Heights ...... - Part II

Coorg,The Scotland of India. Er ..... it should actually read, Scotland, Coorg to Rest of the World. :-) A town that wakes up to mist most times of the year, except when rain god decides to flex his muscles. A laidback town in South Karnataka. Coffee plantations seem to be the predominant occupation , whereas honey processing and small enterprises that deal with food processing that work out of home seem to be the alternate choices. Er .. to stop this being a documentary........ For more details please visit this site.

Tourism seems to be another occupation here and we had no problems with the accomodation. We stayed in a house that was owned by Sumi and Venu Ponappa. Their kids seems to like the attention we were giving them. Ashiqa Bhojamma and Shreyas were their names! They had a neat little garden and the house overlooked the peaks. We heard a trivia that people in that region are given two names each! :o


About 9 am we began our journey to the base of Tadiyandamol, until which the path is motorable. We had hired a "guide" to this trek on the advise of the folks out there, that we may probably loose our way out there. Our guide seemed to have information only about the peak and no other place within Coorg. Thus , after a small amount of "misguiding" by him we were off track by 12 kms. Reiterating our path, we were back to the base by 11 30 am. Oh, all that misguding was when were in the luxury of our vehicle. Luckily. :D


and then .....we started .........


Our fears that the weather would be a spoil sport , turned out to be just a latent one. The weather was all for us to go ahead and conquer this peak. Oh, is that a tad too bold? Never mind! ;-). Narrow, constricted pathways filled with lush greenery was how the path could best be described.



The path was quite steep and jagged all the way to the top.



We were just walking along the pathway when our guide mentioned that what stood before us was the peak we were to conquer ;-). The sight was just stunning. The mist cleared, making way for us to see the peak we were to climb. This ladies and gentlemen is Tadiyandamol a 1750 metres high peak.



The path along which we scaled seemed to be covered with jagged igneous rocks all the way. The sight was stunning. Mist covers you all the way and the weather is just awesome!! Well from this point it was tiring as we were to trek the steepest incline of this peak. With the reserves of our energies running low, the trek was getting a tad strenous. Oh, wanted to quit at that point . Well, just rubbished that thought aside and decided to move on!!



Then, it hapenned. We were there on top. That was "Heights"! A view from the top!! WHOA! What a feeling it were. The peak conquered. The feeling of making it, despite all the desires to quit, is indeed nice . The catch remains in just covering a small step at a time and not worrying about the big picture! Yeah .. words of wisdom from somone who has been there and done that! :D . Ah ,..... thanks for all the applause! :D


A sumptuous meal at the top. WHOA! We were hungry and the food was just delicious. Relished the meal. Well, after spending some more time on the peak, it was time to move down.


A few of them decided to get down quite earlier than the rest. No issues, but then the guide was with them. Me, Kethan, Kiran and Chitra were the slow coaches. As we kept moving slowly, we realized at a certain point, that we were probably "not" in the right path. A call to laksh's mobile was futile as she had carefully left her mobile with me!! Oh, that was a wonderful moment. In Coorg, lost in a forest during the trek and no source to contact the rest, even when we had mobiles and the range. As, Kiran and chitra kept searching for alternative paths, I wondered what our options were. Maybe we could scale back the peak as that was the only "landmark" around!!

The train of thoughts were broken, by Chitra who discovered one of the paths, was the one we should be taking and that luckily turned out right! Thus, we rejoined our group who seemed to be having fun at a water body!!

The trek was tiring, hectic (maybe coz I am a first timer), gruelling at times. But if i din't have fun at this trek, then I never have had fun!! :D


Now ...... in an example to show what soaps have done to Indian audience .. i would say .................

To be continued .... ;-)