Going through my Photo Albums from past 5 years, I got the smell of the raw forest from an old munnar-Kodai trip photo! The seed was sawed in my mind and I shared it with my old time junkies, but everyone backed up as the road has been blocked by the forst department and we can only get the permission from the Kodaikkanal District Forest Officer to trek after prior application! But the ape in me wanted my 135 rally ported Yamaha 135 to breath the fresh air from the thick forest and ride and the splatter the Elephant Dung!
All my friends were turning to safe play, and I could only manage to get one adrenalin junk! After giving few proposals I turned to the Mush Junkies, the guys who trek n pick the Magic Mushrooms of the grass lands from the Berijam bridge! 2 proposals were accepeted and we were ready to go on two Yamaha 135.
We were not sure about the condition of the forest path but the ape in us lead us to munnar top station and we stayed in a hut with some leafs! After a morning smoke, we started our mission to the berijam lake and we found one forest officer stopping us casually, he though we won't be able to go any furhter from the first checkpost. He talked about few deaths caused by the Elephant attacks and about the concrete block after the Watch Tower! We also stood casual and said we will be back soon!
We spotted Forest Watchers walking with knifes, as they need to cut the creepers to make a path! But we were cutting our hands from the thorns of the creepers and encoutering the leech friends as we approached the Wath tower! First and Second Gear were the only Choice and We saw the concrete blockextending beyond the path! We dropped out biked from the Kerala end and grabbed it from the Tamilnad end! we started out trip filled with exicement, pride and joy pumbed from the mother natures air filter an the adrenalin rush of the ape in us!
We passed our bikes over and under the fallen trees and when we had a chnce to shift to the third gear the backwheels drifted like a drunken monkey! We reached the berjam bridge and the desperate plucker spotted some buffallo dung plucked the so called pellet mushs! I was not sure sure of taking the mushrooms there as we had a hectic ride back to top station and also, we cannot go furhter from berijam bridge, as the forest officials from Kodai will charge us with around 2-3k or jail us! After having a rest and few smokes I decided to make a Mushroom Sandwitch with the bread we had with us!
Laying down on the bridge with a 360 degree mother natures digital sound and ambience, I spotted few cloud formations. After having some meditations we rushed our way back! I spotted the shadows coming down like a stunami on the hills as we winded our way back! I saw the buddha in the big rocks and didn't got time to concentrate on the natural illusion as we faced the obstructions on the road! Finally we reached back at Top Station earlier than we expected!
It was the ride that we enjoyed most and all realized that magic mushrooms is not more than the experience we had! The riding trip overlapped the magic! I think we were the final bikers who rode on this track as now, no one can either enter for trekking without the permisison from the forest department and accompanied by a forest guard! It all happend with a will to ride and ride to thrill respecting and saluting the mother nature! Gave us a memory to cherish between concrete shit houses glimpses all around!!!
