Trekking/hiking is such a wonderful dose of entertainment with happiness, fun, pain for those who get pissed off with day to day work, for those who are fed up with cafe coffee day chats, for those who want to get out of adhunik duniya (materialistic life) and for those who want to dare and conquer new peaks and leave their royal signature behind...its like being roadie by setting your own goals.. There are no win/loose rules or conditions... Entering danger zone of big boss set on your own... Just nobody to monitor you... Wild adventure of those discovery channels and being close to nature... Seeing diff flora and fauna...
Having similar mindset and passion for trekking I was browsing all the Indian trek spots..... As each mountain, forest and river has its own beauty... I will not compare the trek spots here... rather I would share my experience with one such beauty called Ombathhu Gudda... I appreciate people who have enjoyed the trek and added new names under their belt....I want to be close to nature and be part of adventure club rather...
In similar search... I found something in Google which read as “wandering souls “- Ombathhu gudda... the name wandering souls caught my attention and I started digging and nailing down the wandering soul’s concept. The round table discussions for OG started and Pramukhee joined me for the discussion and boosted and suited up for OG trek... OG is called wandering souls because this is 9 hill peak wherein very few people were able to conquer and most of them got lost and few did not return and many such stories are related to it.. Also this place is not known to many people... local guides and people near OG stretch say that there is no concept like OG... its just a pattern of 9 hills which have diff names, Google maps tell diff story, Survey of India claim that there is place called OG... having known about OG history.. We started adding people and sent open invitations to all friends who were interested...
Myself - Rakesh, Sridhar aka Sri, Pramukhee, Suvin aka Suv, Ranjith aka Ranjitheee, Chandrakala aka Chandra, Mallik aka Hero, Sandesh aka Sandy, Raghu aka
Raghya, Arun aka Arun, Azeem aka Azim, Radhakrishana aka Radha were all ready for the trek and gave their final confirmation... Suvin and Sridhar were in dilemma but they confirmed their participation at the nth moment...
We decided to begin trek on last weekend of Oct month and trust me... many things went wrong with me in the month of October.... and this was an opportunity for me to go away from the urban lifestyle and be close to god owned place... finally we all decided to start trek on Friday 29 October and come back by 31 Oct i.e. Sunday night as few of them had office on Monday...
We had to book tempo traveler as we did not find any bus with 12 seats available... And our trek guide Vidhyadhar aka Vidhya also squeezed in tempo traveler as he had to carry tents, sleeping bags and other accessories for all 12 guys...
Tempo traveler was at my place around 11:00Pm on 29 OCT... Driver ka naam tha Lingaraj.. Who was nice person and had all time in the world... I quickly grabbed first aid kit, some snacks, chocolates, bananas, apples, peanuts and some other stuff like pain killer and Anacin's... though I was a major Anacin in the group, I carried some with me...I picked up Sandy and Arun... then we were on roll... picked up Sri and Ranjithee from Vijayanagar, Azeem from Chandra Layout, Pramukhee from Jayagnagar, Raghu from Jaya nagar, Suvin from Indiranagar, Radha from RT nagar, Chandra and Mallik from Sadashiv Nagar and then Vidhya (trek guide) from Malleshwaram...
Things we missed were co-ordinates backup, GPS, Chivas Regal, and also OG map which was supposed to start from honegal not Gundya post... we took Nelamangala route from Bangalore towards Sakaleshpur as Lingaraj was not sure about the magadi road route to Sakaleshpur..
We were out of Bangalore by 2:00 am and in no time everyone closed their eyes as they had to trek for next whole day.... myself and Raghu were nocturnal and we did not sleep for the night... we were discussing about our previous trek experiences and cracking down Pj's and trust me only we understood them.... it was beautiful in night crossing tolls and paying money at all tolls having cup of tea/coffee on the way.. It was around 6:30am when we reached Sakaleshpur and Vidhya called up local guides who were supposed to arrange wash rooms and morning breakfast... we entered a place called Develkere which is 30 kms from Sakaleshpur.
