More snaps are following, with a travellogue! :-)! Check back soon!!Thadiyandamol Trek – Travellogue – Part 1 – Preparations to Picking up people!Wonder la – That is what actually started it all. A group outing to Wonder la and then to some obscure place in Tamil Nadu started the whole thing of a group outing. What ensued was countless emails, phone calls and browsing time on the various places in and around Karnataka we can go.After some initial planning, over a pathetic lunch, we had decided to indeed make it to Thandiyandamol – the highest peak in Coorg [Kodagu] district. Then came Ajish’s mail on Thadiyandamol – mentioning the height of the peak and the presence of “leeches”. Anyhoo, as I can’t find the mails, I will give you the briefer

Tadiandamol is a mountain in Kodagu district of the Indian state of Karnataka. It is located on the Western Ghats range, and reaches an elevation of 5729[1750 meters] feet. It is a place of interest for trekkers. The mountain has patches of thick forests with abundant leeches.[Source: http://answers.com/%5D

Well, Thadiyadamol was perfect for our trekking requirements.-> It involved proper trekking through patches of forests and through three hills.-> Required a little amount of adventure, what with the leeches and Bihari’s mail-> Required some strain on our part to carry the tents and bags and food items and the heaviest of ’em all – WATER!!!-> Get dirty and down to earth atop the peak by pitching camp and cooking food with a campfire.I honestly think that this was more than enough to get each and every one of us totally excited about the whole trip. So, then came the process of getting all the people in. We got a healthy list of people interested and as usual some of the buggers backed off, but as someone sometime said [I don’t remember the name as I don’t think it was that important to give that guy credit]. Great now I forgot what I wanted to say there. [See I told you what he said wasn’t that important, but it would have given a cool effect to what I wanted to say]So, where were we? Oh yeah, it was finally 13 people. It would have been 14, but poor Arun couldn’t make it as his manager declared that they would be working on the Saturday and the Sunday ;-)!. Anyhoo, tough luck chum, next time. So, 13 people decided to make the trek up to Thadiyandamol. :-)! We called ourselves “Tera Terah” under the guidance of “Baba” alias “Captain”. Lemme just jot down the names [actual and nick] so that you can relate who I am talking about from now on.Actual Name        Nick Name—————–        —————-Ajish                AjjaAmresh            BabaArijit                BhokchoKalyan             Kalyani aka GM2 [pronounced GEE EMM Squared]Nitiman            ChintimanSantosh           DoddaKapil                AaaduSachin             MamuVikas               GZ [pronounced GEE ZEE]Amit                Khada LimbuShishir             Gol GolMoi    PanguSo, there we were. Endless planning followed at the end of which this was the ItineraryDate, Time                Action——————————–    —————————–Saturday, 0300 hrs        Start from BangaloreSaturday, 1000 hrs        Reach ThadiyandamolSaturday, 1200 hrs        Start on the trek after packing and loading everything on our backs :-)!Saturday, 1700 hrs        Reach the peak and pitch campSaturday Night              Start the camp fire and start prep for cooking and night masti ;-)!Sunday morning            Start the trek backSunday, 0900 hrs          Start for Abbi fallsSunday, 1200 hrs          Start back for Bangalore!Well, as always, anything planned will have a slippage, only thing was in our case, it was more than a slippage, it was a complete disaster ;-)! hehehe! Anyhoo, came the D-day! Saturday morning. The previous night I had gone out with Arijit to meet his friend and friend’s friend, and had left Brigade Road at about 09:30pm. So, by the time Arijit and me reached home, it was about 10:30pm. I went off to sleep by about 11pm! Arijit as usual took his night [well only] bath and plonked as well. I got up at about 02:00am to get ready. Well, not exactly @ 02:00 am, I stayed on the bed till about 02:40 and finally managed to somehow pull myself up my bed :-)!. I woke up for the simple reason that Baba had told me that the bus [Tempo Traveller] would reach BTM @ 03:00am. So, afraid that I will screw the plans, I woke up and managed to take a bath and get fresh. Then the wait began for the stupid bus. I think Arijit and I got another dose of sleep after dressing up as well, since the bus finally reached Taverkere about half past four.!!The guys told me that the reason for the “slippage” was that they had underestimated how much time it would take to pack the tents and the sleeping bags. [The sleeping bags and tents were collected by GeeZee and Bihari the previous night and hoarded at their lodgings]. Anyhoo, when the bus came, it had Baba, Bihari, Geezee, Dodda, Ajja, Chintiman and Khada Limbu! We still had to go and pick up Kalyani [GM2], Aadu and Gol Gol! So then we decided to go to Koramangla and pick up Kalyani!!SHIVA TALKIES and Kalyani!!So we started from Taverkere, where Arijit and me got into the bus. The bus proceeded to K’mangla and Dodda called up Kalyani to find out where he had to be picked up from. Kalyani was bringing the gas stove that we needed to cook there and light the Petromax light for the night atop the peak. Well, Kalyani had spent the night over at his friend’s place in K’mangla. And his instructions were SIMPLE – Come to Shiva talkies and I will be standing next to it. We all started in the quest of “Shiva talkies”. Kalyani was describing the place as if it were the next Inox or Innovative or PVR! I mean, who the hell has heard of Shiva talkies?? We finally got the place after entering K’mangla village and by sheer luck. It turned out to be a place where they run B-grade movies. [Think pondi :-d]! From then on, the jab on Kalyani had started. [For the entire remaining part of the trip, Kalyani had turned to be at the butt end of all our jokes]! :-)!SHANTI SAGAR and Aadu!!Then we moved on from “Shiva talkies” and on our way to pick up Aadu! Aadu had asked us to come in fronta Shanti Sagar and he came after we waited for about 5 mins. Note the time now. We had planned to leave Bangalore fully packed by 0300hrs. Already we were an hour and a half late.K’mangla LAST stop and Gol Gol!So, all were into the bus, save for Gol gol! Gol gol was standing at Jhakkasandra – aka K’mangla last stop. We travelled through the “best road of Bangalore” the 80 ft road and finally reached Jakkasandra without any major injuries inflicted to us or the bus. :-)! At last after an hour and fifty minutes behind schedule, the gang was finally complete and we began our trip to Thadiandamol!!————————————End of Part 1————————————