Paradise Revisited

I had originally planned to start this blog with the most phunked n fantabulous vacation that we had in the north-east. But, that thing about best laid plans of mice and men kicked in! Too often. Procrastination, laziness, work deadlines, and such...so here we are almost two months later..knock, knock, knocking on another year's door and none the wiser. However, in between we did manage to squeeze in our second road trip to Red Hills almost a year later to date in Dec (the 2006 trip to be posted later-a prequel if you may!). Prequels have been doin well u know...

So here we are: the drive was amazing as usual once you get out of the urban madness (read Bangalore, Mysore and those lesser others in between). Decided to break journey in Madumalai in a place called Wild Haven, not exactly out of choice, it was getting dark and we were feeling funky about those 32 hairpin bends (Funky is the good word). Drove out the next morning and reached Red Hills just in time for lunch. And since we were almost already there(near Ooty n therefore Redhills), we didn't hurry too much. Although this was our second trip, the first sighting of the shimmering blue waters of Emerald and Avalanche lakes was as jaw dropping as the first time, which made us do the stop, stare n click-a-pic routine. It was so good to step into the welcoming lake facing room with a cozy bed and wax polished floors. This place always gives me a good feeling about the owners' fanatic like-mindedness towards cleanliness. Lovely lunch (later Vaiguy found out that all main courses are wood-fire cooked which gives it that special something), and after lazing around with Moby Dick (no not the whale phoolish! Its the DOC-Dawg On Campus, 7month something on a high caffeine diet -read excitable!), we were off for a walk in the tea estates and ready for dinner again:). (Dig the pattern?)
"The day before Xmas eve" -trekking misadventures of Vai Guy & the Karma Kid The next morning the sunrise over the lake was spectacular!(see its like this, unlike a movie, good natural things feel nice every time). We decided to be brave and not the city weasels that we normally are and ventured forth on a Full Day trek (yeah not your regular 3 hour trek but a FULL Day trek). So armed with sandwiches (yum!), sun screen, guides (2 no less), and Moby of course we headed out in the company of a Israeli Russian family. The trek was strenuous in part but all in all a lot of fun. And the sights-oh the sights-4 different lakes of different colors -all weirdly shaped like some mutant amoebas, flower spangled grassy hillsides, water fall, deers sightings galore. Made us almost burst out into an impromptu albeit out of tune "hills are alive with with Sound of Muzak". And the colors -you can only think of so many shades of blues or greens. The lakes specially I think had some chameleon-like creatures-the way they changed colors as soon as your eyes turned away. Well, almost a 7 hour (12 km) trek later, the adventurers managed to trudge back to the Red Hills. But only after much excitement- the guide pointed out a man-killing animal with horns that was similar to a "rainbow" (after much stretching of our cumulative imaginations we collectively came to the conclusion that it was a bison:)-where the rainbow came from we shall never know - maybe someone around here listens to the band of the same name)."The Day of Xmas eve"-Fishing with the VonTrapp family
Upper Bhavani is about 45 kms from Red Hills by road-and what a drive it is! Stretches and stretches of tea estates, blueish hills, and in between the Joshua-like trees standing guard over the tea bushes. And of course the waterfalls-not your regular variety (replete with 'bathing beauties', plastic and camera flashes) -but clean clear waters and not a soul to be seen. Once the road crosses over to the forest area the drive became even more exciting where almost every other corner you bumped into a shy sambhar (or a spotted deer) -even managing to get a pic or two of those. Picnic was near a stream and on a pin-needles carpeted grass. Our scorp got its first few scratches from all the deadwood branches reaching out to the sinewy road.
Now for the fishing hole, I guess the saying that good things come to whose who wait really came true. The drive through the dense forest along the shimmering waters of the lake was awesome to say the least, however, after our guide rejected all the perfectly-good looking spots on the way, our patience started to wear. But, of course, the destination in this case was well worth the journey, which was not too bad either:). Imagine a crystal clear blue lake as far as you can see, grass covered hill slopes around it, and the icing on the cake-a waterfall gurgling into a corner of the lake. I almost thought I had gone to heaven! Needless to say we didn't catch any fish but did manage to catch a beautiful evening near the lake.
Later in the evening there was a bonfire and barbecue at Red Hills and Vaiguy made his music-I am always amazed as to how he manages to find a guitar and a pick even in the most remotest of places (never thought a place like Rabongla would turn up with one-blog on Rabonglas to be posted in some distant future). So everyone sang along to done-t0 -death "Hotel California" and asked for more "popular" numbers. However, luckily GNR's "I used to love her, but I had to kill her" in Vaiguy's sore throaty vocals didn't go down well with junta and after that they left us in peace to enjoy the full moon over the lake.
The day after X'mas- after getting packed and ready to head back, we did the unthinkable at the breakfast table marking a new landmark on our outings. We decided to postpone our trip back by another day-moved into another room (complete with fireplace n all and more secluded), took out our books, grabbed a can of beer, some binoculars and headed off to the lake to enjoy some more moments of utter bliss. The next morning after much of 'we can't', 'we have to', 'we should', we reluctantly got into our Scorpio and drove back home with bags full of dirty clothes, God knows how many Mbs of photos, 2 kgs of Ooty homemade chocolates, resolutions to come back once again, and most importantly of all memories of another wonderful trip.