Sunday, September 30, 2007

Beach Trek...

A beach trek was due for a long time.... just like yedakumeri railway track trek and this time we decided to go ahead with the beach trek we knew if at all we are going for a beach trek this is the ideal time not much of heat and not much of rain..... yes the weather for beach trek was just perfect with a bit of rain to add some spice for the fun.....

As i had gone to udupi to attend my cousine's marriage i didnot think it was worth going back to bangalore again and come back, so decided to travel from mangalore to gokarna by government bus.....ooo god a stretch of 200kms gave me very bad memories horrible roads...in fact many places there is no road..... it took almost 8+ hours to travel this distance with lots of body pain....

I reached gokarna by around 7pm found a lodge opposite the bus stop and just checked in i didnot have any energy left for the day ....just called up friends to ask have they left bangalore.... bad luck...they had some issue with bus and they couldnot start before 11 and this added to all the fun.... they couldnot reach before 11.30 in the following morning.....

We had to start our trek at 7 in the morning and we started at 1 it spoiled our plans badly however we decided to enjoy the path rather than cover the distance.... We refreshed at chitra's friends place had food and got our dinner packed and started to move towards the kudle beach.... in fact the first beach was the gokarna beach very near to the temple..... since our only reference was a blog by bharat...we didnot have much idea about the route....

I initially thought there shouldn't be much problem for us as we had tents and we dont have to worry much about the stay and stuffs.....but it was not that easy either adding to it was the delay in our start.... after around 1 hour we reached OM beach it was just 1km walk, this was my 3rd visit to OM beach in this year..... dont know but this time i didnot even have a proper look at the OM probably because i wanted to see what is ahead...

The route ahead is not very easy as it is made of huge sharp rocks.... and which might hurt u badly if u slip.... and one side of which is the ferocious sea.... after Om beach we reached halfmoon beach... friends couldn't resist water any more and few got down to water.... well it was here that i had given gilli my specs to hold and went to wash my face but with in minutes i had lost my specs....lucky enough i found it beneath sand almost sunk inside...... Halfmoon beach is surronded with rocks and it is not advisable to get into water.....over here

From halfmoon beach we moved towards paradise...and it started raining making the route very slippery....lakshmi struggled a lot.... this was a spectacular beach i loved it the most probably i will go here again i wanna camp beside this sea in the night and enjoy the morning it was an amazing beach.....but again didnot feel like it was an ideal place to get down into water as lots of rocks around and a bit of risk is involved..... found few foreigners as well along with lots of syringes had heard lots of drug trade happens over here.... syringes were justification for the same probably.....It was here that visy had twisted his ankle and had to take a small break...

Know one knew the route ahead of this and also camping for us was an issue as it had rained a bit... also we knew that ahead Aghanashini river joins the sea.... the route ahead was a bit tricky as we dont have to walk along the sea and climb a small mountain and cross a small forest to reach a place called Meppadi... from here we got a straight mud road to reach the port where we can hire a boat to cross the river... It was here shilpi lost her mobile 2nd in a row.....

It was already dark and around 50people in a small motor boat which was almost at the same level as water was very scary..... well to be frank not scary but rather i was thinking like these are the boats which we get to see in the newspapers telling that toppled can say it was a bit of risk as 90% of us didnot know swimming.... and also it was dark....once you crossed the river it was very dark with no power and we passed along few huts of the fisher men..... and got the help of a person who took almost everyone in a small cab to a temple near by at kagal where we could camp.... After refreshing in the temple once we opened our food we found that the food was not in great form but no other go :-( ....hopefully this was the only regret in our trip....as we had tents and had planned to camp near the beach but ended up in a temple well.... it was only because we were late and it had become dark and we didnot know the route ahead.....

We got up early in the morning and were ready to move towards the sea again....beerukudi beach.... from here its almost like a 6-9kms long stretch of beach it was amazing.....The feel of breeze around the beach in the early morning pleased one and everyone..... we could feel the breeze.. kiss your face and then leave you behind...... we stopped at around 8.30 to have breakfast.... We had prepared avalakki.... it was fun to see lakshmi take his share and hide in a small place behind a boat hehehehe.....

From here we moved towards Kadle beach our last stop...it was around 12, i had resisted hard enough not to get into water for 2 days..... once we knew we are done with trek i ran to water and went far ahead to enjoy the high waves....could feel the power of waves the more i went to challenge it was thrown back telling you are no match for me..... dived with waves..... played with all the friends.... it was fun... the best thing i liked the most was we went so ahead that after we came back there was no sand in our body......

From Kadle beach we reached kadle busstop were our bus was waiting...... end of beach trek....but even after a week....everyone are still crying .... especially people who were fair have become like zebra.....with black and white patches.....

It was the end but what i missed was camping in front of the beach....and enjoying the morning in front of the beach.... i want to camp in paradise beach will do that soon.... felt like it was a mixture of calm, beauty and ferocious in it.... i wished i could have sat on rocks in the morning to give some thought for myself........ well felt like that is what you loose when you are with friends..... got one more wild idea should either drive a bike or do cycling along the long sea shore.... will take up some time.....