As we moved in Develkere... Vidhya started throwing Liability License forms on our face - which in short read "every man for himself" and Vidhya or local guides are not responsible for any unhoni ghatna (mishap) or for any missing aatma (soul)... At Develekere we met one great personality by name Dayanand aka Daya aka DON.. I call him DON henceforth as he always had a machhu (knife) in his hand and was dressed in light blue color pant and white color shirt similar to Jogi style but did not have long hair though... He looked old but was very active and was humble. He was DON...
DON bought a commander 1947 model jeep to carry us to his village home where he has arranged breakfast and washrooms... We spread into 2 groups... I was in tempo traveler along with Suvin, Pramukhee, Chandra, Azeem and Radha... Rest of the guys were in commander Jeep...it took around 15-20 min to reach Don's place and in the middle of the road we figured out that Ranjiteee and Sri are missing.. Gosh... One of my senses got activated and I started smelling the beauty and the history of this place...We sent one vehicle back to Develkere stop to bring back missing guys... I think they could not control and could not assssimilate energy to hold up for some more time...
We had a short photo session on our way to Don's den... It was old village house with those calves, cows, dogs and one old well with full of water, open top sanitary... Problem with Sanitary service was that we need to judge the surface area of our exit department, calculate the requirement and carry own water... At Don's place girls had advantage and they got royal treatment from Don and Don's family... Don also like jungli billi's... we boys were on our own and few used khulli (open) hawa (air) sanitary and some used Don's private Sanitary... By 9:30am we were ready for breakfast... There were many Ramu Kaka's at Don's place to serve us...We had chow chow bath for breakfast... it contains - sweet as well as upma in it... We met two new personalities - Chandrakant aka Chandru who was Don's right hand and was sharp shooter... Ramesh aka Rammanna was Don's left hand and he was wonderful cook and can cook at anyplace anytime... he can lit fire even in middle of rain... So these were the two wafadar, honest and imaandaar karamchaari's of Don Daya...
Ramesh and Chandru proposed me totally different and new trek plan. A new map which I can only visualize... new map consisted of Deepada kallu Gudda, Jenukal Gudda and Ombatthu gudda on the way to Naayi hole/Devaru hole... As per Chandru and Rammanna to cover this, it would take 2 days and we need to trek approx 40 km... I was excited with the new route and proposed this to impromptu trekkers who were busy having their breakfast... Everyone suited up for 40 km trek and none had second thought in their mind... it was solid and synonymous "aye captain" from all... So we decided to take up the new route to OG... I.e. via Deepada kallu, JenuKal gudda...There was one person called Bhatt aka Bhattre who joined us at DON's place for trekking... This guy was amazing with very good sense of humour and also had experience of jungle treks and city life too... His frequency and chemistry was to our level and was in sync from the word go...
I saw Chandra and Mallik having some good-life milk which they bought all the way from Bangalore... They also had some organic stuff in their backpacks... It looked as if they cannot afford to miss royal Taj buffet in jungle which was their daily diet... I was just worried and second thoughts started haunting my mind... Mallik was rock solid guy with long hair and have acted in many movies and he used to have raw milk is his daily diet... Chandra is also a celebrity and even she takes care of her diet on regular basis... but my big worry was how were they going to manage the terrain, turbulence and the hardcore trekking which was yet to be encountered... As there was no escape or step back option, I never bothered to bug them or caution them...
By 10:00am in the morning we all were ready with backpacks and rest of the stuff which were not needed was dumped in temp traveler, we also had quick snap of impromptu trek team... This was taken right in front of Don’s den and is one my fav pic, of course I am not in the pic 'coz I was busy capturing those wonderful moments in my DSLR...
