Andaman Trip : Part-2 - Still in Bay of Bengal

This post is continuation of Part-1 of Andaman Trip Series.
Also read Andaman Trip : Summary and Retrospect

Day -2: 22nd Dec 2007.

I woke at 5.30 am. The daemon of witnessing sunrise was running all over my head. After brushing my teeth, I immediately rushed to the front deck where many elderly people were doing morning walk and some were doing pranayama too. Around 6.15 am the beautiful sunrise happened and I managed capture it in my cam, the experience was just amazing to see a sunrise amidst Bay of Bengal on a ship.

At 6.30 am, bed tea was served to our cabin. In the ship there for food there was a strict time table - Breakfast 8.30 am, Lunch 12.30 pm and Dinner 6.30 pm. Looking at our punctuality on the previous day, Subramani warned us that we have to strictly follow the time table and the dining hall will closed on other times. So following his instructions, at 8.30 am we went for the breakfast. Bread, butter, jam and Uppittu(Kharabath) were served. 9.45 am we went to the front deck, had a brief photo session. Bhupathi, Senthil and Subramani joined us. At 10.45 am, we came back to cabin and played Poker. Luck favoured Suhas and Anil who were new to the game and Suhas turned out to be winner. I don’t want to be judgmental, but of all the poker games I have played so far freshers always turn out to be winners.

After finishing bathing activities, at 12.30 pm we went for the lunch. After having lunch, we came back to our favorite place i.e. front deck. This time we were allowed further ahead next to the containers. From the deck, we saw many Flying Fish. I don’t know much about its biology. This sparrow sized fish flies sidewards escaping from the water displacement of the ship. While observing the same, we met one of the fishermen; he narrated his experiences when the ship takes 7 days to reach Port Blair at the time of cyclone.

We came back to our cabin and after lot discussion we continued watching 'Dus Kahaniya’ and finished it completely. At 3.30 pm, we had tea. Then exploring the ship further, we borrowed carom board from the library by paying 200 rupees deposit. The board was good but most the pawns were of plastic, so it was bit uncomfortable. Initially, I pouched two pawns with confidence, but could not continue with rhythm courtesy plastic pawns. We played only two boards and went outside to see the sunset at 5.15 pm.



Meeting a IPKF army man

While taking sunset photographs, one army man just checked out how the photograph has come. He was an army man working for IPKF (Indian Peace Keeping Forces). He narrated his experiences of his services at Sri Lanka in 1988 during Rajiv Gandhi’s era. He explained me how mistakes made by Indian army officers led to the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. He also shared experiences of his recent assignment of social service at Sudan. His next assignment was at Andaman for that he was going to Port Blair.

He appreciated our enthusiasm for traveling by ship to Andaman and mentioned that it was the right time to travel by ship. Otherwise if the sea was rough there is a fair chance of getting sea sickness (vomiting etc). The discussion went further from tourist places in our country, to cultural richness of our country, to Ram Sethu etc.

Then I came to the front deck for taking photographs of almost full moon. There I met Paniappan, originally from TN, working at electricity department of Andamans for 25 years!!! Even though he was a Tamilian, his conversational Hindi was very good. My first question to him howz the electricity supply at Andaman? He replied there is no power generating station in Andaman. The power which is supplied is generated using diesel generator. The power tariff is Rs. 1.25 per unit for domestic usage and Rs.2 for commercial usage. He mentioned things have changed very much since 2004 tsunami; the government is giving more importance to Andaman. Discussing about places to see in Andamans, he mentioned about one active volcano. It takes 4 days by boat to reach that place. He also mentioned that nowadays it Andaman is better connected to mainland India courtesy cheaper air fares and modern ships. Ten years back it used to take atleast one week to travel.

