Haven’t written in a long time, been so caught up with work and everything else in general!!
Was in Goa a few months back for just 2 days…hubby dear was there on work (what luck, Goa for work!) and I thought I’ll join him for the weekend.
We really didn’t do anything much other than laze around…it was off season and it was raining. Good part about rain is that everything looks so amazingly green and there are so few tourists around, and you pretty much have the whole place to yourself. Plus accomodation is cheap
We stayed in one of those endless resorts/hotels on the Baga-Calangut stretch. Hired a Kinetic Activa to move around quickly. All we did was roamed around in the market, sat in the beach for hours on the loungers, ate at Britto’s (the most famous shack on the beach) and some of those small continental places which dot the entire stretch. That’s it, that’s all we did it was a laid back trip in the truest sense

    I’d heard so much about the Sun Temple in Konark, all these stories about how magnificent it looked at sunrise and sunset. It was built for the Sun God after all. The sun’s rays are supposed to concentrate during sunrise, sunset and noon and cast these amazing shadows. Well, thinking I would reach Konark by sunrise (it was only 50 kims away), I asked the cab to pick me at 4 AM. As with all cabs, there was some issue and it was there to pick me up at 4.20 AM and I saw the sunrise on the way at 4.40 AM  I had no clue the sun rose so early (the east coast, yeah I figured that)!!

     Reached Konark at 5.30 AM and it was already so bright! Thankfully there weren’t too many people around and we (a friend came along) could look around peacefully and take in the mind blowing architecture. I know now that at some point I definitely want to go back during the famous Konark dance festival. (There are all these guides who approach you, say no firmly if you don’t want to be fleeced…read up on the architecture, there’s a lot of material out here on the net) . It has been declared a world heritage monument as well. Surely a magnificent sight. 

    After spending about an hour there, we headed to the Chandrabagha beach which was soooo beautiful at that time of the day…hardly anyone around. (I had heard about how crowded it can get later…it is a big tourist spot) We then headed towards Puri driving on Marine Road. The sea on one side and lots of trees on the other side…a perfect drive! Of course reaching Puri was a bit of an anti-climax…even at 7.30 in the morning, the place was teeming with people. And the main temple road had lot of carpentars working on the ‘rath‘ (chariot) for the annual ‘Rath Yatra‘. 

 The minute you park the car, magically a ‘panda‘ materializes. No no, not an animal, these people are like ‘pandits‘ who take you around the temple complex. After bargaining with him on the price (settled on Rs 50) we entered the temple complex. The main temple architecture is typical Orissan style (obviously!) and looks very very majestic. I didn’t like how commercialised it was though…where ever you look they ask for money, you have to pay quite a sum to buy ‘prasad’ for the deity (which they give you later), you even have to pay for tying a thread around the wish tree! When you go to take the ‘aarti’ they ask for money, it’s one thing to leave money there on your own and another to be asked! I mean, it was the heights…it somehow takes away the sanctity of the place with all this. 

   We then headed back to the parking lot in a cycle rickshaw (the town has a lot of them)!! I was quite excited to be sitting in it, but once I sat in  it and saw how difficult it was for him to cycle with 2 people sitting behind, I felt immeasurably sad. He didn’t even tell us how much to pay him, but seeing his beaming smile after we gave him more than what he expected really made our day. Next stop was the beach which had lots of people, so spent just about 10 mins there and headed back to Bhubaneshwar. 

     Since it get really hot n humid as the day progresses, a good time to visit both these places are either early morning or late evening. Well, that was it, my short Orissa sojourn! Didn’t get to see Chilka though. Next time maybe!