We started heading towards Deepadu Kallu Gudda, it was uphill trek for almost 3 hours... I started grabbing some pics into my SLR on my way and as usual was at the last... Vidhya asked me to move fast as we need to cover 20km trek in a day... every step looked heavy and after every step we took deep breath and were happy thinking that we were still breathing and have step less to reach final destination...we had backpack which had peanuts, chocolates, I carried some fruits... after an hour walk we started our brunch and grabbed some apples.. If I remember, we had 20 apples... Azeem with his Swiss knife chopped and shared apples among all trekkers. After apple break we started heading towards Deepada Kallu Gudda... Beauty of this hill is that it is at 40-45 degree elevation and each step seemed to be giant... each step was like a baby step..this was upright hill and we had to lean forward to balance backpack and body weight...also the backpack weight added to our pain.. Slowly and steadily we started moving towards the peak... I just took headcount of guys and figured out that there was one less... this again made me ask Raghu and others what went wrong.. We later figured out Mallik got bad cramp and was taking shortcut route to the food zone... Food zone - place where Rammana and others were cooking food for us... Don's second den...
Carving the mountain and squeezing through some stiff rocks we moved ahead towards the top... it was 1 O clock when we made to the top... We could clearly see Deepad Kallu (Lamp made out of stone)...Deepad Kallu is at altitude of 1281m above sea level and you could clearly see all other hills, peaks near by... I took long breath and was enjoying being at top after all hardwork... Song "Boulevard of broken dreams" at the top was just awesome... Subbu and Bhattru said that lamp which is made of stone at the top is spiritual lamp where people come and light this up every year and this tradition was in place since long time... Every desire and every wish made here would come true if it’s asked with pure heart... I did wish something and I am not going to disclose anything here... Wishes are meant to be kept as a secret until they come true... but mine if it comes true would be a miracle or wonder... I like giving tough one to god... :)
We all spent some time at the peak and emptied most of the water which we carried with us... I did not have any water bottle and borrowed some from Sandy and Raghu...
Subbu and Bhattru gave us the next command... chalte raho (keep moving).... next move was demotion and it was kind of ridge which would literally take us to Jenukal Gudda... It seemed to be simple ridge of hills which are joined and it looked like a sine wave with prominent peaks and lesser amplitude. Or the best comparison would be with nifty last one year graph...We started declining at more than 60 degree declination and mind you this was tough one and we had to take extra care and keep moving side ways holding those thick grown grass as hand grip... else you will end up digging dead body...
Everybody started declining and we (I, Sandy, Arun and Radha) started moving... Slowly and very carefully we started moving down... Raghu was behind me and Radha was at the last... Sandy and Arun were just ahead of me... suddenly I heard some sound... this sound was similar to a rock which is being rolled... as if there was some kind of land slide... I was worried and meri (mine) totally phaati thi (scared) and I slowly looked back and saw Radha and Raghu rolling together down and I was in line of action... I shouted watch out guys... Radha somehow managed to stop by holding thick grown grass roots which also slowed down Raghu... Radha had damaged his right forearm and elbow...luckily dettol and band-aid were in my slr bag... we quickly opened dettol and took 2-3 table spoons of dettol on my palm and slowly massaged on Radha's forearm and elbow.. We spent 10 mins to recover.. Then we got to know new techniques to slide down... Most of the guys were half way through to Jenukal gudda... on our way down we found wonderful spots and grabbed them in my SLR... There was one shot which I took of sandy's which was just awesome... Hills, greenery, clouds and solid rocks added beauty to the pic...had 10-15 mins photo session and then started to move towards destination -2 Jenukal gudda...
