Wednesday, October 9, 2019

NZ experiences


I recently went to New Zealand and biked in their South Island for 2 weeks. After i got back from NZ, everyone was asking me, so how is NZ, tell us something about the country. This post is to share some random tidbits from my experience.

First, they don't have any native predators on the island, it's so surprising, entire forests with no dangerous wild animals. No snakes or bears that you need to be afraid of! And their close neighbor, Australia has all of the animals that would try kill you. It is so fascinating that the dense forests are completely safe, so many possibilities. I think that's the reason they have so many popular hikes in the dense rain-forest jungles.
Another odd thing i noticed was corpse of dead birds on the road, it is possible perhaps because of absence of other animals which can feed on the body, it stays wherever it fell. I noticed them throughout the island during my two weeks journey.

NZ is pretty much the first country in the world to see the sunrise ! It was interesting, cause I was like 17 hours ahead of Atlanta !

Kiwis are a very friendly bunch of people, always up to help you out.
I also learned kiwi are laid back people. They are very relaxed, very much interested in enjoying life, and don't care so much about  anything else. Someone I met, who worked with them told me apparently building constructions also take a lot of time.

So many travelers just travel by hitchhiking here, I met few and they told it's super easy to get a ride here. They never had any issues, sometimes multiple cars stop at the same place to give them a ride. It's just that in return you have to keep up an interesting conversation. Another tip was that it's difficult to get a ride from the city, so they take a bus to the edge onto some highway and then from there they get their ride.


I saw so many lakes. Beautiful lakes with the gorgeous snow capped mountains reflecting onto the lake. And of course birds, almost every day I woke up to a myriad of bird songs. On my solo journey through the south island west coast, I was always accompanied by some incredible bird songs. There is something about bird songs that always excites me.
 

And farm animals, so many farm animals grazing on the countryside. Big healthy sheep and cows staring right at you, as you ride past them, as if surprised to see you there, as if you are not supposed to be there. 
I have really never seen so many farm animals. NZ has great supply of sheep and lamb, so i guess woolen clothes should be good and their other by-products.


Biking is really popular there, so many people just come to nz to bike. I mean such a coincidence, 4 bikers meet randomly at the Auckland airport, getting a shut eye, while spending the night at the airport. I mean it's really really popular. I met a biker while staying at Murchison and several others on the western wilderness trail.

There's a particular kind of flies in the south island, they are very very annoying and irritating. They will bite you and it will keep on itching. I saw them on our way from fox glacier to wanaka.

Many travelers take advantage of the working holiday Visa, that is you can work for an year in NZ. I met so many people, Europeans, Americans and South-Americans, in the hostels, they would work on farms, hotels, bars, fishing boat, construction, landscaping etc. In fact at some hostels, if you work for 15 hours a week as their housekeeping staff, you get free accommodation. That's a really good arrangement. Many of these travelers have been staying at the hostel for a long time, so they know each other. It was really interesting to see them cook together and share dinner as a wonderful family!!

All the hostels I stayed in, were extremely clean and well maintained. And I stayed at the cheapest option available, so I guess the NZ hostels are some of the best  accommodations I have ever stayed in. With well stocked kitchen, in some places like 10-20 people are cooking and still, everyone cleans and dries their utensils and keeps them back in place.

Everyone is also very much invested in recycling, we had to clean and dry tin cans and plastic bottles before dumping them in the recycling bin. And every place I noticed earth friendly detergents and soaps, which were biological detergents and maybe contained less chemical.

They also believe in Karma !! 

I did bike in some remote forests and trails, but interestingly even when I was on unpaved roads or gravel roads, I always crossed path with either another car which was offroading, or another biker. So, it seems somehow I was never remote enough to not see any person !

The western coast of south island, have the southern alps, which is also called the alpine fault. It's a geological fault that runs almost the entire length of the south island.

The native people of NZ are called the Maori.





Wednesday, November 27, 2013

the rantings of a slow trekker


I was just browsing through some TED vidoes, and saw this one on "In praise of slowness".


(Edit:: Everything I write down here is my personal opinion, not intended to offend anyone else. You need not agree with me.)

 I could connect instantly with the idea. My weekend activity mainly comprises of Trekking and cycling. I have been trekking for just over an year. We go in groups of 5-15 people. Sometimes they are my college friends and sometime i go out with new people, whom I meet for the first time on these treks.

Our treks comprise of hiking in the forests of Western Ghats, up and down over mountain ranges. From my first trekking expeditions, I have been one of the last trekker in the group. Mostly my fellow trekkers would be waiting for me and resting at some place. Well i confess,  I am slow, because my stamina is lower, I get exhausted quickly. But I dont get the point, what's the hurry.

Most of the cases we have a plan, we have to reach a certain destination before it gets dark. So there's a tight schedule, we dont have much time to waste. What happens as a result is that, we keep running. When you have a beautiful sight, some interesting plant, a flower, some bird, a snake, a waterfall, or anything that catches your attention, something that you want to observe, you want to enjoy, you dont have the time to enjoy it. Because 10 other people in your group are waiting for you, you are slowing down everyone else. Because you are wasting time, you are jeopardizing the plan. So you ignore it all and keep running.

Now my question is why do we trek. Just to run around, reach some destination, camp there, and again run back out of the forests. If you are in such a hurry to get out of the forests, why go there in the first place?

I have trekked in groups of 5, 10 and even 16. I find it comfortable to trek in groups of bigger size, because bigger groups move slower, and its easier to remain at the back of a bigger group.

From my first days of trekking, I have enjoyed walking slowly, mostly acting as the sweeper. The guy who's the last in the group and ensures no one's really behind him. This gives me an opportunity to be relaxed. To enjoy the experience, to observe the surroundings, to be slightly alone even in a big group. I am specially fascinated by forests. The infinite varieties of trees, the strangest birds chirping,  even stranger insect sounds, some distant gushing of streams. I have no idea how can I enjoy them, if I am running to reach my destination. When you are slow, you experience the quietness, the stillness and the calmness of nature. I have strange adrenaline rush whenever I am the last person in a dense forest, and I look back to realize there is no human being for at least 5-10kms behind me.

I am sure everyone has their own objective of trekking. Every avid trekker gets attracted to the mountain ranges and forests by some invisible force which is unique for him/her. But my 1 year's experience has one observation, everyone is racing to reach the destination. Any "slow" trekker is looked down upon. Guys slowing down are scolded and advised to speed up and hurry up. They are most likely to be left out during the next adventure trip, because they slow down the group.

