The first trek of mine. Sakleshpur, around 6hrs travel by road on the way to Mangalore. Along with my brother and his friends I packed my stuffs for the trek. We have booked the tickets for everyone to Donigal (near Sakleshpur). The bus was on 11:30 pm.
At around 05:15 am, the bus reached Donigal. We got down near a tea stall. It was pretty dark around the tea stall, since it was the only one in that mountainous area. The speakers of that tea stall voiced a tamil song from the film Kadalukku Mariyadhi. It was a pleasent welcome to all we tamilians in the state of Karnataka. Someone told that the climate was around 10 C at that time. We were all shivering, getting all the possible stuffs out of our bags to keep us warm. We then had a hot tea in that tea stall. That made us feel little comfortable. We bought some diesel from that shop (with the plan of a camp fire that night). We then have to walk around 1.5 kms to reach the Donigal railway station (from where the real trek starts). We started to walk on the way that leads to the railway station.
We reached the railway station and got on the track for the trek. It was still dark when we started to trek. We kept moving on the track, we followed the directions of the track. Our destination that day was to reach Edakku Mary by the evening. Edakku Mary will be around 15+ from Donigal. Around 07:00 am we came across a bridge. The steel brigde for the trains to cross. There will be no support on both the sides of these bridges. Luckily the bridge had some plates on the railway track. We cautiously crossed the bridge. Then came the second bridge, this bridge had no plates on the track, that made us feel scary and uncomoforatble while crossing. We all took bath in the stream that ran below that bridge. We too had our break-fast there. We had chappathis, bread with jam and snacks with us.
After the break-fast the journey continued. Then came the first tunnel. I remember that was not too long. But getting into the first tunnel, we screamed to hear the echos and had fun. Bridges and tunnels came across the way. We too stopped at few places to take rest and to have some snacks. As time went the climate got sunny. We people carrying all the baggages felt uncomfortable under the sun. At around 01:00 pm came the longest bridge. It is 120+ meters long. Real good one to cross, the height was too big. Scary but adventurous. The water stream that ran below that bridge temped us to take bath there. We took an another bath there. Getting down to that stream and climbing back to the track was a real trekking, I would say. The path is not a proper one and is really steep. Just after that long bridge was the longest tunnel. It was 572 meters long. It will take 10+ minutes to cross that tunnel. It was completely dark inside the tunnels. We all had torches with us to help us out inside these tunnels. Just to have more fun, we lit up a fire ball when we crossed that tunnel. Everyone was hungry by that time. We then found a place just after that tunnel to have our lunch. It was 03:00 pm when we had the lunch.
To reach Edakku Mary we have to walk 3/4 kms from that place. But two of the guys felt to return back. With the help of a local guy there we took a jeep (the one used to take goods and people from that track to the nearest village) and reached a nearest village. From there we took the local bus to reach Sakleshpur. From Sakleshpur we reacehed Hassan through another bus. After we had our dinner at Hassan we took a bus to Bangalore and reached Bangalore at 02:00 am.
As a whole I would say the trip was FUN, SCARY and ADVENTUROUS.
Snaps : http://www.flickr.com/photos/saponniah/
At around 05:15 am, the bus reached Donigal. We got down near a tea stall. It was pretty dark around the tea stall, since it was the only one in that mountainous area. The speakers of that tea stall voiced a tamil song from the film Kadalukku Mariyadhi. It was a pleasent welcome to all we tamilians in the state of Karnataka. Someone told that the climate was around 10 C at that time. We were all shivering, getting all the possible stuffs out of our bags to keep us warm. We then had a hot tea in that tea stall. That made us feel little comfortable. We bought some diesel from that shop (with the plan of a camp fire that night). We then have to walk around 1.5 kms to reach the Donigal railway station (from where the real trek starts). We started to walk on the way that leads to the railway station.
We reached the railway station and got on the track for the trek. It was still dark when we started to trek. We kept moving on the track, we followed the directions of the track. Our destination that day was to reach Edakku Mary by the evening. Edakku Mary will be around 15+ from Donigal. Around 07:00 am we came across a bridge. The steel brigde for the trains to cross. There will be no support on both the sides of these bridges. Luckily the bridge had some plates on the railway track. We cautiously crossed the bridge. Then came the second bridge, this bridge had no plates on the track, that made us feel scary and uncomoforatble while crossing. We all took bath in the stream that ran below that bridge. We too had our break-fast there. We had chappathis, bread with jam and snacks with us.
After the break-fast the journey continued. Then came the first tunnel. I remember that was not too long. But getting into the first tunnel, we screamed to hear the echos and had fun. Bridges and tunnels came across the way. We too stopped at few places to take rest and to have some snacks. As time went the climate got sunny. We people carrying all the baggages felt uncomfortable under the sun. At around 01:00 pm came the longest bridge. It is 120+ meters long. Real good one to cross, the height was too big. Scary but adventurous. The water stream that ran below that bridge temped us to take bath there. We took an another bath there. Getting down to that stream and climbing back to the track was a real trekking, I would say. The path is not a proper one and is really steep. Just after that long bridge was the longest tunnel. It was 572 meters long. It will take 10+ minutes to cross that tunnel. It was completely dark inside the tunnels. We all had torches with us to help us out inside these tunnels. Just to have more fun, we lit up a fire ball when we crossed that tunnel. Everyone was hungry by that time. We then found a place just after that tunnel to have our lunch. It was 03:00 pm when we had the lunch.
To reach Edakku Mary we have to walk 3/4 kms from that place. But two of the guys felt to return back. With the help of a local guy there we took a jeep (the one used to take goods and people from that track to the nearest village) and reached a nearest village. From there we took the local bus to reach Sakleshpur. From Sakleshpur we reacehed Hassan through another bus. After we had our dinner at Hassan we took a bus to Bangalore and reached Bangalore at 02:00 am.
As a whole I would say the trip was FUN, SCARY and ADVENTUROUS.
Snaps : http://www.flickr.com/photos/saponniah/
