I will always return - Savandurga Trek

I will always return

I hear the wind across the plain
A sound so strong - that calls my name
It's wild like the river - it 's warm like the sun
Ya it's here - this is where I belong

Under the skies - where eagles have flown
This place is paradise - it 's the place I call home
The sun on the mountains
The whisper through the trees
The waves on the water
Let nothing come between this and me

Cuz everything I want - is everything that's here
And when we're all together - there's nothing to fear

And wherever I wander - the one thing I've learned
It's to here - I will always...always return

5 AM in the morning. After a long time I was up so early, waiting to see the sunrise in Bangalore. No! I dint get up to prepare for any exam. I am past all that. By the way, I never woke up early to prepare for exams. Nevertheless, this time it was for trekking. Savandurga. Never heard of it before. Or wait!! May be I ve heard of it but I don’t remember. Dam my memory. Anyways I get ready & all set to go & get tarnished.

So its 6.30 AM. Walking towards RV College just past Global Village and happy that I don’t have to enter there today J Pleasant morning and the skies are covered with thick clouds. There again, I am yet to get a view of sunrise in Bangalore L May be next time.

I see Anand (God) waving at me from the tempo traveler. Lucky that I dint have to walk all the way (typical lazy me). I enter the cab & I first see Nasar half asleep.. Thank god, I’m not the only lazy guy around J and then there was Mandy next to him. He greeted me with a dialogue which again I don’t remember. Bdw, Mandy is the guy who can come up with dialogues anytime anywhere in any circumstances. More on his dialoguebazi as the day progresses. There were 2 new faces. Sid & Shiva: our guides for the day. More on them later. I have just met them. A 15 min wait for Deepak & Ravindra and we are off….

The Drive to Savandurga

It’s a 60km drive. As usual there were jokes during the drive, mostly on God (Anand). We stop mid way for breakfast. I guess the restaurant’s name was something related to Thatte Idly. Or whatever. Early morning & God is having breakfast there. The restaurant business for the month is done. Lucky him ;) After filling ourselves we just take few supplies for the trek and we re on road again. Listening to 93.4FM & talking. I don’t exactly remember on what. Wait!! I remember one thing. The rocks of Savandurga were scared as God was gonna climb on them. That was the topic going on until my memory fades away…

The Caves… Followed by Rappelling

We reached the Savandurga Mountains in about an hour. Once out of the cab, I hurried behind it and BLISS….. Nature’s call J Had it controlled for a long time ;) 1^st view of the mountain & I was perplexed at its shape J It had weird cuts here & there which makes a guy’s mind drift away towards something else ;) Do I need to explain? Ok!!! Let’s not get carried away. So our guides took us towards the opposite side of the hills. For a moment I thought they are lost but nah not everyone has a memory like me. We walked in a semi-dense kinda forest towards the caves. We could hear crackers burst in distance & I was wondering if India won any match. And then I realized its early morning & there is no match going on. I guess too much of cricket in my head. Partly cause of IPL & partly cause of another IPL. Well, the former is Indian & later is Insurance. Anyways the cracker was a signal that Elephants have breached in the territory & everyone has to be cautious. We weren’t worried. We had God with us. So basically it’s the elephants who gotta get scared. And there was a laugh about it with few blows from Anand which he prefers to call as “just a touch”. Ask Joy about them & you will know the exact meaning of it J Even I get some of these often, thankfully not that day. And so we were into the caves which had tough passages & beautiful scenery above them. It was a great walk through them & loads of applauds when Anand got through few tough ones.

We reached open air in about half hour & there was the ROCK where we were gonna rappel. It was roughly about 100 feet long & flat. Everyone were thrilled but followed by a huge question mark. How the hell are we gonna get on top of it? Good question. And we had Joy & Ravindra the two experienced trekkers figure a way out. Climb the tree, then couple of big rocks & we re on top J Simple? Well it was for them. I followed them on the tree & then there was Ankit who took about 15 min to get past the tree. After a while we knew this way is gonna take quite some time. And there comes the experience of the local guy Natraj. He figured a way up through the cave which was pretty much simple. And in no time we were on top thrilled & excited.

