For a long time we wanted to spend a full moon night camping on some hill.
At last our opportunity was there. Mails from BASC made us realized coming weekend was a full moon. So myself and Afzal quickly planned a night trek to Makalidurga. Makalidurga was chosen since we had been to that place earlier. And It is best not to explore new places in the dark. And also the easiest transport to Makalidurga was the train.
So it was all planned up, 5 of us were confirmed to going to the night trek. Afzal bought chicken kabab, grilled chicken and tandoori. Ready for a complete feast.
I reached early and booked our tickets, afzal and myself went to the station and boarded the train. Others arrived just in time to catch the train.
But we were in for a big dissapointment, there was some sort of cyclone hitting chennai, and as a result we would have a clouded sky. our entire plan for a clear full moon sky was dangling. Stil we kept our hopes up, and expected it to be a clear sky at makalidurga. But we were ot be dissapointed. We reached makalidurga, and sadly it was drizzling there.
The station master was surprised that we chose a dark, raining night for the night trek. After having a part dinner, we started walking on the rail track.
Well I have done quite a few treks on rail tracks in the western ghats, but this was different. in western ghats the frequency of trains is much less, so there is practically very less danger. One train we were able to spot, but the second time, the train came, so silently we could just jump off hte track in time. Everyone realised how lucky we were.
Other than this small thrilling moment, waking on rail track was dry. I was meanwhile tracking our trail on android. After walking for 2kms on rail track there is a crossing where we have to go off the track and take the left. You cannot miss this crossing since it is the only chance you will get to get off the track since the station.
This is a proper off road, which is even marked on google maps. just a few minutes ahead we find a temple to our left. After the temple we walk for almost 3-4 kms just to reach the proper trail. And the worst part is we loose altitude. The rail track is at approx at 800 mts altitude and while going round the hill we climbed down to 700metres.
We were already tired even before the ascne began, we took a couple of breaks. Everyone was getting impatient, we had covered approx 5-6kms and stll we were not even climbing the hill. At last it looked like we have reache dthe proper trail, and i checked my gps, yes at last we start climbing.
We have to mention, our aim was to do the trek in moonlight, but it was exactly the opposite, completely clouded, we could not see the moon for even a second. I have no idea if is darker during new moon.
Anyway this trek is impossible without torches. Soon the teperature started dropping, but still since we were climbing with heavy backpacks, our body was warm. we were taking rest while climbing up. as we entered the forests, it started becomnnig dark..
and soon we were trekking amongst clouds. the effect of torch light is amazing here.
you can actually see the exact cone of the torch in this dark.
specially because of the mist. anyway the gps came handy in finding the route in the dark. and also the trail was clearly visible in most part of the trek.
After climbing for about 6-8kms we finally reched the peak. WE were all completely exhausted, even though we were taking lots of rests, it was a tiring hike. the experience of climbing in the dark is really amazing.
We thought of exploring the peak, but it was really difficult to do so in the complete darkness. so we camped near the temple. we finished our packed dinner, and it was a feast. ...............
anil, ankit and deb sleeped inside the tent, and myself and afzal settled inside the temple. we slept inside our sleeping bags alongside some creepy creatures crawling inside the temple.
We woke up late at 7am and missed our train and even the sunruse,...
At last our opportunity was there. Mails from BASC made us realized coming weekend was a full moon. So myself and Afzal quickly planned a night trek to Makalidurga. Makalidurga was chosen since we had been to that place earlier. And It is best not to explore new places in the dark. And also the easiest transport to Makalidurga was the train.
So it was all planned up, 5 of us were confirmed to going to the night trek. Afzal bought chicken kabab, grilled chicken and tandoori. Ready for a complete feast.
I reached early and booked our tickets, afzal and myself went to the station and boarded the train. Others arrived just in time to catch the train.
But we were in for a big dissapointment, there was some sort of cyclone hitting chennai, and as a result we would have a clouded sky. our entire plan for a clear full moon sky was dangling. Stil we kept our hopes up, and expected it to be a clear sky at makalidurga. But we were ot be dissapointed. We reached makalidurga, and sadly it was drizzling there.
The station master was surprised that we chose a dark, raining night for the night trek. After having a part dinner, we started walking on the rail track.
Well I have done quite a few treks on rail tracks in the western ghats, but this was different. in western ghats the frequency of trains is much less, so there is practically very less danger. One train we were able to spot, but the second time, the train came, so silently we could just jump off hte track in time. Everyone realised how lucky we were.
Other than this small thrilling moment, waking on rail track was dry. I was meanwhile tracking our trail on android. After walking for 2kms on rail track there is a crossing where we have to go off the track and take the left. You cannot miss this crossing since it is the only chance you will get to get off the track since the station.
This is a proper off road, which is even marked on google maps. just a few minutes ahead we find a temple to our left. After the temple we walk for almost 3-4 kms just to reach the proper trail. And the worst part is we loose altitude. The rail track is at approx at 800 mts altitude and while going round the hill we climbed down to 700metres.
We were already tired even before the ascne began, we took a couple of breaks. Everyone was getting impatient, we had covered approx 5-6kms and stll we were not even climbing the hill. At last it looked like we have reache dthe proper trail, and i checked my gps, yes at last we start climbing.
We have to mention, our aim was to do the trek in moonlight, but it was exactly the opposite, completely clouded, we could not see the moon for even a second. I have no idea if is darker during new moon.
Anyway this trek is impossible without torches. Soon the teperature started dropping, but still since we were climbing with heavy backpacks, our body was warm. we were taking rest while climbing up. as we entered the forests, it started becomnnig dark..
and soon we were trekking amongst clouds. the effect of torch light is amazing here.
you can actually see the exact cone of the torch in this dark.
specially because of the mist. anyway the gps came handy in finding the route in the dark. and also the trail was clearly visible in most part of the trek.
After climbing for about 6-8kms we finally reched the peak. WE were all completely exhausted, even though we were taking lots of rests, it was a tiring hike. the experience of climbing in the dark is really amazing.
We thought of exploring the peak, but it was really difficult to do so in the complete darkness. so we camped near the temple. we finished our packed dinner, and it was a feast. ...............
anil, ankit and deb sleeped inside the tent, and myself and afzal settled inside the temple. we slept inside our sleeping bags alongside some creepy creatures crawling inside the temple.
We woke up late at 7am and missed our train and even the sunruse,...
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