Following the Donkeys Trail....

So it finally happened. After a lot of false-starts and after almost postponing it once again, we went ahead and the experience has been so big that it will be difficult to describe using words. But I am going to give it a try though...

Before you people find it difficult to comprehend what I am talking about or before you try to understand the title and before you start scolding me not understanding it, let me write this pretty quickly.... I am talking about the Walk in the Lakes. I guess this description creates more confusion. okay, let me give it another try. I am talking about THE best outdoor experience four of us had because of the greatness of one special special English man. I am talking about spending a day in a region which has the highest rainfall in England. I am talking about spending a day in glorious weather with out any rain when the only thing predicted by every met department was Rain. I am finally going to put it in a simple way. I am talking about spending a day in Lake district walking beside the lakes, walking on lush green farms, walking beside the sheep and even cows, which have the capacity to haunt you in dream (don't think why I wrote about the cows, its too complex), watching the most beautiful hidden lake that we ever saw and finally climbing with out rope to reach the summit. For people who did not come with me on the trek ( Well 'trek' is what I am actually writing about ), my description may look little hyped but the fact of the matter is every thing I am writing is the truth and I write & speak only truth.

Before I start, again a big thanks to the weather God. He/ She has indeed smiled on us that day. A Big Thanks from MANCHESTER!!!!

Again let me take some time introducing the cast. There are 4 other persons including me but the real cast is one person- Mr. Phillip Harland, He likes everyone to call him Phil, I call him Sir! (I show respect to old men, he is not that old though, he is only 49 but he looks 69! at least to few, phew!!!). He is the most charming personality I met in UK and I am sure at least two among the 4 of us, if not all, will agree to it.

Here we go....

Showing us the way.... well thats where we were going!

Don't get confused, the picture just shows the direction not the summit. In a way, this post of mine is going to be the same, it will try to make you feel the experience but the experience belonged to us:).

So on a pleasant day when the rain stopped when we started, we began our trek. Some of us were so confused that we mistook the road that leads us to the climb to the actual climb. I will not talk about the people who were confused about the place. It is Grasmere (YO YO) .Mr. Phil was obviously trying to scare us by confusing us with the route but we were too excited to be scared. So as we were moving on the road, there was a path in the farms which was made for people who were keen on avoiding the road. We took the path in the farm and excitement began for us not by seeing the sights that were waiting for us but by seeing the change in the color of the shoes we were wearing. It was time to get dirty and we were more than willing. So considering that the trek has indeed begun in my blog, lets have more of the 'WE' I will be referring to in this post.

Sir, Aditi, Praveen & Sumanth (Left 2 Right).

I know I am missing. There is a little secret of mine. I am a self sacrificing idiot and I was looking more to capture my friends than me. But I am still accused of creating a portfolio.

As we started forging ahead, lakes greeted us, the little bridges welcomed us, the sheep stared at us, the cows ignored us, the kissing gate allowed us and waterfalls invited us. We accepted the invitation and played before the waterfalls, not in it as we had just begun the journey and we had to keep ourselves warm. Of course I managed to injure my knee by slipping near the waterfalls (for people who know me, I know you will be saying 'Whats NEW') but the good thing was that it took me one full day to feel the pain. The waterfalls has an interesting name 'Sour Milk'. It was white so it was called Milk. We really could not get why it was called sour, it looked only sweet to us. As we continued our trekking, the sights beckoned on us and one such sight took our breath away...

I don't remember the name of this pristine lake. I will not disclose it even if I knew it.

It personally took me few seconds to actually recognize that it was a lake. Of course the sights I had access to could never be captured. It was as I said our experience. For a while, I thought that this Lake did not belong to any. Well it neither belonged to Land nor water & not even Sky. Of course Mr. Phil cleared the confusion by telling us that this Lake belonged to the Queen. I guess he is after all ENGLISH , a proud one too!. We of course took many photos at this location. Even I was tricked into photos by my friends and I must say, some surely belong to my portfolio.
We all agreed to one point though. It was indeed the most beautiful sight experienced by us.

Finally after spending considering amount of time at the lake, we started our trek towards the second hill that we were going to capture. Before it became difficult though, we managed to pass through some amazing places. Everything that greeted us while we were climbing were also present in this route and we had more of the lakes, bridges and also other fellow climbers.

Kabhi Kabhi Ghaas bhi Sundar Lagtha hain... You only need the eyes to see it. My Camera can only help so much...

We finally reached the point of our arduous trek and we had a sign board indicating the same. We had the option to go back to car or start trekking. We were game for trek but some time down the clock, few of us began to question their judgment. Few will be wrong and it should be one. It was not the girl and it wasn't me. It was Mr. Super Fit doubting his judgment. The second photo should help you in finding the super fit. Of course the three young turks among us were surprised seeing the speed maintained by the oldie n the girlie. All this while, we were encouraged by the great man to keep up the speed as he did not want us to miss on any sights. He was full of encouragement leading the pack

OLD IS INDEED GOLD

This was not exactly the arduous trek I was referring to. But Mr. Phil was always full of encouragement the way he is in this image.

Finally we did reach the summit. Not all of us reached the real summit, the summit on the summit but I did, so did the oldie n the girlie. The Summit on the summit refers to the 20 feet rock on the hill which we had to climb with out help of a rope:). It was difficult and I am really grateful to Phil that he helped me climb it. It feels complete. I just remembered one good song. Aditi made it special by actually listening to a Sufi Song on top of the summit on the summit. Now who says girls don't have their own way of making things special!!! 'Experience of a life time u see...'

As I Said, the oldie n the girlie were always ahead of us. Of course we were the ones showing respect.

