Trek thru the pristine jungles of Sakleshpur.

None of us had any idea of what lies ahead. The only thing we wanted to do was to get away from the monotonous life in Bangalore. Thus came together 4 frustrated souls Guns,Deeps,Daryl and Sam, trying to reclaim our lifes (not thru Tata Safari....too expensive),but thru Ksrtc run Rajhamsa. We decided to meet up at the KSRTC terminal platform 1A at 21.30 on a Friday night. The booking had been done well in advance by Deeps. There are no direct buses to Sakleshpur, so had spend extra bucks and book the tickets till mangalore . Bus started at 23.25pm and we were hoping to catchup some sleep during the overnight journey,however soon we realize that its a distant possibility thanks to the road construction going on in Nalemangala .Most part of the journey was uneventful and we got down in Sakleshpur at 0500. We decided to freshen up at the Bus stop which later on proved to be a good decision , Daryl was hell bent on starting the trek as early as possible so after a short break it the Bus stop we started off . Donigal, the place from which the trek begins, was 5 km from Sakleshpur bus stop. First it was decided that we would trek the 5 km as well, however as soon as we started it started drizzling and we took a local bus instead and were dropped at Donigal in 10 mins. As soon as we got off the bus, we were all ecstatic looking at the early morning mist, the surrounding forest , the lonely highway and the ancient mountains waiting to be explored. Daryl, the seasoned trekker found the way to get down to the railway track from the highway. We had read somewhere that very few trains go thru these tracks,however as soon as we started we heard the loud and clear honk of a train engine and hurriedly got off the track. As soon as the train passed we were back on the track looking at miles of unspoiled beauty and hearing the different type of birds singing morning rhymes.
It was decided that we would have breakfast at 8.30, and we found a very beautiful spot near a small river. There we met a few railway repair men who were busy doing maintenance of the track, we chatted for a while with them and found that its difficult to get any form of transport fro.m Yedakumari. According to Daryl and Deeps it was easy to get to the Mangalore-Bangalore highway from Yedakumari and from the highway we will easily get a bus back to Bangalore. The initial plan was to leave for Bangalore on Saturday as soon as we reach Yedakumari, however as we trekked further and met some more villagers and railways staff, we realized that we may have to abort that plan and have to spend the night at Yedakumari railway station. The river which we had to cross to reach Bangalore-Mangalore highway was overflowing. The distance from Donigal and Yedakumari is 17 km, so we had to move faster after breakfast as we had covered less than 3 km in the initial 2.5 hrs. We came across the first tunnel on our trek soon after the breakfast break and I must say it was a more scary experience than I thought. It was pitch dark inside and hard to see anything inside, we all had a creepy feeling within, to make matter worst we were not able to see the other end as the tunnel had a curve. Inside the tunnel we realized how risky it is if a train arrives and began walking faster than usual, we were relieved to reach the other end and see the light at the end of the tunnel. I had read from some blogs that there are some tunnels as long as 600 meters and thought how it would be to cross one of those tunnels. Everyone except Deeps was in proper trekking gear, he was in a puma sandal and tried to justify that by saying that he thinks that a soft heal sandal is better than trekking shoes. By the end of the trek he had 3 cuts because of the rocks and had completely gone back on his words . Walking on the rocks was taking its toll and we had considerably slowed down. We had completely forgotten on one aspect of the trek...leeches. I did a quick check on my shoes and socks after crossing the third tunnel and found one struggling to get on to my legs and had it removed quickly without any damage done.Everyone started checking there shoes and socks. Guns by now was having panic attacks, his condition could be described in medical terms as Leecophobia .Every few steps stopping to check if something has got inside his socks. After crossing some more dark tunnels we realized that the tunnels are prime leech territory , so decide that we would walk more faster thru the tunnel and would not let the blood sucking monsters to get to us.

Guns ,Deeps and me were carrying minimal stuff in our bag packs and so were not over burdened by it. However it was not the case with Daryl, being the most experienced trekker among us he knew exactly how the plans might change. Throughout the trek Guns kept on referring to Daryl's bag pack as a mini house , in order to help Daryl we kept on swapping the bags. By noon the climate had become quite hot and all our energy was draining out thru our sweat. Around 1300 we decide to have lunch which we had packed from Bangalore, courtesy Daryl and Guns. While having lunch we saw another group of trekkers coming towards us. The leader of the trekking group stopped for a while and chatted with us. He told us that they were going to stay overnight at Yedakumari and would start early next morning .They were planning to board a train towards Mangalore early next morning at 4.30.
Anyways we decided to move on and think about our return afterwards.