At 6.45 pm, we had dinner. Since the table was full, we had to wait for 15-20 minutes waiting for our turn. After the dinner we had a brief walk on the side deck. We were discussing something loudly in Kannada. A person from a group sitting on a bench, got up and called us 'Yenri Kannadavara ?'. His name was Mahadev Prakash, he was working for Indian Air Force(IAF) at Car Nicobar. We had general chit-chat and he too mentioned about sea sickness.

Then we came to our cabin and watched the movie ‘The Bourne Identity’. It was re viewing for me, but it was a big relief after the torture of Dus Kahaniya. After the movie I read a few pages of Mark Tully’s ‘India – an unending journey’ and went to sleep.

Day-3: 23rd Dec 2007

From 3 am onwards, I got up frequently every half hour just to check the time. Finally, I got up at 5 am and had a glance outside, it was still dark. 5.30 am, I decided go out to have a look at sunrise, Anil and Suhas joined me this time. Unfortunately the horizon was completely covered with clouds. The sun played eye spice with us. It was very different sunrise than previous day, the sun rays were penetrating between clouds and all of us captured in our cams.

As previous day 8.30 am we had breakfast. It was almost same as previous day, but this time there was Idly in place Uppittu. In the dining hall, we were late by a minute didn’t get seats, ultimately had to wait for 15 minutes. We came to cabin and saw Mungaru Male movie in suhas’s laptop. It was really refreshing even thought I was seeing it for third time. Before bathing we just roamed in the deck. There Mr. Patel told us that a he saw some sharks twenty minutes back. So, we decided to spend time in the deck after lunch.

At 12.30 pm we had lunch, this time we made sure we were at the dinning hall 5 minutes before time. The lunch was pallav and some gravy. As usual dal was also part of the menu. After lunch we went to one side of deck. Myself and Ragha started reading books, anil and suhas waited and waited for sharks.

After some time I had handwriting analysis session with Mr. Patel. He nodded head for my analysis but gave me only 65 percent accuracy. Later while returning to my cabin I saw one man reading a Hindi panchanga. I asked him whether he is an Astrologer. He was basically a Kashmiri pandit but actually he was an army man. He was trying to understand 2008 Panchanga. With a little bit knowledge of astrology I was able to discuss with a few basics of astrology.

Rendezvous with a Crew member

While discussing astrology, a crew member tried to be a spectator. I involved him in the discussion. His name was Raja Gopala. After ending Astrology discussion, I had a Q&A session with him, clarifying my doubts about the ship journey.

Q. First of all, what's the speed of the ship ?
A. Maximum speed is 16 knots, usual speed is 14 knots and 1 knot = 1.82 kmph..

Q. What kind of fuel is used ?
A. The fuel used in the ship is crude oil not the refined diesel or petrol.

Q. Why the ship took so much for departing from Chennai ?
A. Actually there will be many clearances. One of the clearances will be from MMD surveyor for B certificate. They will check whether the ship has sufficient water and ration. In the port between the channel the ship is guided by pilot ship. After crossing the channel it's taken over by the captain of the ship. All these procedures take a lot of time.

Q. Who actually control's the navigation ?
A. The navigation of the ship is controlled by duty officers who work under the captain. They have to make sure that the ship is going in the right direction. From Chennai to Port Blair direction is 279 degree and from Port Blair to Chennai it is 99 degree.

Q. Why the colour of water of Bay of Bengal is so dark.
A. No idea. But because of this dark colour, the cellular jail of Andaman is infamously called Kaalapani.

While discussing I analyzed his handwriting too. He was very satisfied with the analysis and gave me 99 percent accuracy.

At 3.30 pm we had tea. Then, I went with Bhupathi to take photos of bunk class, canteen, library and laundry site. At 4.30 pm I returned the borrowed carom board. Then we took photos of sunset. Because of clouds we hardly could see the setting sun. Then we tried capture rising full moon on the east side. After roaming here and there, we decided to play poker. It was a head to head game. In between the game 6.30 pm we had dinner. Since there no proper dessert, we had ice cream in a shop next to the library. After this we continued Poker. It was a nail biting game. I won it despite being at 249 points for four consecutive games. Later we saw Aaja nachale, in a DVD given by Bhupathi. In between I went outside the cabin, to have glance ship’s movie room. There ‘Jab we met’ was being played. I came back to cabin and continued with Aaja Nachale, the ending of the movie was not there in the DVD. With partial disappointment we slept.

