The TrackTrek
I always wanted to................
The Green Route trek was on the back of my mind for more than 3 months. It all started from the day when we had been to the Sawandurga trek. The travelogues that I read and the photos inspired me to have this route on the “Conquered” list.
It was decided that we would be going there in the first week of November that is when we have a string of Holidays and also that would be the right time to visit Green Route.
This was our first Real Trek and the planning started nearly two months ago, with every one chipping in with their views.
The final number dwindled down to 5. The team was Venkatesh(JK), Lokesh(Loki), Nagaraj(Naganna),Sunil(Suni) and myself Nandan(Nandu). So we decided not to postpone the trek any further and decided to book the tickets from KSRTC. We booked 5 tickets in the RajaHamsa deluxe bus, scheduled to leave Bangalore at 11.45pm, we took the last bus, because we didn’t wanted to reach Donigal at odd timings. While booking we saw that only 8 tickets have been booked apart from us and with less than 20 hrs of the scheduled departure we thought our journey will be in a half filled bus and that we can enjoy a good sleep before starting off the trek.
3rd November. (The day before the trek)
Left office early and called up Lokesh, asked him to come down to my place as quick as he could. Started the shopping for the essentials at 6pm. Our first stop was at the FoodWorld then to the medicals to get some painkillers and first aid. Later went to Namma MTR on KR Road and got the ready to eat stuffs enough for 5 for 2 days.
By 9pm we were done with our shopping and everything was packed. Around 9.45pm we left to Majestic bus stop and reached bus stop at around 10.15. At the bus stop, we were in for some surprises. The bus stop was rather clean and there were signs of improvement being done for the comfort of the passengers. Amidst all these political dramas that’s going on, its good to see some development. You really have to appreciate the one and only KSRTC for the range of services they offer. They have packages to fit all income classes, from the “red dabba” to the luxurious “Airavatha (volvo)”.
The Rajahamsa which we were supposed to board came at around 11pm, and we loaded the baggage in to the bus. The driver had put a new hindi movie “No-entry”.
There we saw another group with some 10-11 members; we were praying that they should not be coming with us for the trek and spoil our tryst with the nature, and to our luck, we found that even they were going to the Green Route and on top of that in the same bus!!!!!!!!!
The bus was full, not even a single seat vacant. All our hopes of having a good sleep before the trek were dashed. The bus left as scheduled. The road was not so good and on top of that the driver was driving as though he was possessed. He was not slowing down at the humps also.
We stayed there till the dawn along with the “cricket team”. They gathered some of the cracker boxes around and started a small fire to ward off the cold. We waited there till it got a little brighter. At 6’o clock we started off from there. We found out that we had got down just behind the Donigal railway station.
We were excited to feel the tracks. The other thing that caught our attention was the Trucks on the tracks; the wheels were modified to suit the tracks.
We started the tracking at 6.15. And with all the initial enthu we were more involved in enjoying the nature and photo session. The sunrise through the mountains was an awesome sight and we all got busy getting a snap with the rising sun as the background. After the photo sessions we started off. .
We met one railway employee, Lingappa, who was waiting for the “Truck” to go to his workplace which was 10Kms further. He asked us whether we saw any truck or sumo or swaraj mazda standing at the Donigal station. We were surprised to hear “sumo”,”swaraj mazda” and that made us curious to see the modified vehicles. Guess this is one more example of “Darwin’s Theory of Evolution” (not literally though). He was not sure of getting the vehicle as it was Ramzan that day. We asked him about the tracking to Yedakumeri, and according to him we had 27 tunnel and some 50 odd bridges to cross. We later found that, he was the only one who gave us the facts correctly.
We came across the first bridge at around 7.15. With the info we got through the travelogues, this was supposed to be the scariest of the bridges. But none of us found it to be true though, we crossed it with ease. At around 8.30 we had our breakfast. We had sandwiches. We had half an hour break. After the breakfast we again set off.
It was around 9’o clock when we reached the second bridge, this was a bit scary. The metal planks were missing at some places and there was a fast flowing river below. On top of that the railway employees were also crossing the bridge along with us and they were hurrying up to cross the bridge. We managed to cross the bridge and we stopped at the other end of the bridge to grasp some breathe. We observed that they had put fishing net over the hills surrounding the track to avoid any landslide. Around 10’o clock we came across the first tunnel, it was 237 mtrs in length I guess. We had the impression that we will come across bats in every tunnel but that was not the case though. In the middle of the tunnel there was light coming in, first we thought that was the exit later found out that it was an exit to a wonderful sight. As we went outside the tunnel through the opening, we found a waterfall with its full force and roaring and on the top, a beautiful hill painted with the sunlight, on the far side, the beautiful mountain range covered with mist. It was a picture postcard view.
