An exhilarating ride to a bygone era!

      It’s only in adventure that some people succeed in knowing themselves - in finding themselves. Sometimes in life, one needs to deviate from the oft trodden path and take a different route, which gives life a different perspective and presents a new dimension. As the popular saying goes, “Variety is the spice of life”. Doing different things spices up, what could otherwise be a bland life. It breaks the monotony and rigours of everyday life. This is one such account of my adventurous trip to Wayanad ,Kerala.

         It was late march of 2011. Summer was peaking and the merciless sun was leaving no stone unturned to tire out the hapless people with the scorching heat. Just 5 minutes of standing out under the hot sun was enough to bring beads of sweat over the forehead! Such excruciatingly hot weather makes the usual goings on of everyday life a burden and leaves one feeling like a spent force at the end of the day. There was a yearning for a change within me and one fine day, 4 of us decided to go on a short bike trip for a day and explore unchartered territories.The place decided was The Edakkal cave, Wayanad ,Kerala.

      
         On the Sunday, the 24^th of march 2011, there was an air of calmness around and the excitement in my heart was infectious. When we feel happy and excited from the inside, the nature around seems to reflect that and it was pretty much palpable. I got ready in a jiffy and wiped my bike hard, till it glistened in the early morning rays of the sun!

       At about 7 AM, I stepped out of my house in an upbeat mood, hopped on to my bike, turned on the ignition and started the bike. The smooth Suzuki engine started instantly and as I revved up to full throttle, my excitement too had gone up to full throttle! I gently applied the clutch and gear and smoothly took off my hand from the clutch simultaneously accelerating, and the trip had begun! On the way, I picked up my friend Lakshan and we moved towards Gundlupet after a quick re-fill of fuel.

     

       Two of my friends from Mysore, Lokesh and Ashik were to join us in Gundlupet. It was a joyous ride on the vacant road with a few vehicles coming from the opposite end occasionally. Though I had the licence to be the Lord of the road, I chose to go slow, seldom going beyond 45 Kmph. There was good breeze around, mild and pure sun rays giving a tinge of warmth for the body, hair gently being swept across the face and both of us were chatting all along the way. Bike rides are always special and the feeling, the excitement, the rush one gets while riding a bike is unparalleled and I am sure that many would vouch for this fact. So, in about half an hour, we reached the city and waited for some time for the other 2 to arrive. Once they arrived, we left at once to our first destination; the famous Himavad Goplaswamy hill, 15 kms from there.

     The hill has a very long history and the shrine atop the hill dates back to the Mahabharatha era. More than the history, the hill is a bio-diversity hotspot and offers breathtaking views as one goes up. It is a part of the Bandipur forest area and houses a plethora of flora and fauna and is a favourite place for the mighty elephants. I have been lucky enough to witness a herd of about 30 elephants once near the hill. The increasing air pressure can be instinctively felt with increasing altitude there. Negotiating the steep bends and curves at some points might be a difficult task for a novice, though everyone needs to be careful.

     There will always be a shift in the weather as one reaches the top. Mercury levels drop, the wind blows heavily and we can almost hear the whizzing sound of the wind if some attention is given. The doorway of the temple is led by a flight of steps and as one ascends them, the view on display all around is fantastic.  The verdant green hills, the carpet like grass, lone trees here and there, sometimes mist covered landscapes complemented impeccably by the tranquil blue sky and solitary birds flying serenely in the sky without giving a damn for the world warms the cockles of people in love with nature. The best time to visit the hill is early mornings of any season to catch a glimpse of the heavily mist laden landscape. It is during that time that this hill can give a run for the money to any popular hill station. A few years ago, one could trek for quite a distance to the other hills. But after a few untoward incidents happened, it has been banned, which is a blessing in disguise for this thriving ecosystem.

     Coming back to the temple, it has an intricately carved gopura  and a tall flag post. The bright light outside quickly changes to darkness as one enters the temple. The first glimpse of the Lord GopalaSwami amidst the golden lanterns fills the heart with devotion. The few moments spent in that divine atmosphere soothes the cluttered mind and cheers the heart. One stunning thing there is that small droplets of ice cold water can always be seen on the upper wall inside the sanctum sanctorum, which explains the name ‘Himavad’. After offering our prayers to the almighty lord, we stepped out of the temple and started our journey downwards.The ride was pleasant and quick and God’s own country Kerala awaited us!