Next day at 8.30 am we were supposed to reach Port Blair. More about it in Part-3.

Andaman Trip : Part-1

It was one of my dream trips and had to make so many tough decisions before getting on board the trip. First in the list was informing my manager that I will not be available for a probable onsite assignment in December. Unlike my colleagues I chose to give a frank reason that I have already booked for a trip thru Youth Hostel Association of India(YHAI). It's really tough to balance between professional and personal life !

Other decisions were not so significant. I had say no to my regular trekking friends for other trips/treks. There was request from Tassa, Seena to conduct some trip during Christmas. Rohit(Roti) tried very had to get me on board for his North Canara trip. I had to say no thru straight face :) ‘Life is not a popularity contest’.

Usually YHAI trips don’t get cancelled but this was almost on the verge getting cancelled. The reason was the ship on which we were supposed to make return journey was going into maintenance. So the only option left for the return journey was flight. Since it was holiday season, the air-ticket prices were at peak and we had to shelve out 4000/- extra to materialize the trip. Since I was mentally prepared for the trip I said yes, so  do Anil, Suhas and Raghvendra. One way it was matter of prestige for us, as we had told about the trip to many people. However, other people Yeshwanth and Jatin decided to drop out.

Bangalore to Chennai.

20th Dec, I came from office taking 5.30 pm cab and surprising I didn't face traffic jams which I usually face before going for a trip.

Packing the luggage didn’t take much time since I already had made the checklist. But some of the clothes I couldn’t carry as they were very wet, because of two days incessant rain in Bangalore. Thanks to my mother she literally dried some clothes with iron box.

Our tickets to Chennai were reserved 11.45 pm Kaveri Express. I left home at 10.30 pm and by taking an auto managed to reach Bangalore City Station well within departure time. The train starting from mysore was supposed to arrive on platform-5. 11.30 pm anil, suhas came and introduced myself to Raghvendra. The train arrived within 15 minutes, but there was a small confusion we couldn’t find our S13 bogie. Then we came to know thru announcement that our S13 bogie will be attached in Bangalore. Within10 minutes five bogies including our S13 bogie were attached. We were on board, the train departed and we slept.

Day-1: 21st Dec 2007

Morning 8 am we were at Chennai Central railway station. We were supposed go to Royal Lodge, Pycrofts Road. At the exit we were approached by several taxi and auto drivers. Anil who knew Tamil discussed with an auto driver. The driver agreed take us to Royal Lodge for 100 Rs. But just before starting the auto the driver increased the fare to Rs. 120. It was very unfair, we kept quite and thought of arguing with him when reach the destination. By calling subramani(our guide of YHAI) we reached Royal Mansion Lodge.

Subramani asked us to get ready and come for breakfast. We were late by 15-30 minutes. For breakfast he took us to a nearby hotel. The breakfast was usual Idly, vada and Pongal. After breakfast we withdrew money from the ATMs and paid the extra balance amount (18570) to Subramani. We got ourselves introduced to other members of YHAI trip. Incidentally all other groups were families. Uncles, aunties and kids. We were bit disappointed as we were expecting a young crowd. Anyway, it didn’t matter as our G-4(group of four) was big enough.

Then we went to nearby Marina beach. This beach was one of the major victims of 2004 Tsunami. The beach was in very dirty condition. We just walked for 10 minutes and came back. On the other side of the beach, we saw Chidambaram stadium. We also saw prestigious Presidency College of Madras University. Then, we came back to the lodge, had bath and had lunch at 12.30 pm. The lunch was typical plate meals with a tomato soup.

