[piper.gates]

People, this is my first ever logue, I have been doing is read through other's experiences, and I really feel charmed. I would like to thank everyone for sharing their best experiences, especially 'samurai'. There's a lot to learn out of everything.

Max - He showed me the way!

I don't know if I am too inspired about Christopher McCandles, to such an extent that I call myself "Alexander Supertramp", but the ideas does match. The likings are similar, expect for that he abandoned Datsun, but not me.

When I watched the movie throughout, I was wondering if the idea of going into the wild, into the loneliness is a wise idea. Not that I am sick about the society, sick about people, but the feeling of being alone in the wild, with the nature is amazing and definitely priceless.

The words that inspired me so much,

"There is a pleasure in the pathless woods; / There is a rapture on the lonely shore; / There is society, where none intrudes, / By the deep sea, and music in its roar; / I love not man the less, but Nature more... / - Lord Byron",

it means a million things, but what stands out is the experience of being alone, right there, in the woods.

I had been planning to go out there alone, but where, how, when was definitely something that I couldn't answer myself. This feeling became so often, that every time I got sick with the traffic, day-to-day those inevitable experiences, I wanted to go right then and there. So, I started seeing the need in everything, maybe it became a nearly a habit of finding an excuse.

But I thought about a lot of things, my girl, my people, work, and said to myself, 'the right time - yet to come'

But on 16th March 2010, things got positioned aptly. My wife looked busy that weekend, and I felt, is this that time, I've been waiting for? I had a chat with her, she said --- "Whhhhhat?, are you nuts", IMHO, I felt I was normal.

Well, she knows I am big fool, no wonder I would come up with such 'brainsick' thought. Her response at that time was favorable, but more was left on my return , so, that's a different story.

So, the platform was set, all I had to do was plan. Plan to go where, when!

Max has been my on road partner, my friend since a year, since he is my first crush. I am so crazy about him, and I think wonders about how he is. He has never let me down, even though at his cost MAX.

So here he goes:

Max -
When he was new to this world



Now, this is how he looks:



I sat thinking about places to go, and following were the contenders:

- Kumara Parvatha
- Kodachadri
- Mulayangiri
- go somewhere!

17th March 2010- 21.55PM - I had a final talk about my jaunt with her and she felt little different than her opinion, 24 hrs ago, all she said was, going alone is the most stupidest ideas ever, and she confirmed that night that I was really a fool (guaranteed). My mind said, nevermind.

Oooops, time to go home... <To Be Continued>

[akaushik]

nice one mate.. Initially I thought that some another x-bhpian showed you the way so where you headed finally ?

[s3va]

nice start there...bring it on !

Hope to see lotsa pics. You car is well maintained !

[sierrakamat]

MAX what a name for an accent it is quiet a gender bender for her. congratulations go ahead waiting for your story

[nickatnite]

Seeing the name "max'" i was expecting a Jeep or similar. The Accent was a surprise!. Nice writeup and now waiting for pics from the trip.

[srikanthpotluri]

nice start buddy!!! where are you headed, some more details and pictures please and yea your car is well - very neat.

[sachinj12]

piper!! get back at once!! You will be held responsible if my F5 key goes kaput.

[piper.gates]

18th March 2010 -

My wife said "how about you postponing your so called "into the wild" trip. Phew, I didn't know what to say, but did not want to make her sad too, I said, well OK then. I was like you are near the shores of Nicaragua and the sea becomes silent.

But something happened that I did not intend to hear, she said, I think you could go ahead as planned but I am not really comfortable you going alone. HURRAY, I felt I won a lottery. My mind was back into "BUSY" state thinking about the plan.

But I wanted to see who could accompany me for this event, so that she would also be comfortable. I called up a few of my friends, and none agreed with such a short notice. I did not have a comment for them either. My friend at work agreed for the next weekend, but my eagerness knew no bounds.

But then, a couple of my friends scared me so much that I started visualizing about all possible obstructions, some of them were, me getting stuck with:

- Naxals
- Wild animals
- Sun burns
- Dehydration
- Going mad (not easily)
- Accidents
- Falling from a cliff
- Hanging on to a tree and playing a pendulum, waiting for HELP

Aaah!, none of them, definitely not a good scene.

Well, I took them into my mind, but not so much that they would become real showstoppers.

Work got too hectic at office that day and I did not manage to do any work on my trip, I cursed myself a lot of it.

----------------------------------------------

19th March 2010 -

So it was pretty much that I would do this alone, as I really wanted me to go out there ALONE. Came to work little early to manage my plans as well along with work.

I did a lot of work this day and evaluated the contenders one after the other. I want to share some of the information I gathered:

Kumara Parvatha

- 1714 mtrs
- 280+ kms from BLR
- I have done this before and the experience is awesome
- Overnight stay on peak is a dream come true (but I had no tent)
- No water source after Bhattarmane
- Summer trek can be very dehydrating due to very very less water sources
- Beautiful sunrise and sunset
- More people around (specially in the weekends)
- difficulty level little higher than other coordinates
- trek more drive less

Kodachadri

- 1343 mtrs
- 400 kms from BLR
- descent trek time
- Good place to go, irrespective of the season (good point there)
- Mountain side, grass covered slopes
- Water could be seen in a some falls, even though it is summer
- awesome sunset!
- Trek more, drive less
- less people around

Mulayangiri

- 1930 mtrs (tallest in the western ghats)
- 250+ kms from BLR
- trek time (2 options trek - DRIVE!!!!!)
- Good place to go, but in summer, suggested to reach atop before noon
- No water sources

With these options, I wanted to settle for Kodachadri and browsed through some online information, I must say here that Sandeep's blogs were definitely informative and gave a lot of information, nevertheless other websites as well, Google has been the world's best friend ever!

