I reached back home yesterday evening and after settling my stuffs, started writing whatever I could recollect. Please ignore any spell mistake or grammatical ones. I just wrote as it came to my mind.
Here it goes.....
The day started on 15th morning and I got ready for my long awaited trip to the wild nature. It was the initial stages of Delhi’s winter and the temp was a bit low though it didn’t matter much as I was excited about my forthcoming travel. The excitement of hearing the powerful horn of the electric engine and the imagination of seeing the moving engine while the train takes a turn was all over my mind. BTW, I wanted to be a Diesel engine driver in my childhood ;-).
Left home at around 08:15 hrs and said goodbye to my sis who was at home on a short vacation. Reached the station at 09:00 hrs and got into S1, placed my stuffs at UP 19 and waited for the train to move. 09:30 hrs and the powerful horn indicated that I was about to start my vacation in the next second and it did as expected. The train galloped and I could feel the already burdened lifestyle being offloaded from me. My cell phone still buzzed as frequent as possible and I was in “touch” with my office. Half of the day passed and I was still sitting in the window to get a glimpse of the engine while the track took a curve. Hunger made me take frequent bites of the cake I had stocked for the day.
Being a Kerala bound train it was but natural to find mallus alongside. I mostly ignore mallus as most of them turn out to be more than what they are, and if its Delhi mallus, the percentage increases. I had this guy beside me from military- Siju Mon. We clicked immediately and started getting into deeper conversation. He was going to his native in Kerala for his vacation. This young guy had spent a couple of years in Goa for his training and that fact only increased our talks. So we started talking about Goa. Yes… Goa was where I was heading to – For the National Trekking Expedition-Goa 2006-07.
We talked a lot of things about Goa, its people, the geography, the BEACHES and of course.. almost free liquor. Since I have never been to Goa earlier, all he was telling me was like an educative session, and I listened every bit of it very carefully not to miss a thing. And the day passed. The next day was almost the same as we talked many things mostly about Goa. Then me, as usual wouldn’t leave without speaking, so did I explain him about this trekking expedition and my previous experiences in the Himalayas. I was supposed to reach Madgaon(Margao) at 19:00 as told by the train’s catering guy. The train was late and I reached at 19:40. Saji had explained in detail about how to reach Panaji(Panjim).
I got out of the railway station and soon found people asking to where to go and how to go etc. that you find in every railway station in India. After some inquiries I found that there is this Bike taxi to reach the city bus stand. I asked one guy who demanded 50 bucks, felt too much but as I had no other option, opted for it. Got loaded and reached the Margao bus stand. Got into the 20:30 state owned service - Kadamba bus to Panjim. Traveling in bus is a cheaper option as it was only 15 bucks to Panjim. Reached Panjim at 21:30. And was looking for a bus to Campal where the base camp was located. Opted for a bike (30 bucks/bus only 5). Reached Campal base camp that was located near the sports authority ground, walk able distance from the youth hostel. Reported and completed formalities filling the detail, being allocated an ID etc. I was allocated tent # 13 and while walking towards the tent found people sitting for the campfire and I could feel the YHAI schedule already ;-).
I kept my rucksack inside the tent that was 200 mts from the Mandovi river, and went to have a glass of bournvita provided after campfire. When I was back in the tent, found only 4 other people – Preetam and Anupam, youngsters from hyderabad and Mr Sekhar and his colleague, Srinivas working in State bank of India from AP. After collecting my inner, blanket and rucksack provided by YHAI it was time to sleep and the day ended. End of 16th December 2006.
It was our acclimatization day and woke up at 06:00 hrs for a change ;-). Had the morning tea and was time to get ready for breakfast at 08:30 hrs. At approx 09:00 we had the inaugural ceremony of the start of the trek program. This was followed by the first batch G1 being sent out for their first camp at Velsao. Then, our batch G2 was ready for our activities as scheduled.
Then we set out for our walk to Dona Paula along the Miramar Beach coastline. Time for my SLR to get ready after a long break, and was also the time to try some new experiments with the new handycam. Well, the walk was smooth and enjoyed the walk especially the beach that I got to see after a very very long time.
