A Trip through the Western Ghats - Day 2

Well, a small break between the first and second posts!
We had a tight schedule the next day and so I was up by morning 4. Got ready by 4:30 and woke Phani up. Poor Phani cried and cried and woke up at around 5 and took another half hour to get ready. All this while, I was browsing various news sites on my mobile. I was taken aback. I did not know previously that almost all of the famous news sites have mobile versions! It was almost fun!
So, we were ready. Came down to the hotel entrance only to find it closed. There was nobody there. We had to open the door ourselves and started off towards the temple (plz note, we did not know where the temple was!). We were walking and walking and there was nobody around. Finally we came across one gentleman and he told us the approximate direction. We went on walking and the last mile was chalked out based on the typical temple sounds you hear early in the morning.
Anyways, Udipi peetham is a very famous temple down south and the deity is Lord Sri Krishna. Like most temples in Western Ghats, you are not allowed to wear a shirt within the temple premises. So, we headed inside and were roaming around. We tried to get near the holy pond and were suddenly stopped by a guard. Later, we came to know that the Peethaadipathi was performing daily rituals at the pond. Finally we headed for darshan. It was nice. The idol there is very small and it actually took me some time to realize that I was actually looking at it. After our prayers, we headed for the town of Udipi.
It was just around 6 AM and all was very calm and quite. Udipi is a decent town, pretty idyllic. We were just roaming around the town, walked up to the main road, our hotel, figured out an alternate route from hotel to temple, found the local ISKCON establishment and finally figured out the route from Udipi to Manipal (the famous University town). All that and finally back to our hotel and had a nice heavy breakfast at an opposite restaurant. One thing I must say, Udipi does live up to its name as far as South Indian Foods are concerned, but were not really impressed with the “Manjurian” kinda stuff we came across. And so after that we pushed decided to head toward Agumbe.
The bus to Agumbe started at 8. Got a chance to pass through Manipal, the university town. It too was pretty idyllic and very organized. But very small though. Before we realized, we again started climbing the Western Ghats.
Now, Agumbe is one of the highest peaks of the Western Ghats. On a clear day, during sunset, one can see the shores of Arabian Sea from its View Point (Is it the Malpe beach). Now, I guess, you understand my disappointment about missing Agumbe by sunset. Agumbe also records the 2nd highest rainfall in India and hence popularly known as Cherrapunji of South India. So, imagine a ride where you climb the Ghats from plain sea level to the highest peak! The sceneries were really breath taking and I must say I could already hear my Tiger revving up those ghats. Lush green forests, bird sounds to be heard even above our loud engine noise, steep roads, twists, turns, it was amazing. As the altitude increased every inch of the road was like a view point. The road started getting narrow and narrow. At places, I really thought the tyre was about to slip. You have to be a real expert to be driving a bus on that road. They are good drivers.
Up, up and away. We were going and going and suddenly there we arrived at a stretch which out did all others we had seen till then. The view was really amazing. You could see miles and miles of just pure lush green Western Ghats. We were awed. Our heads were going tizzy over the beauty. Three km after that we reached Agumbe.
At the bus stand, we got down and enquired our bus conductor about the route to The View Point of Agumbe. He gave a Big Smile and we realized we had passed it on our way. And then we met him. He also got down from our bus to catch a connection to another route. He spoke English and Hindi. He grew up in those areas and so all was common to him. He told there is nothing to see at the View Point. We just nodded our heads. An advice from a no-nonsense guy. And then he said it again. And again. And again…Lucky us! His bus came and he waved us a bye. Phew! We started our walk back the three km though the Village of Agumbe.
This was the same village where the famous serial Malgudi Days was shot. It was a clean, small village. One thing very conspicuous was the presence of several policemen. Anyways, we headed out of the village, passed though a BSNL broadcast tower (logical place right!), had a nice snack at a small shop there and headed for the View point.
About one and half KM from the village, there was a board saying “Way to Waterfalls” at a distance of 3.5 KM. Phani wanted to go there but we were running short of time so I managed to convince Phani that we shall think about it on our way back! So we walked and just before reaching the Actual view point, came across a looooong stairs which would take us a few feet about the View point from the same angle. Good! We took that stairs and reached the Top.
