MY FIRST HIMALAYAN TREK | HAMPTA PASS, MANALI | PART I

I am writing from my office desk, desperately waiting for the next 2 days to pass by quickly. In 2 days starts my 11 days trek to Hampta Pass. By this time next week I would have completed half of my trek.

Am I excited? Off course! Am I impatient? Miserably! 

6 months ago in the month of Nov-Dec when my sister asked me if I would be interested to climb the Himalayas (or atleast part of it) I jumped across the opportunity and said “yes yes yes”. Although my mom wasn’t pleased on sending me away on this treacherous (to my mother even 2 days trek to dudhsagar was treacherous) trek far away from her for a whopping 11 days, she did cave in at the end; thanks to my sister; but now that I think, I guess, she would have eventually agreed coz part of her knows that she would have wanted to go herself and probably would have done it too had it been 30 years ago (she still wants to go but I am not very confident).

After a month of debate with myself (a part of me was skeptical too) I finally decided to take this first baby step towards Himalayan trek and went ahead and registered for it (I am going with KMA). Soon after the registration, we also booked our flight tickets before the price jumped; Bangalore to Delhi with one overnight stay at Delhi, mostly to enjoy the street foods and for a teeny-tiny tour of the city or atleast I hope so; if it doesn’t get very hot. 

It’s been 5 months since my first baby step; I have been waiting patiently flipping my calendar from Jan to Feb to March to April and finally to May and now that it’s finally May, I am waiting for the first 15 days of May to pass by in a jiffy and the clock to hit 16^th May; that’s when I fly to Delhi and my onward journey to Manali begins.

Shopping is done, my bags are packed, tickets are booked, itinerary is decided and the complete plan is set out to roll in. It's a 12 days trip from Bangalore to Bangalore with one night stay at Delhi. Remaining 11 days focuses on Manali and the trek. Since this is my first Himalayan trek I choose something that's fairly easy, covering over 75 km in a span of 7-8 days. The maximum height we acquire while in this trek is 13500 ft. This trek is meant for first time trekkers in Himalayan regions. The trek winds through lush green valleys, log bridges, cute little mountain settlements, alpine meadows, dazzling landscape, enchanting mountain streams, forested hillsides, grassy knolls and snowcapped mountains. Leaving Manali, the trek winds through evergreen cool forests of cedar, silver fur, walnut, oak and pine forests. Setan, Karimindiyari, Chikka, Juara, Jhobri Bihaii are the campsites enroute. The entire Kullu valley can be viewed on this trail. Once atop the Hampta pass another spectacular panorama of peaks of the Lahaul valley appears. There would also be fun activities like rappelling, zip lining and river crossing, and since it snowed heavily this year we are expecting our last 2 days of trek in snow **excited** . Also if time and weather permits we intend to roam around Manali for some site seeing and may be a quick tour to Rothang Pass for some skiing, Zorbing, Para Gliding and rope bridge; also if possible white water rafting at Beas River; Jeezzz! Fingers crossed ;)

We are around 43 of us going to Hampta pass with 2 instructors, a standby instructor & a couple of cooks and guides and participants like me. Last Sunday KMA arranged a meetup with my fellow trekkers which gave me an opportunity to meet most of my fellow trekkers who would be my family for the next 11 odd days. These include children’s, teenagers, and then folks like me from the age range of 25 to 50.

It seems that the more I travel, the less I prepare. 3 years back when I decided to go to Pune for a 2 weeks long vacation all I could think about for months in advance was plan, plan, planning. I even committed to the decision to save money and leave everything behind 6-7 months in advance. Today, I find myself doing everything, right from planning to packing, only a week or, a day or a 2 in advance. But when it comes to trek, and when the trek happens to be in the Himalayan region, one cannot just go in unprepared. It needs months of physical activities to get fit, booking tickets and transports well in advance before the prices jump, getting all the necessary trek gears and last but not the least saving up a bit so that you end up enjoying those 12 days of your trip.

Gearing up for the trek:

1.       Gym: I hit the gym the very next day I registered for this trek primarily to increase my stamina and lung capacity. Astonishingly gym’ing has helped me in a better immune system and I fall sick very less often **touchwood** and it also helped me burn out few extra pounds that I gained in past few years. My target was to achieve a 4km run in 30 min, although I did achieve 2.50 km run in 20 min which is the closest I could get to.

