Green Route trek - Part 2
Posted by Anantha | Posted in Sakleshpur Railway Track , Trekking | Posted on Thursday, August 13, 2009
The bus driver seems to be was in real hurry and dropped us off in Sakleshpur very very early than we expected. There we were... in the sleeping town of Sakleshpur at 4:45 in the morning. Donigal, the place to start the trek is 6 kms away from Sakleshpur. Our bus was going further to Mangalore and we could have requested the bus conductor to stop @ Donigal, but we did not. We had thoughts of taking a lodge for freshening up. But after seeing no lodge is open, we decided to walk till Donigal. Foreseeing the food we were carrying would not be enough; we got some bakery food parceled. Actually we had plans of buying some apples, as we usually do while going for any trekking, unfortunately no fruit shop was open so early.
Tip: Get down in Donigal than walking all the way to Donigal in the wee hours. Any speeding vehicle could knock you down
Though the official Green Route trek starts from Donigal but we had started trekking to Donigal. The street lights bid us adieu after walking for few hundreds of meters from bus stand. We all switched on our torches to let know the drivers of trucks, buses and other speeding vehicles going past us in both directions that there are some poor souls walking on the edge of the road in the dark. While walking, we heard a peculiar rhythmic sound as if a wooden gong is hit with a wooden mallet. Later we were amazed to realize it was some insect making such a loud but musical sound. Ethapay said it could be mating season for those insects and males could be producing that sound to attract females. I hope these male insects dont lose all their energy in just producing that loud sound and get exhausted, I dont think those tiny creatures will be left with any energy when they have to actually perform ;)
Seeing not a single inch of land dry, we forecast the weather for that day. The rain God nodded in agreement with a drizzle. We sat under the roof of a closed shop and wore our jackets. After walking for nearly an hour, we reached Donigal. Donigal is a silent village next to Sakleshpur. We counted and found 3 hotels in Donigal. The village must be so widely spread, that if a strong armed person throws a stone away and there are very less chances of stone landing within the bounds of Donigal. We chose to have a cuppa Tea each and rest a bit in the biggest of the 3 hotels The other 2 hotels did not have tables and chairs, they were mostly like kiosks but a bit bigger in size. All of us had tea. Byre, Narayan, Ethapay and Pujar lied down on the benches of the hotel and utilized the hotel as a lodge. Sharath and me clicked some pics within the hotel. We ordered 2 plates of parathas which was more of an act of returning favor to the owner of that hotel, for allowing us to sleep on the benches in his hotel.
Six of us shared those parathas and were about to leave the hotel for Donigal station around 6 AM. But, this time the drizzle was an understatement. It was raining well. Ethapay and Narayan wanted to start the trek waiting for the rain to stop or slow down. But rest of us convinced them that it is gonna rain this way throughout the Western Ghats during the season of monsoon. Asking the hotel owner for directions to reach Donigal station, we left the hotel thanking him again. The dampen road and the surrounding greenery inspired us to click many photos on the road to Donigal railway station. We made few calls from the public 'one Rupee coin' booth in Donigal. We were almost sure that, that was going to be the last link to civilization before we start our trek.
Tip: Only BSNL network works here. Better carry a BSNL sim
Tresspassing through some private estate, we reached the railway track to Donigal station. Donigal station was still quite far away.
Tresspassing through some private estate, we reached the railway track to Donigal station. Donigal station was still quite far away.
(to be contd...)
i feel u shud finish it off fast
@Anonymous,
U seem to be in hurry :P
you are killing the excitement.you have almost killed it.
@Anonymous,
Deva, I knw if the sequels don't follow the 1st movie in time, audience tend to lose interest in it.
But not getting enough applaud for the 1st part, I've no motivation to begin the shooting of my sequels..
:-/
I wud say writing in parts doesnt always work. This was an interesting trip. You could have put it down once ,short and sweet. You must just to your work. applauds are not in your hands :)
Michalangelo was once painting behind a church when a passerby asked him whats the point in painting behind the church no one will see your work. micheal replied 'I am doing it for god and there is no place he cannot see' ;))
timepass ok. ;)
Deva,
It was my deliberate attempt to write a lengthy post for this special trip. I had a clear idea of writing it in 3-4 chunks. A short and sweet write-up would have been unfair.
I also tried my hand @ non-linear narration in this series of posts. Those hours we spent waiting for the train was so special for me personally, I loved mentioning it first. It was personally very satisfying to write the first part in this series. I think it has come across well too.. :)
And about Michael Angelo or any dude from history, is very very modest if he says he doesn't really require an appreciation from his audience/people/critics OR for that matter I even feel they could be lying...
When I said applause, I actually meant an honest feedback from the readers. Im more open to a mistake/ambiguity/grammatical error pointed out, than just a clichéd comment like 'nicely written..' or 'good..'.
btw, thanks for prodding me. It motivated me to write the third part in a stretch last nite. Keep reading, keep criticizing, keep patting... u r an esteemed reader of my blog :)
I somehow feel railway stations have some kind of attraction man. When I was in kumta,railway station was our bunking heaven.with a platform which was atleast 100 meters+ long it used to be very secluded and peaceful as only a couple o trains used to pass by that route. Hmnn nostalgia!
yeah.. I can understand. Empty railway platforms are like closed books. Only curious go n open the it.. :)