“We
did some sightseeing and trekking over the weekends. The one that was best was
the trek to the Bear Mountains. It is around 100 Km from Indrapuram city. It is a cluster of three hills separated by a
Valley. Two of them are big. People refer to these hills as three bears. Papa,
Mamma and Baby like in Goldilocks. Papa Hill has an excellent resort at the
top. Baby hill is small has nothing more than some tea shops at the top. Mama
hill has a quaint little place with few cottages and an eating place.”
“I
know. I have been to Papa Hills when I was in school” Udhi commented “Who all
were there for the trek?”
“Raghavendra
Singh, Neel Vincent and Joshua from our batch, Ruchika Raghav’s girlfriend and
Gurvinder from the other IMI who used to be our beach partner were there for
the trek along with his friend Ravi”
“Aha.
The Bike Thakkur was there. How is Ruchika his girlfriend?”
“She
is a nice simple girl who has just finished her graduation in Philosophy from
Indrapuram University. She plans to go to USA for her Masters next year. She
adores our Bike Thakkur like God.”
“How
sweet! ”
“We
got friendly with each other over this trip and she has asked me to guard
Raghav so that he is not stolen by any smart IMI batch mates”
“Great.
But I am not sure if you will be able to do justice to this request” Udhi
replied
“Why.
They know each other from their childhood and they are both committed to each
other” Arjun Replied
“I
agree. But be practical. Raghav is now here at IMI which is 500 kms away from
Indrapuram. In the last one year they have met only once. He is such a handsome
and considerate fellow that any smart girl will fall for him. Ruchika is going
to go away to US this year and then their contact with each other will come
down. I am not sure if this relationship is going to last”
“You
would say the same about me and Rohini” Arjun replied
“Yes.
But you meet each other every quarter which sort of strengthens your
commitment.”
“Then
you both write to each other those mushy stuff every day” Udhi added with a
naughty smile.
“Come
on. We just keep each other posted of what happens” Arjun protested.
“To
be honest, for some time before I came to know of Rohini, I thought that there
was something brewing between you and Chitra.” Udhi said like an afterthought
and a semi query
“Come
on. We are just friends.” Arjun replied
“Now
that Chitra has sort of hooked up with Kiran Kumar, there cannot be anything
left. I agree”
“Get
lost” Arjun snapped
“Tell
us your stories of your trekking trip” Udhi goaded
“We
travelled up to Papa Hill top by bus on a Friday afternoon and stayed at the
resort. The drive up the hill was nice. As you go up the hill, it is sort of
foresty. Lush green and enchanting. The last 50 km up the hill along the
winding road is nerve wrecking. One side is a deep drop and on the other side
there is the hill. The forest looked intimidating at places. When we thought of trekking down through this
wild growth, we were a bit weary” Arjun was in a mood to tell the story in
detail.
“We
had breakfast at the resort and then trekked Mama Hill” Arjun replied.
“That
would have been a hectic trek. How long did it take?” Udhi asked
“It
took around nine hours. We started at seven in the morning and reached Mama
Hill top by four in the afternoon.”
“These
pristine hills with their wonderful greenery and streams of crystal clear water
with intermittent waterfalls are joy to be experienced. When we started from
the top of Papa Hill the thick canopy of forest give us full cover. The trees were
tall and had winding vines around many of them. Some of them were covered with
wild ferns and some of them even had tree orchids blooming with brilliantly
coloured flowers. The intertwined vines sometimes looked like snakes making
love. There were many rocky structures on the way and in their shades way we
managed to spot mushrooms with some out of the world designs. Some of then
looked so pretty with their red cone on the top with white spots.”
“Wow.
I have heard that those hills have some exciting mushrooms that can give a
trip. Did you try out any” Udhi asked
“We
will discuss that later.” Arjun was in a mood to savour the trek once again
vicariously
“As
we climbed down for about half an hour, there was a flat stretch of land, like
a natural table on the side of the hill. This table had many trees with brilliant
orchids growing on them and many of them were blooming. Even many of the vines
and the trees had flowers. We just stood there looking around. The lush green
of the forest leaves, vibrant orchids blooming with flowers of wild colours,
the ground splattered with mushrooms and the sound of birds chirping made us
feel that we were in a paradise.”
“Didn’t
you see any animals?” Arjun asked
“There
were lots of baboons. Many of them are used to being fed by the trekkers. So
they would come near us. We had carried some bananas and we fed them. The most
confident of those would run towards us, pluck the banana from our hands and
then run. As they climbed back to the trees, their red bottoms looked so cute”
“So
you were ogling at monkey’s bottom too” Udhi was pulling his leg.
“There
were quite a lot of birds including wild peacocks”
“When
we neared the bottom we came across a fabulous waterfall with shower spraying
down from almost 200 feet. There was nice pool of chilled water collected at
the bottom.”
“Wow.
Arjun is almost getting poetic” Udhi commented
“Anybody
would be if they experienced that heavenly place” Arjun Continued
“All
of left our carry bags on the side of the pool and went under the waterfall
where there was a ledge to stand. The water was chilly; but the experience out
of the world.”
“All
of us stood under the waterfall for some time and then jumped into the chilled
pool and waded around. The spray reached the pool too. Though the water was chilly, the
sun was shining and that gave some comfort. Then we got out and dried ourselves
in the sun as we had no towels with us”
“We
then trekked further downhill. As we reached the valley, the forest had died
down. There were only bushes and grass. With the forest cover protecting us no
more, it became very hot. We were really thirsty and had ran out of water. We
met some tribal people collecting wood and asked them if we could get some
drinking water. One of them took us to a water hole. We were not so sure of
drinking water from this hole. But we were so thirsty that we just drank it
along with the sandwiches we carried”
“It
took three and a half hours to climb down. Another two and half to cross the valley
including the half an hour we took to have our lunch”
“The
climb up the Mama hill in the afternoon was quite tiring. As I had not carried
a proper walking shoe, it was still more difficult to climb where the ground
was slippery with the light shower in that season. I had to hang on to the
vines and the bushes many places.”
“Ruchika
was scared that we will come across snakes and she was always looking around as
she walked. As luck would have it she saw one flitting along the bushes. She
freaked out and she rant to Raghav and hung on to him crying hysterically. It
took some time for him to get her to relax”
“All
through the way up, she was clinging onto him.”
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