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, Hessarghatta, 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 !

Rottikallu

Rottikallu was in my wish list from the time I heard that its even better than Ghatikallu. Ghati itself was too good so I was eager to visit Rottikallu. Another reason why I always wanted to visit Rottikallu is that its situated in Sakhleshpur which is very popular for its scenic beauty ! We kept planning for this trip since long and finally decided to go there on Aug 27th. (U need to book 1 month in advance to get a slot so in case you plan to visit this place, contact them 1 month in advance to book a slot !! )

*ing :- Johnson, Jacob, Kiran, Nitesh, Ashuthosh, Rakri, Vikku, Mani, Shyam and me.

We booked a TT and decided to leave early morn on sat since the check in time was sat afternoon. Since it was a mixed group, travel time was the icebreaker session for us. By the time we reached our destination we got along well and the group was all set to rock !

What amused us the most was the location and ambience. It is something that cant be expressed in words. You have to be there to feel it. Its truely heaven on earth. The cottages were beautiful and placed in grasslands covered with mist.

We started of with the adventurous activities that was part of the package.

Tarzan swing : Most of us would have seen this in movies and wished that we could do this too. For those of you who have no clue what a tarzan swing is - There is a rope tied to the branch of a tree and a wooden log at the bottom of the rope. You have to sit on it and go swinging across the stream like a tarzan !! Was an amazing experience. Though most of us were a bit scared initially, we enjoyed it thoroughly once we tried it and then kept swinging over and over.

Tarzan slide : This is something that I had never heard or seen. We had to climb on top of a tree (there were stairs to climb), hold on to a slide and go sliding down into the stream ! This was even better than the tarzan swing ! For our safety, they have tied a net till 3/4th of the sliding distance. This is definetely worth a try. I bet you would be a bit scared when you try this for the 1st time. To add some more freight, our guide sends his dog barging towards you when you splash into the water.

Rope bridge : Rope walk is something that many of us would have tried in several places. Only difference is that here the bridge is across a stream. Not all that exciting. But yet worth a try.

Rope walk : This is something that may look easy but you get to know how tough it is once you try it. There are 2 ropes tied one above the other seperated with a distance good enough for a person to stand on one and hold the other with his hands. The ropes are tied across 2 sides of the stream. You have to go walking on the rope and if you loose balance, off you fall into the stream !! I lost count of how many times I fell into the stream !! :P

Tube rafting : This was the highlight of the trip. We were given air filled tubes. All we had to do is sit on it and go floating in the stream. Its an adventurous version of the lazy water ride thats there in most water amusement parks. The best part is that the water current was high and there were several rocks on the path. It was fun to go floating in a wild stream.

Beech volleyball : Though this is known as beech volleyball, there is no actual beech :D .. They have created a mini mud water pool with the size  of a volleyball court. We played volleyball in knee level mud water. For a day we kept aside all our hygeine, jumped, dived in mud water and played like kids. It was fun to relive our childhood days. When I see the surf excel add (small kid playing in the mud water), i remember the beech volleyball experience that I had in Rotikallu.



With this the activities for day 1 came to an end. We had dinner at our dining room which looked liked a cave. The ambience of the dining room was too good. We sat around the bon-fire and sang old hindi songs. Was a fun filled memorable day.

On day 2 we had only 1 activity pending and that was trekking.

Trekking : Trekking had become a routine for all our trips. It was getting repetitive but this one stands out among all other treks that we had done earlier. Though the distance covered was less, the scenic beauty was amazing. One thing that you have to be prepared for when you visit Rotikallu - Leeches !! There were leeches all along our trekking path. None of us were spared. We had carried a bottle of detol diluted water which we kept spraying on our legs when leeches attacked. By the end of our trek, all of got accustomed to leech bites and it seemed like mosquito bites for us :D. Our treking destination was a waterfall amidst a jungle. Waterfall was just a normal one but the view and experience while trekking was unique !

After all the adventurous activities, it was now time to pack our bags and return to our monotonous corporate life. We left Rotikallu after lunch and reached Bangalore by night. A trip that I would cherish lifelong !!

Gopalswamy betta

Johnson, Kiran and me met up on a sat night and planned to head towards Krishnagiri McD. Intention was just a long drive to get rid of boredom due to our monotonous IT life ! On the way to Krishnagiri, we made sudden change of plan. Johnson took a U turn and off we left to Gopalswamy betta.

Location and Route : Bangalore - Mysore - Gundulpet - Bandipur

We had dinner at Maddur McD and took our own time to reach Gopalswamy betta coz it was pointless reaching there at midnight. But to our disappointment the gates were closed till 8:30 am and we had reached there by 3. We parked our car at a safe spot (11kms before the Gopalswamy checkpost) and slept in the car till 8 am.

By 8:30 the guards started issuing vehicle passes and we finally reached our destination by about 9:15 wondering if there would be any mist left over by the time we make it till there. But surprisingly the whole place was filled with mist and we were getting drenched in the mist !! We then went around  hunting for some spots to click pics. After clicking few pics at some old ruined house near the temple, we moved on to the grasslands. We were overjoyed at the sight and kept clicking pics at all possible spots. Pics included our regular poses like jumping in the air and standing on elevated spots :P !! Finally we decided to click a pic of the 3 of us running. We put the self timer ON, took positions and started running towards the cam. My cam decided its high time that it punishes me for giving it a work overload. And hence it fell down and stopped working :P ... We then spent some time walking along the grasslands and returned to the parking lot by about 11 coz we had to reach home early. On our way back we even saw some sunflower fields which looked beautiful. 

