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.