Bangalore to Mangalore via costal western Ghats- Travel
Suresh and his parents were at the central bus station at 7 am. To get he bus for Mangalore .after all the passengers were seated, the bus was ready to leave. It was now 7.10 am. The bus moved in a north westerly direction out of Bangalore. Suresh saw all the shops and hoses that lined the street but these did not interest him. After about 30 minutes the huge buildings began to thin out and Suresh could see more of open spaces. When they moved on to Neelamangala the house had thinned out considerably. As the bus was AC bus, it did not halt here. Moving away from Neelamangala in a westerly direction Suresh could see fields of ragi and groundnut on either side of the road. These gave way to irrigation fields of rice and some sugarcane with an add coconut palm here and there. This continued until they reached Kunigal.
Kunigal is a big town with many houses. On the left of the road before the bus-stop, they passed the stud farm. But Suresh could not see the horses seven though he craned his neck as they were far inside, away from the noisy road. When the bus stopped at the bus station Suresh and his father got off and ought and bought some bananas.
Soon they were off again in a westerly direction towards Chennarayapatna which passed by at a great speed. Suresh saw fields of millet whiz by. He was very interested when they passed over the bridge that spans the river Shimsha –of course it was not a long one as the river is in its stages here, and then began the coconut plantations. There were tall coconut palms on their side of the road. So the roads were quite shady. At certain places there were great piles of tender coconuts by the roadside ready for sale. Suresh wanted to buy one as he was thirty but the bus did not stop. It just sped along! As they neared Chennarayapatna the people looked out of the windows on the left, in order to see the hillock of Sravanabelagola with the huge statue of Gomteswara, the Jain saint on top of it. But the bus was moving so fast and the hill was so far away that Suresh could not get even a glimpse of it. Before they reached Chennarayapatna, they saw more plantations of coconuts between fields of rice. When the bus family stopped Suresh was to get down and buy a tender coconut, which he really enjoyed.
Now they were again on the move. This time they moved in a north westerly direction towards Hassan, along the roadside there were more coconut palms but there were also fields of paddy, caster and ragi. As Suresh kept looking through the window, he got more and more excited to see hills in the distance. They were coming to the end of the plateau on which they had been traveling so far. That is why he could see such long distances on it. When they reached the hills, his view would be limited but interesting. He was impatient to now when they would reach the hills but he was told that he would have to wit for some time.
Suresh and his parents went to a nearby restaurant for their lunch. While they were away, fresh water was poured into the radiator inn preparation for the dangerous hill road ahead of them.
The bus passed over the bridge, this time across the river Hemavati, tributary of the river Cauvery. After, this bus began to climb slowly. They were leaving the plateau and entering the ghat section. Suresh now found that the vegetation was also changing. He soon began to see coffee plantations. They were getting near Sakaleshpur. This area has very heavy rainfall and so coffee and cardamom plantations are found there. There are coffees curing works too, some of which can be seen from the road.
As the bus moved west Suresh saw that they were climbing a steep hill, leaving of coffee and cardamom plantations behind there. He could see scrubland ion other side of the road. His father reminded him that they had been traveling on the Deccan plateau but were now crossing the Shinadi ghat which is part of the Western Ghat. As they moved on Suresh noticed that the vegetation also began o change. Soon there were huge trees around them and the road began to swerve and cure round the hills. The leafy branches of the trees provided a lot of shade. To the right of them they could see the hills grow higher and higher. As Suresh looked at these lofty trees his father told him that area was noted for its teak tree. Teak is a very voluble wood and is cared for by the forest Department. His father showed him a teak tree with a long trunk and a tuft of large leave on top. Really, a very uninteresting tree for a boy like Suresh as one could not climb such a tree. Among the teak trees, there were also ebony, rosewood, cedar, bamboo and sandalwood trees growing wild but they were protected by the forest department. As the climb became steeper, the trees grew taller. The competition for sunlight made he branches on the sunlight side grow bigger. Some of the more gigantic trees are the gurjan, poon and Indian copal, which grow to a height of about 60 meters.
Suddenly the road stopped going up and Suresh looked out of the window on his left. There he could see a beautiful valley with a mass of trees tops and far beyond that he saw a haze of blue. The bus stopped for some water again before it began its downward journey. Once again they went round and round the hills but this time the hills were on their right and on the left lay the valley. The road descended quite steeply. Soon Suresh spotted a little stream that grew larger as it moved down. The steep road showed him how high they had really bee. Since the Deccan plateau is also high the hills did not look so huge when they were climbing up. Soon the stream was far away and quite large now. Suresh later found out that he had been watching the beginning of the river Netravati.
Now the bus had left the Ghats and was slowly descending to the plains by the coast. Once again there were plantations of coffee on both sides. Later these changed to fields of paddy on the right and plantations of betel, pepper, areca nut and cardamom on the left. This in turn gave way to groves of cashew nut. They were back now on flat land! The road was higher than the area below where lots of paddy was growing. Soon they came to a huge bridge where the river crossed over from the left to the right of the road. There were rice fields as far as the eye could see and Suresh could make but cashew nut trees, with their distinctive –shaped leaves. The road slowly wound in out of the little villages until they reached Mangalore.
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