2.       Shopping for the trek:  Since I don’t quite often trek I am short on all trekking gears, so I had to buy almost everything. Right from the trekking shoes to jackets to fleece to balaclava. Most of my shopping was done in Decathlon. Below is the list of items I am carrying.

•         Trekking shoes: I got a Women Forclaz 500. Cost me 3k. Seemed like a worthy investment if you plan on trekking in future.
•        Floaters: I already own a floaters which I would be using. This is to wear near camp.
•        Socks:

1.      3 pair of normal sports socks. Cost me 300 (100/- each).
2.      1 pair of woolen sock. Cost me 800/- L But I didn’t mind buying it as a onetime investment, and I need my legs to be warm while I sleep at night.

•   Sweater/ Warm wear:

1.      1 turtle neck (Forclaz 100) pullover.
2.       Mountaineering Jacket: Cost me 1k, actual cost was 4k. I got it for a discount.  
3.     1 Fleece (Forclaz 20).
4.     One pair of thermal wear.
5.     One normal winter wear jacket which I already have.

•          Track pants: 3 set.
•         T-shirts:  3 pair of t-shirts.
•         Balaclava: Adidas ski cap, head bandana.
•        Hand Gloves: GT Forclaz Mitaine.
•          Sun Cap: Quechua
•        Sun goggles: Ray Ban
•        Sun Screen: Biotique
•         Poncho/Raincoat: Quechua Rain Cut
•         Towel: An easy drying one.
•        Bottle (2*1 liter bottle)
•         Torch: Although I did want to buy “On Light 800”, I settled for a normal torch from Reliance Fresh. Cost me 100 bucks. Also I am carrying extra batteries.
•          Personal Medicines: Avomin, bandages, soframycin, Eno, Crocins, Disperin, Volini, Tiger Balm, good night mats, odomos.
•         Dry fruits/Energy Bars: Cashews, Badams, Raisins, Snickers, Energy Bars, Tang, Glucose.
•        Toiletries: Tissue rolls, Face Tissues, Wet Tissues, Soap, Body Lotion, Lip Guard.
•         Small Utility Kit: Safety Pins, Rubber bands, Needle Tread.
•        Note book and a pen
•         A few carry Bags.
•         Camera:  Canon 1200D.

Overall I spend around 30k odd (12.5k for the trek; 7k for flight tickets; 15k for the trekking gears).

Sometimes you find yourself thrown into a situation by no one other than yourself, only to love and hate it at the same time. You might find yourself on a plane to get to the one place you’ve always wanted to go, only to wish you could call the whole thing off to escape the sudden onset of rough turbulence at 35,000 feet in the air. Climbing a mountain for 7-8 days to get to a height of 13500ft sounds like a great idea until you realize you aren’t really in shape for it and that you may suffer from altitude sickness and will be forced to ride on a disgruntled donkey or mule along the edge of a cliff for hours on end. Travel has a way of pulling out the very best and worst of you, the most adventurous and the most fearful parts. But, you do it because you get something more out of it. You learn to depend on yourself in ways that you never thought you were capable. You have a new appreciation for where you are from, or maybe you find that you belong somewhere else. You meet people that inspire you to embrace life and adventure that you would have otherwise never met. Travel is one of the most enriching things you can do for yourself, and hopefully the people around you.

So all that said, here I am, waiting for an early flight, pushing all the anxiety I have to the bottom of my thoughts, and thinking about the positives. The photos I will take, the physical challenges I will overcome, and the new foods I will try. I’m thankful for my equally spontaneous trek mates and the chance to go see a new place and culture. Assuming I make it out alive (just kidding), I’ll be back with an update on how it all went. - Stay tuned!

Bon Voyage!

THE NOMADS HIT DUDHSAGAR

After stalling this blog for quite a long time, I finally find the patience and courage to write this blog, not because I din’t want to write it but because thinking about how huge this blog is going to be, makes me lazy...

So after a year and a half of cribbing and desperation I finally made it to Dudhsagar. Yayyyyyyyyyy!

