Tadiandamol is the second tallest peak in Karnataka. I had planned for a trek to this peak in December. Whenever there's a trek planned, I feel the need for working out for a week so that in the trek I don't pant like an exhausted street dog. I need my fitness, even though a week's workout doesn't really make any difference, it made me think that I'm more fit. Pretty stupid, but, whatever works man :-/ ..
On December 11 2013, I, Deepak "Awesome" joined a group of basketball players for a game. The last time I played basketball was in 7th Std ( as a water boy ) and I was never low in confidence. You can guess where this is going ! Last few minutes of the game, I took a 3 pointer shot and launched from the ground, got pushed by another guy and I landed in such a way that my right under-foot was facing my left foot, I heard "pop" 3 times when the leg started curling in. Those were all the ligaments in my right ankle. Unfortunately the plan was dropped and all the probable participants of this trek went on a long vacation for Christmas as I spent most of my time lying on my bed with the leg resting at a good height. Had to face Superman's "You are a bullsh*t guy" speech for a day but then, he was okay.
Finally on Jan 31st 2014, this plan came back to life and we were all set to leave Bangalore. This time there were only 3 and trust me, it was one of my best trekking experiences. Below are the trekkers for this plan
1. "Awesome" Deepak
2. "Superman" Selvino
3. "Outdated Handsigns" Pushpak (Why this name? You'll figure it out. Let's call him "OH !" Pushpak )
Because it was just the three of us, it was quite easy to co ordinate. We reached Virajpet at around 5:30 am. The other two were photography aspirants. You know what I mean !
We had to reach Kakkabe (Aramane stop) as that was the trek's starting point. We got freshened up, had breakfast. Our initial plan was to cook at the top off the peak, but finally decided to get Chapathi packed from home for that day's dinner and packed lemon rice for lunch. We checked our bags for necessary stuff. We had 1litre of water in each bag (THIS is the part where we went extremely stupid). We caught a bus to Kakkabe and after a ride of an hour in the loopy turns, we reached the starting point.
There were two choices regarding the distance of the trek
1. Reach half way in a vehicle and rest half is trek anyway. Total 4 km trek
2. Trek our asses off from the start ! Total 8 km trek.
Guess which one we would have chosen ! YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT !
We started strolling through the initial stretch. It was a regular tar road and we kept moving until we reached THIS !
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IT WAS AT A FREAKING 30 DEG ANGLE ! We started to feel the heat and the strength we were losing to make the climb. I have no freaking idea why that dumbass is smiling in this pic ! Peace !
This was around 3 km stretch and we reached a tree house, a house in an estate to be precise. We had to rest and then it was time for Superman's magic show !
Food for thought : In every trek, Superman always and always carries a bag weighing close to 10 kgs easily. There are advantages over this audacity. Like a magician, he digs into his bag and pulls out some amazing stuff which will make you cry (more often than not, it'll be eatables :D ). Sometimes its food, sometimes gadgets, sometimes things you need in the nick of time :D etc
We were eagerly waiting for Superman's first trick and it was ENERGY BARS. Outdated Handsign Pushpak and I were literally in tears. We had calculated the number of hours we have till we get back down to the city and the amount of food we had, concludes that we had just enough to eat at the right moments.
After a nice rest, we headed towards the peak and we reached half way where the muddy, rocky, irritating heat and bugs start torturing us till the peak.
The next pit-stop was at Big Rock. I swear I will never forget that place ever in my life. I'll tell you why.
After a nice trek for about a km, we reached this place. we were too early and the rest of the trek would make us reach the peak in the afternoon. I did not want that because it was January, too hot, no trees, etc.
We decided to rest for a while on the big rock, and that was supposed to be a place where we get to refill water (THAT WAS THE ONLY PLACE IN THE WHOLE GODDAMN FOREST AND IT WAS SUMMER !!! )
We heard a noise of a water stream close by and we decided to refill water. First of all, there was hardly any water, a small stream and the water hardly potable. Second of all, we started kidding around thinking that we have a lot of time to refill. The next few minutes are the unforgettable moments of my life. We were doing THIS !
