Bheemshwari, no more Bheema for me

This is my first post on a blog. So am very excited to write especially as its a about a wonderful trip I had with my friends.

To give a small intro abt our frnds, we were a small group of 5 classmates who reached Bangalore during July to Nov 2008. In the initial days it was shopping malls, like Forum, Total were our common meeting points. Then we started with going out for trips starting from Skandagiri trek (in Feb 2009) thru Chennai Trip in (March 2010) to Waynad (April 2011) (I dont remember dates of other trips to Shivasamudram, Mekadathu, SankiTank, Mysore etc.). Meanwhile our gang got more strength from the day Aliyan(means bro-in-law) got engaged to Treesa.

The usual puzzles before the trip like where to go, when to go(problem with job-shifts), who all will go etc. got solved after 2weeks of discussion. Bheemeshwari was lucky this time to be blessed with our visit.Unfortunately, one of us - Saleesh - who was in Indonesia with onsite visit, could not join us.

Let me come to describe about our trip now. Each were assigned tasks of arranging items like snacks, first-aid, break-fast, water and other items on the day before itself. And on the D-day, everyone has to wake every other person by giving ZipDials, (Oh sorry!! I mean missed call ).

We started from Madivala by 5am with myself in the cab first. Then we picked Treesa and her husband, Arun from MarthaHalli. Then Bhavani and Ria(she is one of the colleagues of Treesa but a frnd to all us by now) joined us from Domlur. Then we were back to Madivala, from where Manu completed the team. As he was 5 mins late, we all had a tea and started as Manu reached(late-comers punishment - no tea for Manu). By 6:15 we all were in Qualis and our trip was ON.

Then next 2 hours were hectic. Usual rumours like Manu has started meeting girls and will be married in next 6months, Aliyan's(Arun) horrible life after marrying Treesa, Bhanu horoscopic prediction of finding her soul mate in June etc. filled the cab all the way. Of course, there were fun made about me, but i wont be sharing it myself. Our throat started paining after shouting, making fun of each other. By 7, all were feeling hungry, and finally had our breakfast - Bread, Butter, Jam - on the move. During the travel we had seen the foxes, peococks, mongooses, pig, fresh elephant dung and posters saying "Beware of tigers". The road had some sharp turns, hair-pins and amazing green forests on either side. Apart from last 20km, the road was good, after which we could not literally find a single person to ask the even for the route.

Once we reached Bheemeshwair, we first went to JLR resort who does only packages. Then we entered very next gate we found, which was BSF camp which never does such entrainment packages for world. And finally, we found the Govt. Forest Dept office who came to rescue us. The people arranged for permission to enter the forest area, a guide and lunch. Trek is beginning from here.

The first one hour of trek was bit tiring. It was very steep and climbing up. After every 5 minutes we, to be more specific Ria, will stop somewhere. It was always guide, Bhanu and me who walked fast and always got time to rest before others caught up with us. It was not a dense forest, but it was fully green around us with mainly grass which was a man-height tall around us. The soil had no grip at all and the grass had saved me atleast a couple of times. We reached the peak in almost 1 hour, even with all the halts we had taken. And we then sat for a while at the view-point. It was then I had my first sip of water for the day. We had some snacks, and full rest at the peak. Every 2 mins, I would ask shall we move, only to hear Ria saying 5 more minutes.


Then came the downhill. It was easier, no more steep or loose soil. Once we came downhill, we were on the bank of river. It was still the summer with not much water flowing, but good enough if someone wanted to play in water. It was mostly swampy on the bank, with rock-filled spots too. It was nice to walk thru the rocks with 2-3 of us fell at some point or another. Also I did something stupid by trying to climb a 10feet tall rock. I was stuck half-way the rock for 2 minutes or so, neither able to climb up further nor ego allowed me to climb down, and Manu had to push me from below to rescue me. We had multiple photo-sessions. No more we were tired which helped us to enjoy the beauty of the river and the flowing water. The banks were atleast 10meters wider on each side as it was summer.

Once we were back at the camp, we just sad down analysing the trek. For most of us, except Ria it was too light. We all wanted it to be either tougher or lengthier if not both. Our lunch was not ready yet, so had to rest for some more time with music and some professional talks about personal career goals, appraisals, change of jobs etc, after all we all are Computer Engineers..!!

Now the best part of the trip came. The FOOOOOOD... It was the best food I ever had in such a tourist spot. It was unlimited Thali with Poori, White rice and Phulav ending with sweet. Only unhappy man when the food came was Manu -"NO CHICKEN!!". As we completed our food, we had our genetic ancestors around us. The monkeys were harmless and just looked so pathetic at us. We had benches for siesta. So we all were satisfied.

Now we wanted to go for Kayak and Burma-rope at JLR and if possible for boating too. But JLR allow us for the events unless we take up the entire package. So we had to decline. We went to Muthathatti for boating. But the crowd was too local and water was not good either. So we decided to stay back.

On our return trip we had stopped at a tree with red flowers. It was just awesome.
The sky was cloudy and was all set for rain. It was the superb spot. And we continued the return journey and by 5:30 all of us were back home. As we approached Bangalore, the usual Bangalore Traffic with no greenery welcomed up.

We had missed a few things on the trip. A bit of drizzle in that cloudy atmosphere would be the best you could ever ask for. Only animal we saw when we were out of the cab was a wild-ox, I expected some deer or something on the way. We dint play in the water either. But the trip was amazing.

And I dint tell u the best part yet. In the entire place we were the only people around. No more Bangalore crowd unlike Skandagiri or Nandi Hills or anywhere.

I would recommend anyone to go to this place. You will certainly enjoy this place.