Distance - 590km
Time - 13hrs
non-stop travel - 250km
distance per hour - 45kmph
mileage - 15.7 ltr - 37.5 kmpl
bangalore - halebedu - belur - mudigere - hosakote - sakaleshpur - hassan - bangalore
Got the bike serviced, bike insurance renewed, emission test done all on a Friday before my bike trip to nowhere.
Woke up early and managed my ass on bike and got rolling by 6am. First destination, "Halebedu" All i know is its near by Belur, visited belur many times on my way to Chikmagalur, but never this one. With all my rain gear and awaiting the monsoons to hit me hard, rather sun shone bright up on me and the roads pretty dry. What was the maximum distance i rode without a stop ? may be 120 or so ...... can i best my previous ? these were the thoughts racing in my mind. Trip metre already shows 160 plus and its another 90km to Halebedu ... very tempting to make a 250km without stop. Early start and cool climate has given me best chance to do that. Reached Halebedu by 930am and updated my better half, shes like What ? you have already reached ? ... a sound of satisfaction with in said YEs non-stop. After yummy puris for breakfast headed towards the ancient architecture. Looked similar to Belur, clicked some snaps and waited for the rain to subside.
Drizzle, lush green fields and rain water criss crossing the black tarmac roads ... Wow this was my ride from Halebedu to belur. Took the route to mudigere and from there to hoskote. Hoskote is the trek ending point of the famous Ombattu gudda range. Wanted to check that way in my bike so in no time was in Hoskote. Its a neat single trarmac road all the way till sakaleshpur, with about a half a kilometer of no road. Had lunch at sakaleshpur and started back home at 3Pm. Managed to do a single stop in between at Magadi to change my wet trousers to a dry one. Could not avoid the bangalore Bannergatta road traffic which took me some 40 mins to wade through. Reached home by 7pm .......... aaaah nice monsoon bike ride and that too 600 km in a day . Hmmmm cool :)
A start at 6am, non-stop 250km ride to halebedu, photoshoot of the architecture, ride in monsoon rains to sakaleshpur, back to bangalore by 7pm with 600km in a day. Then attended a function at friends home , Thats why i call it "monsoon time travel"
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Ombattu Gudde - Lucky to be Alive
That was Friday evening and a quick mail from Nachu my previous OG-3 trekker, How about a trek to Ombattu Gudde this weekend?? few calls exchanged, tickets booked and soon all set to conquer Ombattu again ....................Ravi (me) Nachu, Gautam and Vishnu all met each other at Majestic and started in a bus to Dharmasthala, which would drop us at the Addahole bridge, our starting point of the trek. Since it was the start of "Mungaru Male" the monsoon rains we readied our rain gear.Goutam had got his GPS and Nachu got CTC's OG-1 trail. Will there be leaches? How are we going to make to Ombattu? Do we have enough food? How many treks have you done before this? Questions flew and all of them answered................. Guys soon dozed in to sleep keeping in mind the trek ahead.
Day 1 - a test to my survival skills
Woke up at 5AM at the fresh cool breeze of Addahole, the stream that will guide us to our destiny the Ombattu Gudde. Addahole Bridge, five minute drive from the Gundiya check post, is ourl starting point. A right after the bridge will take us through the village and to the trail to Ombattu.
The lush green pristine forests, and the crystal clear water is too much a temptation for a trekker. Nachu the organiser soon threw the food away at us, we packed them and soon our backpacks were ready. After a small nap we started our "Journey of our lives" realizing little of what we will undergo in the next two days. Rain gods welcomed us in the forest and soon we picked pace along the addahole stream. Leeeeeech was the scream and being a leechophilic, was excited to catch leeches on me. 1,2,3,4.... I soon made a Quick Fire 64 by the time we reached the river crossing, our breakfast point. Ravi, Nachu, Goutam and Vishnu are busy plucking the blood suckers, and Nachu is the winner, he almost made an ANACONDA Leech. Vishnu and Goutam caught leeches at the least expected places (the hip) regularly. After De-parasiting our bodies we had a nice
Upma with coconut chutney. The misty hills and the lively streams raked our trekking passions. After we resumed our journey to the mystic hills, the intensity of the rains and the density of leeches got higher and higher. Soon stopped counting the leeches, since my patience and counting skills were put to severe irreparable test. Following the GPS further deep in to the jungles, the torrent rains and leech infected forest made the paths almost untraceable, and crippled the pace of our trek. We had to halt every 10 minutes to pluck the leeches of our legs, hands body and all over. To our astonishment we hit a block and there was no further trail. The Rain GODS showed no mercy, all 4 of us bore the brunt. We stood motionless and got drenched in the rains on the stream boulder for about an hour, like the Wilder beasts, Wild buffaloes, the zebras do it on the Animal Planet. May be we are beginning to understand the TRUE sense of life in jungles.
It was noon time when the rains subsided, we kept moving, after little struggle traced the trail along the stream and proceeded further.
The jungle got denser and denser and the thanks to the rain and the clouds, sighting Ombattu were a distant dream. So we kept on following the trail that the GPS showed us, the "We Could Never Get Lost" path. Soon the trail started vanishing, and our only hope the GPS, was guiding us along the path full of thorns, steep mountains offering us the Ultimate trek. Out there in jungle everything wants to suck blood, the leeches headed the chart, followed by the thorny plants, and the razor sharp stones. Goutam was finding it tough to get directions from the GPS; it would show us all the paths except pointing along the right direction in the MAP. A small experiment by each one of us on the GPS concluded that None of us knew to use the GPS properly <> The GPS is malfunctioning in the deep jungles.
