Lost in Paradise – Part II

Tvp was reluctant to stay back after listening to the stories narrated by one of the cab driver abt ‘staying-experiences’ @ KGundi cottages. After driving 300+ kms on a terrible road to the one of the highest peaks I was almost tired, so was very much hasty to drive back to any of the places which we had on cards. At the same time returning back without spending couple of hours @ KGundi was the least expected by any of us n were against tat at the back of our minds. On the other hand if we even had to leave to a different place we were not sure about the facilities at tat destination as well. I felt it was better to have wats there on ur platter. Finally everybody was convinced that staying back was the good move under those circumstances.

We paid the advance amnt to the care taker n hired a cottage for that bizarre night. We were priviliged with a electicity-less cottage possessing 3 beds, unsecured windows and 2 candles to spend the entire night. The cottage was very lousy and to our wonder its roof was juss a wooden plank which had a crack already due to hit of dry branches being shred by the canopy of tall trees. It grew darker and along with the gusty wind, rain gained its momentum. Juss the sound makes u so scary at the night. Luckily there was a canteen near by which serves the food, we booked dinner for the night.

Since there were only 3 cots, we had to join them so 4 of us could comfortably dive in :D. Since we had skipped our lunch in the afternoon, hunger daemons had attacked our poor tummies. Thanks to aunty(sv’s mom) for those chappathis, we gulped in one after the other :D. We started to chat on the processes followed by our respective companies. We discussed from the RCA to Audits to CM(Configuration Management) n all other problems, by then one of the small candles went down. Around 7.30 PM someone banged the door hardly. It wasnt any stranger but the care taker who had come to inform us abt the availability of the eletricity n we cud use it. Informed tat it would be there till 9.00 PM. Our discussion continued, it was arnd 8.30 when we went down to canteen for dinner. It was pitch dark outside and nothing was visible to normal eyes, rain still continued. The torches which we had carried was utilized to its fullest. Thanks to our mitigation-plan, we had carried a mini-home with us to takle the RISKS.

We took extra cautions while walking down, to escape from Leech attacks. Had our dinner and marched towards the cottages, as soon as we entered the power went off. We lit the candle n started to prepare the bed for sleep. Tvp unpacked his laptop n was trying to hook on to Internet. Somehow he got the signal from TataIndicom, he started to surf. Although it was bit slow but was more than happy to get the coverage. As I was damn tired, went into dreamland as soon as i hit the bed.

Suddenly heard a boisterous sound, i felt lyke a huge Dolby DTS system being played next to my ear drums. Choked off from my sleep, it was none other than sv’s deep-profound-sound-sleep. Adding to it was the sound made by rain n trees. It was arnd 12.30 in the midnight, it took me sometime to go back to sleep again. Early in the morning sv started to wake everyone up, by 6.00 AM or so things had returned to normal. But the mist n fog was so dense tat was not permitting us to go out for sight seeing. So had to cut short our visit-list. Around 7.30 we got the hot water supply, everyone were thru with there early morning activities after initial hiccups as tvp occupied bit too long which caused problems to sv, who was in the queue :D.

Due to bad weather we cut short Z point, RajBhavan gardens n Hebbe Falls visit. Was a boon in the disguise for tvp was he was scared of overflooded leeches at RajBhavan. We planned to visit the KallathiGiri Falls which happend to be on the way to LingadaHalli. Last night rain had made the place very beautiful, greenary at its best and the combination of red soil n water was making the look even more exuberant. KallathiGiri falls was juss too good, on the banks of the flowing water we can find the abode of Lord VeeraBhadra. To reach the temple one has to cross the flowing water. After spending some quality time there left for the BHADRA-RiverTern, yes JLR(Jungle Lodges and Resorts). The soul reason for this trip being organized. We started to descend slowly the KGundi range of hills, on our way back we could spot the Hebbe falls. It was gorgeous, felt bad for missing it. Surely gonna cover it in the next visit.

After some enquiries and the route map we had to JLR we decided to take the route LingadaHalli–> TariKere and then to Lakkavalli. Maneuvered my voyager towards Lingadalli, on the way enquired with many villagers abt the route which we were heading was right. The journey started to become lengthy n we had not reached our actual destination. Finally we reached Tarikere, but still there were no traces for Lakkavalli. We started to doubt our track, no person whom we contacted could give us the proper detail. Tvp was in more doubt saying we have surpassed the diversion n travelled much ahead. Also we had some confusion with the map, finally we had no choice left than to call up BHADRA JLR’s contact person. Unfortunately his mobile was switched off, then we tried ringing JLR Bangalore Head Office but there was nobody to pick up n answer the call. We were in a dilemma whether to go ahead on the same road or to go back. Watch out for next on what happend to our JLR trip.