The way to the top......

I and my friends Debanjan and Abishek made an unplanned trip to Chikkamagalur district of Karnataka over this weekend (28-29 April, 2012). On 26th night we made bus reservations from Bangalore to Chikkamagalur through K.S.R.T.C. website. Though we got Volvo tickets to our journey back to Bangalore on the 29th night ( though it may be called 30th morning as our boarding time was 12am), we did not get tickets under Premium service class on our way forward on 27th night and thus we were prepared for " A bumpy ride" as Enrique would love to say (or rather sing :P). I prepared some curry for dinner and planned to buy parathas from some roadside hotel but my "bhukkar" (glutton for all those who are not familiar with this colloquial term) friends did not find the curries enough when we finally met over dinner at our pick-up point, Kempegowda bus stand popularly known as Majestic. As a result we planted ourselves inside a nearby restaurant for a grand dinner.
After we gorged ourselves on chicken masala, egg curry, cauliflower curry, parathas and soft drinks we made our way to platform no. 17 from where our bus was scheduled to leave at 11.30pm. We reached the mentioned platform by 11pm and had a hard time locating our bus. We were at a loss with all the Kannada instructions thrown at our direction. We threw Bengali counterparts at them just to make them feel the way we were and had a good laugh. Finally after much effort we found the required bus and placed our asses in the respective seats as indicated in the ticket..... The bus started at 12am.... We did have some hell of a time (and I mean it literally) inside the bus... We reached Chikkamagalur bus stand at 5.20am with a real bad bus ride to look  back at..... We freshened ourselves at the bus stand and geared up for a great time ahead..... At around 5.45am we somehow managed to get an auto to Mullayangiri which is the highest peak between the Himalayas and the Nilgiris with a height of 1930 m (6317 ft.) located in the Baba Budan Giri Range ( A little piece of historical information ( And I have acquired this aberrant habit of going through the history of a certain place I am visiting from the famous Satyajit Ray character Feluda) : Baba Budan was a prophet who first started coffee plantation in India by planting coffee seeds in Chikkamagalur. I was looking forward to some great coffee. I must say I was greatly disappointed). We wanted to buy some dry food to gear ourselves for the camping that we had planned (We had hired a tent prior to our journey and we were all set to spend time in the lap of nature. Home-stays and resorts which offer similar deals did not suit our down-and -out budget so we had our own way of counter attack...:P). The auto driver somehow talked us into buying it from some shop which existed at the top. The auto started towards its destination. The chilly wind was pervading our comfort zone inside the auto. The weather was a respite and though we were almost shivering we welcomed it with open heart. I asked the auto driver in Hindi whether it always this way ( lucky me he understood Hindi) but he said that it was due to the rain the previous night that the weather has turned out this way. I thanked heaven. And after about an hour ride through some picturesque locale, we  reached a place where the auto stopped. There was a small temple and a little piece of barren land. the auto driver said he wont go beyond this point. 

Debanjan and myself gearing up to confront the chilling weather

We said that we wanted to camp at the top and we were in dire need of dry food, water and kerosene for lighting up a camp fire. He spoke to some people in the temple in the local language and told that there was some shop 5km downhill where we will get the required things. We said that he has to take us there because he had promised we could get food up here. He reluctantly agreed. And after a long ride we reached a small shop somewhere in between nowhere. We bought the required things and had a steaming cup of coffee and made our way back. The auto left us somewhere near the place that he had earlier taken us and told us to continue and we did. It was a pleasant walk up the hill. The place was so charming and quaint that we almost forgot the physical exertion of walking up the hill. 

And our journey to the top continued. We tried to explore some short-cuts through the green hills but all in vain. 

So we took the road well tried. The way to the top was soothing to the eyes and nerves. We thanked our stars for bringing us to this place so heavenly and seraphic. And we could not wait camping at the top and savoring this delectable  beauty throughout the day and deep into the night.

Myself

Abishek on his way up

Debanjan

And after about an hour walk and after climbing up almost 500 steps we reached a temple perched right at the top of the peak. The view from the top was so divine that we fell in love with the place almost immediately. We took in some prophylactic air and acted as per William Wordsworth..." What is this life if full of care........"

We entered the temple ground and devised ways and means to persuade the temple authority to  allow us to camp in some nearby location. We were gearing ourselves for some colossal war with the language when a teenage boy appeared from nowhere. He was in temple gear and seemed to be a  indweller of the temple. I was about to talk in sign language when he said in clear English, " do you want something?" I thought god-sent. I asked him if we could get food here. He said he needs to ask the higher authority and he was off on his errand. We laid our asses in the cool floor of the temple and made ourselves at home. He, later we came to know his name was Madan, came back with good news. We asked him if we can camp here and he showed us a spot which was so alluring that we gave in to its beckoning at once. We saw piles of wood all around, we had food at our service, we were equipped with all the necessary things, we were all ready for the go. We started putting up the tent and we were done in no time at all. All thanks to the pro, Debanjan. 

Tent all set

After a while Madan came to call us for breakfast. We went and was confronted with a few unknown faces and Madan was nowhere to be seen. We could not get what they tried to communicate in Kannada but nothing felt right. After some struggling we understood that they were not willing to furnish us with food due to some unknown reason. We went back to our tent humiliated. And then we busied ourselves in search of water. We followed a water line down the hill and reached some kind of reservoir swarming with tadpoles. The water looked almost undrinkable. A man adorned with orange dhoti looking like some priest came from nowhere and gestured that it was indeed drinking water and added that the electric motor was not working and hence the water could not be pumped upwards. We had no other option but to fill our bottle with this unappetizing water. We filtered it a handkerchief which Abishek luckily bought from Chikkamagalur bus-stand. And thus our problem of drinking water was somehow solved. While we were on our way back to the tent, a man who looked after the cows in the temple came by and gestured that there was a similar reservoir a little away from here. He said with vigorous hand movements that the other reservoir was near to our tent and he usually collects water from there. We followed him to the other reservoir and found the water there to be a little better off. The man seemed genuine and benign. And he must have seen the same in us because a little after we reached our tent he brought us food. Rotis made from rice dust and an onion gravy. The hospitality won us over and we in return gave him biscuits. Empty stomach makes anything and everything delectable. We satisfied our hunger with the unanticipated food. Debanjan liked it so much that he saved some for dinner. After quenching our rumbling stomachs we sat outside our tent to take in some paradisaical view.  

