TRIP- Day Two

Now the first day of the trip going great, we anticipated a better second day. We were not disappointed. It was planned to leave Dandeli at six in the morning for Ellapur. But as they say, you are definitely not on a fun trip if you get ready on time. Everybody woke up at six (scheduled leaving time). Boys hurried in getting ready. Asif is known among boys for taking his own sweet time in the bathroom. So if one of us was getting ready inside the bathroom, then the other one of us is guarding it making sure Asif doesn’t enter the bathroom. Our mission was accomplished. Anyways, our adventures for second day started at around 8:00a.m (reason was Asif of course and Shyamala’s slow eating habits too. Thank you guys). We left Dandeli with rafting on our mind. Few of us promised ourselves that we would come back for rafting. And this promise was not meant for breaking. The journey to Ellapur was majestic in terms of view outside vehicle’s window. Our driver told us that we can spot few animals. I felt that even though the road had a boulevard of woods surrounding it, but they didn’t look all that dense to have animals in it. Just as I was thinking about this, Priyanka shouted ELEPHANTS (both of us were sitting at front, near driver). I had a big cheerful smile on my face for just one second, cause the next second I realize that what was Elephants for Priyanka, turned out to be buffalos for me. She apologized for her bad ability to sight animals, but I got a chance to pull her leg and I did so all through the journey. We didn’t spot any other kind of animal except for Homo sapiens (humans) for the rest of the journey. We reached Ellapur in two hours time.

Our stay was arranged for at a jungle inspection bungalow by Apoorva’s dad (Thank You Uncle). We wasted no time in keeping our luggage as we were running short of time. But even after many precautions that were taken, we lost a good amount of time in finishing our breakfast. Within one hour time, we were off to our first destination, Sathoddi falls. It was 20 k.m away from Ellapur. Half the journey had very bad roads with Pradhan Mantri Gram Yojna boards placed beside it, assuring good roads. But as we had to pass through jungles, the view outside was good. Only few of us were bothered about the view outside, as most of them had other modes of entertainment (sleep, cards, etc., which in my opinion are the best way of ruining your ultimate fun on a trip). However, I was given some amount of information about the place by Vinay as it was his home district. We reached our destination in no time. From the place of parking, we were supposed to walk approximately 3 k.m. We got dispersed on the way to falls as all had different pace of walking. After half an hour of walk, we could hear water falling. And five minutes later, we could see it too. Between the places where you could view the falls and the place where the falls were actually located had lots of big rocks. So if you wish to reach the falls for a hard hitting bath, you had to climb those rocks. Moreover, at places where you had to walk on the ground with water level being up to the knees, the ground was very slippery. Thus, holding each others hands and walking stabilized the whole unit and ensured everyone was dry until reaching the falls.

Whenever a person goes to a natural water place, his animal instincts takes over his conscious human part of the brain. That was the case with most of us (except for me who is already a certified animal under human skin). So, I could see everybody playing in water like crush going kids play in a bath tub with their rubber ducks. The falls had less water since it was summer time with no question of raining. But water was falling on us with great velocity as potential energy stored at higher level was being converted to kinetic energy with the accelerated motion due to earth’s gravitational attraction. In short, it was painful standing below the water falls. But what’s the fun in going back dry? So we all decided to bear the pain. All of us had also spent some time at the place where water gets collected after falling. Some of us were checking on how long we can hold our breath under water. I stood second most of the time because Sahana stood first every time. The secret behind her winning formula was Baba Ramdev’s yogic breathing techniques, which helps in holding breath for a longer time. Getting bored of playing this, we started pulling legs in the water, causing the victim to submerge into it. Since water was just thoracic deep, there was no question of drowning. This was the moment when my animal instincts took over. I pulled each and every ones legs in water, making them scared for their life and scared of me too. Everyone had an eye on me later, ensuring that when I move, they move in the opposite direction, to avoid me. However, none of them could drown me though. In fact, at one point of time, four to five people tried to drown me in vain. We moved out when everybody was tired of playing. We went back climbing all those rocks once again. This time, I had Priyanka and Vivek for company. I and Vivek were all fine in clearing those hurdles, but Priyanka had faced a scary incident of rock climbing, so was a bit hesitant. We spent extra ten minutes on each rock, teaching Priyanka how to go about it and were to keep her foot. At one point, I lost my cool and yelled at her too. All for a good cause. We had our lunch packed and we had it as soon as we reached plains. On the way to plains, I saw Asif floating like a crocodile in still water (he almost hit a rock) and Shyamala getting herself cleaned by Padmini as though she was a buffalo (you know how milkman cleans his buffalo, pushing water on her body with his hands. That was really funny. She posed like a buffalo too). The temperature was high due to which our clothes dried fast while we were eating. Me, Vinay, Mukunda, Bhupendra, Sahana, Shilpa and Sherin spent some more time beside the river on the pretext of getting water. The view was lovely, something out of a romantic Tamil movie song. After sometime, we were off to our second destination, Jainkullugudda.

It was a two hour journey from Sathoddi falls, through the jungles. It was a hilltop with a beautiful view of the jungle below. We didn’t do much there except taking photographs. Some of them were at their creative best, trying to take their photos in a pose which would depict them as though holding the sun on their palm (in vain). My creativity made me, Mukunda and Vinay pose……… well, I can’t describe it here (because, school going kids too would read this). We wanted some group photos too. So we asked other tourist group to click it for us. But, they made their wives to sit with us too (don’t know why?). Somehow, we succeeded in getting a snap of our group ONLY. We were there until sunset, which was time for us to go back to Ellapur. Some of the guys had decided to not to sleep tonight. So, I thought it would be better if I sleep on the return journey. Moreover, since most of them were angry with me for troubling them all day, keeping my silence was a sensible, life saving idea.

We reached inspection bungalow and all of us were given a certain amount of DO WHATEVER YOU WANT moments before dinner. We had planned for a campfire but it was cancelled due to unavoidable reasons. I spent my time talking to all the people there (details cannot be disclosed as I have forgotten them). When it was dinner time, we were told that the only decent hotel that provides dinner was 3 k.m away. Some of us decided on walking to the hotel and we did so, later being joined by the rest. Even though the food was pathetic and servicing was painstakingly long, we relished on everything that was kept on the table. We took 2 hours approx. to finish our dinner. We had to walk back to the bungalow too, but it was fine as I had some energy after dinner to walk. I had Apoorva for company. We got so busy talking on our way back, that we got lost our way twice. We were last to reach the bungalow, safe and sound. The happiness of reaching bungalow showed on my face as it was time for our TRIP NIGHT OUT.

to be continued…..