Friday, February 24, 2006

Bisle

It all started when I got acquainted with a person who shared a couple of dreams of mine..Yes the trekking spree in Western Ghats had begun!

First it was Tadiyanmol, second the Kodachadri ranges and the third one was Bisle forest which would be described here. As usual we left Bangalore at around 10:30PM on Friday. Having a break in-between for tea, we all reached the post of Bisle forest by 6:00AM. The group had a few first time enthusiastic trekkers. It was relaxation time for the next one hour. Some of us caught up with sleep and me being a light sleeper went out to the nature with a cup of hot tea. It was as if all the energies of the nature are getting into me and the tea supplemented this rejuvenation.

After freshening up and a quick breakfast, our trek started with all hustle and bustle. The first stop point was the “beauty spot”. I was wondering the whole place in itself was beautiful and why the discrimination with in nature itself…but I was wrong for a moment as soon as I saw the gigantic mountains and a river in-between at the spot – it was such a treat to the eyes. What followed next was a lot a posing for group photos!

The trek continued in the dense forest, it was greenery everywhere and the walking on dry leaves was fun. The sound of rivers Giriole and Kumaradhara was soothing our hearts as we crawled through the thick terrains of the tropical forest. As per the guide, we are supposed to see Russel Vipers, boars and elephants. What we did actually could spot was the fresh dung of the elephants  We took a break for lunch on the banks of Giriole..we just ravaged the delicious lunch and then played with fast flowing river. The water was amazing and it did more than jus quenching our pangs of thirsts. The trek continued and we finally reached the camp place at around 5:00PM. Well the camp jus had two raised platforms – supposedly one for women and the other for men folks. We were welcomed by sweet limejuice at the camp. Then came the tougher part, when the trek leader announced that we need to go for another 300m trek to get our bags from the van. Little did we realize that the 300m distance would include a strenuous river crossing and a steep climb! Helping each other we got our bags to the camp. This was followed by an interesting interaction program that had varying topics of discussion like sensors on aircraft carriers, brain mnemonics, traffic engineering and other shades of grey!

After sumptuous dinner, we had cultural activities and then we hit the bed of raised platforms. Sleeping in the open forest was a thrill, cos we were surrounded by dense trees and dry leaves were falling all over the place whenever there is a light breeze. It was such a memorable sleep! After the chores in the morning we started from our beautiful camp for a nature trail, where in we tried to collect the samples of flora and fauna and discuss them with the group. That session was really enlightening as we got to discover new facts about the forest, wildlife behavior etc. After the break fast, we again hit the 300m path to keep our bags in the van. This time we crossed the river with skill that was gained the previous day.
The second day trek started and the interesting thing about this was we just plunged into the deep forest with a guide, crossed the river thrice before reaching the final spot at 4:00PM. River crossing needs the talent of jumping in the right rocks to save ourselves from diving down into the river. and of course to avoid wetting our shoes. From the final spot we reached Bangalore by 1:00AM. On the whole it was such a wonderful experience and this was justified by the feedback comments that everyone shared.

The words used here sometime may camouflage our real experiences of the trek and if you really want to experience – you should go for this trek!

3 comments:

Naveen said...

can u share some contact details in bisle ??

Subha said...

Ocean Winds,

This was organized by yhai!

Anonymous said...

Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!