Booking Details:

To Dudhsagar:

Option 1: From Bangalore to Castle rock (direct train)-> MAS VASCO EXP (Train no: 17311) at 8.10pm. Most of time tickets in this train is not available. So go for option 2. 

Option 2:

a. Bangalore to Hubli -> GARIB NAWAZ EXPRESS (Train no: 16532) at 5.00pm (also known as Ajmer Express) Make reservations.

b.  b. Hubli to Castle Rock ->MAS VASCO EXP (Train no: 17311) at 6.45. Buy General Tickets from Hubli to Castle Rock. Note that this train arrives 5 min after the GARIB NAWAZ  EX (GNE) arrives, and GNE will come on platform no 5 or 6. You have to go back to platform 1, buy general tickets and board the general compartment of MAS VASCO EXP (MVE). Usually MVE halts at platform 1 so boarding becomes easy after buying tickets. Time is of essence here, so be quick. Anyways MVE stays for 10 min at Hubli. One will have enough of time to go get the general tickets and board this train.

To Bangalore:

Option 1: VSG SBC LINK EXP (Train no: 02779)-> From Kulem to Bangalore (direct train). This train has hardly a handful of seats available. Better to go for option 2.

Option 2:

a a. Kulem/Castle Rock to Londa -> 2 trains available.

1.       1. VSG SBC LINK EXP (Train no: 02779) -> From Kulem to Londa at 4.35pm.

2.       2.GOA EXPRESS (Train no: 12779) -> From Kulem to Londa at 4.35pm.

Note: Even though the irctc site shows 2 trains, they are one combined train that runs till Londa, and at Londa jn this trains are separated. GOA EXPRESS goes via Belgaum route to Nizamuddin and VSG SBC LINK EXP waits at Londa jn to be merged with RANI CHENNAMA EX.

b.b.  Londa to Bangalore -> RANI CHENNAMA EX (Train no: 16590) at 7.50pm.

Back to my journey, since my plan was decided just a month back, I wasn’t able to get tickets on the direct train. After several R&D I finally found this apt way of traveling to Dudhsagar. We left Bangalore at 5 from GNE. Journey was wonderful. After several photos shoots and talking and intros and a lot of hoolaaahhsss we settled down with a bag of chips and UNO cards. We were acting typically like hooligans making enormous noise that sometimes the nearby passengers were irritated, but we couldn’t care more. It was our weekend getaway for some fun time and we did all we could. We played till 9 and then stopped for a while to eat our dinner. Meanwhile kapil had places this weird condition of getting down at each station and doing something crazy. Even though we dint agree to get down on all stations, we did get down at the first one, clicked few pics and then went back to our seats.

We had ordered for meals from the railway canteen and against all odds the food did taste good. It cost us 100 bucks per meal. LOOT.. But atleast the food was good. Rice dal chapatti’s curry onions and pickle. Stomach filling. We played UNO for a while again and by 11, all of us, and by all I mean “ME” retired to sleep.  Inspite the constant disturbance from Kapil I managed to sleep by 11.30. I dint mind staying up late chit chatting with all, but I knew what was in store the next day; a gruesome 14 km walk from castle rock with lots and lots of luggage. It was going to be a bumpy day and I had to take as much rest I could. Moreover I am a morning person so if I stay up late I will get more crankier. So I slept, and then got up around 4 the next day...I kept rolling on my seat till the clock ticks 5. Once we crossed the last stop before reaching Hubli I woke everyone happily. We took turns finishing the morning chores, meanwhile all of us got our phone charged. Around 6, we were all geared up for another adventure. Initial plan was to take the same GNE train till Londa and from there switching to MVE train.

But there were 2 problems:

1.  We couldn't get hold off general tickets from Hubli to Castle Rock, as the train was way too far from the ticket counter. So it was nearly impossible to run from platform 5 to ticket counter and back to the train.

2. We were still in our reserved compartments that we booked till Hubli and this compartment was booked by other folks from Hubli to Ajmer. So we had to either get down and walk till general compartment or catch the MVE train.

