Hiking and Formal. The 19 hour long day

Firstly, happy birthday Lachlan (my little bro) from a far. Hope you enjoy the Pokemon and catch'em all!

So the 12 of October for me was a very long and tiring day. It started at 6 when Mr Peter (our substitute dorm parent) woke me up for hiking. 

The hike was from Kukkal to the plains. It was very similar to the hike from Pallangi to Pallani which was nearly a month ago. 

They drop you off in the middle of no-where and then you walk down the mountain for several hours.

Here's the description of the hike: 

Largely a wilderness hike, it is one of the most popular due to occasional elephant sightings and several good swim spots. Starting at the edge of town, descends steeply by a stone staircase to terraced fields. A view rock offers a view down the whole valley to the Kuduraiyar (Horsetail) Dam, the destination. After crossing a stream, the trail descends steeply past a plantation into forest, and a larger stream crossing (good swim holes downstream) than on through relatively level forest and drier 'scrub forest'. A final stream crossing and the path parallels the stream along a rocky gorge and another swim site, before the trail climbs, crosses slippery rock and descends steeply down to the dam (a final swim possibility) and the pick up site below the dam. Drive back via Palani.

It was an absolute scorcher of a day. A couple of people ran out of water on the hike and I was glad I brought 3L (had to share some). 

There's 1 hike left for me next week. That one will mean I get my Tahr pin and signal the end of my Kodai Wilderness exploration :'(. 

Anyway, let's get into the photo's from the hike! Hope you enjoy them:

You can see the dam a bit right of centre.
Was taken 5min after we started. Couldn't believe that it would
take 7 hours to reach that. 

Breakfast spot. Was a long way down. I think I underestimated
my danger, sorry mum for scaring you. 

Breakfast spot. Not bad place, a little windy though

Was glad I wore long pants

A giant squirrel

We went swimming here and jumped off the further
waterfall. 

Free spa treatment from the fish

Our starting point was a little to the left of those distant
mountains. 

On the way back, we went through a couple of towns. I noticed that some of the houses and businesses were made of concrete wall but had a couple of weaved reed walls. They helped to complete extensions to the buildings. It reminded me of a line from The Castle, a classic australian movie that presents Aussies in such a flawless way. The line was about the extensions to the house, and how the council didn't know about them. Made me chuckle as the bus continued to bump along the road back to Kodai.

And that was the Kukkal to Plains hike.

We walked from around 8 till 3. 7 hours it took to reach that blue pool we saw from the mountain tops. 

The bus trip back took 2 and a half hours, so I got back to dorm at 5:30. Formal started at 6:30 and they wanted us out of the dorms at 6.

I raced in and jumped in the shower. Since I'd just been hiking all day, I had a 20 min shower to make sure I was clean enough. I then got dressed and Harsh (a friend in the dorm) helped me with my tie. After making sure I looked decent we left the dorm at 6:10.

Formals was a great evening. It started with an amazing dinner in the covered court. The place looked amazing, and they served spaghetti with bolognese or carbonara sauce. This disappointed many people there but I was delighted. I didn't take any photo's but tried to enjoy the night.

After dinner was a canteen. It was a great time with the music and dancing. On some of the slower 

songs, I was jealous of the people who had someone to dance with. 

It was a lot of fun though.

Afterwards there were 2 movies shown. They were 'The Conjuring' and 'PS I love you'. I'd already seen The Conjuring twice and I also wanted to engage my softer side (I haven't seen a love movie in a while), so I chose PS I love you. 

I'll admit that I cried multiple times throughout the film. I blamed it on the tiredness after the hike. My defences were lowered and the flood gates opened. 

Unfortunately the power was cut at 11, just before the ending. 

I went back to dorm with some other guys. Once there we lounged around a bit and talked about the night for a while. 

I got ready for bed and fell asleep at 1am. 

I hadn't taken a photo of myself before the formal, but got one afterwards. Here it is ( I was a bit neater before the formal):

The mirror was a little dirty, not me

If you want to chat about anything, you can 

email me at: comanduash@gmail.com