Those Days: Part 2 "Go Goa"

Rewinding back a decade - In my sweet 16's & 'd just finished my 10th board exams. Summer holidays & WE got invitation from Sandeep aka CheChe to visit his home town - Ganeshgudi. The said WE included me & Rajni. Rajnish aka Chotu - The little wonder! Those who knew him ll definitely agree with the tag line attached -- 'The Little Wonder'.

Ganeshgudi - a small beautiful town amidst scenic sparse green forests, close to Dandeli; more familiar for Supa Dam power plant built across Kali river. For us - visiting cheche's home was just a reason to get our visa's stamped from our parents for travel. The itinerary 'd our long awaited, concealed wicked intention. GOA!

The Visa stamping authority aka our parents weren't that dumb. Although our proposed travel plan to G-gudi got approved, finance granted was just little more than travel expenses required for to-fro journey to G-gudi !! Me & choto, each had got around 300 bucks extra.
Just 300 bucks extra. Thats it.

The backpack never used to be heavy in those days.
Start packing.
Take bag, put few clothes & couple of add-ons (tooth brush et al).
End packing.
With our ultra light luggage - we three musketeers started our journey from Davangere to Ganeshgudi. Already pretty excited thinking about Goa!

This was my first venture towards this part of the world. Although now its been more than a decade - I still clearly remember the amazing silence and exciting beauty of this small town spread over couple of hills. Most part of it is part of KPC quarters, & hence all houses looked similar. Roads in simple words - full down & then full up, with plush green on either side.
Cheche's family was simply great. We were simply overwhelmed by their hospitality. Adding on to that - mouth watering different cuisines everyday.

----
Few days down the line -
Cheche told his parents about our Goa plan (and Lie No 1. that me & rajni had got permission from our respective parents). Since he had specified appropriate travel itinerary, finance was also appropriately granted. He got grant for 700 bucks, followed by almost same number of instructions for what to do & what not to do in Goa. The major cause of concern being Sea - we promised (here comes Lie No 23) that we wont go deep into sea. I dont know what were Lie No 2 to Lie No 22 - but 'm sure we would 've lied a lot and made several fake promises to get our plan approved.
All set. We moved out of Ganeshgudi. No reservation. Nothing. This was one of those 'next-destination-when-next-bus-arrives' kind of trip.

@ Ramnagar, few kms away from Ganeshgudi
We reached Ramnagar, & this is when cheche suggested, lets accumulate all our available moola in one place & then spend together. Bank balance now a mere 1300/-.

What is travel expense to reach Goa from here?
What are the places to roam around in Goa?
Where to stay? What would be accomodation expenses?
How far is Goa from here?

Our knowledge base about Goa was almost nil (although cheche parent's told some stuffs which we didnt bother to listen). None of us knew answers to any of the above questions. Till this point - never did those questions popped up in our mind.
Thanks to Social science in our curriculum, we knew Panaji was capital of Goa. & after listning to some stories here & there about Goa - we 'd heard of one coveted beach name -- THE OM BEACH !!

We queried about ticket cost to reach Panaji with couple of Lal-dabba's. I dont remember how much exactly was the cost, but that sounded little expensive for us. Now, we were getting enlightned about travel expenses & we started making some calculations.
This is when we heard some one screaming -
"Panjim - Panjim - Panjimmmmmmmm - Londa - Madagaon - Panjimmmm"

A mini truck, with tarpaulin cover on its cart. Ahaaaa! What more to think? We just got on, since its cost was working out to be pretty cheap. The truck was already carrying several people, many of them standing - & couple of them seated. We managed to get sufficient space to land our ass - happy with our accomplishment that we managed to sit amidst so many people standing. That happiness didnt last long.

Few kilometers down the line - all three of us were back on our feet, holding tightly the rope hung to the side of the cart. Bumpy ride! Real Bumpy Ride & it had just begun.
Next few hours we had very hard time. Adding to our woes - couple of people vomitted in the cart itself.

@ Panjim
We arrived in Panjim, somewhere in late afternoon. Woooooooooooaaaaa! We are in GOA !! Pretty much excited with smile back on all three faces.
New places would always excite our minds. Here the new place wasnt just any other place. It was tourist paradise - Goa. & the best part was 'freedom'. To do whatever you want. To go where ever you feel like. One can easily imagine our excitement.
Ok. Now we are in Goa aka Panaji. What next?
" Lets take a tourist map. Find the closest beach to Panaji and go there" - chotu suggested.
The bus-station was few meter's away from the place where our truck had dropped us. We crawled that distace, staring each and every mini skirts around! There were lots of those. And were pretty too.

====
We enquired the price of tourist map. I dont remember exactly if we bought one or not, but as far as my thinking goes - we didnt. Why waste moola?
We wanted to go to the so called 'OM Beach', about which we 'd heard a lot. The query for the same at bus-station returned void. No one 'd heard of any such place. Across few meters, we heard one of the bus conductor yelling out - "Calangute - Calangute - Calangute BEACH" with his pitch increasing word by word.

The keyword "Beach" got stuck in our head. The bus was almost full, which made us draw conclusion that it might be a good beach. Which beach, who cares. Lets first go to this beach & then decide where to go next.
Next minute - we were sitting happily smiling in the bus.
====

@ Calangute
We arrived @ calangute in the evening. Headed straight to the beach.
The view of the sea had always fascinated me. It does to everyone I guess. End of land & water takes over. Am I standing at end of Earth? Amazing view of horizon - blue meeting the blue! The roaring sound of huge huge waves - inviting for the play.

Resisting our temptation to hit waters - instead decided that, first - we need to fill something into our stomach & then find some place to stay overnight. Samosa from road-side vendor was well within our budget. Moreover, we were more hungry for fun @ beach than for food. Couple of samosa's went in & then we searched for about an hour - and finally managed to find a quite affordable place to rest, not much far from the beach. Small single room, with a cot in one of its corner & just enough free space for three of us to rest. Now since our problem was solved - we dumped our luggage & headed towards beach again.
This time - to play.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahaaaa --- Combating the waves was fun. Chotu was an swim experto. Me & cheche were relatively naive to this domain. Couple of encouraging words from chotu was all what we needed - we went quite some distance into the sea, throwing all the caution words to the wind. Swimming - Jumping along with the waves- Splashing - Diving - Game On! Give me more!

Parallelly - peeking at babes was still on. The skirts at panaji were reduced to bikini's here. Need more?

I had entered beach with my formal sandal's on, ignoring cheche's suggestions of not to. My first encounter with the BIG wave - I jumped along with it, & when I landed back on Sand, one sandal was missing! Other one was firmly attached to my foot. :-)

" Sea wont consume anything - It would split back everything " -- I guess it was chotu's words. They didnt turn true though. Searched for quite some time - but in the end, I had to buy a new cheap pair of plastic sandals & take extra care of those. Given our budget, cant afford such additional xpenses. What did I do with the remaining sandal? No, didnt throw it. But Hid it close by. Hoping the sea would split back what it consumed.