2 pm we were ready to leave to the Chennai Port. All of us (including other groups) went to the port by a maxicab arranged by YHAI. We were taken till gate 7. Before entering the port, a security stopped us and asked me to get a custom letter for my camera. Come on man, get a life. Andaman is part of India, I am not going out of India. After some argument we were allowed inside. I feel the security was supposed say that photography is not allowed inside the port. He was able to articulate it properly.

A km walk took us to the passenger terminal, next to which our ship majestic M. V. Swarajdweep was standing. In the terminal, we had to take stamping of medical check up on our tickets, for formality sake. Then, security people scanned our baggage for the explosives. Everything done, we came out of the terminal and stood next to the ship. Here thankfully photography was allowed. The scenes of Titanic movie lingered and lingered. After waiting for a while, at 4.30 pm we got on board the ship. For me the feeling was equivalent to 'stepping foot on the moon for mankind'. The cabin crew guided us to our first class cabin. The first class cabin was just amazing. It had four beds with bedlamps, attached bathroom, wardrobe for each individual etc.

At 5 pm, the ship was supposed to depart. We went to the canteen deck and went up further near the crow nest, as there was no barricade. A crew member approached us and told that the passengers are not supposed enter near crow nest area. We said sorry and had a small chit-chat him. He was a trainee crew member, originally from Port Blair and had done some diploma course.

Then we waited and waited for the ship to depart. Surprisingly, I met my colleagues Bhupathi, Senthil and Sudhagar with whom I had been to Tirupathi in Nov 2006. They were going on their own to Andaman, were traveling in bunk class. Since there is no plug point in bunk class, they plugged in their camera battery charger and portable dvd in our cabin.

Again we went out to the canteen deck to see the ship departure, but it was still attached to the terminal. We lost patience and went to the dinner. At the cafeteria one of the staff was explaining the code of ethics to a person wearing shorts - no shorts or lungee in the restaurant. Initially, the restaurant appeared like a sophisticated place. But for eating there were no spoons in the restaurant. There was no hand wash, we had to go to a lavatory nearby to wash our hands. I feel facilities in the dinning hall facilities could have been better.

While having dinner the ship departed. We experienced continuous left and right motion of the ship for the first time. After having dinner we came back to the cabin. We thought of watching a movie, saw Dus kahaaniya. Within 10 minutes we got irritated like anything and stopped watching the movie. At 10.30 pm, we went to sleep.

More in Part-2.

Happy New Year !!!

Happy New Year !!!

Last year I welcomed 2007 on sitting on a hospital bed. This time I was determined it make it big and welcomed 2008 at Palm Groove, Port Blair.

Yeah Post Blair !!! I am just back from Andaman Trip. It was one of the most eventful one. We covered almost all places in Andamans. In this trip we achieved a unique distinction i.e. we traveled in all modes of transport train, ship, plane and bus.

From next post onwards I will be narrating all my experiences in detail in a few posts and concluding the series with a retrospect. Keep visiting regularly. As of now have a look this snap captured at one of beaches in Andamans.

naanushande.com blocked in my office !!!

Yesterday, when I tried to access my blog in my company. The websense threw this error.

Internet use policy restricts access to this web page at this time.

Reason: Block URLs of type Humor/Jokes
URL: http://www.naanushande.com/

Well, a few months back blogspot domain was blocked in our company. Therefore I moved to custom domain www.naanushande.com, so that my blog is accessible in my company.

But two weeks back all of sudden 'blogspot block' was revoked. Seems IT people started targeting blogs on custom domain and my blog is one of the victims.

Only thing I can do is consider this as an achievement since IT people of my company think that my colleagues waste their precious time reading my blog :)

Jenukallu Gudda: less Trek more Hike

This trek was organized by Rohit(Roti) and Harish Malleshappa, other people on board were Jatin, Subhajit, Praveen, Nagesh, Sai Sudha(SPai), Rajesh, Meeliya and Srikanth.

