Aramane Gudda
Part – 1
The Ascending
Friday Jan 7 2100 hrs:
I left home saying good bye to my wife and son. Had preapred my back pack with the required necessary things, wife suggested to take Match Box, since it is not a heavy object decided to go with it. 50% of the back pack was food and the rest was clothes and only one litre of water. Had food like apple, cucumber, bread & chapathi.
Friday Jan 7 2130 hrs :
Reached the specified SBI ATM in K.S.R.T.C Bus stand. Nobody had come yet as the time given was 2200 hrs. Then saw a person with a back pack standing near the ATM gussed he might be one of the 11 people for the trek as I knew only 2 of them out of 10. Asked him if he is going for a trek for which the answer was yes and then is it for Aramane Gudda the answer was “NO”. Then called Murali he said he is on hie way and will be there is 15 mins.
Friday Jan 7 2200 hrs :
Saw Ambraeesh walking towards me, hugged him and wished him, even though had just met him yesterday pretended as if we have not met for years. Asked him about the other members and updated him about Murali.
One by one the people started to arrive Rahul, Apoorva, Santosh, Vikas, Soma, Santosh, Sanket & Bhargav. Had a small introduction and went towards the bus. Me & Murali took a different route to the Bus and others went inside the K.S.R.T.C bus stand.
Friday Jan 7 2300 hrs
The Rajahamsa bus to Dhramastala left Banglaore and we started our journey to our detination Aramane Gudda.
Saturday Jan 8 0230 hrs
The bus starts to slow down and I get up to see where it is heading as he turns right to stop. I have just got up and Bragav says it just crossed Hassan for which I am amazed that this could not have happened, later we releaize that it has crossed chanrayapatana and the bus stopped at Udayapura (after Chanrayapatana) for a break and some of our trekkers ate dosa in Kamat. Myself and Ambareesh had coffee which was good. Murali and others were asleep so did not disturb them.
Saturday Jan 8 0330hrs
Murali gets up and asks if the bus had stopped for a break for which I answer “Yes” and he says I have nature call to attend and that too it’s a bit urgent. I encourage him to go and stop the bus which he does after some hesitation and finishes his job. Other trekkers see that it is one of our team member who has stopped the bus.
Saturday Jan 8 0500 hrs
The bus slows down and stops, it is a dark outside and we do not recogize the place, then he announces as “Chowdeshwari Devasatana” (Chowdeshwari Temple) which is our stop so we all eleven people get down check for our baggages and confirm we have got all of them.We go a settle down in the temple and most of them go back to sleep again.
Saturday Jan 8 0600 hrs
Myself , Ambareesh & Rahul venture out to find the way to start ascending to the peak, we see a man with a khaki dress and mistake him to be forest gaurd. (He is commercial check post gaurd) We later come back as we decide to walk down the road and then start climbing.
Saturday Jan 8 0700 hrs
All the trekkers are assembled at the Kempu Hoole and we get ready there to start our journey, we then climb up from a differnet route come back on the road and start our ascend making our own way into the forest.
Saturday Jan 8 900hs
We have been climbing steadily and we took our first break, we did not have a track or a path to follow and we had to make our own way.Our first group photo is taken here and we take a bit of rest and start ascending again.
Satudray Jan 8 1000hrs
We take our second break and we are now almost near to the grass lands as the sun is getting brighter and the number of trees are reducing. We have a light break fast and start again.
Saturday Jan 8 1100hrs
We are now in the grass lands and we can see water falls, opposite side railway track, forest below us etc. We rest for few mintues sitting under the goose berry tree (Nallikai Mara) and eating them as it is in abundance. We share a few jokes, Vikas & Soma prepare the enery drink (Lemon, Glucose & Water) which as kind of very refeshing and good.
Saturday Jan 8 1200hrs
We are slowly moving and I am at the end, they leave me behind and I am slowly moving the sun is on the head and I am feeling tired and dizzy. I give a shout and ask them to wait for me. Some of them wait and a few push off.
I finally catch up with them and ask Murali to accompany me and not to leave me alone and he agrees. We start climbing again and we see a 50ft to 60 ft slope we decide to go around that. We see a person sleeping as we come near to slope and to our surprise it is Ambareesh. Others have climbed that slope and we three(Murai, Myself & Ambareesh) plan to go around and complete that as well.
Saturday Jan 8 1300 hrs
By now my body has got de hydrated and we do not any shade to take rest, I am sweating like hell and in desprate need of water. There is around 500ml left in my bottle and finish that off. No sign of others, Ambareesh and Murali are ahead of me and I ask them to wait for me.They respond to that and wait for me. The grass is about 3ft to 4ft tall and if you are stilling down no-one can see you. I wave my hand kercheif and Murali stands up to show where he is. I some how reach them and I collapse as I am unable to walk any further and we start discussing on reach a shade to take some rest.
Saturday Jan 8 1330hrs
We are now in the shade of some trees that are availble and I get a cramp on my right leg I am unable to move and lie down there for some time.
Saturday Jan 8 1400hrs
We make this as our statergy and start moving from one shade to another slowly some time climbing or moving down. By now none of us have any water and we plan to reach the water falls which we had seen earlier.
Saturday Jan 8 1530 hrs
We keep moving towards the falls and end up in dry streams we are also climbing up in the course of reaching the peak unknowingly.We reach a big dry stream no trace of water and then we see the water falls is another km away from us atleast that’s what we feel in between we have big gorge to cross. Argument breaks up saying we need to go down to get water, but Ambraeesh is more worried about the other 8 trekkers.So he convinces us that he will back and starts climbing to the top, we wait for him for 30mins and we decide to go down as we had survive if we had to go back home for that we needed water. So myself and Murali start getting down in search of water.