Reached Dona Paula and spent some time enjoying the view. By this time I was enjoying t
he company of Anupam and Preetam, my tent mates. We were talking mostly about how to spend the 24th night in Goa. They sure had some plans. I was also supposed to spend 24th night to see how Goa celebrates Christmas. We left Dona Paula at approx 12:00 hrs as we had to get ready for the Dolphin ride after lunch.
Post lunch we went to the shore of Mandovi river waiting for the couple of boats those were supposed to fetch us in batches to show dolphins. We three, me Preetam and Anupam along with a few other boarded the second boat and set out to see the dolphins, which we saw but not close and neither could shoot them with my camera. However that was something that I did for the first time in life so did enjoy.
We were given a brief introduction about Goa and the trek route and schedule by Mr. Manoj Joshi. That was very informative. Evening time, it was time for tea. Took a nice refreshing bath in the sports authority complex. The remaining activities – submit extra luggage, snake show(or some similar name), dinner, camp fire and then…. Tann ki shakti.. mann ki shakti --- Bournvita!!!!!! Good night.
- 18th – the Day we were to be on the move.
Morning-morning @ 06:00 and then routine activities. Plugged my handycam and mobile for charging while I had my break fast. Had to be in “Touch” after all. We set out at 09:00 hrs and got in the bus that was waiting outside the base camp. Around one hour bus journey and we reached the Bogmalo beach where some of us were blessed with some angrezan BEAUTIES on the beach. Confusion, but obvious, prevailed on which route to follow. Our group leader(GL) – Chithu was getting used to the habit of finding solution to a bunch of geographically grouped buffaloes all of whom including me were themselves in their own path. A few, including Preetam, Anupam and other five set out in our own way along the beach, our logic – we need to reach Velsao beach starting from Bogmalo beach, so follow the coast line.
But we found no YHAI NTE markings as instructed at the base camp still we set out climbing some rough rocks and difficult terrain.
Half way with partial energy drained, we realized that we found no route marks that was the guide for YHAI trekkers and confirmed that this was certainly not the route that was supposed to follow. We were confused and then I got myself introduced to Satish, Suresh, Reddygaru, Mr. Sekhar and his friend and tried to remember their name just in case I had to call for help ;-). However, we stuck to our initial logic and continued our trail to another beach only to find the terrain to be more difficult. Finally we reached a Jeep road and got some relief from the difficult terrain. We met the other team half was in a properly set road where we could identify the the YHAI markings.
We reached a kind of abandoned beach and rested there for a while. That was a nice location and it was time for me for some shoot. After finishing up our refreshment drinks and biscuits given to us in the morning, we set out again into the bushes. Walked till we reached a beach again. By this time it was really hot and exhaustive and I was finished up with my water. We kept walking though we, specifically I was feeling the hardships of trekking and was getting the feel of being 30. Finally we reached Velsao camp where tents were plugged in 100 mtrs from the coastal line.
Lunch time. My friends went to the market for .. for … whatever reasons. I stayed in the tent and had some nice sleep.
It was evening and I was losing the sight of the sun and realized that I was supposed to be in the beach catching the scene. Ran towards the beach, set my tripod and camera, started taking some pictures.
Hardly for 15 mins and the sun said good night. The beach was less popular and that provided a wonderful place to enjoy one’s solitude that I did very well. It was dark soon and time for dinner. We had our camp fire in the beach. I saw some crabs while walking in the day. To be honest I was scared a bit in the night as if they patrol in the night, my butt and surroundings could be an easy target for them. But still I dared to attend the campfire. Spend nice time with Anupam being the entertainer along with Suresh, Satish, Reddygaru and Preetam. We were served Bournvita and went to our tent to sleep.
NOTE: technically speaking, “Bournvita” is the name of the drink that we get in the night. I am never used to any of such drinks so the taste wouldn’t help me identify the ingredients. But we call it Bournvita.