After a while Pushpak was taking a pic of mine, I was right across the small stream. Superman was standing close to Pushpak operating his (SUPER-COSTLY-OMG-IS-THIS-GUY-CRAZY) camera. We heard a noise and we all turned towards the right side of that you see in the above pic. A green-brown mix colored snake just shot itself at the foot of the huge rock you are seeing and bit off a frog and slowed down. In the meantime,
I was standing right beside the rock posing, the second I saw the snake, I transformed into a chinese long jumper. I covered so much area in the air, I would have surely qualified for the next Olympics if the jump was measured. Pushpak was looking at me in awe right through my stay in mid-air and ran off to hide behind Superman. I made it across and did the same. We felt safe but Superman was mumbling something and when I heard it properly, he was saying
"Oh Sh*t, oh f*ck, bullSh*t man !! "
HE WAS PETRIFIED AS SH*T :D
We saw the whole Nat Geo episode of a snake hunting a frog and eating it off. We were stunned and scared as sh*t. We quickly picked our stuff and got out ! Water refill : UNSUCCESSFUL.
We decided to climb to the top and we started again.
Water : 3 litres
Food : Enough lunch and dinner
Energy : Battery low and terrified.
Temperature : 35 deg
Wind speed : Never felt it..
Distance left : 2.5 kms
Attitude : I wanna go home :'(
We saw a lot of people getting down from the peak at that time, every other person we met asked the same question "Are you guys camping at the peak?" Yes, we always had this plan. The trail got tougher and tougher. We stopped for lunch and rested for a while, started again.
Water : 2 litres
Food : Enough to last till dinner
Energy : Battery low and totally tired.
Temperature : 37 deg
Wind speed : What ?
Distance left : 1.5 kms
Attitude : Screw this sh*t :'(
Rumbling and tumbling we finally made it to the peak. I collapsed on the nearest rock, bent over watching those two check the place out. I said to myself, "we had all the time in the world to CHECK it out" and rested. After sometime I got up to take a walk on the peak to look for a place to camp. There was enough space for 2 tents only. The evening was getting more and more gorgeous as the time passed and we thought having some food.
Menu : Chapathi/jam/pickle
It was the best set of Chapathis ever !
The view was breath-taking. There was so much serenity at the peak. Breeze was giving us a spa like treatment. Looked like the sun and the clouds were playing around, so did we.
Only after the clocked ticked 6pm, we realized that we were the only 3 guys who will be camping for the night. But only after 7pm we realized that we were the ONLY 3 GUYS IN THE WHOLE FOREST !
THAT was quite creepy. This forest is famous for its reptiles and our tent was right beside a bush.
Very comforting.
The evening came to an end with the increased noise from the crickets and the birds chirping. We decided to call it a day and crawled inside the tent for a good night's sleep.
Time : 11 pm
Pushpak and I were chatting till 11 and Superman was snoring like a pig. I decided to get out to take a look at the camp fire whether it has burnt the whole forest down. We were very scared to get out. We heard noises of people speaking, walking around the tent etc we were either hallucinating or being haunted. Thankfully, the fire was still burning, we man-ed up and came out. I looked above, I saw an array of stars spread across, each one twinkling at its best. The space right above me was like the opening to the skies and the rest was covered with clouds. It was nature's true brilliance and beauty. We stood for the heat for a while and finally went back into the tent.
Time : 5 45 am
We 3 crawled out of the tent. I walked towards a higher place to get a view of the sunrise. Other two were running around assembling their camera. The Sun kept us waiting for half an hour, the temperature was very low. I was shivering out of my bones. In the midst of our morning talks, the Sun showed its first light ! IT WAS GORGEOUS ! I love Sunrises more than anything that nature can offer to the mankind. Every ray of light that hit the peak, reflected a golden color off the ground. Warmth was back, I took a seat on the rock looking at the Sun and not an eye was dry. Below are some pics of that morning.
We had some fun taking pics and silhouettes.
.JPG)
After all this we were left with no water ! We survived a whole day trekking with just 3 litres for 3 guys. We were dying to taste water again, we started the climb down instantly to escape from the heat. Every step down was, my right ankle was getting the beating and I had to slow down the pace. Our legs were giving up when we were nearing the exit. We made it out of the forest in 3 hours. We got a bus to Virajpet right when we reached the bus stop. From there we got fresh again and started our journey back to Bangalore !
