After a month of planning, and three drop outs, seven of us headed out to Wild Valley farm in two rented Indicas. This was on Saturday, the 19th of March, 2005. The seven of us - Chick, Sari, NFS, Sunny, Sumi, Suman and I. The ones driving - Chick and I (I guess everyone trusted Chick's driving skills over mine, cos the only one who was willing to travel in my car was Suman.)
We started almost 2 hours later than planned, thanks to yours truly (I had had just 2.5 hours of sleep, so gimme a break!!). After driving for around an hour or so, me and Suman had our first near miss with a bus. I was overtaking the bus, who in turn decided to over take a car in front of him (which I couldn't see and didn't anticipate), and the bus nearly swerved into us, but luckily I showed enough presence of mind to save the two of us and the car too.
After a while, Chick's car stopped. There was a problem with something to do with the ignition circuit, dunno what its called. We stopped at Kanakapura to get breakfast and get the car fixed. After more than an hour, we headed out again, stopped a couple of times to answer nature's call and to take snaps. I was driving slowly, getting used to the car and highway driving. The snaps are available here.
After Sumi's taunts and getting used to the car, decided to drive faster. Was able to ride above 100 most of the time. Hit 130 couple of times. Could have gone faster but Suman was controlling the brakes :-). Anyway, after driving some 200 kms, we reached the Karnataka border check post. The officer asked us where we were going and we told him. He let us though with no issues. Missed the entry to the forest at Germalam, luckily noticed that early and turned back and reached the forest checkpost. The officer there asked us in Tamil where we were from and where we were off to. I didnt know any Tamil, so just told him two words "Daniel's farm" and the checkpost opened up. Reminded me of the Arabian Nights :-))
On reaching the farm we were greeted by Daniel. Luckily, we were the only group there, so we had the entire farm to the seven of us, apart from Daniel and the people who worked there of course. Gulped down the cold lime juice that was prepared for us, changed and jumped into the pool. The water in the pool was very cold compared to the air outside and it took me some time to get used to the water. I dont know how to swim so spent most of the time at the edge of the pool.
After an hour or so, we got out of the pool, changed into dry clothes and went to have lunch. Daniel told us what we could do that day. He suggested a small trek through the forest, but said that we have to get back by 5:30. We decided to take a small nap to beat the heat and go for the trek in the evening. We were off on the trek at around 4:30. Took a smallish trek and were back by 6. Sumi, Sari, NFS and CK decided to drive back to Germalam to call up home and inform their parents that all was well. Sunny was fast asleep, infact, he missed the trek too, while me and Suman decided to take another nap. The guys were back around 7 and by then Vijay, one of the farm-hands had got the bonfire going. We sat around the fire and ate pakodas and drank coffee while playind DC. We had our dinner by 8:30, and got back to the bonfire. A while later, we decided to bring out the booze. Drank for a while and slowly everyone decided to hit the sack. I guess it was around 11.
We were up by around 9:30 the next day. Had a good night's sleep. It was the quitest night I remember. After brushing and bathing we had our breakfast. Settled the bills with Daniel, took a couple of photos and we were off. We planned to visit the Tibitean monasteries in Odeyarapalya. Some guy hitched a ride with us at the Karnataka checkpost. We went to the Dzogchen Monastery. It was around 12:45 by the time we got there. We asked one of the monks to open the temple and took a look inside. Then called home again. While we were about to leave for Kollegal, we met a guy who was walking by the road side with some rocks in his hand.
He asked us if we were visiting the monastery for the first time. I said yes. He told us about himself. His name was Bryan, working for SBI. Got bored of the city life in Bangalore. Had seen Odeyarapalya during one of his bike trips, fell in love with the place and decided to stay. He enjoyed his weekends trekking to the peaks of the hills that surrounded the place. Pretty interesting guy. Took us to a restaurant and asked us beefeaters to try Thupa. Turned out to be rice noodles with roasted beef pieces. Loved it. Others had egg noodles.
Said our good byes to Bryan and headed back to Kollegal. From there on the journey was pretty un-eventful. Got back to Bangalore by around 8 pm. It was around 10:30 pm by the time CK and I returned the cars to Hertz and got back to my place. Spent some time chatting with CK and he headed home. All in all, was an awesome weekend. Can't wait to do another trip. Guess it will have to wait for the monsoons of after.
No comments:
Post a Comment