Of-course we are bound by time. Every trek has a plan. We have to reach a camping spot, or get out of the forests, or reach a mountain peak before its dark, before sunset. We have to set up our camp, using tents or tarpaulin sheets. Fetch water, collect firewood, setup fire, start cooking. All these have to be done before its too dark. So obviously you cant be slow, and remain stuck inside a forest after dark. And in exploration treks, the risks are higher, you are not sure of the destination, you have to search the route, get lost, you dont know how far you have to hike and find a suitable camping spot. So its always a race against time.

Also every trekker wants to push their own limits. We continue trekking even when our legs hurt, the knee aches, the shoulders are paining by the heavy backpack. We are not afraid of getting hurt, getting exhausted or suffering pain. No one really can answer the question, that why do we trek? inspite of all the hardships, why do we trek? Why not just sit back on your couch and watch discovery or a Jackie Chan flick for all the adrenaline rush. Trekkers walk 15-20kms carrying 10-15kgs of backpacks under scorching sun, during heavy rains, with creatures like leeches trying to suck blood from all the exposed parts of the body.

I am sure everyone has their objective. But I fail to understand one thing, what's with the race to reach the destination. More so, whats the hurry to get out of the forest on the last day of the trek.

The trails we follow are not smooth paved roads. Sometime they are full of boulders, sometime waterlogged muddy trails, sometime slippery grasses or thorny bushes or even huge dead branches. Well whatever the kind of trail, you can almost never walk blind folded on these trails. You are sure to stumble and fall down if you are not looking down at where you are stepping. The point I am getting at is while hiking we are almost always looking down at our trail. We are not able to look at the beautiful nature around us, the forests, the grasslands, the strange flowers, the rare birds, the peak hiding behind the clouds. Whats the purpose of coming into the wilderness if we cant enjoy all these things. If I dont have time to look around myself, why am I here?

Then again, everyone is reluctant of going off the trail and exploring someplace not leading to the destination. I find it difficult to convince people to come with me and climb up and down a nearby small peak, or go up a small waterfall, or just down a stream, just for the fun of it. Rarely anyone's interested in going off the route just for the sake of exploring. Maybe because they think its a waste of energy and time, which they can use to reach the destination faster. Maybe they are already tired. Well I dont know the answer, but this is what I have experienced a couple of times.

One of my best experiences of trekking was when we were lost in Kabinale forest, and we gave up our quest for OG. As a result we were not bound by time, we were not looking at reaching at anywhere particular. So we were relaxed, walking slowly enjoying the river gushing in the middle of the dense forest. I realized we were more so enjoying the current moment, instead of worrying about reaching somewhere else.


Having said that, we should not be lazy, and hide behind the excuse of "enjoying the surroundings" , and give up the quest for pushing our limits and exploring the unknown. Its another extreme, when we are so relaxed and "slow" that we never try hard to reach our destination, we give up whenever we are tired. This extreme is when we are afraid of pain and exhaustion.
We have to be strong enough to reach unexplored wilderness, to cross great gushing rivers and streams, climb highest peaks and overcome all the obstacles. The journey of reaching our destination, usually lasts longer than the destination itself. So the experience during our journey should be cherished more than anything else.

Sunday, November 17, 2013

the Night Trek to Makalidurga

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,...




to be continued.





Sunday, July 28, 2013

BASCO-Da-Gama, CastleRock Kuveshi trail to Dudhsagar


All set to Trek
The moment we hear Dudhsagar, one word comes to our mind, Rail Track. The Rail Track of 14kms from CastleRock to Dudhsagar is extremely popular, during every monsoon we can see lots of people getting down at castle rock for the Rail Track Trek. Well, my first Trek was also this same stretch, just last year.

But this time we were here for a real trek, not just walking up and down the Rail  Line.

The trek was planned by BASC, Sudheer. We boarded the Chennai Vasco Express from K R Puram. Rest of the group boarded from Yashwantpur. We got introduced to each other, and played dumb sharade to pass time. Our train reached Castle rock station at around 10.30 am. We got down, common stuff was distributed and we got ready the trek. We crossed the station platform and went to the castle rock village. There we packed our lunch, it took quite some time for preparing lunch for 15 ppl.
the rainy morning at castle rock 
It was already peak monsoon season. From morning itself it was drizzling. We enjoyed watching the monsoon morning unfolding in this village.

After getting our lunch packed we started walking towards the govt school, at around 12.30 noon. There is a trail from left side of the school, through which we enter the forests.


The road from village to Govt School, isnt everything green!!

The trail from the School 

first stream crossing, and we lost count of streams after that

And slowly the trail gets narrower and the forest denser
After walking for sometime, a green vine was spotted. This was my first spotting of a snake. Everyone was excited and we started talking snaps. I took around 30 snaps of the snake and few of them came out real good. The green vine was very calm, and was not bothered by our presence.

The beautiful Green Vine

 By the time myself and Anirudh finished, others had moved quite ahead. We hastened to catch up with them.
Soon the forest became dense, and we were following a big pipe, basically walking on that pipe. Around 2pm, Sudheer realized we were following the wrong trail. It was decided that we backtrack and follow the pipe back to some open grounds. We traced our way back, and reached a small cottage, which seemed to emerge out of nowhere. No one was staying there, we had our packed lunch near the cottage.


a green Grassland
After lunch, we were supposed to find out the trail to a village called ghotga.  We were lost, not sure which way to go. Till now, it was drizzling, but it started to pour heavily. Our only option was returning back to castle rock. We were waiting and discussing what to do next, then miraculously two villagers appeared. We were on the border of karnataka and maharastra, so most of the people here only spoke marathi. and luckily we had 3 marathi friends. They showed us the trail to the village. They even gave us their phone number, in case we get lost. We were really excited, we were saved, just few moments earlier we had given up. We were going to return back. But our day was saved, we were back to resuming our adventures. Since it was raining continuously, the trail which the villager showed was full of at-least ankle deep water. Actually this trail was right behind where we were standing, we did not consider it because it was water logged, and it did not seem like a proper trail.

Soon we were deep inside the forests. Even though, the forest was not very dense, we were following a proper trail.  We crossed lots of small streams on our way. We were either crossing knee deep streams or walking on ankle deep water logged trails. We did not gain too much height, all along the trail. It was almost flat for the entire length.


