After a luxury dinner worth 200 bucks and costliest smoke worth 208 bucks ( we paid fine of 200 for smoking in prohibited area - aka bus stand ) - we were left with around 1000 bucks for the remaining part of the journey - and unlike adventure in spain, this time kuntS was carrying plastic money. He assured -
"1000 should be enough le. Not a problem - we can draw money from ATM at Mudigere"
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It was kuntS third attempt to finish the game "Ombattu Gudde - mystery trails" and my second. The attached failures had made this venture more prominent.
After all those "I can - I can't" mail exchanges, we decided to go ahead with the trek convincing our self "One is no fun, two is good, and three is crowd!!”
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Gundya @ 0430 Hours
Like professional trekkers - our kit was equipped with survey of India map #48, p/9 1:50,000, a high-fi compass, sleeping bags, first aid and MTR ready to eat stuffs. Relatively light weight bags when compared to our first venture at the same venue.
Added 6 double egg omlette's to our kitty at the checkpost and vacated the place.
Bridge on highway @ 0600 Hours.
The sun was still hiding in his nest & we both were roaring to go. "Early started is half work done" - The mantra that we had learnt (the hard way) after those couple of un successfull attempts. We waited for some time @ the bridge and just when we saw some traces of light - we gave it a start.
In next 10 minutes, we were away from civilization and had entered into the green freshness of the jungle. Initial part of the trek is walk for about 6 KMs, not gaining any altitude at all. Enjoying every scenes of this thick jungle, its silence (and those scary sounds in between) - we almost raced to our first pit stop. No breaks in between and in no time we were at the first river crossing.
KabbiNale @ 0730 Hours
The scene here is just picture perfect. Clean silently buzzing river with thick huge trees on its banks and a huge mountain's in front. Heaven!
"Le kuntS, lets not waste much time here. Let's quickly finish and move" --- I said and kuntS agreed. Although we had raced to this point, that statement came out of shear desperation to make it to the top this time - at any cost. Nature's call, a quick dip in the stream, breakfast (heavy break fast I should say) and prolonged rest enjoying the early morning sun and sceneries -- unknowingly we had already spent more than an hour here.
& to make the things little more interesting - My hands slipped while trying to throw my shoe to the other bank & Splash! They were completely soaked in water!
The trail continue's along the river. In quick time, we again covered quite a lot of distance. Thanks to the cool morning temperature & thick jungle which wasn't allowing much of the sun to slow down us. Again we didn't gain any altitude in this session as well. The trail wasn't completely flat either - we used to gain some altitude and loose some, effectively nullifing the gain.
AddaHole @ 1030 Hours
Because of that non-stop spirited run, we managed to reach the second river AddaHole in quick time. I was tired - laid my back on the ground & closed my eyes. Heard some people talking at some distance - didn't bother to look at them. KuntS had a brief conversation with those people. They were asking kuntS if he was forest officer! and it seems they asked the same question thrice in pretty short conversation! We 'd heard of lot of illegal activities going in this reserve forest, and based on the conversation - it doesn't looked like they were here for fishing in the river as they had told to kuntS!.
The trail - from here leads to the water falls. We, apparently following an optimization technique - didn't fill our bottles completely. The trail is pretty clearly visible for some distance from here -- but starts vanishing, often splitting into multiple trails in different directions leading to lots of confusion. Actual trek starts from Addahole - we started gaining altitude. And the number of pit-stops also started increasing. After couple of pit-stops and "kuntS - the navigator" exploring couple of trails --- we made it to the falls.
WaterFalls @ 1300 Hours
We had reached the falls and it took us couple of minutes to realize that we had acutally reached. The falls was completely dry - with a thin line of water passing through dry black rocks.
"This is it - the falls" - kuntS told with a smile on his face.
"Are you sure?" I asked in surprise. Probably I was expecting a bit more in this summer.
"Yes man - 100% sure" - kuntS told with a bigger smile.
Lunch time. bisibelebath & pongal packets were emptied in no time. I was dead tired. I laid back & was enjoying the sorroundings. The scenic beauty was amazing here. Sun trying hard to penetrate through the dense forest -- and these tall tree's trying hard to prevent! Different shades of green amidst that bright sunlight - feast for your eyes.
kuntS - to stand up to his name had hurt his leg. He was working on the severity of the pain. In the mean time - my body automatically went into hibernation mode! kuntS woke me up after some time & told I 'd already started snoaring! :-)
Well - that "no water" falls turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the latter part of our journey.
