Confusion, commotion, sense of urgency filled the air at Bangalore railway station.. It was 9.00PM. All excited I was rushing towards platform no 9, under bridge, to meet fellow BASC members to embark on our two day trek to Koosali Falls.
A few familiar faces & lot many faces yet to be familiarized, it was to be a really exciting trek. As the Customary “HI, hello, what’s your name “were exchanged we waited for the train to arrive .We had a loooonnnngggg train journey to make (11 hr’s)!!!
Somehow the 11 hrs.’ journey didn’t seem as bad as it sounded the previous night, all thanks to the BASC community, it’s never a dull moment in this high-spirited group :)
It was 11 AM the next day and the train came to halt at Mookambika station, the place where we were supposed to get off the train. This was the time when we actually got to see the entire group.
After a 30 min bumpy, dusty ride, on muddy roads we were at our start point. Now there were two ways to reach our destination ‘First – The easy path through the forest, Second - a slightly difficult one i.e. along the river bed: we took the second one since it was to be more interesting and a more “trekking trekking” sort of path: D’
First Group Picture
With customary group pics clicked, formal introductions done and vessels borrowed from Mr. Joseph (for the dinner and the breakfast plan) it was time to start the trek. As we trekked along the scorching heat of the sun, and the size of the rock’s, steadily increased.
2.5 hr’s into the trek, we all had small rats or in some cases bigger ones running around in our stomachs!! It was clearly time for lunch. All of us settled at a nice shady place to feast on our packed lunch. This shady respite of ours had a soothing effect on us, so much so that I was in no mood to go on with the trek!! But then, I did not really have a choice there: D
As we inched closer to our destination, the terrain got tougher. Morning’s breakfast was having its effects on me by now. Scorching heat of the sun, a nagging headache and strong nauseous feeling made the not so trying trek seem difficult.
Finally!!! We saw it, we were at Koosali falls.
Level 2 view of the falls
By the time we reached the falls , the faster paced people had already made their way to right under the falls. Without wasting much time all of us started enjoying the natural Spa (standing below the waterfall), which was truly natural amidst the western Ghats, with the company of birds and a few leeches!!
All the pain and the fatigue of the trek vanished within seconds of getting into the water. It was getting dark and time to get down to business that is cooking our dinner.
It was amazing to see how the whole group worked as a team, to churn out luscious dinner for 30 hungry adults. “Special thanks to Srikanth sir, for making plans to cook and carrying most of the necessary stuff”. Delicious two course dinner was coming together slowly. The whole experience of dining in the wild under the star studded sky, on a full moon day was just amazing, and was a perfect end to a tiring day.
It was an early morning next day, most of us were up and ready by 6.30 AM, and decided to trek to the next level of the four leveled waterfall. I must say the effort was totally worth it.
At this level the waterfall was a far cry from what we had seen the previous evening. Water cascaded from a greater height, and created a beautiful pool of water.
Level 3 view of the fall
It was around 7.00 AM and time to start off with the preparations for breakfast. A simple breakfast turned out to be a lavish breakfast buffet with soup, Upma, Delicious Peda’s and Maggie. Thirty satisfied souls started down climb towards our base point. This time we decided to take the easier route through the jungles to reach Mr. James Joseph house.
After an hour into the descent we reached the base point, and vehicles were ready to ferry us to our next destination Someshwara beach.
Enjoying at the beach
It was around 12 in the noon, sun right over the head and we were at the beach!!!! Before we realized all of us were experiencing the waves of joy, but there was one annoying factor the crab which constantly crawled below my legs giving me a creepy feeling :/
Our train back to Bangalore from Mookambika station was at 4.50 PM, the clock said 3.30 and so it was time we headed back to the station. En-route we stopped at the bus stand for a quick sumptuous lunch and hurried towards the railway station.
Train was on time and all of hopped into our designated coaches.
Thanks to Mafia !!(the game) time flew, we didn’t realize when evening turned to night, and it was dinner time.
At half past 11 all of us finally decided to hit the bed after a few rounds of dumb charades and some chitchatting.
8.30 AM on Day 3 we were back at the same place where we started off the trek. We were back at Bangalore railway station, and the end of our two day trek. Exchanging the final goodbye’s and the keep in touch, we all parted ways to get back into our routine mundane lives.
Special credits to the following people:-
Mudassar- for organizing yet another wonderful trek Srikanth sir- for coming up with idea of cooking; Cooking team (Sukumar aka gotaisoru, Daud aka benki hakoru, Prakash aka the soupy boy, Sowmya , Anusha and self the chopping team ) Everyone else for making it a memorable trek.
Written by: Jyothsna CG
Date: 15 &16 March 2014
Event organized by: Mudassar Khan
The Team- Srikanth, Ashutosh, Shivakumar, Ranganath, Suodh, Prakash, Satya, Arvind, Ravi, Sukumar, Arun, prabhakar, Jawahar, Abhishek, Souwmya, Anusha, Jyothsna, Arun, Daud,Sandeep,
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