Sharavathi - a Mock tail of adventure & fun unlimited

Yo Friends,

I am back with a bang…this time not about some trek…!! but about the water sports that we N’joyed in Sharavathi Backwaters…!! What a trip it was….A memorable one, wanna know in what way??? Well, lot many reasons – got to meet new people, got to visit a new place, adventuring water sports, tasted new drink, got well verse about Tanning and sunburn…and last but not the least – learnt a good lesson of not going out anywhere in the hot summer again…..!!!! Nevertheless, was a awesome trip and a fantastic gang with full of idiotic and cranky guys & sweet gals.... !!

This trip was with some of the bestest folks I met during my Himalayan Trek and their friends and their friends…(hope u got it!) Our initial plan was to go to Sharavathi Backwaters during the Good Friday long weekend; but somehow due to the delay in deciding / coordinating with 19 of us, made us miss the long weekend slot and we had to settle down with the week before Good Friday, i.e., - 4th & 5th Friday.

Hats-off to all those organizers (well, we have many here and they are still deciding on who the real organizer was;)) for bringing such a huge crowd (19 of us) spread out in Bangalore & Hyderabad together, coordinating every bit and making this trip a successful one. Vamsi, Imbu, Sanju and Meera, Pat your back, guys…!! ;)

(Sharavathi backwater is about 60 KM in length and about 15 KM wide !!!!. It became backwater when dam was constructed at Linganamakki of sagara taluk in Shimoga district to the river Sharavathi.)

It was 4th April, the Friday – the day we had to leave….!! Our bus to Sagara was at 8.30pm. We somehow managed to reach on time (+/-10min Indian Standard Time J). The bus driver though was bit angry for making him wait for 10-15min, we were able to cool him down in no time….!! Thanks to the kannada speaking gal – guessing who it was? Ofcourse mee;) Our journey to Sagar began at 10.45pm from the Travel’s main office at Gandhinagar, Bangalore. Initial intros, some chatting, playing cards, etc, etc kept us busy for some time and by 12am all were flat on their beds fast asleep… :) Reached Sagar at 7am and we had Sampath (Sharavathi Nature Trials owner) to welcome us. We got freshen up in a public rest room at the bus stand and headed to have some tea. Well, though we asked for Tea, we were forced to N’joy Sagar’s kashaya… It definitely wasn’t bad coz everyone were having it for the first time… ;) We then headed to Gubbugod (18kms from Sagara) taking a local bus. We had to trek a km from the bus stand we got down, to reach the backwaters - our destination…!! Had very tasty idlies (rava and rice) – Sagar special and ofcourse Kashaya once again…!!!

It was time to get into the water – the most exciting part…!! Day 1 plan was to just learn to swim and float with the life jacket on. It was amazing to see the folks who dint even know swimming were able to go deeper all alone in just couple of hours by floating and swimming….. Well, I was the only one who was not comfy being alone… :( Everybody in the gang tried their best to get the fear out of me, but in vain… :( I should really thank the whole group for being so patient with me… :)

We then headed to other side of the island for lunch….Had yummy lunch and were again ready to hit the water….!! We then went for a boat ride around the backwaters and to the sunset view point…. Relaxed for an hour playing dumb charades and njoying the sunset view. Had campfire and tents ready by the time we got back…But then we had to wait for dinner, which was still being cooked. To pass the time, many suggested many games out of which we chose Purr’s Volleyball game (basically making 2 teams and passing the balls (calling out names spontaneously) to the opposite teams with one bounce within the team). I must tell you, the game is simply superb and truly was an icebreaker…..!!! We dint even realize how we passed 2 hours playing….….It was dinner time, we were so hungry that we hogged like crazy – chapatti, cabbage curry, bisibele bath, butter milk, payasam….uuupppphhhhh excellent dinner…!!!

All were so tired that we decided to hit the bed soon…by then our great Purr ne dialogue mara – “did we come to sleep here? Let’s get adventurous and explore the forest…!!” He did speak some sense for sure…few of us then decided to go for a night trek. It was such a disaster, i tell u…. We just couldn’t find the way, hence had to get back in 15min… :( It was time to hit the bad. END OF DAY 1….!!!