We spent our time till late evening at the beach. The extra freedom that we had got added more to our carelessness.
Went back to our lodge, took a fresh water bath & we were out again. Now on the streets - simply roaming around. Had some roti's for dinner (street vendor - next to the samosa guy) & headed towards sea again. this time, to see how it looks during night. Spent more than an hour sitting on the beach. This part was great. No crowd anymore & you get to sit and enjoy the beauty amidst all the peace in the world one require's to do that. Just systematic rhythmic music of waves along with cool breeze. Three buddies discussing about different things - in our own DCH style! Cheche made good fun about my missing sandal episode, reminding me quite often about that sad episode. :-)

Back in lodge - dead tired - we just closed our eyes & slept like dead bodies till next day morning 9AM.

What to do next? Which place to go from here? We thought about all these for couple of minutes. But without thinking much, we all agreed. The Calangute itself was great & worth spending another day over here. I was thinking may be - sea would split back my sandal today!!!
Anyway - Its beach time again.

Sun bath bench's provided @ beaches took our attention. There were several phoreners using those. When enquired - the sovereign told "One bench - 50 bucks for entire day".
This is when a wicked smart idea came to our mind. We felt, paying around 200 bucks for lodge was waste of money. Why dont we sleep on the bench during night?! Lodge was required only for fresh water bath's & toilets. We can utilize pay&use toilets/bathrooms for that. We stuck a deal with the shop keeper. We would hire one bench during day time for 50 bucks. & He would allow us to sleep on 3 benches during night (when they ll be lying idle anyway).
That was more efficient! By staying back in Calangute itself, we 'd already saved couple of bucks in travel. & By moving out of lodge - we saved even more! Wooooahaa!

Even though we saved some moola - Samosa remained our staple food for entire day. Samosa vendor began kinda good friend for us. Why not, we consumed close to 20 Samosa's that day!

We spent entire day on beach. Occupying sun bath bench in round robin 'fair share' scheduling - although chotu cheated quite often and occupied more time. Calangute beach is pretty looooooong. Apart from playing in water - we also took a long beach walk. From end to end. On one of its end, we found a bunch of Hare-Rama Hare-Krishna Hippies & On the other end -- there was a small rocky mountain. Lots of phoren baba's and babies in between. But all along the walk - I wasnt interested in those baba's and babies anymore - I was still hoping I would get back my Sandals. Eyes still hopping around for the same. Oh! They were nice pair of Qawadi's. What reason should I tell to my Dad about this?!

For dinner - we thought of having something different than usual Samosa's. Saw menu's of quite few restaurants & looking at the right hand column's, took back our thought. Common Guys - The Samosa's are more tasty!
The other thing that comes to one's mind about Goa is Beer. Although, we all three had never consumed beer before - we decided to give it a try & explore what's all the fuzz sorrounding alcohol. We purchased one 330 ml tin. I guess it was KingFisher's which costed around 20 or 25 bucks. The taste was horrible. The smell - Yakkkk. Small sip by sip, again in round robin fashion - three of us struggled to finish off that tin. In the end - we threw it off, with still some liquid remaining in it. This remained topic of discussion for next few hours. How can people enjoy consuming this obscene? We didnt know the answer at that time. But discovered the answer ourself few years down the line. :-)

Oh! I forgot to mention. We 'd stole one bed-spread from the lodge before vacating. I dont remember exactly, if it was bed-spread or curtain. But we stole something; to aid in covering ourself during the night when sleeping on the beach side bench. Not many would have experienced the ultimate fun in sleeping beach side on the bench during night for sure. For all those people who have experienced - I neednot say anything. For all those not-experienced naive adventureless boring fellow's, here is a good suggestion --- Do not TRY.

Initial few hours on the bench went smoothly. Tired body & mild cool breeze - it was more than what we could have asked for. But as the night progressed - the temperature went down drastically & mild cool breeze became strong ICY wind, carrying sand along with it. Tried sleeping beneath the beach bench to avoid sand rain. In-vain. We took out all our clothings one by one - stuffed our body to the max, covered our head with towel tightly & then slept. We were able to regain some sleep after quite a bit of struggle.

Next morning - wind had stopped. And our stuffings were covered with a thick layer of sand all over.

The thirst for beach fun wasn't quenched yet & we were already in love with this place. We decided to continue our stay in Calangute. For third consecutive day. (and this kept my 'search-sandal-mission' still alive!)

Some management time. Based on available data about fare charges required to get back to Ganeshgudi, we took that amount out & kept it separate. After keeping it separate - we discovered that we weren't left with much of rokda. After usual Samosa's for breakfast - we hit the beach again. Enjoyed with her - one last time! To the max!

It was adieu time.
We didn't get a direct bus to Ramnagar. We got down at some intermediate place & had to wait for quite some time before we could manage to get a......... Truck. This time, it wasn't a normal luggage truck -- It was Pertoleum tanker truck. And if you are thinking that we sat comfortably in the cabin - No. We didnt. We stood in the narrow space, in between driver cabin & trailer carrying tank! For close to an hour !!!
Because of the truck adventure - we were still left with some cash when we reached Ramnagar. It has been 3 days since we 'd touched rice. Being SouthIndians, this was quite an achivement! Ate platefull of rice with fish curry!! HoHooooooooo.. Yummmmmmy.

With dreams of hitting Calangute with friends again - we got back home. Never knew that my dream would come true in span of just two years. Our second trip to Goa after my 12th again included couple of days stay in Ganeshgudi, lots and loads of fun at Calangute and yet again "only Calangute beach" with no sandal scandal this time. The second trip had even bigger financial blunders & wonders! The beer consumption had increased from 3 guys atin to 3 guys a bottle !!

A scribble on that here by iPrabz:
http://coloredcanvas.blogspot.com/2008/11/summer-of-98.html

It has been more than 8 years after that ---- we are still planning for yet another venture to Goa. Only planning. God knows when we would make it !!!

All the images in this post aren't mine. Just googled out & downloaded relevant one's to the context! All copyrights for those images are reserved by respective owners :-)

I 'd missed lot of information regarding this venture. Chotu, after reading this blog - reminded me few. Couldn't resist highligting up those comments here.

[CHOTU]

Wanted to remind you about another sandal scam.. we went to buy one sandal in Calangute and we flicked one black sandal ;) and then i also remember another we flicked one sunglasses which we lost while returning back in the tanker .. Those days i remember you were master of "M" and i was inspired by you and my first successfull project in em ing was that sandal ;)..

You missed the sunset part ;) while everyone were watching the sunset and you were sitting in the other direction to see one phoren babe ...

[\CHOTU]

- USiRa

Bandajje Arbi Trek: Leechy encounter

One of the house @ Bandajje Village

"Monsoon delay could be longest in a decade"

TOI Jun-16 carried this headline. This kinda stuck my head. We 'd put on hold all our trek plans for a while because of monsoon rains & now I was giving it a second thought.

"what's the program for this weekend? Any clue abt climate @ vellari?"

I started chat conversation with kuntS. We 'd to remove out Vellari as an option since it was 3 day venture & one thing you can be sure about in Kerala during June is rain. We started tracking out un-finished business in Karnataka.