Idea 1> Vishnu the experienced trekker of the Ombattu Gudde came to the rescue. The last time he had the similar kind of experience and he was able to catch the glimpse of the Ombattu on the clear sky day. So as we gained altitude and the forest cleared all of us tried to sight the Gudde with naked eye. To our utter disappointment the skies never cleared and the continuous rains made line of sight curbed to barely 10 meters. So this idea got mopped down. The thought of getting lost in the Western Ghats was getting to our nerves. Signs of despair all around.
Idea 2> Goutam was the first to open up and he suggested that we go back along the same path to the stream and back to Gundiya. Vishnu, Ravi suggested Goutam that such an idea was not feasible, "We never followed a trail, and not finding the right way means as good that we can’t even trace the way back". So this idea too was knocked off. The thoughts got intense and intense, it was almost 4PM and we are losing light fast. We should at any cost find the trail to Ombattu!!
Idea 3> All the blogs mention to blindly follow North-East from Gundiya to hit the Ombattu hills. This is a fool proof idea, if only we had a compass :( The luxury of the Garmin GPS made us not to carry a simple compass and a topographic map .We now have to find out which is Geographic north and geographic South to figure out the North-East. Sun, is one way. The Sun GOD never showed himself all day. We formed shadow from the little light through the clouds, so made brief directions. To our Astonishment in just a few seconds, the shadow reversed directions. Oooooh ghory..... Ravi and Nachu also climbed a big tree 30 feet high to see if the Gudde is visible(Like Bear Grylls did it in MAN Vs WILD on Discovery). Alaaas the mist would never give up. Our hopes of figuring the directions with the help of Sun, fast faded with the fading light in the Jungle.
Idea 4> A quick browse of the GPS showed that it had Compass in it oooooh GOD what a relief. We soon started following North-East in the compass of GPS. After a berserk walk we stop again to see the directions and walk a few yards again. We kept on doing this until we realized that we were in fact going in a circle around the mountain. Nachu had got his knife out and started marking the trees so that we don’t trail the same path again. Damm the GPS, we were once again directionless........................
Will we get lost in this jungle? Will the sky never clear to see Ombattu Gudde? Do we have enough food to sustain, if at all we keep wandering in these Jungles? What happens if we don’t turn out on time in Bangalore? Will our friends and family panic and start a search party in Ombattu? Are we going to die here???
All these Tensions made us forget our Lunch and not to care the
Leeches who were sucking life out of us, and the continuous rains which laid a slippery path for us. All we wanted at that moment was "I WANNA GO HOME” Our direction less trail continued and we had to get down steep mountains, we made sure not to drop altitude. We went hill to hill to avoid the deep valley in the middle. Emotions ran high, after every 10 minutes of trek we had lengthy discussions of what’s RIGHT and what’s WRONG. Suggestions, Proofs, Experiences, Emotions, Judgements.............. What not. We are now down to a snail’s pace following the superficial North-East of our own. None of us were confident of making back to a civilization, at least not without a Miracle. Vishnu the experienced trekker was solid enough to guide us all in a direction. We had to camp somewhere before it gets dark...................some place clear from leeches and wild animals. Gudde would have been an ideal place but since we cannot find any grass lands we had to quickly race against clock to find a decent place.
To summarize the situation, Nachu was not talking at all and Goutam had this Question mark on his face, Vishnu's confidence seemingly fading and Ravi's Guts getting shattered
by the thought of getting lost in the thick of the jungles. When all the luck was running out "like a insect caught in the SPIDER's web" we struck GOLD, a dry stream running straight down the mountain. This would be our last hope to make it back to civilization. "Have seen BEAR GRYLLS do it umpteen number of times, follow downstream to the civilization” This idea did not go well in the group and we were divided as to stay back on the mountain not to lose altitude or follow the stream. Instincts prevailed and all of us followed the stream, although it doesn’t have a clear North-South written on it, OG-3 by Peter Van taught us one lesson "Follow the stream and you will never get lost". So some hope of light at the end dark tunnel. The stream took us through turns and twists, a few stream crossings for an hour or so. Hurraaaaaaaaaaaaah "Orange coloured arrow pointing up the hill" this was the first trail we hit for about 6 hours approximately. Increased pace from here took us along the stream straight in to the forest floors. With the heavy backpacks weighing on us and light fading we had to find some camping place.
After zigzagging the stream for a good time, we decided to HALT our adventurous and breathtaking trek for that day, and a big flat boulder in the middle of the stream pitched a perfect camping place. After ending the Blood-donation
camp,Nachu had a dip in the stream after that Ravi, Nachu, Goutam and Vishnu sat down to have our LINNER ( Lunch cum Dinner ) at about 20:00 after one long tiring and exciting day Soon the tent of capacity 2 is pitched and all four of us jammed in to it. To the tunes of the stream and added Rain, and with thoughts of "‘what’s in store for the II day??? “We slipped in to sleep. OOOOOH GOD this is the most dreadful day in my entire life.
Day 1 - a test to my survival skills
Woke up at 5AM at the fresh cool breeze of Addahole, the stream that will guide us to our destiny the Ombattu Gudde. Addahole Bridge, five minute drive from the Gundiya check post, is ourl starting point. A right after the bridge will take us through the village and to the trail to Ombattu.
