Travelogue - Horsley Hills

How was this MUA different from the rest of the MUA trips ?
Men On a Mission!
Yes, exactly..
The previous trips were "famous" for the lacklustre planning,
and endless cancellations (of tickets, of ppl, of the trip altogether!!)

Not that this trip was totally planned, well organised and all that.
Some proof of our "planning" taking nose dive..
1. The trip was supposed to be a 2-day trip. In the end it was just 1-day
2. It was planned for four. But we had a last minute addition to the headcount.

So what was/is the mission ?
To complete 1000Km in the tripmeter of KK's brand new wagonR in 4 weeks.
We are almost there, just a few 10's of km's will take us there :)

Now, into the trip..
Planned details are here


Not much of deviation from the plans.
Except that we started at 8.30, instead of the planned 7AM.
Den and I reached KK's place at 7.10 to see KK standing topless, in a
lungi.
And KK informed "I called up Sho at 6. He replied.. KK... Isnt it enuff
if we leave at 8?" Hence a quick rescheduling of the start time.

That extra time was effectively used to make a Y! Msngr call to Geo.
Geo cudnt handle the flurry of goals from this side (v r 5 !) and he hung up
not before saying "Great times of india"
(In fact it was Geo who called up and not us. That adds to his frustration)
:D

Having had a NICE start, all were in good mood.
KK in the driving seat, Jose in the front seat, Sho,Rat,Den in the back seat.
Off we go!
180km was covered with not much of confusion/wrong-route.
Thanks to the wikipedia printout which I had.
But Den was not content with the info we had..
Nor with the sign boards.. He would go on telling "Lets ask n confirm"
Well, its good to get a confirmation.
But if you find a board, right in front of you saying "This way 5km to
Horsley Hills", would you really wanna ask someone and confirm?
:-)
Not just this, when the car was traversing thru deserted roads, not a single
civilized being in site (not even a cow), Den would cry out, "Hey, lets ask
somebody if we r on the right path"
When treated with some nice words by KK, Den's cry stopped :D

Landed at Horsley Hills at 1PM (Camera EXIF data says 12.59PM)
Straight into restaurant (not much of option here. There is just one!)
Post lunch(2PM), enquired at the reception about the availability of rooms.
"All rooms are ful sir"
Wow! What a relief. We can pack back today itself :-)
Got first hand details about places to visit, from the reception.
1. Joo (wat?? Joo. Sorry?? JOO, sir. Oh, ok, Zoo!!Got it)
2. Governor's Bunglow
3. View Point
4. Microwave Tower ( Uh? Is that a tourist spot??? )

Rat: Is it all in a 3-4 km range, close to each other?
Recptn: Its all in walkable distance, sir
Rat: :-S
Jose: Very well, v can start back at 3PM!
KK : Hmm.. Lets plan for 4PM. If v can finish off within that time, well n gud.

Zoo was good for nothing. But the scenic beauty of the surroundings was gud.
Sho was busy taking "orkut" photos :-)
Keep checking his profile for these pics..
KK, in his own trademark fashion, did some superb(?) poses
Jose did some monkey tricks and substituted Geo in a reasonably gud manner.
There was one funny incident inside the zoo.
I guess it was Jose's shirt color, 2 monkeys came screaming towards Jose.
Jose tried our age old combat trick - namely, RUN AS FAST AS U CAN.
Seeing that its of no use, he adopted the 11th trick.
He turned back at the 2 monkeys, and screamed out louder than them.
The monkeys seemed impressed, and left the place !

Wandered around the places, and took some awesome photos..
The breeze atop the hill was so soothing.
So was the downhill view.

Back to base, packed, started the return trip.
Had slight drizzles on the way back.
Took a different route and saved a few 30 odd km's.
But the road was such a mess.
It was a typical 3D motion, that the wagonR had to take..
X-axis (left-right), Y-axis(fwd-rvrse) and Z-axis(gutters)
So big was the pot-holes, that I guess, avoiding the pot-holes might have
saved us a few km's!

KK n Jose took turns behind the wheels.
Even as the Sony Xplod was playing in full volume, Jose and Sho and Rat
chipped in with some typical numbers in between.

Back to base camp aka KK's house at around 8PM.
Den n me got back home by 10.30PM

You might have already seen pics from KK's Cam
Here are pics from Rat's Cam
Of course, with captions :D

Tail:
1. As is the norm (take max pics), we took close to 350 photos in 2 cams
2. Sho dint let us know Jins' absence. He postulated a new law, hereafter ShoLaw "If 2 questions have the same answer, whatsoever be the questions,
the answer shall be 'Kayar' "
3. One of Den's numerous ideas came when we were travelling thru wastelands.
"We'll buy a farmland here, and come here once in a while for drinking"
Brilliant idea!!
4. Nice sound system, nice car, but it has a gear slip. KK has noted it.
5. There was no Common Fund!! All expenses were paid by me :((
Hope I get it all back :-O
Update as on July13: Have not yet got a penny back :(((