A visit to heaven

It wasn't just another visit to the hills, there were differences incorporated, particularly by the weather, chilling winds(really),rain unstoppable(as if we could stop it),and to add to the flavor were the innumerable leaches all around the mushy trails of the walk unto the Brahmagiri peaks.For those ignorant of "leaches",they are worms which suck blood off human body,particularly attracted by body odour.About 40 flextronians set off on a friday evening along with the trekking team counting four in number comprising of Ananth our captain and Shanti another champ in rock climbing along with sajith and gopi to Brahmagiri in Coorg district of karnataka about 270 km from bangalore.The journey began from the base camp at brahmagiri wild life sanctuary in the wee hours of the next saturday morning ,through the IRPU falls , we corroded through the lush green jungle passing on 'lakshmantirtha' on our way (its the origin of the river named alike).We met many people on their way back to the base after completion of their treks,what proved more adventurous was the weather playing tantrums on us,with spurs of rain and chilly winds sometimes.This place provides some breath taking & picturesque views of the western ghats from the eastern side of it,pasing through the kerala side of the ghats we saw the incoming monsoon clouds,assembling to wreak havoc in this part of the subcontinent.After about 31/2 hours of trek we reached our guest house booked by the organising team having orders from the concerned forest office.It was a misnomer a place quite shabby for a team of our size.It was time now to recollect ,people had bleeding legs(yeah not just their feet but leaches managed to climb up their body).this prevented some of us to go ahead in tune to our final destination ,the PEAKS of brahmagiri.After some light refreshments and some basic counselling the "how to do ?" types from Ananth and his team we set of for the final trail.Well it wasn't easy to put it in simple,weather deteriorated and most of all ,there was no protection from it only the will to explore kept all 22 aligned with the same goal "reaching to the peak".On our way up we crossed many small mountains which had slopes of grassland,i mention it here because their beauty is beyond words to cage,clouds thronged our trails and we could barely see beyond 200 metres at times,the final accent measured about 200 metres,angled at about 60 degree to the normal the path uphill was "well there was none we had to make one, really !" through grasses and muddy trails.As if we conquered,as if we had won,there was a feeling ,when we reached at the peak there was appraise from all for all and what mattered most was the hunger rising in one and all of us after the hard day, the dry "khajoor" and other confectionaries provided by Ananth now seemed to be the best of the collection.We relaxed savoured our accomplishment and the confectionaries in particular.When Anant gave me those 5 precious peices of dry khajoor,i knew i was tasting the best one's in the whole world....gusty winds..frosty air and drenching rain,they were all over the place.It was time for the decent no friends it wasn't easy,to control your speed is tough,life throws an advice here "its sometimes tough to under perform but you got to do it for better times".On our way back we hoped to see some wild life but thanks to the weather,all we managed was leaches and elephant dungs.The decent down to the guest house was sooner than the accent ,it was evening by now and food was prepared by sajith and his team for all,boiling rice with dal and curry proved to be the best things on earth momentarily, follwed by the sleep on the mat carried by each from the base camp for themselves.Quite deservingly all had a wonderfully deep sleep that night.Next mornnig the weather gods did not show any mercy either after our early cohres and some refreshment we set off for the final decent back to our bace camp which proved to be exhaustive and tiring,but it was not all over yet for the more adventurous seeked to find a haven in the chilling strong watersof the IRPU waterfall,seemed to me the party had just begun,the water was very cold and the bath was refreshing ,anyhows as all good things come to an end so did our journey.Back at our base we had a good lunch ,thanks for ananth and his team for all they did,we reached bangalore by 10 pm.I should thank those behind all this who never had a chance to see the fun themselves ,the admin team from Flextronics ,i think it was a very rejuvinating tour to the nature,and i hope we have many such tours in future.not only did it refresh us but we had achance to make new friends which is of utmost importance for our corporate and social stature.I hope to see all my teammates again on yet another adventour camp.Take care