It all began on 9th Dec we five guys (myself, Vijay, Shashin, Ravi and Bharat) started off at KSRTC bus stop at Bangalore by boarding the Dharmastala bus. Bought tickets to Sakleshpur and bribed the conductor to drop us at Donigal station. Donigal is pretty much to identify by the chain of tea shops at the corner where most vehicles stop for tea before hitting the ghat drive. It ws 3am in the morning when we got down at this place, sipped some hot tea and started at 3:30 for our most beautiful trek.
Approx 2-3kms on the same highway towards the right we took the mud road after much confusion and finally reached check point one..hurry! we reached Donigal station and clicked some photos.
Cheers! to our wonderful journey that would be. We also woke up a station master with our flashes and noise and sensing troubling we just slipped into the track to hear the generators at the station kickoff to power the signals for the chugging train.....yes! the first train of the day on the tracks for us...the petroleum container rail must be at leaset a kilometer long...it was fun waiting for the train to pass for us to continue our journey on the tracks. it was eight and we didn't want to waste the precious early morning hours on anything and had a quick bite on Vijay's Parata's chutney powder and started off again...by 9 we reached a the sign board warning us to stay off the tracks as it is illegal to trek in this place and this definitely calls for a photo session :D...
afer a couple of pics again we started off again and could see another group of trekkers ahead of us...seemed like they were a big group with all tents and stuff. there's a beautiful river right below this signboard and inspired us to think of what more beautiful could lie ahead of us. This place is constantly calls for railway line maintenance so we could spot plenty of workers on our way only to stare on us or giggle and probably like "don't you guys have any other better work than spend the weekend here??" looks...who cares i'm enjoying the nature and greenery already...a little walk and bang! we bump into some guy (looked all groase with a walkie talkie in hand) "who are you all guys?? what are you doing here??" bla bla...we din't give a damn and just continued the trek withuot giving him much importance(i knew it was not good on us but still it's good not to get into a conversation with such guys..)...by noon we reached "Kadadhavalli"(not sure if it spells the same:)) station where a few bored uninteresting station people were seen...
the sun was peaking and we taut it was a good time to take a long break till 2 or later until the sun was a little harsh...by then we had crossed some good number of tunnels and bridges already..trust me it's just the beginning...there's so much beauty and greenery you would never want to leave this place or at least to people like me who've lived in cities all their life this is something one must do if you're a trekker or someone who really wants to appreciate real nature. A person here warned us telling that people who went ahead of us will be coming back because it's not allowed to trek here and you guys will fined for entering an prohibited are. He insisted that we stay here for the day (paying 100rs per head for which he would allow us to stay in his room ) detour the next day. For Me, Vijay and Shashin it was the last thing that we wanted to do..it's just noon on day one and return back? NO WAY...we knew this guy was bluffing to get 100rs and we continued...the water here is really worth mentioning here..it tastes like heaven. so fresh, pure and refreshing...i would die to drink that water anytime here in Bangalore..the bridges hanging barely on a few pillars are amazing to walk on(watch out for trains before you start walking on them coz some bridges don't have a pavement)
The pitch dark tunnels are so cool..the countless springs en route are simply brilliant...
Again while taking these tunnels be careful especially tunnels which are lengthier (>200m) watch out for any signs of trains approaching coz the tunnels are just enough to fit the trains. In one of the tunnels we almost got killed for ignoring the approaching train by misjudging the train horn to be very distinct but it was close and gods grace we were at the end of the tunnel and jumped out just in time into a gutter to find a snake a few meters away from us. Lucky us, nothing happened. Make sure you carry torches which otherwise is highly impossible to walk in these tunnels. By 4pm we reached "Yedakumeri" which was supposed to be our check point 2 and had plans of halting here for the night but this is where all the trouble began.
