Little did i know that my new found friends at Total Environment shared the same adventure crazy part of ourselves, and it was about time for us to pack up and roll over a 2 day expedition. The friends i'm talking about are Srinivas, Prashanth, Naveen, and Girish. So we could call outselves the 'Paanch Pahad'.. or something.
Looking over the long Independence day weekend at our offices, we picked the dates 13th august '08 to 15th aug '08. Prashanth in the group is someone to particularly highlight, with his rather peculiar stint in the Wilderness, Animal census, explorations of the himalayas, trekking et al.. So he naturally became our mentor in chalking out routes for conquering. Naveen i can is the silent simon of the team, and Girish who just loves to turn blushy - 'Pinku'! I can say we started a journey along on this day, giving rise to more interesting updates, which will be coming your way very soon.
Day1: Our known cabbie dropped us off at the accomodation adjacent to MM hills temple on the 13th night. After a comfortable rest, headed off to gourge on some thatte idly at a nearby stall, and we set off on the route to nagamalai hill, which is roughly a 8km trek. Weather was favourable and we started savouring the picturesque landscape and the cool breeze on our faces. Just when we thought the mid day heat would get to us, we started the ascent onto nagamalai, with every step ahead, we were give the much needed blow of cool air, and drove the heat away. A lot of pictures is what followed all the way through, and at a certain point of ascent we could see the eternal spread of mountains all around us, which was indeed breathtaking. (You can refer all of them here: http://www1.snapfish.in/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=260675507/a=138002282_138002282/t_=138002282)
There were other groups of people who had set out as well, and we exchanged our greetings as we passed them by. Dates, energy bars, water etc.. frequented en route. Oh and my new possession - A 'la fuma' pair of trekking shoes worked wonders, only to add to the sweet pain as we went along...
The flat landscape you see in the photos is a small village enroute before the ascent, and a definite place to enjoy some tea and cool well water, we even tried our hand in working two or three servings of well water! "Nagamalai is an ancient rock formation in the shape of a snake's hood covering the idol of Lord shiva". A temple is built atop this mountain and that is the what it's fondly known as.
Prashanth had contacted the temple priest earlier on, who runs a small guest room, adding to the comfort of trekkers/hikers and passers by. If we carry all the grocery, they also help cook us some delicious food, so it is really a boon to us people. The group picture shows the Priest and his family, to help you identify next time you are around.
Once you cross 2 mountains you reach the base of nagamalai, which roughly takes 4-5 hours at an easy pace. We reached the destination a little after 2 pm and the priest's family cooked us some food from the rice and dal we had carried along. Later that afternoon we trekked to the Nagamali temple hill which takes half hour from the base. A beautifully set surrounding as you see in the pictures, and the natural sculpting of snake hood is amazing. "A small pond around the priest's home had a curious onlooker, a water snake enjoying the sun's rays". Took some pictures, blessing and we headed out to retire for the day.
Day 2:
We had an early morning start, and we had the family prepare us some pulihogre and Chitranna from the food mix we had carried along. You can see the particular enjoyment of Prashanth relishing the morning breakfast! Stopeed for some tea and we headed out en route to gopinatham. This was a wonderful descent for 3 -4 hours and caught the initial glimpses of river cauvery. "Trivia: Gopinatham had been the playground of the forest bandit - Veerappan for many years". So it made our trek even more interesting and inspiring.
What diverse spread of natural creation.... the smell of forest, sound of birds, curious analogy of animal excreta by prashanth :) and hopes of encountering a wild animal! It was really engaging. We passed by a different kind of chameleon, the ones on discovery channel, which moved like a leaf brushed by the wind. In small but fancy strokes ahead. Pcitures followed. Some distance ahead we somehow smelt snakes close to us. Though we couldn't spot the snake, we climbed up some rocks to hear a 'viper' clearly warning us to not come closer. So we let them be, enjoyed the proximity of the wild and set out. Later that afternoon we reached the town of Gopinatham.
Some hot sambar rice at a town hotel and we hired a taxi out to Hogenikal falls. Though we didn't have time to enjoy the falls we stopped by for a dip in the cauvery river, cooled off and set out on the vehicle back to MM hills for our night bus out. It was 25Km ride back to MM hills.
We freshened up at the accomodation and waited for the bus back to Mysore-Bangalore. Those last 2 hours of waiting we spent settling all our accounts, recollecting the past 2 days, laughing n raving, and there came our bus back home.. Overnight to mysore reaching at 3 am, and then a bus back to bangalore. We reached around 6am that morning, and we went our ways to rejoice the rest of the weekend.
Overall a very relaxed setting, also suits people willing to try out camping/trekking for the first time. So MM Hills Gopinatham expedition officially became our first trek by the "Paanch Pahad team" Cheers to all you guys, it was a lot of fun, new experiences and adding such memories to our kitty.
For any further information on connectivity, contacts, do write to sharathkraju@gmail.com
Link to album again: http://www1.snapfish.in/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=260675507/a=138002282_138002282/t_=138002282
