PAYANIGA

We had completed almost three fourth of the safari and had to stop because of a traffic jam. It took us few seconds to understand what was happening. There was a herd of wild elephants which were crossing our path. Or to put it in a correct way, we were crossing their path and had to wait for our turn.

Read the full story on Clay – A Tryst with the Pachyderms.

A small write-up on my experience with the wild elephants in Wayanad is published on Clay (an acronym for Club Mahindra And You!).

Thanks Lakshmi for publishing the write-up.

I had posted couple of photos taken from the bus top – journey between Hosagadde and Kargal in Shimogga district.

During my last visit to Sharavathi valley (in Feb’08, we trekked from Kanoor to Nagavalli) we did that again. Same bus, same driver-conductor duo, but for a longer distance. We travelled on the bus top from Nagavalli to Kargal this time.

Mridula’s post reminded me of these photos taken in Feb. And that means, it’s time complete that long pending trek log. And also it’s time to go on a trek :)

By the time we reached the resort in Binsar it was post noon. Only negative point about Binsar is the amount of time needed to reach the place. It took 20 hours to reach the place which included 6 hours journey by taxi. We were warned before about the journey time & I thought day one at the resort would be spent getting some rest from the journey. On the contrary, there was no sign of tiredness at all (blame the mountain air ;)

Hours after we reached our destination, we were out on the mountain roads for rock climbing in the evening. Though so many events happen around Bangalore on rock climbing, I never got a chance before to try my hand. It looked so-damn-easy when we saw the demo by the experts. With Sun setting down behind mountain ridge, one by one went up & came down, sweating out. And we had spectators too.

The mountain weather during day time at Binsar reminded me of our good old Bangalore in winter mornings. A pinch of chilly when in shadow & a soothing prickle by the Sun when in open, with nights being much colder.

Next morning we decided to go on a morning walk/trek to catch the glimpse of first rays & view of Trishul parvat (a Himalayan peak visible at certain places in Binsar valley). We went on an adventurous trek/walk before returning to the resorts. We took our own route through the pine trees to reach Manipur villa where a second Club Mahindra resort is coming up. While returning we reached the resorts as if like an arrow is shot, in straight line, crossing all the hurdles which came in between which made the trek back more adventurous.

Other published articles on Binsar:

• Binsar, the Kumaon mountains
• Temples of Jageshwar and Dandeshwar
• Zero Point and Binsar wildlife sanctuary
• River Kosi and Nainital

Just back from Sharavathi valley after a two day adventerous exploratory trek, from Kanoor to Nagavalli. Though Kanoor – Doctor mane (Doctor’s house) – Kanoor Kote (Kanoor Fort) is a known explored trek path, we kept Kanoor as starting point and end point Nagavalli via Doctor’s house & decided to explore a new route with the help of Ganapati of Sharavathi Adventure Trails.

If you ask me which was the best moment of the trek, it’s very difficult to pick one from the below list –

• Traveling in a luggage carrier for 10+ KMs after a bus journey of 10 hours
• Getting scratched by thorns as we trek. And you look ahead to find no path, all you can see is thorny bushes
• You reach stream after 4 hours of trek or rather say exploration, and jump into it immedeatly
• Lunch is ready & served, you are hungry, but you can’t eat because it’s steaming hot :)
• Everyone volunteers to help for preparing dinner. Menu: Chapathis, Rice, Sambar & Moong dal Kheer (hesaru bELe paayasa)
• No lights around and you have moonlight dinner
• After a sumptuous dinner, you go on a night trek for a KM
• And to top it all, journey of 40KMs sitting/lying down on the bus top
• You duck/bend every time when someone shouts to avoid tree branches & electric wires