Sid was giving us blank sheet of paper & I was wondering why? Test or something? Well it was a declaration. We had to sign saying that whatever happens they aren’t responsible for it. And that sent a shiver down our spines. It was fun to see Deepak, Karthick & Mandy’s expressions. All have vertigo. High level of vertigo. We will see that soon J

So it started with Joy who was the 1^st to go. He went down in no time. Ofcourse no emotions or thrill shown. All this is cake walk for him. And then went Ravi, again with ease. I followed. A bit nervous for couple of steps after which it was fun & I enjoyed my 1^st time J And then was Ankit. I was scared for his safety more than him. Well he s the key player in my IPL team. MoM in 3 matches. Contributes with both bat & ball. The highest bid player of IPL. Oops. I am drifting away towards cricket again. Ok Stop! So Ankit, well he was scared too. Not as much as the ones who are yet to come. Next was Deepak....... Whoa!! Wait. Before I get to him there was another parallel activity happening on another rock. Ravindra & I were on it getting a photo shoot. It was a great view from there. We could see deep down, sharp rocks beneath & a beautiful view in fount of us. Ravi, the gym body guy was doing push ups with one arm. His pics were all Baywatch kinds. I on other hand was enjoying the view & very much cautious that my pics were being taken as I wanted few good ones J Anyways back to Deepak then. Well took him 10-15 mins to take the 1^st step. He was scared to death. As we were capturing him on camera, someone jus asked him to leave the rope & spread his arms wide. And the reaction was worth watching. “Yo man.. Don’t leave the rope” were the only words out of his mouth. The rest of the day saw him silent. Mummmmed.. Well that’s Deepak who can’t see down from a terrace. Vertigo at its best ;) He did well to rappel down that rock though. Cheers!! And then it was Harish. He was cool. Dint asks too many questions & came down comfortably. And then came GOD. Anand. We could hear the thunders. The rocks were trembling & so were we. His 1^st step and he slipped. Good that his face didn’t hit the rocks. His tummy saved him. Pomp pomp it bounced of the rocks. All of us were silent for a moment & when we knew he was safe, oh sorry I meant the rock was safe, Ravi screamed on top of his voice. “Joyyyyyy, take his pics”. Lol.. The pics were funny. Bdw, there was a crack on the rock. A big one. So what? It wasn’t cause of Anand. Leave him alone guys. He is a great trekker with a huge heart. Next. Karthick. Another guy with vertigo, but a good listener and bad for the one who is guiding him. He can piss you off with his questions anytime. I appreciate the guide who had tremendous patience to answer his queries. So after all the Q&A sessions, Karthick finally took the 1^st step down just to get back because the branch was coming along with him. “Dam you branch” was his reaction. Another go. Another 1^st step & he got back on top again. This time the “Tree” was coming down with him. Seriously? Guys on top had to tolerate him. Meanwhile Ravindra & I were joined by Harish and we were enjoying our photo shoot & nature view. Don’t mistake us guys. Anyways Karthick finally got down. And he did it well. Joy was impressed & said that he was better than all of us. I sense something fishy ;) He was rewarded with good photographs. Next was Mandy, Joy’s younger brother. Dialoguebaz as I described him before. Well I wasn’t there on top so I don’t know if there were any hilarious dialogues. But I am sure he fired some. He was scared of heights too and did not leave the rope till the end. All our advice went in vain. He dint care for pics. We tell him to lean, he jus leans his head. We tell him to leave the rope, he says NEVER. So he got down with a weird posture. It should have been recorded & titled “Never rappel like this”. Last was Nasar. He had a T on which said “Mard ko Dard nahi hota” (Men never suffer from pain). Sure he won’t be in pain because he won’t try hard. Lazy like me J No wait, more than me as the day progresses. It was his 2^nd time. He did well. Though he has vertigo, he came down with ease. So that ends our Rappelling session.

The Long wait for Lunch

After a great rappelling for us first timers, we took a different route the way back & reached the starting point hungry & desperate for lunch. What’s worst? The lunch is still not ready. The local guy went to the town nearby to get us food. Our guide took us to this small park so that we could take rest for a while before climbing the mountain. But what’s worst again? We had to walk some half a km L We cursed him.

The park was good. Shady, calm with couple of see-saws. Nasar, Mandy & I quickly caught a seat. We never got up from there until we were supposed to. So clearly the laziest of the whole group was us 3. Joy climbs up a tree like a monkey. Ravindra is now doing pull ups. Gosh! He and his exercise. We all relaxed & lunch is on its way. Still on the way L Meanwhile Joy is busy taking photographs. He used a canopy of leaves to create a frame around us. His techniques were great. He gets down low and shoots from the ground looking up using individual blades of grass, wildflowers and other stray ground foliage to frame his subject within the frame. The low vantage point gives dramatic emphasis to the subject, and the bug's eye view of the grass in the foreground creates otherworldliness. Harish is all with weird expressions. Karthick is looking like a retard after the rappelling. Deepak is still speechless. Ankit goes to the see-saw followed by Ravindra. And now starts the fun. Anand joins and easily over weighs Ravindra. Ankit joins Ravi & still Anand is unmovable. Deepak joins in too. And they are still on top. Not able to move Anand. They try try & try, and finally they manage to get Anand on top. Ooof. Karthick captures the video & it’s all over the ODC now. That’s about what happened during our starvation.

