It feels like heaven, ..!..ingly awesome. The ghats stretching from Donigal to Yedakumeri is a nature lovers hide-out, treacherous mountaines drapped in crispy yellow and green shades, dense yet silent valleys where even devils may feel afraid of making there own Ghoslas and in the midst of these lies a serpent like railway track which envelops the mountains like a much awaited prey. The train which chugs along this track cuts throught the tunnels with the vengence of a razor sharp blade, the mighty and tall bridges making a huge cry as if it were crushed by a mammoth whenever a train passes over it. All in all, it's a breath taking and beautiful view that one can behold as well as feel while trekking from Donigal to Yedakumeri which stretches for around 17Km. The joy of forming an human train and trekking along the green valley just can't be explained but can only be experienced. But there were still a lot of turns to our events that is worth mentioning.
Our group consited of 4 * 3!diots - altogether 12 !diots. The !diots were Anoop(Bhatta), Avinash(Kulli), Harish(Ketchup), Krishnakanth(KK), Mushtak Pasha(Malnad Bhai), Sunil(No one has dared yet to give him a nick name), Sri Hari(Potter), Varun(King Kong), Vikram(Devru), Vinay(Jetly), Vikas(He has many, the list is endless) and myself Phygics.
I would like to thank Vikas for his efforts in organizing this trek - planning, arranging for sleeping bags and tents from BMC and the like. The mail that he had sent as part of trekking plan was simply superb and this was the turning point for turning up idiots in such a huge number. We started from Bangalore to Sakalesphur which is 240 Km away on the night of 25th Dec 09 as per the plan. We were 11 from Bangalore and Bhai would join us later in Sakaleshpur the next morning from Shimoga. It was all along a laughing riot till Sakalesphur as Sunil and Kulli took turns in spilling out their laughing beans. Not even a single guy was spared by Sunil who stripped off each and everyone's pride and the fact that he was a bit overdose helped to this cause. The bus from Bangalore started at 22:50 and reached Sakalepshur by 4:50 the next morning, Bhai joined us in Sakaleshpur and from there and it was a matter of minutes to reach Donigal - our trek starting point. We, as do many of the trekkers, made the pocket of the conductor heavy and as soon as we did it the driver who happens to have over heard the conversation helped us in getting down at a point in Donigal where the railway track was just a foot step away. The joy of having seen the railway track was tremendous and it was like finding the key to a treasure and soon all we !diots shouted so heavily that even the wildest of wildest would have felt threatened.
We relaxed a bit on the railway track only to realize later that our track pants and 3/4ths had a black stripe on its back. It was as if an angry teacher has punished his pupil with a wipe on a butt of a black stick(chadi) leaving traces. The marks were due to the grease that was applied on the tracks by railway employees for the smooth running of train. We started taking photos and no sooner queries followed as to where we can upload and download. Though uploading could have happened in the wee hours of morning without brushing as we had food packed along with us where as there was a problem when it came to downloading part as there was no water sources nearby and most of them even hated the thought of using the tissue paper let alone using it. So the fire, which was right there in our belly as well as on our back, propelled us like a rocket and we cruised the first 1Km in 15 minutes while the moon was still hovering over the sky and stars smiling mysterioulsy as they do every time. We started at 50/600(Read it as 50 Km 600 m) and reached the first bridge from our starting point in no matter of time.
By this time dusk was breaking loose and the horizon had turned bluish-red. We crossed the first bridge that we encountered in a bit of hastiness as we could hear train approching directly behind us. The bridge was around 250m in length and it offered a charismatic view of a stream cutting through the valley and passing under the bridge. The morning raga and alapa of the birds were carassing to the ears and we were totally left dub founded after having become deaf to the horns of the mindless traffic in Bangalore. It was like Nirvana with the Sun shooting its first rays directly on us and the valley turning green and the tall blades of grass swinging gently as if it were playing hide and seek with the cool breeze of early morning. Kulli and Suni still had their laughing gas intact and would spill as required or sometimes even more than that so as to keep all of us on the edge. A strange thing happened around this time. Bhai who was ahead of me by few steps started looking towards the sky when infact he should have been looking on the un-evenly distanced sleepers so as to carefully place his next step. But his head was swinging in all directions and his hands were occupied, with a binocular on the one and his mobile on the other to record the sounds of the birds which were rejoycing and welcoming the golden, silk-like rays and setting out for the day as we !diots had decided to do for that day. Bhai has the amazing knack of identifying birds by just listening to their sounds and has very keen and sharp eyes as that of vulture's and can even spot any tiny movement in the shurbs and shades of the trees. He showed us a few with the help of his binoculars and most of them which we saw on that day were never seen before. The birds seen were Rocket Tailed Drongo, Red Vent, Malbar Trojan, Hill Myna, Common Iora, Paradise Flycatcher, Golden Oreal, Little Carmorand, Shaheen Falcon, Emerald dove, Bul Bul, Pond heron, Jordan Chlorpiessles, Purple Sun Bird and many.
We trekked for 3 more Km from the first bridge till we reahed a water stream and also as chance would have it there were few settlements of railway contract workers on the bank of this stream. We decided to take a break to finish our morning core activites and also we had our morning dose of refreshner in the only one tea shop available there. If it had not been for tea, then most of us would have had their breakfast there itself but tea pushed the break fast past 11 on that day. It was around 7:30 still and we had already trekked for 5 Km. There was also a paved road which was interesecting at right angles and after asking one of the localites there we got to know that the path would take one to Narenahalli which is 5Km away from this point. Now was the time for us to get into action. All of us brushed our teeth excepet for Vikas who also happened to be the only guy for not having brushed the teeth next day also. By the time a few could prepare themselves to get into the water to swim and bath a few more had other thoughts running in their mind and they vanished right away into the woods to manure it. The stream though dark green was good to swim and at some places was more than 8 feet deep. Most of us braved the chilling effect, held our nerves and made the stream water warm inturn. We spent around 1 hr here and again joined the track.
Jetly and Devru, both cousins, were always leading the pack and at the slightest opportunity gulped things whatever their hand caught of from their bags when we were still out of their sight. This is what I think was the factor which always kept them ahead of the rest. We trekked for 5 Km and decided to devour our chapatis with chatnipudi, pickle, ketchup and tomoto gojju. Devru's hand made gojju was liked by everyone for it tickled the taste buds. Instead of calling it a tomoto gojju I would call it as erulli(Onion) gojju as for every tomoto piece there were 5 onion pieces. Thanks to Jetly who assisted in preparing this by cutting onions. I don't know how many litres of eye water he would have shed to prepare such a wonderful delicacy. Even though my hand was dirty I licked my fingers to savour each and every bit of Gojju and so would have many but secrectly. Thanks to potter, KK, King Kong Varun for sharing us their rotis and Bhatta for making us eat chapatis with ketchup and I presume it would have been for the first time for most of them to try this combination. From this point we were 7Kms away from Yedakumari and the Sun was shining bright direclty on our head. For the next 2 hrs we were energetic and covered 4 Km enjoying the beauty and majesty of mother nature. We were the happiest just like a school kid who waits for the last ring of the school bell on every Saturday and rushes home not caring about anything, so were we rushing to the silence of mother nature, to its pristine eloquence and grandeur. It was around 14.00 with still 5 Km trek to Yedakumeri that we came across one of the highest bridge of the trek and also very curved. The gorgeous stream flowing below was one of the tributeries of Kempuhole river. Bhai helped me in spotting few more exotic and colorful birds. And also he was the one who ventured down the valley inspite of being steep and so did the rest of the heard after him.