Me, Radha, Sandy, Raghu and Arun had good fun as we were behind and were very slow movers...we had a good PJ's session and some anthakshari which was bary bary funny... antakshari was never with right lyrics and duniya ke sabse gandhe aur sasthe(cheap) gaaliyon se bhare the.. We enjoyed that moment... We were almost near Jenukal gudda... guys who moved ahead were waiting for us at Jenukal gudda... Actually there was a big black igneous rock which stood almost 50-60 meter... and I think it was at 80 degree elevation... myself, Raghu, Bhatru, Subbu, Vidya and Azeem made a point very clear and loud... no matter what happens... come what may... we are going to climb Jenukal rock.. We all struggled and it was like a rock climbing session guided by Vidhya and Subbu...and we did climb this rock without any rope or support... Jenukal gudda is at a peak of 1387m...The Jenukal Gudda (Honey-stone Mountain) is the second highest Peak in Karnataka. The place is known as “Hodachalli”. This is cool calm place covered by green mountains and with thick jungle.From the top of Jenukal Gudda on a clear day, one can see the coast of Arabian Sea... cool place to be... I loved this spot... for people like me who take amateur pics... This is the right place... all you need to have is a SLR... a tripod... wonderful lens and plenty of time... I would love to go back to this place again for photography...
After conquering jenukal gudda... it was now time to think of our tummies. food which was being cooked at some place by Ramanna and team... it was 3:00pm and we started moving down towards food court from jenukal gudda...we again started descending towards the jungle from where we were supposed to take new route to gundya post... Signs of rain were clearly visible and audible... we started moving towards next stop. On our bumpy ride Arun fell couple of times, Raghu left his jacket behind and we had to come back and get it again. Radha was slow and damn hungry...
Finally we reached food court at 4:30pm and to our surprise guys who have come early have started enjoying their meal... We quickly got ourselves settled and had meals. As per Rammana's weather forecast there were high chances of rain. And we need to stop here for the day as there was no proper area to camp in jungle...
Bhattru and Subbu looked bad and they suggested us to stop trekking for the day and camp there... Myself and others got pissed off... coz we were going to loose 2 hours of trek which was left for the day which means we need to cover that extra time and extra distance next day... there was voting from all of us and it was synonymous "Aye Captain" from all the 13 members to move forward and continue trek... As Ramanna and others said that they would not be able to help us if it rains or get dark... This made us to think and re-visit our plan B... As per plan B -we are going to stay back and start tomo early morning for the trek. And unwillingly I accepted to stay back with others for the night camp... I, Raghu and Sandy ordered some drinks for the night... Some beer for me, Chandra, Malik, Arun and Whisky for Raghu... I think Sridhar, Suvin and Pramukhee ordered Vodka... Also Don arranged some KBS (Kalla bhatti Saraayi) for Lingraj and Ramanna and for himself...
Chandrakant- the sharp shooter for Don showed his licensed gun... we played pranks with gun and had lossa fun. Later we were busy placing tents and setting them up for the night shelter. Once the tents were arranged... we walked down to the main camp fire zone and started anthakshari... It was fun singing songs with half known lyrics and some Kannada songs too... Chandra, Pramukhee, Sandy, Arun and Raghu were rocking and they were our mata langeshkar's and Ki-shore Da's for the night...
Daaru(Drinks) came in just around one hour and we were busy getting our drinks done... Only thing which was missed was Vodka and that was really sad for vodka lovers...I grabbed KF premium beer and tasted it... it was hellish... Not chilled and was like a cough syrup... Guys who do not drink and who were tired started to have their dinner and they moved towards camping area... myself, Raghu, Sandy, Arun and Mallik spent some more time boozing.. We did taste KBS at the end and it gave immense kick... one sip was enough for me... :) Don bought his drink and he started boozing with us... and slowly we started anacingiri and this elevated talks and discussions to next level which turned into argument mode... Literally Don screwed us by saying that... There is no concept of ombatthu gudda and it does not exist... again the equilibrium concept holds well here... Amount of Daaru taken in is directly proportional to the confused state of human mind... Our discussions on the trek concepts and some faalthu discussion which would only help us spend time and night continued... Don’s shooter was ready to take us for shooting... He took some bullets with him and loaded one into his gun... He tightly tied the torch to his forehead... As it was dark in the night and the clock ticked to 10:30pm... I, Raghu, Vidhya and Malik started moving into the jungle along with Chandrakant for shooting... We moved into diff places and finally sat on rock waiting for atrocious creatures to come in... Or some small creature to pass by... our bad, none came closer and none were visible... It was almost 01:00am and we decided to move back to camp site. Suddenly I heard sound of bullet being fired on a wild cat... We clearly heard yelling sound of cat... We performed quick search for ghaayal (wounded) cat where chandru shot it... Not even blood drops... thank god, we did not find any traces else chandra would have filed case against us as she is die hard follower of Maneka Gandhi (animal rights activist).. so finally we started moving back to camp site and by the time we went back it was 2:30am... we settled down quickly and went to bed..