The water logged trails

It was already past 5pm, it was going to get dark very soon. And we were still nowhere. It was not possible to camp here. Even though we had plain flat grounds, it was full of water. And then around 6pm another miracle happened. We saw a lone cottage, in the middle of nowhere. We saw the boundary of the house. Purbi crossed the barricade and went inside to see if anyone was there. After sometime she came running with a good news. A family was staying there. They would help us.


the house where we stayed

We were all completely drenched, since it was raining non-stop till now. So finding a proper shelter at the end of the day, was a big reward for us. The family agreed to let us stay for the night in their spare room.

We all changed into our dry clothes, and started preparing the dinner. We were carrying vegetables and everything and just used their stove to cook our dinner. After having hot stomach full of dinner, we retired for the much needed sleep.


Purbi in the kitchen with our host
Day two
Early morning we woke up to the cock-a-doodle-doo of  the roosters. We had a big day ahead of us. We would be finishing the rest of our journey, reach dudhsagar and then castle rock to catch our return train.
We had breakfast and were ready to leave by 9.30.
our host showed us the way to ghansuli, from where we will get another guide. We were following a small stream. To climb a hill we had to walk right through the stream. After hiking over several terrains, crossing few streams, we found our guide. The trail we took, was through forests and was passing some excellent locations. There was a point where we were actually on the border of karnataka and maharashtra. I will let the pics to at least give an idea of the kind of trail we followed.
Meandering River, Green Carpet, surrounding Forest, and Mist covered Hills, right out of a Dream sequence, 



Our Guide for day 2, its actually very difficult to find the routes without a guide

crossing the last and final stream

the stream leading to Dudhsagar

thats dudhsagar 

abandoned buildings are also green

Tunnel where we got down

At around 1pm, we reached the stream, the source of dudhsagar falls. You cannot guess by looking at the river that it is the source to the majestic dudhsagar. We crossed the stream and the trail was going up. After climbing for some time, we got the side view of dudhsagar, but was all cloudy and foggy, so no clear view.
Finally by 2, we were climbing down. For the first time, we got a glimpse of the valley. Till now we were completely inside forests. After a short hike, we climbed down over a tunnel and reached the rail tracks.

We saw lots of people were there to visit the falls. Everyone was screaming and were extremely excited. We realized the reason for the excitement when we actually saw the falls, It was huge. I even forgot about camera, when mesmerized by the falls. Still I could not take pics, as water was splashing so much over us, impossible to take out camera..
wish could capture the screams 





this is the tunnel which we crossed from above

waiting for the train

Our return train was from castle rock at 8pm. But the trouble was reaching Castle Rock. Dudhsagar is not a normal train stop. But still since lots of tourists come to visit the falls, train stops unofficially. Now the challenge is to actually board the train. You have to fight and board the train because of the huge crowd waiting here.

We had over an hour before the train arrives. We found out that its best to move ahead of the station and wait for the train some distance away from the station. We had our lunch and were waiting for the train. Then began raining heavily. I was completely drenched, and even though we were in rain from yesterday, still I was shivering.

After some we realized the train is coming, We got ready for the final thrill. But we had underestimated the adventure in boarding a train. The train was stopped much before its supposed to stop, that means much earlier from where we were waiting. Some guys had apparently forced it to stop there, thinking it may not stop. We ran towards the train, were shocked to see everyone hanging from the compartments. No way we could climb over them, with our heavy backpacks. We kept running past overflowing compartments. I was afraid if I can board the train, then at last we were relieved to find it was possible to board a compartment.
We hopped on, and enjoyed the rest of the journey sitting near doors.

The route which we followed. Click on the Placemarks for the details


View BASCO-DA-gama 3 in a larger map

Sunday, June 9, 2013

The Adventures in Kabbinale forest

Photo Courtesy: Afzalul Haque Ansari

This was different, this time it was real. We had a real adventure. We have an actual thrilling story to tell. The place we visited is the notorious Ombattu Gudda. Every trekker's dream is conquering OG. It is one of the most dangerous and mysterious places. It has unfortunately claimed few lives, and everyone even with a GPS gets lost here. This mysterious peak is not even the tallest in the forest range, but still somehow it has managed to get the attention, and every one dreams of finding it.

Planning

After my last trek to Vallarimala, I was excited. Vellaramiala was the most difficult trek, but also this was the first time we were almost entirey inside forest for the complete trek.. Mostly the popular trekking places are grasslands, where you get mind blowing views of surrounding terrain. But the most difficult and challenging treks are inside forest reserves, where you donot even get to see the sky for most part of the trek. Vellarimala was the second type. After coming back I was thrilled with the experience. I wanted to do some real exploratory treks, not just following some simple trails or following someone else. I wanted to really explore and find out the route all by myself. Thats when Ashok suggested OG. I started reading about it on blogs. Initially it was easy to scare you to hell. Any blog you read begins by celebrating the mystery surrounding OG. Everyone said it is impossible to do it without GPS and maps. But as I read more and more, it grabbed my interest. It was as if we have to give it a try.

Our planning started, but the trouble was monsoon had already begun. And heading out to OG in monsoon was a strict NO-NO. But we could not wait, we were overly excited. And add to it none of us have a GPS. We started by forming a group, I made sure only experienced trekkers joined our group. Luckily at the end we formed the best group possible, all of us had trekked together sometime earlier. Arghya, Dyut, Ashok, Afzal and myself., 5 the perfect number.

Shopping

Other than gathering lots of information from all the blogs, we had to do major shopping for this trek. The shopping experience itself was interesting. We went to 2 major shopping places in bangalore. the KR Market and Shivaji Nagar. KR Market is the wholesale market. Nothing can beat the experience of visiting these narrow lanes full of thousands of shops as compared to the Big shopping Malls that's currently trending.
1. Sickle, a very important tool for venturing in forests. 120/- from KR Market
2. 50 mtr of 10 mm thick Rope, 700/- KR Market
3. Torch, 200/- KR Market, another life saver.
4. Dry tobacco leaves, 10/- KR Market, as a Leech repellent.
5. Leech Socks, 250/- Shivaji Nagar, another must if visiting forests in monsoon.
7.Maps from Survey of India, Koramangla
8. Orienteering compass, to use with the maps.450/- from Decathlon

We really did an extensive planning, considering everything that can go wrong, and backup plans. I even mailed some of my friends the details of our plan, so that if we donot return by Tuesday, they can send some rescue teams. We had almost everything for the trek, except perhaps the most important thing a GPS. Luckily Ashok had a smartphone and Afzal had the camera with gps, which we can use in worst case.
The maps that we buy from Survey of India donot have any plastic covering, so we cannot use it if its raining. I bought some cellophane papers and covered the entire map with it. I recalled my school craft works while doing this. Later we would realize how important this decision was.

