Wednesday, April 04, 2007

MOONLIGHT TREK

This trek was very special all because it was done in the night...... i can say it as a moonlight trek....The place selected for the same was Scandagiri around 70kms from bangalore near nandhi hills... The entire trip was organised by our MR (Mountain Roarers) group co-ordinators gilli, nikil,loki and chandra... The plan was to go to Scandagiri by bike and then park the bike on the bottom of the hill and climb the mountain in the night, watch the sunrise and then return back to bangalore in the morning.

It was planned for everyone to meet at 8pm opposite ISCON temple on 31/3/2007 with their respective bikes. We were around 16 people with 10bikes. As usual i was on time along with my friend vikram at around 8pm only to see no one around, but slowly people started coming in....we started around 9 from there and our immediate plan was to reach a dhabha...near yalahanka....and have dinner.. I have some fond memories with these dhabhas these are very close to my first organisation where in i started my career integra micro systems. After having a good dinner we started towards Scandagiri... After around 70kms we need to take a left from highway and move towards the base of the hill. Just around 5kms before chikkballapur.

We reached the base of the hilltop at around 12.30... looking at the small hill everyone thought this is a very small hill for the people who have gone for KP and KC.. and lots of comments started floating out...We took help of a local guide to help us, also we asked him to take us through the toughest path and he agreed for the same... initially the route started with every one being troubled by the thorns in the small hubs.. everyone got scratches on their hands and body....later we were left with some steep and slippery rock to climb in the night....

Since it was dark my observations didnot go beyond a beautiful moon and the feel of the pleasant air around.... the cool breeze just pleased the minds when it erased the tiredness of climbing the rocks.... At some places the rocks were very steep and slippery..... lakshmi slipped a bit and got scratches on his stomach and hand..... poor lakshmi.... but for him he should thank his tummy because that acted as a rubber grip and managed to hold him to the rock....

We managed to reach the peak at around 4 am, only to see too many people on top of the hill...it was a pleasant place far from the crowded streets of bangalore, but what i didnot like there was.. we go to a good place to have fun and enjoy the nature and spend some time with the nature.... i could see people spoiling the beauty of the place by drinking and throwing the bottles along with plastics.... how sick these people are just a curse.... until they themselves understand the need of preserving the beauty of a place nothing much could be done in avoiding nor we can blame government for the same...

We thought of having a small nap in the early hours but it was very cold and many of us couldn't sleep even a bit... so started collecting some sticks around and raised a campfire to beat some cold...it was a great fun sitting around the fire and warming ourselves....a good moment to watch the fire dance because of the high breeze..... Since we had put the fire on the rocks there was no issue of spreading the fire into the dry grass surrounding.....

At around 5.30 we could see some light and a complete red moon going down at one end....wat a view... the moon had done its job for the day and was moving away from us.... a strange thing to understand the concepts of nature.... a bright white moon in the night who guided us in the steep slopes of the mountain had turned complete red at the end of his day......
We kept waiting for sun till around 6.15 but couldnot see the sun rise even though there was good light and signs of sun already have come out....people around even started making fun that since it was april 1st the sun fooled us hahaha....but all of a sudden the sun came out of the clouds and what a spectacular view it was.......Every time i see a sun rise or sunset the colour around the sun on the clouds always fascinates me.... every time i see this there is something new... what a creation what a variety...gives a view that everyday is different and a new day....the nature invites and tells learn more and more from me....

After a small photo session we started moving towards our bikes...but this time we took an easier and longer path since it was very difficult to climb down through the path we came.... we reached...down at around 7.30 and started back to bangalore....


Here one of the worst things happened for me... at around 20kms away from bangalore the engine of my bike got seized and was not in a position to move....thanx to viky for noticing a trolley auto...and stopping the same...some how i managed to put the bike on the auto and took it to the bjaj service station in bangalore....but looks like this was costly deal of getting my bike repaired again...it has gone to the worst possible condition....

I was very tired as i didnot sleep the whole night along with the bike episode....i reached home around 11 and could only manage to sleep till 5 in the evening....

But all in all this was a very new experience for me the moonlight trek...on the slippery rocks.... and there was also a great amount of rock climbing without any gadgets for doing the same.... it was fun ... i love to enjoy and be with nature in my own ways....this was one such moment...the night with the rocks and the moon...

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