Manthalpatty is the culmination of mountains. A series of mountains with shola forests. 25 kilometers away from Madikeri, headquarters of Coorg district. I came to know about the name from Lovie, my niece. The place became famous after Galipata, a Ganesh starrer Kannada movie was made over there. Emily, my daughter wanted to play in water and therefore, she was not very interested to go to the hills.
After borrowing Mumtaz's car, we set off towards Manthalpatty by noon. Usha on the front seat and Emi and Miggie on the back seat. I loved driving on hilly, zigzag tract. Sameer said it was not more than 8 kilometers while Mumtaz said about 15 kms. As we were going, at one particular point, the road became suddenly steep and small. There were no vehicles in front or behind us. The green branches grown to the road touched our car and said good bye. While I was enjoying the drive, kids started screaming as no human activity was around. Then came the dry, shaven hills. The cracked road made us go slow. As a solace for our tense drive, we found a small tea shop on the road side. After having black tea, we moved on. A jeep which came from the opposite side stopped and told us: 'Its a must see place. You have to drive another six kms. But the road is not good'.
The petrol display started blinking when we had left Abbey falls itself. It meant the petrol had gone to reserve. I was tense only about that. I called up Sameer who said that it would go another 50 kms in reserve. Though his words encouraged, the problem continuously bothered me. Still, we took the risk. Kids were telling: let's go back, pappa.
When we reached the arch of Pushpagiri Wildlife Sanctuary, it was 3.00 pm. We saw vehicles parked down the valley. The road continued uptill the valley. The car moved forward. Suddenly I realised the road was full of boulders as the mud had disappeared in rains. I was in such a situation wherein I was not able to take a reverse. Since there was no option, I continued going but slowly. When I reached the valley, all the visitors were looking at our car with wonder in their eyes. A jeep driver said: 'sir, how did you manage to bring this car here? No car comes here. All come in jeep only'. I really got scared. On one side, there is no petrol stock, and steep road with big boulders on the other side. What should we do?
There is a small office set up by the Forest department to collect fees from people. Rs.60 is charged for a vehicle. Except toilet facility, nothing is available. We should have taken food with us. Now, the snacks and bananas that we had brought are over. I asked some drivers for petrol. But they use only diesel.
With all these tensions, we looked around. Beautiful hills around! People have already trekked to the top. We also moved to the top. Miggie and myself reached the top first. It looked like top of the world. The lush green shola down the valley was really fascinating. I closed Usha's eyes and brought her towards valley. She opened her eyes to see the magnificent scene. Emily was so excited. She clicked photographs.
The hills would have been more beautifule in green cover. Now during summer, no green cover remained on the hills. Moreover, the grazing cattle were eating all the fresh shoots. Cool breeze patted us continuously and made everything cool. For a few minutes, we forgot everything, all tensions and worries.
I found the joy and excitement of kids were out of boundaries. Children like travelling to places, seeing new things, and meeting new people. Parents should be able to take them periodically to break their monotonous schooling.
I drove back with some courage. The boulders were really a challenge. However, somehow, I managed to reach the top near the arch. I found some cars like Swift, Indigo etc were parked there. They never dared to take the risk.
While coming back, it was really enjoyable. I put the car in neutral mode in the zigzag sloppy road. We reached near the rivulet flowing from the Abbey falls. Three of us, except Usha, had a bath. There was no much water to dive or swim. Usha took the photographs.
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