Lunch was on its way. We had to walk back to where we came from. Another tiring walk & we finally park ourselves in a school ground where a big tiffin awaits us. I will cut it short here. We start EATING. Finally. I am not sure how the food was because at that time we would have had anything. I guess it was ok. The sweet was good though. We filled our bottles got the back packs ready and without rest we are off for the climb. Meanwhile Joy had to convince Nasar to join us. Nasar just wanted to get a nap. Sorry he couldn’t get one. Such a lazy ass he is. Feels so good to call someone else lazy J

The Ultimate Destination

We started our journey for the top. A small temple, 1200 ft above us. Big rocks separating us from it. Not even through 10% of the climb and we were all gasping & running out of breath, desperate for water. Bdw, Joy gave us couple of important tips for the climb. 1. Do not sit & rest. 2. Try avoiding drinking water. And what did we all do? Sat. Drank water. Sad!! We are sorry Joy. He was disappointed & wondered if we all would make even half the climb. After lot of motivation & bla bla bla lecture from him, we started again. Anand & Deepak were last to follow. God was out of breath & Deepak was scared to look behind him. Shiva & Sid made sure everyone is on their feet. We were up & climbing again. Our first target was a small fort which was I guess is 30% of the total climb. We ensured that we reached there with no more rest & water. Mandy was blackmailing Joy for water, Joy obliged. Dam he never listens to us. So we reached the fort & what a relief. Everyone was seated on some rock or the other except for Joy & Ravi. Water was tastier than ever. The view down was great. A quick photo session & we were all ready to get going. Nasar, Deepak & Anand gave up. The rest moved on.

Mandy, Karthick & I followed the lead of Ravi. Harish, Ankit, Joy with Shiva & Sid. We went further to another flag point from where the view was even better. That was about 60% of the climb. The next part was steep & fun ofcourse. Wasting no time we were off again. A little further & it started drizzling. We expected it to pass on but the nature had some other plans. It poured. Poured crazy for 10-15 mins. Thankfully we had shelter. There were a bunch of trees. We stopped there until the rain stopped. Had a Tropicana each & prayed the rain stops. Thankfully it did. The rocks were wet & slippery. Half of us were in a dilemma whether to continue or get back. There was another fort just a little further. So we set targets. Like we always do in project & never follow. But this aint project J We planned to get to the fort & then decide whether to move on or get back. We reached the fort. It was slippery. Not for all of us though. Mandy was slipping more than any one. His shoes were fine. Guess it was the way he was taking his steps, a little nervous and off balance. This guy has will power. He was up for the climb & we decided to move further.

Behind us was a view I would cherish forever. The whole of Bangalore was visible with a thick layer of cloud above it. It was pouring everywhere in front of us. It was heaven, truly fabulous. And with little rays of sun from behind the hill, there came the cherry on the cake: A Rainbow, beautiful as ever. It made a perfect semi-circle with us in the center. What more could we ask for? VIBGYOR at its best! Nature was being generous. It gave us another rainbow, two rainbows back to back. We stopped for a while to emboss these beautiful scenes in our memory. Have you ever heard nature talk? I heard it for the 1^st time. There was water dripping from above. A quiet stream passing beneath the rocks, a beautiful rainbow & a whole of Bangalore in front of our eyes covered with blanket of clouds lightning & pouring. Wish time could just pause. It was worth every second.

The sun came on brighter. Rocks dried up fast and we resumed our journey. It was a silent one from there on. Everyone was just taking in what they witnessed. Silence was our way of letting Nature speak.

There came a steep climb ahead of us. The rocks were punched in to make the climb easier. We all made it through. A little further and we reached a point from where the temple was clearly visible. 80% through. Far away above us there were chunks of thick clouds heading our way, ready to pour. Shiva suggested we get back before it’s too late. We wanted to reach the peak. The view only got better as we climbed on and I wanted to see it from the peak. But I guess not this time.

The Way Back

It was 4.30 and after taking into consideration the way back for us armatures, it was decided that we head back. Downhill journey is usually tougher & dangerous than the uphill. We were on our way back. A few disappointed for not making it to the peak. I was one among them. I will reach the peak the next time. I will return to the temple & complete the journey. The steep climb which we took before was a difficult one to climb down. Mandy was under an impression that he got through that steep rock with every step he took. His dialogues were back. Rest of the climb down was simpler. We reached the point where we left Anand, Nasar & Deepak. They were nowhere to be found. Assuming that they made their way back, we moved on down. We found them a little way down. Heard the story of how Anand slipped and laughed about it for a while. We rested for a while there & Joy was back taking photographs of us. We moved on & reached the land safely. Most of us sad that it has come to an end. Refilled our stomach with tender coconut, chat, tea & biscuits. We were in the cab. Returning back to where we came from, none wanting to. Everything has to come to an end. This was. Slept the way back reliving the whole day & making a permanent record in our heart.

It's to here - I will always...always return.