Kudlu Trip

As always, its been quite a while since I posted here. But, unlike all other occasions, I've had plenty to write about all this while.Will try to include the interesting bits here and keep the not-so-interesting byes out!


March 21:Trip to Kudlu Falls
It was a typical lazy MIT Sunday, i.e. you don't have anything to do apart from the tiny bit of lab work, no assignments, sessionals far faaaar away, and I was glued to online yahoo chess when Sagar barged into the room and ordered," Jayant, get ready, we're leaving for Kudlu Falls in half an hour."

My initial reaction was," Forget it! Someone or the other will say NO and the whole excitement will die sooner than it had been generated." I didn't utter any of these words to him, as something in his enthusiasm told me that this plan was going to be successful and, as he revealed microseconds later, "All are ready, we've to leave asap".

Soon enough, the five good men( Myself, Omveer, Sagar, APS and Anubhav) were on our way to Hebri and about two hours (and 8 bananas :) ) later, I found myself facing a taxi driver and Omveer negotiating with him. He was trying to explain to him how it will serve the 5 of us well if he brought his initial demand of Rs 600 down to 500. Finally he obliged and we set off for a (supposedly) 45- min drive to Kudlu. This was the time when the Devil in Omveer's mind spoke out:

"How about a night stay there? We can arrange for tents and all. It'll be exciting, wudn't it?"
"Wow!!!" Chuckled APS with unprecedented joy, which was quite a contrast to Anubhav (and to an extent, mine) reaction.
However, none of us objected and we drove to the Ranger's office, where they book tents in advance.

"NO GIRLS IN TENTS, OK?? Manipal has a bad reputation here." was the Rangers initial monologue upon knowing our college's name.
We all laughed his warning off and told each other, "How we wish we could join that club!" However, we had been passed eligible to stay there but then came the problem.He had only one tent left, and it could house two, at the max 3 ppl.

Even before we could start thinking of a solution, the exicted Jaat spoke out," Koi ni yaar, shift wise reh lenge. Sone thode hi na aaye hain". He had reached an agreement with the ranger, wherein he'd charge us the normal Rs 400 for the tent and half that amt for each extra person, making it Rs 1000. A bit more drama followed but finally it was a deal. We were supposed to stay there at night, once we came back from Kudlu.

Our taxi driver rushed us to the falls and it was 3pm when we got off the taxi(as it couldn't go any further) and set off on a 4km ordeal, with the kind taxi driver somehow agreeing to accompany us. at 3.30 he left us, saying," yeh raastha sidha chale jao.1 Km aur hai." Our requests of him accompanying us all the way through turned futile and we marched on.
at 4pm, we were supposed to be bathing in the falls but here we were, wriggling our way through the jungle, judging the right way, then realising 10 mins later that we were on the wrong way(as we had encountered a dead end), turning back, taking another way and the same story repeated. The supposedly "BEST TREKKER" amongst us, SAGAR, was the most bruised, slipping a few times and losing balance( and with it his cap :P). Add to all this the fact that all of us had changed to shorts due to the rain and we found leeches stuck to our legs every few minutes.(I still can't believe I had touched them with my fingers and pulled them out!!)
At 4.15pm, it was decided that the light was getting worse and going back would be the best decision, as there was always a danger of us losing way again on the return journey, so returning before dusk was always the better option. That was the time when we found few more Manipal-ites going towards the falls and a localite returning from the other side(which meant we were on the right way!).
That gave instant courage and energy to everyone to give it one final dash!We started on the way and reached the falls in 15 mins and had the best of sights awaiting us. All of us agreed that it was worth all the pain(I'm still not convinced on the leeches bit).
Bathing at the foot of a water fall in deafening noise of water hitting the rocks is one of the most amazing experiences you'll ever go through. It all ended well and by the time we came back to the taxi, we were all too tired to dare n stay in the jungle for the night. We decided to put end our trip just the way it had begun: in an unplanned manner!
Boarded the bus back to Manipal where we had Holi awaiting us the next morning..