Just after we crossed the first tunnel we found two more tunnels successively and this was the pattern that followed through out. After we came out of the second tunnel we found a civil engineer, with his “distance/depth measuring” instrument, standing near the cliff. Curious to know huv it works, we went to him. There we found his colleagues downhill, holding ‘Reflectors’. We learnt from Guru Prasad, civil eng that the survey was for a Hydel power project to be built across the waterfall we saw near the tunnel. Guruprasad obliged to show us how his instrument works. I got a snap of the rock at the top of a far off mountain through his instrument.
We came across a small waterfall and it looked like a natural shower, so we thought we have to have our bath here. The waterfall was very picturesque, with the sun shining just above it; the water looked like pearls dropping down. The water was flowing through a huge wall of rock just next to the track and the view on the other side was awesome.
The water was very cold, and I being more sensitive to cold, caught cold almost instantaneously. We decide to make some tea. We could make a small stove like with the rocks around and the dried leaves around provided us the fuel. I prepared the Lime tea, I put little extra sugar in though, but it was good to have, very refreshing. While we were preparing the tea, two more groups overtook us. One group had two ladies, struggling through the gravel on the tracks; have to appreciate their spirits though. The other group had three guys. The cricket team had gone way ahead of us.
Everyone got up around 7.30 in the morning. It was around 8.30 when all of us got ready. I was still not feeling well. We decided to have our breakfast there itself and again it was the “ready to eat”. Naganna went to get some hot water from the canteen; he took a 1 ltr plastic bottle along with him. When he came back, the bottle had lost its shape and it had melted into almost a half ltr bottle. They somehow had those reday to eats, I had some bread. I took one more tablet for the fever, I was totally exhausted, had no strength to walk also. It was the 5th tablet that I took in less than 12 hrs. With all of exhausted, we decided to take the escape route and hit the highway. Lokesh and Nagaraj went to talk with the Infy gang, but to their surprise they had already gone. We learnt that they had taken lift from the tractor out there. Lokesh and Naganna caught hold of a localite, by name Devaraj to show us the escape route. He obliged to come with us but we had to pay him his one day’s salary of 150. I was praying that let there not be any bridges in the way, luckily we had to cross a single bridge.
The Escape Route
There are two or three escape routes from Yedakumeri. The one we took was to go to Baalehalla and from there catch the only bus to Kooduraste. Starting from Yedakumeri, if you go towards Donigal, you will find a pathway going uphill to the right of the track, just after the bridge and a small waterfall. From here on the real trekking started.
Till now we were surprised that we didn’t encounter any leeches, but we didn’t know what was in store for us ahead. The climb uphill was very steep. I always used to wonder how it would be there in the heart of the mountains and now I was at the heart of it. According to Devaraj the total trek was for about 4kms in his terms. 4 kms for him means actually 6-7 kms easily. He also mentioned that there was a lone wild tusker in that area.
I was struggling to grasp some breath and was very tired, luckily we had some apples. That surely rejoiced our spirits and body. Trek Tip: Do carry some fruits with you, they are very handy. We had to reach Baalehalla by 12.30pm to catch the only bus, so we were hurrying up all the way. It was a lovely experience to trek through the dense vegetation.
At around 11’o clock we reached the road, soon after we reached, everyone started counting the number of leeches on our legs. On an average each of us had 6-7 leeches, this despite we pulling out lots of them through the trek. Tired, we decided have some food. When we went in search of water in the village, we found a house where they had tied a monkey to the tree in front of the house. On asking the villager, he told us that he had rescued that monkey from an accident and from then on it was with him. There was also a dog with him.