Day 2…!! As we got up, kashaya and tea was waiting to greet us for a wonderful morning. With the usual gapchaps, sipped our share of kashaya, lazed around a bit, got freshen up and then headed towards the kitchen to have hot hot breakfast – hmmm yummy akki rotti and ragi dosa with brinjal chutney, was sooo tasty….!! Day 2 activities including coracling, kayaking, flat water raft and a short trek post lunch. As usual, the second day too was just mind blowing, had so much fun… :) Not to forget mentioning the last part of the water sports – DIVING….wonder what was so much fun in getting into the raft and diving from there into the water that too 15-20 times….Our gang was just unstoppable!!!! Again I was the only scared one who dint try diving; just sat at one corner in the raft and enjoyed seeing the people diving and having fun… :) People even planned to topple the boat, atleast then I get out of the fear, but they were sweet enough not to do that… :) We all were forced to get out of the water as it was late for lunch. That was the end for the water sports… After lunch was time for a short nap. Though the plan post lunch was to go for a short trek, nobody was willing to even get up as all of us were fully exhausted and wanted to rest very badly. Same time, our organizer Sampath fortunately had a longer nap, which was good for us - nobody even wanted to wake him up as no one was interested to go for the trek.… :)

It was 4pm, had sharbath, tea and kashaya and got ready to head back as we had to catch 6.15pm bus to sagara from Gubbgod. while passing the time at the bus stop, our purr realized that he had Puri (rice wafers), that he had got all the way from Bangalore and opened it only then. How dumb can the guys be...hmmmm. There came the bus. We got a chance to get on top of the bus to take a look at the backwaters for the last time before we leave. The view was simply superb. Being on top of the bus was as if being top of the world. We were living every bit of the moment….!!!

Reached Sgara at 7pm and heard that there was a town fair that was going on. Since our bus back to Bangalore was at 10.30pm, we had ample time to go around the city so headed towards the fair. Since the walk to the fair was quite a long distance, I tried to keep the group engaged by sharing all the bestest jokes that I had, but no one seemed to laugh at even one….But the whole group (except imby) laughed at Purr’s so-called joke, “JAYASHREE…”. well, myself and imbs were the only two who atleast knew what is called a joke. But still wondering what was not funny in my jokes and was so funny in his joke….(looks like I was targeted intentionally and preplanned… :(:()

Hmmm, anyways, did all possible things – some wanted to taste hot hot jilebees / tender coconut / chilli bajjis, some bought ornaments, some went for giant wheel ride, some visited temple, etc. Had a quick dinner in the town and headed back to the bus stand to catch our bus to Bangalore.

Overall, the trip was rocking so was the super duper GANG....!!!!!!

Here are some of the pics.... http://picasaweb.google.com/mjai14/SharavathiBackwatersApril09?feat=directlink

Chao, Jay :)

Kumara Parvatha - Jan'09

This was another trek where in I again ended up going alone. Kumar Parvatha, one of the highest peaks in Karnataka and the toughest…!! It was organized by The wanderers – the adventure club. A small group of 19 of us started on 23rd Jan night to kukke. Reached at 5.30am the next day, had breakfast and got ready to head towards Kumara Parvatha which is of 13kms of trek (about 6000ft). 1st day of trek was to reach Buttramane which is 6kms from the start point. We were exhausted totally by the time we reached Buttramane. Had yummy food there and just lazed around N’joying the sunset. Had our dinner there and camped next to the forest house. The next day, we had to get up early at 4.30 to head to the peak which was 7kms from Buttramane. The second half of the trek is so tough, I tell u. the hills were so steep that we felt we would just roll down. We had to watch each and every step of ours while climbing. At last we did reach the peak at around 10am, spent some time there njoying the view and then had to head back by noon to have our lunch at Buttramane once again. It was sooo hot that I never expected…..Once we were done with our lunch, we immediately packed our stuff and started off to hike down the hill. 2hours of non-stop trekking down was just relaxing and was fun…(but am feeling the post effects of the trek now…) Total of 20kms trek on our 2nd day…can you believe..???!! :) Reached kukke at 5pm, got freshen up and visited the temple like a good gal. Then was time to return to namma bengaluru…:) here too, got to meet up with lots of interesting folks and their stupid jokes, wah kya kehna… :)

Here are some of the pics….Do have a look… :)
http://picasaweb.google.com/mjai14/KumarParvathJan09?feat=email#

Now, I feel like as if I have become an expert after been to so many treks….Have started longing for more nowadays…I hope I keep up the same spirit… :) Get adventurous, it’s fun….!!!!

