Napokulu - April 21

Crazy walk it was today. We had lunch by a stream. After a while the path we were on kind of disappeared. So from then on it was all uphill, making your own path. I am bad at this. Not having a defined track means constantly looking out for the guide to see where he is going. Many times when the forest is dense you loose sight of your teammate or guide. Other than that, it's leaves, dead, fallen and mossy trees, thorny creepers and so on which make going difficult. Thorny shrubs and creepers remind me, just when you frantically grab hold of a trunk or a creeper...yikes!!!! It has those nasty thorns and your hand is torn. So such was the scene today. Making our way up through dense overgrowth and slippery understory full of leeches. Hot and humid and no stream on way to tank up on water. Came out on the grassland and it was such a relief. It was dry(which means no leeches), and grasslands are generally friendlier compared to the forests where there is no path. But this grassland turned out to be really tricky. Actually we were climbing almost vertically up the face of a hill, and it was a rocky face, so making our way up was difficult again. One false foot on the rock would mean sliding down the hill. Of course you would be able to break your fall as grass offers good resistance, but it was still a difficult climb. The sun was beating down and our water reserves were running out. So in such atrocious heat, there were this three of us making our way up the hill. At one point, I was trying to heave myself up on a tricky foothold and I slipped, and hey, there I was, dangling, holding onto grass with no foothold at all. God bless the sturdy grass coz had the grass given way, I would have slipped down I don't know how many meters. Anyway, the experience kind of shook me up and I decided not to think of the heat and the thirst and the long way up, and just focus on the next step. It was difficult and I had to coax myself to go on every few meters. So one small hill after the other I climbed and finally reached the top of the highest hill and hit a ridge path. It was unbelievable - the 360 degree view. The ranges in the distance looked so close at that level. The eagles were soaring(?) much below us. The valleys below looked so deep and distant.

So we followed our ridge path which was fairly straightforward and an easy walk. I could hear distant rumblings, thunder I thought. It would rain in the evening. And just as we began to descend down the ridge, hell broke loose. Mist came down as if from nowhere and lightening started cracking on the horizon. Cold breeze started blowing and dark clouds started building up. Before we knew it, it started pouring. It never rains in Coorg, it always pours. Big drops started pelting us. I was elated initially, I like rain, and after the heat and thirst of the afternoon, this dramatic change, cool breeze and rain, really looked god sent. But it didn't take long to realise that we are far away from the main road or any village for that matter, and with the darkening skies a night in the forest or a trek down in torch light seemed quite a possibility. And that was scary. So I ran, helter-skelter zig-zag down that hill. There was no path, just cattle tracks. Stones became slippery, and my old shoes with no grip didn't help much. I slipped many times, slided down the red mud, but the urgency of the situation was such that I had little choice. We somehow managed to get down a few hundred meters. It was the fastest that I've ever done. The mist was all around us. I was drenched and it started feeling a little cold. We were going down at a much slower pace now. We heard a cow not very far, and I was soooooo happy! There must be a village or a house near by. We were walking along some kind of a fencing. After a while we came across a gate and went in. It was a plantation. We reached a house. The people in the house, like all these people usually are, were warm and welcoming. They were not very well off, their clothes were torn. The three of us sat in their veranda, soaked to the skin. They treated us with a mixture of sympathy and curiosity. We were called inside and given hot tea in steel glasses, and a plate of glucose biscuits. Wasn't that glass of tea a blessing! We waited for the rain to subside. After a while it stopped and the skies became unusually bright. We thanked them and set off again. And I was thinking, thanks is such an inadequate word, so completely lacking. At least today it was. If someday this family has to come to Bangalore(God forbid) and is in need of help, will I trust them, will I help them, will I take them in like they just took us in. And I don't even speak their language.

We took a shorter route through plantations, bright green paddy fields and forests and finally came on to the main road. It was much easier walking on the main road, our vehicle was parked 5-6 kms away. P hitched a ride and was back with the jeep soon and picked us up on way. It was quite a relief to be sitting comfortably in the jeep after all the adventure that happened today.

I now think what a spectacle I must have been, on that main road of Madikeri - drenched and muddy and limping with exhaustion and muscle stiffness. :-D

Out into the grasslands

Climbed up that hill

The easy ridge walk

Dark clouds build up

Scorpion...dead