On December 11 2013, I, Deepak "Awesome" joined a group of basketball players for a game. The last time I played basketball was in 7th Std ( as a water boy ) and I was never low in confidence. You can guess where this is going ! Last few minutes of the game, I took a 3 pointer shot and launched from the ground, got pushed by another guy and I landed in such a way that my right under-foot was facing my left foot, I heard "pop" 3 times when the leg started curling in. Those were all the ligaments in my right ankle. Unfortunately the plan was dropped and all the probable participants of this trek went on a long vacation for Christmas as I spent most of my time lying on my bed with the leg resting at a good height. Had to face Superman's "You are a bullsh*t guy" speech for a day but then, he was okay.
Finally on Jan 31st 2014, this plan came back to life and we were all set to leave Bangalore. This time there were only 3 and trust me, it was one of my best trekking experiences. Below are the trekkers for this plan
1. "Awesome" Deepak
2. "Superman" Selvino
3. "Outdated Handsigns" Pushpak (Why this name? You'll figure it out. Let's call him "OH !" Pushpak )
Because it was just the three of us, it was quite easy to co ordinate. We reached Virajpet at around 5:30 am. The other two were photography aspirants. You know what I mean !
We had to reach Kakkabe (Aramane stop) as that was the trek's starting point. We got freshened up, had breakfast. Our initial plan was to cook at the top off the peak, but finally decided to get Chapathi packed from home for that day's dinner and packed lemon rice for lunch. We checked our bags for necessary stuff. We had 1litre of water in each bag (THIS is the part where we went extremely stupid). We caught a bus to Kakkabe and after a ride of an hour in the loopy turns, we reached the starting point.
There were two choices regarding the distance of the trek
1. Reach half way in a vehicle and rest half is trek anyway. Total 4 km trek
2. Trek our asses off from the start ! Total 8 km trek.
Guess which one we would have chosen ! YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT !
We started strolling through the initial stretch. It was a regular tar road and we kept moving until we reached THIS !
IT WAS AT A FREAKING 30 DEG ANGLE ! We started to feel the heat and the strength we were losing to make the climb. I have no freaking idea why that dumbass is smiling in this pic ! Peace !
This was around 3 km stretch and we reached a tree house, a house in an estate to be precise. We had to rest and then it was time for Superman's magic show !
Food for thought : In every trek, Superman always and always carries a bag weighing close to 10 kgs easily. There are advantages over this audacity. Like a magician, he digs into his bag and pulls out some amazing stuff which will make you cry (more often than not, it'll be eatables :D ). Sometimes its food, sometimes gadgets, sometimes things you need in the nick of time :D etc
We were eagerly waiting for Superman's first trick and it was ENERGY BARS. Outdated Handsign Pushpak and I were literally in tears. We had calculated the number of hours we have till we get back down to the city and the amount of food we had, concludes that we had just enough to eat at the right moments.
After a nice rest, we headed towards the peak and we reached half way where the muddy, rocky, irritating heat and bugs start torturing us till the peak.
The next pit-stop was at Big Rock. I swear I will never forget that place ever in my life. I'll tell you why.
After a nice trek for about a km, we reached this place. we were too early and the rest of the trek would make us reach the peak in the afternoon. I did not want that because it was January, too hot, no trees, etc.
We decided to rest for a while on the big rock, and that was supposed to be a place where we get to refill water (THAT WAS THE ONLY PLACE IN THE WHOLE GODDAMN FOREST AND IT WAS SUMMER !!! )
We heard a noise of a water stream close by and we decided to refill water. First of all, there was hardly any water, a small stream and the water hardly potable. Second of all, we started kidding around thinking that we have a lot of time to refill. The next few minutes are the unforgettable moments of my life. We were doing THIS !