The lush green pristine forests, and the crystal clear water is too much a temptation for a trekker. Nachu the organiser soon threw the food away at us, we packed them and soon our backpacks were ready. After a small nap we started our "Journey of our lives" realizing little of what we will undergo in the next two days. Rain gods welcomed us in the forest and soon we picked pace along the addahole stream. Leeeeeech was the scream and being a leechophilic, was excited to catch leeches on me. 1,2,3,4.... I soon made a Quick Fire 64 by the time we reached the river crossing, our breakfast point. Ravi, Nachu, Goutam and Vishnu are busy plucking the blood suckers, and Nachu is the winner, he almost made an ANACONDA Leech. Vishnu and Goutam caught leeches at the least expected places (the hip) regularly. After De-parasiting our bodies we had a nice
Upma with coconut chutney. The misty hills and the lively streams raked our trekking passions. After we resumed our journey to the mystic hills, the intensity of the rains and the density of leeches got higher and higher. Soon stopped counting the leeches, since my patience and counting skills were put to severe irreparable test. Following the GPS further deep in to the jungles, the torrent rains and leech infected forest made the paths almost untraceable, and crippled the pace of our trek. We had to halt every 10 minutes to pluck the leeches of our legs, hands body and all over. To our astonishment we hit a block and there was no further trail. The Rain GODS showed no mercy, all 4 of us bore the brunt. We stood motionless and got drenched in the rains on the stream boulder for about an hour, like the Wilder beasts, Wild buffaloes, the zebras do it on the Animal Planet. May be we are beginning to understand the TRUE sense of life in jungles.It was noon time when the rains subsided, we kept moving, after little struggle traced the trail along the stream and proceeded further.
The jungle got denser and denser and the thanks to the rain and the clouds, sighting Ombattu were a distant dream. So we kept on following the trail that the GPS showed us, the "We Could Never Get Lost" path. Soon the trail started vanishing, and our only hope the GPS, was guiding us along the path full of thorns, steep mountains offering us the Ultimate trek. Out there in jungle everything wants to suck blood, the leeches headed the chart, followed by the thorny plants, and the razor sharp stones. Goutam was finding it tough to get directions from the GPS; it would show us all the paths except pointing along the right direction in the MAP. A small experiment by each one of us on the GPS concluded that Idea 1> Vishnu the experienced trekker of the Ombattu Gudde came to the rescue. The last time he had the similar kind of experience and he was able to catch the glimpse of the Ombattu on the clear sky day. So as we gained altitude and the forest cleared all of us tried to sight the Gudde with naked eye. To our utter disappointment the skies never cleared and the continuous rains made line of sight curbed to barely 10 meters. So this idea got mopped down. The thought of getting lost in the Western Ghats was getting to our nerves. Signs of despair all around.
Idea 2> Goutam was the first to open up and he suggested that we go back along the same path to the stream and back to Gundiya. Vishnu, Ravi suggested Goutam that such an idea was not feasible, "We never followed a trail, and not finding the right way means as good that we can’t even trace the way back". So this idea too was knocked off. The thoughts got intense and intense, it was almost 4PM and we are losing light fast. We should at any cost find the trail to Ombattu!!
Idea 3> All the blogs mention to blindly follow North-East from Gundiya to hit the Ombattu hills. This is a fool proof idea, if only we had a compass :( The luxury of the Garmin GPS made us not to carry a simple compass and a topographic map .We now have to find out which is Geographic north and geographic South to figure out the North-East. Sun, is one way. The Sun GOD never showed himself all day. We formed shadow from the little light through the clouds, so made brief directions. To our Astonishment in just a few seconds, the shadow reversed directions. Oooooh ghory..... Ravi and Nachu also climbed a big tree 30 feet high to see if the Gudde is visible(Like Bear Grylls did it in MAN Vs WILD on Discovery). Alaaas the mist would never give up. Our hopes of figuring the directions with the help of Sun, fast faded with the fading light in the Jungle.
Idea 4> A quick browse of the GPS showed that it had Compass in it oooooh GOD what a relief. We soon started following North-East in the compass of GPS. After a berserk walk we stop again to see the directions and walk a few yards again. We kept on doing this until we realized that we were in fact going in a circle around the mountain. Nachu had got his knife out and started marking the trees so that we don’t trail the same path again. Damm the GPS, we were once again directionless........................
Will we get lost in this jungle? Will the sky never clear to see Ombattu Gudde? Do we have enough food to sustain, if at all we keep wandering in these Jungles? What happens if we don’t turn out on time in Bangalore? Will our friends and family panic and start a search party in Ombattu? Are we going to die here???
