A Trip to Shivasamudram and Ranganathittu !

Ahhh … it feels so good to be writing with label “Trips”.
P.S. : All are my clicks ! 

It was the Independence Day, which we chose for this trip. Ahh … I couldn’t buy one ‘Tiranga’, the regret I am still embroiled in and that was all because of my travel-buddies who kept procrastinating .

Anyways, the fear of getting ready by 7.45 am and that too on a holiday had started haunting me from the night itself. But thankfully I got up and didn’t even sleep on way to the waterfalls and the sanctuary. I finally had found the coterie of the travel-holics.

By 8, we had hit the roads. Except the two, none of us had any idea about how far the place was, or how long was it going to take. But who cared? It was a little more than 3-hour journey to the Shivasundaram Falls.And all we did in these 3 hours was yelling, shouting, joking, singing, mocking, playing UNO-cards, Antakshari, and Maafiya. And not even the Innova's seating plan could debar the 6 of us from having fun. We were seated in three rows but ohh, my God how much fun it was! And, take my word more the uneasiness you face, more the fun you have once you tackle it. 

An epiphany could have saved us a lot of trouble, none of us had any idea there were two falls there – kind of ‘twin’ falls, Gaganchukki and Barachukki.  We could see water falling down at a distance standing near the railings on a hill. All the water vaporized into white vapours flying all around like those cotton-balls, was a beautiful sight to gaze at and get immersed in some pure thoughts of you and nature alone. Not only that the top of the hill was all draped in (metaphorical) ice-sheets. Had anyone told us, we wouldn't have been even slightly disappointed on seeing it was the closest we could get to the fall for which we travelled so far.

But a little further, mother of spectacular scene, and this time we could see few people rafting, swimming, etc. And we were grateful to nature.

Asking for the way to that spot we reached the Barachukki falls. Jaate they japan pahuch gaye cheen samajh gaye na !

We started down, following the crowd. We could see people rowing in boats, in those round baskets which I had seen in some episode of Roadies but we were confused and there it was - the adrenaline rush - was it some adventure sport or just a community-sanctioned boat-ride in the lake. And after ‘215 and counting’ number of steps, we got down and actually could see it was the fantabulous ride we were going to have so some fun in for atleast few minutes to come.   And, the other interesting fact, we so got down but none of us had a penny to pay for the rides’ fare? That time I felt had world been a nicer place and people were trusting enough, we could have borrowed and it could have saved the boys the extra round-trip back to the car. But alas! said my heart and the boys went back the same way they had come down. Felt bad, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Finally, we took our much-awaited swirl in those baskets. 

Ah that awesome feeling when the oarsman moved us closest as he could to where the cloud of drops of water had started precipitating, ready to shower me with all the energy. Soaking up felt so ethereal. Mere touch of my skin precipitated those furry cotton. And, then the swirling of the boat, eddying in the water current  at such a high speed in that drizzle was simply out-of-the-world experience.

Then we had this opportunity of getting even closer to the place where some enthusiasts per-se bathed themselves to wash-off their stringiness,  and shed all their worries but it required crossing the whole stream where the water current was so pacey that it could take you with itself to the Bay of Bengal where the water of Cauvery empties itself. 

Another heart-in-mouth experience, when you jump from rock to rock, which were visible on their own terms. They played hide-and-seek all the while, visible then suddenly invisible inside the water and some even teetered on account of erosion by the current. 
There at first I was hesitant but then all fears aside, I got inside the falling water. For those of you who have not experienced this, it may sound like pure fun, but you shouldn’t be long inside below the water because the speed with which water falls down could break your skull and if you forget your cellphone inside your pocket, your cellphone "will" give up after sometime. Not kidding! Now, then started our back-to-car journey, a down-to-top one,  now we needed to climb stairs and this was when I started counting those '215 and counting' stairs.

From there we started off for the Ranagathittu Bird Sanctuary on roads full of hundreds of minor poodles and people tend to vilify Bihar. Grrrrrr! The road at one point got so narrow that I felt we were going in between two houses, ahh such a nice rocky, narrow road that finally got us on a fine highway. It started raining on way making us feel hopeful about the boating in rains. Our driver made us take a run to it as 6 pm had the last boat-ride and we couldn’t be the gate-crashers even if we wanted to. I wanted to know how birds could be kept restricted to the sanctuary. Wouldn’t they just fly off? Guess they just love the place and can’t keep themselves away from the comforts and care and love they get out of that place. So beautiful, so natural.  I saw so many birds, but mainly the White Ibis who were herded together at many places and were so ostensibly “gandhmaar" as one of my friends would call them.  

Plus we got to see 2 out of the 17 alligators, one of which kept swimming by the side of our boat, and a baby alligator who was resting over a rock.See ... he was even closer at one point of the time.  I could just remember the expression one of my friends had when he just couldn't take it anymore and even the rower's calming words weren't enough ! Apparently these alligators are hardly bothered about anything happening around unless they are hungry. 

This was when he took a 90◦ turn and brought back that friend of mine finally to his seat.

It was a surreal experience to be sideways with an alligator, scary then relaxing at the same time. 

So, that was it!  The end to a good , nice, fun trip !