Trekkers on the way down do you no favor by saying the hard part is yet to come, and it’s a km more to go, and the path is only going to get steeper
Bhpian vijayols recently shared this with other enthusiasts:
The trekkers are a strange breed indeed.Crazy lot if I might say so. Imagine trading a nice lazy weekend at home lazing in bed sacrificed for an itinerary which includes braving bangalore traffic in rains to catch a night bus to a destination at a god forsaken time and then hopping on a cramped TT to a homestay to freshen up and leave again by TT to a forest check post 30 kms away and then trekking for 20 kms in pouring rains bitten constantly by leeches only to catch the night bus to return back to Bangalore!
That too by choice.
To be fair, the reality wasn’t as bad as described above. It was far worse. Add a jeep journey with 25 people huddled together like cattle in the back of the trailer, and then finding the jeep stuck in the slushy mud and tilting dangerously on one side, and attempting to pull it back using a rope. Then walking through streams where the cold water has seeped into my shoes and the socks are wet, and your feet slosh in water with every step you take. Meanwhile, it is cold, and the rains are making you feel miserable. The leeches are omnipresent everywhere, and though you are trying your best to keep them at bay by splashing Dettol on them or bearing the stench of tobacco as a liquid concentrate on your skin, only to have a doubt creeping into your mind about how many leeches have breached your defences and are busy sucking the blood of you.
The 10 kms trail though not too difficult for a majority of the trek suddenly rears its head and converts to a steep 70 degree incline and the path becomes narrower but the mud is now slushy and slippery and you have picked trekking shoes which have gone past its life and have become bald on the sole giving you zero grip to tackle the slippery mud. You struggle by trying to clutch on to the shola grass on the sides, only to find that in the thick fog, you mistake thorny bushes for grass and prick your hands.
You finally overcome all of this to finally reach the summit, only to find that bad weather with fog has ensured near-zero visibility. Just when you think things could only get better from here, the magic happens. Fellow trekkers, both strangers and friends, share their lunch and sweet yummies with you as you cheer every new trekker who finally makes it to the summit.
The weather gods then decide to relent, and you are exposed to some breathtaking views of the countryside with rolling green hills and a bed of white clouds below you. At that moment, you realize it was all worth it and you are already discussing the next trek with your fellow trekkers.
I guess the pictures should speak for themselves.
The non-poisonous garden snake is common in this area.
Our Jeep is stuck in the mud. As a senior citizen, I alone had the privilege of a front cabin seat.
Rains everywhere.From the home stay.
One of the many streams on the trail.
Low visibility while we headed to the summit.
The slushy mud road.Coupled with water inside the shoes while crossing streams on the trail.
The rains stopped, but we were unsure if raincoats needed to be removed.
All Shola grass and green mountains when the weather cleared.
The curly touch me not bug. Much preferred to the neech leech.
The Summit. Where we all met for lunch.
Vali’s footprint.
Under ideal conditions it would have been a sea of white clouds.
The clouds are playing peek a boo with the mountain view.
Yours Truly. Only old age can make you thick-skinned to wearing orange color covers over a bright yellow color trek bag and a red color rain pants. The guys were joking that besides the Great Wall of China I could be spotted from the space station by our space man Shukla Ji.
And when the clouds parted.
The sun was now shining bright.
And then it became misty again.
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