To Trek or not to Trek

About a month ago, Brad asked me if I wanted to join him on a trek being organized by someone at his work. I thought, well -- an opportunity to get out of the city, sounds nice -- yes. Then I found out it was going to be 26 kilometers (work it out for those of you who only understand miles, multiple by .61). It was bit further than I would choose for a first trip, but ok. We planned to stay overnight in some government run accommodations (huts), near Muthathi. The trek was supposed to take us on a loop from there to Bheemeshwari which is only about 5K up the road, but was a 26K loop up to the top of the nearby mountains. So we drove out Saturday, leaving about 3pm, and arriving at about 6. The first thing we had to do was negotiate the accommodations. When we arrived, Ramu, the driver for the organizer(Shane) went into the lodge where we were supposed to stay. He came out and said-"it is fully filthy, sir", you should stay over there. He negotiated with the forest dept personnel that we could use the 3 2-person huts, which were more expensive. But we could not go into one of them till after 9pm. We could only guess that his superiors worked till nine.

We got things out of the cars. I had first understood it would be a loop, and then on the way, discussing with Brad, he said we couldn't leave things at camp, so I repacked into one backpack. Fortunately I didn't need to carry everything as when we got there, we got agreement that we could keep the key to one hut and keep things locked the next day. One burden off my shoulders. Anyways, we got some tables set up, and chairs out. Then it started to get dark, so they lit a streetlight like lamp in the courtyard. The fans in the rooms worked, but only if you push-started them... But they worked. Shane went into one of the bungalows to use the toilet. When he came out he described something of a geyser coming out of the back of the toilet. We went in and saw what happened. The tank wasn't properly attached to the bowl, the pipe missed the hole, so the water just sprayed all around the back of the bowl, onto the wall etc. We mentioned to the caretaker that this happened. He said, "that is how it works sir". So much for doing something about it...

Then we were about to get dinner ready, when it started to rain. So, under the porch roof of one of the cabins for everyone, food, stove et al. Then the lights went out. We asked the local worker--they turn the lights off when it rains-- go figure. Well we were lucky that Ramu had packed candles for us, so we still got the pasta cooked and the sauce heated up on the propane stove Shane had brought. Dinner was delicious. And then we went to bed as the guides(2 of them) were supposed to meet us at 7am for the start. I had forgotten my phone, so Sau set his alarm for 6 and we slept pretty well despite his snoring, my snoring, and the lack of a fan.

We were all up and ready by 7 the next morning, including having breakfast. One of the group nicely collected our garbage in a plastic bag, tied it up and put it into the rabbit-cum-garbage can they had on site. They are popular in India-and have a sign on them, 'use me', so we did. Then one of the workers came, opened up the back of the can, took out the bag. He promptly opened it, took out the glass bottles which he could recycle, and then walked across the yard with the rest, and pitched it over the fence in the direction of the river which was about 100m away. So much for doing the right thing. Look closely at the photo, and you can see the trash-rabbit on the right.

We locked up our stuff, and got our packs ready. I had cobbled together various peanut/candy bars, cookies, and some bananas for lunch, and had 2 liters of water to take along. The guide (one of them) showed up at about 7:30. I don't remember his name--the reason for this will probably become obvious as you read this. He had a discussion with the local forestry man who had opened the rooms for us, and with us, through the two Indians who were with us. We tried to communicate that we wanted to go on the long loop-we had a map of the trails, and go to the top of the one mountain. We kept hearing something about 6 kilometers and Elephants, but couldn't make out what they were discussing. The guide spoke NO English at all.

Anyways, after a bit we took off. We walked back down the main road for a short bit and took of up the hill. After about 15 mins, I was seriously wondering whether I would make it. The guide set a very quick pace and the hill was pretty steep. By the way, the guide had no pack, no water, and wore flip-flops. I figured out he had some fruit in a pocket as I saw him eating it at lunch later.

We walked for about an hour, and stopped to take pictures a couple of times etc. Then all of a sudden the guide tells us that we need to go left up the hill, and not follow the obvious trail straight in front of us. He tells us that to get where we want to go, we need to go on the unmaintained trail. It started raining about this time, which was nice as the weather wasn't so hot.

So off we went, up steep boulders, and through the grasslands and trees. I scraped up my knee on a rock that was fairly steep and slippery. I was stupid, I didn't put my water bottle back in my pack so I only had one hand free. It wasn't bad, but it attracted flies anytime we stopped for a rest which was annoying. Then we turned to go up the ridge, straight up the rock outcroppings. Beautiful sights, but not the easiest to walk.