      

       After having our breakfast, we started at once towards Sulthan Bathery city of Wayanad. Kerala is a beautiful land with a distinct culture and it is always a pleasure to visit this charming state. I had heard a bit about the pre-historic Edakkal caves and there was a fervent anticipation within me to see the place. We rode along jubilantly for some time and reached the entrance of the jungle. Rides in a forest can be a charming experience. It would be a good departure from the congestion, traffic, noise and pollution of a city road. Riding on a dense green jungle road by sighting some wild animals and birds accompanied by the sound of the breeze, rustling of leaves and the strange sounds of some insects with the occasional melancholic humming of a bird, is truly an unwinding experience.

     

      We maintained a steady pace on the road, which was surprisingly deserted on that Sunday. A board read “Be a silent passer” and we were doing precisely that. I was having a good time on the road appreciating the surroundings and humming a random tune in my mind while the sound of the bike engine reverberated in the serene atmosphere. The smell of the wilderness caressed my nostrils. In the distance, there was a sharp 70 degree left turn and the bike vroomed ahead with vigour and stylishly manoeuvred the turn, after which it was suddenly brought to a screeching halt by me!!

      There stood in the middle of the road, a well built elephant in all its glory staring at me! It slowly raised its trunk and had a good glance at the deserted road. I slowly pushed the bike back and turned around to go to a safe distance, and the jumbo was still watching intently. My friend rode a bit ahead and tried to go over to the other side of the animal and that was it! The animal was waiting for a challenge and had got one! It looked once more at the road from the corner of its eyes and instantly started charging. It was so sudden that it stuns me even now. My friend was quick enough to turn the bike around and accelerate. Some more bikes had gathered by then and all of us wasted no time to ride as fast as possible. The rogue elephant charged at us for about 400 metres and gave up. I had previously heard stories about the agility of elephants in spite of their massive weights and that day, I was a witness to it. Gosh! They do run swiftly, though not as fast as a Bolt, but fast enough to wreak terror in our hearts! After creating some drama, it started grazing meekly by the side of the road. Wow! Good histrionic abilities! We humans are not the only good actors.

     All of us regained our breath and composure and started gazing at the animal from a safe distance. Meanwhile, a brave man stepped out of his goods auto and started walking in the direction of the jumbo. He looked frail, wore a multi coloured lungi and marched ahead like a South Indian film hero. The only things missing probably were the hoots and whistles of crazy fans! As he walked ahead a fair bit, the elephant appeared to move inside the jungle and lo and behold, within the blink of an eye, it had turned around and was charging at him! Our wannabe hero raised his lungi to his knees and started running frantically like a man possessed. I and my friend were laughing hysterically, not even keeping an eye on the charging elephant. There was absolute terror in his eyes and he would have surely beaten Kerala’s pride P T Usha’s record in running! Not everyone can be a Rajnikant! Can they? Rajni would have sent the animal to Africa through his breath!! But that’s the difference between cinema and reality. Life is not a cinema, ironically.

      

      The jumbo had again given up after a few metres and had had enough of unworthy challengers and so finally, it moved into the forest. We instantly started our bikes and moved ahead with relief. But we had no inkling of things to come while returning!

     

      We had lost some time in that Tom and Jerry kind of a game, but the experience was just incredible. It is things like these that you would want to tell your grand children when you have lost your teeth! Anyway, the stretch ahead was fine and we passed along very smoothly and reached the Kerala-Karnataka border. From there, it was a lovelier ride because of the denser and greener forest. The Karnataka road was pothole ridden with unnecessary humps every 1 km and it was a stark contrast to the excellent road in Kerala. The most basic thing that a government can do is to lay good roads and sadly, our government does not do even that. The roads in some places in Karnataka are a nightmare for the travellers. But does the government care?

      We had a good ride, occasionally catching a glimpse of animals like deer, langurs etc. By about 12 45 PM, we reached Sulthan Bathery and from there, the caves were just 10 kms. We were assisted by signboards all along the way and also treated to some delectable views of hills and tranquil nature en route to the caves. We rode up a small hill and reached a spot where the vehicles had to be parked and from there, it was a 1 km trek to the caves.

