Wednesday, December 2, 2009

"Awesome Kalasa Experience"

Before even I started writing this mixed experience, I knew this would be running very long. All the way in this trip I had a very mixed feeling of not having my best friends accompanying me. Somehow this was biting me badly inside. But I had to make this trip for many reasons. I needed a grand break. And this break was made possible by Girish, Mangesh and the surprise package Sumedh, my best buddy from college.

Day one:

Start off with Goddess Annapoorneshwari's blessings:

We reached Kalasa Town in the morning at 7a.m to be picked by our trek organiser Mohan's brother. The Jeep that we were picked up was disappointing. I was hoping the trip would not end with the same quality. We were welcomed by Mohan and his Home Stay attenders with a beautiful breakfast. We had a quick shower and started off to Annapoorneshwari Temple. Horanadu & Kalasa are synonymous with this temple. The Experience of the temple to start off our trip was great and a DIVINE one. Anytime one happens to be around Horanadu must visit this gorgeous temple. The bright face of Goddess Annapoorneshwari really mesmerizes you. I was just looking at Her face & lost myself into the divine world, only to be pushed by the waiting devotees to make a move.


Second destination: Kalasa View Point

Around 3 km from our home stay is Kalsa view Point. We were not very happy go to the view point. Mohan, insisted us to go this place as he considers this as the best place to get a bird's eye view of the entore kalsa town area. Mind you, it was too good. Full of mist. Every step we trekked up to this point was worth this visit. Once the mist settled down , it was time for some
Click-click. Below are some of the photos that I happened to take here. Hope u like them.



We came back to the home stay to have some Kokum Juice and snacks. Straight away started to our next destination.




Third Destination: Kyatanamakki Hills:

I had seen the photos of this place posted by one of my trekking friends. These were the photos for which I had to come here. The jeep that disappointed us in the morning had to prove us wrong. There is no other machine in the world which can make it to the top of these hills. First 10 km were pretty OK to drive around. We had nice back massage all the way. We never expected the bumppy ride to become a life time experience. The next 8 km were absolutely non-motorable. I do not know how the driver managed to get us there on the top of the hills safely. We drove through roughest of the rain forests to reach this place. The fotos below are self explainatory. The winds were quite wild and it was difficult to stand on the top for long. The picturesque view from the top is worth a million bucks. One can experince best of the Malnad Jungle views and the entire Mountain range from this point. Standing at 6500ft above sea level this place is not to be missed.

We had packed our lunch from the homestay. Lunch 6500ft above sea level is something very few people on this earth would experience in their life time. Pictures speak louder than my words!


Fourth Destination: Hidden Paradise, a water falls in the midst of the jungle.


On the way back from Kyatanamakki hill top, the driver drove us through Malnad Shola forest. All the way down till the Water falls it was slippery. Driving was very difficult and the rain Gods did not favour any drivable weather. It started raining quite heavily and we ran into the Jungle only to find a dream water falls there. Passed our time for an hour playing in the ice cold waters till the rains stopped. what an experience to end the day. We were all drenched and dripping from everywhere. Come, live my first day's experience with some more photos.