What would be the recipe for a refreshingly incredible trek? One killer cold night? Or one killer descent? Or one killer ascent? Or all of them perhaps? There is a look from others that I have gotten used to – whatever-joy-you-get-by-inflicting-such-self-torture-is-beyond-sanity look. And I am used to reciprocate by giving a you-would-never-fathom-the-redeeming-quality-of-it look! Only this time it was more fun because of the telling signs of “self-torture” as many would like to put it – A weekend well spent! :P What started out as a lazy picnic trek took a whole new dimension the next day making it one hell of a memorable action packed ordeal. At the end of it all we could say was WHATTADAY!
It was a cold Friday night and 6 souls from Bangalore started out to meet the other 37 wanderers from Chennai in Kodaikanal. It was a long journey and we reached our destination only by 9 AM Saturday. A couple of known faces and many unknown, a few introductions, and a few more greetings were exchanged before the never-ending wait for our man-of-the-hour Mr. Kodai Mani started. Kodaikanal, at an altitude of 2040 meters above MSL is a very cold place even after the sun rises high above. We crammed ourselves in two small buses and waited for long before Kodai Mani showed up. Then I was enlightened that we needed to travel 2 more hours to reach the Kookal Lake which would be our trek starting point. Any other day I would have enjoyed the ride because it passed through beautiful sun soaked forests and pretty villages perched on mountain tops. But today I was here to trek and I was wanted the action to start. It was 1.00 PM and to tell you the truth frankly I was disappointed. I was expecting an atrocious crazy killing trek and this was in no way looking anything even remotely close to challenging. Oh and incase you haven’t figured it out yet, “Yea, you bleed just to know you’re alive” is my guiding slogan.
WINDING ROAD AND THE RED BIKER