This is when the name "Bandajje" popped out. KuntS was highly reluctant to go for this trek as he had already conquered this peak. I 'd just heard about its amazing scenic beauty but never 'd got chance to scale it. 2 days of bang-bang & kuntS agreed.

===
All set to Bandajje Arbi Trek:

Last minute decision to travel - & no reservations available for buses heading towards Dharmastala. I knew our adventure was going to start a lot earlier than expected. We boarded 3x2 KSRTC Laal dabba @ around 2300 hours. And as expected - adventure did start early.

I dont know if it was problem with the terrible-conditioned-bus, or was it the hard-next-to-rock-seat or problem with the humpy-bumpy-road or was it our-cool-michael-shoe"maker"-driver - I hardly got any sleep. Same was case with kuntS.

Dharmastala @ 0700 Hours
Tired. Dead Tired. To add to our woe, no rooms available to shut our eyes for some time. Got ourself refreshed in free-to-public rest/bath rooms, using aaaa-aaaa-aaa chilling cold water.

Idli-vada for breakfast & all set to move out. We packed our bags with trek-essentials. KuntS 'd a list of TBD things. (Water, Petrol, Paper, MatchBox et al)
Hired a direct jeep to foot hills @ Bandajje village aka Narayana Gowda's residence - the starting point of our trek. Mr.Gowda was ready, waiting for us -

" Where are you people going? "

" Bandajje Falls "

" Only two? "

" Yes. "

" No No No. This ain't the season to go there. No guide's available either. "

" This is my second time. Had gone there a year back. We can manage without guide. "

" Elephants are on rampage. They had visited the vicinity three days back. Couple of people from Bangalore went there in Jan & got lost. We 'd to send our men along with Police to search. Its highly risky. Wait - I will call police. You inform them and then leave. "

" No Sir, Please don't do that. We will be careful. Why bringing in Police and all. "

" Its a big head ache for us. You inform Police and go. There are leeche's all over. Do you know that? Are you planning to stay at the top? What are you carrying to combat leeche's? What about food? "

The conversation between Mr.Gowda & kuntS went on for few minutes. Finally kuntS convinced Mr.Gowda that we will be able to manage. He showed us the route to start with. & Yipppeeeee - We are on.

One needs to ask for proper route as & when you encounter some traces of civilization -- this is exactly what we did. Thanks to lost-and-found, trial-and-error experience that kuntS 'd faced in his last visit, we didnt take any chances this time. Few minutes down the line - we are out of the Bandajje village & into the woods.

Once into the woods - the trail is thick & clear. Not much ambiguity. The climate was tailor-made for this trek. Cloud cover on top, No baking-on-top Sun, Ok-sort of humidity and cool breeze now and then. We, with our loaded back packs moved swiftly, enjoying nature. The ascent starts from the beginning itself. Not much flat land. But the steep isnt too much in the beginning.

Every time you move out of Civilization & enter the woods - it feels so great. The silence of the jungle, the smooth soothing fluttering sound of the leaves, The crispy green freshness, eye pleasing colors all around, Massst aroma of the mud, cool breeze, everything. Everything is so great - in place. Perfect. And just when we were loosing ourself into nature, ground reality came as wake up call. Leeches 'd already started creeping on our shoes!

Run Baba Run !!

After about an hour ascent amidst little drizzle now and then - we reached the stream. We had hardly taken any break during this stretch of trek. Stopping only when it was absolutely necessary. There was hardly any place to stop. The more you try to stand in one place & relax - more were the chances of leeches boarding their bus.

Stream was quite good place for us to get rid of accumulated leeches. The rocks on the river bed were good leech free halting point. We paused for a while here. Had our breakfast - the great MTR bisibelebath! This has become our Trek special dish. After good amount of rest & refreshment - We moved ahead.
We applied limestone paste on our ankles and on to our socks. This was the only thing that we 'd to fight leeches.

Immediately after the stream, there is a trail towards left that leads towards destination. There is also a wrong trail, going straight after crossing the river, which wont lead to the destination since its not correct trail. :-)

KuntS 'd crossed the stream & was verifying the path. The rocks were very very slippery & then suddenly came the big bang!

" Dhaaadddooooom"

I slipped & my bums landed exactly in between two rocks. Aaaaah! That hurts. The last thing I needed was water soaked shoes n socks. Cant help now.
Leech population was very scarce in the beginning. Their number started increasing as we entered into the denser woods. Till stream - if they were in numbers like 10/sq metre, now they 'd tripled. The steep was increasing with every turn & so were the number of leeches on our shoes. Coz of the limestone on our ankle's - leeches started to creep into the shoes. Bloody blood suckers. The white cover on our ankle's too didnt last long coz of the continious light drizzle now & then.
I could see 10's of leech's on my feet, gang raping & sucking blood, increasing their size minute by minute - but 'm helpless. The fact that kuntS was leading from the front was added disaster for me. His foot steps woke up the leech's & my foots provided the platform for their job.

A Fist sized Spider & what do we 've -- Our own SPIDY

We continued our ascent - neglecting the leech's. Thats the max that we could have done. There was no piece of land where we could 've stood for a minute to get rid of BloodSuckers. Everywhere - these small heat sensor enabled creature's were dangling around - 'd flourished like anything.

=====

Thanks to thick & clear, not much confusing trail - we raced ahead.
After close to two hours ascent - we managed to hit a place with reduced number of leech's. There were anywhere around 100 leech's on our ankle, socks & shoes. Unable to withstand - I removed my shoes & stockings. That was the a great wrong move from my part.

KuntS - now the leech plucking expert got rid of the leech's on his shoes in pretty good time. I wasnt able to. Leech's stuck to stockings. While I was cleaning up my feet, leech's freely entered into the inside part of my shoes. Now, unable to use my stockings - 've not bought an additional pair & need to wear the shoes on bare foot.

Its like providing hungry beggers - Kebab's for free with Chutney & curry !!
Thanks to kuntS, that wasnt to be the case. He helped me clear my shoes. But even then I 'd lost one protection cover on my foot and ankles. From here - we just followed one simple mantra! Run Baba Run!
From there - it was almost non stop ascent till kuntS screamed --- "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhaaaaaaaa --- Grassland !!!"

Entry into the Grass Land

Sneak Peek

Climb, Climb & Climb

I was never so happy seeing the grass. Yes - It looked amazingly beautiful, but my happiness was not just because of that. It marked end of forest - aka end of Blood sucker's territory! Wooooooooooooow - such a relief. It was not like they were causing a lot of pain or like sucking litre's of blood. No. It was just sheer mental irritation. Irritation looking at those small creature's moving around & sticking on to your foot.

Say Cheese @ Grassland

We took a loooooong break here. After a long time - we could sit & relax, without much worry. Couple of 5*'s went in smoothly. Photography time & just at right time, cloud cover cleared, unleashing the beauifull sneak peek view of Bandajje falls !!

Complete falls wasn't visible though.

