Sakleshpur Green Line Trek - Childhood dream come true

Ever since I visited Araku Valley by train when I was small child, I loved the railway ghat sections. The huge number of tunnels and bridges (since trains cannot climb anything more than a 1 in 100 grade, compared to automobiles which can easily do a 1 in 10) make for a very entralling experience.

So when my trek mates from the Kottebetta trek informed me about the planned Sakleshpur Green Line trek, I literally jumped with excitement. So I reached bangalore on friday morning and crashed at Sameer's place. In the evening we went to Neeraj's place. There were 16 ppl in the group, so we rented a 22 seater bus and started to Sakleshpur at late night, reaching by saturday morning 6 o'clock. After refreshments and introductions at the KSRTC bus station, we headed to the railway line. On the way we also made a brief stopover at a fort and took some nice pics.

From there we started trekking on the tracks. Since it was a ghat section, there was little to no place to trek beside the tracks, so we had to walk on the concrete sleepers. This was kind of a jarring experience since it took utmost concentration to step correctly, lest we trip over or sprain an ankle. The heat was also unbearable with little cloud cover. Added to this I was carrying a 9 kilo backpack. Anyway we met some workers on the tracks, who told us that since there was some accident a few days ago, all train services on that line were suspended. This gave us a huge relief and we started disregarding basic rules - like crossing bridges in small groups, not resting on the tracks themselves, etc.

After a couple of "photoshoots" in tunnels and on bridges, we stopped at a small waterfall to refill, and I heard the faint but distinct sound of a train horn. I almost brushed it aside since we were not expecting any trains, when I heard a louder second horn. Realizing what was happening, I started shouting "Train! Train!" and everyone scrambled to the side of the tracks and pulled the bags which were lying on the tracks. After a couple of seconds, a very long freight train rumbled past us. It gave us the shock of our lives, since, had it happened on a bridge, it would have been a total disaster!

Anyway we continued more carefully, while periodically listening for train horns or vibrations on the tracks to make sure we wont get caught on the wrong foot again. We passed through a lot of tunnels, the longest of which was more than half a km. There were no lights, making the inside of long tunnels pitch black. They were also occasionally damp, making the sleepers very slippery. My torchlight was woefully inadequate since it was very focused, forcing me to use my more wider cellphone light. Also since the tunnels were designed for meter gauge, and later converted to broad gauge, the space on the sides where we were supposed to take cover, in case of an approaching train, was much smaller than expected.

We had our lunch with bhel and bread close to a railway station. After walking for some more time, we reached a small stream. There most of us took a bath, and continued on our way.

After a couple of trysts with some more trains and maintenance vehicles, we finally reached the Yedakumari railway station. After some dinner, we settled down to sleep in a room in the station. The next day morning we woke up early and after enjoying the morning climate for some time, we started back to the highway along the jungle with the help of a local guide. Before starting we took a couple of precautions against leeches, which would be abundant in the jungle we were about to cross.

We moved downhill rapidly, and then came across a small but fast moving stream, with leeches on the banks. My shoes got completely wet, but I would not dare remove them given the abundance of leeches. After trekking for about 3 hours we reached a much bigger river, with the highway on the otherside which we crossed slowly. While we were waiting for the bus to arrive to pick us up, some of us went for a swim in the river. It was a very beautiful experience for me since it was waist deep water, with soft sand underneath. The water was also not too fast or stagnant.

We got on the bus and reached Bangalore amongst a *huge* lot of dancing and shenanigans. I crashed at Shalesh's place for the next day, and then started back to Hyderabad on monday evening.

Overall it was a great feeling about my childhood dream coming true. I still remember the time I spent wanting to walk the railway tracks of Araku valley (on the Visakhapatnam-Kirandul line) near my hometown. It feels so great to finally do something which you have given up on a long time ago, especially if it was a childhood dream!

Trekking in The Himalayas - Where the earth meets the Sky...

Himalayas had always been a trekking destination which eluded me. Sometimes it was my fitness level, sometimes the cost, sometimes the professional commitments - but whatever the reason, it was not happening. So when I saw the BMC posting for a Himalayan trek, I immediately knew I could not miss it. Thus started my tryst with the Himalayas...

After taking a flight to Delhi from Hyderabad, followed by a disastrous bus journey to Manali, we landed at the Hotel on Sunday Evening. Monday morning we started to Solang Valley by Sumos, where I did Zorbing. We then moved on to Rohtang Pass, where we played by sliding on the small patches of snow etc. Then towards evening we moved to the the Base Camp at 14 mod (at 3250m) in heavy rain, and retired for the night.

