The idea was to visit Kuduremukha, Hanumangundi and Shringeri on the long weekend resulted because of Karnataka Rajyotsava falling on a Friday. Four of us friends decided to hit the road and it didn't matter where we are going. Because of that, we ended up enjoying the trip highly in spite of landing up in places we never intended to.
We were supposed to start by 4.30AM from Bangalore got together at 6.30AM, maintaining the Indian Standard Time. Our friend Arjun generously gave us his Fiat Palio (which he rarely took out) even though he was not going to join us. It is a ten year old second hand car whose tire got burst in the previous trip. It was sitting at his office parking lot from 3 months till we asked for it. As the trip was decided impromptu, nobody was able to check its condition properly. It's silencer had some problem and it was making the sound of cars some punksters ride near college gates. Right when we were stuck in Goragunte Paalya traffic, the car decided to give haath. It wouldn't switch on, no matter what. Where would one find a mechanic so early in the morning?! We managed to get the engine running by giving it jerk. I had a bad feeling about continuing, but others wanted to put up with it in any case. We went straight to Hasana from there without killing the engine again, in empty stomach. There, the mechanic found out that it was some electrical locha and it would take more than a day to fix it . So instead, he gave a temporary solution to turn on the car by rubbing two electrical wires just like they do it on movies while stealing the car!
We had our breakfast at one of our gang member Aalok's house (who had gone on a bike ride to Talakaveri. Read about his scary ordeal here). His father Prashanth Bhat who is a tourist place aficionado (along with being a painter, photographer, Principal of college etc etc) gave us alternate ideas about which places we can cover. We headed towards Chikkamagaluru to see Mullayyanagiri from there. Witnessed a crazy accident aversion by Verna car driver followed by a chase to get the Swift driver who could have caused the accident. It was straight out of movies. After all this hungama, reached Chikkamagaluru, had lunch and drove to Mullayyanagiri. Sun was setting gradually by the time we reached there.
Even though one can drive directly to the top of the hill, we decided to park the car on top and come down so that we can trek.
Bettada Melondu maneya maadi..
At one point we got stuck and felt that we will end up in Bababudan giri. It was getting dark and we had option of climbing down or to continue to get stuck somewhere! To our surprise, my brother Sujith got 3G signal there. When we looked up the Google maps, the trekking path was marked along with its name as Sarpadaari. We got back to the right path and continued our journey towards the peak.
We finished at top after 2 hours and 50 minutes of trek. Like all the hill tops, this one too has a temple. The only means of getting the food there is from the house of the priest. After requesting him to arrange the food for us, we got down to set up the tent. With some of the equipment missing, chief engineer Rajeev got into fixing things up.
And finally the tents were up..
It was a first time experience for me to sleep inside a tent. I did feel little claustrophobic. Woke up in the morning to see thick fog outside. After much wait, fog started clearing up and covering the beauty of nature beneath as if someone is switching on and off a button continuously. People were accumulating on the top quite early from the morning itself. There were few vendors with their rickshaws selling rice bhath's and chilli bajji's. After savoring them with tea, we started strolling around. Some had got Karnataka flag and when the fog was cleared for a moment, I got to click this..
Once the fog was cleared, the view ahead of us pure beauty.
Greek god poses..
We started towards Chikkamagaluru after some time, without deciding on our next destination yet...
Last two images clicked by Rajeev Komar.
(Click here to read the Part II)
We were supposed to start by 4.30AM from Bangalore got together at 6.30AM, maintaining the Indian Standard Time. Our friend Arjun generously gave us his Fiat Palio (which he rarely took out) even though he was not going to join us. It is a ten year old second hand car whose tire got burst in the previous trip. It was sitting at his office parking lot from 3 months till we asked for it. As the trip was decided impromptu, nobody was able to check its condition properly. It's silencer had some problem and it was making the sound of cars some punksters ride near college gates. Right when we were stuck in Goragunte Paalya traffic, the car decided to give haath. It wouldn't switch on, no matter what. Where would one find a mechanic so early in the morning?! We managed to get the engine running by giving it jerk. I had a bad feeling about continuing, but others wanted to put up with it in any case. We went straight to Hasana from there without killing the engine again, in empty stomach. There, the mechanic found out that it was some electrical locha and it would take more than a day to fix it . So instead, he gave a temporary solution to turn on the car by rubbing two electrical wires just like they do it on movies while stealing the car!
We had our breakfast at one of our gang member Aalok's house (who had gone on a bike ride to Talakaveri. Read about his scary ordeal here). His father Prashanth Bhat who is a tourist place aficionado (along with being a painter, photographer, Principal of college etc etc) gave us alternate ideas about which places we can cover. We headed towards Chikkamagaluru to see Mullayyanagiri from there. Witnessed a crazy accident aversion by Verna car driver followed by a chase to get the Swift driver who could have caused the accident. It was straight out of movies. After all this hungama, reached Chikkamagaluru, had lunch and drove to Mullayyanagiri. Sun was setting gradually by the time we reached there.
We finished at top after 2 hours and 50 minutes of trek. Like all the hill tops, this one too has a temple. The only means of getting the food there is from the house of the priest. After requesting him to arrange the food for us, we got down to set up the tent. With some of the equipment missing, chief engineer Rajeev got into fixing things up.
And finally the tents were up..
It was a first time experience for me to sleep inside a tent. I did feel little claustrophobic. Woke up in the morning to see thick fog outside. After much wait, fog started clearing up and covering the beauty of nature beneath as if someone is switching on and off a button continuously. People were accumulating on the top quite early from the morning itself. There were few vendors with their rickshaws selling rice bhath's and chilli bajji's. After savoring them with tea, we started strolling around. Some had got Karnataka flag and when the fog was cleared for a moment, I got to click this..
Greek god poses..
We started towards Chikkamagaluru after some time, without deciding on our next destination yet...
Last two images clicked by Rajeev Komar.
(Click here to read the Part II)