The Station master here is so annoying and troubled us so much. He had already held two trekkers from the group which was ahead of us threatening them to be handed over to the railway police. He simply would not bulge to any of our requests to allow us to stay at the station. His only word "get out from here or i'll radio the police"...man! he was real troublesome. At last he somehow let the trekkers go and we to left and sat for a while there after we had spoken to a railway worker who told that there's a goods train slowing down at that place and we can board that train for a few 100rs to be dropped off at the next station (Aaryabhata Station)...but that train never came and we had wasted our precious time waiting for the train that would never come. There was an abandoned house/quarters a little ahead of Yedakumeri station and we taut we'll camp here but soon we discovered that the big group was already here with their tents pitched and maggi getting cooked. It was already about 6pm then. But trouble came again with the station master coming here as well (we five guys saw this and fled this place sensing more trouble)..we taut we'l walk to Aaryabhata station which according to a few workers there was just 2km but it never came after an hour walking. We were kinda lost...no people around us, just we five guys and the only thing we could do was to sleep in the open forest somewhere close to the tracks. Gods grace came in the form a torch light beaming in the tunnels that we were crossing...heavenly god! it was the same person who told us that a goods train would slow down and he apologized immediately telling that the train was stuck way behind due to some reason. He told us that a little ahead a few workers had camped where a bridge pavement work was going on. According to people here 1km =3kms. So we walked and walked ...alas! a guy bathing on the tracks. With Bharat's Telugu knowledge we found that there were many workers in that place who could shelter us. We reached their camp and we taut they wouldn't give a damn about us but the way they treated us was nothing less than a 10 star hotel...they fed us, sheltered us. They had no slightest hesitation for the trouble we were giving them...god give them all the happiness on earth. They prepared some hot rice and sambar for us and it was the most tastiest food that i'll ever eat, and that too they did all this in return for nothin...seriously nothing at all. This made me realize what is humbleness and what the word HUMAN meant..a great lesson to learn from those humble guys. It was lunar eclipse that night and Ravi and Bharat kept on watching it. I was already snoring to glory with my left knee badly hurting after so much trekking...
The place where we camped and the view from this place. Regret for not clicking the photos who provided us the best food and shelter.
May be we had walked about 22km...my first trek so it was too much for my body to handle. slept till 8 in the morning, thanked them all so much and left the place with a sense of gratitude for those humble labourers. we had packed plenty o
f snacks, chocolates, glucose so we were never short of energy on the way. Ravi and Bharat cursing the rest of us to have made them trek so much ;) were slowing down...they both really slowed us down on day two. Finally we reached another abandoned station by noon.
We met the other trekkers who told us rest of the story after we five fled the place last evening. They told us that they had to face the station masters temper for sometime and after that they got used to it and were somehow able to convince him to allow them to stay there coz they had girls in their team and they could't go anywhere that night. From here all of us (including the other trekkers) started off..the next station would be Shiribagilu which is good 7-8kms which nun of us wanted to do but somebody told us of an exit route at curve number 24 or 79/400 km(a yellow railway marking along the track).
Me Vijay and Shashin reached here along with the other trekkers but Ravi and Bharat took their own sweet time an by then the other trekkers had left us. we waited for an hour and finally they came. We took the exit route(forest route) and it's a rocky decent of about 2kms or more until you find a rubber plantation. To our bad luck Bharat realized that he had lost his camera midway in the forest and he went searching for it which again delayed us for another hour. by five he came back to find his also lost jacket and spotting of snakes which made him realize that life is precious than his lost cam. finally after walking for about an hour we reached the main road (the villagers helped us a lot in giving directions here)..me Vijay Shashin took a direct bus to Bangalore, the other two who had again slowed down took another bus and gone to Dharmastala. We three came to Hassan by 8 and changed to bus where we got some seat to sit and reached Bangalore in middle of the night. The other two guys had apparently gone to Dharmastala and took an bus to Bangalore from there..Ufff! 2am i reached home with all the wildest green memories and my SLR as a proof....Hope this was helpful to at least one of you.
I'll soon publish a new blog on my photographs and that'll definitely make u die to do this trek. I'm definitely gonna do this again..i hope "again" is too sooon :) leave a comment if any queries regarding this and i'd be very happy to help. catch me on facebook @ ashok.achar@gmail.com