All these Tensions made us forget our Lunch and not to care the
Leeches who were sucking life out of us, and the continuous rains which laid a slippery path for us. All we wanted at that moment was "I WANNA GO HOME” Our direction less trail continued and we had to get down steep mountains, we made sure not to drop altitude. We went hill to hill to avoid the deep valley in the middle. Emotions ran high, after every 10 minutes of trek we had lengthy discussions of what’s RIGHT and what’s WRONG. Suggestions, Proofs, Experiences, Emotions, Judgements.............. What not. We are now down to a snail’s pace following the superficial North-East of our own. None of us were confident of making back to a civilization, at least not without a Miracle. Vishnu the experienced trekker was solid enough to guide us all in a direction. We had to camp somewhere before it gets dark...................some place clear from leeches and wild animals. Gudde would have been an ideal place but since we cannot find any grass lands we had to quickly race against clock to find a decent place.To summarize the situation, Nachu was not talking at all and Goutam had this Question mark on his face, Vishnu's confidence seemingly fading and Ravi's Guts getting shattered
by the thought of getting lost in the thick of the jungles. When all the luck was running out "like a insect caught in the SPIDER's web" we struck GOLD, a dry stream running straight down the mountain. This would be our last hope to make it back to civilization. "Have seen BEAR GRYLLS do it umpteen number of times, follow downstream to the civilization” This idea did not go well in the group and we were divided as to stay back on the mountain not to lose altitude or follow the stream. Instincts prevailed and all of us followed the stream, although it doesn’t have a clear North-South written on it, OG-3 by Peter Van taught us one lesson "Follow the stream and you will never get lost". So some hope of light at the end dark tunnel. The stream took us through turns and twists, a few stream crossings for an hour or so. Hurraaaaaaaaaaaaah "Orange coloured arrow pointing up the hill" this was the first trail we hit for about 6 hours approximately. Increased pace from here took us along the stream straight in to the forest floors. With the heavy backpacks weighing on us and light fading we had to find some camping place.After zigzagging the stream for a good time, we decided to HALT our adventurous and breathtaking trek for that day, and a big flat boulder in the middle of the stream pitched a perfect camping place. After ending the Blood-donation
camp,Nachu had a dip in the stream after that Ravi, Nachu, Goutam and Vishnu sat down to have our LINNER ( Lunch cum Dinner ) at about 20:00 after one long tiring and exciting day Soon the tent of capacity 2 is pitched and all four of us jammed in to it. To the tunes of the stream and added Rain, and with thoughts of "‘what’s in store for the II day??? “We slipped in to sleep. OOOOOH GOD this is the most dreadful day in my entire life.
Day 2 - finding a way out
.
“Gud Morning Ombattu Gudde “Another morning in the Sabinal jungles. After answering all the calls , having breakfast, wrapping up the backpacks the big question still looms large "Where the HELL are we ?? " GPS the deserter showed that we were some 800ms to the River crossing point of day 1. Do we still have to believe the damn GPS.......................? Started rolling along the stream, and the distance in the GPS to the breakfast point on day 1 was fast approaching zero. After an hour of morning trek we finally reached the Breakfast point of day 1, the happiest moment. "We are going HOME hurrah” Wasting no time we walked briskly to cover the last 7 kms of our MAJILI. Reached the Addahole Bridge by about 11:30 after hot hot tea at the Tattekada and changing to dry clothes,
we enquired of the busses to Bangalore. Lucky day II, for all the pains, we caught a Volvo back to Bangalore. After bidding bye byes and recalling the dreadful moments, Ravi Nachu Vishnu and Goutam had nice laughs. One more Important chapter in the trekking book "Ombattu Gudde: Lucky to be Alive " starring Ravi, Nachu, Vishnu, Goutam takes existence. Oooh I loved it...............................
Hope this experience helps Ombattu Gudde trekkers.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Ombattu Gudde (OG-3 with CTC)
Tring tring ......... tring tring ... Hello, is it Ravi. yeah , are you interested in trek to Ombattu Gudde. I was dying to go to that place, and there comes the call. That was a Thursday evening 5:30 and the voice in the phone (Asutosh) said that the trek will start tonight at 9:30 from Bangalore railway station...........Without Hesitation I said I would go :) (Remember JACK in TITANIC who makes to the titanic in the nth moment, so I’m the Jack of OG-3). Aushu briefed me about Chennai Trekking Club, and the measures to be taken in the trek....
Reached home hurriedly, packed my bag and reached Majestic by 9. Met Aushu at majestic and soon met Kiran, Prasanna. We were waiting for people from Chennai to join us. Soon the Chennai train arrived and we all got in to two KSRTC Rajahamsa busses and zoomed off to Gundiya. "Peter" the organiser for the trip, soon took attendance. Have always been to trek with not more than 5 and this trek I was going to do it with 64 others ...... woooooooh, I thought that was a big Gang. Never seen a BUs full of LIFE, started feeling the Chennai Trekking Club. We were soon zooming in the NH and had a stop for dinner at a Dhaba. Started hearing names like "RAmkee" "Balaji", "Palani", "Diwakar" "Jessi".............After a nice Dhaba dinner we all started to Gundiya our trekking starting point.
After a nice sleep, we finally reached Gundiya Check post. Busses are parked and soon guys and gals started pouring out of the busses.
