Sleep was expected in the warmth of newly bought sleeping bag. Tiredness from a trek of around 15 km was supposed to push us to deep sleep. But sound sleep never arrived. It was so hot and humid that sleeping bag was used as pillow. Due to some unknown reason, I did not get good sleep at all. May be it was first sign of what was about to come!
By the way I did not get sleep in tent during my ‘Kumara Parvata’ trek as well. When I finally decided to come out of the tent, it was around 5:45 AM. Couple of guys from our group were seen roaming around. Flowing river was next to us and there was no issue for morning activities. By the time everyone got ready to start, it was around 7:30. Jeevan’s bag parted way with the second strap as well on Day 1 evening, just before we reached the falls. Again the bag was fixed with some rope work and the load of that was shared. Stale ‘Rotti’ was disposed there(!). Again this was supposed to be last point where we get water before we complete the trek. So everyone of us filled ‘enough’ water for us. It was to time to enter forest again following in a visible human trail.
Trek on Day 1 was tough. Soon we realized it would tougher on day 2. The forest was denser and tougher was our journey. Shashi was leading us again. With new hope, under the shadow of trees canopy, we were walking on what seemed like a trail made by living beings. Even the path was not straight forward. We had to make our way through some plans which had thorns. Thorns which were not seen till they introduced themselves to us with a mark they made on our palms and arms. Cute looking creepers seems to have liked us. While we made our way through a small tree/plant by ducking or pushing the plant aside, those cute creepers would ‘catch’ our backpack/sleeping bags/us and refused to let go. Those creepers were so strong that they did not budge to our full strength pull or push. Finally we had to surrender to them and take help from someone behind (from our group) to break the deadlock between us and creepers. They had to pull the creepers up or push the entangled person down to free him. At times I had to crawl to avoid those creepers. I recalled creepers catching humans in Hollywood thrillers. Similar was our fate, as most of the times had not noticed the creepers till they caught us. This was the case with young creepers. Old roots/creepers also played game with us. They were few inches above the ground and we had to carefully cross it. Sometimes I felt they were hidden under the soil and whenever we come near, it would come out to catch us. Several times I got my foot stuck in such roots and somehow managed my balance. But on one occasion, I misread the height of a root got misbalanced and fell down and hurt my knees. Pain killer spray got some relief for me. At this time, our group was split into 2 and I was in the group which was behind. After taking rest for couple of minutes we started again and found others waiting for us. Though there was some talks of having breakfast, it was ruled out as we were deep in the forest and were hoping to reach grassland soon(that was what we thought.)
Soon the visible trail disappeared.. We were moving ahead by checking the map , compass and GPS. Map used to come out every five minutes. Sometimes we used to spread the map on the dried leaves to see it clearly. Trek continued in the forest till we hit a road block again! An uprooted huge tree blocked our path this time and the way forward was not clear. Shashi was also not clear if they traced same path in his earlier trek. Nitin went alone little further and did not find proper way and came back. It was almost noon. But again breakfast was ruled out here as our calculation indicated that we were not far from grassland. unobserved by anybody, our stock of water was slowly reducing. We had the option to go back which was not taken at that point. So it was decided we will go ahead. Next few minutes of trek passed by without any major incidents. Trees canopy slowly started disappearing and sun was seen. A Small peak with small plants was seen at a close distance. Normally huge trees will not be there near the peak. Encouraged by the sight of those small plants, almost ran to reach that peak. Grassland was supposed to be there. And we saw canopy of trees again from there.
Someone accidentally checked his mobile and it got successfully latched to some BTS there. Well BTS is too technical, let’s say we got signal there. It was again indication that we were not far from 9 Gudda peak. It was again time to take out the map. Shashi put his hands into his pouch, came to me and said “give me the map” and I replied “where is it”. If the fact that we were more or less lost in a forest is not enough, here was another shocker for us. Map, which was almost our lifeline was not to be seen. we LOST the MAP! or it was map which decided to lose us, it was we who got stranded in a dense forest without knowing 'proper' way forward. (This was our carelessness. Absolute important thing should’nt have been lost). Going back to look for map was also discussed with that chances that we might have dropped map some where, but that was dropped as it would have been like finding needle in haystack.