After 3 hours sleep it was time to get up and dismantle tents and pack all stuff. It was 6:00am in the morning when we all got up and started getting ready for the next endeavor... Ramanna and Chandrakant were busy cooking breakfast for us and we got ourselves cleaned... we were done with breakfast by 8:30am and all were ready to move ahead... Ramanna and others carried all the samagri (items) for lunch to our next spot...
The area which we were heading next was dense forest and filled with leeches... Ramanna and others gave us leech repellent cream... anti-leech cream was made up of tobacco amalgamated in oil... we applied it all over shoes and massaged it till our knee cap. We then started moving towards next destination-> lunch spot... this path was slippery and wet... we kept moving for 3-4 hours and then entered into dense forest.. We had to cross small streams on way... each stream we crossed wiped off anti-leech formula... all the tobacco and the oil got wiped off... we all could sense leech attack now.. I got few on my shoes and carefully removed them...
Mine was least protected... Azim was on sandal and so was Radha... within 30 mins of time... there were so many leeches on me... I could sense them sucking the blood... it was as if Dr Clean giving clean shot... there was no other option and we were short of time...we all started ignoring them.. They sucked the blood and themselves rolled out... this continued with all of us...
We also composed some songs on leeches -- "Jinke Paav ko leech ne Chumaaaaaaaannn... Paanv Ke Neeche chaalein Honge...Jinke Paav ko leech ne Chumaan...Paanv Ke Neeche chaalein Honge...Chal neech neech leechon leechon..Chal neech neech leechon leechon..." had some gala time with sad love songs too... " Leechon Ki Malaaa Se... Leechon Ki Mala se Khoon Mera nikli haan...Neechon ne chusaaa haan...paavn see khoon mera..." sorry for the anacin dose...During 1800s, leeches were used as a tool for blood clotting. Leeches were so popular in those days that they became endangered species... During this trek, I killed few of them to save my blood... Sorry Chandra and Sorry Meneka Gandhi... (I think even Chandra killed few..lol) it took time for us to slowly move ahead in jungle as it was very dense and the trail was hardly visible... It took reasonably good time to walk and we reached lunch spot by 2:30 pm.. This was perfect area for camping... Ramanna and team started cooking... river was just beside the camping spot... Myself, Sandy, Arun, Raghu, Ranjithee and Azim jumped into river and cleaned ourselves... we did play some pranks in water... also we had 2011 swim suit calendar photo shoot.. lol.. just kidding
Around 2:45pm food was ready.. It was simple food with Rice and Sambaar... all of us quickly grabbed plates and took rice and sambaar... Pickles and hungry stomach made lunch not less than Leela palace buffet... we had plate meals... rice and sambaar mixed with pickles... lunch was quickly over and I think it was 3:15PM when we started moving ahead... Bhattru and Subbu gave the next Instruction... Chalte raho... nadiri nadiri nadiri... (Keep moving)... next move was towards Naayi hole... and trust me nobody knew how far was naayihole... we kept walking for next 2 hours and crossed 3-4 streams and leeches were all over our lower body.. One neech leech bit me on my head... I don't know how it managed to get there... I could sense some leeches in my shorts too... some in my shoes... but I cannot stop and take them off... I just ignored them and kept moving ahead... my legs and shorts were full of blood stains as if it was holi festival...The leech-treatment continued for almost 2-3 hours... it was around 6:00pm when we came across a major stream and it started raining exactly at the same time... we hurried to cross the stream.. it started raining heavily and everyone made sure that they protected their things... I had a SLR camera which did not have any protection... Luckily I managed to get a polythene bag which helped me to cover it... We all were happy to walk in rain and started humming lyrics of bollywood tracks... "Tip-tip barsaa paani...paani ne aag lagaayi.. aag lagi dil mein to dil ko teri yaad aayi &&& teri yaaaaad ^^^^ aayi to ^^^ jal uthaa mera bheega badan ab tum hi batao sajan main kya karu..."