Chao, Jay :)

Himalayan Trek - Dec'08

Youth Hostels Association organizes Himalayan winter trek expedition every year…and this year, I was lucky to be part of it and spend my new year in Himalayan mountains :) The trek though was a short one, was definitely fun…!! It was a 6 day programme with 3 days of trek. One of the bestest thing that happened was that I went all alone from here but came back making lots of friends….. :)

Reached Dalhousie on 28th Dec with lots of excitement. On the way happened to experience Volvo bus journey to the airport, chilly weather in Delhi, 3 wheel bicycle ride in Delhi & Pathankot and Dakota bus ride to Dalhousie from Pathankot… :)

Our batch (DW-10) consisted of interesting folks from all over India – from Blore, Maharashtra, Andra and Tamil Nadu….majority of them were from Blore. :)

The next day was orientation day; we were given a wakeup call at 5am and were taken to Subhash Chowk for morning exercise. Then were given an hour’s time to have our breakfast and get back to the ground for an acclimatization walk of about 4.5kms to Punch Pula and back, total of about 9kms on the orientation day itself….!!! Evening was our orientation about what to do, what not to do, how to be during the trek, bla bla….Stirct instructions and schedules…(kinda over discipline.. :):)) Hmmm, YHA food…!!! Hmmm, awesome healthy food…!! Night was cultural event where we kannadiga folks from Bangalore sang couple of kannada songs….Huhhhh, don’t ask us how it was....pathetic….!!!!

30th Dec, the D-day, that’s 1st day of our trek….We the enthusiastic DW10 wale got ready and were all set to start the trek. First day trek was to kalatop about 13kms…!! Kalatop is the same place where ‘1942 a love story’ was shot….Awesome place…!!! Nirmal sir was our camp leader at kalatop who made us dream about snow fall….We were not that fortunate to experience it L One sickest part for all of us was cleaning our plates, mugs and luck boxes in that chillllll weather and ice cold water…..

The night was fun with anthyakshari, dumb charades, etc but only till 9pm as we were forced to go to sleep at 9pm..… Lights off!!

Day 2: on 31st Dec bidding bye to our Nirmal Sir, we headed to Kajjiar (Switzerland of HP), trek of around 15kms. The toughest day! We had to go through thick jungle and pass many hills to reach the destination. Dhiraj Sir was all set to welcome us at Kajjiar camp site…!! The rollercoaster ride there was so much fun, we had to get into a huge balloon and then the balloon was rolled over manually….it was superb…!! By the 2nd day, we had already started getting bored of YHA food….same old jamoon, same old roti, same old curry….hmmm, anyways there was no other go but to have it. 31st night, we all had fun with loads of games and music. As we all were damn tired, we cut the cake at 12am, wished each other and slept early. Couldn’t stay awake for long. 12.30am – Lights off….!!!!!

1st Jan: 3rd and the last day of our trek was to Chamba – 12kms. It was also fun but tiring and we all were desperate to reach the final destination. There was our Deepak Sir, our camp leader from Mysore :) the funniest thing about him was asking everybody whether we are married or not…..if not married, then had to follow his instructions….:) As it was our last day, we were allowed to roam around the city for about 4 hours. As we all were exhausted, had no strength to walk to the town so took a taxi to visit some places there and did some shopping….At the last minute, we decided to have our dinner outside instead of having the same old boring YHA dinner. On return to the camp, we got proper scoldings from Deepak Sir for coming so late at 10pm, but he was really sweet….Last day u see, so chaltha hain ;)

The next day, we were sent a bus to get back to Dalhousie from Chamba…..the bus journey of about 3hours was so much fun; singing, dancing and enjoying the view outside the window…!! River Ravi was a major attraction….It’s just awesome….!! We reached YHA, Dalhousie at around 11am. The base camp leaders and the warden welcomed us and distributed us the trek completion certificates….After all we have trekked around 50kms in 4 days….isn’t it a great achievement??!! :)

It was time to say good bye to all of our batch mates after a short and sweet time spent together… :)

Few of us got together in a taxi and left to Pathankot. As usual Jammu mail was again late by 3hours. So, to kill the time, myself, sunil and ashu went to Rab ne banadi Jodi movie in a local theatre – balcony seat where in there were hardly 10 people :):) Managed to reach Delhi by 1pm (7hours delay in reaching the destination). We all were so damn hungry that we just rushed to Saravana Bhavan in Delhi to have yummy food…we hogged as if we had not seen food since many days….