 The tree house was much better than what we’d seen in pictures or heard from the staff when we’d spoken to them while booking. It was beautiful and right in the midst of trees and coffee plants. And it was open. Entirely. Roof covering and a ground beneath your feet and the sides of the tree house was completely open (except for a low log railing kind of thing). Insects and birds had a field day here! Thankfully the bed had a nice mosquito net and we were fine. It was  aproper house actually. We had a separate dressing room (that had a small cupboard), a bathroom, a balcony area, a hammock in the living area, a dining area at one corner of the living. It was perfect. This tree house is currently the number one place I’ve ever stayed in on a holiday. And it’s something else playing cards with just a lantern for company (and some insects n birds) in the night at the tree house. It just has 2 low watt bulbs and 2 lanterns for lighting. Except in the night (or was it early morning), I suddenly woke up to some loud sounds of rustling plastic. I figured some insect might be caught in one of our laundry covers…but it was scary and it was pitch dark…I could also hear crickets. Of course The Significant Other was fast asleep, and didn’t even hear my frantic calls of ‘where’s the lantern’. I finally found it but was scared to switch it on and find out what was actually inside the tree house. So I kept the lantern back and slept again!!  We woke up rather early due to a crazy number of birdcalls…it was almost as if we were caught in the middle of a cirlce of birds screeching…wonderful.  We spotted racket tailed drongos, sunbirds, asian fairy blue birds and a few more.

Next morning we just lazed around in the tree house and later went for a walk in the estate. Found lots of birds like the flower peckers, red whiskered bulbuls, oriental white eye, sunbirds, green bee eaters, parakeets etc. Though we could photograph only some of them. I’m sure we could have found more had we ventured deeper. The resort staff told us to go to the banks of the Bhadra river which was about 12 kms from there. We made a plan to go there the next day (which sadly did not happen)

We then shifted to a cottage since the tree house was booked for that night already. The cottage was rustic, minimal and on level ground with a great view. But guess what, we found more ‘wild life’ here!! A giant brown ferocious looking spider, snails, and other harmless ones! They had thoughtfully put up benches so that we could sit down there and enjoy the view. The only thing that marred the evening was the arrival of a team of corporate guests, 30 of them!! Obviously they made a lot of noise and left us regretting not being in the tree house. We wouldn’t even have heard them, had we still been there…Anyway the rest of the evening was also spent in lazing around and some games.

 The next day we went to a pond within the estate premises
and hung around there for a while. Our friends who wanted to gate crash our nice, quiet, romantic holiday arrived around 12 pm. Seven of them! Enough to scare all the animals and birds outta there!! Thankfully, the corporate team had left and it was just the 9 of us that day. We went to Muthodi sanctuary around 4 pm in a hired jeep. And came back disappointed and bruised because we didn’t spot anything but  a few deers, a couple of peacocks, and a couple of elephants from a far distance. The jeep drive had left our bodies craving for a soft bed (It was a rough 1 hr 15 mins journey each way from the estate to Muthodi)

 Once we were back at the resort, everyone wanted to rest for a while before the campfire started. Cold night and a warm campfire with some good food and drink and most impotantly good friends! We were sitting out there till about 3 AM…

Obviously due to lack of sleep the previous night, we all woke up quite late the next morning and instead of our initial plan of checking out from the reasort at 10 AM, we left at 1PM. Stopped in Chikmagalur for lunch and then headed back to Bangalore. Since it was quite late, we couldn’t stop over at Belur and Halebid on the way back. All in all a peaceful holiday amidst nature…as always it never fails to rejuvenate the mind, body and soul…

 We finally reached Wayanad (Muthunga wild life santuary, which is an extension of Bandipur). Stopped at Sultan Bathery to check on some hotels, no availability. Then we went to Kalpetta (the district hq of Wayanad) and looked around…most hotels booked…which was actually good fo rus, ‘coz we were not too interested in staying at an ordinary hotel. We asked around for home stays, check out a few and didn’t like them, they were just an extension of a hotel. Wayanad is filled with homestays. In fact every house turns into a homestay if required. It’s not an exclusive home-in-an-estate concept anymore. Houses on bustling main roads are homestays!! Thankfully for us, a friend with us knew Malayalam and he spoke to a couple of guys we me and found a decent homestay for the night. We’d pretty much neared the end of the day by then and we all just wanted to crash out. The place was quite reasonable, clean and food was good. This was further from Kalpetta in a town called Meppady.

Next morning, we left early to a sunrise point but missed the sunrise by a few minutes. Back to the homestay place for a wonderful breakfast. It was a much loved Kerala breakfast: puttu and kadla. The puttu was from red rice. It’s like these big idlis (or kotte kadubu) we get in Karnataka, but it’s made with equal amounts of coconut powder and red rice (Unlike our idli which is made from white rice and urad dal). The kadla is chick peas curry.