My plans dint work out as expected, which meant improvising, and we did coz I am always prepared for the worst. And that how Plan B came in. Ani and Ramesh took little luggage and ran to get general tickets. And we 4 took the rest of the luggage and ran to platform 1. We had to find the General compartment and wait for Ani and Ramesh to arrive. Now we didn’t know where Platform 1 is, nor we had time to waste finding it. So we asked a nearby TT to guide us to Platform 1 and he being a sweet person, took us to platform 1. We ran towards the train, checked if the train was MVE, found the general compartment, placed all our luggage carefully and waited for Ani and Ramesh to arrive. They made it 5 min later and we all let out a SIGH! The train waited for another 15 min before leaving Hubli.

We had 2 and a half hours of journey ahead before making it to Castle Rock. It was breakfast time. We had packed 3 packets of bread and one packet of butter and jam each. We reached castle rock around 10 and after counting and recounting our bags we divided the luggage equally among the 6 and started our trek. The sun was hot that day so trekking became a little difficult. Walking along the railway line seems easy but it isn’t when you have kg’s of luggage to carry on your shoulders and the sun is being cruel. But we kept going. I cannot describe the amount of struggle we went through before finally making it to Dudhsagar.

Pulpy orange, Slice, Tang, Bhel, Chips, Energy Bars, these were our energy companions. We kept walking and walking, but our destination still looked very far away. We reached Caranzol railway station, rested for a while, and asked the distance that’s remaining to Dudhsagar. That’s when we realized we have covered just half the distance and we are yet to walk for 8-9 km’s. We manned up, boosted our will power and started walking again. We sang songs to entertain ourselves. Made fun of each other’s and somehow finally managed to reach Dudhsagar around 4 in the evening.

Dudhsagar falls are a km aways from the station and we had to reach the falls as we planned on staying there for the night.  Around 4.30 we reached the falls, placed all our luggage down and relaxed for a while we enjoyed the majestic falls. I thought reaching the falls will be the biggest challenge for us. But as fate intervened we had a new hurdle to cross.

This tenting place has a small canteen run by a localite from Kulem. We had gone to him to ask for his cooking vessels as we had forgotten ours. While we spoke to him, he mentioned about another group who planned on tenting at the same place. This was a huge group of 15-20 guys from either Goa or some part of Maharashtra who planned on boozing at this place entire night. Now my group had 3 girls and 3 guys which is quite a small count when compared to the other group and there were no other groups planning on staying back here. This got us worried. Among all of us Kapil was terrified, I could see the look on his face, the blood completely drained out his face, he was literally worried than any of us here. I mean I understand the risks involved if we stay here, but I was not as worried as others may be because I stopped myself from thinking the worst. But one thing I was sure was I cannot trust any person with alcohol content in his blood stream. There are a lot of folks who just don’t know how to contain there alcohol just to themselves.

So we started searching an alternative. The canteen guy asked us to either stay at the house near the falls which is few hundred feet away from this place or to stay in the church found near the station. This house had another group of guys staying, they also came from Bangalore but they are college kids so we cannot expect responsible actions from them. So we decided to walk all the way back to the church and tent there peacefully. This way we were near to the railway station in case we needed help.

Once we made it back to the church, we divided out task. We made 2 groups, each group with 2 members. One group will pitch the tent  and another will cook dinner. I was on the pitch tent side coz I like doing those stuffs moreover I can cook only in full-fledged kitchen. So Bhoo, Ani and Ramesh were cooking, me Pri and Kapil were pitching tent. We pitched our tent as per the video the tent guy send us. We were done in an hour and all set to eat.

But looks like firing up a stove with sticks coal and petrol is not that easy. They took an hour just to light it. After this it was a cake walk. We had purchased ready to eat curries and half cooked chapattis. While the trio cooked this I made cold coffee for all of us. And it was yummyyyyy! After half an hour our food was ready.  We had 3 different types of curry, lots and lots of chapattis, pickle and onions. All of us started eating like hungry tigers. We managed to eat everything. After dinner we played cards for a while and then went to sleep. Meanwhile I forgot to mention about this extra unexpected person we met on our trek. She met us coincidently at castle rock and kept following us always. Sometimes when we eat, we share small treats with her too. She loved nachos and chocolates. He even ate little bit of chapatti and curry. She stayed with us over night, guarded us from various creatures, a true guardian angel. She was a dog and I am not sure if we named her, so let’s call her Angel.