Quick link to Sandeep's world:

Sandeep 's World >> Sandeep Unnimadhavan's Home page

I took some prints of data and by evening, I was all set.

It was 7PM and I was still at work, had to meet my wife, she was at her mom's house, go home, pack and GET SET GO!!!!

My collegues started making fool of me, some tried to scare me and one guy was almost successful, but my mind, as always said "nevermind".

Suddenly, something stuck to my brain, I thought about "RudraSen" and what can one think about him, you got it... his Photography skills, my one of the best thread has always been: "The Auto-Image thread" and I thank him for his contribution to the thread.

Ok, so whats up with it? Mullayangiri, the best spot, the difference being, Max can join me right up to the top and he poses well, so plans changed in no minute and I was set to head towards Chikmaglur.

At 9.45PM, I was busy packing up and suddenly I get a call from my friend Sanjay and he says he would be interested and he was in. But he stays in Mysore and we planned to meet up in Hassan.

So, I left home at 10.45PM, after an adieu to my wife, she was not in tears, but I was thinking all possible things, w.r.t obstructions mentioned above, and smiled at her.

Since I am put up in Basaveshwaranagar, I wanted to take Magadi route to reach Hassan as I heard a lot of good things about this route.

Checked Max, he was fine, and looked more enthu than me, well that's what you need.

I straight headed to HP near home and filled in GAS, checked AIR and there you go, all set.

I hit the road at around 11PM, reset my trip reader to 0.

Magadi road strech:

- It's good, nice experience
- Initial 15-20 mins there is work going and keeps you bumping, otherwise its a dream drive
- The curves are sharp than normal
- Look out for those buses which have started taking this route, so more heavier the vehicles are, faster the service tenure for the roads

It was a pleasant drive, was driving moderate speed, and reached Hassan at about 1.45AM, met my friend Sanjay, he jumped in and we set towards Chikmaglur.

I could see that he was little wondering about what was happening, that it was too instantaneous, but he was alright.

Interesting things about Sanjay:

- He is an experienced Rally driver, he is basically from Belthangadi, but stays most of the time in Coimbatore, so you know thats the place, where most of these things happen
- He is a very good photographer and I have learnt a lot from him

We headed to Chikmaglur after a very good tea break in Hassan, the bus stand had a shop which served good tea, I had 2 glasses.

Finally we reached Chikmaglur about 2.45AM and it was getting colder. We took the route to Mulayangiri, but since it was getting too colder, we thought we would stop near some place, take a nap and proceed.

We stopped near a place called, "Kaimara", under the main circle's lamppost, it was 3.10AM, in the meanwhile, Sanjay and me started discussing about paranormal stuff and it did get onto our nerves, with the background score of dogs (some barking, some houling/crying, birds sounds), but the experience was WOW.

I took out my camera and had a shot of the place:

Below the lamp-post:



Sanjay took this shot and it was damn cold and we were shivering:




We slept there until it was 4.45AM, all that we could hear were their sounds, you know who we are talking about!

...more to come

[piper.gates]

20th March 2010 -

We woke up at 4.45AM and stepped out, it was so biting chill, we could feel the pinch, but the experience was awesome.

The colour of the night was still there and no signs of dawn as yet.

We wanted to capture the early dawn right from the hills. We set slowly towards Mullayangiri.

It was about 6.15AM, when we spotted a place. This place was interestingly so close to the edge of the cliff, but posed too good for a photo shoot. This time, it was Max the subject, and there we go, we did a quick photo shoot and here are some stills:

PS: completely unprocessed images, as they are shot:

The SPOT I was talking about:



A closeup:



Another zoomed image:



We took some Silhouettes, which are on the way to be posted out here....

[ampere]

Wow ! But what I cannot believe is how in the world you car was sparkling clean parked in that dirt road !

Or is it that my eyes are playing tricks !

[addyhemmige]

Aha!! One more trekker our midst

Good going piper

[piper.gates]

@[COLOR=#777777]-Ampere
Thanks, Actually my car is an year and a month old, the diamond black is really impressive, the car was indeed dusty, but has not shown up in the snap


[/COLOR]

[extreme_torque]

I am not a fan of that spoiler but.....

[ampere]

Originally Posted by addyhemmige

Aha!! One more trekker our midst

Good going piper

Addy there is a twist !
He has got his home ministry to say "please go" !!!

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by piper.gates

People, this is my first ever logue, I have been doing is read through other's experiences, and I really feel charmed. I would like to thank everyone for sharing their best experiences, especially 'samurai'. There's a lot to learn out of everything.

Well, I clicked on the thread because of the unusual title. And then I see you thanking me in the very first line. I was a little confused I must say... so I read the whole thread. Still I am not very sure how I inspired you into this. There are lot of members here who travel to lot more exotic places and write travelogues more often than me.

Anyway, it is a very different kind of story. Lovely photos too. Please do continue soon...