Scenic Chembra trek with splendid WOW group
“Good bye everyone , take care !! … “ said Anusha as she got down from
the tempo traveller van. We all bid her goodbye and I actually woke up from my
day dreaming about how wonderful wayanad trip went so far. It still felt like I
have just now registered for this trek. But time passes quickly and so our trip
to Waynad was about to end. Let me take you through a thrilling flashback of
this exciting trek. The more you read about, I am sure, the more you feel like
going on treks and trips with BTC and WOW groups.
If it was for Narasimha parvatha, we would have not gone for Chembra
peak in Wayanad. The change in venue was due to ban on the Kigga trail of
Narasimha parvatha. When I saw the mail about change in venue, I was slightly
surprised but not disappointed, since the trek was not cancelled or postponed.
Chembra peak in Wayanad was as new to me to explore as Narasimha parvatha in
Agumbe ghats.
We had a re-confirmation mail chain amongst those who were shortlisted
and out of twelve, ten agreed for chembra. To my surprise, my previous WOW bike
ride friend Raja-Laxmi and her daughter enrolled for this trip in place of the
two drop outs. Amongst two co-ordinators, I knew Ritu, so apart from these three,
I was going to make nine cool and lovely friends.
My excitement about this trek started a week before and almost everyday
I was mentioning about it to either my colleagues or friends or to my
room-mate. And at last it was Friday 9th Jan, on which we all were suppose to
gather at Majestic near Shantala silk house. I came along with Raja Laxmi and
Vaishnavi (her daughter). At the same meeting point, BTC Nagala trip group had
also gathered. So many new faces were assembling there. I meet Monisha (co-ordinator)
and others. I was wondering whether Ritu would recognise me but she greeted me
saying 'yea I remember you.’ Little Vaishnavi badly wanted to go for Nagala
again and was almost ready to ditch us but when we told there is going to be
waterfall bath, she agreed. Our travel van came on time. I guess by 10.15pm we
started off.
The journey began with silence first,
then small talks. I was quiet for some time as I was feeling terribly sleepy.
But when actual introduction session started I was awake. We introduced
ourselves with our hobbies etc, then Monisha and Ritu briefed us about iternary
till next day. We reached Bandipur by 3 am and waited there till the gates open
at 6 am. I was completely awake till we halted at Bandipur.
A small pat on my head woke me up. I
looked at the time it was 7 am. I might have slept off early morning and I was
struggling to open my eyes. I still don’t remember who woke me but I could
guess that we had reached our stay destination. Hidden in bushes and tress, a
small green bungalow was waiting for our arrival. It was a home-stay
arrangement for us. The cool breeze made my sleep go away. While the
co-ordinators were having talks with the owner, other girls and me went inside
the warm house. It had a cute little sitting area outside, usually called as
‘varandha’ in my mother tongue and three bed-rooms with a kitchen. All the
girls, especially Vaishnavi was running from one room to another discovering
the house. But the first thing I did was putting my smartphone on charging -
very important right ! :P
“I love this group yaar ! “ said Monisha, when we
all told that we can leave off immediately and can have our baths later in the
evening. So quickly we all just brushed and washed our face, changed and were
ready for our chembra exploration. On the way we saw a place called ‘ 1980’s A
Nostalgic Restaurant’ were we had our breakfast. I tried puttu for the first
time and I loved it. By this time we all were familiar and comfortable with
each other. So it was breakfast with lots of chitchats and teasings. Finally
around 11 we were at the chembra ticket house were our co-ordinators took care
of tickets. Around 8km kachha road was waiting for us ahead of this point, so
our driver did some tantrums, but we didn’t budge. On the way we placed a lunch
order, so when we are back, hot food would be waiting for us.
We relaxed there for sometime, had snacks, took
photos and when we were about to descend, our guide spotted a wild elephant
very far away from us. It was barely visible with naked eyes, but Ritu and
Sushie did capture it in there cams. Climbing down was much quicker. Around 3
we were at our lunch stop. Delicious food was waiting for us. All were too
hungry to speak. Hot Sambar and rasam along with rice and chicken .. yumm
!!
The day ended with a visit to sun set point which
we couldn't see because of fog and cloudy sky, but view was eye catching. After
having tea in near by dhaba, we parcelled dinner for us and were back to our
cozy home-stay. After a day’s adventure and exploration on chembra, a nice bath
and food can give a nice deep sleep. Chit-chatting, teasing each other,
cracking jokes and laughing , slowly one by one we all were fast asleep.
Next day morning, I woke up again with a pat on my
head. But this time I realised it was Ritu who was asking me to get up. As
decided on previous day, we all we set to go for Eddekal caves.
Unfortunately we couldn’t go for Soochipara waterfalls due to road
construction. But c’on nobody scribed about it much. Rajalaxmi had brought
bread and cheese which we all had as our quick breakfast. We all were glad to
reach the caves on time since the crowd increased after 10 am. The climb to
caves was slightly steep but kerala tourism has made railings and steps, which
makes it easy. The place is a bit commercialised but I liked the way discipline
was maintained about littering and not carrying food stuff etc to caves.
Eddekal means a rock stuck between three giant rocks. So this cave is a
formation of three huge rocks on sides and a big circular rock stuck on top of
these three. A local guide explained about the carving made on those rocks.
There were human figures, peacock, elephant and a fox carving along with some
script. We could identify few letters as it was in brahmi sanskrit and tamil.
While returning back towards parking, some of us did shopping of local stuffs.
I purchased couple of soft cushions, for which Monisha helped in bargaining.
Post lunch we left for bangalore since all of us had to be back by 9 pm to
Bangalore and also the Bandipur road gets closed from 9 pm to 6 am. We had good
food at much cheaper rate at the restaurant named ‘Prince’ since they had their
inauguration on the same day. A small tragedy happened where I dropped my cell
phone in van and in panic I returned back to van searching it without informing
others who went ahead for lunch. My absence for few minutes may have made
others worried, but girls did find me and I finally I found my phone.
Wow!, two days passed away so fast, the
awaited trip to chembra was about to end. “Girls how many of you are getting
down at majestic” Ritu was asking us. I came out of the sweet memorable flash
back and raised my hand. We reached majestic on scheduled time. Saying goodbyes
was slightly emotional. Hoping to meet these girls again for future trips with
BTC or WOW, four of us, going to koramangala and btm side left by cab.
This was the one of the amazing treks
with WOW group and ones again I was refreshed for coming Monday.
Written By : Neha Pathak
Organized By : Ritu & Monisha
Date of event : 10th & 11th Jan 2015
Members Count: 12
Place : Wayand
Pictures : BTC FB Page
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