In short about Kemmangundi..

The picturesque hill station of Kemmangundi is located at a height of 1434 metres above sea level. It was the summer retreat of Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV. Ringed by the Baba Budangiri Range and blessed with silver cascades, mountain streams and lush vegetation, Kemmangundi’s beautifully laid-out ornamental gardens and enchanting mountains and valleys views are a treat to the eye. The spectacular sunset view from the Raj Bhavan is a photographer’s delight. For the adventurous at heart, Kemmangundi offers many peaks to scale and intricate jungle paths to explore.

Here are the some of the memories of the kemmangundi trip / trek....

Day 1 -- Jayanagar, Bangalore
Date: May 27, 2005

After relaxing 15 days at home I was feeling lazy and giddyness. That was perfect day for me. Cousin Santu, My darling and I went to Bunty aur Babli @ PVR. We (READ as Daya, Cousin Santu, Sandhu and Nagi) started from Jayanagar Villa @ 9:00 PM. There was a heavy rain in Bangalore. (As per Daya you can not see person standing just 5 feet in front of you. Imagine !!)As expected there was heavy traffic on the roads.

We reached Shanks place @ 10:10 PM. As per the menu the dinner was waiting us. We had a great dinner and thanks to Shankar's Mom.Raaghu, Dorai were already present and Vinod and Senior Citizen AKA Prasad joined us. Shankar told us that his sister and bro-in-law joining us for the trip. As per Naavu_Sariilla's punch line we said "ALL WELCOME"

TT arrived @ 10:45 PM and When the clock strikes 11 we departed from Yeshwantpur listening to Akkana magalu Song. That was really good one Vinod. Our destiny was Kemmannu Gundi and we are on the way.Their was a wave of anthakshari during the journey but we did not continue for a long period.

Day 2 -- Kemmannu Gundi, Chickmagalur Dist, Karnataka
Date: May 28, 2005

We reached K gundi @ 5:30 AM. We struggled a little to find out the way to Raj Bhavan where we need to stay for next couple of days. Shanks and Raaghu did some enquire and we are able to reach Raj Bhavan.Next plan is Trekking in the ghats of K gundi to reach Hebbe falls.

We had a worthy breakfast at Hotel Garden. (Idly wada and Chow Chow bath). We decided to have Raghu aged about 14 yrs as our guide for treakking. He seems to be cool and calm. The jeep was arranged for Deepa and Suresh to Hebbe falls. They did lot of waiting I believe.

The rest started the trekking with full enthu. The total trekking distance is 11 KMS. Shanks, Vinod and Dorai presented some weight lifing show during the trek.

Great show guys !! We had a malberry's while trekking. Man, that was really sweet. We find out that Sandhu was full enthu all the time. Great I like it.

Reached the place where Deepa and Suresh was waiting for us from a long time. Find out that the Hebbe falls is still not yet reached. So we moved further leaving Deepa and Suresh.

At one place where we need to remove the shoes to cross the water. All did except Vinod and Daya. Vinod made a bridge with the help of daya to cross the water and walked without removing shoes. Later we found out that the bridge made by our guys was helping others to cross the water. Good social work from Vinod and Daya. That was really good work guys. I like it.

Reached Heebe falls @ 11 AM. Hebbe was awesome. I believe the water is falling at the height of 60 - 70 feet. We took some snaps. We decided to come back when we find that there are more ppl. Deepa and Suresh was waiting for us. I believe waiting is most difficult task for any one.

While getting back to Hotel, we identified 6 of us to go back first. (Nagi, C Santu, Prasad, Sandhu and of course Deepa and Suresh). Sandhu was not at all happy with this. She was cursing Nagi most of the return journey. She wanted to trek but rest made us to get into the jeep. Cunning S citizen got down from the jeep. (Sorry Prasad if the language is harsh) That was very bad S citizen. The plan was we need to bring the TT to one of the trekking point. C santu, Sandhu and I got the TT to said point and we started trekking (only 3 of us) towards Hebbe hoping that we would meet rest. After 20 mins of trekking we met the group. Finally we came back to Hotel in TT and the time was 3:30 PM.

We had a lunch at Hotel Garden and headed towards Kalahatti falls. I believe Kalahatti falls is similar to Surali falls (Munnar Trip) . The place was not clean and you can see all kitchen/Bathroom acitivites in that place.

The next target to get the pair of slipper for Deepa and we went to near by place ( I don't know the name of that) and got the slippers. Commanu Darling was major song we sung during this journey. We got the playing card but we did not use it. We will be using it in the next trip.

Finally we came back to the Hotel at around 7 PM. We got fresh and requested the guest house folks to arrange dinner and we are ready for the party.

That was one of the great time I had. We started with MC and some had Sprite. Then followed by wonderful wonderful songs from all of us.

Prasad AKA S Citizen was too good at his performance. Some of the Ghazal were too good. Dialogues from Raktha Kaneeru by Nagi was also good.

We ended the show with "Mere Bighi Bighi" from Shankar requested by Nagi. It was really awesome dude. I like it Baalu.

We had a dinner at Raj Bhavan. The food was good. Some of us decided to walk and some of us dead on their feet and went to sleep.

Day 3 -- Raj Bhavan, K Gundi, Chick TQ, Karnataka State,
Date: May 29, 2005.

I was still in Bed @ 7:30 AM. Daya is ready for the football. I got up and finished the nature call very quickly and ready for the football. Raghu (guide) accompanied us and showed us a small place for football. Their was a Qualis standing and Vinod some how able to move it little bit from the field. Qualis Driver seems to be Angry on us bcoz he droved almost last 20 hours. Man it happens.

Teams: Daya, Vinod, Raaghu and Nagi - Team 1

Shanks, C Santu, S citizen and Dorai - Team 2

That was one of the great match. Team 1 passes were too good and Team 2 was not able to defend Team 1 frontiers. The final score was 4-0 and Team 1 won the game. Couple of times football went to Khadda and we decided to stop the match. Raghu our guide showed the acrobatic to get the ball. Everyone apprciated it.

We decided to check out the Raj Bhavan and finally we are able to move out at 10 AM. Again and final time Hotel Garden helped to have Breakfast. S citizen was bit upset bcoz food was served a bit late. (S citizen, Talidhavanu el el lo balidhananthe) This time we had Dosa for break fast.

We thanked Raghu (guide) for his company and we took enough driving directions from the localyes to get down to BabaBudan Giri. Sandhu was very stingy distributing chocolates to team. That was bad Sandhu.

One of the remarkable and wonderful travel time I had in my life. We started dancing inside the TT. We stared with Ek Do Teen from Tezaab. Sandhu was best of us. She did some really nice steps. We parked down TT at some place and we had a dance session on Road. That was really fantastic. Then moved to Bababudan Giri. I came to know that Bababudangiri was dual place of worship. A cave type temple/mosque was really cool and its very dark inside. From this place we move towards "BADRA DAM".

BADRA DAM was really good one to end our trip. None of us had that Idea about it. Shanks as usual without asking anyone he moved towards the water followed by prasad, sandhu, vinod, daya and rest of us. The scene was really eye catching and Vinod recalled that its look like HONNE MARALU. We spent around 20-30 mins and we came back.

Shanks and Nagi decided to Join the new company from tomorrow but Nagaraj seems to be doubt and he proved it :-)

So, our trip comes to an end. We headed towards Bangalore and we had a wonderful Bajji during the journey. There was discussion with Driver lead us to reach Bangalore 30 mins late. Vinod got down @ Vidyaranyapuram next Prasad @ Mathikere and Shanks and co @ Yeswantpur.

Finally I reached home @ 00:15 HRS and recalling past two days.