The effect of so many tablets started showing on me, I dozed off sitting on the highway. If Sunil hadn’t woken me up, I would have been below the bus’ wheels. At 12.30 exactly we got the bus; have to appreciate the timings maintained by the KSRTC. As soon as we got into the bus, the first question I asked to the conductor was can I sleep on the whole seat? So nice of the conductor he agreed. After an hour or so I woke up, to see people standing. I felt bad and I got up and sat near the window. We reached Kooduraste at 1.50 and at 2’o clock was the bus to Kukke. There we met the Infy gang; they were waiting for a bus to Sakleshpur. It’s a small world. I’m still repenting that I missed some views during the journey to Kukke Subramanya. At around 5 in the evening we reached Kukke. It was only here that we got the signal of our cell phones. Two days of peace from the city life. We went to a hotel to have some food. We ordered some dosas and before he could get them I dozed off on the table itself. I was sleeping where ever I got a place to sit.
We went to the temple and spent time there till 8. While coming out of the temple we met the cricket team, they had trekked the whole way from Yedakumeri.We had booked the return tickets in some Harish Travels. The bus was at 9.30. We finished our dinner by 9’o clock and went for the bus. We reached Bangalore at 5’o clock in the morning. That’s what we remember; we were all tired and on one remember any memorable incident on the journey back.
The Green Route trek was on the back of my mind for more than 3 months. It all started from the day when we had been to the Sawandurga trek. The travelogues that I read and the photos inspired me to have this route on the “Conquered” list.
It was decided that we would be going there in the first week of November that is when we have a string of Holidays and also that would be the right time to visit Green Route.
This was our first Real Trek and the planning started nearly two months ago, with every one chipping in with their views.
The final number dwindled down to 5. The team was Venkatesh(JK), Lokesh(Loki), Nagaraj(Naganna),Sunil(Suni) and myself Nandan(Nandu). So we decided not to postpone the trek any further and decided to book the tickets from KSRTC. We booked 5 tickets in the RajaHamsa deluxe bus, scheduled to leave Bangalore at 11.45pm, we took the last bus, because we didn’t wanted to reach Donigal at odd timings. While booking we saw that only 8 tickets have been booked apart from us and with less than 20 hrs of the scheduled departure we thought our journey will be in a half filled bus and that we can enjoy a good sleep before starting off the trek.
3rd November. (The day before the trek)
Left office early and called up Lokesh, asked him to come down to my place as quick as he could. Started the shopping for the essentials at 6pm. Our first stop was at the FoodWorld then to the medicals to get some painkillers and first aid. Later went to Namma MTR on KR Road and got the ready to eat stuffs enough for 5 for 2 days.
By 9pm we were done with our shopping and everything was packed. Around 9.45pm we left to Majestic bus stop and reached bus stop at around 10.15. At the bus stop, we were in for some surprises. The bus stop was rather clean and there were signs of improvement being done for the comfort of the passengers. Amidst all these political dramas that’s going on, its good to see some development. You really have to appreciate the one and only KSRTC for the range of services they offer. They have packages to fit all income classes, from the “red dabba” to the luxurious “Airavatha (volvo)”.
The Rajahamsa which we were supposed to board came at around 11pm, and we loaded the baggage in to the bus. The driver had put a new hindi movie “No-entry”.
There we saw another group with some 10-11 members; we were praying that they should not be coming with us for the trek and spoil our tryst with the nature, and to our luck, we found that even they were going to the Green Route and on top of that in the same bus!!!!!!!!!
The bus was full, not even a single seat vacant. All our hopes of having a good sleep before the trek were dashed. The bus left as scheduled. The road was not so good and on top of that the driver was driving as though he was possessed. He was not slowing down at the humps also.
4th November (The first day of tracking)
With such driving we reached Sakleshpur much earlier than we expected. We were there at 4’o clock in the morning.
The conductor said that the bus would stop there for about 10mins, so we thought we’ll have a cup of tea and we ordered. It was hotel Surabhi. While we were having tea, somebody outside lighted a cracker, and the impact of the sound was felt inside, a bit loud by JK, he dropped the tea which he was having. All the people there at the hotel burst out laughing.
The conductor said that the bus would stop there for about 10mins, so we thought we’ll have a cup of tea and we ordered. It was hotel Surabhi. While we were having tea, somebody outside lighted a cracker, and the impact of the sound was felt inside, a bit loud by JK, he dropped the tea which he was having. All the people there at the hotel burst out laughing.
The only help that we got from the “Cricket team” was, they knew where exactly to get down, as it was the second time for some of them. The bus stopped in front of a house that looked like it doubled up as a shop also, we could see empty soft drink bottles.