Tent Details:

We had taken two 2 person tent, which meant 3 in one tent. Sleeping 3 in one tent was a  little congested. But we managed to sleep anyways. Sometime when it gets too hot I would get up open the zip of the tent for a while and inhale the fresh cold air and after cooling down go back to sleep.

So I would recommend taking three 2- person tent if you want to be comfortable. But remember the luggage will increase.

We rented the tent from X Dog trekking. Following are the details:

Website: http://xdogtrekking.com/

Contact no: +917411472672

Name: Manjunath

They offer 2 packages:

4-person package: 4-person tent, 1 camping light, 1 backpack and 4 sleeping bags. Rate 530/day

2-person package: 2-person tent, 1 camping light, 1 backpack and 2 sleeping bags. Rate 350/day

Other rates are as below.

Finally I got up at 5. Ramesh was already awake. Seems like he dint sleep much. We made everyone else get up. The morning view is beautiful. Among the wilds under open air when the sun is just rising up, a beautiful scenery. Early morning at 5 walking up into the nature. Bliss! 

Funny part was Kapil going far away with a bottle of water in hand, which was really funny. Che I should have captured an image. Not that we weren’t into all this ;) After finishing our morning chores we retired to our tents. We folded our tents and sleeping bags back into the covers and went on to cook our breakfasts.

We had a 3 course bf and hot coffee. Chocos, Bread and Cup Noodles were our energy bars for the day. After satisfying our hunger,  we returned the canteen guy his vessels and  caught a train from Dudhsagar to Kulem. We wanted to get into the engine part of the train but damn that engine master, he denied us an awesome opportunity. Sadly we got into the compartment right after the train, which was luckily an empty compartment. We paced all our luggages inside and sat across the door enjoying the view.  We reached Kulem around 11.45 took tickets from Kulem to Londa for our return journey and then went to this place where we can hire a vehicle to go to the base of the falls.

A mere walk of 5 min from the station, we went in enquired the rates and booked the vehicle. We had exactly 4 hrs to be back. This included to fro journey of 45 min each and then the remaining to play in water. It will cost u 400/person or 2400/vehicle each accommodating 6. If u r 6 people well and good else either u have to share the vehicle with someone else or pay the entire amount. Apart from this you have to pay for the life jacket too, which is around 30/person.  Also there are separate entry tickets and camera entrance charges that you have to pay near the forest entrance gate; around 30/person and 50/still camera and 150/video camera. Also there is a waiting period near the gate as it involves checking of vehicle and buying tickets.  

After half an hour we made our way inside. The ride was bumpy but beautiful. We passed across the river, actually rode right through the river. If you are lucky u can spot animals. These roads are forest track so u can imagine how bad it will be. There is a separate entrance for bikers. We did spot few bikes here and there, but those require special permission. Usually these routes are used during monsoon season when the rivers flow fiercely and its impossible for the jeeps to cross it.  We reached the base of the falls, went around searching for a perfect spot to play around. Played for an hour which wasn't enough, but we had to leave else we would miss the train. We were already late and one cannot just go driving fast, coz the roads are bad and narrow.. We told our driver our situation and he said he will drop us at railway station directly. He did manage to get us on time. The train was yet to arrive.

Note: Daily around 250 vehicles are allowed, so u have to reach the place quickly to get the slot within 250. We were lucky enough to get a vehicle despite coming late. Also one can trek along the muddy roads, its fun but we couldn’t as we were tired and running short on time. Also the driver told us that, there is a way from dudhsagar falls to the base that is just a couple of  km away which we dint no. Else we could have trekked that way down to reach the base.

The train arrived late. It was very crowded. Hardly some place to stand, and we had to stand till Londa, which means 4 hrs of standing.That was quite difficult. The first thing I did when I reached Londa was sit for a while. After relaxing we bought few pakodas and vada pav and ate. Gulped few gallons of water and then when satisfied called our respective homes. Our train was supposed to arrive at 7.50pm but it was delayed by 45 and reached around 8.35. We got seated comfortably on our seats. 2 middle aged couple had occupied the lower berth and they were so arrogant, that they slept before we arrived. I was quite sure they haven’t slept, but they refused to move so that we could atleast sit to eat our dinner. We sat on the side berth which belonged to some RAC guy, requested him to sit on the side-upper seat till we ate. We ordered for pulav and meals. Again ate like a hungry tiger and then went to sleep. Next day we bid farewell to this amazing experience and each other and all of us went to office.