Friday Dec 7th 4.30 pm, my manager Ramesh called for a team meeting(which supposed to be at 3.30 pm). But, I had to leave immediately in order to be at KSRTC bus stand by 7.45 pm to catch 8.00 pm bus to Ujjire. Understanding my situation, Ramesh allowed me to carry on without any additional queries or explanation (thanks a ton to him!). The 30 km travel (or rather journey) back home was unexpectedly horrible. The BMTC bus towards K.R. Market used to get stuck at each and every junction and my watch seemed to be ticking very fast. I managed to reach home by 7.10 pm, packed all the stuffs in a hurry. At 7.45 pm, as soon as I came out of my house an autorickshaw stopped right in front me and the driver immediately agreed to take me to Majestic, without any nakhras. 7.58 pm, I was at the entrance KSRTC bus stand and 8.00 pm on dot I was at platform-5. There, Harish Mallesappa was standing behind the in frustrated mood. His expression seemed like as he is going to blast me next moment ! But he replied that I am relatively early, only three people are there in the bus and rest of the guys are on the way :) Harish thru his negotiation skills managed convince the driver to hold for a while as we had reservation of ten seats ! By 8.15 pm everyone came and also there was a last minute entrant to the trek. It was none other then Praveen(Narayankar). At 8.15 pm, he was still stuck in Shivajinagar, so we had no choice of leaving him but instructed him to take next available bus towards Ujjire.

ಮಜಾ ಬರ್ತಾ ಇದ್ದೀಯಾ - Maja bartha iddiya

The ‘Maja bartha iddiya’ saga of Kotebetta trek continued. Infact, it was the first question I asked to Rohit as soon as he boarded the bus and it continued entire journey as he was sitting next to me. The journey was surprisingly normal. Harish was expecting headlights go out of order in mid journey as it happened during onward journey of Kotebetta trek. Thankfully no such scary incident happened but there was one funny moment. Legs of a kid started protruding from the seat front of us. The parents being unaware of this of they were wondering why their kid is crying like anything. As soon as I got to know about the problem I showed parents the exact the reason using my mobile phone lights. This minor incident was sufficient for Rohit to come up with many funny theories and tried to pull my legs in the entire trip.

Next day at 5 am, we reached first destination Ujjire. Actually Charmadi Gate comes 15 km before Ujjire. Our main intention was to be in Ujjire was for morning ablutions and there we had to wait for one hour for sulabh souchalay to open. When we were done with the ablutions Praveena arrived and the our group was harmonised for breakfast at Hotel Guruprasad.

After breakfast, we bought fruits and snacks, and took bus back to Charmadi Gate. On the way to Charmadi gate the hills on left were looking brownish. Jatin immediately jumped to conclusion that greenery is very very less. I argued it might be because of ‘Raman effect’, due to morning sunlight light the vegetation is emitting only brown component.

7.30 am, we reached Charmadi gate. There we went to Isubu’s shop in order to get guidance for our trekking route. As Isubu didn’t have bandwidth to accompany us, he introduced us another person. That person went somewhere and came back after long time at 9 am. Till that time, to pass the time we had tender coconut water, and almost started playing poker. Praveena had a good time reading Udayavani newspaper. Since he was reading a Kannada newspaper after a long time, I guess he wouldn’t have left even a single letter in it.

Our first spot was Alekal falls. To get there we tried to get a lift from a lorry. As we were 11 people we couldn’t find a right lorry to fit all of us. The remaining option was KSRTC bus. 2-3 of them didn’t agree us to drop. Finally, one bus conductor agreed. The short journey to the falls was full of excitement. We were standing in the last row and experience was like earthquake of 5.0 in ritcher scale. In this journey myself and Nagesh decided to set a 5 minute timer for Maja barthaidiya and periodically shoot the same at Rohith. The maja continued the entire trip of course with periodic timeout !

