Bangalore : God Must be Angry

17th May 2009(Sunday) Evening

This is what happens when God gets angry. It was a beautiful evening until the almighty wanted to remind us as he is still the boss and will always remain.

The introduction of the furious clouds.



Clouds coming in from all directions and creating amazing but scary art forms.



It became just like a scene from the movie “The day after tomorrow”.



The clouds seem to be moving vertically towards us.



The last ray of hope for survival of mankind was soon engulfed by the might fury of nature.



It rained furiously after that with hell lot of light and sound effect. In the end the humanity survived.

Tadiyandamol

Tadiyandamol

What a wonderfully cryptic name, when I heard it for the first time, I couldn’t make out anything out of it. I couldn’t even remember it till i reached there. It literally means the tallest peak. At 1750 mts, it is second tallest peak in Karnataka and the tallest in Coorg region.
Once visited, I am very sure one will never forget its name. It is indeed majestic, standing tallest among the bunch of similar sized hills. From the base camp it looks like this.


Tadiyandamol

Before reaching there, something about its whereabouts, it is located near Virajpet, around 300 kms from Bangalore in South West Karnataka. Comfortable road journey is very much possible on this route. The route to be followed is Bangalore – Mysore – Hunsur – Virajpet. There is good short cut available near Srirangapatanam, which will reduce the distance by atleast 20kms and hassle of entering the Mysore city. Effectively 45mins of travel.


Virajpet Good Morning

From Virajpet, it would be around 20kms to the place of start of the trek. A primary school is located at this site and parking is also available. A security guard too.


School kids

A motorable narrow road goes uphill for the next 2kms. Vehicle can be taken till the end of the road, but there is no security guard, so one poor chap might end up staying in the vehicle itself. Have pitty on him, start from the Primary school :D


The initial 2kms is the little tiring; it is considerably steep, with less shade. And if one has to carry stuff like tents/utensils/vegetables, then it becomes a pretty difficult walk. But anyways, there is nothing impossible and nothing is easy.


On the way

After a good walk of around 5 kms from the school, we reached the base camp location. Why base camp, because it is the only place where water is available. After that there is no water till the top. Here a nice little stream runs downhill, with the most tasty water we had ever tasted and it was even more pleasant after a long walk.


Stream at Base camp

It was only beginning of March and the stream was reduced to a very thin stream of water. I wonder what will happen in summers, but I am very sure, during rainy season, it is so bubbly that even taking bath under the running stream is possible.

After almost 3 hrs of walk, it was time for the lunch. We had full arrangement for a fulfilling meal. Rice + Sambhar + Eggs + Salad + Pickel. It did take a while to prepare it on the firewood, but it’s a wonderful experience.


Men at work

The peak is still around 2kms from the base camp. We started at around 3PM with a good shade of clouds but soon it became very sunny. Wait and soon it became shady again. A proper trail is available to be followed. Last 300mts stretch is the most difficult one, almost at 60 degrees. But once we reached the top, it was amazing sight. Almost 1 km before reaching the top, clouds begin to lap the mighty ascenders. It feels very nice. The top of the hill is big and wide enough for any overnight camp, only if sufficient water is carried.


Peak from our tent


Cloudy Top


Evening glory

After spending good 30mins at the top, we returned by 6PM to the base camp. It was the time for preparing the dinner. It was yet another feast and then we retired to our tents.

Next morning, we trailblazers decided to go in search of another stream, so that may be we can camp there next time. This base camp is already very crowded. I like places where you are all alone in the jungle. By the way we did find a small stream a little downhill towards the right of the peak.


Another stream

After the breakfast we started the downhill trek. In around 1 hr we were back at the primary school. Before returning to Bangalore, a not so known place Dubare can be visited. It has a elephant training camp, rather an elephant torture camp. Well, this is pretty debatable, it someone is to be trained, then it takes effort to train a wild elephant. But then why to train them at all when they can be themselves in the forest. Here again, the rogue ones should be trained. This is more from the humanistic point of view.


Mighty cages to hold might creatures.


Under training elephants were put in very small cages. An ugly sight.


Vijay

All of them were caught very recently, one was Vijay, caught in January 2009 and has been trained pretty well. It had a decent spacious cage compared to the others who were still being trained.


In the end a beautiful sight.

Andaman Diary : Day 12-16 : Return from PortBlair

30/31/1/2/3rd Jan 2009
(Nancowry + Campbell Bay + Indira Point)


It was the day for departure from Port Blair to Chennai. For return we had booked B-Class cabin tickets for M.V.NANCOWRY ship.


It is huge as compared to M.V.HARSHAVARDHAN. It is very long, 157mts long. It’s a passenger cum Cargo ship, it has ample space for putting big containers in the front. It has 7 decks. 1&2 are for bink, 3rd for B-class cabins, 4th for 1st class cabins, 5th for deluxe cabins, 6th for ship officers & open spaces and 7th for the bridge. It has a helipad as well at the rear end.


It has 3 eating places, one for bunk passengers and 2 for cabin passengers. The ship can carry 1200 passengers + 113 crew members. In ship crews language it can carry 1200 souls. !!!


My cabin is good, it has enough walking space and a very effective air-conditioning. It has 6 bunk beds and 6 almirahs + 2 fans + a wash basin. No attached bathroom. The a/c was so effective that blankets were needed during the night. It looked like, its gonna be a sleeping competition this time, as much as one can sleep.


Open space.
Deluxe rooms are more like regular hotle rooms, 2 separate beds, 1 small TV, a fridge, attached bathroom, 2 almirahs + room service for bed tea :D On this ship as well, cabin class dining coupons can be purchased for 600 INR(3 days). Ship’s average speed is 13knots/hrs(24kms/hrs), it is supposed to reach Chennai on 3rd afternoon. A long time to reach Far Far Away land.


Tank shaped Lifeboats!!!

Campbell bay is the must visit place for next Andaman trip. The ship goes via Campbell bay, I was lucky to have seen it. It takes around 24hrs to reach from Port Blair. The place is amazing, the scene from the ship is breathtaking. I could see huge trees lining up the beach all along the island and few peaks as well. I guess the trees would be atleast 200-300 feets tall. The whole island is a National Park and this makes the place more inviting. Helicopter service is available as well. I could see very few houses and huts near the jetty and on the rest of the island. A National Park ought to be like this. Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures. I always wonder about the Forest Officers, who get this enjoyable stay across the wonderful forests. Even Havelock had a beach front Forest colony.


One more highlight for the return trip was the sighting of Indira Point. It is the southernmost point of India. It’s a small island with a lighthouse at the end of the island. It looks great.


Even from a far distance, the waves crashing at the beach are huge. There was lot of white color mist all along the coast. Being part of Nicobar islands, it is a restricted place, even for Indian nationals. It is under the control of Navy. Visiting any of the Nicobar islands requires special permissions, which is very difficult to get. A compelling reason is required, being a visitor is definitely not one of them, being a research student is one of them. The best I can do to visit Indira Point to see it from the onboard the ship.