After breakfast, we got caught in a tourist trap, we went to Soochipara waterfalls and were greeted with about 150 people there! We wanted to almost turn back and flee even without walking down the steps to see the waterfall. Guess it being a festival holiday weekend, a lot of peple did turn up. The tourist dept should not build pathways and steps for easy accessibility, it just draws in so many more people who don’t really preserve the sanctity of the place. I know I sound very selfish here (you’ll say how will aged people or people with difficulties enjoy nature’s pleasures if they can’t reach there?). But frankly, most people have no frigging idea about maintaining clean environs amidst nature. I could see broken beer bottles strewn around (now that is not only an environmental hazard, but also dangerous for fellow tourists), and so much plastic all around and people bathing in the waterfall and using soap. Aaarrrghhh when will people learn?

We then came back to the Meppady market place where we met a person who had shown us a homestay last night but we hadn’t liked it. We had told him to find us an isolated place, far from the town centre. Luckily this guy was well informed and he told us about a rundown house in Chembra estate. Now Chembra peak was one place we wanted to go (agenda was to avoid all touristy places like Pookot lake etc). And he (lets call him V) said this house was a few kms below the peak. Wow! Of course that got us interested and we didn’t listen to the details of how unusable the house was. So we took V and climbed the hill upto the point where vehicles are allowed which is where the Chembra estate bungalow is. The bungalow has a couple of old houses in its superb premises. We entered the house and realised that it had nothing…absolutely. Except for running water in the bathroom with half a door. So we struck a deal with V. He gets some people to quickly clean up the place, puts some basic furniture (a table to eat and a few chairs), a clean mattress and bedsheets and food and we’d take the place for a reasonable price. The view was terrifc from there…we could see the Chembra peak. We could even hear a waterfall which was close by. And the tea estate all around. Perfect isolation. Except for the watchman in the bungalow and a couple of people working in the bungalow, the place had no other human habitation.

Until the place got fit to be occupied, we walked over to a watch tower about 1 km from here took in the view of hills, valley and mountains all around. We heard from the guy at the watch tower that Chembra peak attracts a lot of trekkers who pitch tents and sleep over. Nice…but we weren’t prepared for that…Next time maybe. We got back just in time to see that the house was clean, one room locked, one room had 2 clean mattresses with fresh sheets and pillows. Tea was getting made in the old style cob web ridden firewood kitchen, with some twigs V and his friend picked near the house. We were totally fine with the whole set up now…V and his friend went back down to the valley and came back up with piping hot Kerala vegetarian home made food from their house!! The only thing we did there was relax…had some long conversations over some drinks and dinner

The next day, our plan was clear, we were to trek to Chembra peak. We got up late (a bad bad idea and something we never do when we have to go for a trek). Started the trek around 9 AM. Thankfully it wasn’t as hot as we’d expected it to be. The trek was uphill throughout. It started getting hotter after a while ‘coz the higher we went, we were in a grassland. After trekking for about 3.5 kms, we came to the lake we’d heard so much about. A lake right below the peak (another 1.5 km to the peak from this lake). It was beautiful. We hung aorund the lake, rested for a while…I wasn’t game for another 1.5 kms uphill ‘coz I had a bad cold (blocked nose) and cough and it really slowed me down. So I sat around at the lake…After a while, a bunch of loud people with blaring music came in and spoiled the entire tranquility of the place!! I don’t get this, why do you need to listen to film songs at a mountain peak, on loudspeaker??? I was so angry…they can do this any time, why do it here? I don’t understand why such people even take the trouble of trekking and enjoying such places, if all they want to do is talk in their loudest voice to try and beat the max volume of their music player. Hmmmmph.

Thankfully they left soon and I had my peace again . We were all starting to feel quite hungry and so thought it was time to start back. On the way down, we bought some juicy wild nallikai (Gooseberry in Kannada) a kid was selling and ate it all the way up until we reached near the house.

V and his friend were waiting for us with some hot food! I was really impressed with them, they went up and down 8 kms thrice a day to get us food (breakfast, lunch, dinner). Service doesn’t get better than this eh? Typical Kerala red boiled rice, dry veggies, papad, pickle, sambar, some Kerala curry (I don’t know the name) and one non veg dish for our friends.