Overall an excellent experience – of interesting and then boring food, training in washing vessels, 5am wakeup calls, 9pm lights off, the locales who start dancing wherever they are when the music is switched on, the place, the people, the beautiful sight, chilled weather, hmmmm what not….Everything was just tooooo gooood…..last but not the least DW10 wale!!! Got to meet up so many new friends – Ashu, sunil, Vamsi, sanju, Shravan, ramya, Abhi, harsha, vinay, Kiran, bala, DP, Jimmy, MJ, VJ, etc…Was such a wonderful experience.

YHA definitely does organize awesome programs….One should definitely enroll for atleast one of their programs…its fun…!!

Here are few of the pics….do have a look when you are absolutely free…:) http://picasaweb.google.com/mjai14/HimalayanWinterTrekExpeditionDec08

Chao, Jay :)

My first ever major trek - GRAND CANYON...!!

This is about the hiking that I did a year back in the US….just was recalling those days; felt like sharing with u all (with some snaps)…. :)

President’s Day was arriving…!! Much awaited Long weekend….Our brains started working much faster to finish all the work so that, we don’t end up working on this weekend too…..

Our planning phase started a week back. Initial plan was to go to LA; but one fine day at our breakfast table we happened to discuss about Grand Canyon and that’s when our interest towards hiking in Grand Canyon grew. But most of them backed out as soon as they heard about ~20miles of hiking and left was only 3 of us….Myself and 2 of my other colleagues - Uma & Rakesh…!!

We decided to check on the reservation for overnight stay at Phantom Ranch and try our luck. (It’s a Lodge at the bottom of Grand Canyon which is usually reserved a year ahead, so you can imagine how difficult it is to get the reservation). Well, guess what….!!??!! WE WERE LUCKY….!! We did get the reservation for dorms….. There were lot of mixed comments and reactions from the people when they heard about our hiking plan – like motivating, de-motivating, scaring, etc…..Inspite of all these, we were firm about our plans and infact these made us not to look back but just go forward….

Our preparation started as usual at the last minute, that’s on the previous day. Nothing much, we went out shopping for just some food items that we could carry – Energy bars, fruits, Gatorade, teplas (Indian bread), etc. Due to lot of enthusiasm and excitement, I couldn’t even sleep the previous night….

Atlast the D-Day arrived – 17th Feb’08…..We started at 6am in one of our friend’s Camry. The drive on the freeways in the US…..Huhhhh, I JUST LOVE IT….(I thoroughly enjoy when VK (one of our manager a very good friend) drives his BMW – he is the fastest…!!!!) Rakesh and Uma did their work of driving non-stop and myself continued fueling the drivers all the way through. We reached Flagstaff at around 9.30am and stopped at iHop for our brunch. Anybody experienced of black ice??? Hmmm, pls do ask me coz my first step out of the car was on black ice. Whatta fall…..!!!!! I am not talking about any water fall but my fall…. Seriously, got hurt very badly… :(. We had enough pancakes and omelets as we knew we would not be having such good & hot food for next 2 days. After having stomach full, that’s when our brains woke up and our body started reacting for the flagstaff temperature – 40 F. That reminded us of gloves which we dint had. So we stopped by at Wal-Mart, Flagstaff. Hmmm, Gals and shopping go hand-in-hand. I as usual ended up buying another jacket, another sweater; hmmm what not…. (I am famous for shopping specially in the US….ask my colleagues, they have many stories to tell :)

We continued our drive to Grand Canyon after our shopping. The drive from flagstaff to Grand Canyon was surrounded by full of snow…..Awesome scenic view; I just loved it. With full of gab-chap all the way through, we were at our destination as per our schedule. Due to the long weekend, it was so crowded that, we wasted much of our time in searching for the car park. Atlast found some space, parked the car, packed our stuff and geared up with our back-packs, etc., and headed towards the Bright Angle transportation desk, where we were supposed to register before hiking. We managed to finish all the registration by 2pm and headed towards the shuttle stop to take the shuttle to south Kaibab (The trail which we had decided to hike down). Had to take 2 shuttles to reach the trail - blue shuttle to the information center from bright angle and the green shuttle from there to south Kaibab. (Bright angle – information center – south Kaibab)