... "ek ladki bheegi bhaagi si..."... "..humko sirf tumse pyaar hai..."... "rang bharase bheege chunarwali...." all tracks which suit rainy situation started coming in mind... we were happy that we crossed the major stream and were almost through.. It was 6:30 pm when we started realizing that we need to cover a lot of distance to make it to NH-48 highway. Usually in western Ghats and dense jungle... it gets dark by 6-6:30pm...Trail was not visible and darkness grew in jungle and we were unable to figure out which way to go... we had 5-6 torch with us and those acted as dimaag ki batti (headlights).. we came across another trekking team who had come all the way from Bangalore.... we kept moving and encountered a very big stream.. This was the biggest stream so far we have encountered...surprise surprise... with water flow of around 15-20km/hr... It was dark and river width was somewhere around 40-50 feet... We got scared due to heavy flow of river... heavy rain added to the flow...we literally were on no-man's land and had no clue what to do.. Rang de Basanti Aamir khan's soul entered Radha and he said - "Jindegi jine ki do hi tariquee hote hain...ek jo ho raha hain usey hone do, bardasht karte jao, ya phir...jimmadari uthao use badlne ki.... I am crossing the river... come what may.." he took 2 steps into the river.... looking at his dynamic attitude we all got scared...we all stopped him going further by emotional athyaachar dialogue.. It was scary scene...
We came back to camping area where the other group was put up... We introduced ourselves as dumb trekkers who had tents, sleeping bags which we have sent them back last night... we did not have any food left for dinner... no Daaru to drink... This was ideal Daniel Defoe Robinson Crusoe scene or a Lost serial scene when group 1 meets group 2 and share their (sad story) rona dhona... We did all wrong things so perfectly... next request to them was.. if they can lend us some tent or lend us some place to share the camp fire... They started serious discussion among themselves and by analyzing their bandwidth and doing all risk analysis with their left over’s... They were our saviours and agreed to give us tarpaulin... Subbu, Myslef, Raghu and Bhattru started discussing on using tarpaulin in right manner for all 13 members and spending the night in worst situation... I was totally remembering Cast Away movie and Tom Hanks was in my mind and he was trying to enter my body... We decided to make sweet bamboo home using tarpaulin... Subbu and Bhattru started getting Bamboo sticks for our tent... Subbu managed to find place where there were no leeches and was just perfect for camping... There was one big wooden log which we used as sofa... Tent was ready in 30 mins... it started raining heavily... we had to stand in our tent till the rain stopped... also we tried to build campfire. DON and Subbu were guys making fire... There was a person called Sushrutha Nadig who seemed to be a professional trekker who has done his homework... He was also Einstein and person in charge of logistics and Finance for their team... he agreed to lend their tent for 20min so that our team girls can use it.... Mahesh (Trekker from Nadig team... our Saviour's) invited us and shared some Rum... it was like divine drink in middle of jungle with empty stomach... Don, myself and Raghu took one sip of Rum... After all our discussions and sad story...Nadig offered their tent for 3 hours... This helped Girls to take rest for some time which would apparentlly help them to regain energy. We were happy that they got some rest coz we never knew what was waiting next...
