Thoughts during the Cambridge MBA

Google

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Travellogues- The drive through the jungle.



It so happened that one of the guys in office got married last thursday and his reception was on Friday in village called Vittal near Mangalore. Mangalore is around 300+ kms from bangalore,so I was quite excited and decided to drive there. We took 2 cars and 8 people and started at 2. We made good time till Sakleshpur, and were there around 6:30. Sakleshpur is an important landmark as the ghats(hill/hairpin curves drive starts from there). Our destination for the night was a place called Kukkre Subramanya, which is a really old temple.

So far so good but as we were about to enter the ghats a truck driver pulled us over tellign that the road was blocked as a tanker had overturned ahead. The ghat jams atleast take hours to clear off. He suggested that we take another route through small villages. We asked another person and he agreed that we could go on the alternate route. As we ventured in the road it was in a slightly bad condition but it was drivable with a max speed of 40 km/hr. After around 10 kms we came across a village and stopped for some provisions. Unfortunately the locals were not too optimistic about the route. The first person told us to turn back as there was forest aheadand told us that elephants might attack our cars. The other person told us to show our guts and dare it out. The good news was that the road actually existed.

We were ina adventurous mood so we went ahead. It was already dark and silent except the sound of bats flying around. After around 40 minutes we came across the dreaded forest gate
. We had to search for the forest guard ,but luckily he believed in the story of the jammed road and let us in. Or maybe he jsut felt outnumbered 8 is to 1. The drive through the jungle was outstanding, occasinally there were trees which had fallen on the hills and were at the edge of the road. If we dont see them in time the car would smash into the log and there was no human beings for miles and miles.And plus we had smokers in the group so we they had to take a smoking break. I am attaching a pic , my car's tail lights are visible and I am standing next to the guy in the white shirt(who is barely visible) but because of my dark shirt I am lost.

The thing that was surprising was the silence, all throughtout the drive we didnt hear anything not even a cricket chripping, it was eary and the best time to exchange ghost stories, which we did :-). The drive though the forest lasted for over an hour but finally we reached civilization at 10 had dinner and checked into a lodge and dozed off into slumber.


 
Google