Alekal Falls

Around 10.00 am, we reached upstream of Alekal falls, right below the one of the hair pin bends of Charmadi ghats. Initially myself and Subhajit decided stay on the road by looking after the bags as others went down stream. But SPai was stuck in initial part of descent itself. Subhajit pulled her up using all kinds of techniques and made her the caretaker of baggages :) This gave us a chance to go down and take photos of waterfall in various modes.

From Alekal falls to Annappa swamy temple is 4 km. The temple is right at the foot of Jenukallu Gudda. The 3-4 km walk was exhausting as the sun was shining like anything. The umbrella which we were actually carrying for the rains became handy as a protection from Sun. While walking many KSRTC Lakshadeepotsava special buses to and from Dharmasthala passed by us. The passengers on board the buses had curios glance at us, wondering who these crazy people are ? that to walking in middle of ghat section with backpacks and umbrellas :)

Around 1 pm, we were at temple. The temple authorities allowed us to dump our luggages in a room. In the same room we had Lunch(chappattis, MTR read to eat, fruits). At 1.45 pm we started our ascent of Jenukallu Gudda.

Jenukallu Gudda - Ascent

I struggled in initial stage itself. After a few minutes we got to know it’s not a trek rather a hike of 70 degree gradient. Also, we were carrying water bottles as it is and it made our ascent difficult as we had climb literally with four limbs. The first half of the hike was not so difficult. In the second half I just had a glance downhill. Oh my god what am I doing. meter off ... ! I thought of giving up, but there was no way I cud have descended, it was next to impossible. Bitter memories of Savandurga lingered again. But I didn't give up, took three deep breaths and continued the ascent. Thanks to Harish Malleshappa, he pulled me up with his hands literally 2-3 times. Also, there was a big relief after getting confirmation that we will be descending by an alternate (easier) route.

Finally finally we were on the peak, I was exhausted like anything, mainly due to mental trauma. The hike was one of riskiest I had in my life so far. At the peak we had video and photo session, had all the food items we were carrying. Well, my reply to Rohit’s Maja bartha idiya was “No Comments”. Getting down thru alternate route, was not that easy, we had to hold on to suspending branches and had to do some monkey tricks, it reminded us of mowgli ke karname from jungle book :)

We came back to temple at 5.30 pm.  The group had mixed opinions about camping at night. Jatin and Rohit were very much particular about camping, as they had not camped anytime previously even after carrying tents for entire trip. After brainstorming and discussions we decided to camp somewhere downhill next to a river. We descended from a route which starts 200 m from the temple. After 2 km the downhill path joined a jeep track which took us to a estate house. The caretaker of the estate house warned us of Elephant menace.

Two km further we reached bank of a river. The place was just awesome and an ideal location for camping. There was a wooden hanging bridge and a mini waterfalls at a distance. Rohith, Nagesh started pitching the tent and the rest collected firewoods for camp fire. After having good, we started brainstorming started  ‘what if elephant comes’. Srikanth who was from Kerala, shared many tricks which learned during childhood days for handling naughtiest animal. Harish came up with a proposal of sleeping in shifts. Myself and subhajit decided to be awake till 2 am and to hand over the charge Harish after 2 am.

Camping aborted

Our choukidari duty went on for half an hour with glances for elephants eyes all sides. 9.30 pm, some three people came with torches. There was instant jhal in our hearts. Naxalites !!!. One of the persons came towards us and asked Uta aaitha. Then we came to know that it’s none other than caretaker of the estate, Abdul Qadeer(AQ) on a night patrol. He was shocked to see us camping right next elephant's routine path. He advised us to shift to safer location either on hanging bridge or right next to mini waterfall. Latter place was very safe, the elephants could not have managed come there even in their dreams. But the safe place was not suited for sleeping as eleven people couldn't sleep simultaneously on it. Further, the accessibility to the place was very difficult, shifting all baggages would have been very difficult that too on a 'new moon' night.

