The trip was an unexpected one. It came in timesdeal.com and one of my college friend booked it for six of us, but only five turned up. Ani was excited about the trip as she loves the adventure flavored trips. We were told to be at the pickup point by 7:45 AM. My policy is to reach half an hour before the specified time and we reached there by 7. The got the call from one of my friend to tell that the bus will be late by an hour. We parked the scooter at Jayadeva Hospital and walked towards the pickup point. On the way we bought one Bangalore Mirror newspaper and Ani wanted to play the Sudoku in it (as always).
Around 7:55, got the call from Nadheem. He told us to look out for a yellow Volvo, a big Volvo. Ani was playing some quiz in the newspaper and I was watching out for the yellow Volvo. Suddenly someone called me "savio", and that's Nadheems voice and I was looking out for the yellow Volvo skipping out all other vehicles. Then when I traced out the target it was a mini bus and the three companions were laughing inside. First slippage of the day.
The Journey took around one and half hour from there. We reached at the mountain top, on the Kengeri route by by 9:45am. I was feeling so sleepy. Never seen those timings on a weekend. Had breakfast with Ani, Nadheem, Arun and Manoj. To the end of the breakfast session got a company. One mother and her son. Beena and Christy. They were also from Kerala. Yooo malayalees. We shot the usual first question, "From where in kerala?". From there we were one group for all the activities.
The first one was high rope traversing. They had a rope tied from a bit elevated area to a tree to the lower one. They will tie us to a belt and we have to use our hands to pull ourselves to the lower area. That was a good one. The second was rappelling. As it was for kids and I was scared, watched it from the base. Never mind :)
Next one was Jumering. Have to climb up between the two rocks. Oops. Kayaking, that was a good one. Ani enjoyed that ride.
Then we went to the main item. Lunch. That one I took part to the core. Was feeling sleepy after that. Then Christy came with the basket ball. We all tried to run away from him. But no way.Finally his mother took the role of the opponent and they played dribbling for few minutes. I do not have that stamina anyways. I and Ani watched it sitting under the huge jackfruit tree.
Next in the queue was shooting. Three rounds for one person. I hit two out of three along with Manoj and Nadheem. That was the high score for sometime. But some other guy broke it in between. I hate that guy.
Trekking was the final one. We waited for some time for the sun to come down. Around 6:30pm we started our trekking. Suddenly Ani gave a loud cry and everyone got scared. A dog passed by and it’s tail touched Ani. What a cry. That dog might have got scared.
Interesting thing was the dog was walking in front of our guide. We were wondering why it was running in the front. Finally we came to know that the dog was the real guide. The dog was running ahead of us looking out and clearing the perimeter. We could see the dog running in a cricle around us, through the thick forest and coming back to the trail and still running. I never seen a dog with this much loyalty.
But suddenly when reached in the middle of the forest, the dog gave a sudden stop. Guide was telling to it to move forward. No way! it was stand still for around ten minutes. We lost our patience and asked him what happened. He gave a terrific answer. The dog smelled some wild animal around. That’s the reason it was not moving. And he told that the area was famous for bears. Good God. Nice news. Even though everyone was scared, no one expressed it. But I was looking out for a good tree to climb. Christy was narrating the story of fooling the bear by lying like a dead man. Come one Christy, I can’t hold my breath for a second. That seems to be a bad idea for me. But Christy was confident. I prayed, Let his belief save him. I forgot about Ani, but I was confident that she would have traced a good tree in that time frame. That’s my girl.
Fortunately, guide showed us an alternative way. We continued our journey in that diverted path.
Reached on the road in another few minutes. When I turned around looking out for the dog, it was not there. It might have gone back to escort the next team.
Christy's treat. Nice coconut water.
The return trip was the best. We were singing songs and complete blast. Reached back by around 10:30pm.
Me and my dear then started our scooter journey back home. That was a good trip with lot of memories in the big yellow Volvo, a big Volvo.
