Mission: Ombattu Gudde

Day 1: Thursday, April 3o, 2009
A casual conversation with a colleague turned out as a full blown hard core trekking plan for the long weekend.




I had blocked two seats in the trek group and spent few hours calling my close friends, all of them were occupied over the long weekend.


Departed from Shanti Nagar bus terminus at 10.30 p.m. few more pick-up points and a long stop at dhaba to fulfill few hungry souls and finally out of the city towards the destination

Day 2: Friday, May 01, 2009
Reached destination at 6.30 a.m. and the location was wonderful, thick jungle, by the side of a river. I was groggy cause of tiredness and lack of complete sleep, so did not bring up the camera for pictures.





Had to do morning chores on the banks of the river, finished packing the belongings, food and other essential items into rucksacks and had a good filling breakfast - a necessity for the long day ahead.

Team consisted of 17 high-energetic members from all age groups, we started our trek finally around 8.45 a.m. and with in few minutes I started feeling the weight of rucksack in my shoulders and I am yet to master the art of the carrying the backpack by tightening the various straps.

In less than 10 minutes we are in jungle, a thick one :-) I could breath the fresh air, the deafening silence, only noise is the rustling of leaves below the shoes. Talking of shoes, I had worn the Nike and approximately in 25 minutes from the time we started the soles of the shoes gave up.

The next one hour was one of the adventurous hour of my life so far, it was filled with all kind of emotions. Surprised at the thick forest, Amazed at the energy levels of few team members, Eager about the rest of the trip, Cursing self for not choosing the appropriate footwear and for not being fit to do this trek, Thankful to the Almighty for creating water to quench the thirst. It was very humid and I was sweating all over, the kerchief I was carrying was doing an excellent job and I need to mention the tap dancing each member performed while dealing with the leeches. These creatures are so tiny before the hook on to your skin and in less than 30 minutes they suck up so much blood that their size grows up by atleast 300 %. At first I thought I did not attract any leeches, but later noticed below the pant that 6 of them have taken hold of my calf, three in each leg. I had to use the salt and water to get rid of them from the skin. Overall a good learning in this first hour of trek.

Reached a clearing in the forest and had to cross the river here, the team lead was courteous to give a break to the treak team and it was a much needed relief. The river stream was chill, clear, sweet, flowing slowly and the taste of water was natural. Everyone had a good time at this place by chillaxing in the cool water. Few team members also took this opportunity to get rid of the leeches which had taken refuge inside their socks and have been feasting on their blood. We spent more than a hour playing in the river and admiring the nature till lunch was served. Lunch menu consisted of chappathi, pickles, podi, and jam. I believe everyone had a filling lunch and enough rest.

Team lead returned from his exploration of the trail ahead and we started from this spot towards our destination, the jungle remained thick and we spotted elephant mines at few places along the trail and my imagination was running wild with the toughts of encountering wild animals. This path was little difficult and the group trekked in complete silence. I had to take few breaks as a team member had cramps in her feet, with few minutes break and application of relispray we resumed walking.

As time progressed the heat and humidity was increasing by the minute and the weight of the rucksack on the shoulder was getting intolerable. Almost after 85 minutes of trekking we came to another spot, where we had to cross another river. The flow in the river was moderate and the entire river was filled with big boulders and the water was making a good amount of noise which was good to listen to :-)

The team lead alloted 10 minutes of break at this place and I was concerned about the remaining distance for the day to be covered as it was 3.15 p.m. and I calculated we will loose light inside the trail by 5.30 p.m. so I urged the team lead to decide if we have to trek further ahead or call it a day and make this as our camping site, after a quick poll and considering the fact that the trail ahead is in an unchartered territory it was decided that we will camp here tonight. This decision gave a surplus time and all of us a good time in the water.

After spending an hour in the water the aches and pains from all part of the body started taking over me and I resigned from the ongoing activity of pitching tents and fire wood collection. I laid down on the rock face till the first tent was put up successfully, once tent was ready I secured a place for me in the tent and got settled in and applied a lot of axe oil to my feet and soles to uplift my soul. I could feel better after an hour and joined the team playing dumb-charade next to the bonfire. Around 8.40 p.m. dinner was served and I came into the tent at 9.15 p.m. for my good night sleep with the condition that I will be doing the last shift job of manning fire and keeping vigil from 2.30 a.m. to 4.30 a.m. slept well and I was waken up at 2.30 for my shift and spent the next two hours looking at the star lit sky and ensuring that the fire does not dry, I had another team member for company and finally at 5.00 a.m. I returned to my tent for another hour of sleep before finally waking up at 6.00 a.m.

Day 3: Saturday, May 02, 2009

Woke up by 6.00 a.m. and after finishing morning chores and packing the tents, rucksack and doing a quick, crude fix of putting together my shoes, I had bread and mazaa for breakfast and around 8.00 a.m. we left the campsite for our second day of trek.

This part of the trek was in even more denser forest and the sunlight was struggling to enter the thick canopy of the tall trees and vegetation. I quickly realized that last evening's decision to camp next to the river was a practical one given the reality of the trail we are pursuing. I think we trekked for close to 2 hours and took few breaks to get rid of the leeches and to hydrate ourself and also to fill up our water bottles at the various river crossings, also to figure out the way ahead after getting lost couple of times.

Finally we reached a place where we had to halt for a while to figure out the future course of trail and we used this opportunity to get into the water once again and also finished our lunch here. Slowly it was becoming obvious to us that we are totally lost in the jungle and unable to make out the trail towards the grasslands, based on this realization we did a quick calculation of the time required to get back to our vehicle and we departed from this location towards our starting point. The next few hours we trekked back and took two breaks.

The last leg the trek I had to let go of my Nike shoes as they completely gave away and donned the Bata slippers, prepared a bottle of anti-leech solution and totally motivated by the fact that the last part is going to last only for 70 minutes, I along with few other team members got a head start and needless to say that this last 70 minutes are the most tiring and demanding of the entire two days. The path seems to be never ending and the feet were aching a lot and the leeches kept attaching to me. Finally I could make it to the starting point and what a relief it was to be out of the jungle, closer to urbanization.

The next 5 hours were spent relaxing, chatting, eating snacks, having tea, getting to know other team members, and waiting for the transport to show up. Finally around mid-night left the place towards Bangalore and I reached home by 8.00 a.m.