After relatively long break - we decided to push ahead. Our plan was simple -- follow the stream rocks from here on in the NE direction until we hit grass land. We would halt our march when we reach grass land & continue our trek the next day.
Easy said. The next 3 hours turned to be the biggest adventure of this trip. The rock climbing was easy in the beginning, but as we moved on - the size of the rocks turned from modest high to huge. It was real rock climbing without any safety. Some of the rocks were close to 20 feet high, almost vertical. Initially, some rocks had good amount of cracks - making our job relatively easier. & then we hit this 20 feet wall - Dead end.
First Dead Lock!
It was dead straight wall without any cracks to hold on to. There seemed a way from left side, a narrow slope. We gave it a shot, but it was too narrow and slippery to move ahead with the additional load of back packs. We decided to back off a bit - few meters and try "by pass"ing this rock from the other side. KuntS made it clear to come back to the same water fall path after taking that slight deviation. But that path wasn't easy as we 'd thought. It was thick forest on either side of the rocky path with large number of thorny tree's - brushing our hands, legs and faces when ever they find an opportunity. No trail here - we need to make our own way. We crawled slowly through this part and some how made it to the top of the hard to climb 20 feet rock. There was no way that we could back off from this point since getting down those rocks that we have climbed till now is very dangerous - almost not possible. We have to get out and reach grass land at any cost - and we have to do that before sun sets down. I prayed this to be the last such dead lock. The prayer seemed to have lost in the forest -- we hit another dead end after hiking for couple of minutes!
Second Dead Lock!
Another huge rock - this time, it wasn't vertical - but slopy. No cracks to hold on to, and a slip would lead us to a free fall, deep enough to induce a minimum of 2 or 3 fractures. No way we can try this. We decided to by pass this and take alternate route. This time, alternate route was even tougher. The soil in itself was loose. Add loose foot ball sized rocks to that. Add 2 dimensional inclination to that. On top of all this, small shrubs with loose roots and some shrubs with heavy thorns. Nothing much to hold on to while climbing! We tried our bit -- in vain. After struggle for half an hour, we decided - even this route is n't feasible and too risky. Back to square one.
By now, kuntS sprain was at its peak. He was hiking using only one leg, with other leg just for support. Every half an hour, using the spray to reduce the pain.
Ok. Now, no way out but to try & climb the rock. Started exploring all the options available. I decided to give it a shot. Couple of steps ahead & I slipped. Tried to hold on to one of the rocks but couldn't bear the weight of my body from one hand. Hadn't gained much altitude when I had slipped & hence the injuries were minor. Could have been worse if I was carrying back pack for this try.
After this failed attempt - kuntS decided to give it a shot. Holding on to a tree to his right, he managed to reach half way. One final push (I dont know from where he got the guts to do this!) - he put his next step on the slopy rock itself and phew - stretched out his hand to the max to reach the distant horizontal tree & he managed to reach to the top.
"It is very scary le. I had almost slipped" - kuntS uttered in very serious tone.
Now what? It was my turn & those words from kuntS weren't moral boosters either. But 'd to go. I can't imagine going back all the way down from this point as its even more dangerous.
Following the same route, I managed to reach half point. Stuck. Finding nothing to hold on to & after the fall couple of minutes back - was hesitant to push myself on to the slopy rock. Fear at its max. KuntS extended his arm from the place he was, I made sure my left foot was firm & gave that final push on the slopy rock, stretching out to reach kuntS. Just managed.
I would rate this as one of the scariest things that I 've done in my life.
We needed some desperate rest now, but time is running out. We were supposed to hit grassland by now - but it's no where visible yet. The path ahead is still rocks - rocks and rocks. We moved ahead. After some time, we started seeing some opening to our left - which seemed like grassland. Not clearly visible amidst the dense forest. We couldn't have continued in the same rocky path anymore. We decided to deviate a bit and get out this mess. We made our own way, holding on to what ever we could have - not caring for those bruises coz of thorns - pushed ahead. And when I came out of this forest - the scene was treat to my eyes. Grass land !!!!!!! Just can't imagine the happiness & what a relief! We are in grass-land. Alive, in one piece.