We were hoping to see some snakes on the way and we were not disappointed. Deeps was so excited that he was almost about to jump and catch hold of the snake, the snake obviously didn't want to see us and quickly vanished into the under growth. Deeps was terribly disappointed as he could not put his SLR to use, to get some rare pics of a snake in the wild.
We continued our trek passing thru more tunnels and bridges. By now we had got used to the tunnels and were convinced that no bats or snakes could make these tunnels their home , because of the trains passing thru them at regular intervals. The only thing we saw inside the tunnels were more leeches. Guns kept checking his shoes after crossing each tunnel.

In the last phase of the trek we came across a goods train waiting for the green signal.We chatted with the train driver and he offered to drop us at Mangalore. We debated the offer for sometime and declined it, as it would have taken us 6-7 hrs to reach Mangalore . This would have been real fun as no one of had ever traveled in a goods train. We reached Yedakumari around 16.30 and immediately tried to find out our options to return or stay at that place. As previously told by the trek guide and other locals, returning was not a possibility as we cannot cross the overflowing river and the bridge across the river was around 15 kms from Yedakumari. We decided to spend the night at Yedakumari Railways station. The biggest worry we had was food supply, which we had exhausted by that time. Guns being the only person who spoke understandable Kannada was put to the task for arranging the food. He went to the station signal man and chatted with him, the guy told him that it would be better for us to board a goods train and goto the next station(Sorry I don't remember the name). Deeps, Guns and me were of the opinion that this was a good option,however Daryl had other plans in his mind. There was also the obvious question in all our minds "what if we reach there and don't find a bus to Bangalore". So after half an hour of discussion we decided that we would be starting for Bangalore the next morning. Guns had a final chat with the guy and he agreed to prepare Sambar and rice for us. By this time the other large trekking group was slowly reaching the station. We were surprised to know that they were as many as 42 people in there group. We were so worried about our return journey that we failed to notice the amazing beauty surrounding us. The railways station at Yedakumari is like any ordinary railway station in India,except the fact that once you step into the backyard you see a whole new world. This is a place which could be compared to any honeymooners paradise. The place cannot be described in a few words.Its a spectacular 180 degree view of the untouched green pristine western ghats. At that moment we decided to dump all our worries and just sit there forever staring at the mountains ahead of us. The beauty of these kind of places is that you have so little to do and you get the whole time for yourself. You can peep into your past, contemplate about the present and think about your future. As time passed we all were transformed into a different world, a world in which we didn't have anything to complain about.A world in which we didn't have hatred for anyone. I never felt so contented in my life . I had completely forgotten my worries and felt others would have felt the same way. To make the setting more perfect, we could see some dark clouds gathering in the horizon. Quickly Cameras were put to action capturing almost every object we saw there.

Around 1900 it started raining heavily and we sat down and shared some previous experiences. Daryl was at his vintage best , playing really old hind movie songs. We were transformed to the old medieval age without electricity and without tv ,just listening to song on his cell phone which sounded like a radio to us. We had an early dinner of sambar and rice at 2000. We decided to sleep early, as next morning we had again some distance to cover. The signal man at the railway station was kind enough to offer us his room(or so we though until next day morning).We took the offer and went straight into his his cottage.
Deeps and Guns had a really sound sleep , I and Daryl were not that lucky.The signal man constantly disturbed our sleep. He was complete drunk and was saying something in Kanadda which I didn't understand. We were concerned that our belongs were scattered in the room and he might steal something. Anyways we were jolted from our somewhat deep slumbers around 4.30 am. The signal guy was telling us to leave the place as the train going towards Mangalore had stopped at the station. We were completely in a different world, my first reaction was to just ignore him and continue sleeping till morning. However he kept on insisting and telling us that there would be no other means of going to bangalore. Everyone had waked up and we decided that its time we leave his cottage rather than listening to his crap. We came out into the open, it was still very dark, the other trekking group was trying to board the train. We took sometime to decide what to do next. Shall we try to board the train or just wait till morning and try to find our means of travel. The other trekking group was still struggling to get into the train as it was already filled up. We decided its better to wait for morning and try to explore our options. The train had started moving by this time and we saw that half of the trekking group was not able to board the train. We sat down at one of the platform chairs, after the train had left. We were trying to figure out what to do next when the trekking group leader came to us , he told us that half of his group boarded the train and half were not as lucky. So the guys who were left behind along with him have to trek 13 kms to reach a spot where there was a bridge across the river to reach Mangalore- Bangalore highway.He offered us to join there group and start trekking at that time. We took sometime to decide as it was still very dark and there might be some creepy animals on the track. Then we decided that this would be one more challenge to trek in the dark( That too in the dark creepy tunnels) and were ready. We were quickly ready with our trekking gears (which consisted of a torch which had completely run out of battery by now and an emergency light).








