The Journey

We'd been to Coorg and planned to visit Nagarhole. We got our cab confirmed and the driver promised to be there at 4am! Yes, that early 'coz we wanted to be at the national park by 6am! As planned, we all got up and checked out at the middle of the night, bundled into the Indica. In spite of my layered clothing, I was feeling pretty chill. And, it was quite misty too as we stood outside out hotel. 

We happily started off - I never thought it would be one of the crazier rides I've ever done. Dense fog/mist, small roads, blaring headlights, sharp bends, and patches with more potholes than tar - what more can you ask for a crazy trip. Oh! don't forget the time - 4am - so, darkness too. 

Turn a bend and we were out of a town - and had the dense fog in front of us. It was like a white sheet a few meters in front of our car. As tired as I was, I was wondering how on earth the driver was still on the road and I'd doze.. a few minutes later, we are far from civilization, they din't even bother adding streetlights. So, once in a while, the fog would light up - like the headlight of a train in a tunnel. Our driver would pull over to the side - as far as he could - and blink lights hoping the truck/bus driver would notice the car in front. 

Once that vehicle goes by, we'd continue our ride in the dark with the white sheet leading us! I didn't realize I had dozed off until we reached this final stretch of the road -that was as bumpy as any can be. Any of our city roads mutilated by the civic roads would be put to shame. It was as if no two inches were at the same level. From there on, it was a slow, painful, bumpy ride - through the mist. Hoping against hope we'd turn a corner and find the park.
 

From Coorg

Two and a half hours later, we finally reached the park around 6:30am. Phew! Wasn't I relieved to be off that ride. Sadly, the park itself didn't turn up anything as interesting as this ride. We had a crazy ride back to Mysore too - but, I guess, I'll save that for another day!