Soon Peter(Remember the name, u r going to hear this name Umpteen times), Ramkee and other volunteers started throwing packets of food to people around, I liked it catching it like Jhonty Rhodes, I filled my bag with food supplies and water for the next three days :O We bid goodbye to our busses and started the "TREK OF MY LIFE". Took a right after the bridge in to the wilderness. We just passed a village with people staring at us, little did we realize that they would be the last civilization that we see for three days ;O, believe me it’s true. We just followed the jeep track in to the forest, then I started meeting people, people and more people (Like the agents in the MATRIX, the pupil never ended), a test to my peanut brain... Kept following each other like a 
trail of wild ants in the Discovery channel, talking, kidding all around. We then hit across our first water stream, "Ok Guys, this is our Breakfast stop" Peter's voice. We soon munched up on apple and bread. "Common guys move it, move it", came a call from Peter again..... Antz, as I call my trekking gang, kept on moving. On the way a sudden voice, "Leeches guys, careful" People all around suddenly stopped, some curious to catch a glimpse of one LEGENDARY Blood sucker, others afraid that they caught one. Then came a sudden loud Shrill Voice , leeeeeeeeech, and a woman was closing her eyes and screaming just coz a small 1 ounce leech started crawling on her socks. Meet REKHA , sorry Leech Rekha, who could give all the leeches HEART ATTACK by her shrill voice. The forest got dense and denser, Humid and Humidor....we all started sweating, stopping at junction points for the experienced people to give directions..... We soon hit the KABINE hole stream and started trekking along the stream. We were directed to follow the stream over the entire trip. All along the 
journey we kept meeting breathtaking waterfalls and scenic forest. Clicked some snaps, took some cool dips, ate food and continued our "MAJILI". It was soon getting dark and all the hearts throbbed as to when and where are we going to camp. A gang of 40 odd people got in the front and the rest 20 were left behind. It soon got pitch black in the forest, and the idea of Wild animals, sleeping in the forest alone were haunting the 20 ANTZ. All of us started shouting, whistling "Peter, Peter" in vain. No voice replied. Every small sound and light I see in the forest, my Peanut was imagining wild animals.............. I started wondering if getting lost in a Jungle was a dream come true :)Soon a voice and light replied from the other side, It was RAMKEE ....... pooh God he looked like JAVA(MATRIX fame) to me in who guided us to the camp. By the time we reached camp (some flat found in the forest), all 40 who reached early had started cooking Maggi and settled down with their mats and sleeping bags. We just reached the camp looked for some flat ground around settled the mats, cooked maggi, ate and slept. The forest atmosphere was awesome. Have been to many treks before but never happened to sleep in the forest, my adrenalin started pumping. Humidity in the forest made me awake almost half the night. The scare of wild animals made my sleep even worse.
Opened my eyes to see sun rays sneak through the tall Kabinale forest trees. "CLICK" that is one KODAK moment in my life.
Active volunteers "GANESH Uncle ,Rekha and others "started cooking Maggi and Tea for all the trekkers. Plan for day 2 was to conquer "jenkal betta 1387m" and return to the same base camp that night. "Guys this is twice the difficulty than yesterday" Peters voice.... Had a quick breakfast(Rusk, tea and fresh apple) left our luggage behind. Some people stayed back and decided to take rest at the camp while the others decided to trek. Peter soon lead the way in deep the Jungle and the Chennai trekking Club ANTZ soon started sprinting the jungle floor. We jumped the stream rocks, waded through thick jungle twigs and thorns, braved the Poisonous vipers, and made our own inroads in the jungle. (SAFARI : make your own roads). We kept on walking along the stream until we came to the "T" junction of streams. That’s called the "addahole stream", took a left and supposed to walk along the stream until we meet a big boulder, take a left there to trek up the jenkal betta. Me being the first time trekker with the CTC (Chennai Trekking Club), met many people on the way, kept on chatting along. Revathi, Jessi , Rekha, Ram, hari, karthikeyan, palani kumar, karthik, Ananth, Jagdish , and many more............. All along the way kept chatting with Miss Jamnagar, made fun with POLO alias MADDY alias Kiran , and BS alias MD alias Karthik, always kept asking Rekhas Leech count...and my travel time sprinted. We were a group of 7 people separated from the rest and trekking in the wilderness, Soon PAAMBU, PAAMBU .... A guy came running backwards. All our hearts leapt out and 
soon cameras started clicking, That was a brown RUSSELS VIPER, a kind known to be aggressive and have a lethal venom. Hardly half an hour again Our "PAAMBU MAN" sprinted back, Bingo he found one more RUSSELS VIPER, this time a red one. Cameras clicked and voices "Guys don’t go that close ." all followed. A group of 10 people assembled at the boulder, and time was already 12:30. Two of the trekkers returned after trekking the mountain for while, they told us that PETER had just left the place to trek up the mountain, which takes up to 4 hrs to trek up and down to the same boulder base. Ok DECESSION time guys, time was running out and , people started to throw around their own views 
"Its no point dude, either make it to the top, or keep silent. No point in trekking till the middle of the peak and returning", Then Zennie voiced up "The thin line between sensibility and foolishness" , finally 5 guys including me decided to trek up the peak at 1230, which would take us some 5 hrs to take the peak and down, and 4 more hrs from the base to the camp site. so if we were to start trek then we would reach the base of the mountain by 6:30 and the camp by 10:30 , walking in the forest in the night made goose bumps rise all in my body, then one finale decision "Don’t think we can make it to the top, without GPS and MAP and trail, equal chances of getting lost and never returning to the base camp" made my spine chill. Decided to return from the boulder base to the camp site. That made 3 people "Zenie, hari and one more guy " to trek up the peak. On the way back we felt like we reached no time to the T junction. Had relaxed time there. Then there are many doubtful calls asking if it was the T junction that we took in the morning, after a long convincing sessions we finally concluded, 
it was indeed the T junction, and took a right from there to reach our camp site. Clicked some discovery snaps and reached the camp site. When we were nearing the camp site, we started getting HEROs and HEROINEs welcome, claps whistles and cheers all around. People started enquiring of how we conquered the trek and all. We then cooled our heels in the stream, had Maggi and settled in the camps for some campfire, anthakshari, jokes by stand up comedian POLO Kiran , and Bad words showering by Mr Ananth. All happened so quickly that time rolled 9:00, then came the shouts from the forest ........ Looks like Zenie and co had made it back. Then the entire camp site shouted, howled and whistled for them to return safely. Aaaah they had trekked to a point where they can see the grass lands and came back. Kudos, great job. We then waited for Peter and 15 others who had conquered the peak to return back to the camp site. Clock was clicking, 9:00 , 9:30, 10:00, 10:30 when people started fearing the worst, a whistle sound from deep the jungle and flash lights, then everyone in the camp roused up and started howling. Then came the Peter (ALibaba) and his 14 trekkers, they quickly had Maggi. Thanks to the helping hands of Revathi, Jessi, shyaam and others they finished the dinner and prepared to sleep. We sat on the rocks of the stream all night and had chat, me, Kiran and Shyaam. We then had to surrender keeping in mind the trek the next day that we are going to have. Oooooh ilaaa the jungle silence ROCKS.
