Sharavarhy Valley Trek

I was longing for a trek after the experience I had at KP. And it was in my wish list to go to a trek with a bunch of people who are unknown to me. Providence seemed to be on my side this time. I saw a post in the Bangalore Trekkers community in orkut by Santosh Kumar that there were a couple of places available to accompany him on a trek in the Sharavathy valley. It was a thursday and I replied to his post that I am interested. Bang came the reply!!. He added me on Gtalk and so began my association with Santosh. Seeing his orkut snaps I could make out that he was a nature freak like I am and my gut feeling told me that it will not be a bad decision to go on this trek. And indeed I will not regret my decision. The fact that it is a beautiful trek and the chance of meeting new people made my decision to go stronger by the minute.

But the kind of person I am, always pushing decisions to the last minute until my rear is on fire, Santosh pinged me on Friday afternoon asking me my decision and told me that he will be booking a qualis if I am not coming. I jokingly asked him whether he is booking a bigger vehicle just for me (and thought to myself how in god's name did he come to know about my build??) I said yes, a decision that I will never regret taking. It was decided that we will all meet at majestic at 10 PM.

I called mom and told her that I will be going for a trek with a group of people whom I have not even met and know. Mom's reaction was quiet understandable. She kind of resigned to the fact that I have made up my mind and gave her ascent.

Reached home at 9:30 and left for the trek at 9:45. I reached Majestic at 10:15 where I was told that a tempo traveler would be waiting for us.

It sometimes happens that the first time you meet a person you cannot help liking that person and the reverse is also true. I liked Santosh, the first time I saw him. The bushy moustache and his joking eyes, you can actually see the twinkle in his eyes even though they are covered by glasses :-) made me feel that I knew this person since ages. Getting into the bus I was introduced to my fellow trekkers and was surprised to know that I had two people from my company to accompany me.

Coming to the people in the trek.
We had Geetha and Shilpa from my company. When I first spoke to Geetha, I kind of got a feeling that she is a tom boy kind of a lady. Ready to take the bull by the horns, a thought which proved itself later. Shilpa was more of a timid lady. I could actually sense her fear and apprehension, always ready to get into the shell at the first smell of danger. Her voice was like a small bird chirping with fear. Next I was introduced to Pradeep, who accompanies Santosh on most of his treks. He is a constant chatterbox, loved his demeanor.You cant help but always laugh in his company. Then I was introduced to two westerners. I could not get both of their names in the first attempt. More on them later. There were three more people, Harish, his wife and his kid. More on them later.
After the introductions, we left Bangalore having picked Jagadeesh on the way, another techie working in Accenture.

The driver of the vehicle, I believe was out right sadistic. He wanted all of us to be awake along with him. Putting blaring kannada songs, driving like an ego-maniac, and constantly spitting outside the window. Phew!!! that was quiet a journey. Reached Shimoga in record 5 hours. We freshened up in a lodge in Shimoga and got moving towards Sagar. We picked up our guide along with all our rations and headed towards the place where we would start our trek.

We had an amazing breakfast at a local restaurant, filled our tummies up to the brim with Idlis, vadas and local buns (It is to be called buns even if you eat on buns, Queen's English has no followers here) It was here that I started talking to Laars, a German, who was on an Internship in India. We started discussing about the culture, our travels, his biking trip in Vietnam was awesome!!.

Finally 12 hours after leaving the concrete jungle, we reached the actual jungle. By god it was a jungle. Completely unexplored, the sun never touching the ground. The trees were towering all round us. It gave me an eerie feeling that the entire forest was keeping an eye on us. There was absolutely no trail on the ground. Had it not been for Narayana, our guide it would have been another season of LOST. Narayana, a moving GPS, was a former surveyor in the forest department. Extremely nimble footed, sprinting like a gazelle, always on the move and rattling the names of the trees, it was indeed amazing to move with him. After an hour of trekking in the forest we hit the river bed. It was here on this bed that our remainder of the trek was to be.

Ten minutes in to the trek on the river bed we had our first casualty. Lakshmi (Harish's wife) had a first fall on the boulder almost bringing me also on the ground. Pradeep tending to her wounds, we were on our feet again.