Saturday Jan 8 1600 hrs
We started moving towards left side of the stream as it was a steep descend, we walked on the grass land for about 10 mins and then got into the shade of trees, here we got another stream and used it as the path to get down as we could see the path clrealy than in the grass land.
Saturday Jan 8 1700 hrs
We are taking a break for every 15 mins now and getting down but, we still do not have sign of any water.We hope this dry stream joins some where to the bigger stream and hope to get lot of water. And as we are getting down we come to a rock about 20ft deep.Murali takes the first steps to get down and I take a different route to get down that rock, that is when we notice drops of water falling from this rock and seeping into the ground. Also there a small line of water that is flowing on this rock, Murali asks me to adjust a leaf and create a elavation to make it like a tap to fill that water in our bottle. We are sucessful in this and get our first sip of water, which gets us 50% of our life back. Now we know why water is called “Jeeva Jala”. Also we observe lot of masquitos and think about the night.
Saturday Jan 8 1800 hrs
We further go down and see it is meeting a bigger stream and there we have a lot of water but, we are 50ft above it and the rock is sloping downwards and the chances of sliding down is maximum and the fall would break our leg.
We drink as much as water and go around that stream with great diffculty and get down carefully planning each and every step and come to some what flat land and understand that the terrian is similar to steps but the step size is like 40ft to 80ft varying and we are in the valley with rocks on both sides and we do not have any option but to get down on these rocks.
It is getting dark and we need to settle some where for the night we come across a few places and also see a few dens which belong to some animals and we decide it is not safe to stay there. (Animal – Human conflict) We slide down rocks taking risks and finally reach a small falls about 40ft. We take a cold water bath here and get fresh for the night and it turning pitch dark. Now Murali asks me If I have a match box for the night and I say yes and start searching for it and get it finally. I thank my wife for giving it to me at this point in time.
We cannot sleep there and move in search of a nicer place and we get down another 20ft of rock which was very diffcult both of us fall in this place and our shoes become wet in water. And settle in a some what flat place with rocks for the night.
Saturday Jan 8 1900 hrs to Sunday Jan 9 0600 hrs
We start a small fire and both of us has torches, we try to keep the fire going we collect as much as dry wood and try that, we discuss about our office , home and what the other 9 might be doing now. And how do we plan to get out of this forest. As we are burning fire we did not have any problems with the mosquitos. We start a bigger fire later with lot of wood and also have some chapati as dinner at 2230 hrs. We sleep in turns for 30 mins and the other tries to keep the fire going. We hear a lot of sounds and use our torch to see if it any animal, we keep an eye around the only sound we can hear is of the flowing water and it is just 1ft from us. The force of the water incerased in the night and we can hear the sound increase with other sounds of frog, cricket etc. At 0200hrs we can feel the cold wind blowing and we feel cold till then it was okay, now we need to sit next to fire to keep ourselves warm.
Some where early morning at 0500hrs we both doze off to sleep and the fire is not burning any more.We get up at 0600 hrs and plan our next move and wait for the day light as we cannot move in the dark.
Sunday Jan 9 0700 hrs
We start moving and see that the terrian is nothing but rocks and we slide, walk, climb, get down, move to left or right, cross the stream, make a Z path etc.At one place I get down easily and Murali is having diffculty with his shoes, so I ask him to give his bag so that he can get down more easily. He throws the bag a bit far from me, it is heading towards water and I trying to catch it fall and the bag gets drencthed in water. We can see the Railway track & the station starigh ahead and we keep that as the mark and try to move towards that.
Sunday Jan 9 0900 hrs
We finally reach a place which has about 80 to 100ft falls and rock on the left side and some grass land on the right side. We do not have any option but to climb the grass land we some how manage that and we are back on the top of the hill we climb the hill in the 45 degree angle, so that we are moving forward as well and it is easier to climb that way. Again it is sloping down and we see another stream with water, and think if we had this much water yesterday we would have done lot more things. We also get the network and we send SMS to Ambareesh that we are safe and will see you in Dharmastala hoping that we will before 2300hrs as that is the time the Bus will leave Dharmastala to Bangalore.
Sunday Jan 9 1000 hrs
Now we hear the sound of the lorries and busses which a plying in the NH, we aim to reach that NH asap. But the terrian is not helping us we go down and come up and some times when we are down we do not hear the sound so we are scared if we are not going in the right direction.We also observe a few trees that has been cut by chain saw, which gives a bit of hope that the NH is some where closer.
Sunday Jan 9 1100 hrs
Still no trace of the NH and we are walking blindly and then we see a track which is made my some one which has been used many times, we start walking in this trying to see where it leads and finally hear the sound of the lorries getting louder and we reach the NH at about 50ft above the road. We move towards the right in the gorge made by forest dept and reach the road finally.
We ask a few people as how far is the chowdeshwari temple is and get a response as 2kms, we thank god for this and later find out that it is hardly 200mts from where we started.
We could only come out of this forest because of pure luck, intitution, experience of Murali and our attitude.
Attitude counts everywhere!
Sunday Jan 9 1200 hrs
We both have tender coconut keep our bags in the shop and take bath in the Kempu Hole and have a good lunch at the Hotel, take some rest at the temple.
Sunday Jan 9 0400 hrs
We finally catch bus to Dhramastala and wait for our other team members to arrive at Hotel Kamat.