Anthargange Journal: An Empiricism

Empiricism? Really?  You bet! I couldn’t think of a better word to describe the day! This trek was supposed to be a simple trek, with no hurdles; a mountain climb to burn some heat off, but, have anything and I am not exaggerating but have anything, ever happened in life that’s planned! Well, sometimes it has, but most of the time it haven’t. There goes a saying “Sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together”, and that’s exactly what happened to us on that day.

And so the journey begins!  3 bikes, 6 people, 50 km early morning ride, trek, cave exploration, ride back home; that was our plan for the day! Did everything go according to our plan; a BIG NO! Did it end well? Heck Yea!

Myself, Poorni, Ani, Ramesh, Kapil and Boo, we 6 were the companions for this day. All of us met near Whitefield Railway station around 6.30 in the morning. After exchanging pleasantries we fired-up our bikes and ZOOM, out ride begun! A 50km drive from WF to Kolar, early morning, when the sun is merciful and the wind is howling at us with compassion; it was indeed a peaceful ride.

Wavering between 50’s 60’s and sometimes 70’s we rode on the long stretched boulevard, shooting pass the other vehicles. We streak passed Hoskote, Malur and some other tiny towns on the outskirts of Bangalore, making our way to Kolar where our destination awaits us. We had to just make this one stop before reaching Kolar, actually 10 km before Kolar, for breakfast at Kamat Upachara, which lies to our left, next to a gas station. We did miss this place in the beginning, in the sprinting ride and rode a km ahead when a friend of mine pointed out the slip. We stopped our bikes on the highway debating on the next move. We decided to take the next U turn and ride all the way back to Kamat, firstly because that’s the only decent spot available for breakfast and secondly, everyone were damn hungry.  This Kamat place is decent enough for breakfast at a location like this. I would give it an 8/10 rating, just for cleanliness and food. Its nothing fancy or top of the world experience, but given the location, this is the best option you got.

We filled our breadbaskets with dosa’s, vada’s and Khara bath’s; washed it over with chai’s and kapeee’s, parceled out our lunch, clicked few snaps here and there, and cruised over to Kolar. We did make few minute stops here and there to click some pics, swayed on the branches of the banyan tree and posed posed posed for tons of pics and finally made it to Anthargange around 9.30.

We parked our bikes and suited up for the trek. We took all the required things: food/biscuits/energy drinks/energy bar/sunglasses/sunscreen/cap/torch/water. At the footsteps of Anthargange, we were greeted by the beloved monkeys :p Beware of these little tail apes. They are smart, witty, and ingeniously notorious, and when I say notorious, there is no hidden exaggeration; you will know it if you come across these creatures especially here in Anthargange. We had this huge tissue bag filled with water and power bars, and atleast 5-6 monkeys tried to snatch it from our hand. Once a monkey, even tip-toes itself towards Kapil (my friend who has this tissue bag in his hand) and before it could grab the bag, another friend cautioned him; and he let out a scream which was quite funny so we all ended up with a fit of laughter. Believe me it was awfully hilarious.

The constant torment from the primates of the Haplorrhini forced us to squeeze all the food into our bag packs and get rid of all covers. 

After a km of walk we made to the first stop point, at shiva temple. There is a small pond next to this temple to cleanse oneself and visit the temple. Its not at all appealing as localities bath here. I just wanted to move on from this place and continue my walk up.

The trek is not over here, this temple is just 1/4th of the entire trek distance. Towards your left, there is a way that takes you up, towards the boulders and caves. A man made path exists, and one needs to just walk along this path till you reach the top. If one decides to take this path, one can complete the trek in an hour. You need to be careful while hunting for this path, because at times, this path is hidden among bushes and chances of losing it is quite probable. As we started climbing up the hills, on this man made path, around 200mts later, we took a track road which we thought was the correct track and which we later realized was the wrong track. The actual track always lies towards your left. Keep going left until you see an actual man made path, where the stones are carved into small steps.

