Final sem memories Part 1 – Class Trip

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I have been wanting to return for quite sometime now, but somehow, things kept coming in the way. Firstly, I’m very excited to announce that Arpit has awarded me the “Versatile Blogger” award ….its a great honour to get this award for a blog thats only 39 posts young…Thanks a lot Arpit

In a few days from now, I’ll be done with engineering. There are a lot of memories that I’ll take with me from college, many of them from my final semester. I thought of sharing a few of those memories here, starting with our ‘oh-so-secretive’ class trip to Belur, Kemmanagundi and Udupi …

It was on the 4th of April that we started off from Polar Bear, on what was our first (and only one so far!) overnight class trip. Everyone gathered by 10 P.M, and we were on our way to our first destination – Belur…and if you thought that a night journey was very dull, you were badly mistaken. There was not a single moment of boredom, what with music and dance, people laughing and enjoying, and waking up those who were trying to sleep for sometime ….amidst all this fun and frolic, we reached Belur at around 3 in the morning, after a brief halt at Chennarayapatna.

After taking rest for about three hours, we headed towards Kemmanagundi, where we were to trek up to Z point. It took 2 hours to reach the base, after which we trekked for almost 8 kms….on the way, we saw a small park with statues of Ram and Sita, followed by a stream which became a popular photography zone …(and where I had an awesome fall ) …we split up into many small groups depending on our speed of walking, and our group went slightly ahead of the others. We were guided till the peak by a smart doggie, which seemed to know every nook and corner of the place. The sight from the top was breath-taking, offering a captivating arial view of the distant Shola grasslands in the undulated Western ghats. It was almost like we had reached the top of the world!

All of us on the way to Z-point

View from the top

After lunch, we headed to Shanti falls, which was supposed to be very close to the base. Quaint and untouched, Shanti Falls is quite a favourite with travellers to Kemmanagundi. Access to the falls was possible only through jeeps, which looked like they belonged to a museum! After what seemed like ages of travelling on agonizingly bumpy roads, we reached the falls. We had to cross 3 slippery streams to actually get there….but in the end, it was worth it!!! Shanti Falls, gently and beautifully blended with the surroundings, is a small, yet breath-taking fall, with an inimitable power of making one feel relaxed and removed from the bustle of daily city life. I had not expected any falls to have so much water in the middle of summer! And icy cold water too! We played in the water for sometime. A little more time in the water and we would have become ice-cubes!

Shanti Falls

Another bumpy 1-hour drive in the ancient jeeps, and we were back to our bus. It was around 8 PM when we finally started on our way back to Belur. A Kannada movie starring Golden-Star Ganesh was being played in the bus, but I (and everyone else for that matter!) was too tired to do anything but sleep! We reached our hotel at 11.30, and had dinner on the terrace at midnight. Some of us went for a stroll upto the famous Belur temple after that, which was just a few metres away from where we were put up.

The next day began as early as 6 again, and we headed out towards Udupi. The journey through the ghats was refreshing to say the least! An hour’s delay meant that we reached Malpe beach only by 3.30 in the afternoon, going via Manipal and Udupi….from there, we boarded a ferry to St. Mary’s island, which is about 5 kms away from the shore. I was very excited about going to the island because, inspite of this place being so close to my native, I’d never been there before! Once on the island, all of us eagerly plunged into the sea…the warm sea water was a stark difference from the falls we had experienced about 24 hours ago ….but was as much fun nevertheless!

St. Mary's Island

We still had a little time to explore another coast of the island, before catching the last ferry back to Malpe. We stayed on for some more time at Malpe beach, more so to see the sun go down on a beautiful day…..we took some time to freshen up in a hotel in Udupi, and post dinner, were on our way back to good ol’ Bangalore! ….

Truly, this is one trip I’ll remember all my life. Although it lasted for just a little more than 2 days, the memories associated with it are countless ……………… ….I’m hoping and praying that we get to go for one more trip after our exams!

S.R.S = Software Requirement Specification?

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Tags: award, beach, class trip, Kemmanagundi, Malpe, Shanti Falls, St. Mary's Island, Udupi, waterfalls, Z point