After the hearty lunch, we slept for a while and then walked over to the waterfall we could hear from the house. Man, did we enjoy this waterfall! It was smaller than Soochipara no doubt, but it was so much better for the sheer isolation and surrounding view value. The water was freezing cold but we played around for quite a while and came back to the house for our very own private camp fire at the patio (we’d requested the watchman of the bungalow to get us some dead wood twigs and logs). We sat around the camp fire the whole evening and even after dinner…very relaxing.

Morning dawned and it was time to leave. Profusely thanking V and his friend (and paying them of course), we took a short tour of the bungalow (an old British day bungalow where we saw actual hunted animal heads on the walls and a fireplace in every room!). Apparently the bungalow belongs to some minister and he lets it out whenever his family is not using the place. Dont’ even ask for the price, it’s very expensive.

Journey back was uneventful apart from a couple of sightings of some birds and a fresh vegetable market right by the fields where the vegetables were grown. We stopped to buy some veggies there. And spoke to a few kids who were running up and down on the higway trying to stop cars so that people could buy their produce!

I can never tire of such outings…even though we seem to go to the same kind of places mountains, rivers, estates, forests…it’s different each time and most improtantly very soul satisfying

   After losing our way a couple of times due to all these narrow forked roads, we reached the eco-camp in Nittur we were to stay in. It was already 2.30 pm and we were starving. The place was quiet and the landscape was so inviting. You could walk bare foot in the camp ‘coz it was covered in a carpet of grass! Our basic accomodation was a hut with some thin mattresses thrown in with a few bedsheets and one warm rug. Food was waiting for us…our dining area was out in the open…it just contained tree stumps (obviously from dead trees), 2 stumps for each person, a lower one to sit and a higher one to keep the plate!! I thought it was a brilliant idea.

    After discussing our various options for the weekend with the very friendly staff there (the cook, a couple of helpers and a couple of people running the place) we decided to go to Kodachadri right away. A jeep was organised by them immediately and we set off. Until we reached a turning in the road to Kodachadri, the drive was ok, obviously not smooth (due to the mud roads and the fact that we were in a jeep!), but once we turned into the Kodachadri road, things took a totally different turn…the road (if you can call it a road) was only mud (the sticky slush that can make a valiant tyre skip), water, stones and rocks. Yes I actually mean rocks. We went over them, sometimes sliding backwards (which needless to say was scary!). And one slip from the narrow path, and we would tumble down hundreds of feet. It has to rate as one of the most thrilling and dangerous rides of my life. Forget the part where you feel all your internal organs have become enmeshed and will any moment jump out of you. The whole experience of holding both your palms on to the rod in the jeep…trying to look (and not look at the same time) at the very treacherous path you just crossed and the more treacherous path you’re about the cross…looking at the fantastic landscape below the edge of the path….and praying that the drive ends soon! The very very important point in this whole thing is the driver of your jeep. Most of them are very well experienced and know the route like the back of their hand. Our driver was telling us that he can drive on this when it’s pouring and when it’s pitch dark. Uhh…this was the point where I fervently prayed that it wouldn’t rain! It didn’t strike me that we would actually come down the path in darkness later…

 We finally reached a point where we could see the most pleasing sight…green green hills, a forest on one side…some mountains and a path leading to all of it. I really cannot describe what a sight it was for sore eyes (this particular clearing point, just before you reach the point where there is a guest house has become very famous after a super hit Kannada movie song was shot recently). We finally reached the place from where we had to trek the last 2 kms to reach the peak. This point had a temple, the house of the priest and a guest house where most trekkers sleep the night and then continue. We started climbing up and were engulfed in fog…all around. Visiblity became low. We reached the peak, but couldn’t see anything from there. Quite disappointing. Obviously we couldn’t catch the sunset either So after a quick break there, we got back to the jeep pick up point. Had some hot coffee at the priest’s house. I must mention here that the coffee was surprising bad, it wasn’t filter coffee, it was some instant coffee   I hope it was due to the fact that there are many people who stop there for coffee, so maybe they ran out of decoction? 