The Third day morning was as exciting as the previous one, the open trees and the fresh air replenished us
"Me(in yellow) POLO(in blue) and BS(in black) ". We had to conquer the OMBATTU GUDDE that day. We are supposed to wade through the jungle, catch the way up the ombattu gudde, after that catch the Jeep trail and reach the nearby civilization where our bus is waiting for us. One tough thing about that day was that we are going to trek up the mountain and we had to carry 3 litres of water from the last water spot, for about 20km dry stretch. "Guys, last water spot, fill ur tanks PETER again "So we all filled the bottles, cleared all the plastic and wastes at the camp site, and started our journey back from the wilderness. We soon found a steep trek up a stream which would take us to the Ombattu gudde. MI-2 background music was playing in my mind and we had a similar to Mission Impossible kind of rocks to climb on. CTC ANTZ always warm hearted, complimented each other all along the trek.... cool. After a 2 hour trek we were able to clear all the forest and see the grass lands. Slowly inch by inch we conquered the Ombattu Gudde. Caught some snaps of all the jumping jacks around, among which Zennie was the best 
At last I felt like "Joginder Sharma, getting the last Pakistan wicket to win T20 world cup for INDIA" The mountains were green enough in April, and the cool breeze was comforting us as we trekked further. This is altogether a different day with carrying our heavy back packs up the Ombattu Gudde, the two days it was a flat terrains but today it was up the peak with maximum loads and the fear of finishing the water made the trek even dreadful. Peter was the sweeper today, he made sure no one got left back. Once on top of Ombattu Gudde, we were able to see a series of peaks flowing around.
We just passed from one peak to other until we crossed Ombattu (nine) peaks, that’s where the name Ombattu came from. We hit the Jeep trail, Was happy on one side , but to be frank my soul was sad that I will be finishing the trek soon and all the CTC mates will be gone and I will be left with memories only. Finally after a long jeep trail walk, we reached Hoskere, I can already hear people screaming in joy, and then I could see the white Rajahamsa bus................. oooof did my trek come to an END ;( My heart was already craving for the next trek with CTC. "Met 64 new people: made some friends, Trekked 65 kms : made some cramps, Survived the wilderness for 3 days: made some guts, That was CTC in short for me " After a quick bath in the stream we got in to the bus and started back to Benagalooru. We had seen some civilization after three days. Jessi and I started pulling Revathi :) "ZAM nagar" "Largeness of the heart" and what not, which made her go in to HIBERNATION (mouna vratha for 15 minutes) Hahhahha, that was fun too ;) . The Chennai people had their train at 11:45 and the Hyderabadis had bus at 10:30, so we hurried to reach bengalooru at 11:00, Hope that the hyderabadis and the Chennaites reached home safely. A special mention to the girls who made the trek , Revathi, Rekha, vinoda, and 2 others. Hats off to finish such a herculean trek. I then bode goodbye to all the CTC trek members reached home, took a warm shower "The cuts and bruises paining all over my body : Dats what I call Sweet painful Memoirs "and slept. One refreshing Trek :)
A Special
mention about Peter and Co. Never before taken routes, raked up my passion for trek. "Thanks PETER"
1> Got up Monday morning and was groping "Sun light sneak through tall Kabinale forests" But could only see my BAJAJ fan swirling fast :(
2> Each time I see a glass of water I was looking for GLUCOSE to mix and drink :(
3> Went to the Terrace Cafeteria, each time cool breeze kisses me , I thought of shouting "oooooooooov " as we did at the top of OG ;(
God DAMM I’m an addict now, not to cigars , not to alcohol but to CTC and its trek.
Chennai Trekking Club re-invented ME.
http://www.chennaitrekkers.org
Reached home hurriedly, packed my bag and reached Majestic by 9. Met Aushu at majestic and soon met Kiran, Prasanna. We were waiting for people from Chennai to join us. Soon the Chennai train arrived and we all got in to two KSRTC Rajahamsa busses and zoomed off to Gundiya. "Peter" the organiser for the trip, soon took attendance. Have always been to trek with not more than 5 and this trek I was going to do it with 64 others ...... woooooooh, I thought that was a big Gang. Never seen a BUs full of LIFE, started feeling the Chennai Trekking Club. We were soon zooming in the NH and had a stop for dinner at a Dhaba. Started hearing names like "RAmkee" "Balaji", "Palani", "Diwakar" "Jessi".............After a nice Dhaba dinner we all started to Gundiya our trekking starting point.
After a nice sleep, we finally reached Gundiya Check post. Busses are parked and soon guys and gals started pouring out of the busses.