      
       These ancient caves were discovered by a British officer Fred Fawcett in 1890 on one of his hunting expeditions. They are on top of the Ambukuthi hill, which has to be climbed by foot. But the trekking there is not arduous as steps have been provided. As we were climbing up, we saw a small chapel on the right side which had some beautiful, intricate engravings on rock which depicted some stories from the Bible. It was a brisk trek upwards and we were stopped near a point and told to leave behind all plastic materials at that spot. This is a commendable thing as we see so many tourist destinations littered with plastic. The effort to make this heritage site a plastic free zone is indeed laudable and the authorities and the government deserve a pat on their back.

      As we continued trekking upwards, questions like “how did the pre-historic people live? What were our roots?” etc cropped up in my mind. The answers to these are as enigmatic and fascinating as the questions themselves. Wherever possible, steps have been provided, but there are some tricky points where one needs to tread carefully between the rocks. The rocks are slippery and some caution needs to be taken while treading on them.

     Finally we came up to the entrance of the cave. ‘Edakkal’ means a stone in between. They are technically fissures. Deep fissures have been formed in the rocks due to natural weathering and resulted in caves. At the entrance, iron stairs have been provided to help visitors to get down to the actual point. Once you get down, it’s an absolute marvel around and you get seeped into history. One can see the carvings on both sides, and at first glance, they appear to be some random lines, but on observing closely, chances are high that one would get lost in the stupendous history of the place.

      The cave is considered to be one of the earliest centres of human inhabitation and dates back to 5000 years ago, ranging from 5000 B.C to 1000 B.C which is the era of the stone age! Similar cave drawings, believed to be 7000 years old, can be found only in the European Alps and a few places in Africa.

     The walls on both sides are engraved up to a height of about 4 metres. There are lots of deep incisions done on the rocks, both vertically and horizontally and they are absolutely astonishing. What is most staggering is the quality and also the quantity of the carvings. We can identify lots of crosses, triangles, squares, tridents, the swastik symbol, stars, wheels ,pot shaped items, animals resembling foxes, deer, dog, outline of an elephant, some other weird shaped forms which have not yet been identified and of course, carvings of men and women.

        Many of these men have raised hair. One special carving was of a man whose left hand was very long ( longer than the right!!) and reaching his feet!! There was one more carving of a masked man which caught my attention. The plethora of lines on display there is un-imaginable. One interesting thing there is that the carvings seem to change with the light. In dim light, you get to see some weird shapes and when it gets brighter, you get a whole new perspective of the same carving! Light does play hide and seek there and it’s wonderful to see the carvings in changing brightness. The cave is surely an architectural delight and it would be a great discovery if they can decipher what kinds of tools were used by the pre-historic men for those carvings. This place just transported me to a different ancient era and it was an enriching experience.

    We clicked some photographs which would be treasured by us for long, and spent some time there chatting about random things. It was about 2:30 PM by then and we started our trek downwards. But, what a place! It brought back the stone age before our eyes and was a delightful concoction of history, arts and science!

    

   We quickly resumed our trek, occasionally stopping at some viewpoints which offered an idyllic setting.

For a while, I was floating around in dreams and the brutal sun reminded me of my existence in the 21^st century while descending! As usual, the downward trek was boring and exhausting and we reached the starting point in half an hour. We started our bikes, bid the mystic caves good-bye and moved toward Bathery again. After having a hearty lunch at a restaurant, we moved to the famous Jain temple on the suggestion of the hotel guard. Known as the Ananthanantha temple, it was built in the 13^th century and gained prominence during Tipu Sulthan’s rule as he used to store his war ammunition there. A war cannon was also on display and it was interesting to view the war materials used many years ago. Some parts of the temple are dilapidated and that’s distressing to see. But the intricate architecture of the temple deserves a mention and there is a lot of tranquility around. After spending some time there, we resumed our ride back home. 

