Day 1

The Journey Begins

We reached Tarikere at around 2:30 PM, just in time to catch the 3 PM afternoon bus to Kemmangundi, which happens to be the only bus going to Kemmangundi throughout the day. The landscape changed dramatically. Fields and farm lands started giving way to forested land and soon the bus started ascending the hills. The temperature dropped and we started getting the FEEL of being on a hill station.

The bus dropped us 2 Kms away as no vehicles are allowed there. Weather was just perfect and it was awesome walking through lush green forested paths. 

Street in Kemmangundi

Unlike any other hill station, Kemmangundi didn’t have any central bazaar or marketplace. It just had 7-8 hotels or lodges and beautiful parks developed by the Horticulture society all around. 





We were on our own and after visiting a park  decided to explore the hills and mountains around the hill station.

Enjoying in a park

The trek

A teeny tiny waterfall behind us

We were privileged to have esteemed personalities amongst us like Aayush Saxena, Apurv Gujar, Jagdish Ghughe, etc who single handedly spearheaded the trekking revolution and led us onto the mightiest slopes of Kemmangundi. And we began hiking.

The hiking begins, (but until then we hadn't realised the steepness)

The climb seemed to have no end. It went on and on. 

Though ascending wasn’t that difficult but we had simply no idea as to how we were going to descent because the slopes were steep.

  

The hiking was tiring and we were running out of water. 

Taking rest intermittently

After taking rest intermittently, we finally reached the top and were stunned by the beautiful views. It was worth all the efforts.

Amazing scenery

But the million dollar question remained. How were we going down. And so the brainy people decided to move along the gentle slopes of the hill and onto the next peak. And so we went on and on, each time getting treated with even better views.

We continued hopping from one peak to another, desperately searching for a way down, and suddenly we were surrounded by rain laden clouds. 

The scene was breathtaking. It was getting dark and slippery and we were on top of the world with the concern of getting back safely at the top of our minds. Finally we saw a group of people. We took directions from them and began descending.

In retrospect

I was amazed at how things work out. There I was in the morning, slogging at VISL and here I was at Kemmangundi in the evening, enjoying nature’s beauty.

The whole exercise was immensely exhausting and we were extremely hungry. After quickly having our dinner and several mugs of hot coffee, we reached the hotel which was booked by our friends Amaan, Sapan, etc

Party all night

Unfortunately, we got late in booking for the rooms and so we had to go to the outskirts of the hill station at a small lodge. 

Even there, we managed to get just one big hall for the 17 of us. And guess what it was just Rs 55 per head. We didn’t mind because that’s exactly what we wanted. It had been one of the best nights of our lives. There was no electricity and it was raining heavily outside. With a small candle in the centre of the room, we laughed and chatted and played mafia until 4 ‘O clock in the morning. Finally after much MASTI all of us dozed off.

It had indeed been a long day with project work at VISL in the morning, bus journey in the afternoon, hiking over the hills in the evening, and late night masti and we BITSians efficiently utilized and enjoyed every minute of it.

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