The amazing thing that greeted us there was the pollution free environment. The air was so clear and there were no lights also, this helped us to see lots and lots of stars in the sky, thank god it was a clear sky and there was no threat of any rain. This was the sight that you will never get to see in the cities with all the pollution and lights.
The amazing thing that greeted us there was the pollution free environment. The air was so clear and there were no lights also, this helped us to see lots and lots of stars in the sky, thank god it was a clear sky and there was no threat of any rain. This was the sight that you will never get to see in the cities with all the pollution and lights.
We went for a walk down the highway, there we saw light at what looked like a temple. We went there to check which god was it, but we could'nt make out which god was that. And that started the discussion about the kannada serial "Baanamathi" which shows the peculiar rituals followed by some of the tribes.
We stayed there till the dawn along with the “cricket team”. They gathered some of the cracker boxes around and started a small fire to ward off the cold. We waited there till it got a little brighter. At 6’o clock we started off from there. We found out that we had got down just behind the Donigal railway station.
We were excited to feel the tracks. The other thing that caught our attention was the Trucks on the tracks; the wheels were modified to suit the tracks.
We started the tracking at 6.15. And with all the initial enthu we were more involved in enjoying the nature and photo session. The sunrise through the mountains was an awesome sight and we all got busy getting a snap with the rising sun as the background. After the photo sessions we started off. .
We met one railway employee, Lingappa, who was waiting for the “Truck” to go to his workplace which was 10Kms further. He asked us whether we saw any truck or sumo or swaraj mazda standing at the Donigal station. We were surprised to hear “sumo”,”swaraj mazda” and that made us curious to see the modified vehicles. Guess this is one more example of “Darwin’s Theory of Evolution” (not literally though). He was not sure of getting the vehicle as it was Ramzan that day. We asked him about the tracking to Yedakumeri, and according to him we had 27 tunnel and some 50 odd bridges to cross. We later found that, he was the only one who gave us the facts correctly.We came across the first bridge at around 7.15. With the info we got through the travelogues, this was supposed to be the scariest of the bridges. But none of us found it to be true though, we crossed it with ease. At around 8.30 we had our breakfast. We had sandwiches. We had half an hour break. After the breakfast we again set off.
It was around 9’o clock when we reached the second bridge, this was a bit scary. The metal planks were missing at some places and there was a fast flowing river below. On top of that the railway employees were also crossing the bridge along with us and they were hurrying up to cross the bridge. We managed to cross the bridge and we stopped at the other end of the bridge to grasp some breathe. We observed that they had put fishing net over the hills surrounding the track to avoid any landslide. Around 10’o clock we came across the first tunnel, it was 237 mtrs in length I guess. We had the impression that we will come across bats in every tunnel but that was not the case though. In the middle of the tunnel there was light coming in, first we thought that was the exit later found out that it was an exit to a wonderful sight. As we went outside the tunnel through the opening, we found a waterfall with its full force and roaring and on the top, a beautiful hill painted with the sunlight, on the far side, the beautiful mountain range covered with mist. It was a picture postcard view.
Just after we crossed the first tunnel we found two more tunnels successively and this was the pattern that followed through out. After we came out of the second tunnel we found a civil engineer, with his “distance/depth measuring” instrument, standing near the cliff. Curious to know huv it works, we went to him. There we found his colleagues downhill, holding ‘Reflectors’. We learnt from Guru Prasad, civil eng that the survey was for a Hydel power project to be built across the waterfall we saw near the tunnel. Guruprasad obliged to show us how his instrument works. I got a snap of the rock at the top of a far off mountain through his instrument.
We came across a small waterfall and it looked like a natural shower, so we thought we have to have our bath here. The waterfall was very picturesque, with the sun shining just above it; the water looked like pearls dropping down. The water was flowing through a huge wall of rock just next to the track and the view on the other side was awesome.
The water was very cold, and I being more sensitive to cold, caught cold almost instantaneously. We decide to make some tea. We could make a small stove like with the rocks around and the dried leaves around provided us the fuel. I prepared the Lime tea, I put little extra sugar in though, but it was good to have, very refreshing. While we were preparing the tea, two more groups overtook us. One group had two ladies, struggling through the gravel on the tracks; have to appreciate their spirits though. The other group had three guys. The cricket team had gone way ahead of us.We felt that we were lagging behind, and thus we increased the speed. We crossed a number of small and medium bridges and tunnels. The worst part of crossing the bridges was, you can’t stand there for too long and you can’t take your eyes off the track and this deprived us of the Exotic views from the middle of the bridges. While crossing one of the tunnels, a sumo came from behind honking its horn, we all went off the track seeing the sumo coming at a distance and that driver he stopped the vehicle much before us. That brought a smile on our faces. It was like “khodha pahad nikla chuha”. 