You recall I described the beautiful stretch of road I described above? Well, this was it. Really nice view. We enjoyed the light breeze and relaxed for a few minutes. Then I finally got the chance to open my Digicam. Yes, I had it with me all along but Phani, being the Phani he is, would not allow me to take it out and spend time in photography. I forcefully took my cam out and shot some nice pics of the view, but I should confess I felt really bad for not having a much powerful camera.
We gave a few poses and suddenly monkeys started arriving. One, two, three, dozen, more, more, more wow! We decided it the best to walk away from there and started our journey back.
So, we were walking back, Phani and me, thoroughly enjoying the nature, happy with the view point. Suddenly there was a noise. We turned around and saw it. Long, Black, about three inches thick at the center; it slid very fast into the bushes just beyond the road. It took us a second to realize! It was a cobra! The same snake I would watch in awe at the Bannerughatta zoo, across the glass. Hardly five feet away from us. We couldn’t tell the length, because we did not see it’s head, but it would surely be a minimum of Six feet. Shoot!!! Six foot, three inch thick cobra, with venom enough to kill a hundred people, passed just within five feet of us!!! It was excited but also afraid. I knew Agumbe is famous for cobras, but on the road! In the bright sun light! I had least expected it! It is one second I would remember for a long time to come.
We continued our walk, animatedly talking about the cobra. We reached a small culvert kinda thing, which was made of two white painted stone slabs, one on top of the other. Walkers would be tempted to sit on it and we would have too, had we not seen a snake’s tail hanging out from within the stones! As we neared, the tail was pulled inside, but we knew there was a snake inside! We decided it the best to walk a bit in the middle of the road. Then we came across that “Way to Waterfall” board. It was just a trial kinda thing that can hold a car, may be. Full of forest on either side. So were we ready to take that path now? :) You should have realized the answer by now! We reached Agumbe, had a nice cool drink and took a bus to Sringeri.
Sringeri is the first and foremost of the Four Peethams established by Adi Sankara Charya the other three being Kanchi, Mathura and Vaishno Devi. I had been there before though I don’t recall much from my earlier trip. Anyways, we went in and first had a nice darshan. Then we proceeded to the banks of the Tunga river just beside. It is always a feast to be there, with the fish playing just at the banks and slipping just off ur fingers when you try to catch them. After that, we proceeded to lunch. Here too, we had the delicious free meal and somehow Phani felt I did not eat well! We wanted to darshan and take blessings of the Pontiff but were informed that darshan would be at 5 PM. It was only 1:30 then and so we proceed to take a bus back to Bangalore.
We were walking down the road and suddenly saw a poster of “Happy Days”, another hit Telugu movie. Here I was in the middle of Western Ghats in a temple town where there was not even a single alcohol shop (hey, this is just to emphasize the austerity being practiced) and there was a poster of a latest Telugu hit! Few steps ahead we saw the now playing movie – Seema Sastry! This was heights! We laughed about it for long while.
Finally we took the 2 PM bus to Bangalore. It was again a long journey back, mostly spent sleeping. Finally we reached Bangalore at around 10. Our Office where (we left our bikes there) at 11 and Home sweet Home at 12!
It was a nice trip all in all. We both enjoyed it thoroughly the highlights being the Agumbe View and the Cobra! Remember cost cutting? The entire trip, including Friday night dinner, cost us less than 900 INR per head. Isn’t that really cool?
One thing I would say worth mentioning in this trip was the bus service. From Sivamogga till Sringeri, our entire journey was by private buses. It was not just a random group of buses plying about, but a well organized co-operative society kinda thing. We were issued formal tickets, the conductors would maintain logs about collections, conductors would switch at regular intervals along a lengthy route, one would handover the entire collection and documentation to the other and it was impressive. Like a well oiled machine. I came across very few KSRTC buses across those roads. May be this is one reason for such an efficient system being in place or is it vice-versa? That is something I cannot comment on!
Amazing trip. Nice journey. Beautiful sceneries. Adventurous route. All at 900 bucks! What more can I ask? I know. More such trips!