After walking a few paces we realized that its safe to walk with a group of 20 members than to trek alone in the morning, as the group was making a lot of noise and that would scare away any animals waiting for us.We were able to cover a lot of distance in the first hour as we were not able to see anything and so just had to keep walking along with the group(No cameras in action) Around 6 am we could see the twilight and it was an experience of a lifetime. The mountain around us had a blue tint and the air had a hint of mist. All our tiredness simply disappeared listening to the symphony of the various birds which we were not able to see but only hear. By this time we had lost count of the number of tunnels and bridges that we have crossed. We were told to trek till the 81 km mark and then descend down into the valley,it was still a long way as we had just reached 74km mark.We decided to stop for breakfast(don't ask me the menu .....some left over breads and one pack of goodday).The place where we had breakfast was beautiful, it was a small bridge from where we were able to see the mountains around. From there we could for the first time saw the river we had to cross. The river from the top was looking very narrow and Daryl started arguing that its a better option to descend from that point into the valley below. First all of us laughed at the idea, this was a good idea for only Daryl as he could never get drowned in water( Really we used all physics formula and got to that conclusion ...rest of us were at the risk of sinking). Daryl continued arguing that we could easily cross the river as it was very narrow......it took a lot of time to convince Daryl that the river was not the same as it was appearing from the top. We could hear the guzzling of the river from the top and were some how able to convince Daryl that it would be too risky. We continued as per the previous plan. Now the 2 days trek was taking its toll, even the small bag packs had become a burden on us, we had to switch Daryl's mini house now more frequently. Because of the trek in the dark and the sandals Deepak now had 3 cuts, the third one the worst. We had to stop and do the repair work which was pure desi formula of turmeric and was quite effective. As i have posted in some pics you can see the damage my shoes took because of the tough trekking on track.Believe me its much more than just covering 37 km, it takes a lot out of you. We were able to reach the spot from where we had to descend to the Valley , but were surprised to see nothing. We were too tried and just sat down and waited there, hoping that some villager or some railway guys would come and would give us some directions. Lucky we found a boy who told us that we have go back about 500 meters and should be able to find the path. When we reached there we found to our horror that it was not a proper path, but just a small track created by the small stream which had run dry. We started to descend down lead by Daryl, who was able to squeeze into virtually the narrowest of rocks. The path was very slippery and we had to take each step very carefully, needless to mention that each one of us slipped more than once. As it was a moist place it was full of leeches and had to be very careful.




We came across many dead ends on the way and had to take a different route. Finally after descending about 200 meters we came across a much wider path. This was that path we were looking for. The first thing we saw on the path was Elephant cow dung (That is how Daryl described it when he first saw it :-)...ha ha Elephant cow dung) and were relieved to find that it was several days old and we were safe. We saw several elephant cow dungs there after. We followed that path for about 500meters and came across some houses and civilization. From there on ,it was not difficult to find the way to the highway, as the road had now become wide and we could see vehicles coming from the other direction. The path took us near the river and now we were walking along the river. It was very hot and humid , and we were completely exhausted and run out of energy. For recharging our batteries we needed food and to our joy as soon as we touched the tar road which would lead us to the highway we saw a very familiar thing, a mallu tea shop. Mallu idly and chutni had never tasted so good (its true that you can find a mallu tea shop on the moon as well).After finishing up all his idlies we headed toward the highway. As soon as we reached the highway we saw a local bus, it may not be comfortable ,however we knew, it would do the job. Before getting down at Majestic bus stop we had chalked down the next trip......and that is what I call a true traveler's sprite .Sorry for not being able to cover the last part of the trip through our cameras, too tired to take the pics.