After really struggling to get down the rock and after puncturing one of my pillows, we all started eating on the summit. There was chicken, burger, bread, omlette, drinks, chocolates and yes yes also a ketchup bottle. We carried all this in our bags. The idea of ketchup was mine and it was an instant hit. After our round of eating, we started the trek down. I was a picture of concentration during our downward journey. Its other thing that I managed to slip twice but did not get injured this time around. My concentration helped me. It was just a half slip. Finally we reached the car, thanked the weather god, packed all our stuff into the car and got into it. The rain again started falling. Now this is timing and we were so glad that we were on the right side of it.

Finally... Summarizing the whole thing : Trekking is wrecking the sane part of you, uncorking the insane part of you, triggering the adventurous part of you and anything n everything that this nonstop-nonsense in me decides to write... I know its getting boring but I am here to add Nonsense value. Indeed thats the only thing I have been doing for some time:) (Its really surprising to find what you can become when you try to become something which you are not. Okay... No complaints, there are still people who like me for what I am and I am happy!!!)

To put it simply though ( I am making a big attempt here...), Its you forgetting about everything and spending some time with nature in a way you can do by only trekking.

Coming to the title and why I have chosen it, It was to inspire all of us in choosing the shortest path while trekking. Well... the donkeys trail was supposed to be the shortest and I was the one who said it, well someone said it and I read it. But the only trail that was as disturbed as that of the donkeys was mine and I guess the next time you go there, you will know whose trail you are following... Confused, it will be my trail. Don't think much. I have even stopped writing!

Are u Shaking??? Its the Photo thats making u shake, not my writing. Could not loose out on a chance to improve my portfolio.

A Strange Day - It is indeed a Women’s day

It was a team outing. It was other thing that the size of team was big (May be I should call it a battalion) and needed a coach to carry it. It’s other thing that most of the outing actually took place in the coach.

The day started pretty normal. Snoozing my alarm from 5:30 to 6:30 and then getting up and getting myself and my roomie ready before 7. We decided to wait for 15 minutes before we started because going on time is not cool, according to my roomie, and going early before everyone arrives is a sure recipe for becoming BAKRA. We slowly reached the place and were expecting every one there waiting for us but to our surprise there were only a few bakras out there and we were about to join them. We joined the pack and though I was initially annoyed seeing babies out there waiting in cold, our minds quickly realized that it was a good time to make an exit and we decided to go to one of our colleague’s house near by and have a great coffee by his wife.

We managed to board the coach in time, must say a little head of time(1 hour after the scheduled departure) and got a good seat where I & my roomie planned to have a good banter. But before we could start any, we were asked to move behind and had to sit separately with people who enjoyed in a way we did not prefer to. I knew I had only one company, the English countryside. Spent most of time appreciating the beauty, thinking of various stories I could write with the English country side as back ground, thinking of any business that is not yet explored by the clever English men. Then there was a halt and I encouraged by my creative roomie, well he is as creative as me:), started exploring our cameras. Giving various stills was funny and our cameras were good enuf to capture most of them. I am yet to upload the pics. Will send the link once I do.

Now I was energized and got a good seat also... Saw that there was a beautiful baby to entertain me and I had a really great time enjoying with her. Then we had lunch which was all crap except for one piece of GYAAN every one out there got from a responsible lady. "It’s easier to ask questions and it’s difficult to organize". I decided to shut my mouth and our on-off journey continued now in a boat. The boat journey was ok but the scenery was good and we somehow managed to relate few things out there to Titanic. Now we were tired and ready to sleep. Suddenly I remembered that it was Women’s day and I knew I had to call someone special to tell her how special she was.

I call the gorgeous lady and remind her that its Women’s day. Of course the lady knew it before me and apparently gave a treat to her male colleagues celebrating the occasion. I can’t imagine the faces of her colleagues though.... :) . I started praising her , "Today I am celebrating the most perfect woman I ever met. You have raised the bar a lot. You have made my life difficult. You are special........." I expected her to blush but the lady did not show any weakness and she started talking about the trouble her male colleagues were giving her. Well... she still remembered the topics that irked me. Of course I enter into an argument but slowly realizing that the lady has high BP decided to pacify her by telling Sorry. Being a lady, she started talking about the workload, the mental tension, the responsibilities and how she would love it if she stopped working. Of course she does not realize that the only thing that keeps her moving is her work and she would be more unhappy if she were doing nothing. The Lady, My MOM, knew that I knew all of this. I tell her a sweet good bye and end the conversation.

My MOM is my everything. She was my hitler in my childhood. She was also my genie. It’s so funny to imagine that there were very very few occasions when I had to really open my mouth and ask for anything. I always had everything I wanted before I asked for. She was my best friend after my school. She is of course the one who has the most arguments with me. I will always remember the occasion when I was boarding the train to go to chennai to start my professional life. Mommy was angry on me for deciding to work rather than doing something special (It was a shame to her that her son, the son of a proud bank manager, her special son decides to go everyone’s way. well I had other ideas then) and managed not to show any emotions during all my packing. It was after all the first time when I was going to be away from house for a long time. But when the train started, I saw her crying, tears were flowing, it took a lot of effort from my friends to pacify her. I was her best friend but still My Mom was supposed to be very strong and seeing this side of hers for the first time ever made me understand how pure the heart of mother is. If I owe my destiny to any, it’s her. My dad may have few things to say on this declaration of mine but I take this liberty being a SON. She is a sports woman, a fighter and a real leader. She exceeds all my expectations every single time and for once, I hope I exceed her expectations with my success.

This day like everyday is about to end. The myriad of emotions I experienced today makes it a little strange. Of course now a days, I have more strange days rather than normal days. Anything that’s related to women is strange and it’s really no wonder that A Women’s day, as it should, turned out to be strange day.