A
youngster smitten by the splendor of nature’s bounty, sky piercing mighty
mountains, crazy photographers, a resolve to reach and kiss the pure water
laden cloud at the top, and perseverance of a newbie who just refused to give
up…
We
spice up the story with…compassion, métier, resolve, friendships, having our
meals sitting in the lap of mother earth, from her immense cooking pots
directly to our taste buds, a sky full of thousand times the number of stars
any of we city kids had ever seen and a creepy red viper snake…And what we get,
is perfect foretelling of the story “Kudremukha” - The Horse Headed
Hill…
And
so we 6 started on a beautiful trekking adventure, roughly 6 hours away from
the jostling city of Bengaluru, in a Toyota Innova at the dead of the Bengaluru
city Friday party night...And off we went, through the beautiful
highways, followed by swirling and stomach turning roads of the Ghats section
and finally followed by a Jeep ride through the most difficult swampy road till
our homestay (Mahindra, Take a Bow!!!)..
And
thus commencing the trek… 18.4 miles… scorching sunny, then shady, and then
rainy, uphill and downhill, sweaty, then breezy, stony, then muddy… quenching
our thirst directly from the sweetest and purest spring waters, taking our
strength from the mesmerizing views of the fog laden hills and running our way
through the damp trails from leech attack!!!
Nobody
trips over mountains…It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble…Pass all
the pebbles in your path and you will find, you have crossed the mountain…
And
so we crossed it, only to revive our strength with yummazing food and star
studded new moon’s night sky, complete with millions of twinkling stars, clear
and complete with all astronomical patterns, to be forever imprinted on our
memories…
After
local sightseeing next day from the water-falls and dams and feeling blessed at
various famous temples of the region, as we were nearing our city life, we
found ourselves not quite ready to believe that it’s over…
But
then the best realization was still yet to come…
“We
crossed the mountains of apprehensions, bathed in the pool of waters shimmering
with novel beginnings…” And it’s surely an end of one story, but a beginning of
MANY…
Perfect
Planning, Management, Modesty, Kannada Translations and Enthusiasm
credits: Vijaya Srikara
Perseverance,
resolve, determination and exemplary sportiness of a first time trekker
credits: Nikita Jain
Display
of friendship, compassion and selfless support to the group and true true
awesomeness credits: Sushant Vernekar
Route
guidance, bypassed Chickmagaluru sightseeing, creepy survival story of red
viper snake attack, persistence of trekking barefoot and management support
credits: Vinay Shivanna
Perfect
Photography even without a professional camera, identification of red viper
snake and willpower credits: Sai Chaitanya
And
finally, Memories Preservation Credits: Shivani Shastri
P.S. I wrote another blog with same title, back in Pune...
So these are called phases for
a reasons, they repeat themselves...