All the planning and shopping had taken a toll on my office work. I had to suffer on friday. I was very tensed, an important customer issue was pending. I was no where near understanding what the issue was. My manager was also sitting with me to debug the case. It was already 7.30pm and I had planned to return home by 6pm. After some time we gave up, I told my manager I would be leaving and would continue the work on monday. I hurriedly packed up reached home by 8pm.

The Journey begins...

Myself and Ashok left from indiranagar at 10pm, and reached majestic just in time. Our bus was headed to Kukke Subramanya, but we would get down 30kms before that, at Gundya checkpost. We told our bus conductor to wake us up at Gundya. We settled down in the bus with our luggage.

The "Godsend" CTC Gang

Seeing all the sleeping bags and sleeping mats, some fellow passengers asked us where we were going. We got to know they were also trekkers going to Kukke Subramnanya to trek in Kumara Parvata. They were from CTC, Chennai Trekking Club. They were actually surprised to hear we were going to Gundya. We got to know, they were pretty experienced trekkers. They had been nearby and around Ombattu Gudda(OG) 3-4 times. They expressed their concern that OG is very dangerous, it is not recommended for first timers to go there without GPS, that also in monsoon. Then we had a lengthy discussion, they were kind enough to share their experiences and they gave us lots of tips. They told us a lot of things about the forests, snakes, elephants, the river, the confusing trails. They were almost God-Sent for us. We had read lots of things on internet, but all the knowledge that they shared with us on the bus was extremely helpful. We even opened the maps and studied it with torches inside the bus. After all their warnings and caution some of us were having second thoughts. I was actually more excited.

We got some rest in the bus, the roads in these hilly regions are not actually made for comfortable ride. Winding roads, speeding bus,  the constant brakes were highlights of the night. Early morning 5am we got down at gundya. It was pitch dark. We were still felling sleepy, everyone scrambled in the dark and we planned to get ready in a tea shop. We shared our loads, changed our dresses, and wore our leech socks. By the time we were ready it was bright light outside. Last night the trekkers in the bus told us entering the Kabbinale reserve forest was not allowed. So we had planned to get inside the forest by dark, but our plan was not working because it was already bright sunlight outside at 6am.

Gundya

We started walking from the gundya check-post towards the Kabbinale river bridge. Its about 2kms. On the way, there were some shops, where a guy was screaming and asking if we have permission to enter the forest, but we ignored him and continued waling. After some time we reached the bridge.

 There was a small off-road like a Jeep track leading to the right after the bridge. It looked like the trail into Kabbinale reserve forest. We started walking on that route. There were quite a few houses by the side of the jeep trail. we could also see the Kabbinale river flowing by our right. Slowly we lost the sight of the river, but still we could hear it flowing.
We encountered a small trail leading into the forest, but separate from this trail by a ditch. We were not sure whether to go straight or follow the right deviation. Since the river was on our right and we were sure we have to follow the river, so we took the right deviation after crossing the small ditch. After which we entered the dense forest.

The Forest Trail


We soon realized that maintaining your location on the map was not easy. We were just 2-3kms from the start of the trail, but we were already not sure where exactly are we on the map.
After walking for some distance we decided to get ourselves walking sticks, We used the sickle for cutting out our walking sticks. A walking stick is very helpful in forest treks, they definitely distribute some weight over your hand, help in river crossing, or even for defense against wild animals.
Leeches were not new for me, but for Arghya, Dyut and Ashok it was creating lots of problems. They would stop every now and then to get rid of it. Stopping to get rid of leeches is a very bad idea. In these forests, if you stop for even a few seconds there will be more leeches climbing than you can get rid of..

We encountered quite a lot of diversions on the trail. Dyut was marking on the trees using the sickle at all the deviations By now we realized that most of the actual trails were missing from the map. The map was created in 1970, so obviously a lot has changed since then. But the most important guidance for this trek is the Kabbinale river. We were sure it was on our right. So we mostly chose the trail moving to the right on all the diversions. Initially the river flow was audible but after some time we had to try hard to listen to it. We also encountered a couple of small streams on our way, so our shoes and  socks were already wet.
We tried to stop a couple of times and guess our location on the map. By now we had to ignore the leeches climbing up our shoes and socks.
We used the compass to make sure we were heading towards North or North East.
Along the trail, quite a couple of places trees would be blocking the path, but always there was a trail bypassing the fallen tree. Which suggested, they were lying there for a long time. We were walking at a decent pace, looking out for snakes or other wild animals. The most interesting experience of these forests is all the unique sounds that you can listen, various birds and insects making distinct sounds if you keep quite.

One thing was for sure, according to our readings of blogs, the initial walk through the forest was a jeep trail and is very easy. The tough part was supposed to start after we cross the Kabbinale river. But we were already completely confused and not sure which path to take at any diversion and where on the map we were.

At a point I noticed we were walking South, but we ignored it thinking the road could not go straight all the way, and that it would head north very soon.

At last the river...


After a long walk we finally reached the river. We were greatly relieved, the river is the only landmark in this dense forest, which can help us in navigation. All of us sat beside the river stream, for the much needed rest. Now the task was to find out where exactly did we reach. If we were on right path this will be after Kabbinale river splits into Kabbinale and Addahole, otherwise we were somewhere before the river splits.

There was no way for us to be sure where we are. I suspected we have reached Kabbinale river before it splits, because of the direction the river was flowing. But rivers anyway have lots of twists and turns, to get a better view of the river we planned to cross the river. The other bank seems to give a better view of the flowing direction of river. The river was not very strong, the water level was little above our ankle. But the under current was very strong. We had to use our sticks to get a stable hold. Finally all of us crossed the river safely.

The view of the meandering river is awesome, both sides of the river covered with dense forest, with trees hanging on to the river, it looked marvellous. But we were still not sure of our location on the map. Finally we decided to use the gps on Ashok's mobile, even Afzal had a GPS on his camera. Both tried to get the coordniates from their GPS devices. While their devices were searching for satellite signals, we had our breakfast. Goodlife milk with kellogs chocos and some fruits. Enough to fill our empty stomachs.

