. As soon as we saw the board "Welcome to Mysore" we stopped for a break before we reach Mysore city. Johnson was far behind so we had to wait for a while. Since he didnt turn up for quite a long time, I called him on his mobile to know that his cycle had brokedown. The brakes were jammed and he couldnt cycle further. He also lost his jacket and some cash that he kept in his jackets pocket. So we asked him to get into a goods auto and cover the next 10 kms. We waited for Johnson to reach the Mysore border. By then all of us decided to goto Mysore city in the goods auto. Our revised destination was Mysore and now that we have crossed Mysore border, cycling for another 10kms wouldnt add to the credits :D. So all of us got into the goods auto in which Johnson had come and reached Mysore city by about 7pm. We stayed in Comfort Inn and had a sound sleep. The next days plan was still a big question mark considering that Johnsons cycle wasnt in good condition and it would be a prob if we are stuck in Bandipur forest.

The next morn we woke up and were surprised coz our legs werent hurting !! The prev night we had slept fearing what would be the state of our leg after cycling this long. We decided that it would be better to spend the day travelling around Mysore and return to Bangalore by the evening bus. (We had to stick to volvos cos we had to dump our cycles in the luggage carrier.)

We checked out from the lodge by 12 and headed towards Planetx where we did carting and bowling. We also had masala dosa's from Mylari hotel. Mylari is supposedly one of the oldest hotels in Mysore and they have a very unique style of preparing dosas. Do make sure that you drop in at Mylari hotel for some tasty food  when you visit Mysore (It is close to the mysore zoo).





From here we headed towards Mysore bus stand, boarded the 6pm bus and reached Majestic by 9pm. Majestic was 10kms from my home. After cycling for 150kms, 10kms was like a piece of cake !!

Sharavathi nature trails

After the Rotikallu trip, we were in a hunt for a place that could beat Rotikallu. Some amount of Google searches helped us fix the spot for our next adventurous trip - Sharavathi Nature Trails !
Saravathi nature trails is a resort run the by Government with an intention to uplift the rural localites. It is funded by governement and managed by the localites. It is situated along the banks of River Sharavathi and located in a forest. If its comfort that you are looking for then Saravathi is not the place for you ! Here you get to experience wildlife. Loud music is banned here, instead you have to enjoy the natures tone. Smoking and drinking is also banned. There are no cottages available, instead you get to stay in tents along the banks of a river in a jungle. Truely, a very wild experience !! And to beat everything - you dont even have electricity here :D !!

*ing :- Abhith, Johnson, Megha, Lekha, Ramya, Manju, Prasad, Sandy, Shyam and Me.

We left from Bangalore on a friday night and reached Saravathi (close to Jog falls) on saturday early morn. The location looked perfect (just that the facilities were a bit disappointing). The idea of camping along a riverside was brilliant. We freshened up, had breakfast and then off we left for some kayaking, cannoeing and swimming with life jackets. To reach the spot we had to do walk through a forest. Once we reached a safe spot where the currents werent dangerous, we could no longer wait to jump into the water with lifejackets on ! Most of us didnt know swimming and yet managed to swim in 150ft deep water without any fear !! We took turns to row the kayak and cannoe. At a distance we could branches of a tree but it wasnt easy to swim so far. So we took turns to row the kayak and the rest of them held on to the kayak and reached the spot without any difficulty. Was an amazing experience. Only let down was that it was quite sunny !! After about 3 hrs of water sports, we returned to our mainland for lunch. We were served only vegetarian food but yet it was tasty (probably coz we were too hungry !! ).



After a heavy lunch, we left to Jog falls and returned to our mainland by about 7pm.  By late evening, campfire was set during which we played our usual game - Dumb charads.





Post dinner, we entered our tents. Few of them were a bit scared coz it was pitch dark (no electricity !) and we were in middle of a jungle !! Though it was cold outside, we were warm and comfortable in our tents. All of us had a sound sleep and woke up fresh and energetic the next day.

Day 2 was scheduled for trekking. Our destination was a waterfal. The trekking path was filled with leeches and this time it was 10 times worse than our Rotikallu experience !! We couldnt afford to stop at a spot to pluck out the leeches coz the moment we stopped, 4-5 leeches would stick on to us. So we kept running through the forest without halting much. Even after all the precautionary measures that we took, all of us were attacked by umpteen leeches !! The trek wasnt a very simple one. There were few spots where the girls struggled a bit buit we managed to reach our destination without much difficulty. The unique experience in this trek was that a cook also came along with us and cooked food for us above the waterfalls. It was an awesome experience sitting on top of a waterfall and lazily munching food !! After spending a couple of hours near the falls, we moved onto the next viewpoint. After about half an hr of trek we reached our next spot which was something unforgettable. The view was beyond thoughts. Some part of it resembled Rotikallu !! We never felt like returning once we sat there admiring mother nature !

Finally it was time to return. We started our return trek to a spot where our TT was parked, bid adieu to our wild life experience and returned to Bangalore. This was the wildest trip I have encountered with minimal luxury and maximum adventure !