Doddamakali - Cauvery Nature Camp ( Dec 31, 2006)

Destination: Doddmakali...Cauvery Nature Camp

No. Of people: 3

Mode of transportation: Bike

Starring: Shetty, Prasad, Raaghu
Scriptwriter: Shetty (Needless to say any ref. to “I” or “me” means Shetty)

Before the 30th of Dec 2006:

It was quite sometime; we had ventured to some distance on our bikes or to any kind of trip outside and as on most times Vinod came up with the suggestion of visiting a nature camp around 140 kms away from Bangalore. He had heard about this camp from some of his friends & colleagues at Office and was really keen to visit this place. Due to personal commitments not many were available for this trip. Vinod somehow nagged Me & Raaghu to join the trip. The plan for the trip was that we leave Bangalore on Saturday (30th Dec) at around 6 am and reach the Camp at around 1 pm, Stay at the camp until 12 pm the next day (31st Dec) and return to Bangalore. Vinod & Raaghu went to the MG road made the bookings accordingly for the camp. Everything seemed to going according to plan and as only 3 of us were involved, we had assumed that there would be no dropouts. But as usual Vinod fell sick at the wrong moment and Myself & Raaghu were in a fix to cancel the trip or to go ahead. And finally we decided to go ahead with the trip, even if none joined. But surprisingly Prasad (Our Senior Citizen) agreed to join the trip and this was a rarity as reaching Prasad even on the phone is quite impossible as he does not have time even for the Mittals & the Murthys.

On the 30th of Dec 2006:

Prasad turned up at my place at 7 in the morning and we reached Raaghu's Place at around 7:30. We had some snacks and beverages at Raaghu's and then left towards Mysore at around 8 in our bikes. He were riding fast sometimes and furiously sometimes at 60, 70 & 80 kmphs and managed to reach Maddur at around 10. We had some idlis and t & cs at Kamat and continued our journey. The journey was pleasant until we took the malavalli deviation from Mysore road. The road was dusty & untarred and it was more like cross country biking. But the journey was quite enjoyable due to the scenic ambience around. We had some breaks between the journey as Prasad was capturing whatever possible with his cam which included me, Raaghu & our bikes. We had a short break at Simshapura and then headed towards the nature camp at DoddMakali at around 1:30 Pm. The path from DoddMakali to the camp is about 8 kms and is just a downhill muddy road filled with gravel that leads to the banks of river Kaveri wherein the camp is located among hillocks . We had a welcome drink at the camp (disappointingly Lemon juice) and were shown our tents. The tents have a electric fan & a double bed and nothing else urban about it. The camp has around 12 tent houses and all the camps were occupied for that day. We freshened up and swung our time until 4 in the hammocks provided around the camp. At 4 we had T&Cs with a light snack and then were taken for a scenic trip over the river on a catamaran boat(teppa). After the boat trip, we spent some time trying to play beach volleyball and managing to keep the ball in play for 0.008 seconds after serve. We then came back and while our time on the hammocks. The campfire was planned around 7 - 7:30 and between all these we(Raaghu & Me) had a non stop discourse of Gyan on life from Prasad. Prasad by then was changing gears and was in full flow during the campfire. He joined a group of 9 people who were lazying around with antakshari and after that, it was all Prasad mesmerizing us and the aunties in the group with his songs. The campfire went on till 11 and then retired to our tent. Before going to sleep at around 2 in the night, we had an other round of discourse of Gyan from Prasad about things which is quite difficult for mortals to understand.

On the 31st of Dec 2006:

With all the after effects, we somehow managed to getup in the morning at around 6 am as a trek around the river bank was planned. One trek was planned along the river bank and another was up the hillock and along the river bank. We opted the second trek and were joined by a family of four(Rao Family). The trek was for about 2 hours and was a refreshing experience of walking around the forest floors. Walking along the river bank, we came across a junction, wherein taking a teppa was a better option than walking as that needed a lot of practice. I tried for 10 minutes and gave up and so did the others. But Raaghu did not and managed to cross in his first attempt. During our stay, the dogs were the only animal we saw in & around the camp. We did hear occasional mentions of elephants, leopards, foxes, crocodiles, tortoises, but never saw one in the camp. After the trek, we broke our fast at 9 and the tried our hand at Beach volley ball. Amazingly we were far better than the previous day and were the accompanied by the Rao family in the ball game. We played on until 11 and then returned to our tent to depart from the camp. We took a quick bath and then set our journey towards Bangalore at 1. The uphill from the camp to simshapur was risky and riding doubles was impossible. I & Prasad rode to simshapur on the bikes and Raaghu was escorted by our fellow campers to that place.

During out return, we went a little out of the way to click pics of birds and insects near a lake and also went to the lakshmiNarasimha temple near malavalli. After the temple visit, we headed back to bangalore with one break at maddur for lunch.

This is one of those trips for which I was not really keen initially but later enjoyed heartily all thanks to Raaghu & Prasad.