Mallandur - The Lost Route

I was very tired here and I had lost a lot of fluid as well. my muscles and bones were really revolting after the effort of driving in the sun and photography on my feet immediately after dialysis

The group was very nice and I moved to Ananths Car which came from Chennai. Here the AC was working perfectly and I sat next to Kishore. Ananth drove the other car which had uncle and Purna with him

i got my first chance to interact with Senthil, Kishore and Vignesh.

The route to the Chikmagalur city was straight forward. From there we called the host who gave us directions to reach the home stay from there. We were told clearly to avoid refering to Google maps as it would take us by a much longer and confusing route. From Chikmagalur we took the left from the signal next to the bus stand. This road leads us to Bhadra Tiger Reserve and Mallandur was on the way

It was getting dark and the fog was setting in. The climate was very romantic and almost like a dream. The fog was dipping over our car windshield and suddenly clearing out making it all the more memorable

We were in dense forest and there was no habitation, only vegetation for long stretches. The area was almost virgin

We reached Mallandur and called up Umesh. He gave us directions to reach Hoovi Home Stay. At first we got a bit confused but then made it

The signal here was very low but luckily the jio had a little bit working

Purna and Ananth had meanwhile got confused about the turning at Chikmagalur and decided to follow Google baba. When we finally got through to them they told us that it was showing 8 km but some 45 minutes

I dont know which route they came by which sounded very adventurous but they finally reached Hoovi by around 7.30 or 8 pm



The starters were ready and we started gorging on the piping hot bhajias, and the dry chicken

It was now that all of us were together and started conversing with each other.

Vignesh was the live wire and the kid of the group. Everyone was pulling his legs and coaxing him that it was time to get married and he was coolly playing along as if getting married was the most important thing in life for him

Senthil was a more sober person, very mature for his age. Kishore was the cool confident guy who was at ease with himself

Ananth is a legend who has been on dialysis for more years than anyone I know and yet very active. I always had a desire to spend time with him and it was great to know him as a person. I loved his sincerity for the cause and his plans for future of KPSF

Purna I had met once in Mumbai and I knew that he is an expert in numismatics (Ancient Coins) and extremely knowledgeable

Babu Rao uncle realised his sugar was very high and slept off

It was good that he slept off as we decided to start at around 9 am the next morning for Mulyangiri and Bhadra and any other place in the region if time permitted

Umesh (our host) helped organise a jeep which would take us to all these places

Babu Rao uncle also was fresh the next day after a day of hectic travel and a memorable trip to Belur Temple


Comments

Popular Posts