After having a wonderful day being introduced back to the nature and forgetting everything that induces stress except for occasional ringing of my cellphone, we started for our next camp – Benaulim that was again a beach camp. The entire route was costal-on the beach line and I preferred walking barefoot with my chappals and shoes tied to my rucksack. The sand was acting like a cushion for my feet and the waves made sure that my legs were kept wet on regular basis. Let me tell you that this is the best route in the trek starting with Velsao then Arossim, Cansaulim, Majorda, Betalbatim, Colva and finally Benaulim beach. Almost every 100-200 mts one can find a restaurant cum bar. As per YHAI rules, we were not supposed to drink and the same was repeatedly stressed upon everytime after we got up and before we went to sleep.
We reached Colva beach by noon and got in a restaurant – Eddie’s place to taste some sea foods. Drinks were out of our menu till the time trek was over. Me, Suresh, Satish and Reddygaru ordered four different food and tasted everything. The food was very tasty and spicy as well. Next time when I go to Goa, I would sure go to the same place and have some more. Time – 13:30 hrs.
Anupam and Preetam, who went off track to the market to purchase some stuff called up by the time we ended up our Lunch. They traveled from Majorda till Colva in Taxi and their plans were changing regarding continuing the trek. Goa was just getting more interesting for them. However, we six people put our stuffs on the shore and jumped into water. Spent couple of hours in the water and then had our packed lunch. Satish and Reddygaru were being very very good to all of us and got some sprite for us from the nearby restaurant. They even carried back the bottles to the restaurant while we were taking rest. Nice guys.
Preetam and Anupam decided to discontinue the remaining part of the trek. We wished they continue with us as we were enjoying their company and we all were getting along great. However, they had their plans set and we wished each other a good time and those two guys set toward north and we set out towards south to Benaulim by 16:30. Reddygaru forgot to set something right and walked the same way to Benaulim till one of us reminded him of something amiss. Again, the time was just perfect for some shoot and the sky was just posing to be taken. Sun took time off for the day and set the sky on fire with its mighty dusky shades. And I clicked and clicked.
Evening and it was dinner time. Someone reminded of no electricity and no mobile coverage available for the next two days. One was a good news while the other was not so good for me. So I kept my handycam to charge up for the next two days at a nearby restaurant(cum BAR). Our camp leader was really a good person as he accompanied us while we were shooting the night. Benaulim is a very lively beach with people active till late night. The next day was already scheduled and we were supposed to leave the camp by 06:15 hrs sharp.
- 20th Dec – 3rd day and this was the time to enter the jungles!!!!!
We were on the move as scheduled and got into the bus that was supposed to take us to Margao Rly Station. We reached the station at around 07:00 hrs(approx) and were instructed to be there on platform 2 at exactly 08:00 hrs. Most of the people went to have break fast as early morning 05:45 “BUN & BONDA”, more commonly known as vada paav was not something that most of them could get their saliva to act upon. I missed those breakfasters and was waiting for the train in Platform # 2.
It was 08:10 and no sight of the train. Then came the train almost empty. We boarded into a compartment. I put my stuffs on the upper birth of the unreserved compartment and took out my gadgets. It was just a delight to be traveling like this after a long time. Me and Suresh were trying to capture some nice shots. We started hanging to the door and took each other’s photo. Had some time to capture videos as well. I could remember my childhood, running here and there inside the compartment, the only difference this time was that there’s no one to ask me to stop doing so or to take care. We reached Colem station.
With Rucksack on our back, we came out of the station. And started moving towards Mollem National Park Gate. I hid my camera equipment inside my rucksack to save myself a couple of hundred bucks. Then started a long walk through the jungles. There was a Jeep road, that was however not supposed to be followed. We had our instruction and backedup with markings and we followed. We occasionally crossed the jeep road but still managed to be inside the jungles as much as possible.
We stopped by at Devil’s Canyon. Water was good but not supposed take bath due to dangers involved under the rocks. We continued till noon and stopped by a small stream to have our lunch. Looking from a different point of view, that was one of the best place where I have had my lunch. The water was so clear that we could drink it. I mean, that’s what we drank inside the jungles.