Once you hit the grassland - there is no trail. The grass was thick - dense, providing high friction to your path. The ascent also increases a lot from here. Or was it the no tree cover that made the ascent more difficult. We moved slowly, zig zag, with increased number of pitstops. One needs to ascend straight, approaching the falls from its right.

After close to two hours of ascent - with clouds playing hide & seek - blocking our view quite often - we reached our camping spot. A relatively BIG tree on grassland, beside's a valley created by flowing stream, A 4 foot wall one side wall built using the stones and quite big flat area, much required to rest on grass land.

Stone Wall @ camping spot

Its camping time!

kuntS suggested that we spread grass on flat land. That would provide much requried cushion to rest. Its been ages since we 'd used our tent. After little confusion on how to erect the tent - It was in place in quick time. Rock solid.

First Layer - Cushion

Second Layer - Partial cover

After quite some amount of search - kuntS did manage to collect some dry logs for camp fire. For more than an hour - he tried, tried & tried to lit those relatively moist logs. Paper + petrol + dry grass. Invain. The fire resisted completely to stay lit. Finally - we decided, we would create good amount of smoke & get into our tents. We burnt good amount of green wood - warned wild animals of our presence (:-)) & went into the shelter.

kuntS @ Fire Station

BaatCheet - Bak Bak Aur Mc Rum !!
Mango pickle for snacks + Mobile torch for some light & music. Next few hours passed away smoothly - talking about everything. Eyes shut down pretty soon. Only when to wake up @ around 4AM.

We had thought the tent would provide enough protection from rain & cold wind as well. It did provide protection from rain, but not from cold. It was chilling cold inside & nothing much to cover. We took the spare shirts available, put on & tried to sleep.

Clouds - Clouds & Clouds
Next morning - we were greeted "Good Morning" by nature for our tremendous achivement with amazing display of cloud show. Unforgettable. Heaven. The scenic beauty was worth the effort. Paisa vasoooool.

Next destination - To the top of the falls. We packed our luggage & moved, along the valley for quite some distance. One would encounter another man made, about 4 foot high wall. After crossing this wall and walking for some time - there is a trail/path that goes into the river. From grassland to river would take a walk for about 5 minutes. We crossed the river & continued on the trail. After about half an hour walk in the jungle - we reached a Big open flat land. Just beside the river. A great camping spot (but a lot risky since it was too close to river). KuntS remembered coming to this place which meant we were right on track till this point.

Day2: Hike again!

We decided to shed our luggage here. Go to falls - come back & back tract to civilization from here. Easy said.

Since there were n't any proper trails from here - we roamed & roamed & roamed in search of the falls. We continued to roam and roam and roam. We roamed and roamed and roamed and roamed for more than 2 hours, climbing one hill after another -- one valley to another -- one ridge to another - One deadend to another. In-vain.
Almost given up - we were on our way back. Back to the camping spot where we 'd dumped our luggage.

That's when I saw a thick trail on the opposite hill.

"I Saw" would be a terribly insult to kuntS effort in finding that trail. Just when I had given up all the hopes - kuntS discovered this trail. BTW - this was the only hill in the vicinity that we 'd n't tried in past 2-3 hours. :-)
KuntS started literally racing ahead. We would go around the forest & after about 20 minutes, reach the said destination - ON TOP OF THE BANDAJJE FALLS.
Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooowaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ---- We have made it to the TOP !!!!

At the TOP

We weren't able to enjoy much of the scenic beauties around coz of thick cloud cover. But still - It was great feeling to be on top. We spent some good amount of time, relaxing - clicking photos et al.

At The TOP

And then - It was time for back track. Downhill wasn't an easy task either. The thick grass made the task even difficult since the depth - the stones beneath aren't clearly visible. We slipped several times - fell several times. Just when we were about to get into the woods, the cloud had cleared completely. This showed us a beautiful complete view of Bandajje Falls. And also the majestic hills of Kuduremukha. Breath taking.

Bandajje Falls

Now - It was time to combat with leech's again. We 'd decided on one thing. We arent going to stop till we reach stream & just follow one simple mantra.
--------- " R u n - B a b a - R u n ".

Jumping, hopping, skidding - next two hours was a treat-to-watch-fun-ride. Painful one. We halted at stream for quite some time - cleared ourself from leech's and then again --- Run Baba Run.
By the time we reached Narayan Gowda's house - Our foot were all red. This remained high quality attraction for quite some time - catching attention of everyone till we boarded bus back to Blore.

Blooddy Blood

With the dreams of scaling Majestic hills of Kuduremukha ----- Its time to say Adeiu.

More Pics - http://picasaweb.google.com/raju.us/Bandajje

- USiRa

Trek to VellariMala and VavulMala :: "Walking in the Clouds; Stars On the Trees"

Long weekend & trek plan to Vellarimala & Vavulmala was ON for quite some time. Good Friday's long weekend made the job of getting tickets tougher. No reservations available for buses heading towards Kozhikode. The enthu was high - JujuBee reservation cant stop us.

We reached the satellite busStand at about 2100 Hours - only to find hundreds of people like us, without reservation - struggling to find bus. Aaah - great start for an adventure !

After first round of roaming in the busStand - kuntS uttered -

"Le - we wont find any seats for sure. Lets try for cabin seat atleast"

What? Cabin seat?

I 'd prepared myself for last row seats - but Cabin seat was something which I wasn't prepared for. Even cabin seat was n't easy to find and after hopping couple of buses, we managed to find one.

All set to go. 90degree vertical seat, with no cushion for back - sound and heat of engine below our feet, and high beam light straight into our eyes. What more is required to say Goooood night?! :-)

Bus stopped for an hour on the highway - occassion: minor accident hurting one of the guy sitting window side. I managed to get some sleep in this break. After that - for next 8 hours, we tried all possible positions to find some sleep. In vain. Thanks to one of the passenger who got down at Sulthan Bathery, we could catch glimpses of sleep for last one hour.


Thamarassery @ 0600 Hours
From here, we 'd to catch bus to Muthappanpuzha - a village in the foothills of VellariMala, from where our expedition was supposed to begin. There was a direct bus at 0610 Hours and we managed to miss that by good margin. What were we doing? Learning how to pronounce "Muthappanpuzha".
What ever happens, happens for good. We found some good amount of time to do some initial preparation. We packed up some food for brkFst & lunch, 2 ltrs per head water bottles and enquired about next bus. There were no direct buses - we 'd to hop to Omyssery and then to Muthappanpuzha.





Muthappanpuzha @ 0900 Hours
Asusual - some raised eyebrows from the villagers when they learnt that we were heading to VellariMala without any guide or previous trek experience. They suggested not to move without guide. We were adamant to stick to our mantra "Guide kills half the thrill".

We asked trek route to start with. We both didn't even know minute traces of Malyalam. Amidst some difficulty - we managed to learn the route.

Quick brkFst, we wrapped up and started our venture. Morning josh, full energy - & the climate was just perfect for trekking. No sun - little humid. We raced ahead.
Part of path was flat, part steep. We pushed ourself - not taking any breaks and covered quite a good amount of distance. We walked for about 30 mins in good pace - but still not out of traces of civilization.