Soon Peter(Remember the name, u r going to hear this name Umpteen times), Ramkee and other volunteers started throwing packets of food to people around, I liked it catching it like Jhonty Rhodes, I filled my bag with food supplies and water for the next three days :O We bid goodbye to our busses and started the "TREK OF MY LIFE". Took a right after the bridge in to the wilderness. We just passed a village with people staring at us, little did we realize that they would be the last civilization that we see for three days ;O, believe me it’s true. We just followed the jeep track in to the forest, then I started meeting people, people and more people (Like the agents in the MATRIX, the pupil never ended), a test to my peanut brain... Kept following each other like a 
trail of wild ants in the Discovery channel, talking, kidding all around. We then hit across our first water stream, "Ok Guys, this is our Breakfast stop" Peter's voice. We soon munched up on apple and bread. "Common guys move it, move it", came a call from Peter again..... Antz, as I call my trekking gang, kept on moving. On the way a sudden voice, "Leeches guys, careful" People all around suddenly stopped, some curious to catch a glimpse of one LEGENDARY Blood sucker, others afraid that they caught one. Then came a sudden loud Shrill Voice , leeeeeeeeech, and a woman was closing her eyes and screaming just coz a small 1 ounce leech started crawling on her socks. Meet REKHA , sorry Leech Rekha, who could give all the leeches HEART ATTACK by her shrill voice. The forest got dense and denser, Humid and Humidor....we all started sweating, stopping at junction points for the experienced people to give directions..... We soon hit the KABINE hole stream and started trekking along the stream. We were directed to follow the stream over the entire trip. All along the 
journey we kept meeting breathtaking waterfalls and scenic forest. Clicked some snaps, took some cool dips, ate food and continued our "MAJILI". It was soon getting dark and all the hearts throbbed as to when and where are we going to camp. A gang of 40 odd people got in the front and the rest 20 were left behind. It soon got pitch black in the forest, and the idea of Wild animals, sleeping in the forest alone were haunting the 20 ANTZ. All of us started shouting, whistling "Peter, Peter" in vain. No voice replied. Every small sound and light I see in the forest, my Peanut was imagining wild animals.............. I started wondering if getting lost in a Jungle was a dream come true :)Soon a voice and light replied from the other side, It was RAMKEE ....... pooh God he looked like JAVA(MATRIX fame) to me in who guided us to the camp. By the time we reached camp (some flat found in the forest), all 40 who reached early had started cooking Maggi and settled down with their mats and sleeping bags. We just reached the camp looked for some flat ground around settled the mats, cooked maggi, ate and slept. The forest atmosphere was awesome. Have been to many treks before but never happened to sleep in the forest, my adrenalin started pumping. Humidity in the forest made me awake almost half the night. The scare of wild animals made my sleep even worse.Opened my eyes to see sun rays sneak through the tall Kabinale forest trees. "CLICK" that is one KODAK moment in my life.
Active volunteers "GANESH Uncle ,Rekha and others "started cooking Maggi and Tea for all the trekkers. Plan for day 2 was to conquer "jenkal betta 1387m" and return to the same base camp that night. "Guys this is twice the difficulty than yesterday" Peters voice.... Had a quick breakfast(Rusk, tea and fresh apple) left our luggage behind. Some people stayed back and decided to take rest at the camp while the others decided to trek. Peter soon lead the way in deep the Jungle and the Chennai trekking Club ANTZ soon started sprinting the jungle floor. We jumped the stream rocks, waded through thick jungle twigs and thorns, braved the Poisonous vipers, and made our own inroads in the jungle. (SAFARI : make your own roads). We kept on walking along the stream until we came to the "T" junction of streams. That’s called the "addahole stream", took a left and supposed to walk along the stream until we meet a big boulder, take a left there to trek up the jenkal betta. Me being the first time trekker with the CTC (Chennai Trekking Club), met many people on the way, kept on chatting along. Revathi, Jessi , Rekha, Ram, hari, karthikeyan, palani kumar, karthik, Ananth, Jagdish , and many more............. All along the way kept chatting with Miss Jamnagar, made fun with POLO alias MADDY alias Kiran , and BS alias MD alias Karthik, always kept asking Rekhas Leech count...and my travel time sprinted. We were a group of 7 people separated from the rest and trekking in the wilderness, Soon PAAMBU, PAAMBU .... A guy came running backwards. All our hearts leapt out and 
soon cameras started clicking, That was a brown RUSSELS VIPER, a kind known to be aggressive and have a lethal venom. Hardly half an hour again Our "PAAMBU MAN" sprinted back, Bingo he found one more RUSSELS VIPER, this time a red one. Cameras clicked and voices "Guys don’t go that close ." all followed. A group of 10 people assembled at the boulder, and time was already 12:30. Two of the trekkers returned after trekking the mountain for while, they told us that PETER had just left the place to trek up the mountain, which takes up to 4 hrs to trek up and down to the same boulder base. Ok DECESSION time guys, time was running out and , people started to throw around their own views 
