Sunrise.. It blew us down!

Since we couldnt enjoy the sunset to the max, we decided to go watch the sunrise instead. Me and Rakesh were up by 5.15 am, and we were roaming around like nomads to ward off the cold. Vijay was up too, but he laid down. We were trying to wake others up so that we wouldnt miss the sunrise. As usual, Vivek was hindering us. :P

We got up, tired and cold. We started towards the summit once again. But the cold weather had worsened Vijay's leg pain. He decided to stay back. All the others went. I was expecting a calm, chilly breeze over at the hilltop. But I was wrong. It was chilly, but definitely not calm. It was powerful enough to blow us down if someone gave us a push. Now, it was time to wait for the sunrise. And so we did. Meanwhile, Vivek went roaming around the hill and found a nice new spot for us to relax and enjoy the Sunrise.

Thats Vivek gobbling up the Sun and Abhishek's hand filtering the rays around it.

By the Campfire..

At last, nightfall! We were huffing and puffing on our way down to the campsite. And we were irritated to the maximum extent when we found out that some other group had brought urbanization amidst nature! All that loud music and drinks made us think about why we had to go there of all the places. But the million sparking dots in the clear night sky masked that feeling.

There we were, tired and sitting around the campfire in the chilly weather, munching on snacks at random. These were clicked when we were feeding the fire. It was then that we had to decide the agenda for the next day. We hadnt planned our whereabouts prior to the trip. No one wanted to plan for the coming days . We just wanted to lay our heads down and rest. We got the tent setup and crawled into it. Each of us went to sleep gradually as the loud discussion receeded. But the story doesnt end there!

Venu, Vivek and Abhishek slept like babies. Rakesh, on the other hand was half asleep. Vijay and Me had ~1 hour of sleep throughout the night. He was suffering from leg pain and I was sleepless. The population density made us a bit uncomfortable. To make things worse, another batch of tourists came around midnight. At around 2 am, they started singing, reciting, dancing and all sorts of sleep-stealing stuff. That night was the worst part of the trip. Other than that, everything went on smoothly, as hoped.

ಓತಿಕೇತ !!

Photography and Caption by Vivek.
Nice Job Viv!

We partially missed the sunset. Just then, we remembered that we had hidden our backpacks in some ditch nearby and we had to rush to get it. Abhishek, Vijay, Venu and Me left in a hurry to make sure they were safe. Meanwhile, Rakesh wanted to get some snaps and I had given the camera to him. Somehow, Vivek managed to get this wonderful shot with Rakesh sitting on a rock like a lizard basking in the sun.
Later when we were sitting around the campfire and seeing the images shot by those two, I became a die-hard of the caption-as-well-as-the-image. "ಓತಿಕೇತ" - What an Imagination! Bravo!

Nature's Masterpiece - "Cloud Painting"

Lets say you are giving a shot at water painting. Somehow, you manage to mess things up and spill gray-turned-water all over your canvas. Then you make horizontal brush strokes over the canvas to patch things up. Add a little bit of yellow, a little bit of orange, some this and that and what have you got? This!

But what makes this image interesting is that its not a painiting, this is the real deal at the summit of Kodachadri! The feeling cant be explained, it must be experienced. This image was shot at 5:50 in the evening.

Silhoeutte!

As anyone who went trekking to Kodachadri would say, we were half-exhausted, half-excited. Vivek, Rakesh and Venu had went ahead with the trek. Abhishek, Vijay and me stood there clicking pics. Thats not the only reason that we stayed behind, we were too damn tired to continue ;) . This is Abhishek's silhouette by the way. He was looking down at the cliff below. There's lots more to come from this set... Stay tuned!

Standing Tall and Alone

We were exhausted to the core! I was too tired of clicking pics, we were all too tired of walking and it was already 5:30. We had to make up time. We were all insane enough to dump our bags in a nearby pit and hope that it'll still be present there when we return. Exhaustion! *sigh*

While walking up, we found this beautiful spot. I had to take images. Rakesh, Venu and Vivek went ahead while Abhishek, Vijay and Me were left behind clicking pics. We caught up with them after quite some time. This was clicked sometime during the up-trek.

Aahh.. Water at last

We thought we had reached the summit of Kodachadri. We were so desperate for water. But when we found out that there were 3 more kilometers to cover, all we could say was *sigh*. It was already 5 in the evening. We had to freshen up as quick as possible and pursue again. It was around this spot where we spotted the puppy. As usual, I delayed the start, by clicking here and there.

By the way, thats Vijay's hand you see there.

Ruined!

Although this little guy doesnt know it, he is very lucky to have born in Kodachadri, quite far away from human hustle and bustle. Except for the trekkers visiting the place now and then, the place is quite harmonius, I must say. But Wait, not so fast! Lets not jump to conclusions here. Forget about the foreground for a moment and take a look at the background. Now I realize that I've made a wrong statement, "the place was quite harmonius".

I dont understand why travellers sometimes become irresponsible. They do travel to see what the natural world offers them, but why do they give littering in return? There are many such places along the side of the trek path to Kodachadri.

One humble request, please dont litter. :(

On the way to Kodachadri...

It was 1:30 in the afternoon and we still hadnt started our ascent. We were walking along the dusty road when Rakesh spotted a stream nearby. We decided to freshen up and refill our supply of water. It was a beautiful place and spend quite some time there. Rakesh found these sets of stone, arranged them and asked me to shoot it.. And I did.

The second one is a photoshop tweak to the original. Its called radial blur in zoom mode. I liked the vortex effect that it produced.

What an expression Sirji!

Thats Vijay trying to smile while munching on a biscuit. I like to capture candid portraits and I tried the same with him. Unfortunately, he noticed me. But fortunately, I captured his squirrel-ish avatar.
This was shot at the foot of Kodachadri Hills, Shimoga, Karnataka, India. Its a must-see place, so go ahead append it to your things-to-see list!

Kodachadriya Naayi Mari!

It was around 5 pm when we reached the top. (Or atleast we thought we had reached the top, but Alas! There was 3 more kilometers to go). This cute little puppy greeted our exhausted minds with its usual playful activities. The Sun was at a low angle in the sky and muddy golden hairs of the puppy glistened in the sunlight.

A great start to a brand new decade

Hmmm.. Its been too long since I last updated my blog, almost 10 months!

Left to Right: Venu, Vivek, Abhishek, Rakesh
This season, me and a bunch of my friends planned a trip to the Western Ghats, Karnataka. I must say I loved clicking most of the pics!
This here is the summit of Kodachadri, Shimoga District, Karnataka, India. We were all too excited (and too tired) by the time we reached the top. We had thought we would miss the sunset for sure. In fact, we almost missed the sunset due to this series of pictures.