Ride to BR hills
Last weekend, Aswin, Karthick and me had rode down to BR hills.
It was the first time we were riding on hills. Our 3 day plans of hitting kodai got reduced to a two day ride to BR hills, thanks to my dear friends and loyal servants of the great indian software companies whose employers wanted them to work even on the MAY DAY!!!
We stayed in Aswin's place the previous night hoping to wake up at 4:30 am in the morning ( that was Mapple's idea). To throw more light on mapple, this is how he goes about waking up every morning. On hearing the alarm ring, he gets damn irritated and shows all angry faces. But soon he starts enjoying the ring and starts sleeping with a peaceful smile on his face. Again when the ring goes off, he gets pissed and throws an angry face that the alarm ring had stopped!!! Knowing all this i think it was a mistake we made in buying into his idea. The result, we woke up at 6:30 am.
After some more screw ups(refer to Aswin's blog for details), we started our ride at about 9:30 in the morning from my place. The sun was scorching hot and the roads were terrible. Once in a while we stopped under a shade to take a sip from our hip flasks. We couldn't do much speeds thanks to the terrible roads. Some how we managed with lots of pain in our posteriors to get to KOLLEGAL, which was the last town before starting our ride up the ghat roads. We wanted to get to the place before dusk, as it would not be safe to ride in the hills at odd hours especially when animals roam freely. We reached the check post at 6 pm on the dot, but the guy at the check post claimed we were late by 2 minutes and that the entry is closed!! After bribing our way through, we started out ride up the hill. The ride was breath-taking!! We could feel the changing of scorching hot weather to a cool gentle breeze against our face. The best part of the ride was that we didnt find any other vehicle. It was just us! Thanks to the fact that it was forest and not a tourist spot or a pilgrimage place.
The person Mahesh Moorthy whom we offered to hitch along to the hills was working for an NGO which was focussed on upliftment and civilising of the tribes. But he confessed to us that, it was we people who could learn more from them:- Be it the kind of natural manures they use for cultivation or the way they lead their life in harmony with nature. He was also giving us some tips on how to guard ourselves incase we are attacked by animals.
Only on reaching the hills did we realize it would have been a better idea to carry our tents, as there were no rooms available. The guest houses that were available were occupied by a a crew which had come there to shoot a kannada film. The result was that we didnt find a place to stay and ended up with a couple of mats right in the middle of the forest. We went further up the hill and spread our mats. The night was getting colder and the stars were getting more in number as we concentrated. Karthick soon spotted the Orion constellation. It was so much of fun doing star gazing. Aswin was the first to spot a shooting star. Later we spotted atleast ten of them.
Occasionally, we could hear some noises. We could barely sleep. Aswin crashed at around 11 pm. Karthick barely sleapt the whole night: using the torch to check if anything was around the place. Even if he sleapt for a while, he got woken up by aswin's snore thinking it was some wild animal. The time was going too slow. We were at pins and needles as we could be attacked any time. It was a strange kind of feeling. Fear and heart pounding at one end, and a feeling of bliss of being one with nature at the other. I guess it was the longest night of our lives!!
Karthick tried waking us up early in the morn, but Aswin and i gave a damn and sleapt peacefully till 5:30 am. We went further up to find a temple. We then headed towards K.Gudi wildlife sanctuary and continued our ride down hill from there. We stopped at places to click pics. We took a different route this time. The mysore road was good for riding. With all the tiredness we reached my place at around 5 pm to chill out with some beers. We were so tired that, a bottle each of beer could get us drunk!
For a more comprehensive description of the trip , i'd suggest you guys check out Aswin's blog.
adireddi.blogspot.com
It was the first time we were riding on hills. Our 3 day plans of hitting kodai got reduced to a two day ride to BR hills, thanks to my dear friends and loyal servants of the great indian software companies whose employers wanted them to work even on the MAY DAY!!!
We stayed in Aswin's place the previous night hoping to wake up at 4:30 am in the morning ( that was Mapple's idea). To throw more light on mapple, this is how he goes about waking up every morning. On hearing the alarm ring, he gets damn irritated and shows all angry faces. But soon he starts enjoying the ring and starts sleeping with a peaceful smile on his face. Again when the ring goes off, he gets pissed and throws an angry face that the alarm ring had stopped!!! Knowing all this i think it was a mistake we made in buying into his idea. The result, we woke up at 6:30 am.
After some more screw ups(refer to Aswin's blog for details), we started our ride at about 9:30 in the morning from my place. The sun was scorching hot and the roads were terrible. Once in a while we stopped under a shade to take a sip from our hip flasks. We couldn't do much speeds thanks to the terrible roads. Some how we managed with lots of pain in our posteriors to get to KOLLEGAL, which was the last town before starting our ride up the ghat roads. We wanted to get to the place before dusk, as it would not be safe to ride in the hills at odd hours especially when animals roam freely. We reached the check post at 6 pm on the dot, but the guy at the check post claimed we were late by 2 minutes and that the entry is closed!! After bribing our way through, we started out ride up the hill. The ride was breath-taking!! We could feel the changing of scorching hot weather to a cool gentle breeze against our face. The best part of the ride was that we didnt find any other vehicle. It was just us! Thanks to the fact that it was forest and not a tourist spot or a pilgrimage place.
The person Mahesh Moorthy whom we offered to hitch along to the hills was working for an NGO which was focussed on upliftment and civilising of the tribes. But he confessed to us that, it was we people who could learn more from them:- Be it the kind of natural manures they use for cultivation or the way they lead their life in harmony with nature. He was also giving us some tips on how to guard ourselves incase we are attacked by animals.
Only on reaching the hills did we realize it would have been a better idea to carry our tents, as there were no rooms available. The guest houses that were available were occupied by a a crew which had come there to shoot a kannada film. The result was that we didnt find a place to stay and ended up with a couple of mats right in the middle of the forest. We went further up the hill and spread our mats. The night was getting colder and the stars were getting more in number as we concentrated. Karthick soon spotted the Orion constellation. It was so much of fun doing star gazing. Aswin was the first to spot a shooting star. Later we spotted atleast ten of them.
Occasionally, we could hear some noises. We could barely sleep. Aswin crashed at around 11 pm. Karthick barely sleapt the whole night: using the torch to check if anything was around the place. Even if he sleapt for a while, he got woken up by aswin's snore thinking it was some wild animal. The time was going too slow. We were at pins and needles as we could be attacked any time. It was a strange kind of feeling. Fear and heart pounding at one end, and a feeling of bliss of being one with nature at the other. I guess it was the longest night of our lives!!
Karthick tried waking us up early in the morn, but Aswin and i gave a damn and sleapt peacefully till 5:30 am. We went further up to find a temple. We then headed towards K.Gudi wildlife sanctuary and continued our ride down hill from there. We stopped at places to click pics. We took a different route this time. The mysore road was good for riding. With all the tiredness we reached my place at around 5 pm to chill out with some beers. We were so tired that, a bottle each of beer could get us drunk!
For a more comprehensive description of the trip , i'd suggest you guys check out Aswin's blog.
adireddi.blogspot.com
posted by Can you hear me ?? at 11:37 PM
3 Comments:
hey! i've visited! ;-)
hey ajith,
y do these shooting stars feature in every camping of urs?? sentimentaa ;-)
dude!!!.... u will get to see shooting stars when you are under the naked sky and u see the end of horizon in all the four directions!!!
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