And later while we were crossing the bridge it was coming right at us.
At around 12’o clock we reached a place where the work was going on in full swing. There were JCB’s on work, wonder how they got the JCB there?
It was here the track was very slushy, and while crossing this section the driver of the JCB put mud on the slush on the track and that splashed all the slush on Nagaraj. We came across a camp just ahead of this place and Nagaraj got himself cleaned here. We met Lingappa in that camp and he told us that this was the 59th milestone and you have to still walk around 8 km to reach Yedakumeri, which was at the 67th milestone. It was here that we met the other group of 3, they were waiting for us to cross a tunnel which was bat infested, and they wanted to go in huge group rather they 3. This tunnel was real dark; the entrance to the tunnel itself was dark unlike other tunnels, as there were many trees around it.
We crossed many more bridges and tunnels, and we were already getting bored in crossing these. One thing we observed was that all the bridges and tunnels were curved to right. Don’t know what the reason behind it is.
At around 1pm we came across the real scary bridge, this was the longest and highest bridge by far. Compared to other bridges which we crossed this was the oldest one, it still had the wooden reapers where as the earlier bridges had metal ones.
We enjoyed crossing this bridge. The view from the bridge was really good. We stood there in the middle for some time and took some snaps. Below was a gushing river, probably at a depth of more than 200 mtrs. There was also another bamboo bridge below, across the river. 
Soon after we crossed this longest bridge we came across the longest tunnel, it was around 587 mtrs. We wanted to check huv much time we will take to cross this tunnel, so the timers were set. It was pitch black inside. There was no sign of bats till we reached the middle of the tunnel, from the middle of the tunnel it started stinking and the screeching of the bats became louder, this is a perfect place for a horror movie. We got split up in to two groups with me, JK and Nagaraj ahead and Sunil and Loki coming behind. We crossed the tunnel in 11mins and when we came outside there was no sign of Sunil and Loki, till the middle of the tunnel we were all together. As we were thinking of going back in search of them we saw the torch light and we were relaxed to see them.
We came across one more bridge which was similar to the longest one, as we stood in the middle of this bridge and enjoying the view, we saw a waterfall to our left and to our surprise the cricket team was also there enjoying the waterfall. After we crossed the bridge we had a voting, whether to go to the waterfall or carry on. The decision was unanimous, “we will carry on”. The tiredness of walking on the gravels was taking its toll on us, a blue plastic sheet on the tracks was looking like a peacock to me. After crossing some more tunnels we finally decided to go for the Pit stop. It was during lunch that we realized the mistake done by us by getting the ready to eat Tomato rice of MTR; we couldn’t put them in our mouth. During the course of our lunch we saw a tractor, this time, with modified axles.
We met many workers on the way and when asked about the distance to Yedakumeri, there were many different opinions. The distance was not at all decreasing; it had stuck at 6 kms. That was the answer we got from most of the workers, we crossed
three or four tunnels of 300 – 400 mtrs in length, and some bridges and still the distance remained the same 6 kms from here. Tell you they don’t have any idea about the distance. Finally we decided not to ask the distance anymore and we carried on.
And later while we were crossing the bridge it was coming right at us.
At around 12’o clock we reached a place where the work was going on in full swing. There were JCB’s on work, wonder how they got the JCB there?
It was here the track was very slushy, and while crossing this section the driver of the JCB put mud on the slush on the track and that splashed all the slush on Nagaraj. We came across a camp just ahead of this place and Nagaraj got himself cleaned here. We met Lingappa in that camp and he told us that this was the 59th milestone and you have to still walk around 8 km to reach Yedakumeri, which was at the 67th milestone. It was here that we met the other group of 3, they were waiting for us to cross a tunnel which was bat infested, and they wanted to go in huge group rather they 3. This tunnel was real dark; the entrance to the tunnel itself was dark unlike other tunnels, as there were many trees around it.We crossed many more bridges and tunnels, and we were already getting bored in crossing these. One thing we observed was that all the bridges and tunnels were curved to right. Don’t know what the reason behind it is.