And then luckily we got gps coordinate from both devices. When we tried to locate it on our maps, we were Astonished. We were completely off track. We were just 6-7 kms from our starting point, much before the point where the river splits. As we were always trying to get closer to the river, and always taking the right deviations on the trail, we had taken some wrong trail and reached the river much earlier than we had planned to. At this point I was both amused and afraid. We had managed to get lost in the forest in the first 7kms of our 21 kms of trek. We thought that reaching the point where Kabbinale splits onto Addahole would be easiest part of the trek, but we were so wrong. Now we were too afraid to continue our trek to OG, without a proper GPS, we were bound to get lost. From this point at least we can trace back our path with the markings we made. Luckily this place had a clear sky view, so we got the GPs readings, otherwise we would have continued walking on a wrong trail without realising where we are going.


The Riverside Exploration

After some discussion we decided to return to the other bank and continue walking for some distance along the Kabbinale river, then camp in the forest for tonight and trace back our path tomorrow. So we had given up our plans to attempt OG, our new objective was to just explore this place.

Dyut and Arghya crossed over to the other side. Suddenly Dyut screamed, he saw an elephant crossing the stream. All of us were excited and tried to get a glimpse, but only Dyut and Arghya were lucky enough. They saw the elephant emerged from the forest and entered the river. Apparently the elephant was completely under the water while crossing, which gave us an idea of how deep the water is just ahead of us.

After this sure sign of elephants being present so near us inside the forest, we continued our journey. This time we walked on a trail just beside the river. River was almost always visible to our right. I have always wanted a trek where we walk beside a river. And this was a dream come true. Sometimes we could see the sky, walking over rocks, and sometimes we had to climb into the dense forest where the vegetation blocked the sky.








Soon we reached what looked like a rocky river bed. We stretched out and relaxed here for sometime. Not that we were tired, but since we did not have a concrete plan of reaching a particular destination. We were much more relaxed. We did not try to hurry, we were enjoying the experience. Often in such treks, when we have a plan to reach a destination, we miss out a lot of fun due to the strict schedule. After some rest we continued our journey.

Whats amazing about this kabbinale forest is that, there is no single trail which you can follow. Quite frequently there were diversions, some trails which went deeper into the forest., but we always chose to keep the river by our side and followed it. In a way this turned out to be a real exploratory trek. But we need atleast 3-4 days to explore this forest. Since we had to get back to Gundya by tomorrow afternoon, we could not afford to get lost inside the forest. So we chose to stay by the river and so that we could backtrack it tomorrow. The river is the only landmark which one can use in these forests to estimate their direction.

The Heavenly Dip

We reached a big rock beside the river. We found a small safe place, where we could sit and bath in the river. This place was safe because it was away from the main flow of the river. The river was sort of cut of into two by a bigger rock ahead of us, and the tinier part of the river was flowing by our rock. Actually these rivers are extremely dangerous, its almost strict rule to never bath here. We only decided to take a dip after checking and cross checking the safety of the place.

Just imagine, the kabbinale  river, dense forest cover on both sides, clouded sky, presence of wild animals, and absence of any human being at least 10-15kms around us, actually you cannot imagine. You are at peace, you are relaxed, at the same time you are excited, and alert. For me, nothing can beat this experience, sound of the flowing river, green trees all around the river as far as you can see. What makes the river more appealing is the sight of the flowing river. You can see upto quite a distance until the river decides to bend around and hide. And knowing that there is so much unexplored region just ahead of you is amazing.

Camping the tents

After finishing the heavenly bath, we had our lunch. It seemed this adventurous trek was turning out into a picnic.
Soon it started to rain. and since we have changed to fresh clothes after bathing, our only set of dry clothes got wet. This place on the rock was a very good camping spot. We decided to camp on the rocks, as we may not find a better place if we move ahead. It was not possible to set up our tents inside the jungle because of abundant leeches, and also there is very little chance of finding a clearing for two tents in the forest. So we cleared up some bushes and set up our tents on the rock. Rest of the evening was uneventful. We spent some time sitting beside the river, gossiping, enjoying its flow and sleeping inside the tents when it was raining.

The Mysterious Intruder

I was awakened from my nap, when Ashok started making some noise from the other tent.
While Dyut, Arghya and myself were in one tent, Ashok and Afzal were in the other tent. It was already dark outside and it was raining continuously. We were startled, both Ashok and afzal say that they heard some footsteps very near to their tent.
Now began the tensed part of our trip. My heart beat increased. There were lots of concerns that we had overlooked in the afternoon.

We were camping beside a river, and animals could come here to drink water. Ashok and Arghya went out with torch and scouted our surroundings for presence of any human or animal, but there was nothing. We were now making plans of how to escape or what to do if attacked by some animal, or atleast what to do if we spot some animal. Everyone was making crazy ideas, like afzal suggested cutting the other side of tent and running away, as if we can outrun them. Mostly the only thing that keeps wild animals at bay in forests is a fire. But that was not possible in this rain. For our satisfaction we kept a torch hanging inside our tent. I have no idea how animals react if they see the light, will it intrigue them and bring them closer for inspection or will they be frightened and go away.
From now on we decided to stay together, so all 5 of us were cramped inside out T3 tent. We had to be alert, everyone tried to listen carefully to any sounds around us. As it was already raining with blowing wind, and a flowing river there was lots of action outside our tent. Every now and then one of us would sit upright and try to explain the source of some strange noise. We were imagining all kinds of things by just our heightened sense of hearing. When we think of it in retrospect, it seems funny, but at that time we were really tensed. Even repenting our decision to come here.

The Underestimated Kabbinale River

This time special planning had gone into our food. We were prepared with packed food, aware that we would not have the luxury of any kind of fire for cooking in this heavy rain. After finishing our dinner we were ready to go to sleep. Till now we didnot go out of our tent because of the non-stop rain.
I went with Afzal out of our tent to fetch something from Afzal's tent. It was already completely dark, and it was still raining. I just wandered close to the river and was really surprised to notice the water level had risen considerably. It was time to panic, I called others outside, everyone was shocked. The river water level was now a serious threat, if it continued to rise, our camping spot, the rock would be flooded. We waited for sometime, estimating at what rate water was rising. We all took out our torches and surveyed the surrounding areas, for possible places from where the river could overflow.

We were camping on a huge rock and the forest was there about 10-20 meters behind us.
And soon our conclusion was that the rock would be flooded within an hour or two, so PANIC. Everyone hurried to prepare their bags, we packed everything from inside the tents into our bags and were ready within 20-30mins. We packed one tent but left other tent as it is. The water level had not risen much in past hour. We left our bags here and went towards the forest to scout for some camping spots. But we were already afraid of getting inside the forest. We were even keeping our feet on the rocks carefully scanning for snakes, leeches and other possibly life threatening creatures. We could not find any safer higher ground, suitable for putting up our camp. The forest is extremely dense, with scarce flat clear ground. And anyway we were warned of deadly snakes in these forests. So venturing inside the forest in this dark night is out of question. During these times all of our new torches came real handy. They were powerful and gave at least some amount of confidence. You cannot afford to miss this important piece of tool. Each and Everyone must have their personal working powerful torches, when we camp at night in these jungles.