After a while Pushpak was taking a pic of mine, I was right across the small stream. Superman was standing close to Pushpak operating his (SUPER-COSTLY-OMG-IS-THIS-GUY-CRAZY) camera. We heard a noise and we all turned towards the right side of that you see in the above pic. A green-brown mix colored snake just shot itself at the foot of the huge rock you are seeing and bit off a frog and slowed down. In the meantime,
I was standing right beside the rock posing, the second I saw the snake, I transformed into a chinese long jumper. I covered so much area in the air, I would have surely qualified for the next Olympics if the jump was measured. Pushpak was looking at me in awe right through my stay in mid-air and ran off to hide behind Superman. I made it across and did the same. We felt safe but Superman was mumbling something and when I heard it properly, he was saying
"Oh Sh*t, oh f*ck, bullSh*t man !! "
HE WAS PETRIFIED AS SH*T :D
We saw the whole Nat Geo episode of a snake hunting a frog and eating it off. We were stunned and scared as sh*t. We quickly picked our stuff and got out ! Water refill : UNSUCCESSFUL.
We decided to climb to the top and we started again.
Water : 3 litres
Food : Enough lunch and dinner
Energy : Battery low and terrified.
Temperature : 35 deg
Wind speed : Never felt it..
Distance left : 2.5 kms
Attitude : I wanna go home :'(
We saw a lot of people getting down from the peak at that time, every other person we met asked the same question "Are you guys camping at the peak?" Yes, we always had this plan. The trail got tougher and tougher. We stopped for lunch and rested for a while, started again.
Water : 2 litres
Food : Enough to last till dinner
Energy : Battery low and totally tired.
Temperature : 37 deg
Wind speed : What ?
Distance left : 1.5 kms
Attitude : Screw this sh*t :'(
Rumbling and tumbling we finally made it to the peak. I collapsed on the nearest rock, bent over watching those two check the place out. I said to myself, "we had all the time in the world to CHECK it out" and rested. After sometime I got up to take a walk on the peak to look for a place to camp. There was enough space for 2 tents only. The evening was getting more and more gorgeous as the time passed and we thought having some food.
Menu : Chapathi/jam/pickle
It was the best set of Chapathis ever !
The view was breath-taking. There was so much serenity at the peak. Breeze was giving us a spa like treatment. Looked like the sun and the clouds were playing around, so did we.
Only after the clocked ticked 6pm, we realized that we were the only 3 guys who will be camping for the night. But only after 7pm we realized that we were the ONLY 3 GUYS IN THE WHOLE FOREST !
THAT was quite creepy. This forest is famous for its reptiles and our tent was right beside a bush.
Very comforting.
The evening came to an end with the increased noise from the crickets and the birds chirping. We decided to call it a day and crawled inside the tent for a good night's sleep.
Time : 11 pm
Pushpak and I were chatting till 11 and Superman was snoring like a pig. I decided to get out to take a look at the camp fire whether it has burnt the whole forest down. We were very scared to get out. We heard noises of people speaking, walking around the tent etc we were either hallucinating or being haunted. Thankfully, the fire was still burning, we man-ed up and came out. I looked above, I saw an array of stars spread across, each one twinkling at its best. The space right above me was like the opening to the skies and the rest was covered with clouds. It was nature's true brilliance and beauty. We stood for the heat for a while and finally went back into the tent.
Time : 5 45 am
We 3 crawled out of the tent. I walked towards a higher place to get a view of the sunrise. Other two were running around assembling their camera. The Sun kept us waiting for half an hour, the temperature was very low. I was shivering out of my bones. In the midst of our morning talks, the Sun showed its first light ! IT WAS GORGEOUS ! I love Sunrises more than anything that nature can offer to the mankind. Every ray of light that hit the peak, reflected a golden color off the ground. Warmth was back, I took a seat on the rock looking at the Sun and not an eye was dry. Below are some pics of that morning.
We had some fun taking pics and silhouettes.
After all this we were left with no water ! We survived a whole day trekking with just 3 litres for 3 guys. We were dying to taste water again, we started the climb down instantly to escape from the heat. Every step down was, my right ankle was getting the beating and I had to slow down the pace. Our legs were giving up when we were nearing the exit. We made it out of the forest in 3 hours. We got a bus to Virajpet right when we reached the bus stop. From there we got fresh again and started our journey back to Bangalore !
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