One Saturday morning
Alarm @ 2:30am
Call from Vinod @3 am
"Are you ready, come to the main road"
"No I cant come with the baggage, you come to my house"
"OK tell me the address"
"*(!&@#^(*!#$)@!*(_!#_)"
"****** I missed the lane"
.....................................................
The journey started from BTM 2nd stage with the sole destination "kerala".
Vinod started his usual racing tactics on the deZire from the Ground Zero itself. I did not have the vaguest of the ideas of why we were going there.
In 1hr:50min we were at Mysore Ring road and then in the Bandipur National Park.The security was not keen, but my friend charmed him with his Tamil. It was a small drizzle as we entered the Jungle, and it soon faded off. Hushing through the dark tarmac and grey cloudy skies we passed the woods. Keen to see some wild , also were annoyed with other vehicles honk.
"only mongoose "
"Where are we going to in Kerala?"
"Wayanad"
It was mundane for Vinod to see 120kmph on his tachometer, not for me. So the mind of the navigator was not at peace. He ensured we saw the sun rise in Wayanad. Then actual destination was revealed by friend :"Kottakkal arya vaidya saala": atleast it was clear where to go. I could feel the butterflies in my stomach when the deZire was screeching on the ghat roads of the tea/coffee estates of Wayanad. We stopped at Road side for breakfast, "Idi appam and Sambar" I had it first time in life and it tasted good, may be because I was hungry.
"By 10pm we need to be at home , I need to chat with my girl friend"
"What, with 900km round trip you plan to reach home same day?"
Poor deZire was maneuvered by the Driver ruthlessly and every hair pin bend it cried with immense pain and cried out loud "screeeeech....................screeeeeeeeeeeeeccccchh"
We stopped at Tea estate to take some pics and my dear friend had a sooooper SLR with him.But managed some nice snaps with that after some research.Then we reached Kalpetta.....
This was unplanned trip with only destination known my dear friend, so a surprise for me was Meenmutty waterfalls. Both of us were unaware of the details of the falls, a cute girl showed us the way,Vinod drove the deZire like Jeep into the Rough stony road ;Though the entry fee was relatively high, we could find a small group to join us and lighten the fiscal burden.
"How long do we need to walk ahead?"
"1km -1.5km"
We started our walk with a guide, the beginning few strides were fine.Then we had to take support of rope to get moving further.The path was getting longer, narrower and tougher.
Deep down mind was sulking, how do we get back.Then we could hear the sound of gushing water from a distance, that was a sign of relief.But until our eyes had a visual, we were impatient.
Few steps down and we could here sounds from people, and in a while we had the visual of the 2nd largest waterfalls in Kerala, Meenmutty. Splendid !!! Water falls from 300m above ground!
3 tiered waterfall....I have never seen a fall like that in real so far...
Took back the cursings on Vinod which slept in my mind.
I had made Vinod pose for some nice snaps , which had later found place in the FB.After some relaxing, lying down at the showers of mist from the falls, we had planned to trek up the monster path.It was about 1030am.I had planned to climb up in some breaks, but GOSH it was Mammoth task for the whole body.Vinod was ahead and pushing me to come up faster. It was a good cardio done after longtime and whole body was perspiring. Half the way we reached and already drained our energy levels.We sat for few minutes under shade and could feel our hearts pounding. By the time we reached the top our human batteries were alarming for charge.We could find some bananas and Majjiga.Replenishing our energy resources, we head back to our deZire and Vinod again made race with time to reach the Kottakkal by 2pm.
Should really appreciate his stamina and driving skills ? I was feeling tired and reclined the navigator seat to take nap.
Woke up to honk near to Kottakkal,the place was hotter and not as I expected from my perspective of Kerala.The roads were good but, narrower , that didn't discourage my friend from pressing on the gas. Then we entered Kottakkal, a small but sufficiently large in itself.I could see many gold shops(MUSCAT came to my mind, more than half the youth might in west asia and sending in money back home).
KOTTAKKAL Arya Vidya Shaala.....this is what we had come for.Huge campus, and the heirs of the actual founders still control the administration and quality. The ayurveda here is famous across globe and I could see people from various continents. My friend has finished the formalities at the admin office and after both freshening up, led me to Canteen where we gobbled on with nice meal;@3pm.
We started our return journey after buying some kerala condiments, I drove for sometime but my friend was not happy with the speed we were cruising at. Only to my vain, he grabbed the wheel again.This was like moving on roller coaster(had different kind of fun though). We made pit stops for quenching our thirst with some Munja and cheruku rasam.Then it was no stopping until we reached Mudumalai forest, we had to make it at the entrance by @530pm, and by grace of Vinod we had comfortably done that. In the forest the sun had just started ducking down and we had peacocks at our company. The pride of "national bird", they were many on the way. The wheel was now in my hands and I took us very close to the beautiful bird.Vinod manged to take some fantastic photos despite bad light .We could see this huge bird fly for first time. Then was the turn of spotted Deers, which were like hundreds by the road side and their eyes were glittering in the night lights.
We then stopped at Mandya for some dinner @930pm.Vinod almost kept his word with his Girl friend , we were out of schedule only by half an hour, reached home by 11pm.
Vinod Baba ki Jai!!! 900km in INDIA in a day!!! .... ...Hip Hip Hurray !!!