Anyway after spending some time standing at the edge of the forest, we realized we cannot move our tent anywhere else. So perhaps we have to spend the night out in the open waiting for the river to flood. By this time it had again started raining. We went to our camping spot and sat on the rock, watching the ferocious river flowing. We spent lots of tensed moments unsure of what to do next, feeling damn cold because of the rain and completely drenched upto our inner-wears. Then we had to make some decision, it would be difficult to spend the entire cold night out in the open, under the rain. We were already watching the river for a couple of hours now, and i think we understood that its not going to overflow after all. It would require huge amount of rain to cause a flash flood, and only then could this rock be possibly drowned. Earlier we were just frightened by the much increased force of flow of the river since morning.
Finally we decided to go inside the tent, and every hour one of us would go out and monitor the water level. All 5 of us slept inside the T3 tent, and every hour one of us would wake up to go and see the water level.

The New Day



Tired and lazy we woke up next day early morning. We were too happy to have survived the ordeal last night. After finishing morning chores and having breakfast, we packed up everything. Now we would follow our trail back to Gundya. I would never forget this place where we camped. Perhaps one of the best places I have camped. The view of fierce Kabbinale river flowing with full force, the dense jungles on both sides, and the unexplored regions as far as you can see along the banks of the river. We took some photos before leaving this place.








We started our trek back on the trail we came yesterday. Last night's heavy rain after-effects were visible on the river. We were actually startled to realize that at one place, the river bed where we were relaxing yesterday, was now completely under water. Most of the jungle had changed overnight.  We did not take chances with exploring new trails. Whenever the trail diverted inside the forest, we came back and followed the river instead. We followed the river till the point where we had crossed it yesterday.

You realize how dangerous this place is in monsoon when we saw that it was literally impossible to cross the river today. Yesterday, we had crossed the river to get a better view of the trail, and after that we crossed it back to return to the trail.
Luckily today we were on the right side of the river, if by chance we had camped on the other side, we would be in serious trouble today. The river flow, its width and depth, everything had increased many-folds. We could not recognize the place until we saw our marks on the trees. We thanked God for our luck, and followed the trail into the forest.

From this point on, we would not be following the river. We had to rely on the sickle marks that we made yesterday. This was another extremely important thing that we did yesterday. We had marked at some points on the trail with a sickle on the trees. Without which it would be extremely difficult to come out of the forest. The important thing is to make some permanent marks, which would survive something like the heavy rain. There were lots of deviations on the trail. We had a lot of difficulty in finding the actual trail, since there were lots of deviations where we didnot mark our route.

This is the same trail which we followed yesterday, but such terrains can change overnight. We had already seen how the river was not comparable to yesterday. Even the forest had changed, with visible destruction by elephants and elephant's dung all along the trail, we were scared. We were lucky to have missed any serious threat from any wildlife in these forests.

Except few places where Afzal and Dyut could identify the trail, we had a really tough time finding the correct trail. We were now thinking we should have made our marks on the trees more frequently.
At one point, we had some clearing, so Ashok and Afzal tried to get their GPS coordinates. After a long wait, finally we had some coordinates, but it was way off on our maps. we were much more west on the map from our trail. It did not make any sense, so either the map was wrong, or the GPS was wrong or we were again lost. Still we had no choice, so we continued following the trail. At some point we found a couple of villagers working in the forest, we were actually relieved to see some signs of civilization. Still we didnot interact with them, since we were illegally inside the Kabbinale Reserve forests. We got past them hurriedly.

Back to civilization


After a long hike, we finally could see the actual point from where our trek started yesterday. We were all so excited to return back to civilization safely. Even few hours earlier, we were not sure where we are, and when can we exit the forest. This is the first time we were so  happy that our trek was over. We were now thinking of all the things that could have gone wrong during this trek. I think we made good decisions, had a good team, and a lot of luck.
After our excitement was reduced, it was time for getting rid of leeches. Since we were wearing leech socks, leeches had climbed up to find a suitable place to bite. so my pants, jacket, rain coat everything was full of leeches. I had several leech bites on my neck and hands and of-course legs. The most challenging task was to get rid of leeches inside our shoes and socks. One leech was hiding inside my shoes, which bit me while returning on the bus.

Finally we had a quick dip in the kabbinale river near the village. Then we called up hiranya to book the return KSRTC bus to Bangalore from Kukke Subramanya online.  We went to Kukke by bus from Gundya check post. We had ample time till evening so explored Kukke, and even went to base of Kumara Parvata.

Lessons Learned

Well definitely the best (mis)adventure till date. Lots of first time experiences. Saved from plenty of possible mishaps. Definitely a new respect for Forests, rivers and the wild. And lastly the burning desire to RETURN to these forests.


Sunday, May 12, 2013

Vellarimala, Monsoon Rainforest Wild adventure in Mid Summer

Aching knees and limping legs, leech bite marks all over the feet, tired body, almost 3 sleepless nights but a refreshed and rejuvenated mind, well what can be better than that on a Monday morning.
Back from another awesome adventure, and this is a painfully long log of everything that went on in my mind related to this trek.

Preamble

My gmail desktop notification popped, a mail from BASC, Jinu John is organizing a trek. I just glimpsed through the mail, all I noticed was Kerala and 36+ kms. I had heard Jinu's name a lot of times. I did not think twice, just that I have to go on this trek. Quickly called Afzal, asked him to register. Since it was already past 4pm, I knew I cannot send the advance amount to Jinu to confirm my seat for the trek. Still I scheduled the transaction for next day and sent money for myself and Afzal, and hurriedly filled the BASC registration form. My past experience with BASC was that it is very very difficult to get a seat in such treks with BASC.

Well I was very excited when I realized Jinu has called me, he told me that we are going to some different place, which is very difficult. I was like whatever the place, whatever the distance, please, I want to join. But I was let down when Jinu told Afzal would be on the waiting list since he registered a little late. So this was going to be the first time I would trek with a group of complete strangers. Last time atleast afzal was there.