With all excitement and anxiety reached our start point – South Kaibab Trail and started hiking down at 3pm. (The trail begins on the South Rim near Yaki Point, and descends to the Colorado River. Because of the unavailability of water and steepness of this trail, rangers recommend not hiking up on this trail but hiking down only. Distance from Rim to Phantom Ranch was 7.2miles / 11.6kms. Trailhead Elevation: 7200 feet)

the trail was full of snow, which was unexpected…..!! Moreover the trail was so steep that it was really difficult to even put a step forward. That’s when we realized that we did not had crampons nor sticks and how important those were. Just after 300-400 feet, we just felt like going back; but even going back was not possible because we had to go through the same pain. We had to cross that snow path (about 1-1.5miles) by falling skidding; Huhhhh was just horrible but still adventurous. Then the trail was just fine and N’joyed hiking down the canyons n’joying the weather and the nature. It was getting darker as we hiked down. After a break at Tonto trail junction, we were bit faster so that we could reach Phantom Ranch before it gets dark as we dint had a torch. Fortunately, I found a small torch light in my bag which I got at CES in Vegas. Though it was not of much use, it was more than sufficient to read the sign boards. It was a full moon day and the moon light came to our rescue in the dark.

Finally, we found our shelter at 7pm – Phantom Ranch, checked-in and got our dorms. Though it was a shared accommodation; it was neatly maintained. I entered the dorm and thought of lying down for some time….uuupphhh, that’s when I started feeling the pain. I was half dead; was unable to even move my legs. We dint waste much time; just took a hot shower bath (this gave me enough strength and I was up and running again) and went to the canteen to have our dinner – Teplas and Aloo curry. It was really nice to see so many people in such deserted place. People there were really surprised to hear that we hiked down in just 4 hours that too without any sticks or crampons. My dorm-mates had already started calling me “The Superwoman”. Then, we went for a quick walk and hit the bed as the next day was real crucial for us.

On 18th Feb’08 – Our breakfast time slot was at 7am. So, we got up at 6am, got ready and were at the canteen by 6.45am waiting for them to open the canteen door. We all had a nice breakfast – yummy and hot pan cakes and a cup of coffee. Took our sacked lunches and headed towards Bright Angel Trail at 7.45am to hike up. (Bright Angel: The trail begins on the South Rim just west of Kolb Studio, and descends to the Colorado River. Trail elevation is 6785 feet and the distance from Phantom Ranch to the Rim is 9.6miles / 15.7kms.) Though this trail was bit longer compared to sough Kaibab, we decided to take this trail since this had enough rest houses, rest rooms and drinking water which was really needed as we hike up. The climate was perfect – neither hot nor cold; around 50 F. Having our energy bars, drinking Gatorade, water, humming our favorite songs and enjoying the wonderful views all along the trail made us very easy to lose track of how far up you have hiked. I was enjoying every bit of it.

We reached Indian Garden junction (5 miles point in just 3.5hours) at 11.15am. Decided to have our lunch and then continue our hiking. We continued our hiking from Indian Garden at 12.15pm. Since Uma was particular about his planned schedule of reaching the rim on time that’s before dark, he was enjoying hiking up alone in his own pace and dint stop for anybody. Unfortunately, Rakesh had to be behind me to push and energize me. As we hiked up, we could feel the steepness. I started taking breaks for every 15-20min. and was getting tired. As we reached the 3mile rest house, people who were hiking down, started giving precautions about the snow ahead. Poor me literally started getting scared as I had undergone the hell on the previous day while hiking down. As we approached the snow, it was really difficult. Though it was not that slippery, we did skid couple of times on the black ice. Hiking upwards is far better than hiking down in the snow. Since it was bit steep and full of snow, we were freezing and were getting tired. The last 1.5 miles, was really tough. I had started taking breaks not for every 15-20min but for every 15-20 steps. Atlast we reached the rim exactly at 5.30pm.

We headed back to Chandler at 6pm. Reached our home sweet home (thts my second home - Windmill suites) at 10.30pm; had a nice shower and hit the bed…..Post effect was terrible; there was no other go than to take a day off to recover myself though was not sufficient….

But both the guys were back to work the very next day even though they had body pain….hmmm Mard ko bhi dard hotha hain; magar chupatha hain…hahahaaa The whole trip though was tiring, it was adventurous and energizing. Well, a nice break from work; something different which each and everyone should do it often.

I THOROUGHLY N’JOYED….!!!

Here are some snaps, if you would like to see… :)
http://picasaweb.google.com/mjai14/GrandCanyonFeb08?feat=directlink

Chao, Jay :)