The next day we began our trek to the next camp at Ravalikoli at 3750 m. Initially the trek passed through the forest, but soon we were above the tree line in beautiful grasslands. we reached the Ravalikoli camp, which was surrounded by mountains on 3 sides, with small rivers originating from them - and combining to form a big stream which snaked past the camp, and distant snow-covered peaks on the 4th side. After having some hot soup, we played Dumb charades and then proceeded to rest for the night.

The next day we started our trek to the sacred Brighu Lake located at 4250m above sea level. After a couple of hours of climbing through grassland, rocky areas as well as some snow, we reached the majestic lake Brighu. We rested for half an hour near the lake and then ate packed lunch before starting our descent. On the way back, a couple of us, played in the snow by throwing snow balls as well as sliding in it. By the time we reached the camp at Ravalikoli, there was a heavy fog and visibility was reduced to less than 10ft. I then climbed the nearby mountain for a view of the camp, but had to return soon due to a lot of rain. We played song & dance for some time before retiring for the night. However, unlike the previous nights, it never rained, which was a big surprise, given the downpour that used to hit the tents on earlier nights.

The next day the sky cleared up completely resulting in a bright and sunny day. This made the return trek one of the most pleasurable experiences of my life. We enjoyed a lot by singing, dancing and plain freaking out on the way down. We walked through big meadows filled with exotic flowers, while sheep and horses were grazing peacefully. We reached the road, where we were picked up by Sumos and headed back to Manali.

I did some basic shopping that night, as well as visited the Manu temple. The next day we did white water rafting on the Beas River which was very exciting, especially when a couple of us, jumped into the river. In the evening we boarded the bus back to Delhi. After staying at my cousin's place in Delhi for a while, I reached Hyderabad sunday evening by flight.

This trek is easily the best among all the treks I had ever done due to the sheer beauty of the Himalayas coupled with the very diverse backgrounds and intellects of my team mates. I look forward to doing more such treks in the Himalayas.

Trek to Kudremukh - Touching the face of God!

It had been a very long time since I had been on a trek. This summer was a complete bummer, with temperatures soaring in Hyderabad and surrounding areas. So after the first monsoon showers, I decided to go on a trek. With none of my friends having the time to join me, I decided to go with a professional club, and the Bangalore Mountaineering Club (BMC) was the BEST among them.

So I started a day earlier and landed in Bangalore on Friday morning, and worked that day and then joined with the BMC team leaving for Kudremukh on Friday night. We reached Kalasa and were put up in a local hotel, as the local nature camp did not allow large groups (we were 35 people). The next day morning, we reached the base of the trek at around 9:30 am, and started the trek.

Initially the trek was on a muddy road for a couple of km, and then it branched out into the forest. While waiting for others to catch up a couple of us also took a detour to a nearby waterfall with a check-dam which was beautiful. Back on the way, after crossing the first stream, I realized that there were leeches all over the place due to the incessant raining in the past few days. I have a serious fear of leeches (I looked it up and the actual term is "Bdellophobia" :), and these were really big ones at almost 4-5 cms long (without any blood i.e.), wiggling around vigorously to attach themselves to the nearest blood source. After reaching a patch of dry rock, we checked our shoes and sure enough there were 2 leeches, which were quickly removed by my teammates (thanks guys! I was really really grossed out :).

After climbing for some more time, we could see the actual peak we were about to climb. It was awesome, like a serene giant, being engulfed slowly in milky white clouds. The mountains around were majestic. After some comparatively steeper climbing, we reached the peak by 2:00 PM and relaxed there for an hour while enjoying the lunch of chapattis & chutney which our BMC contact Ram had provided.

On a nearby mountain, we could see a herd of bison, walking slowly, and it felt very exciting seeing them. On the peak, I realized that I ran out of my 2.5 litre supply of water, having misjudged the strenuousness of the climb. So, I had to drink some water from a nearby stream directly - since I did not have any iodine to purify it, but it was very pure. We started our way back down, after climbing down from the main peak, I was deep in leech territory, so I started running all the way until we were close to the mud road, which was safe from leeches.

Four of us were lost on the way back on the mud road, and reached a local village. Two local women were kind enough to lead us back to the Bus. It was almost 6:00 PM by the time we reached the bus. We went back to the lodge and the next day we went to a nearby waterfalls which were very beautiful, before starting back to Bangalore. It was almost 1AM by the time I reached my friend's place in Bangalore.

I did not carry a camera with me on this trip, so the pics from my cell are subpar, I will put up the remaining pics once the remaining team members upload their.

I was very happy with myself for completing this trek, since my strength and stamina training over the previous 5 months had paid off handsomely, with me being able to carry a lot of weight uphill without getting real tired! Hoping to do a trek sometime real soon.