"Olichuchattam falls?", kuntS asked a villager pointing his hand in the direction that we were heading.

"No" - The villager's hand pointed in the opposite direction !

What? Wrong Trail?

We already hit a wrong trail?! Wow!

After a brief conversation - we learnt we 'd missed to take a left somewhere.
Right Around Turn - March ahead. We found a path to left going towards the mountain. We raced again. After a steady walk for 30+ minutes, we decided to take a break. No-sleep-hard-night-effect 'd started to show on our face. We were in the middle of some Aracnut plantation.

Devaition ahead. Typical Jai-Veeru-Sholay style, we decided to toss to make a decision as to which way to go. We still weren't sure if we 'd taken the right path since as per some of the blogs that we 'd read - we 'd to hit Banana plantations after few minutes of walk from Muthappanpuzha. No one around to query. Discarding Toss result, we decided to back-off, walk some distance back, find some one and make sure the route is correct.

That turned out to be a great decision. We learnt that the route that we had taken was completely wrong. Infact we 'd taken a dead wrong turn in the beginning of the trek itself. @ Muthappanpuzha.

Time to say, another What! What? Start trek from beginning again and all the effort till now gone waste? OMG!

Disappointing. Energy levels suddenly went down. It took another 30 minutes to get back to Muthappanpuzha and hit the proper trail. From now onwards - kuntS kept on asking each and every villager on the way if the road heads to Olichchattam falls.

ReStart @ 1100 Hours
Our pace had gone down a lot for 2 reasons - the wrong trail had sucked all our early morning energy and enthu, and brain was desperately seeking the whole system to be shut down immediately for some time. @ our first pit-stop (Still within Thenpara village limits), unknowingly we closed our eyes & obliged the brains shutdown command. When we woke up (a old lady broke our sleep) - it was already close to 1200 Hours.

After that - we headed towards Olichuchattam with a good pace. Through the banana plantation - beside forest fencings and into the thick green virgin jungle.

Olichuchattam @ 1330 Hours
Good clean crisp water. This wasn't exactly the falls, it was somewhere at little higher point from here. A thick trail was clearly visible on the other side of the river. We quickly wrapped up our lunch, re-filled our water bottles, crossed the river and pushed ahead. Quick break - Quick lunch - Quick smoke - we wanted to cover up the losses incurred due to wrong trail in the morning.

The thick trail, after short walk for about 10 minutes split into several thin trails. Several. Couple of them didn't even look like trails. Which one to take? Good & right question, but both of us didnt know the answer. Exploring time. We started to explore one by one - all the trails used to either vanish after a quick walk or split into couple more thin branches or hit DeadEND. This struggle phase continued for next 1 hour or so, and in the mean while - heard a loud aero-plane-flying sound from the top.

" Thunders - did you hear that? " kuntS asked with raised eyebrows. Well - with clouds wandering around, that shock was expected.

" Some aero plane passing by le - definitely not a thunder" - I causally answered.

======




Back to Olichuchattam @ 1600 Hours

Unable to find the trail - we came back to Olichuchattam. Opened the blog copies that we had. usandeep's blog read -

"From Olichuchattam falls, trail goes to the right of the stream".

Now the Big confusion started. We were trekking against the flow-direction of the stream. When he said "to the right of the stream" - was he referring to the right of our trek direction, or to the right of stream flow direction?

By the time, we started to work on that confusion - we started to hear load aero-plane-flying-like sound more often. Now I realized, it was no aeroplane., & kuntS was correct.

Time for Yet another What!

What? Thunder?!!! 

There were no camping points around. We are amidst thickest of the jungles, with no tent, carrying only sleeping bags. Cant afford to stay at the current point. Dont know the trail either to continue further and we dont know where the next camping spot might be even if we manage to hit correct trail.

Not willing to risk any further -

" Lets go back " - I told. Any other day, I would have suggested to try some route, but not today. It was very hard just to keep eyes open & on top of it - nothing is going right from morning.

" Go back? Where? "

" Muthappanpuzha. If it starts raining, we are gone. No place to hide around and the place isnt safe to spend the night either" - I tried to convince kuntS. The place was definitely not safe. Lots of fresh elephant shit around - & wild animals would definitely visit river for water.

" Will it be possible to get back before it starts raining? " - Thunders were getting louder and this was obvious doubt. But I was atleast happy that my half job was done. kuntS was ready to get back.

" We haven't come a long way. We can manage if we move our feets quickly. Its only downhill" - I told and kuntS agreed, but added a clause.

" If we get some camping worth place on the way - we 'll halt there ".

I was sure there were no camping spots on the way. I just wanted to get back to village - get back some good sleep and head back towards B'lore. I was already thinking of spending next day in Kozhikode beach. Cant afford to trek amidst rain anymore. & rain in Kerala - I 'd witnessed during my last trip here. If it starts raining - it just rains.

We started our back track journey. Just few meters away from stream, we found a clear trail heading towards VellariMala. The Lost Trail. Sandeep's blog was referring to the direction of trek. :-) But it was pretty late now to start ascent again. We raced and covered the distance pretty quickly. We were back to Thenpara village jeep track by 1730. Thunders calmed down by now & it didn't rain at all. No rain. Not even a single drop. Now that was even more disappointing.

False Thunder - No Rain!

Jeep track @ 1730
We finished the chocos that we 'd bought. I dont know what that 5-Star chocolate made to kuntS. 

" Lets halt tonight in this village and start agian tomorrow " - he told slowly.

" Trek again? No." - I was totally reluctant to start the trek again. I 'd made up my mind to go back to B'lore and give vavul a shot some other time. Nothing was going right for us. Right from the start @ B'lore.

Well - kuntS delievered some deadly dialogues - distrubed my mind - provoked by using the keyword "COWARDS". Had it rained - we could have convinced ourself that it was a good decision to back off. But no rain did make me feel as if I was coward, trying to run away. I had no option but to accept to what kuntS 'd to say.

We decided to halt @ Thenpara village itself. After asking couple of villagers, we learnt about a Resort close by. Few mins walk & we hit the resort before dusk. Quick must needed bath, and I let the spirit take over. The night would remain unforgettable for ever for one special thing - "Stars on the trees".

Night show - "Stars on the Trees"

Star performers - Light emitting insects. (Jugnu/Minchina Hula). Jugnu's just lit the entire forest in no time. There were several 100's of those, uniformally spread across all the parts of the trees. And amazingly following some peculiar sequence of light emission. It seemed as if it was perfectly choreographed. Yes - it was choreographed. Choreographed by Nature.

Delicious chicken & Ghee rice for dinner. We ended our long, not much productive day with a rather good note.

===

Resort (Range house) @ 0800 Hours

We reduced our luggage. Left couple of un-necessary stuff over there at the resort and gave a push on the same track. We raced to Olichuchattam falls in hardly one hour. No pit-stop in between. This time we didnt go to the stream. Instead we took "Lost Trail", the trail (that we 'd discovered during backtrack) to the right of the stream - which starts few meters before the actual stream. The trail goes away from the stream for a while and comes back to the stream again. The path started getting steeper & steeper. Small pitstop here & we pushed again. This time, the trail goes to the right for a while and comes back to the stream. The blog now read - One needs to cross the stream and find the path to the left of the stream. We took a small break here. We were now on top of the falls.