At around 1pm we came across the real scary bridge, this was the longest and highest bridge by far. Compared to other bridges which we crossed this was the oldest one, it still had the wooden reapers where as the earlier bridges had metal ones.
We enjoyed crossing this bridge. The view from the bridge was really good. We stood there in the middle for some time and took some snaps. Below was a gushing river, probably at a depth of more than 200 mtrs. There was also another bamboo bridge below, across the river. 
Soon after we crossed this longest bridge we came across the longest tunnel, it was around 587 mtrs. We wanted to check huv much time we will take to cross this tunnel, so the timers were set. It was pitch black inside. There was no sign of bats till we reached the middle of the tunnel, from the middle of the tunnel it started stinking and the screeching of the bats became louder, this is a perfect place for a horror movie. We got split up in to two groups with me, JK and Nagaraj ahead and Sunil and Loki coming behind. We crossed the tunnel in 11mins and when we came outside there was no sign of Sunil and Loki, till the middle of the tunnel we were all together. As we were thinking of going back in search of them we saw the torch light and we were relaxed to see them.We came across one more bridge which was similar to the longest one, as we stood in the middle of this bridge and enjoying the view, we saw a waterfall to our left and to our surprise the cricket team was also there enjoying the waterfall. After we crossed the bridge we had a voting, whether to go to the waterfall or carry on. The decision was unanimous, “we will carry on”. The tiredness of walking on the gravels was taking its toll on us, a blue plastic sheet on the tracks was looking like a peacock to me. After crossing some more tunnels we finally decided to go for the Pit stop. It was during lunch that we realized the mistake done by us by getting the ready to eat Tomato rice of MTR; we couldn’t put them in our mouth. During the course of our lunch we saw a tractor, this time, with modified axles.
We met many workers on the way and when asked about the distance to Yedakumeri, there were many different opinions. The distance was not at all decreasing; it had stuck at 6 kms. That was the answer we got from most of the workers, we crossed
three or four tunnels of 300 – 400 mtrs in length, and some bridges and still the distance remained the same 6 kms from here. Tell you they don’t have any idea about the distance. Finally we decided not to ask the distance anymore and we carried on.With all the breaks we took in-between, we still maintained a good pace. It was around 4’o clock in the evening, we saw diversions in the track, a sign of station near by. There was a sigh of relief and aloud yell “We made it”. We reached Yedakumeri at 4.30. Soon after we reached there, we started searching for a shelter. Almost all the rooms were occupied by the workers. The guy who was running a canteen at the station told us that there was a empty room at the other end of the station, vacated by the workers who have gone on vacation. We hurried up to the room and found it to be pretty good to stay for a night. I cleaned up the room and spread the mat we carried and made it a better place to stay. Except me and JK, others had a very good nap. I and JK went in search of some hot water for the paining legs. The canteen guy gave us some hot water. The hot water massage was very relaxing. The room had no door, so I and JK went in search of some wood that we can use as a door, luckily we found a metal sheet just behind the room and we were quick to use it as our door. Around 7’o clock we went in search of some dry wood for the camp fire, that was a bad idea at that time of the day. By then all the other groups had made it to Yedakumeri. First we met the 3 member group, we found out that they were also software engineers and more over they were also from our area. They were Manjunath, Anand and Lohith. Even they were searching for some firewood. We decided to have a common bonfire. We collected whatever wood we could get. We were carrying petrol also with us, had read in some travelogue that you can keep snakes away with the smell of the petrol. Started a small fire with the paper and boxes around. 
I tried to pour petrol on the fire, and at the first time I was successful when I tried to put petrol for the second time the whole bottle caught fire. The bottle lid got stuck to my hand and it also caught fire. I literally had fire in my hand. After struggling for a moment I somehow managed to put off the fire on my hand. We were lucky that the petrol was in a plastic bottle, the bottle got melted instantaneously, or else we feared an explosion. There was a huge fire and obviously it caught the attention of all the people at the station. We had chapathis that mom had made.
After some chatting we came back to the room. I started feeling very cold and had temperature so took some tablets for fever and body pain. Everyone had a nice sleep in the night.