  Return journeys can be quite cumbersome physically as well as mentally. As one recollects the great moments and new places seen, a feeling of separation sets in and keeps gnawing at the heart every now and then. As I rode ahead swiftly, a tinge of sadness had gripped me and by the time I could shake it away, we had left Bathery and were nearing the jungles. A thick cloud cover had formed over our heads and it seemed like rain was imminent. The journey for the next half an hour was devoid of any chatter and we were silently going ahead watching the calm forest, which was looking menacing in the overcast conditions. We were lucky enough to watch a herd of about 10 elephants crossing the road with minimum fuss. Better manners than the lone elephant!

      After a short while, we crossed the Muthanga wildlife sanctuary of Kerala and reached Karnataka. I was greeted by a big cruel hump which  literally threw me upwards and a pothole just after the hump brought me down with a thud! “Welcome to Karnataka”!

       The cordial welcome had well and truly warmed up my stiff body and I rode ahead cursing the road. About fifteen minutes had passed by and we were nearing the jumbo attack spot. Curiously enough, someone was reversing his alto car frantically. I just slowed down and went a bit ahead and was shocked at the sight: The silhouette of an elephant!

     

        Jet black in colour with a long imposing trunk and cunning eyes, the same old jumbo that had terrorised us in the morning stood majestically on the middle of the road in all its glory, blocking our way on precisely the same spot. Perfect timing buddy! We just stood there motionless, waiting for the pachyderm to make a move. By then, two to three cars were behind us and some more were on the opposite end.

As we were watching the movement of the elephant with trepidation, a foolish man driving an omni from the opposite end made a blunder, an extremely dangerous one. He threw caution to the winds and sped fast at the direction of the elephant, somehow trying to sneak past it. Nobody knew what was going on in his mind and why he tried such a juvenile thing. The wily elephant was very swift and charged at his vehicle ominously and wildly brought down its heavy trunk to hit the car! Our hearts were pounding fast at the scene unfolding. Thankfully, the violent swing missed the car by a few inches and he literally escaped from the jaws of certain death. That man should just thank his stars that day, because had it hit, his car would have been smashed to smithereens. I just shudder at the thought of such a grim situation. Extremely lucky indeed! I had read stories in the Mahabharatha about the massive might of people like Bhima. The writer describes that he had the strength of 1,000 elephants and what not! Wow, take a bow sir! That’s just unthinkable, unimaginable and also incredible!

 Well, the mighty jumbo show continued for a few more minutes and by that time, too much of traffic had piled up. But the jumbo was still up for the challenge. It did manage to strike fear in the hearts of many by attacking the vehicles for a few metres. It was turning out to be a David vs Goliath battle. At last, it found worthy opponents in 2 huge trucks. The terrible sound of the horns combined with the massive sizes of the trucks brought down the animal’s inflated ego.

The natural might of an animal could not match the brilliance of a small human brain which has created vast kinds of mean machines. The brutish animal accepted defeat and meekly stepped out of the road. It started grazing at quite a far distance from the path, as though nothing had happened. Everyone heaved a sigh of relief and hurriedly left the spot.

                                                                              

      This was definitely a victory of courage and presence of mind. Everyone has his own fears and limitations. A courageous man is not the one who has no fear, he is the one who conquests his fears. The 2 things that I learnt from that attack were A) It’s important to not let fear get the better of you. B) To just bide your time, use the mind well and wait patiently without provoking the wild animal. One moment of recklessness and impatience can cost a precious life! The ride ahead was incident free, but tense. The weather had changed quite drastically and it was a sunny evening, thankfully. As soon as the jungle ended, I stopped the vehicle, took in a few deep breaths and calmed my senses. My friend gulped down a bit of water and we glanced at each other’s faces. A wry smile broke out in both!!

        It was a remarkable adventure for us and we had had a terrific Sunday and could not have asked for anything more. The glorious hills, the amazing ride in the forest, the marvellous and enigmatic caves, the delightful trek up to the caves, the nerve-wracking experiences with the lone elephant; all of these had turned our day into an unforgettable experience.What made the day so enlivening was the unpredictability. Sometimes expectations disappoint a lot.We had embarked on this trip with zero expectations. We probably did not know what to expect, thus every little event felt splendid. Satisfaction was written large on our hearts and we resumed the final leg of our journey back home. It’s said that experience is the comb that life gives you when you are bald!  The ‘experience’, counted both ways was immense. I did succeed to find out more about myself on that enriching day and it has surely left an indelible mark in the deep reserves of my heart!