We 5 can re-create Mahabharatha, if we can go back in time. Though we are
office mates, we got comfort zone of college friends. With such a thrilling
bachelor conspiracy, we planned to visit Sakleshpur, as rain kept intimidating
us and office work kept taunting us. Journey started at night and by morning 5,
we were at Sakleshpur. Except Amrith, all 4 of us had driving experience only
in "NFS". Bachelor jokes, crazy naming conventions and pointless
non-sense kept Amrith awake.
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| Start of Green Mile |
Little droplets of water gave clue about essence of rain ahead. After 4
hours of journey from Bangalore, we reached Sakleshpur Via Hasan. Hot tea, cool
breeze and touch of rain drops - As per guidance from Chai-wala, we headed
towards our first destiny- Kadumane estate. Early morning blue sky gave an
artistic touch to the trip .
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| Early morning Blue Sky |
Ride to Kadumane is like journey in fairyland. We literally stopped for
every 10 minutes. We went ahead , then came back, then took a wrong route. But
who cares? Even wrong route was beautiful. Every surrounding is a green mile.
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| Road to Heaven |
Crazy photoshoot on a beautiful bisecting road was something to remember in
the beginning. "Swap Naveen" (Name comes due to many swaps in shift
at office), went crazy in that road. He was jumping like a frog in rain. Selfie
with scenary, instant upload on facebook - well, technology is like a drug!.
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| Bisecting Road |
Kannada songs can make
any trip romantic ( don't take me wrong :P ) .With soothing sonu nigam
songs,mist covered roads, paddy fields, water droplets slowly moving down the
car window, rain falling in love with green - Even god feels jealousy about his
own creation. A small waterfalls in the green looked like a diamond ring with
Green pearl around - A Gift of god to mother nature.
Home made chapati by
Kurkure ( Kurkure is nick name - not a snack :P )- A million thanks to his mom.
We kept looking at war happening between rain n umbrella. Entrance gate towards
Kadumane looked like a gate to heaven shown in Epic movies. View of Kadumane
from the top looked like well Machu Picchu. Just once you can forget your existence and let your memories in rain.
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| Top view from the entrance gate |
With thunder of cold
feel piercing through sweater and wonder of rain drops meeting our inner soul,
we kept walking through tea estates. You can hide under tea forests and world
will never know. Every row is parallel and looks like a world made of green.
Can you imagine having green tea in Green tea forest holding umbrella in one
hand ( You can replace umbrella with a girl and can get a romantic feel) or you
can hold your hands together and pretend like you are with someone :P
We walked in those
paddy fields. "Peace trials" as one of my friend calls it. You can
simply take any photo, it looks awesome in one or other way. Naveen had desire
to take photos with tea forest workers in their costume. Permission granted to
some extent. Some crazy photos, some romatic photos, some single photos, some
weird poses -camera cried and no one noticed it because of rain!
 |
| On the way to Kadumane |
Smell of tea kept haunting as we
reached near tea manufacturing industry. Owner of 54 estates came in Bermuda
and royal shoes. We wished at least he could give us one estate! Man at the
entrance explained about manufacturing of tea, though we made our own stories
and invented a new process out of it! But the smell, i can still feel it when i
think about it.
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| Tea manufacturing unit |
Our next destiny was " Manjarabad fort " , a star on
earth. You can Google it and fort looks like a "star". Bush kept
making some archaeological predictions about structure and purpose of every
structure - Though most of his predictions were " Multidimensional"
or to quote " out of this world". Who can forget "
Paravashanaadenu" song, with gorgeous Deepa Sannidhi, in this fort. We had an
argument about owning Deepa Sannidhi. We argued like once we decide, she will
come with us.
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| Manjarabad Fort |
20,30,40,50,60 -
Different numbers given by people when we asked about how much far Bisile Ghat
is from fort. We stopped asking as parameter seemed like a variable. Clock kept
moving faster than car, because road looked like it is made of small rivers and
oceans :P With 2.5 hours journey , we covered 40 km and we found that constant!
After walking for a while, we reached Bisile view point, though due to mist
, it looked like an infinite invisible white void. To tell franky, it seemed
like 4th dimensional view.But one guy told that, as time is 5 PM already, you
go further and reach Subrahmanya, it is just 20 km. He was drunk, but looked
sensible. By saying an end to Chapatis, we headed further.
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| Bisile View point |
Oh dear god! that 20 km journey had hell lot of adventure. No one had ever
experienced that before. Forest kept getting deeper and deeper. It was a scary
forest. Every step had one waterfall and it was covered with trees. Sound of
birds, water, car, wind mixed all together to give various kind of feels.
Sometimes scary, sometimes beautiful.
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| A beautiful lake |
We saw a lake on the way. Water was so clean, we lost belief that we are on
earth. Though me and bush felt like we should stay there for while, Naveen kept
calling us. Our next stop was a bridge. We parked car and took some photos. Forest
ahead looked like end point of this world. It was scary, it was awesome, it was
unbelievable, it was unforgettable. It seemed like we cannot reach other side
before dark.
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| To the end of world |
One can see strain in Amrith's eyes, as driving in that road was like a
hell-ride. I took a video of that ride,as a proof to myself in future :P A
smile of relief appeared as we saw a forest house, and yes, it was end of that
20 KM journey, which kept us spell-bound. It was like Amazon rainforest and
yes, trip like this once in a while keeps our energy alive...