KuntS, after few minutes found the trail which was going to the left of the stream. Didnt wanted to waste time - we moved ahead. This process continued for a while. We used to move away from the stream for some time, and get back again to the stream. We now followed relatively good documented instructions in usandeep's blog. Making sure we were on the right path. Every time we used to come back to the stream, we used to encounter serveral confusing trails. This was major set back for our racing ascent. Some times we needed to explore here and there to find the proper trail.

We 'd breakfast at second river crossing. It was around 1030. Quick smoke and we started again.

====

After third river crossing - the steep increased. Trail was relatively thick and we managed to push with relatively less number of breaks. We blindly followed the trail. After an hours trek, we reached another water source. As per the blog, next water source was "Damodar Kolly". We assumed this to be Damodar Kolly. Who knew how it looked? We crossed the river. From here - again the same problem. Multiple thick trails and we don't know which one's to follow. We used to explore a bit, and decide on one of the trails to move ahead. Usually we used to choose the one which was relatively thicker and moving up. We did this for next one hour, several times back tracking when we hit dead end.

At one of the pitstops, we were hungry and 'd just started eating dates - heard a loud Elephant roar to our right. 

What? Elephant?

Pin drop silence. Ears and eyes on full alert. Heart pumps became clearly audible. Brain automatically issued command to legs: "Be ready to run in emergency case". That loud roar competly shook us. With the intensity of the sound, we realized we weren't much far from that elephant. KuntS - standing on his toes to jump into the forest and start running. We maintained silence for few minutes. Every small noise used to increase the heart beats. What to do next?

Our trail was heading in the direction, from where we 'd heard the sound. Fortune favours the brave. We decided to continue with the trek. We started crawling slowly - not making much noise. Thankfully we didnt encounter any elephant - but we did encounter the dead end. The trail vanished pretty soon. No more trail further and this is when we realized - we were on the wrong trail again and might be totally on the wrong mountain.

Time for bigger What!

WTF? We are on the wrong mountain?

We back tracked till the last water source - the so called Damodal Kolly. Time showed 1600 Hours. We 'd wasted 3 hours of trek time, following the wrong trail. The worst wasn't over yet. It started drizzling. This time - no thunder warning as yesterday. It just suddenly started drizzling. We saw a cave like structure close by - with quite good amount of evidence for human inhabitancy before. We decided to halt over there till drizzling stops and then take further call on to what to do next.

The drizzling turned into good amount of rain in no time. We are stuck in thick jungle. With no other option - but to halt here in the cave.






====

Just imagine this: Stream flowing right underneath the caves. Hence put that soothing water sound in the back ground. Two huge mountains in V shape, with thick green forest cover all over, right in front of your eyes. Add not so dense clouds hitting these mountains and bouncing back. Little drizzle to this entire picture. Picture perfect place. Heaven - Right? Yes. It was heaven.

Now - take off the sun light from this Picture perfect place! Hell!

We were enjoying the beauty of nature and soon we relized - need to collect logs for night out. Else - Its Hell down under :-)

We were literally inside the clouds. This made the obvious job very difficult. KuntS struggled for more than an hour to lit the log. He used paper, rum, dry grass & leaves & what not? In vain. Soon - it was pitch dark, with soothing water sound turning scary. Possibality of animals visiting the circumferent water resource started creeping in our brains. All the collected logs, we placed them as obstacles to enter the cave. The rum that we 'd - spilled all around the vicinity of the cave. Theory - bad smell may prevent animals from entering the vicinity.








Well - we knew it was pretty hard to escape from animal - if it does come. But no other option as we can't find a better shelter amidst this quitly, continiously drizzling rain.

Pulled our sleeping bags & pushed our body within that. Just when we were about to close our eyes - another Elephant roar. 

What? Not Again!

Aaaah! Heart popped up into the mouth. Although the sound was from quite some distance - but the problem - why the hell isn't elephant sleeping yet? We couldn't 've done much then to calm ourself and try to find some sleep.

The night went good, except for few sounds waking and scaring us in between. Next morning - happy to see ourself still in one piece.

Now what? We 'd bought couple of Maggi's - assuming we would manage to lit logs. The log backfire left us with no food. Except for one Upama MTR packet. KuntS hated upama & that was blessing in disguise. I finished it in no time. We started off. Back track to civilization.

====

5 minutes of back track - we found the correct trail - "Lost Trail again" (yet again while back tracking) heading towards VellariMala and a clear arrow marking on one of the trees pointing towards correct trail. I dont know how that BIG arrow mark and BIG trail managed to escape from 4 active eyes yesterday! Sight of proper trail - the josh came back. Shall we give it a shot to VellariMala atleast? Yes ofcourse. :-)

We started our ascent again. After about 5 minutes ascent - we stopped. Couple of questions suddenly popped up -
a) What we if we get lost again?
b) No more food available.
c) We don't know exact distance & time to the top. & definitely cant afford to spend another night in Jungle.
d) Its still drizzling and can turn into heavy rain anytime.

Wise decision came off. Lets not be too crazy. Lets call an end to ascent. & get back.

We started our descent. And literally raced down. Now we knew all the possible wrong trails - so no point of loosing trail. Raced down to the top of the falls in no time. Spent an hour in this beautiful clear crisp stream, amidst the clouds. 

We were walking in the clouds. Kerala - You beauty!

While I was enjoying nature, couple of leaches were enjoying my blood.

After that refreshing break - again continued to race down, back to civilization by 1200 Hours.

Lime juice + couple of biscuits went in. Quick wrap up & we were back to life!

Learnt couple of Malayalam words - "Malayalam Ariyadu" was the most useful among all. & learnt to pronounce all those tounge twister names - Muthappanpuzha, Olichuchattam, Tamarassery et al.

With a promise to visit (& finish the trek) Vellari again -- We bid adieu to an unforgettable adventure.

Trekkers willing to scale Vavul/Vellari can find good amount of Info here
http://usandeep.com/trekking/vavulmala.html
http://oceanwindz.blogspot.com/2009/05/vavulmala-n-vellarimala-trek-baap-of.html

& Some snaps to End













-USiRa

Amedikallu Trek - Save Water, Save Life!

Quickies for trekkers:

For those who don't wish to take guide:

Route: From B'lore, take bus to Dharmastala. Get down at Kokkada (which is about 15kms before Dharmastala). Jeeps run from Kokkada to Shishila. Charges around 14/head. From Shishila, the Jeep frequency isn't good to Kombaru. You can hire Jeep from here. We paid 150/- for drop to Kombaru.

If starting from Dharmastala - bus to Shishila starts at 0730 and 0930 Hours. Jeep frequency is quite good though.

@ Kombaru, ask some one about start point to Amedi. From here - You are on your own till you hit Grassland. The wrong trails which you would encounter quite often end after small distance. This would make picking up the right trail pretty easy.