With no map, we had only compass and Garmin(GPS) to rely on. Which also meant less accuracy!
It was almost like wandering in the forest for next few minutes. With the path we took since morning, we had to do one more steep climb at some point. At the end of that steep climb, We were supposed to get grasslands and from there walk along the grass lands to reach 9 Gudda peak. But the catch was, we had to start the climb the steep part at the right place. With no map, Shashi took the call. A steep inclination was found, which Shashi felt is the right time and spot, and started climbing and we followed. Everything on Day2 was tougher, so was this Day 2’s steep climb. It was loose soil and small plants/trees, which we planned to use as support spread throughout the inclination, had dried thorns. It was so slippery that I had to pull Kartick up using stick (was strong! which I had used for support) while he held another end. He then used the same idea to pull the guy behind him. Not sure if others followed that idea. But it worked great. Several times I caught a tree stem for support and thorns pierced my palm’s skin. I removed some thorns which was found by me over the tree stem so that other do not face the same fate. While it started to feel that this is never ending climb, heard a long whistle from Shashi and his loud shout from him followed it.
“Grassland!” Those words made me feel that this ordeal is over and perhaps adrenaline inside me kicked in. I climbed fast to reach where Shashi was. I could see Shashi surround by grass around 2-3 feet tall. I reached that spot and turned around to see who is behind. And nature’s beauty caught my eye. It was one of the amazing views of nature. Hills around entire area could be seen from there. Dense and green forest through which we trekked was also seen. Our planned original path was also seen. Smiles on our faces were also seen. What the future of next couple of hours holds for us was not seen.
The place where me and Shashi rested was congested and so Shashi disappeared inside ‘dense grass’ in search of possible path ahead and soon me and Deesu followed him. It was supposed to be a walk in the grass. But it turned out like rubbing salt on the wounds. Literally! Dry grass with tiny thorns on their edges embraced our arms. Inclination was still there and we had to bend our body forward and take support of grass from its root, while our naked sweated arms exposed to grass’s tiny thorns. It was more like sharp edges of grass than thorns. We had to make the our own path through those 3 feet tall grasses. One advantage we had in this climb was the grip we used get over grassed. ‘Sliding down’ part was not there. Without knowledge of how long we had take this grassy path to reach till top and with hope of reaching peak at the end of the grass, we were moving along bearing the pains. Disappointment was waiting for us again. As a bliss, grassland ended, and no prizes for guessing, we found ‘fresh’ tree canopy again. And to add to our woes, we encountered thorny bush beyond which there were trees. We had to cross that somehow to move forward. Without even thinking much, I covered my face and barged through one of the bush, while the thorns caught hold of my sleeping mat and started pulling me back. With full force I pushed myself ahead and may be gave away some tiny pieces of my sleeping mat to that bush and took shelter under a tree. Shashi climbed and tree to check for ‘any’ possible path ahead. Unfortunately no clear path were seen. Deesu and Shashi dropped their backpack near me and went inside the forest to check for the possible ways. I waited to guide the others to push through the bush to reach the place where we took rest. For next few minutes, none of them were seen. But I knew Chandra was near. I could clearly hear his cries of pain while he walked through the thorny grasses.
It took a while before everyone arrived there dropped their backpacks and rested under shade of a tree. It was around 1 PM then and we finally decided it was time for breakfast. It was chapathi with some pickles. And once again idea of going back from there flowed through. At that time I felt that also might be better idea, but the catch was we had to take the same path we travelled since morning for about 5 hours . With time running out, it looked like a bad idea, as it would have been difficult find the river back before sunset. Nitin took the call and rejected the idea of going back. Everyone was sitting facing the direction which we came from. I was facing the opposite direction resting my back on the branch of that tree. I was looking at the ants colony which was next to that tree when I heard sound of some leaves or dry twigs crackling. I looked towards the direction of source of that sound. I was shell shocked with what I saw. May be I did not feel that shock with fear which followed. I felt I saw like something, like a four legged animal walking not far from where we were. I felt it was black in color and had hairs all over its body. I felt like it stopped after seeing us.
Was it a Bear!?
I was about to shout and alert everyone, but stopped and had a look at it again.
Coming up in Part 4 : Conclusion
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