Then on special considerations AQ allowed us sleep in veranda of estate house. We discussed all ifs and buts accepted the offer. No point in taking risk, who knows what gonna happen if an elephant comes and attack us in reality. Anything can happen when humans are in panic ! So 10.15 pm we aborted the camping and walked back to estate house and slept immediately and of course no choukidhaari this time.

Next day at 6 am, we went back to river for ablutions and other morning activities. The hanging bridge turned out be a major center of attraction for our photo sessions. We had ‘n+1’ number of photos with it. Also went next to mini waterfall, to see how the place looks in daylight. We figured out that our decision to sleep overnight in estate house was apt.

9.30 am, we started trek back to temple and reached there by 10.30 am. Our initial plan for Day 2 was Saint Mary Island, Udupi and since we didn’t have sufficient time the plan was changed to Kapu beach. From the temple we got a bus to Mangalore. Since the journey was boring we decided to play Dumb Charades(DC). The best moment in DC session was enaction of 'Mission Impossible' by Srikanth.

Panambur Beach

1.30 pm, we were in Mangalore city. Due shortage of time, we changed plan again from Kapu beach to Panambur beach. First, at KSRTC bus stand we booked ticket to Bangalore(8.30 pm Rajahamsa). Then for lunch there was a big confusion. Non Veg people wanted to treat their tastes buds with ‘mangalore fish food’. After all discussion Non-Veg people went to different restaurant and veg people had normal plate meals in a normal hotel. At 3.45 pm, we walked to bus stop and took a local bus to Panambur beach. The bus doesn’t take us directly to the beach, one has get down on NH-17 and walk for a km.

After getting down from the bus Jatin and Roti decided have a coffee, rest of us sat on a Katte. Then came a physically handicapped person Mr. EKP(Encyclopedia of Karnataka Politics) started asking us many questions. Where are u from ? Which place? Where exactly from Bangalore ? etc etc. Suddenly, he switched to topic of Karnataka politics and started giving us lecture about Deve Gowda, Yediyurappa, Bangarappa, Gundu Rao, local MLAs MPs. We got bored like anything and Nagesh(Nageshanna) was the major victim. EKP also suggested us to take then newly started Mlore-Blore Train for return journey. He told us this 3-4 times !!, eventhough we clearly mentioned that we had already booked our bus tickets.

Somehow we managed escaped from EKP and 4.30 pm we were in the beach. We immediately headed towards rocky partition between port and the beach. We sat there and relaxed watching the sunset. I got a chance to experiment with Silhouette photography and a few photos came out very well.

Return Journey

As it got dark, we took local bus back to KSRTC bus stand, had dinner at KSRTC restaurant. The bus arrived at 8.15. Inside the bus it was like an oven and the relief came when the bus started moving at 8.30 pm. In the mid journey at 2 am we realized various issues in the bus. My push back was defective, it used to come to its mean position whenever I used go to sleeping mode. The Anku-Donku roads added more to horrible journey and the shocked absorbers of the bus were absolutely out of order. Rubbing salt to the wounds was observing 2-3 normal suvarna karnataka sarige overtaking us!!. Wake up, KSRTC authorities it’s time to phase out Rajahamsa and introduce new buses for the executive segment.

Slowly Slowly the bus proceeded and we were back in Bangalore at 7.30 am. to conclude one of memorable treks which was more like a hike and a trip.

More photographs are shared in my picasa album.

Retrospect

• No need to go Ujire, ablutions can be done next to Annappa Swamy Temple.
• The hiking of Jenukallu Gaddu is very tough, do at your own risk.
• I am not sure whether camping is really allowed in the region, AQ allowed us to on special considerations.
• Avoid Rajahamsa, traveling in it is really a nightmare.