The view from our tent

After a while we went inside the protective canopy of the tent to catch up with a power nap. We snuggled against the only blanket we carried with us. In no time at all we could hear the plitter-platter of rain-drops against the roof of the tent. And suddenly someone was pulling off the blanket from me. I woke and saw Debanjan and Abishek already awake and fretting. And then I realized that it rained so hard that water has seeped inside the tent. We hugged each other and waited for the rain to stop. After about half an hour the rain came to a halt and we prepared to light the camp-fire and blow dry the tarpaulin which we had spread on the floor of the tent. I gathered piles of wood all wet. Debanjan and Abishek lit the fire and blow dried the tarpaulin. Everything else inside the tent was wet. My camera too. And it was refusing to start. Somehow we managed to rearrange things inside the tent. The longevity of the fire was not long as all the logs were wet. 

As soon as we had put things to place Madan called us for lunch. It was 4pm and too late for lunch. Bu we did not turn down the offer and I went and brought food for us. This time we were given rice mixed with some gravy and it was not edible. So we devoured the dry food that we bought from the downhill shop. Puffed rice and mixture and biscuits. We were direly missing a steaming cup of tea. 

It was dark and cold and we lit candles inside the tent to make it warm and comfy. We played some card games and antakshari inside the tent and chatted all through 12am. The toil throughout the day was creeping into us and as a result we all went to sleep. When we were deep into sleep, Madan came to call us for dinner but we refused (Later we contemplated that they must have felt bad). We were back into deep siesta. I was the first to wake up in the morning. It was 6am. I came out of the tent and a balmy sun was awaiting me there. After some time I saw Abishek coming out of the tent. We freshened ourselves, got into our shoes and decided to find an alternate route downwards. We set off on our errand while Debanjan was still asleep.

We came back with no results. Debanjan was awake by the time he we came back. He freshened himself and made the nearby bushes his lavatory. As I said earlier he was a seasoned trekker. Abishek inspired by him also did the same and now I was the one left. I had no choice left. Debanjan agreed to show me a safe place and I followed him. After all was done I and Debanjan went to fill water from the other reservoir. When we came back we had bad news awaiting us. Police appeared from nowhere and objected our camping in the temple ground. We immediately packed our stuff and devised a way out to avoid being fined. But we somehow decided to confront the police as we did not do anything untoward. Debanjan went to talk to the police while the man who showed us the other reservoir came to us and told us to take some downhill road to town because he sensed that the police was here to fine us. Debanjan came back and said that the police was asking for Rs. 500 but he somehow managed him and paid Rs. 150 instead. We started our way to Chikkamagalur bus-stand with a heavy heart. As it is we were stone-broke and the fine left us a little more. We somehow tried to manage the lost money somehow. And the first thing that came to our mind was to walk all the way down to Chikkamagalur bus-stand. It was an upheaval task. And all of a sudden an idea flashed in our mind. We planned to ask for lift. While we were almost there where the auto left us the day before, we saw a black Alto with an empty back-seat. I immediately swayed my hand and the car stopped. We told  the man in the driver-seat and the woman beside him that we wanted to go down-hill and they agreed to give us lift ( Till date I tell the guys that it was for me that the driver was ready to give us lift....:P). We chatted with the man and the woman and made ourselves comfortable. after a while, the man said that they wanted to go sight-seeing and the way to the town was on the opposite side. So we vacated the car. As the car left I did a little joy-dance as you may call it. My first experience of asking for a lift. We all were in good spirit and decided to cover the rest of the distance by foot. We did all kind of stupid jig on our way. Walking through coffee-plantation was so gratifying.

Myself

Abishek

The road seemed unending. The destination was out of site. We stopped a bike and asked the man regarding the distance of the bus stand. He replied with a good 10km. we were so high-spirited that we decided to cover it by foot. But all of a sudden when we saw an empty white Safari speeding by I did not hesitate to stop. Again we got lift. After reaching the bus stand the duo in the front seat the man in the driver seat and the woman in the front seat beside the driver was ready to take us all the way to Bangalore but I resisted. It was too much help to ask for free....:D.

We kept our luggage in the bus stand luggage counter and had a sumptuous lunch consisting of chicken tandoori, chicken masala and roti. After lunch was over we enquired about some local spots worth visiting. There was none except a Ratnagiri Bore 4kms away. We bought ice-creams and walked all the way to what was called Ratnagiri bore. on reaching we saw that it was a local park. we made ourselves at home. It was 3pm and our bus was at 12am. We took our nap in the park benches. At 7pm there was a dancing fountain show. We were all in for some raunchy music. At 7.30pm we made our way back. On our way back we had coffee and chicken kabab. It was 9pm and time for dinner. We had egg fried rice and chilly chicken from the same hotel we had lunch earlier that day ( Hotel Navayuga Family restaurant near the bus stand). We were finished by 10.30pm. We collected our luggage and waited for our bus over a steaming cup of tea. At 11.30pm we boarded the bus, this time a volvo. We reached Bangalore by 4.30am the next day. And ended our eventful trip to Chikkamagalur.