By around 17:00 the tailers (including me) reached the camp. Here I had the company of Nayan and we shared occasional smoke whenever we could find ourselves a bit away the crowd. I found him to be a nice guy and we started getting along well. We reached the dudhsagar camp along with our camp leader. By this time we had one tents booked for THE guys. So we started looking for the tent that was already reserved by the other guys. Put my rucksack and went for the welcome, I mean.. refreshment drinks.
The place was very unique completely surrounded by lush green trees. We had a small path that was going downstream and that was it for us. The next thing that I was looking for is my towel and soap. And I was in the cold water. That was the best refreshment for me after the day long trek. However, we didn’t use the soap as people were using the water. We were back in our tents by 18:00 and had our tea and roasted salty nuts ;-). Dinner time and then to our tents.
By this time the grouped tenters were no longer interested in the camp fire and instead started our own “tent fire”. We had our own makeshift flashlights (torch). The pole in the center of the tent just added to the already prepared dancing stage. The only people having the big difference in age from most of us were Mr. Sekhar and his friend Mr. Srinivas. Rest all were in their 20s and I guess it was only me who was above 30 among the rest. Well, that was the overview. Now some details.. The tent had approximately 10 people. Rahul, Nitin, Vikas (from Delhi), Nayan, Amol (from Maharashtra) on one side then Reddy garu, Satish, Suresh (from Karnataka), me (Kerala) and Mr. Sekhar and Srinivas (from Andhra Pradesh). These were the people who used to give the light in the tent. Now the question is…. Who was the one who set the tent on FIRE? Hmm.. that’s a mystery and let it be so as of now.
After our wild tent fire ;-), we came out to feel the wind and what we saw was amazing. Never in my life I could ever imagine that there could be so many stars in the sky. There was no electricity here. The city life has literally made me blind from looking at such marvelous scenes. We stayed out of our tents for some time and enjoyed some smoke and the view of the stars. Then, all of a sudden, someone in our group reminded of the snakes that were very common in the forests and in the next couple of minutes we all were buried in our inner and the blanket.
Schedule :
----- to have a small stop at the dudhsagar waterfall
----- to reach Kuveshi camp by evening.
We had our breakfast – chole bature that was very tasty. All the cooks in all the camp are from Delhi and they do good job with Delhi based foods. We left as usual at approx 09:00 hrs and were accompanied by our camp leaders till Dudhsagar waterfall. We reached the Waterfall and stayed there for 45 minutes approximately. I had some real good time for my shoot and climbed on a rock for some nice views. No bath here, as we were supposed to reach the camp and any further delay would make our trek difficult as the wild animals and snakes are supposed to be active after nightfall. We thanked and bid goodbye to our camp leader and moved on to our next location – Kuveshi. Let me tell you that, this was the most difficult part of the trek – atleast that was what I felt because there was some real tough terrain and steep climb. It was something that I was familiar with during my Himalayan treks but the weight of my sack was more than I had during the Himalayan treks and hence this was the most tiring day for me. However, the initial walk was good as we went through the railway track and tunnels made for the long trains, some with even 9 engines, going through the track. We again stopped at the half height of the dudhsagar fall, and time for some rest and some photography too. There was this bridge for the railway track. We sat below it for some beautiful scenes.
A little further walk and we came across an abandoned building, our turning point. From there on the route was a bit steep and made me realize that I was carrying too much of weight or that I was no longer as athletic as I was in my last trek. Regular intake of water and chocolates and occasional gulp of juice kept me going and we did reach the less steeper area by 15:00 hrs and what do we see?? There’s this small stream and we were ready for a bath. After bath, we had our lunch. Stayed there for some time and were having fun in the water. Our camp leader came searching for the tailers. He left taking a few members with him and told us to reach the camp at the earliest before dusk and that it would be approx 20-30 minutes walk from the spot. Around 30 minutes later we picked our stuffs and started walking. The last people left were me and Suresh and in our way we found Rahul and Nayan. Finally after our slow walk it took around 60 minutes to reach the camp.