We all watched telugu "Happy Days" movie on my laptop which helped us to spend 3 hours... it was 2:00 am in the night when Nadig,Mahesh and Vasanth moved back to their tent to take some rest... If you are reading this.. Thank you guys for helping us... Girls came back to tarpaulin zone again.. Later we all had fun with camp fire... We checked our backpacks to find leftover eatables, we got some peanuts, haldiram mixture which we bought to have them with Beer...we had groundnut and jaggery mixture.. all these acted as dinner items and we shared it among ourselves... Looking all these filmy scene there entered a hungry guest in our tent... one small Crab :-)... we got scared... 12 brains started thinking on how to defend it..... Crab finally disappeared in dark... We spent night by warming ourselves, clothes, shoes, socks and other wet materials we had... Some slept on wooden log, some had hypothetical sleep, some took power nap, Some prayed -Rain Rain go away, Some were thinking on how to cross the river in morning, I had multiple power naps... but none was useful in regaining energy... Chandra was not well and that scared us a lot... We gave her an extra shawl and I think some tablets too... She started feeling good and was ok after some time.... I really appreciate all of the guys for being so active, strong and never bothered to complain of any management errors... Thank you guys for spending Kannada Rajyotsva day in middle of Karnataka Jungle close to nature...
We managed to spend whole night playing, chatting, gossiping, power naps, praying and enjoying the loneliness, crazy walks at the wild side... It was 5:30 am when we were happy.. our faces were much clear and visible to each other... next destination was Gundya post... we wrapped up tarpaulin and had small thanks giving session with Nadig and team who helped us in the night by lending tarpaulin and cared us and guided us.. We started moving towards the river and to our surprise and luck... river flow was very normal... This made everyone get second thought... "I think we could have crossed this last night...?”
water breached the waist-level and and river flow was silent... we easily moved towards other shore and made it comfortably... Water was not that cold and it did not effect us much... we started walking towards Gundy post very fast... it was as if, we were on a marathon run- “Step one, you start running. There is no step two”... everyone was on empty stomach and we badly badly needed some thing to eat... on our way to Gundya... I was looking for some wildlife pics to be captured... after an hour walk we spotted one pit viper... it welcomed us on the way and it was on a small stone giving all poses... I took some pics of pit viper and it did scare me.. though it was not photogenic somehow I managed to get 3 pics of pit viper... then we started heading towards Gundya again... it took almost 3 hours to have a first look of NH48 highway..
Gosh.. Inner feeling by seeing National Highway was so good.... We felt as if we were soldiers of war and have returned victorious... as if we have cleared all exam papers at first attempt... as if we achieved something which nobody did till now... feeling of getting your loved one back.. We all started using each others cell phone and informed our parents what went wrong... This feeling was so good and I think it will remain as signature my life... This was special trek to me personally as we got lost for one day and chances of getting screwed were so high but with god's grace, good culture and humanity... nothing went wrong... all were safe and sound.. And I personally was relieved from all the tasks... We came out to main highway and found hotel Durgaparmeshwari... we started grabbing chips, breads, biscuits, chocolates, some snacks and ordered, dosa, idli, rice, chai... I had 3 cups tea with biscuits, bread, dosa and shared with Raghu and Arun... Vidhya made a note of what we ate and he was FICO (Finance and Controlling) consultant... We tried reaching Lingraj but could not connect to him... I quickly went to Gundya post in auto and got Lingraj back to our hotel... I could sense relief and smile on Everybody’s face... I gave feedback of entire trekking experience to Balaji (Bangalore -Trek coordinator) and Don... I conveyed them message that your estimation should be accurate and you guys need to keep buffer time before committing anything to clients... Vidhya shared 800 Rs as traveling charge and Don apologized for calculating route wrongly and he also paid hotel expenses which was around 800... I gave back 300 to Don as I was not comfortable taking money from him... We all thanked Don, Subbu and Bhattru for being so good and helpful throughout the trek... we started heading towards Bangalore... everyone was so tired and after having heavy breakfast our eyes closed and had good nap for 2-3 hours.. Me and Raghu were discussing about next trek and were planning for it. We will conquer Ombatthu gudda next time for sure...