Plus points of Gopalswamy - MIST ! Its an eco friendly place free from any sort of pollution (drinking and smoking is prohibited here)

Minus points - Food is not available and there are no shops or stalls !! 

Best time to visit - Aug to Jan                                                                                           

Yercaud

23rd July 2010 is a date that my church gang would never forget coz we had a blast in Yercaud which is popularly known as "The poor man's Ooty". All jacobite churches from Bangalore participated and there were about 70 of us. From our church there were 9 of us (Johnson, Ullas, Peter, Shirley, Ajith, Divya, Kunjumon, Titus and me).

Ullu. Johnson, Peter, Shirley, Titus and me left Blore on 23rd July morning in Ullu's Scorpio and the remaining 3 joined us the next day. Our accomodation was arranged in a convent by name "House of Peace". This is very close to the school in which the malayalam movie "Notebook" was shot. The location chosen for our accomodation was beautiful and the weather was perfect !!




After freshning up, we had an ice breaker session to get introduced to each other since it was a mixed group in large numbers. The 1st 2 days passed on with songs, classes and cultural activities which kept us spiritually engaged. The day ended with a bonfire wherein all of them sang songs and danced around the fire.

25th July : All of woke up in the morning with a smile on our face coz the 3rd was scheduled for an outing to the different view points and tourists spots in Yercaud.



Pagodas point and Ladys seat : These are 2 different view points but both appeared the same to us. It was just another view point similar to several viewpoints that we have seen in many other places. All we did here was - posing for snaps !

Star lake : There was a lake similar to the ones in Ooty, Kodai and Wayanad. As expected, there was boating too. There were even stalls for games along the lakeside which included shooting and Bow & arrow. We tried all possible things irrespective of how entertaining it was !!







Kiliyur falls : The main attraction in Yercaud is the kiliyur falls. As per the latest update that I received, currently there are stairs built to reach the bottom of the falls. But when we had been there, there were no stairs and all of us went trekking which i felt was more adventurous. Initially all of us planned to trek to the bottom but few of them dropped out at the start itself since the trekking path seemed a bit risky to them. So finally it was Johnson, Titto, Ullas and me who made it to the bottom. The falls wasnt extraordinary but was worth the attempt ! After a few clicks we had to rush back considering that the rest of our gang were waiting for us.






This marked the end of an eventful trip. Yercaud is an ideal place for a camp and is rightly termed as poor mans Ooty ! Nothing remarkable but yet a place sufficient to keep you relaxed during a weekend !

Tadiyandemol

This was one of my 1st experiences in trekking and it is till date the longest one ! Tadiyandamol is a place that is popular among trekkers and less known to others. It is located in Coorg district and is the 2nd longest trek in Karnataka. Never had I heard about this place until the day before the trip. It was a group of 12 which was a mix of my 12th std batch (Abhi, Venu, Chetan and me), our juniors and few of our seniors.
We started our journey from Bangalore on 30th Jan night and reached Virajpet early morn. Coorg being the Scotland of East, was colder than what we had assumed. We were freezing !! We freshend up in a lodge, packed food that we would need till the next day and started our trek. (We couldn't load our bags much coz we had to trek for about 10kms !!)

Our 1st destination was Nalaknaad aramane. A very ancient palace that was no bigger than many of the houses I have seen in my hometown. The interiors have still been preserved like it was ages ago. Few yrs before our visit to this place, a movie was shot here which caused some damages to the art work that was done on the walls after which shooting was banned here. There was a room inside the palace which was pitch dark. Supposedly this was the room that the King used when he was attacked by Britishers and other invaders. Once you enter this room, there is no light and you wouldnt be able to spot anything. From the other end of this room, there is a secret tunnel which leads to some safe spot far from the palace. We couldnt afford to spend much time here since we had to reach the peak before it got dark.

So we started trekking towards the peak of Tadiyandamol. Though it was too cold early morn, by lunch it was burning hot and we had a tough time trekking. To make it worse, we had to carry our tents in shifts. There were 12 of us and 3 tents. 2 of them were required to carry 1 tent. So we kept taking turns to carry the tents which was additional to our backpacks and food !!

Each time we reach a mini peak we encouraged ourselves that we are almost there. But we realized later that we had encouraged ourselves quite a lot of times (there were lot of mini peaks on r way !!). Finally by early morning we reached the final destination - we were on top of tadiyandamol high above the clouds !! We were lucky to view the sunset from above the clouds !! It was about 6pm when we reached there and all of us were dead tired. We could afford to lose time and started preparing our tents. Within an hr all 3 tents were set and we made ourselves comfortable inside.

Another group had reached there before we reached and they had set a camp fire too. We slept quite early coz we were tired. Though the tent size was for 3 of them, we had no option - we slept 4 in a tent !! By early morning 4 of us were freezing inside the tent. We kept wondering what went wrong. After we woke up we realized that our tent was torn and Venu's leg was outside the tent :P. Sunrise from above the clouds was beyond thoughts !! We started our return trek after some photoshoot. During our return trek we planned to visit a waterfall too.

The waterfall was a small one but the water was extremely. We were shivering when we stepped in the water. All of us played in the water and even climbed to a spot below the waterfalls !! The swimming experts went swimming in the ice cold water. We couldnt afford to spend much time here as we had no food left for the day. Hence, we returned to Virajpet and reached Bangalore late in the night. This sure was the best trek I have ever had !! Thanks to Abhi for inviting me to this trip !!