We anyways missed this track and kept going towards our right exploring our options and taking any possible route that takes us one step ahead to the top. Initially we were quite confident about the route, but that started diminishing as we moved further;  the route went steeper, the bushes grew denser, and the trek grew difficult. Anytime we doubted ourselves, we looked up in 360 degree angle and weighed our options. Our only ray of hope was 2 huge boulders on the top towards our right, one painted white and another one painted green, and a few mts away a flag hoisted high up the ground. Our goal was to reach that point of the hills; it may have been a hunch, but we all believed that reaching this point will take us to the right track, and we were absolutely right, which, I would get back later.

When we covered ¾ of our way up, the view was beautiful. Towards our left we could see the road we drove past to reach the base of this hill, towards the center was the way we trekked up, and when we looked towards our right, we realized the mistake we did. We could clearly see the track that we were supposed to follow, and that’s when disaster struck us and we realized the blunder we have done. We were in deep shit, confused and agitated, not sure what to do next, standing in the scorching sun, thinking how stupid we were.

Everyone started brainstorming their minds weighing the options, should we go back down and start again from the right track or could we just keep walking horizontal until we reach the right track or should we just continue the same path as we did till now and move ahead and check what’s in store once we reach that painted boulders. On majority vote we decided to walk horizontal and try to reach the actual path, which believe, me was utter stupidity. After walking few mtrs or so we came across huge boulders which were impossible to cross without a rope. One could try to cross it but it’s quite risky and I don’t think that option is worth anyone’s life. So we decided to keep going further up and take a detour if the way becomes impossible to climb.

We passed thorny bushes, steep paths hidden within thick bushes and huge boulders which were impossible to climb. All of us glued together, walking in sync, making sure the behind person doesn’t do the same mistake, warning when the route was difficult and carrying huge sticks to determine the depth of a route when concealed by bushes. Holding a stick in hand is quite a good option, it helps to determine the depth of a way, it helps to walk break past the thick bushes and keeping the thorns away from hurting, use it as rope to help fellow traveler jump from rocks to rocks and scare away the tiny yet dangerous creatures on the way. Exploring all possible options and just relying on our intuitions we climbed up further and further, praying almighty to keep all of us safe, at times cribbing on how foolish we were, wondering what would have happened if we took the correct path, calculating which friend or family to call if something in case of emergency, and at the same time rejoicing over staying strong and adventurous and not complaining, and the most important part, always clicking pics with a smiling face making it evident that, we will make it out of this alive with flying colors. 

Finally we reached a point where we dint know how to move further. Ramesh went ahead exploring our options, meanwhile Kapil tried to climb onto a boulder to see what’s in store for us further. He was gone for a couple of minutes and came back jumping around asking us to climb past the boulder and come to the other side. We were quite inquisite to know whats happening, so, one by one we climbed the boulder and went on to the other side just to discover a flat green patch of land that’s habituated.  A few feet ahead of us, there lies a trail of road used by hikers to travel to this part of land. We found a farmer walking past this road towards village. All of us screamed to the top of the voice as we tried to contain our happiness and excitement on reaching the top, unscratched. We asked him for the route towards village and bid him farewell. He even passed on some Guava’s made in his farm, for us to taste.

After energizing ourselves with energy drinks and power bars, we started walking towards the village. Why? Because we were yet to do cave exploration and we needed a guide to take us in. After walking for a km, we found this guy in village who was willing to take us for cave exploration. Upon asking the rate he asked us to give whatever we feel was correct. We made our way towards the caves with our guide, hoping for more adventure. We did have quite a lot of adventure for one day; but nonetheless we craved for more. There was a sense of excitement among everyone to start the exploration and take this adventure to yet another level.

Once we reached the cave; we packed all are things into our bag-packs to keep our hands free; our pockets were emptied, and torches were ready. The first step we took was a 7 feet drop from a boulder onto the mouth of the cave.

This was followed by sliding past 2 rocks which are a feet apart from each other, followed by a lot of sliding, climbing and crawling. We made passed the 1st cave successfully without a scratch as such. I am falling short on words to describe this experience. It was thrilling and electrifying yet peaceful; it let goes all the worries and materialist fret. It gets your adrenaline pump up and brings a sense of satisfaction. We excited our first cave with mixed feeling and waited to move onto the next one.