After about 15 mins of this, we again go left, down the steep side of the ridge. He tells us that the trail isn't maintained, which we can tell. It looked more like a deer track than a trail--except for he Elephant droppings everywhere. This was one thing we couldn't figure out. The trail was narrow, sometimes going between rocks we could barely navigate, and steep, but there was elephant dung about every 50 meters. Well, we followed this "trail" down to a point where we were about 30 or so meters from the stream at the bottom. We could see some sort of a trail at about the same elevation on the other side, but the last section was steep rocks. It took us about 15-20 mins to find a spot to navigate down without slipping and hurting ourselves. Then we got back to the other trail and he wanted to head down. (I figure this was the 6K option which he had been discussing with the other gentleman.) We told him, no we wanted to go up to the top. He then said we should have told him earlier as then we could have stayed on the other trail which was much less steep.

We took off up the hill again, with a visibly upset guide. Things went fairly well for the next hour or so. Then we reached a point where we met some guys coming down. They assured us it was about another 45 mins to the top-but we were on the right trail. Then about 5 mins later the guide points into the brush, and asks if we want to go up that way, it is supposedly shorter. No, we decided to stay on the trail this time, luckily. On we went, and about 20 mins later there is a fork, with a faint trail up to the left. The guide insisted that we had to take that. It turned into a jeep road, and he was right this time. About an hour later we were at the top. It is now noon. 4.5 hours to the top. And we were told we would be back at camp by 3 (well first we had been told noon, but we didn't believe that). We had a nice lunch. Everyone brought too much, but we all shared. I had already started on my 2nd bottle of water, but figured the way down wouldn't be so bad, so I wasn't worried.........

1pm sharp we left. About 15 mins on the way down, we met a couple of forestry workers on a motorbike headed for the top. They talked with the guide, and one of our gang overheard him say "can you believe, these guys have a map, and they want me to follow it"--an omen of what was to come. So we went down a bit further, then there was a small trail off to the right, down hill. The guide asked us if we wanted to go back on the jeep road, or 'through the forest'? We asked him about difficulty-- "same". We asked which was faster-- "Forest". So we agreed to take the forest. Not ten mins later we came to a tank (small lake or pond) which the trail went through. We should have taken this as a sign. But no, we didn't want to go back up, so we figured out how to get around it, and found the trail (well cow track by now) again. Off we went. Then the guide started looking around like he's not sure which way to go. The trail totally dissapeared. We heard an elephant in the distance, so we had to stop.

Now I have to orient you. The mountain is behind us, the river (Cauvery, or Kaveri) where we stayed is off to the right (about 2 o'clock), the elephant sounds were more at 3 o'clock. Yes that line is the river, the picture is from the top of the mountain.

So we went off to the left some, slowly, quietly. We never saw the elephant. About 15 mins later, we meet some cows, and 2 cow herds. The guide asked them for directions about how to get to the trail. They pointed more to the left, and down. He went a bit left, and then started going right. He also told them he had lost the trail due to the elephant--it was long gone before the elephant. Now we knew he was officially lost. Well, we went down, very steep, tall grass, rocks any where the size of tennis balls to bowling balls, hidden in the grass. I was amazed none of us broke a leg or twisted an ankle. We went at least 1 hour more down before we reached some sort of a muddy creek. We stopped for a few mins and one of the guys put his feet in the stream to cool off. The guide drank the muddy water, none of the rest of us came any closer than our feet. There was a ridge on the other side. I figured out that he should have gone more to the left, and caught that ridge so we would be on the proper side to come down to the trail, but no he wanted to take the "faster route".

Next we asked where the trail was. He said 1/2 of a Kilometer up the next ridge, we said, ok is that the trail to Bheemeshwari (our destination). He said no, Muthathi. We asked where the trail to Bheemishwari was. He said back up the hill we had just come down. We all knew for sure that was not true. So we agreed to go the .5 kilometers to the next trail. Up the hill we went, over the top, and started going steep down again. About 1.5 Kilometers later we asked where the trail was. Only another .25 kilometers yet.... Well suffice it to say, it took us about another 1/2 hour to 45 mins to get to the trail.

By this time my water was totally gone. My legs wouldn't behave and I was very worried about twisting my ankle, spending the night in the wilderness, or becoming dehydrated. So I went slowly. The others went ahead. In about 1 more hour, we came out at the road, all safe and sound. We were met by Ramu and Suresh and gladly accepted the water they had waiting for us.

Fortunately we were all safe and sound back at camp, by about 4:30. We could tell the guide was hanging around for a tip, but given he had gotten lost, mis directed us up the mountain, and generally been unfriendly when we told him where we wanted to go, he didn't get one. We collected our things and made it back home by 8. I don't think I have ever been so sore as I was the next day, plus sun-burned. Somewhere along the way down, the sun came out, but we were all so focused on keeping our feet on solid ground, none of us noticed.

What at trek. But it was fun in the end. Shane took many more photos that I did and he is supposed to post them. If I get the link, I'll post it.