KuntS was still behind asking what's ahead. I didnt wanted to ruin the shock when he comes out. Just told - "Forest le.. Forest".
When kuntS managed to come out --- the shock & happiness together on his face was just superb! Nothing can be compared to this. Nothing.
We had almost made it to the top of OG. We were just few meters below the peak. We had already hiked most part of the grassland. We had missed some deviation towards grassland and got stuck in the rocky water falls path. Can't imagine following this route had there been water in the falls! The "No Water" falls was indeed blessing in disguise.
Grass land @ 1700 Hours.
We pushed ourself a bit more in the grassland, searching for a proper place to halt. Finally, after couple of switches - we decided to halt on one relatively flat land. Perfect time to reach the top. We could catch superb view of sunset. Although we had no hopes of mobile signal at this point - we were in for a surprise when we opened our cell phone. All 5 signal bars intact!! A bit dependent on wind though - but that was good enough for us to reach our friends and tell them our achievement! A great achievement indeed!
Whoa! we are on top!
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OG Peak @ 0700 Hours
The ants were kind enough to not to attack me, but they did trouble kuntS sleep a bit. We hiked the remaining bit and made it to the top. Enjoyed the beautiful sun-rise, and moved on. The trail from here was clearly visible but as I had imagined, it wasn't just decent. The trail - through the forest after some decent leads to a Jeep track. Jeep track reache's even higher altitude then OG. And then, finally the decent starts - through relatively dense forest. The "Dil Se" song put some high energy into our body. Really. We listned to quite some good songs and the decent was smoooooth.
We reached estate - got much needed water. Relaxed a bit & moved ahead towards hosakere.
"En Sir -- Gudda na?" - a villager on the way to hosakere asked.
"Hoon - Ombattu Gudda."
He asked couple of more questions and told -
"Parvagilla -- Suste annastilla. Esto jana sayo tara aagirtaare".
That last statement was awesome. That was the greatest compliment that we could have got as a trekker, that too after a fine tiresome trek!
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Took some loooooooong much needed rest @ Hosakere. Reached Mudigere around 4. The venture was n't over yet.
Booked our tickets to Bangalore. And headed straight towards ATM. There was a power cut in Mudigere at that time. There were 3 ATM's, 2 were running on generator. kuntS was carrying a Citi Maestro card. And to our luck - only the 3rd ATM (which had no Generator support) accepted maestro card! Woooow!
Checked all our wallets and pockets. Around 300/- remaining. Lodge would cost 180/- & it was must needed to get refreshed after 2 day trek. Beer would cost around same and this was also much needed given the adventure that we 'd.. Given the condition, we were supposed to choose one. We choose the obvious, entered restaurant hoping for the power to come back by the time we finish our beer bottles.
2 Beer, fish fry, Omlette & curd rice went in. No sign of power yet! Balance amount remaining = 90/-
After waiting for a while - we decided to bargain with the lodge owner 90/- for using the room for 3 hours. On our way towards lodge, couple of local guys on their bikes beside road stopped us.
"Trekking?" - one of the guy asked. There were 3 guys, around our age.
"Yes - Ombattu Gudda" - kuntS replied. I was in no mood to talk to them.
The converstaion continued for a while - and they started asking details about OG. We showed them map & they were getting pretty much interested in getting more details. They had done couple of good treks - but our kuntS was right on top of them. Any place that they told - kuntS had already covered that! While talking, we 'd told our adventure with the ATM.
One of the guy - made a call (I thought he was talking to KEB officer regarding when the power would come) - and told,
"We have IB (inspection bungalow) close by. Why don't you people come with us and get refreshed there?".
That came as a sudden surpirse. New place - and strangers invitation. We were reluctant to go with them -- after couple of No's, we agreed. One of them quickly moved out, bought his car - and took us to IB.
Aaaaaaah! The much needed bath! Candle light bath! kuntS gave them few more details about OG.
One of them was an Estate Owner, one was a financier and last one - Advocate! While formal chatting - also learnt that, apart from trekking - they were freaks for speed as well. They do participate in car ralley's held in the sorroundings and had visited Malaysia just to see F1 !!
Woooow - What a life! Money rules!
Thanks to these guys -- our trip ended in a superior note! We returned to B'lore hoping to visit Shiradi Ghat again!
- USiRa
