The peak is about 1350 m above sea level and the route is a horror! One thinks of a trek as a enlightening experience and it certainly was: It lightened me by atleast 3-4 kilos.. Lol.. The trek began with a steady walk over near horizontal ground till a "hotel" midway.. Like Gimli said in LOTR: We dwarves are natural sprinters, very dangerous over straight distances! Gogo and me say to that: Amen! Ppl with big BMI are incredibly good over straight ground, usually better than most others..
Well after lunch, we began the 2nd part of the trek to the guest house atop the peaks. Let me tell u now itself, this was all uphill and I got f***ed up badly: Pace was the issue, stamina wasnt a real factor. But just when the glucose was taking its action & I felt good enough to climb Mt. Everest, came the cramps. Started with the toes and went upwards to the quadriceps of both legs: Here is where the sensational six formed a group till the end: Me, GOGO, Dipanker, Sanjay, Macha (Yuvaraj) and Ravi struggled on (Or was it just me doing the struggling part?) and reached the peak about 30 mins after the main party. The thing which angered me sooo much here was ppl shouting "praises" to me which I know are undeserved and also nothing being said to the other 5 guys! It was ~9 kms in total but felt like 20 :( That day also saw a trek to the very peak to view the sunset but alas, I was too spent to proceed there:-
The next day saw the journey back- downhill I went with Singhai who I must say helped as I was among the very first to reach the "hotel" (Note the inverted's, ppl). A break here and we set off to see Arashinagundi falls (Hey thats what I think the name is atleast!).. Compared to this part of the trip, the trek to the guest house was a piece of cake.. I heard this comment during that part many times- "This is a real trek man".. I also heard this comment even more times- "Never have I been so f***ed up before in my life"! The journey was through twisted routes so we needed a guide who could have beat the pants outta Tensing Norgay anyday.. Unfortunately our priorities split between stopping for a break and not stopping in fear of leech infestation (See previous post) and the road is- Eh, what road?? Slippery downslopes, fallen logs and big rocks were obstacles but it was simply worth it- If not for the waterfalls, then for the sheer kick of doing it.
Of course the guide cant be perfect (Aren't we all imperfect?) and we found it out the hard way. He led us back to a point whereupon a jungle road of sorts about 4 kms would lead us to the road where the bus would pick us up.. Hmmm... Was it just me or did he have a sparkle in his mouth when he said that? Realise that most of us were spent big time and the sensational six formed again here! After walking for clearly over 7 kms, we 6 were really considering being lost as no return shouts could be heard in response to our desperate pleading shouts.. I swear all 6 of us got delusional when we "heard" vehicles nearby when actually we were about just half-way through.. Timely breaks and constant encouragement kept me going as by now my legs were dead! When we finally saw the road and heard the others, all of us did something I shall never forget- In unison we all turned to face the road, got down on our knees and kissed the ground multiple times.. It was a scene straight out of a lame soap serial but I loved it!
And now 18.5 hrs later as I write this post- my legs still ache, my feets are still swollen and the leech bites look like a "Connect the dots" puzzle (Which probably will reveal a picture of Mama leech) and I think- was it all worth it? Well maybe not the waterfall part but Day 1?? Hell yeah, baby.. See my next post for more on that..
2 comments:
nice one dude...!!
but am surprised that u got angered by the praises, they were really meant to be for u, for ur effort to the peak despite those cramps which cud've pulled down neone of us,if got.
Well my reasoning is simple: I didnt deserve those praises as the cramps were mine to blame! And i dont recall u or gogo or preet, hell i dont recall any of the other 9-10 ppl getting any praises.. So even if they were genuine, why not give it to others too?
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