Once you hit grassland, the ascent is straight forward. You dont need trail anymore. Just head in the direction of Amedi.

@ base of huge rock - there are 2 forests. One at lower altitude and other at higher altitude. Take the lower altitude one. There are some names written in white paint at the beginning of this trail. This should help identify the forest path.

Camping spots: If its raining - God save you. Else, one can camp at the base of the huge rocks. The best "tailored made" camping spot is at the top.

Best Season - I would say November - January. Winter season. This would help you find plenty of water sources. And the climate wouldn't be too much punishing either.

If travelling in Summer -- 4 Litres of water is must.

raju.us@gmail.com

All the best !!


=======================



" Where is your guide? "

" We don't have one "

" Has any of you ever been to the top before? "

" No "

" Do you have any 'naksha' with you showing the directions? "

" No. We dont have any specific hand sketche as such "

" I insist you go people go with a guide. The trail is very confusing. And only guide can help you to find water source. Its matter of only 200/- "

This was the conversation with the villager when we were about to start the trek from Kombaru. It wasn't matter of money for us. We were sticking to the basic rule - Guide kills half the thrill. Hence we were adamant, not to take a guide with us. We wanted to explore the path ourself and make it to the top. Inspite of repeated requests from the villager to take a guide, we convinced him that we would manage without one.

Villager was rather helpfull. He told, he would draw a sketch route for us. Typical SEs not carrying any pen! We managed to grab one from near by. Despite of his efforts, he ended up inserting a lot of confustion. He used to draw a line to towards left and ask us take right. The only thing for which he was of help was when he showed us from where to start the trek.

=====

Previous night:

Kalsi, myself & kuntS 'd a rather heavy meal at B'lore bus stand (this one is turning to be a default dinner place before our treks ) and started our journey towards Dharmastala. After long tiresome journey, we reached Dharmastala at about 4 in the morning. We finished our morning routine's in one of the lodge, took blessings of God Manjunatha after standing in Q for an hour or so, 'd our breakfast and started our journey towards our destination "Amedikallu".

It was already 0830 Hours. Next bus to Shishila was after an hour. We paid some extra bucks to the Jeep driver and took off from Dharmastala. The skills of the jeep driver is worth mentioning. He effortlessly managed to fit in 16 people ( excluding the driver ) into the Mahindra Jeep whose capacity is 5+1, with only his hands and legs in proper place, half of his body literally hanging outside!

We manager to reach Kombaru (Via Kokkada, Shishila) by 1030 Hours. And this is when we met above mentioned villager.

=====

Thanks to Google and to those n number of blogs providing a lot of information on any trek place - we were aware that there is only one water source on the way to the top ( unless you are accompanied by guide, who know couple of other hidden water sources in various places ). The decision to move without guide made us to carry 4 Ltrs of water along with us. On top of that 4kg water weight per head, add sleeping bag + food and other stuffs, effectively making us carry a solid 8 Kg weight on our back.

Climate: Peak of summer with hint of clouds here and there. Humidity at its peak.

With a chorus "Jai Shree Ram", we started our trek.

=====

Initial part of the trek is through sparse forest. But straight away ascent. No flat land. No proper trail in the beginning. We managed to find one pretty soon. Not much ambiguity in the beginning part of the trek. Because of ascent right from the start and hide and seek by Mr Sun, our breaks were relatively high in number. 10 minutes walk. 10 minutes break. This happened for first 1 1/2 hour.

"Abe - aise nahi hoga. Ab aadha ghante tak chalenge. Uske baad rukenge" --- Kalsi uttered.

That didn't sound soothing to my ears, but yes - we were lagging in pace and we 'd to pick it up. Thank fully - next half an hour part of the journey wasn't just ascent. Most part of it was through flat land, amidst dense jungle. We pushed ourself for close to one hour continiously.

====

3 Down at 0100 Hours

The summer and relative intense Sun has started showing its effects. Not even one quarter of our journey and we are already 3 down (out of 12 Ltrs of water). We were on the verge of grassland. Till now, the dense jungle was preventing us from Sun - from now on, no more cover. Open terrain. After that relatively long continious trek, we decided to take a break. Asususal, I was the first to lay down and close my eyes. In no time, I was in deep sleep. I woke up after half an hour only to see (To my surprise, this time) - the other two were also in deep sleep. Aaaaha --- its such a nice feeling to know that you can sleep for some more time after you wake up! We all three took relatively long rest - close to an hour. Un knowingly, we 'd made a best decision to take rest for such a long time. We were completely relaxed - refreshed - charged up - and roaring to go - daring the sun and the terrain.






=====

Our destination - Amedikallu, became clearly visible from this point. Oh man- Its Huge! Ettina bhuja was also visible towards our right.

Next half an hour trek was through flat grass land. Not much steep. No sign of shadow either. Directly exposed. Sun playing hide and seek with the clouds. The trail here wasn't quite clear. But since our destination was clearly visible, we used to push ourself in that direction - with what ever evidence that looked like a trail.

Steep ascent follows the flat grass land. Its really steap. Again - the breaks started increasing. But all were of short duration. Sit, wet your tounge and throat - move on. Our next major pit stop was at one of the huge rocks. There was a hint of shadow on one of its side.

====

5 down at 1530 hours:

We had our lunch here. MTR ready to eat. The food just vroomed in, into the stomach in matter of seconds. Since we had n't bothered to hit proper trail after grassland, we took some time to decide which way to move from this point. To our right was narrow jungle. KuntS had a closer look at it. He told - the path wasn't good for trek. To our left was grassland. Kalsi had a look and approved this path. I just followed what the elder's said. Till then, I 'd a short and sweet nap! Every second is precious you know!



The next 2 hours journey was physically harassing. It was continious steep. We reduced the number of breaks and crawled ahead. The rate of consumption of H2O didn't reduce much though. Entire body was sweating. Body was demading for more and more water. We did consume some amount of Glucon-D for instant energy. But that instant energy used to vanish in couple of minutes.

Just when our energy level was dropping down drastically - we saw something which we 'd never seen before in any of our previous treks. A bunch of wild Indian Sambar ( kind of deer ) - slowly moving ahead. Dream come true. I 'd always dreamt of seeing some wild animal in our treks - but 'd managed to see couple of snakes and lots of elephant shit. Nothing else. If you thinking how did I came to know that It was elephants --- its just by its sheer size. Nothing more of zoology involved. :-)

The sight of Sambar's was real energy booster. We stopped for a while and marched ahead with that boosted energy. Searching for more wild animals - but could just find some more shit. Nothing else.








=====

7 down at 1730 hours:

We were at the base of the huge plain rock. Really huge. The time was running down and we decided to call "Stumps" for the day. Next important task was to find some flat land to camp. Left our bags here. Kalsi to gaurd the bags, I moved to left side and kuntS to the right in search of a proper camping spot. Finally kuntS 'd found a relatively flat rock where we could spend our night.

It was sun set time. Spent some time in cherishing the beauty of the sun-set. Amazing view. Some snacks and it was fire time!