Food

Well those who have trekked with me would know. During every trek I carry enough food to make sure I am not starving at any time during the trek. More than 60-70% of my bag weight has to be food. This time also I had an elaborate plan and shopping over 3 days from different super markets to stock up my food supply. Here is a list of food items I carried.
1. Sprouts (moong, kala chana, soybeans) + dates 
2. Peanuts + roasted chana
3. Maiyas kachori, (they were too good.!)
4. croissant cream cake
5. Orange, Apple, Guava, Banana
6. My cook prepared an awesome Raw mango curry, and paratha with curd. That would stay good for at least 3 days.

The Race begins...

The Rush begun on Friday eve. I reached home early from office. Hurriedly packed everything. Ran to bus stop to catch the 8pm direct bus to MCTC. After waiting till 8.10pm , some good fellows sitting at the bus stop told me the bus has left early, Damn, I have to change buses. The next bus came and stopped a bit ahead at the signal, I ran to get on the bus. Got down at Ulsoor police station. Damn I realized the bus stop is at Lido. Again run, I rushed from Uldoor police station to Lido bus stand when I saw the bus to KR market just starting to leave, I again ran and got on the bus. Again got down at KR Market, all the while noting that its alreay 9pm. Again ran to cross the road and catch another bus to Satellite bus stand. And finally reached MCTC stand by  9.15pm, just in time to get the bus.

Bangalore to Thamarassery, Kerala

Our bus from Bangalore Satellite bus stand to Calicut was a KSRTC, Kerala State Transport bus. Well if you have traveled in a Karnataka KSRTC bus, then just remember this is not that. We spent the night somehow in the bus. At some time it was pitch dark and our bus driver stopped, saying he might have taken wrong route. Some of us got down, how can I miss this chance to stretch out, after sitting still for so long. The star filled night sky was marvelous, I though we must come to such a place just for star gazing sometime.

After reaching Thamarassery 2 hours late, we missed our bus to Mutthappan Puzha and had to take a Jeep.

Mutthappan Puzha

We started the trek pretty late, from the village of Mutthappan Puzha. In retrospect that was not good, we should always start any trek as early as possible, so that we can spend more time during the trek.
The initial walk is through a small village and slowly we ascend and enter the forest. We reached a small stream and stopped for breakfast. We had just covered a very small distance ascending, but already I was repenting all the extra food items that made my bag heavier. So I made sure I ate as much as possible from the food in my bag and also shared it with others to reduce some weight.

We had a brief intro session and our trek started.

Hike Begins

As we slowly march into the forest, we realize there is no proper trail. The forest floor was covered with wet leaves and boulders layered with moss, which make walking much difficult. And surely after some time we encounter Western Ghat's most favorite creature Leeches. Not something you would expect in mid May summer. It was nature's own way to resent any foreign entry like ours. Very soon I got stamped by blood sucking leech for intruding in their jungle. Well normally we preach leeches are harmless creatures, you should not bother about them bla bla bla. But whatever I donot like the sight of those slimy crawling things up my body. So I had to constantly check my shoes and pluck out candidate blood suckers.

The forest inflicts its own discipline as our team of 17 trekkers march in a meandering line as the ascend starts to increase gradually.

In most of Western Ghat treks you either walk in grasslands or inside dense forests. Vellarimala Trek was chosen by Jinu, since it is completely forest covered trek, ideal for summer. Soon we realized that it was really a good decision, even though we were trekking throughout the mid day, the complete sky was hidden from us. All you could see was forest cover.

Olichuhattam




After a few hours of walking inside forest finally we could see some sky. We reached the huge water falls of Olichuhattam. If you google vellarimala the images that come up, are actually of this falls, a huge rock and a small stream of water dripping down. It is very tempting to climb the rock. And without wasting any time, I started climbing it. The thrill of climbing a rock parallel to a water fall is awesome. Well before I could continue my adventures further, Jinu spotted me and I was called down.
This was the first time we were out of forest and we got something worth clicking, so everyone with a camera was busy clicking. After some rest we resumed our expedition.


Our next stop was the top of Olichuhattam falls. Interestingly if we have ropes we can manage to rock climb and reach the top, but like normal people we trekked through the forest to reach here. We spent quite some time here, some people had a bath in the water stream, some of us were just content with dipping our legs in the cold water. I did not feel like jumping into the water, well because there was not enough water to jump into, it was max knee deep.During monsoon it must be difficult even to cross this stream. We finished our lunch here. And of course my cook's Raw Mango curry was a sooper hit, which I shared with others.

This was our last major halt. Now we had to hurry to reach the peak before it gets dark.
Muthukumar told that we were at an altitude of about 1000mtrs, and our destination was 2000mtrs. So I thought good we have done almost 50%, but as we later realized the climb had just begun.

On the way we crossed another almost dried stream, named Anathetti. Where an elephant had supposedly slipped, hence the name.



We were now into much denser forest. Slowly distance between first person and the last person increased considerably perhaps about 40-50mins. The climb was much steeper now, and as the pace of our group slowed, Jinu kept screaming, move fast, not to stop, its getting darker, it will start raining etc etc.

For some time I tried to be sweeper, the last guy, but as the ascend increased it was more difficult to go slow. So I started walking faster and reached somewhere in the middle of our group. We were all very tired, halting after almost every 10-20 steps and panting like anything. Everyone had the same question, how much more to go. Meanwhile we kept screaming to know the trail from the guy ahead and communicate the same to the group behind. The group ahead of me was no where to be seen, occasionally I could just hear them scream back. The climb was more than 50-60 degrees by now. I was sweating like hell. Every time I would climb one patch and look up, one more curve would be laughing ahead.
Tired Pratap takes a break 
At last I could feel there is open sky at some distance. I screamed back at others behind me, I think we have reached. And yes I could hear Achintya telling some stories to the others, who were sitting and waiting for us.

Huff, at last reached the peak. Hey wait a minute, this is the peak, but where is the cliff, where is the view. Then we realized this is just the first flat terrain since we started trekking. We halt here, and after everyone reaches here we continue our climb. Well if you think you are sweating badly, very tired, etc etc and you will just lie down and rest here, then forget it. This place was infested with some special kind of flies, which bite. Yes they actually bite. So instead of sitting calmly and resting we have to keep fighting with the flies. Now as everyone started reaching, we were cracking jokes, as the flies got new sweating victims.

Ketan Para


After everyone reached, we left the clearing and entered the forest to reach our camping site. Now we were walking on much flatter terrain. Jinu spotted some elephant dung, which was not fresh. Now we became aware of the presence of wild animals. After a couple of minutes we walked out of forest, and reached Ketan Para, the first place to have some decent view of the Vellarimala Range however covered with mist. After some resting and eating we started to walk towards REC para. Jinu told REC guys had first found that camping spot, thats why the name. Well it was the only place which had a water source nearby.





