The planning for the trek from my side was a perfect NULL :). It was Anantha who asked me to join them and I instanly decided to join them.Nice to have buddys like Anatha n Santosh who had well planned everything in advance for the trek, let it be from gettting allstuff for survival on the trek or surfing the net to get a fell of the place from others experiences.
It was 1st june 2007 at 11.45 we had booked tickets to sakleshpur in Rajahamsa. It was a cool 4 hr journey, and we landed at Donigal( 7kms from sakleshpur) at about 4.00 early morning. There was this small hotel call "Pic Nic" where they were playing some cool local tracks. We decided to fresh-up thr n have some breakfast, as this would be our first n last hotel on this trek.
Then after about half n hour we decided to set our legs rolling ;) and with instructions from the hotel cashier, set off walking on the highwayin search of the Donigal Railway station. Our torches did play their role in seeing that we r on the highway. It was a brisk 11/2 hr walk to cover a distance of about 3-4 km that we finally reached the Donigal Railway station at about 6am. The actual trek started off at the Donigal Railway station. We freshed up here, distributed our loads equally and set-off.After walking for a km we began to get the feel of toughness to walk on a railway track. But chitter chatter talk on the way kept usgoing. Estates n the banks of streams of water, were a good place to take rest.
From Donigal to Yedakumeri , its 17 kms of railway track with full of greenary, mountains ,streams of water, bridges amd tunnels all the way.After covering about 4 kms we decided upon cooking some stuff , so as to muster some energy for the 13 kms left. We cookedyummy MTR stuff. Here we stumbled upon one more gang of enthusiastic, not so well planned trekkers from i-gate S/W firm. Then it was a hare and tortoise race all along:).
We reached Yedakumeri at about 5.30 pm. We were all exhausted n happy that we had seen thru it. As per our plans we were all set to take rest at the railway station for the night. But the station master had his own share of owes to forbid us from staying there overnight. We were compelled to leave the place at about 6and enter the forest to cross it n get to the highway which was 4-5 kms away.
The real trek started on entering the forest. The staffers at the railway station waved in some direction,saying thats the way to enter the forest to reach the highway. Aghast!! we were, as it was just a path left by a stream of water.The walk in the forest ..infact running...infact sliding at some places...was really horrifying. With apparently no clue wether we were on the right path and the fear of darkness embracing us...we had to rush through one behind the other. We were 9 of us here...we 4 + 5 trekkers from i-gate.After walking for about half n hour did we realize that leaches were hanging all over from our shoes, legs, pants....The salt we had didnot suffice to remove them all...so we had to bear with them and rush thru to reach the highway. This continued for an hr more, with leaches all the way n elephants on our way at some points. Then came a sigh of relief when wesaw the buses at some distance on the highway. But this feeling didnot stay long....
We had to cross a river to reach the highway,( guess we had lost our way in the forest and had missed a bridge at some place to cross this river).The water was flowing with enough pace not to allow anyone to experiment their swimming skills. Fortunately there was a point form one side on the banks with huge stones at intermittent places till the other side of the river. The stones were very slippery and everyone had their share of fall into the river.Finally we made a human chain n were able to reach the other end. It was about 8pm when we stepped on the highway. Got a bus there and reached Sakleshpur by abot 10pm. Got into a lodge and got rid of all the leaches on our clothes n shoesand took rest for the night and left to Bangalore the next morning.
All in all, it was an adventourous weekend for all we software engineers , a change from our routine monotonous life and the feeling that we would cherish for ever:).
Have a peek at the snaps here
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| sakleshpur |
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