After gulping in some tang and nutrition bars we moved on to the next cave. This cave has this tiny water stream flowing into it. No one knows the exact origin of this water hence the name Anthargange which means “Ganges from Deep”. There is a lot of hype on this water stream, so we had to check it out ourselves. We left our bags out near the cave as the opening of the cave was small and it’s difficult to fit in both humans and bags. The mouth of the cave had a steep drop of 7 feet followed by a very narrow path where one has to crawl like a snake to fit in. We debated for quite a while; thinking if we should take chances and go down as the entrance and exit of the cave is same, so even if we take the 7 feet slide down, how on earth will we climb back up without any ropes.  But the guide showed us the way technique to climb back pushing ourselves against the rock. So we decided to take our chances and go down. Was it worth it? Hell no! This is a very small stream of water flowing from the deep into the caves. The hype created for this stream of water is not worth the talk. But should you go in? Offcourse! Just to enjoy the climb in and climb out; it’s thrilling! As you enter the caves you could hear the stream of water flowing. This cave could hardly hold 3-4 people tops.

We were done with our adventure for the day at anthargange and it was time to descend. We paid our guide 400 bucks for 6 of us and asked him for the return route. We started walking down on the man-made road when we spotted a snake curled onto a twig in a nearby bush. Kapil had this weird wish of spotting snake at anthargange, maybe that’s why we passed 2 snakes later on the way. We ran past those spot and made our way down. We did reach the spot where we took the wrong route and ended up having such a nice time exploring our way. We laughed at our stupidity, clicked few more pics and reached the base around 2.30. We refreshed ourselves with some sip-on’s and sprite’s, enquired from localites the nearby places to visit, took our bikes and retraced our steps.

Plan was to visit some 500 yr old temples at Kolar; but it wasn’t that great of a historic place. So after  spending some time on google and asking few more Kolar’ites we decided to take a 30km ride to KGF and visit Kotilingeshwara.  Kotilingeshwara  is a Shiva temple; apparently a nest for 1 crore lingas. Its quite an historic significance in Karnataka.

The drive towards this KGF panhandle was a serene drive through country side road via bhangarpet. Passing through the lush green path, non-bumpy roads in a rhythmic motion with the wind in our faces, we felt one with the nature around. The trek tiredness was wearing on us, the serene climate was not swaying away the drowsiness our body craved for. But all this dint dampen our spirit. My pillion graced this nature’s love as lullaby as she drifted into sleep sitting behind hitting my helmet as she drifted apart further. We reached Kotilingeshwara in an hour around 4.45.

Parking our bikes at kotilingeshwara, we refreshed ourselfs with some chais and coffees sided with biscuits.








We then made our way towards darshana. An entry ticket of 20 bucks need to paid at the entrance which kinda is ridiculous because it portraits commercialism of temples which is lame. Once we entered this place we walked around the lingas, moving past different gods.

This place might be a bit commercial but the peace and quietness u get receive here is divine. U could just walk around this place and feel the lightness on u.

We wandered around here for quite a while relishing the moment when my phone buzzed and my sweet mother that she is asked me to come back home ASAP because of the jayalalitha issue. 

We had made plans to drive back to my home around 7 at night, eat dinner there and then my friends would drive back to their respective homes. We left kotilingeshwara around 5.30 and drove towards WF. It was a 70 ride back home. We had 2 options: SH or NH road. NH was a better option as it would be traffic free and a good 6 lane road. We retraced our path back to Kolar and then drove straight towards WF.

All of us were famished after a adventurous day and all we had from morning was one dosa and few energy drinks and bars. I called up my mom and told her about 6 hungry flocks of birds coming home to eat, and she was worried the food might not be sufficient for all of us. 

The ride back home was mesmerizing. Amazing traffic free road, lushing greenary, sun setting down turning the sky to red, crescent moon showing up right above us. It was finding peace within onself. My pillion gave me company talking about random things. She knew I wasn’t a fan of riding at night her talks entertained me and time flew by. We reached Kolar and then took the flyover towards Bangalore. We quivered between 60’s and 70’s, driving steady and made it to Bangalore at 7.30.

We drove back to my home, freshened up and wolfed down a lot of rice sided with sambar, sabji and papad, marking the end of a wonderful day in a perfect note.

Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living

                        - Miriam Beard