REC para

Very soon we reached REC para, our camping spot. Drop the bags and rest was the first task.
After getting refreshed at the water source, our cooking session begun. Jinu was the head chef for the night. We were his helpers. Lots of controversial methods had to be adopted while cooking. Floating insects like spiders in our boiling water added that unknown mysterious components to our food which made it yummy!!
Oh and elephant dung worked as purifiers inside our water source.
After a long cooking session and yummy dinner, we were ready for the most awaited event of the day SLEEP.
A camp fire was setup, where we all gathered after dinner. Our guides suspected the presence of Tigers in nearby areas. The fire is supposed to be the only thing that could keep the animals away. Well that was the news that made our dull Night somewhat exciting. We were already aware of wild elephants by their omnipresent Elephant dungs, and now Tigers, Cool !
Four of us arranged to sleep under a tarpaulin to save us from the rain. So all of us got inside our sleeping bags, trying to get a good sleep. After some time I became aware of the rain, but where is my tarpaulin cover!! Unfortunately the spot we chose to sleep was a slope, and I wast the first person, so all of us had slipped down the slope. And Now I was outside the tarpaulin, on the rocks, under the rain. While other three were safely tugged inside the now spacious tarpaulin cover. Fortunately it was just drizzling, and my sleeping bag was capable enough to save me from getting wet.

After another sleepless night, with a few naps thrown in the entire night, I finally got out of my sleeping bag late morning. We had our breakfast. Jinu prepared the special Vellarimala tea with whatever he could lay his hands on like the leftover puliyogare. We had another round of introductions, then waited for sometime for the drizzling to stop.

For most of us this was one of the best part of the entire trek. We would leave our backpacks here at the camp and we will go to the Vavulmala, the highest peak in the range.
Our camping spot

Vavulmala

The moment we entered the jungle I exclaimed awesome! There was no visible trail from REC para to Vavulmala. We would be following animal trails through bushes to reach the peak. Our trail was strewn with Bison Dung, we were supposedly following bison trails. Jinu mentioned they were better known as Gaur, and not Bison. Well we chose to stick with bison, as it sounded more frightening. Without our heavy backpacks,  inside the dense forest, ducking and going through bushes, the experience was great. Several times we emerged from the forest, and were greeted by awesome mist covered view of nearby ranges.  










Finally after several minutes we reached the peak rock of Vavulmala. The view has to be seen to be believed. Unbelievable beauty, our eyes feasted with the view of the surrounding peaks, had lots of photo sessions .After everyone was satisfied we started returning to our base camp.










Inspecting a crack in the rocks



Jinu with our guides







 I was again as usual the last person marching with the group. I find the idea of being alone in these forests extremely thrilling, but since that would be too much to ask for, I satisfy myself by ensuring there is no one behind me. And I occasionally look back to feel the excitement of undisturbed calmness of this place.

We reached our base camp, and were already late. We packed up hurriedly and started our trek back to civilization.

The Return 

Contrary to what we expected, our return journey was much more challenging. We had to climb down steep trails, which were full of moss covered boulders and wet leaves. It was all an extremely careful setup to make sure we slipped and fell over several times. And don't forget our dear leech friends, waiting at strategically located points to stick themselves up human bodies.
We were already running short of time, had to hurry down, otherwise we would miss our last bus. But climbing down in these slippery terrain made us slow. At least we were making very few halts. We had our major break only while crossing the stream on top of Olichuhattam. When we reached the stream, the first group was already waiting there for a long time. They became restless and decided to go ahead, while we rest near the stream for some time.
We resumed our descend after some time, the trail was much less steeper from now onward. I was no longer the last person after this point, some others were still at the falls. Jinu asked us to hurry or we would not get time to bath at the base, so I went ahead instead of waiting for others.

If the climb up was about sweating and panting, the down journey was about aching knees and paining leg muscles.

After perhaps almost an hour we met others who had started from olichuhattam before us. There was some commotion, and they asked if Megha was with us. Everyone looked at each other's face, we had seen Megha leave with the Girish and co., after that none of us saw her. Apparently Megha could not keep up with them and was supposed to join us. Jinu was still not here, he was with the last group of guys. It was panic time, Megha was missing. Meanwhile we sent back one of our guides, to inform Jinu and search for her. We tried our cell phones but of course no signal. We were all very tensed, the forest is extremely treacherous, she must have taken some wrong trail. Meanwhile everyone else arrived and we assembled outside the forest, waiting for Jinu. After some time, Jinu and rescue team returned with Megha, amidst lots of cheering and applaud. Apparently they heard here screaming somewhere near the falls.

This was quite an unexpected experience, we should be very careful while in such big groups inside forests. Always keep in sight someone ahead and behind you, we should not break into smaller groups, and stay together. Also whistle helps to communicate your position, as you may not always have the energy to scream.

Well we were already very very late, we had reached the villages of Mutthappan puzha. Some of us wanted to take a dip in the stream (after being in the same dress since friday night, without any bath), but Jinu came running and asked us to come out, and hurry if we want to catch the last bus. We climbed out of the stream, without being able to touch the water, and started running towards the bus stop.
 After some time one of our guides came on bike and informed the bus has already left. Well thats it, at least we can stop running now. It was already very dark, while we were resting at the bus stop, Jeeps were arranged.
 We reached tamaraserry had dinner and got on our Karnataka KSRTC bus. We were all very tired, and the pushback seats atleast helped us rest for the night.
And thus our expedition was concluded


Travel Tips:
1. Bangalore to Thamarassery
  - All buses to Calicut, Kerala will stop at Thamarassery.
  - Remember to book KSRTC bus tickets at least 2 weeks in advance, otherwise difficult to get a seat.
2. Thamarassery has a bus to Mutthappan Puzha at around 7.30am, so if you reach early then only you can catch the bus, otherwise have to take a Jeep from the bus stand.
3. Trek starts from Mutthappan Puzha,
    - Forest office permission is required, but it is difficult to get.
    - If you have arranged a guide who can arrange permission then good.
    - Anyway you should arrange some locals as your guide, not wise to go in without guides.
4. Last bus from Muthappan Puzha is around 7pm. If you fail to catch the bus, it may be difficult to arrange alternate transport.
5. KSRTC buses to bangalore are available from Thamarassery town.
    - Remeber to have the contact number of bus conductor.
    - You have to reach the particular point where the bus stops, its not the normal bus stand.