 Back to the jeep, only to realise it was punctured and our driver was busy replacing it. We then realised there was not much light remaining…so in pitch darkness (it’s amazing how dark it can get in seconds in such places) we started our journey back. It was a pleasant surprise to find that the path down for some reason did not scare us or shake us (literally!) as much as the drive up. My admiration went up hundred fold for the drivers who take people up and down this path come rain (oh man, that must be very very tough and dangerous) or shine, light or darkness. We also heard this story about how there’s like a small jeep mafia in the place that’s kinda resisting the construction of the road up to the jeep point ‘coz it will then spell a loss of business for them. The jeep drives do not come cheap but I think it’s so worth it, ‘coz the drivers are so terrifically skilled. On the other hand, I am not sure if I’m on the side for constructing a road there since it might just kill the thrill of the jeep drive. And there’ll be tons n tons of people wanting to go there. Hmmm…anyway, hubby darling and I decided we must come back here and trek the entire distance sometime…

 Back at the camp (it was already 9 pm!), we were tired and hungry. After a sumptious meal, I don’t think any of us realised when we fell asleep. The minute our head hit the pillow, we were in another world….

 Next morning, after a heavy breakfast we set off on a trek (though the first part was in the jeep again) to Hidlumane water falls. We had a trek a distance of about 2.5 kms from there to reach the final stage of the waterfall. We were perplexed. Final stage? Our guide (who was one of the helpers in the eco camp) explained that the waterfall has multiple stages. Most people just go to the first one and stop. We have to go right up to the last one, where the river falls from a height of 125 ft! So off we went, in the slush and the terribly slippery rocks…we crossed through the river, waded through the first few stages, climbed on rocks…slipped and fell some 6-7 times, got bitten by leeches more than thrice, got scratched by stems/bushes while climbing the boulders. At the end of it, to stand below the final stage of the waterfall with the water hitting directly on your back is inexplicable. The sheer beauty of the waterfall and the surroundings…the healing properties of the water (said to cure backache due to the rapid force at which it falls on you) completely mesmirizes you and makes you forget what you had to go thru to reach here! It was fantastic. After we had our fill of the waterfall…we started the crazy trek back…when it started raining…more leeches…more slippery rocks and path. But still we had a super time. There is something soul satisfying about completing a trek. Finishing it. And reminiscing about it and how we could have almost not made it. Full marks for our friends who did this with their little one (they took turns in caryring him on their back sling). The little one is one of the very few children who actually enjoy such complete outdoor trips! Came back to the camp, had a hearty meal and crashed out right on the grass near the dining area!! Evening, we were on to the few games they had set up in the camp…like a balancing bar, a couple of swings, a wooden see saw (that also spun circularly), a climb-the-pole rope…after playing for a while, we walked towards the river Sharavathi backwaters which is close to the camp. (This is place is near Shimoga, remember…so Jog is close by too). We kayaked for a while…good fun it was since the river was full. Relaxed on the banks, drunk in the beauty of the place and finally walked back to the camp. We quickly then rushed to Kollur (about 20 kms from there) to visit the very famous temple there before it closed for the night. Since we were rather late, there were not too many people, thankfully! Back to the camp…dinner, some packing, and a rather good night’s sleep.  

 Monday morning dawned (aah, the joy of missing work on a Monday morning!)…profusely thanking the hosts, we set off after breakfast towards the Nagara town. The food in the camp was wonderful…on one of the days, we even had a bamboo preparation!! The people who run this camp spoke the most impeccable Kannada I’ve ever heard. Initially it was difficult understanding them! No, it wasn’t a dialect, it was just pure Kannada. I cannot describe the joy in hearing someone talking without using slang and using perfect words to describe everything without interspersing their sentence invariably with English words :-) And their choice of words was something else altogether…

 Back on the road now, we stopped at the famous fort in Nagara. The fort was huge (I mean, obviously right?) and totally covered in grass. We pretty much explored the entire fort. Sadly, there was nobody there to tell us any story of the fort. The view from the top level of the fort was superb. We spent a little over an hour there and then started back to Bangalore. Stopped briefly in Shimoga for lunch. Reached Bangalore late in the evening (due to the numerous pitstops again…for the surrounding scenery and birds!)