Its really true that YHAI people do look for the best place to camp as was clearly visible at the Kuveshi camp. Let me describe in this way. Walking through the thick jungles, all of a sudden we reached a open place. On the right I see this river covering wide area and the water seems to be still with dense green trees around it and on the left, there are 6 green tents, all of them backed up with thick green. I kept my handycam on for sometime to cover the whole area before the sun, that was already planning to rest, calls it a day. The view of river was excellent and I knew that my hands would spoil the photos and hence had to take the support of the tripod. And by this time all the electronics equipments that I had were almost out of power and would be out anytime now.
Night took over and it was time for dinner. The dinner here was very different, healthy and tasty at the same time. We were given khichadi and kadi (or pongal and mooru kolumbu) along with dhalia, one of my favorites during the time involving physical activities. And again after dinner there was this tent fire that had some new visitors from other tents as well and it was very very HOT that night.. you know what I mean. After some time, we came out and saw another beautiful night with twinkling stars that almost vaguely lit the water in front of us. And we could feel the river, though it was calm and hardly there was any noise there. Time to sleep.
- 22nd Morning. Just one more camp left in our trek route though nobody had realized that.
I opened my handycam and there was hardly 5 mins of battery power left. I knew that I couldn’t catch much in this left out power and hence started shooting as much as possible. Mr Surarshan Iyer suggest that we may get some power source at Castle Rock.
Being drained of power, set out to walk with only my SLR with new roll loaded. Fortunately I had something that didn’t depend on an external source. Trek was good and was not tiring as the last day as the route was mostly plain with some thick woods. There was no difficult terrain and my sack didn’t seem to be much heavier. All I was looking for is Castle Rock, and till now I could see only rocks with no castle ;-). Time 12:30 hrs and I could see a small building that looked like a school with some banner written in probably Kannada. We entered Castle Rock that is a small village and I could find only one STD/PCO booth in the village. I charged my gear and mobile phone as there would be no power available for the next two days too. But we found no Castle though there were a lot of rocks everywhere.
We crossed through the rly crossing bridge and could see a lot of goods train loaded with what seemed like some metal ore. We crossed over the Castle Rock rly station that had diesel engine cascaded in the count of 3. I like locomotives a lot, be it steam, diesel or electric. The sound and the vibration makes my adrenaline rush up and gives me the goose bump feeling. Had I been spared by IT world, I would have ended up as a locomotive driver cruising at 150 kms/h. But since my country needed me a lot to maintain the Linux servers at my office, I preferred to compromise my dreams and my wish… anyways I was writing these stuffs as there wasn’t much on this day to see. It was more physical exercise. And we reached Atali camp. Welcome drink, tea, dinner and then…….. no man… the tent fire didn’t happen. Most of the guys dozed off. Me too.
- 23rd. I still didn’t realize that this was the last lap.
We got out pack lunch and were told that we have to trek 18 kms and need to reach the destination by 14:00 hrs, and then board a bus that will take us back to the base camp. Some one in our team was given an urgent call from London in the early morning that he/she couldn’t even find a proper place to take the call, and attended the same on the road itself near the camp. This made the Camp Leaders get so much pissed off that they stopped us from moving any forward. If you are a trekker, no matter through YHAI or any other organizers, please make sure that you do not make others uncomfortable, and realize that there are other people who would be using the same resources as you do. That was the least to expect from a trekker atleast. Anyways, after the justifiable punishment from our camp leader, we set out to the destination – The bagwan mahaveer national park gate. Smooth trek with mostly walking downwards. We had an hour stay at a view point and could see the hills and other beautiful views from there.
Walking still downwards we came to a smooth road and had our lunch. Hurried up since we though that we were getting late… and in the next 15 minutes we were at our destination. By 13:30. this time no welcome drinks so people who reached there so early had nothing exciting for them. Time – 14:30 and we were inside the bus that just arrived to pick us up back to our base camp. The journey was cool and I was still not aware that this was supposed to be the last day of our trek. We were singing songs in our local language and trying to learn some stuffs from other language too. Time passed well and we were greeted by folks at our base camp at Campal. Again welcome drink and tea after sometime. The evening was good and I took a good lavish bath after which I started packing my stuffs…..
Remaining part soon………….