The return journey was action packed just near jog falls.... we saw a huge king cobra to me this was the best thing..... a huge angry king cobra with its hood raised..... i had never seen this beauty ever before....wow it was just amazing...... we stopped at jog and had lots of pineapple.... after which we had an action packed night everyone dancing hard in the bus.....

Trek log:
Bangalore to Gokarna - Via Tumkur,Arasikere, Shimoga,Sagara,Honnavara,Kumta, Gokarna
Start time : 11:15 PM IST - Gokarna reached @ 12 PM IST
Brunch @ chitra's frend house - Dinner filling in dabba's uppittu Kesaribath
Trek start @ 1:15 PM IST - Gokarna Beach - Kudle Beach - Om Beach - Half Moon beach - paradise beach ( need to climb 3 small hills ) -
Reach Meppadi - then reach Aganashini Via Boat - 7 PM IST - then reach Kagal ( local cab)
Stay @ temple, freshing dinner sleeping
Morning 7:15 start - Kagal to beerukudi - 7:45
8:30 bf - then walk walk walk - 6 kms, reach Kadle beach - 12 PM IST
2 hrs water game
2 PM IST packup to Kadle bus stand then rech kumta
Lunch @ Kamat
3:30 back to bangalore Via Sagara - 6 PM Joga
6:30 back - Dinner @ Shimoga
Monday Morning 4:30 bangalore

Trek Organisers:
Lakshmi,Poorna,Diwi,CSP,Manju,Gilli,Prathiba

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

83 Year Old Young Man

I had been to my cousine's marriage.... i had a plan to leave to permude(a remote village in the middle of the forest around 20kms from mangalore airport) soon after lunch and meet grandpa.... a place i love a lot..... got lots of memories with this place.......

At around 3 at udupi i went to grossary stores and got some day to day grossary and some fruits.... and started in a bus towards permude.... it was long time since i had been there but still i remembered everything....... i remembered a lot about my grandma who passed away last year.... i was soo unfortunate i had just spoken to her one day before and promised to visit her the next day....but i was late....

The bus took me over the curvy roads along but one funny thing was at one stop some were near a womens college at mulki.... 100s of girls got into the bus and it looked like i was the sole male in the bus was very funny they looked at me very strangely probably because i was a bit drenched with rain and also had big luggage hanging around me.....

I reached permude at around 5.30 called up grandpa to check has he reached home... and he adviced me to take an easier route as the normal route was in bad shape and also due to rains i had to cross a small stream...... but i insisted to go by the normal route and asked him not to worry.... i got a bit lost in the woods but i managed to go back.... i reached my home.... i love this home a lot.... felt like my grand maaa was waiting for me..... i dont know but i miss her a lot..... i almost got tears in my eyes seeing the house...... the tree under which i used to sit with my grandmaaa and listen to her stories...... all came to mind in a flash of second....

I entered the house and was very happy to see grandpa.... now he leaves alone in this remote place they dont have kids.... so he now feels very lonely on this earth without grandma.... everything in the house looked in a bad shape.... i entered the kitchen were in my grandma used to serve me the best food i had ever tasted in life.... and the kitchen looked haunted all the utensils she used rusted out.... the swing on which i slept when ever i went there...on my grandmams legs ...... felt like she still existed in that house......

I could not get sleep in the night somehow every moment i was feeling like someone is calling me.... towards the tree or towards a remote room in the house.... felt like my grandmamma also wanted to meet me.... but no one knew the source of how to meet.... i just wanted to meet her once.... such was my state i don't know y but i was like on my knees please give me one chance to meet her...... but does that work?

Morning as soon as i got up.... i moved towards the room in the 1st floor which invited me in the night...... it looked haunted dark rooms couldn't see anything with the doors closed and when u open the door it sounds like a horror movie due to the sound of the wooden doors.... once i entered the room it was spiders and bats everywhere...... it was a mess....but 2 things which caught me up were a suitcase and other box which contained all the belongings of my grandma.... i touched it to feel her... my heart cried for her....

Then i decided to speak to grandpa..... grandma was my past now i need to look into the person i have in hand..... asked him would he like to join me to bangalore no was the immediate response... i know he cannot leave without his house...... he told the stories about grandma probably about which he might not have told to anyone.... i saw tears in his eyes.... he was such a strong man i had never seen his eyes wet in the toughest of the moments.... it was his simplicity in life which took him far away from worries...... but now he misses his wife with whom he had spent 50years of life together supporting each other in this remote place..... now thats what is love...... he told he feels her in every corner of the house everyday feels like she is still around me.... i hugged him and he cried a lot.... probably he might not have cried so much in his life time.... it was a support he needed.... but what and how much i can do??? i don't know the answer right now.... but i will definitely take up this.... probably i have a duty in my hands......which i will not hesitate to finish.....