I think we did this trip at the perfect time. Just after the monsoon, so all around, you could only see lush greenery and nothing else…even the ground everywhere was green with grass.  Just what we needed, after a ‘desert’ in our holiday calendar, we had this burst of green and some adventure. Complete rejuvenation if you ask me!

view

  As we approached the base of the hillock, we heard someone shouting to us. We waited to see who it was, it was a couple of farm kids who wanted to make a quick buck by leading us through the rather slippery and tricky path to the top of the hillock. We politely declined the offer, but they wouldn’t budge. They took the lead and started climbing! We didn’t have much of a choice, so we mutely follwed. It was a short climb, but a tricky one, since there were no footfalls or any kind of support to hold on to. Got scratched a few times by the prickly stems of plants all around. I even tore my jeans at a point, to which hubby darling, seriously remarked that torn jeans build character! Whatt? Of the jeans or mine? Instantly remembered one of Calvin’s questions to Hobbes about why his father thought all the painful tasks he’d give him was only to build character!!

 So we finally reached the top of the hill (it took us about 30 mins of climbing, before that a 15-min walk though the fields) and were greeted by dark clouds looming right above us (it was the monsoon afterall) and strong wind bellowing. Absolutely no one around. We could only hear bird calls. As expected there was a lone temple at the top. (On another note, ever wonder why there are so many temples in India on top of hills? Is it because God wants people to make an effort to see him there or is it because He wants to us to notice the wonderful creation of his atleast this way? I personally think nature and God are pretty much the same entity…) 

temple

  We had lots of flat rock to sit around, right below a giant tree. Nice, expansive view all around. We could spot a couple of lakes. We just looked around for a while, took some pictures and generally relaxed. After a while, we opened up our picnic lunch we’d painstakingly packed in the morning. We were quite hungry! We’d even got hot coffeee in a thermos flask!…The delight in drinking up hot filter coffee in such a weather is quite unparalleled

We were just about finishing up when it started drizzling. It quickly turned into a beautiful downpour! Since it was very windy, it also moved from here quickly as well…The dilemma that faced us now was if we should take the same route back (climb down the hill) or take the newly constructed steps to the ground level. We decided on the latter ‘coz the path we climbed up would have turned a bit trecherous now due to the rain. And it was getting dark. So we took the steps and reached the fields rather fast. Spotted a few more birds on the way back to the car.

 Looking back, it felt so different than our usual lazy Sundays. And picnic lunches have a curious way of making you feel happy and childlike. It sure did make us happy!! I totally vouch for such half a day or one day outings like this. Not only is it light on the pocket but also keeps you going for a while until you can take the much needed leisurely holiday…

I think if you want to portray something differently, you just need to learn how you can capture it differently. Not take a picture and then apply the hundred odd options available in the various photo editing software. Seeing how complex some of this software is, I wonder sometimes if the photographer is claiming credit for knowing how to use the complex-until-you-learn-it tools apart from claiming credit for the photograph itself!

I’m not really talking about simple processing like increasing sharpness or contrast or reducing brightness. I guess you do need them sometimes, when you haven’t had enough time to set up your shot, or say you spotted an animal rather suddenly. The main post processing I do is cropping, which I think, doesn’t even belong to the category of processing. You’re just trimming your photo. And yes, I do change some of my pictures to black and white at times. Post procesing I agree is a boon (especially when you want to restore an old image), but I strongly feel, it should be used very judiciously. I don’t really want to look at some fab pictures and be awestruck, only to realise, it was an ordinary shot made extraordinary by running it through some software (even though you need to be smart enough to know what the software is doing and how it can change your picture). You want a good photograph, then learn to take a good one. Period.

p.s. I dreamt of birds that night!! Had seen so many at one shot that it was difficult not to think of them…hehe

