My best friend's wedding

This sounds like a movie name. I think there was one with such
a name. Anyways this is about one of my best friend Kanchan.
I have known her for more than 3 yrs now. Though at times nerdy
she was one of the sweetest girl I have known. She is getting
married on 7th of Aug to Jaspal. He is working in Sydney,Australia.
I wish them all the very best for their married life:-)

Gauri-Vara trek

Date: 16th July 05
About the place:
The place is located at the foothills of "Singara" mountain ranges in
Madhumalai. It is a private estate right in the middle of Madhumalai
National Forest. You can read more about the place at
http://www.creekncrag.com
It is about 250 km from B'lore located only a few KMs away from
B'lore-Mysore-Ooty road. If you are looking for a secluded place to
getaway on a weekend, this must be one of them.

Starting from B'lore:
I woke up at 4 in the morning!!! just to make sure that I don't once
again become the reason for the delay. We wanted to leave B'lore
before 5 in the morning so that we can avoid the early morning rush.
I was the first one to be picked up followed by Ramu and then the
honeymoon couple Anil and Poornima (we refer to married people as
honeymoon couple).

Reaching the destination:
As planned I was the first one to get picked up followed by Ramu and
then the couple. During this pickup process I realized the kind of
driver we hired for the trip. From the way he was driving I assumed
that the vehicle belongs to him. He was treating it just like his wife!!!
We had breakfast in Kamath hotel just after mysore. That turned out
to be the only memorable part of our drive to Gauri Vara. After the
breakfast I fell asleep thanks to our driver's smooth and slow
driving style! but only to be awaken by a rude tap on the shoulder.
It was the driver again. He said "Don't sleep when you are sitting
in the front, it makes me also to sleep"!!! Needless to say I never
slept after that.
At about 11AM we made it to Gauri vara via Bandipur and then
Masinagudi which is about 8-10 km from the place. Though it was bit
late we were happy to reach the place before lunch. But our driver
had a last trick up his sleeves. He refused to drive on the mud road,
which was perfectly alright, that goes to the actual camping site.
We lost an hour because of this. Decided never to hire this guy again.
Finally we reached the camping site at 12 in the afternoon thanks to
the vehicle arranged by the estate people.

Trek #1:
To make it worse it started raining just after we reached the camp.
But by the time we finished our lunch it had stopped raining. So we
started our first trek into the forest at 2PM. I was the official
photographer for this trek. All the good photos are taken by me and
the other mediocre ones are by Anil & Co. You can check out some the
pics at http://photos.yahoo.com/mohan_k_r
For the initial part of the trek we had to walk along the electrified
fence. On the other side of the fence was the Madhumalai National
Forest. After walking some distance we saw the fence flattened by an
elephant. Here we crossed over to the other side. This place reminded
me of Augumbe forest minus the leaches:-)
Though there were not many photo ops in this thick forest I managed
to get some using my skillful photography. Basically we trekked up
along side a stream. Most difficult part was to climb the slippery
rocks. After trekking for few hours we decided head back.


*View of Singara Ranges*

Trek #2:
Started raining again in the evening and just like in the afternoon
it stopped after the tea. This time we went in the opposite direction.
It was already getting dark when we started. This was a flat trek
through the woods. Went around for some time in the dark without
any luck. At last we managed to spot a herd of sambars, leopard
pugmarks and some elephant shit. Just when we thought that we may
not able to see anything worth, we spotted a bison and right behind
it was a lone tusker!!! This was worth all the money that we had
spent. We would have been more happy had we seen a leopard or a
tiger hunting down a sambar. But we'll settle for this one:-)


*Pond along the trekking route*

Stay in the tent:
I am a no-vegetarian but here I had to settle for just the veggie stuff.
But Felt pity for the grass eaters. After the dinner we went back to
our tents. There were 2 tents pitched for four of us. I had to share
the tent with Ramu. For "obvious reasons" our honeymoon couple
asked for the tent to be pitched far away from ours. We were given
sleeping bags but I used it as a blanket. Just in case the elephant
attacks I didn't want to be stuck inside the sleeping bag which would
have become a body bag. I had such a "sound sleep" it even might
have scared some animals away.

Trek #3:
Woke up at 2 hours past 5AM. Finished the usual routines and went
for another trek. This time we were not as lucky as the previous day.
Only managed to see some fresh elephant shit.

Abrupt end:
After coming back we had a nice heavy breakfast. Here we decided to
go to Bandipur and do a small trek for about 4-5 hours. But when we
reached the place all the guides were already booked and were only
available after 3PM. So our trip came to an abrupt end. We had no
option but to go back to B'lore. All of us decided to skip the lunch
instead we had some low calorie potato buns, chips, fruit cakes and
some soft drinks. Safely reached B'lore at 4PM.