a Travelogue - II

The beginning

The three of us set off to Majestic.

For the trip, I had 50 rupees in cash, and my flat-mate, 60 in Sodexo coupons!. Our bus was at 10-30 pm. We reached  platform four at 10-27 (not that it mattered - the bus would start late anyway!). The other three of my friends were already there.

After an uneventful and peacefully slept-off bus journey, at 5am the next morning, we got off at Shimoga bus-stand.

Shimoga is somewhat in the central/south-central region of Karnataka. 

Landing there, one myth got shattered - that you can get along well in Karnataka if you know tamil or hindi. Yes, in Bangalore you can.May be this is due to the border Bangalore shares with Tamilnadu, and the scores of people from different parts of the country who visit and settle down there.

In Shimoga, though, the situation was different. Auto-fellas, policemen, and the local-bystander - the 3 guides without whom no travel would be possible- seemed to know neither tamil, nor hindi. They knew only kannada, and as none of us were (and still are, for that matter) competent in the language, we couldn't get much help from the local people.

Anyway, after a lot of gothilla-s,beku-s and houdhu-s (I tried to learn many more words in my brief albeit unsuccessful attempt at learning the language) we found an auto driver who knew english, and a proud man at that. Although his ultimate intention was to rip us, 'the tourists', out of our money - but us being us , that was not going to happen , which ofcourse he wouldn't know until much later when it was time for the showdown regarding his fare - he did find us an atm, and we also found a private bus that would take us to Kollur, which was our next destination. From Shimoga to Kollur, it was around 115km. As it was ghat-road, it would take us a little less than five hours. So we should reach Kollur around 10-30am. 

On the way, I noticed that a large number of school children were getting on the bus. Some of the villages from which these children were getting on seemed to have nothing but one or 2 buildings as any sign of civilization. Now remember, this was not even 6am in the morning -that was why I was amused by the large number of school children in the bus. 

Later, it turned out that these children were studying in a school in a small town called Hosanagare, where they would eventually get off. This town was like 50 - 60 km from some of the villages from which some of the children had got on.

Just think of it, small children starting at 5 am in the morning, and having to travel 50 fishing kilometers in the shivering cold for their education. How many of us has had to do that? - and at one village where the bus stopped, 2 small kids were coming from a side lane, running as fast as their small legs could carry them, but not fast enough to reach the bus before it started off. I wonder how many beatings they got from their teacher for being late that day.

 

MANDARA GuestHouse

Temple circle, Shimoga road, Kollur.

That is where we took a room. According to Santhosh, the proprietor of this modest establishment, the room rent varies according to tourist traffic. 2 days before, the same room which we were renting would have cost only 100. But due to weekend tourist traffic, it was four times as much. Anyway money was the least amongst our concerns.

We had a heavy brunch, and set off to the first and main destination in the trip - Kodachadri hill.

We took a bus from kollur to a place around 12 km away, called Kalaghatta. All these places are right in the heart of Mookambika / Sharavathi wildlife sanctuary. Actually Kalaghatta ,as we saw it, was not much of a place. It had a shed before which buses would stop, that's all. Then there was a mud road on the otherside, leading into the jungle.

This was the place where the trekking trip would begin.