 The route we took was through Bhadravathi (Blore – Tiptur – Bhadravathi – Koppa – Agumbe), the steel city. We stopped there for lunch at a relative’s place. After some delicious home food, we started off again, reached Agumbe around 3 PM. The drive through out was good. Long, winding roads…we could maintain a good speed. Agumbe, frankly was a disappointment. Hot and dry. Absolutely no rain. The place where we’d booked wasn’t so great either. We were expecting a home stay but this was anything but that! So we went looking around for a couple of homestays. Found one (the most famous one in Agumbe), but the owner, Kasturiakka told us there was no place for that night ‘coz they had a function ther and all her relatives were here. But she did invite us for dinner. We thankfully found another place to stay, it was a government guest house on top of a small hill.
 After freshening up, we went to the famed sunset point (Remember RajKumar and Madhavi in “Akasmika“?). It was a glorious sunset. Worth it. We drove around a bit (by now, the initial disappointment was fading and we were back in good cheer). Spoke to a few people and gathered info on where to go the next day. Which waterfall etc.  We then went to Kasturiakka’s place for dinner. It was great! Awesome hospitality and sumptuous food. And she didn’t charge us anything! I’m sure it would have been quite nice to stay there…well, bad luck!
 After we were back to the guest house, we noticed how clear the sky was and how it was filled with stars (you hardly get to see them in Blore). Fortunately for us, there were some benches outside the guesthouse. We all sat there, gazing up to the vast, glorious sky filled with stars. Some of these guys even saw a shooting star!! It was a whole new experience altogether, sitting under the stars, sitting in complete darkness and having a nice, comfortable conversation. Who cares which place you’re in when you can do this? Talk about leaving stress behind
 Next day, we went to one of the water falls (after a hearty breakfast at the village mess). The drive to it was super…both sides of the road had dense forest. Tall trees all around. Breezy and pleasant. We had a trek about 2 kms to reach the falls…a good place to take a dip and be in water…we spent more than an hour there! We thought we’d explore the forest a bit before heading back to the cars, so we did a bit more of hiking inside the forest (maybe a km more).
   In the meanwhile, one of our friends kept talking about how Kota was just over an hour from Agumbe. Our other friends hadn’t been to this place, but had heard from us how terrific it was (read this). So they kind got into this chant about wanting to go there. So we said, fine, lets go there!! Checked out of the guest house and started the nice drive towards Kota. Reached in exactly 1 hr and 15 mins. Had lunch in Kundapur and reached Kota around 4.30 PM.Last time we were in my friend’s mama’s house but this time we would staying in her chikkappa’s house but doing all the eating n drinking in the mama’s house!! Both the beach houses are opposite to each other.
 Then began the getting wasted time I hit the hammock almost immediately with my book. Once the weather was bearable, we all got into the oooooh-so-glorious water. It was fantastic. Being the only people on the beach…miles and miles of sand n water. Perfect. Add to it, some home cooked tasty south canara food (they have a cook) and you can have anyone hooked!! Dinner was long and conversation flowed freely, so did the alcohol. Have you tried vodka with bonda water? It’s superb!! Wish we got it in Blore too…For the ignorant, that’s tender coconut water fresh from the tree! After all the indulging, we walked over to the beach ( a mere 10-15 steps!!), lied down on the sand, gazing up and talking for a long time in the darkness with only the stars for light and the sea for sound and the sand for warmth…aaah…peace. Ever noticed how in such places (and frame of mind), conversation flows rather easily almost as if nature is egging you on, saying, go ahead, have a good time, open up, share and be vulnerable? 

    Next day, we were in the sea again and after a heavy breakfast (masale dose, chutney, guliyappa, bonda water), we regretfully had to leave, but not before getting some food packed for lunch too!! We stopped at Mangalore (a good 2 hours rom Kota) to eat the packed lunch. Our friends had even got sea food packed in a thermocol container for freshness.The hubby and I were quite satisfied with the veggie fare we got.  After lunch began the brilliant ghat section drive through Sakleshpur’s Shiradi ghats (yes, it’s open to cars and two wheelers, but the concrete road work is still on). The Mlore-Blore stretch has always been one of my favourite drives. The curvy roads, the forest on either side, the villages on the way, it still remains as one of the most scenic drives. Thoroughly enjoyed it (we were in SX4 and Getz).  Reached Blore quite late…though we did good time (about 6.5 hours flat). Good relaxing weekend. One of the best parts was even though there was a 16 month old with us, he never made us ‘not do anything’! Kudos to his folks (our friends) who made him a part of the trip, didn’t fret at all and made sure he enjoyed it too.
 Sigh! Vacations always make me long for the next one…