What made this trek unique from the other treks that I have been is the relative obscurity of this place. It has not been pillaged by hordes of people and absence of plastic. Also it was a trek which was not steep, but it was very tricky. Tricky, because we always had to walk on boulders, some of which were loose and needed some guile to cross them. We walked on the river bed for another 30 mins, when we had our second casualty. This time it was Geetha. Geetha tried and succeeded in climbing a tree across the river, and it was during this adventure that a big thorn went parallel in her feet. I am very sure that it was causing her a lot of pain. It would have doubled when Pradeed and Jagadeesh started probing for the thorn, cutting her skin with a blade and finally pulling that thorn out of her feet. All this time, not even a sound came from her. In fact she was happily taking pics of the thorn all the time. Hats off to you Geetha!!!

There was another casualty, but this continued through out the trek. It was Shilpa. She was on her first trek and this being tricky took a toll on her. Constantly slipping and falling, her confidence took a beating. But her never say die spirit was on full display as she got up each time she fell and continued the trek.

Lunch was a gala affair. Our lunch consisted of rice, sambhar and pickle. Thats it. We ate on the leaves that we plucked from the trees, sitting cross legged on a bark of a tree and gorging on the heaps of rice and sambhar. Wow!!! that was a lunch I will never forget. The sambhar was simply amazing. Cooked on a wooden fire added to the taste.

Continuing on the river bed for another 2 hours, on the way climbing precarious ledges, going underneath barks of trees, getting scratched by the numerous thorns, we reached the place where we had to say good bye to the river bed and enter the forest again. This time it was a gentle climb for around 1.5 hrs to reach a clearing, where we all rested to catch a glimpse of the sunset.

I love sunsets and sun rises. The sky will be always be vividly coloured, the yellows, the oranges, the blues, always looks like nature painted the sky with her full palette of paints. After taking some nice snaps of the sunset and taking our group photo, we headed to the place where we were to spend our night.

The place where we spent the night was a local tribal residence. We all sat on the courtyard, being treated to an amazing performance by Harish's kid. He demonstrated what in my time (when I was a kid) was though to be impossible to be performed by kids of his age. He was very agile with the digital camera, could rattle the names of the capitals of most countries and could perform yogic postures. All these at the command of his parents. Well, when I saw his performing to the commands of his parents, I could not help drawing a similarity between his acts and the acts of a monkey that does tricks at the commands of its master.

I am not being critical of the kid's prowess, but I am critical of his parents. I felt that he was not at all like 4 year olds. His parent's constant glare was always on him. They were watching over him like eagles, least their son, learns something bad... I always feel that kids should always be their age and that itself will help in their grooming. I am afraid his parents did not let that happen to him. I think it is not even the parent's fault. The cut-throat competition that exists today, the parents will also be under tremendous pressure to ensure that their kids are the smartest of the lot, are into the brightest of the schools and all turn out into Einsteins, or Edisons, I pity them, not able to enjoy their childhoods like children his age are supposed to enjoy.

Well, after this theatrical performance, we all sat round the campfire. We were all given Kashaya, which is a herbal drink. It revitalises the body and was a drink fit for the gods. Sleeping on the backs, with the warmth of the camp fire and the starry sky above, I was fully at peace.

Dinner, was another sumptuous meal, with rice, sambhar, chilli bajjis, and kheer. After such a heavy dinner we were all ready to hit the sack. Me and santosh decided to sleep in the open, under the starry sky. Well, this is one thing I will never be able to forget.
The entire night sky was filled with stars. Watching a few satellites and meteors, my eyes closed shut for the night.

We had to get up early in the morning to visit a near by water falls, which Santosh had promised will be heavenly. Waking up at 6 and having a breakfast of upma and rottis (which was made of rice flour) we set off for the falls.
It was a trek of almost 2 hours. Stopping on the way for some brilliant views of the distant arabian sea, we reached the water falls.

Here we had to do some rock climbing to reach the base of the falls. The water was pristine and soothing. Having splashed in the water for some time, it was time to head back. We reached the place where we had camped for the night, finished our lunch and boarded the bus back to bangalore.

After 8 hours of travel, stopping for Masala Dosas on the way I finally reached my home at 12:30 in the night, drawing curtains for another successful and a memorable trek.

Adios till next time