My First Trekking Experience

Date : 08/07/06

Place : Nishani Mottae Peak, Kodagu Dist., Karnataka

Starring :

Anil

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Ravi Kiran Reddy

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Lokesh

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Venkat

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Vikas
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Narration : Vikas.

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This was my first ever trekking experience and ohh boy !!! what an experience to start off with. It all started with our group of 17 people ( Andhra batch guys @ IIIT-B) planning a trip to Coorg . We planned to visit places in and around Coorg and also to go on a trekking expedition to the third highest peak in Coorg dist. the NISHANI MOTTAE peak.

Only 5 of us were interested in trekking and hence we 5 set out on the trekking expedition at 10:30 AM in the morning. We had no clue where to start our trekking from, we enquired a lot of people (local authorities) about this trekking place, strangely we got different , different answers from different ,different people , after a lot of enquiry finally we got the directions to reach the trekking place.

We had to start our trekking from a place called Vanachal and reach Galibedu which is 8km from Vanachal. Other than this piece of information we had no clue as to how to reach galibedu by trekking along the mountains.

Many tourist officials warned us not to go ahead as the forests are covered with blood sucking leeches , slippery paths , fog & mist.If someone asks us not to do something. We end up doing that as they say "There is more happiness in doing what people say you cannot do!!"

Here started our expedition , we were dropped at Vanachal by our driver (Balu) and we started our trekking experience from here .

It was very cloudy and it was drizzling as we started the trek. We slowly started moving into the dense forest , initially there were just tea plantations along the way , where we stopped by to take some pics

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We were very cautious moving ahead as the land was very slippery and covered with leeches. We had a knife with us and we used this as a guard against leeches but it was no match,as they were humongous number of leeches in that region. The scenery around that place was really breathtaking but most of them were covered with mist and fog. It was as if watching an action flick movie where there is a hot pursuit for a hidden treasure.

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After trekking for 1km or so we met Mr .Ramesh, he gave us directions as to how to go about and gave us the GOLDEN RULE OF THUMB .... "Wherever you go always take the left most path and you will reach your destination ".

Thanking him for his advice we set out again ,but were confronted by leeches just ahead and as we were trying to remove them, he crossed us again and asked us to come to his house which was on the way.

when we reached there he gave us a weapon to tackle the leeches ........ A Magical Wand

It was nothing but salt wrapped in a cloth tied to a stick and it was really handy as using a knife to remove the leeches was becoming more and more difficult. He then accompanied us a few yards and showed us a narrow path up the hill, asking us to follow that path , he even told us that on our way we will reach an uninhabited house which would indicate that we are on the right way.
No sooner had we climbed up the narrow path , Lokesh fell prey to the leeches wrath.

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We checked ourselves thoroughly for hidden leeches in our shoes and socks , after that we continued our onward journey and stopped only when we reached that uninhabited house. Here we started checking our shoes and socks again, the magical wand was working superbly, the moment you touch the leech with it , it falls of from your body and cuddles itself as if it has been tranquilized.

I felt that the next part of the journey was the most dangerous and exciting part of the journey. It was like this , a mountain with dense forest , you get in to it and its like you cant see the sky , the path to the top was through this forest and the slope was pretty steep.(You can see the same in the pic below in the background)

I took a deep breath and darted off into the forest and started climbing it as fast as i could , my heart was pounding and my breathing became very heavy , I managed to get to the top in a few minutes just to find my shoes filled with leeches. I tried removing the leeches with my shoes but they kept sticking to it.

Venkat's shoes were also filled with leeches and he was busy removing those with the knife and Ravi (who had the wand) had moved ahead .......we both called him for help and as he turned back he slipped and fell. Fortunately he fell on the path and not sideways where there was a huge valley , he got up and came running .... hearing Venkat's screams he went there and removed all the leeches and in the mean time I was able to remove a few leeches but I felt a tickling sensation in my left shoe and as I opened my shoe I saw that.......................... the leech has struck and claimed another victim

Ravi came to me and brushed the magical wand against the leech , it dindt fall off...... he tried again but still it had a firm grip on my foot , he rubbed it very tightly and it fell off ..... The magical wand was loosing its power as the salt mix was falling off from it . Ravi stayed with me as I wore back my socks and shoes and we could hear venkat calling from a distance saying that we have reached the top most point.

Just as we reached the top most point it started raining heavily and we were stranded in that place and then we did one of the most craziest things ever ........Stood on the top most point and started singing " Lahiri Lahiri Lahiri lo .................."

(The view we had when we were on the top most point)

You guys must be thinkng that we have gone nuts ,well wait till I complete the rest of the narration. :- D

Here we met another person who told us that we were on the right track and it would take us another 2 hours to reach Galibedu from here. We were drenched from head to toe and I was shivering like hell. Lokesh was walking as a Robot as all his limbs turned numb . Ravi & Anil moved ahead slowly ...................but unaffected by all this ,Venkat was active throughout and shared some of his personal experiences with Lokesh :-P . As we started descending we heard sound of water gushing , it sounded as if water was falling from a height , we rushed towards that place and what we saw left us spellbound .

It was a waterfall in the midst of the forest with water flowing in between the forest , we had to cross the small water stream to reach the other side . we stopped here for a while and took some snaps.

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As we were climbing the rocks on the other side we could here dogs barking ferociously , as we started ascending the barks became louder and louder ,Just as we reached the top out of nowhere 2 dogs sprang out from the house nearby and started barking .

Venkat who had the stick with him just shooed away the dogs but the barking dindt subside. We had reached a place where we had 3 routes , one going up the hill and the other 2 going down the hill, we were perplexed as to which route to take and were in a dilemma , Just then we spotted a house a few yards below from where we were standing .

Venkat went down with a knife in one hand and the stick in another for asking directons ....... the poor resident must have been shaken out of his skin seeing venkat ,for a few seconds they exchanged words but he was not able to speak out properly.... we asked venkat to put his knife inside and in the mean time that person came out with an umbrella and showed us the path which was going up hill and asked us to take that path. Now we were confused because we were descending and this path was going up hill ,so we were not sure about his words and then everything clicked into place ....."THE GOLDEN RULE OF THUMB" .

So we started our uphill trek and we were very famished as we had nothing till then after the breakfast early morning ,so we removed the snacks that we had got and started devouring it like hungry beasts.

Energy revived and now everyone had forgotten about the leeches and there were no leeches present along this path ,so the second part of the journey was a bit relaxing . As we started descending the route became more and more dangerous with only rocks along the path and that too slippery ones.we came across another waterfall along the way and we halted for a few moments here and started our final part of the journey.

As we went down the steep increased and the stones were too slippery, one slip and you can go rolling down the hill. we had to be cautious in every step that we took and after a few minutes of careful descent we spotted level ground filled with fields and lakes

It dindt take us much time in getting down and we finally reached level ground and another 1 Km walk we reached Galibedu Main Road where there was shouts of jubiliation and hearts filled with satisfaction

Showing Everyone the mountain that we have conquered

Trekker's Triumph

This is one experience which I will treasure for the rest of my life.

PS : Since this is my narration I have written what I have experienced.