We quickly moved our legs -- collected some good amount of logs, good enough for couple of hours of good fire. Fire specialist kuntS took charge from here and managed to put a great camp fire.

Did some calcualtions - 2 ltrs to reach to the top tomorrow and come back to the camping point. 2 ltrs for descent. 1 more litre additional water. Why waste? We can go for the booz party. Hurryayyy !!!




Clear dark sky - twinkling stars - light breeze - and camp fire. Add 2 pegs of Mc Rum + Zidddi Rahaman songs !!! Perfect night. We talked about everything - from just finished ascent to politics to obvious topic - recession! Kalsi shared his hilarious college days ragging experience -- and we quickly browsed through our good old college days - laughing, singing, dancing and again laughing... laughing loud. We 'd great amazing unforgettable night. After quick dinner - it was sleeping time.

=====

Except for those in between few minutes of 'Ants in the pants' - rest of the sleep was good. The sun rise was n't clearly visible from the place where we were. Kalsi moved few meter's down hill to capture the beauty on camera. Myself & kuntS, lazy to walk down - just enjoyed the morning weather from our camping site.

Time to move on. We decided to carry only camera and 2 ltrs of water for the remaining part of ascent. But which way to go? I 'd read in one of the blogs that one needs to take a route through Jungle, which goes around the huge Amedikallu rock and reach to the top from other side of the rock. From the point where we were - there were 2 such paths visible. One Jungle, going in between two rocks. The other around those 2 rocks.

We chose the wrong path. Realized that it wasn't trekkable after few mins of struggle. Back off - and we went towards the other jungle which goes around the huge rocks. [Some names are written in white paint on the rock at the beginning of this forest - this should help those trekkers who dare to go without guide]. Initial part - make your own way. But after few mins of walk - the trail becomes clearly visible. Morning weather - good sleep overnight - and dense jungle. All these factors helped us to race to the top in one hour. Amazing Jungle - equally amazing journey. With little high steep climbing in the latter part of this hour journey - we reached the top!

On Top of the world !!






Asusual - photo time. We found a perfect 'Tailor made' camping site here. Spent some time here relaxing and enjoying the scenic beauty. Couple of prominent trekking spots are visible clearly from here. Ettina bhuja, Ombattu Gudde, Jenkal, Deepadkal to name a few.



=====

Beginning of "The Descent" !

Close to 60 - 70 degree slope. This is what we had in the beginning of our descent. Ascent was quite smooth - coz we never looked down while climbing. Now - We 've to. Scary. Really scary. We slowly crawled through this steep, slipping and holding balance again. After couple of conufsions about the trail that we need to follow - managed to hit the proper one. And then vroom in the forest. We were back to camping site by 1000 Hours.

=====

10 Down at 1000 Hours!

2 litres of water remaining. Initial thinking - this water should be good enough since descent shouldn't be much tiresome. We 'd no other option since we were without guide. Only next available water source is when you get back to Civilization. Without wasting much time, we packed all our stuffs and pushed ahead. To increase our woes - No hint of cloud anywhere. And Sun was in full swing. Sitting directly on top of our head. Ironing. Literally. The descent through the initial grassland was exhaustive. After about one hour - we stopped when we encountered a bunch of trees. In one shot - one litre water was gone! Only One more Litre of water remaining and we hadn't even finished quarter of descent.



=====

11 Down at 1100 Hours!

After some good amount of break - we continued our descent. Now - we realized the amount of altitude that we had gained. We are going down - down and down, but not reaching the forest yet. Still on grassland. Kalsi leading from the front, after quite some exhausting time -- we finally hit the forest. Aaah - Such a relief. 10 minutes of walk in the forest, we realized that we were on the wrong path. This definitely wasn't the trail which we had used the previous day!

Back off time. No one was in mood to stand up. Exhausted. Mainly because of Sun's torture and humidity. Can't use water either. Its scarce. Instead of every one wasting their energy -- we decided that one would go up, back to the grassland and find the correct trail. I went up - but not much success. Just then - we remembered seeing remainings of a camp-fire at a distance of just few meters. The same campfire - we had encountered yesterday. We moved back to that particular point and started our descent again. It wasn't easy finding that camp fire as well cause of tons of trails. Cautiously. Slowly. Slowly we crawled in those confusing trails - and just managed to hit the proper trail. We are in jungle now. We decided - more breaks = more water. So, we would try and move continiously without much stops. We tried that for next half hour - but it was too much exhaustive. We had to stop.

Still in the beginning of the jungle. We took about 15 minutes break. Consumed little amount of water. We 'd to - the throat was begging for water. Only half litre remaining now!

11 1/2 Down!

Everyone's shirt fully soaked in sweat. We pushed ourself. If we dont hit wrong trail - the descent is still a minimum of two hours. We decided to reduce the pace - thought this would relax our bodies a bit and hence the begging for water wouldn't increase rapidly. Good stratergy. We covered quite some distance without touching water. Lips dried up. Next Tounge. Next throat. No saliva either. Energy level was very very less. Half baked - Half dead bodies. If this wasn't enough - we missed our trail. Again. We took one sip each and the remaining water is also gone! All lying down -- like dead bodies.

======

I gave up. Forget walking - it was getting harder to stand. It was flash back time ---

- Had we not boozed, we would have saved 600ml of additional water.

- Had we not washed our hand yesterday (with little water ofcourse), we would have saved another 200+ ml of water.

- Had we not dared to enter this jungle without guide, we would have got sufficient amount of water!

Well - it was n't time to think of Had we not's -- It was time to act. KuntS took the initiative. He decided to go back a bit and find the actual trail. Myself and kalsi just laid back and closed our eyes. One hour back - the statement would have been "Hoping to see the civilization soon", now its "Hoping to see the civilization".

After some search - kuntS came back. He had found the trail. Believe me - this news didn't sound great either. I was reluctant to get up and walk again. Was praying for some miracle to happen and we hit some water source.

We had walked down a bit in the wrong path and hence we had to gain altitude again. Every step was heavy. We started crawling through the trail again. KuntS decided to take the lead and he stepped up the gas. We just followed - slowly taking up the pace.

By now, we were literally dragging our legs - completely fried and dried.

After about 30-40 minutes of journey -- I heard something great!

Something which I 'd heard a million times before but never felt so much soothing to my ears.

Something which I wanted to hear again and again.. Give me more of those ----

That something soothing was Truck Horn. Wooooooooow -- we were close to the road. It was even more exciting the moment I saw the road. For many - that might be just another road. For me - It was OMG! THE ROAD!

There was an house just next to the road. Tap at the gate. The feeling of water touching the lips - running through the throat - into the stomach, Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah - you can imagine.

Got some nice scoldings from the owner of the house for trying this venture without guide. But if guide was there - we would 've never got such an experience. Guide kills half the thrill !!

Spend some time in the small water canal in his farm. Drinking water at our will! Great!

Farm owner arranged for the Jeep - And we said adieu to Amedi.

We hit a river in between - took some much required deep relax in water. Couldn't imagine our situation just 2 hours back. We decided - Our next venture would definitely in some place where we would get abundant water!

- USiRa

===================