"Its no point dude, either make it to the top, or keep silent. No point in trekking till the middle of the peak and returning", Then Zennie voiced up "The thin line between sensibility and foolishness" , finally 5 guys including me decided to trek up the peak at 1230, which would take us some 5 hrs to take the peak and down, and 4 more hrs from the base to the camp site. so if we were to start trek then we would reach the base of the mountain by 6:30 and the camp by 10:30 , walking in the forest in the night made goose bumps rise all in my body, then one finale decision "Don’t think we can make it to the top, without GPS and MAP and trail, equal chances of getting lost and never returning to the base camp" made my spine chill. Decided to return from the boulder base to the camp site. That made 3 people "Zenie, hari and one more guy " to trek up the peak. On the way back we felt like we reached no time to the T junction. Had relaxed time there. Then there are many doubtful calls asking if it was the T junction that we took in the morning, after a long convincing sessions we finally concluded, 
it was indeed the T junction, and took a right from there to reach our camp site. Clicked some discovery snaps and reached the camp site. When we were nearing the camp site, we started getting HEROs and HEROINEs welcome, claps whistles and cheers all around. People started enquiring of how we conquered the trek and all. We then cooled our heels in the stream, had Maggi and settled in the camps for some campfire, anthakshari, jokes by stand up comedian POLO Kiran , and Bad words showering by Mr Ananth. All happened so quickly that time rolled 9:00, then came the shouts from the forest ........ Looks like Zenie and co had made it back. Then the entire camp site shouted, howled and whistled for them to return safely. Aaaah they had trekked to a point where they can see the grass lands and came back. Kudos, great job. We then waited for Peter and 15 others who had conquered the peak to return back to the camp site. Clock was clicking, 9:00 , 9:30, 10:00, 10:30 when people started fearing the worst, a whistle sound from deep the jungle and flash lights, then everyone in the camp roused up and started howling. Then came the Peter (ALibaba) and his 14 trekkers, they quickly had Maggi. Thanks to the helping hands of Revathi, Jessi, shyaam and others they finished the dinner and prepared to sleep. We sat on the rocks of the stream all night and had chat, me, Kiran and Shyaam. We then had to surrender keeping in mind the trek the next day that we are going to have. Oooooh ilaaa the jungle silence ROCKS.The Third day morning was as exciting as the previous one, the open trees and the fresh air replenished us
"Me(in yellow) POLO(in blue) and BS(in black) ". We had to conquer the OMBATTU GUDDE that day. We are supposed to wade through the jungle, catch the way up the ombattu gudde, after that catch the Jeep trail and reach the nearby civilization where our bus is waiting for us. One tough thing about that day was that we are going to trek up the mountain and we had to carry 3 litres of water from the last water spot, for about 20km dry stretch. "Guys, last water spot, fill ur tanks PETER again "So we all filled the bottles, cleared all the plastic and wastes at the camp site, and started our journey back from the wilderness. We soon found a steep trek up a stream which would take us to the Ombattu gudde. MI-2 background music was playing in my mind and we had a similar to Mission Impossible kind of rocks to climb on. CTC ANTZ always warm hearted, complimented each other all along the trek.... cool. After a 2 hour trek we were able to clear all the forest and see the grass lands. Slowly inch by inch we conquered the Ombattu Gudde. Caught some snaps of all the jumping jacks around, among which Zennie was the best 
At last I felt like "Joginder Sharma, getting the last Pakistan wicket to win T20 world cup for INDIA" The mountains were green enough in April, and the cool breeze was comforting us as we trekked further. This is altogether a different day with carrying our heavy back packs up the Ombattu Gudde, the two days it was a flat terrains but today it was up the peak with maximum loads and the fear of finishing the water made the trek even dreadful. Peter was the sweeper today, he made sure no one got left back. Once on top of Ombattu Gudde, we were able to see a series of peaks flowing around.
We just passed from one peak to other until we crossed Ombattu (nine) peaks, that’s where the name Ombattu came from. We hit the Jeep trail, Was happy on one side , but to be frank my soul was sad that I will be finishing the trek soon and all the CTC mates will be gone and I will be left with memories only. Finally after a long jeep trail walk, we reached Hoskere, I can already hear people screaming in joy, and then I could see the white Rajahamsa bus................. oooof did my trek come to an END ;( My heart was already craving for the next trek with CTC. "Met 64 new people: made some friends, Trekked 65 kms : made some cramps, Survived the wilderness for 3 days: made some guts, That was CTC in short for me " After a quick bath in the stream we got in to the bus and started back to Benagalooru. We had seen some civilization after three days. Jessi and I started pulling Revathi :) "ZAM nagar" "Largeness of the heart" and what not, which made her go in to HIBERNATION (mouna vratha for 15 minutes) Hahhahha, that was fun too ;) . The Chennai people had their train at 11:45 and the Hyderabadis had bus at 10:30, so we hurried to reach bengalooru at 11:00, Hope that the hyderabadis and the Chennaites reached home safely. A special mention to the girls who made the trek , Revathi, Rekha, vinoda, and 2 others. Hats off to finish such a herculean trek. I then bode goodbye to all the CTC trek members reached home, took a warm shower "The cuts and bruises paining all over my body : Dats what I call Sweet painful Memoirs "and slept. One refreshing Trek :)A Special
mention about Peter and Co. Never before taken routes, raked up my passion for trek. "Thanks PETER"
1> Got up Monday morning and was groping "Sun light sneak through tall Kabinale forests" But could only see my BAJAJ fan swirling fast :(
2> Each time I see a glass of water I was looking for GLUCOSE to mix and drink :(
3> Went to the Terrace Cafeteria, each time cool breeze kisses me , I thought of shouting "oooooooooov " as we did at the top of OG ;(
God DAMM I’m an addict now, not to cigars , not to alcohol but to CTC and its trek.
Chennai Trekking Club re-invented ME.
http://www.chennaitrekkers.org
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)