On our way to Bangalore... we stopped at Harshita's dhaba to have lunch... it was Ranjitee's b'day and also Karnataka Rajyostava day... what a day to remember... we ordered cake for jitee as Sridhar wanted to give him surprise surprise...
We sung b'day song for jiteee and it was time to order starters and main course... we ordered some soup, manchurian, chicken fry, aloo pakoda... main course consisted of Rumaali roti, Panner, Dal and vegetable curry.. Also ordered some rice... we were done with lunch in an hour... Radha did not have lunch.. He was upset with the leech bite and was worried... he calls leeches as leechi/leechings... lol... we headed towards bangalore... after 15-20 mins drive Arun figured out that he left his mobile back in dhaba... we did quick search in temp traveler and tried to find Harshita's dhaba contact number through justdial, google,.etc.... but alas found nothing.. We went back to dhaba to find mobile but found nothing... that was only loss which we had and we were sad for the loss... in no time we reached Bangalore and started dropping every one... we dropped Azim at chandra layout, then Sridhar and Ranjithee at Vijaynagar... then we headed towards Mysore road flyover and dropped Pramukhee and Raghu who further took auto to their respective homes.. We later dropped Suvin, Radha, Chandra, Mallik and Vidhya... finally we came back to Basaweshwar nagar and started discussing about the cost factors... Due to good friendly relation with tempo traveler owner we were able to restrict additional cost to Rs 500...we cleared all dues and went back to home... I took warm bath for 30 mins and was quickly on my bed and got up after 12 hour sound sleep....
In the morning though we all were safe and back to materialistic life... I started missing the jungle life very badly... I had a feeling as if some train was being missed regularly, trekking is something which everyone should feel and experience... Not all treasure in world is silver and gold. There was a strong feeling haunting me - “As if I have been living my whole life in a seatbelt, and now its time to unclick... "
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Great Warriors of OG.. Hope our paths cross again :-)..Its time for some kurkures..
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Sridhar - Boy with sweet blood. Leeches made him their feast for the day. He almost ran out of blood...
Ranjit - He had Bruce Lee muscles and leeches tried to dig and some lost their teeth in process.
Raghu - Least bothered about leeches and even they had the same feeling for him...
Sandy - Hairy hairy boy... Leeches had to clear his hairy chakraview to attack his legs. But some abhimanyu attitude leeches did find their way..
Arun - He used to cry when leeches bit him, Even they got scared and left him... Emotional athyachaar on leeches.
Mallik - Leeches did not spare him, 'coz he abused entire leech family and their generation...
Radha - He gave open invitation for leeches with bare legs and large surface area. Leeches enjoyed it...
Azeem - Boy, I said you not to wear sandals... But you did good job killing many leeches.
Rakesh - I almost became victim of Short term memory loss - Gajani 2...Don’t know why they attacked my head and sucked blood from my brain...
Daya Don - Don ko koi chu bi nahi sakta…
Subbu – Leech inka baal bi baka nahi kiye… Local area ka advantage.
Bhattru – Bhattru did some tantrik and mantrik pooja… Very few leech attacked him..
Vidya - Sorry, Never got to see his legs and I think even leeches had the same problem
Pramukhee - Leeches hated her the most, She had best protection in the world for them... Leeches just said - Blllllrrrrrrrrrr...
Chandra - I think leeches didn’t know she is an animal rights activist...
Suvin - She was so fast in trekking, Leeches found it very difficult to attack her but some who had P.T.Usha genes in them did attack her... R...