5th November(day 2 of trekking)
I tried to pour petrol on the fire, and at the first time I was successful when I tried to put petrol for the second time the whole bottle caught fire. The bottle lid got stuck to my hand and it also caught fire. I literally had fire in my hand. After struggling for a moment I somehow managed to put off the fire on my hand. We were lucky that the petrol was in a plastic bottle, the bottle got melted instantaneously, or else we feared an explosion. There was a huge fire and obviously it caught the attention of all the people at the station. We had chapathis that mom had made.After some chatting we came back to the room. I started feeling very cold and had temperature so took some tablets for fever and body pain. Everyone had a nice sleep in the night.
5th November(day 2 of trekking)
Everyone got up around 7.30 in the morning. It was around 8.30 when all of us got ready. I was still not feeling well. We decided to have our breakfast there itself and again it was the “ready to eat”. Naganna went to get some hot water from the canteen; he took a 1 ltr plastic bottle along with him. When he came back, the bottle had lost its shape and it had melted into almost a half ltr bottle. They somehow had those reday to eats, I had some bread. I took one more tablet for the fever, I was totally exhausted, had no strength to walk also. It was the 5th tablet that I took in less than 12 hrs. With all of exhausted, we decided to take the escape route and hit the highway. Lokesh and Nagaraj went to talk with the Infy gang, but to their surprise they had already gone. We learnt that they had taken lift from the tractor out there. Lokesh and Naganna caught hold of a localite, by name Devaraj to show us the escape route. He obliged to come with us but we had to pay him his one day’s salary of 150. I was praying that let there not be any bridges in the way, luckily we had to cross a single bridge.
The Escape Route
There are two or three escape routes from Yedakumeri. The one we took was to go to Baalehalla and from there catch the only bus to Kooduraste. Starting from Yedakumeri, if you go towards Donigal, you will find a pathway going uphill to the right of the track, just after the bridge and a small waterfall. From here on the real trekking started.
Till now we were surprised that we didn’t encounter any leeches, but we didn’t know what was in store for us ahead. The climb uphill was very steep. I always used to wonder how it would be there in the heart of the mountains and now I was at the heart of it. According to Devaraj the total trek was for about 4kms in his terms. 4 kms for him means actually 6-7 kms easily. He also mentioned that there was a lone wild tusker in that area.
I was struggling to grasp some breath and was very tired, luckily we had some apples. That surely rejoiced our spirits and body. Trek Tip: Do carry some fruits with you, they are very handy. We had to reach Baalehalla by 12.30pm to catch the only bus, so we were hurrying up all the way. It was a lovely experience to trek through the dense vegetation.
At around 11’o clock we reached the road, soon after we reached, everyone started counting the number of leeches on our legs. On an average each of us had 6-7 leeches, this despite we pulling out lots of them through the trek. Tired, we decided have some food. When we went in search of water in the village, we found a house where they had tied a monkey to the tree in front of the house. On asking the villager, he told us that he had rescued that monkey from an accident and from then on it was with him. There was also a dog with him.
The effect of so many tablets started showing on me, I dozed off sitting on the highway. If Sunil hadn’t woken me up, I would have been below the bus’ wheels. At 12.30 exactly we got the bus; have to appreciate the timings maintained by the KSRTC. As soon as we got into the bus, the first question I asked to the conductor was can I sleep on the whole seat? So nice of the conductor he agreed. After an hour or so I woke up, to see people standing. I felt bad and I got up and sat near the window. We reached Kooduraste at 1.50 and at 2’o clock was the bus to Kukke. There we met the Infy gang; they were waiting for a bus to Sakleshpur. It’s a small world. I’m still repenting that I missed some views during the journey to Kukke Subramanya. At around 5 in the evening we reached Kukke. It was only here that we got the signal of our cell phones. Two days of peace from the city life. We went to a hotel to have some food. We ordered some dosas and before he could get them I dozed off on the table itself. I was sleeping where ever I got a place to sit.
We went to the temple and spent time there till 8. While coming out of the temple we met the cricket team, they had trekked the whole way from Yedakumeri.We had booked the return tickets in some Harish Travels. The bus was at 9.30. We finished our dinner by 9’o clock and went for the bus. We reached Bangalore at 5’o clock in the morning. That’s what we remember; we were all tired and on one remember any memorable incident on the journey back.
.....................Reclaimed our Lives
posted by Nandu at
11:40 PM
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