Sunday, July 27, 2008

Agumbe

A sudden decision to drive on a weekend was chocked out and plan was made to drive to Agumbe.. one of the worlds wettest place :-) . Sripad directly landed from pune at my house from were we started towards his house, sripad had some personal work before everyone else would assemble at his house. The plan was, I would have some sleep in the mean time so that i can drive in the night however i couldn't sleep all thanks to the phone calls :-) and at the end rest of the team landed at sripad's house at around 12.30.

At last we started at around 1am at midnight, we couldn't find petrol until we crossed Nelmangala and after filling my car for full tank we stopped at a dhaba for dinner at around 2am. We had amazing roti and dal at this place and started moving towards shimoga our first stop. At times i wonder how, but certain things are beyond explanation every one in the car was sleeping i was trying to focus on the empty roads, roads were empty covered by trees on either side and silent music for my company. Roads looked like a black hole into which i was driving all of a sudden i felt like my eyes was about to close and it was happening beyond my control all of a sudden my phone began ringing it was my mom worried about my night driving :-) i could just smile thinking of her and i stopped my car after few kms for tea and then washed my face and was feeling fresh again to drive.
We reached shimoga at around 6.30 and went to my aunt's place, we got refreshed ourselves and had wonderful dosas prepared by aunt. After which we started towards agumbe at around 9 am. Our first stop was at tungabhadra dam, it was not of great interest as you are neither allowed to enter the dam nor get down to the water. We didn't spend much time here and started to move towards Sakre bailu elephant champ. This place was very great with 2 small baby elephants. It was fun to watch them playing around.

After this we went on a boat ride on the tunga dam back waters listening few experiences of the boatmen. From here we started enjoying the beautiful forests till agumbe, the drive was spectacular we did stop and even danced on the roads. We also stopped near theertahalli to have the golibaje and mangalore buns :-)

We reached agumbe at around 2pm. It was drizzling, we reached "Dodda Mane" around 120years old house with 2 Hande :-) now Hande is a mystery with a humor . We had a small break and had a look around the wonderful house :-).This is also the house were in some part of Malgudi days the famous TV serial was shot. After finishing our lunch at this place we started walking towards the mystrerious jogi gundi falls. The best thing was on our way we met a person who started warning us not to venture into the forests and he also warned us we would never come back if we don't listen to him. He also tried to say that he was a student of some person whom we never knew :-). But it was fun mixed with fear to be challenged by someone new unexpectedly before we are trying to do something new :-).

The evergreen forests of Agumbe as expected was a mystery even though we just walked along the road until the last few meters we did find a dead snake, scorpin and lots of other insects. This place is heaven for the all the poisonous reptiles with lots of leeches all around you. We reached jogi gundi , it was beautiful green water with thick forest all around. We enjoyed in water for some time and it was here that i slipped from a rock and got struck in a awkward position before i could get up :-) but i had sprained my leg a bit.

After coming back from jogi gundi it started to rain very heavily and the visibility was very poor, we had already decided not to stay in dodda mane as it was next to road and we wanted to stay somewhere inside the forest, Boka told that he had a relative at a near by place called Vagale on the way to koppa from agumbe probably around 20 - 25kms from agumbe and we started to drive towards Vagale. It was a beautiful place in the middle of the forest and on the banks of tunga river :-).

Once we reached the home i was very tired and i don't remember anything until i got up in the morning, sleep after one and half days. I got up at 6 and along with gilli started exploring the places around, we got some good shots for my camera. Then we walked towards the banks of tunga. It was a beautiful calm river i wondered i knew swimming, it would have been a great experience to swim in this calm and quiet river .

From here we went to a house where in i had my first jack fruit of the year to eat and also some country side snacks which probably everyone enjoyed a lots. We had a wonderful lunch and started back from here and reached bangalore by around 10pm.

Team :
Gilli,Boka,Pada,Loki and Poorna
Funny moments :
Hande at Dodda mane, Dudda li tea.

Travel Details:
Bangalore - Tumkur - Shimoga - Agumbe - Vagale(Near Koppa) - Chickmangalore - Hassan - Bangalore (Drive of around 1000kms)

Contact of Dodda mane at Agumbe to stay : Kasturi Akka ( 08181- 233075).

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Puzzle

Probably many a times telling something straight on face might have a momentary impact but probably making it feel what has to be told would leave an ever lasting scare...
I sat alone the breeze was strong... it rained very heavily.. my friends kept buzzing me on my mobile but i was lost... did not understand what i was trying to understand sitting here... i didn't understand anything other than the physical presence of the body... was feeling cold.. felt very lonely... but my mind kept telling me how can you be so lonely with so many wonderful friends along side you.. and you look so happy in your day to day life... yes i am like that full of happiness all around me... but then felt like am I trying to run away from myself? Everything looked like a puzzle where in i was not able to understand the problem itself :-(
Felt like i was a very happy man... but it took some time to understand that happiness was in the form of sand in my hand... never understood when it slipped... i always wonder why is that i can never visualize what is next, is it that the entire world leaves in sort of a lost world?
Its raining very heavily... i am drenched in rain and feeling really cold and my body is shivering ... felt just need some help...
well probably few thought i never understood the actions and i was dumb... but i felt there was a feeling which i kept to myself hoping not to hurt others... saw a beautiful end but yet another beginning....
I walked alone, one hand did stop me... i felt it was with me... but everything looked soo virtual.. yet soo real..