Ode to Mother Nature…

A trek through leech infested forests, gnat covered grasslands, through the clouds that fogged my glasses, climbing slippery rocks against the waterfall, a sprint through the dew covered grassland, quenching thirst from the fresh mountain water, a walk through stupendously dark canopy cover just before it rained and all hell broke loose...this my darlings…is a piece of my life… :D

We had plans…like all do…Me, Gaurav, Kunal and Diljith… to complete one of the toughest treks in the western ghats, sadly though the tribals around there warned us against going into the jungle in search of the mystical summit…Sigh…!!

We didn’t want to return empty handed so we switched plans to scaling Kumara Parvatha [ Reluctantly…] the peak stands at 1712 meters above sea level…13 km from the base to the peak, with little pit stops in between, it takes two days to complete this trek…We met a group of software engineers from Samsung at the base taking precautionary measures against the leeches…but us…ah!! The only weapon we had was salt…

Trek starts with typical rain forest environment [hot, damp ground, humid air, thin stench of decomposing leaves, light filtering through the leaves] 20 minutes into the trek, Diljith was battling against leeches..!! Hell!! He was sick of them, cursed the slimy sanguisuges with all the vocabulary that many think ought to be censored :P…Me lugging my usual 10 kg pack, Kunal with his 10 kg pack, Diljith with his backpack and Gaurav with 8ltrs of water on him :D slowly ascended through the damned forest, occasionally stopping to pluck the leeches off our skin and reached the first pit-stop…a little creek…Ah!! The refreshing cold water after a sweaty walk…nope…that wasn’t the case here…the leeches had invaded the stream too…!! A little break and we started again to find a rock where the sun shone…another break…we were already giving up hope of completing this one…

An odd assortment of students [different streams...docs, engineers…] joined us at the rock…little chit-chat and started the trek again…the rain forest environment continued for a while…then starts the grass-lands…like they say…grass is always greener on the other side…we thought we were better off trekking through the grass lands…Heck!! They were elephant grass [they cut through you..!!!] and the sun hit us hard..!!!the climb often steep with jagged rocks and the rains from previous night made them slippery…we had to climb a foot at a time…

After a strenuous walk through the grasses, Adithya called in between and spoke to us about the worldly matters which we hadn’t thought about for a while [We do get signal for a while there.!!], we reached the second pit-stop, renowned as ‘Bhat’s place’…a chap trying to eke out a living in the mountains…don’t be deceived by looks…!! He does make money…!! An exorbitant 50 bucks a meal that has nothing in it..!! He earns it I guess, needs grit to carry supplies 6km upwards… Resting for a while a Bhat’s place, we were joined by a group of 60 people trekking from the other side [two routes to reach the summit], a company sponsored trek I guess…the place got too crowded…!! Yuck!!! So we moved on…only to find ourselves getting splashed in the rain by the time we reached the forest check post…We had plans to camp over at the peak…the guard the asked if we had a tent….answer was a No…he laughed at us and advised against going in the rain…so we had to stay over at the forest check post along with the engineers from Samsung…spent the night chit-chatting and sharing experiences from previous treks…we crashed before we knew what was happening…nearly 12 people in a small room…the guard there, though uneasy, let us stay…!!

Next day morning…first thing I did after waking up was to hog half a packet of Tiger biscuits [brushed my teeth after that :P] Gaurav made a costly mistake…he didn’t eat and advised Kunal and Diljith against carrying water or food…!!!! Next pit stop was a little monument built in stone [8km from base]…met some campers there who had failed to reach the peak and spoke to us pessimistically about continuing, Kunal and Diljith dropped out including couple of guys from Samsung group [fatigue got them]…So it was Me and Gaurav who trekked from there…the clouds covered the whole mountain and we could hardly see more than 10 feet…Gaurav really hungry now, lost his mind and started eating grass and flowers…!!!! :D we continued slowly sipping on our little water supply and met the rest of the Samsung group who had a lead, Gaurav was trailing me by about 5 minutes, he had shifted his diet from grass to the salt packet we had for leeches :D…We reached the peak…!! Hurray!! ?? Nope…not yet…there are two peaks, we had reached the false one…we had to descend into a marshy leech forest and then climb up to reach the real peak..!!! Another journey into the high altitude rain forest…at first I couldn’t see any leeches on the ground and thought there weren’t any…a look at my feet revealed an army of leeches and a bloody socks…started walking with leeches clinging on, no point in stopping to pluck them out…we reached a little waterfall here, climbed against it…moss covered slippery rocks, lost my footing thrice..!! About a 100 mts to the peak, there was a huge rock [moss covered and slippery again] high angle gradient…Gaurav joined us [Me and the Samsung group] while we were contemplating about the climb [And me flicking the leeches from my feet]… ‘Do you guys have anythin to eat?’ those were his first words..!!! :D Guys from Samsung did have couple of cashew nuts to spare...We didn’t risk the last 100 mts and we started to trek back to the check post, lost my footing on the slippery rocks and hurt my left thumb [a blood clot]…we had a great time and if it wasn’t for the group from Samsung, we probably wouldn’t have completed this trek or survive, since they had little supplies which they graciously shared with us…thanks a ton to them..!! We reached the check post, tore open our supplies and ate till we felt better..!! Had a chat with the guard there [Kunal bribed him with two cigarettes ;) :D] made friends with him and thanked him for the shelter overnight and started the descent…

With over a kilometer or two left to reach the base, we thought the trek was over…that’s when it started getting dark…a thunderstorm…a thing that everyone ought to do when stuck in a rain in the middle of a rain forest…Run!!!!!!! Get the heck out before it is too late..!!!!

Three parts of a rain forest floor…tree roots [they turn slippery the moment rain hits it] mud/clay [gets slimy during the rain and form puddles!] leaves [Damn things make it so slippery that you can forget about footing]…so we came tumbling one after the other…Mine and Kunal’s glasses were fogged and we had to walk without wearing them…We had our umbrella’s out [No effect at all..!!] Diljith’s raincoat was wet more on the inside than outside!!! water seeped into the bags making it worse…!! Kunal lost his way while getting down and I had to whistle out loud for him to get the bearings right…We found the road…!!! Jubilant we were…!!!!

Moral of the story??

Treks in the Western Ghats during monsoons are the toughest…

And oh!! we can survive on grass [Smoking them or by eating them ;) your choice…]

P.S : And the mystical mountain I spoke of at the beginning?? We do have plans for that.... :D

Sadly our camera broke down, have a few pictures though...which will be posted soon..!! :)

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Signing

Ashutosh Sharma

A member of 'The Road Viruses’