Amedikal

It had been a long time almost 3 months since my last trek with friends to Kodachadri. I just got a bit off track with some preparations for the interviews and group discussion. Now that it was all over I was eager to get on a trek.
My last trek with RHM was a very memorable one... Thanks to the co-ordination and their goal. This time RHM was arranging a trek to Amedikal, near Shisila. some 20 odd Kms from Dharmasthala.
The trek was on the 28^th and 29^th of April. Arun and Dean had tried reaching to the Amedikal peak some time the year before but the weather was a bit bad for them to continue and reach the peak, so this time they had come up with a group to reach to the peak.
As usual the assembly point of the RHM group was the KSRTC bus stand enquiry counter. Eight of us assembled for the journey to Dharmathala. From where we would reach Shishila and then on to the trek.
The eight members of the trek were was follows; Arun, Dean, Vasudhendra, Lohit, Praveen, Smitha, Harish and myself. Arun and Dean were the organisers, Harish was my classmate in school; others were all new to me. Vasudhendra, is a well known author in Kannada, and it was an experience meeting a person like him. Another person Mr. Hegde was to join us in Dharmasthala. The speciality of this group, it had three journalist - Arun, Harish and Hegde; in it.
We set out from Bangalore at 10:30pm on the 27^th of April, to Dharmasthala. After a long journey form Bangalore - thanks to some technical problem the bus had and a road jam in the ghat section we reached Dharmasthala quite late at around 6:00 am. We finished our morning ablutions and were joined by Mr Hegde to get on with the breakfast.
Once we completed the breakfast we were on with our journey to Shishila. We booked a jeep from Dharmasthala that would take us to the small village of Shishila. Shishila is known for its temple of "Shishileshwara". In the journey from Dharmasthala to Shishila, it was a random discussion on variety of topics so as to break our inhibitions and get to know about the other personality that all of us possess.
On reaching Shishila we had a brief intro given about the trek by Arun, and the plan we had for the 2 days. We followed this with an informal introduction about ourselves. Its then that we got to know each other a bit more well. Arun distributed the "emergency food" that was to be used only when we needed it the most. We then booked a jeep to home which would then be our base camp. We asked for a guide and got a very helpful guide - "BalaKrishna", to guide us on the trek. All of us dumped our bags atop the jeep and sat along to the house where we planned to rest. It was another 20 minutes journey that would take us to the "home" - yes, that's exactly the feeling all of us got interacting with the house members and the care they took about us. We reached the home, and rested for about 25 minute when "Balu" joined, to guide us to the peak.
All the 9 of us started on the trek; Balu was on the lead... and followed by us.... He took us on a small foot trial into the forest. Smitha started having some problems and could not keep pace with us, so Arun stood back trying to get her along, but she was finding it very difficult finally, Arun decided that it is better to take her back and so asked the group to move along and took her back home.
The rest of us - 7 in number and Balu totally 8 continued on the journey. The train slowly got more demanding on us. There was a constantly increasing elevation that would make the trek a bit tougher. We were carrying along our food and water, the luggage felt like an ever increasing one. It took all of us some time to warm up and continue. The humidity was high and all of us were drenched from head to toe in no time. Balu was as fit as ever, we were just amazed at his strength and stamina... From his expression I could read ... oh man they find even this so difficult!!! Well he was just too good for us.
The journey was through a forest cover, the forest had high humidity and was draining out a lot of the fluid through perspiration. Dean and Vasu had an encounter with a pit-viper, and thanks to Arun who was there at the right moment to help them out. Arun spotted it up first and then stopped Vasu from stepping over it. We were waiting for Dean and Vasu a bit further (most of us might have missed it by oversight.) A bit further I found spider that was posing for a snap, took a snap of this big spider and continued further. After about an hours journey we took a small break, and were refueling our-self with liquid. There were a huge scourge of mosquitoes, and were behind each one of us. We competed the break and resumed the journey with renewed spirit. On the right side of the path now we did not have much vegetation covering us and we could see the famous "Ettina Bhuja" (meaning the shoulder of ox) at a distance. From here onwards till the peak we could spot this huge mountain all along the trek course.
A small distance further we spotted the peak of Amedikal. This was the first time we spotted this on the trek route since we started off from the base. The trek had been in the canopy of the forest, so we had not been exposed to the sun till now, this was the fist opening that we found. The Amedikal was just too beautiful to look at. We for an instant thought we could now reach the peak from there in around an hour and a half. Looking at the rate we walked, Balu with his expertise in the region told us at this rate you will only get back home at 7:30pm. Yes, it was around 745 that we reached the home that day, what an estimation man!! too good ah!
After this open space we went into a small forest cover, where we had a small water store and we refilled our cans to carry on further. Just a walk of around 10 min from this point I spotted a "green garden snake". Four of us, watched the snake with apt attention, it was an amazing sight to watch this snake make its move. It just climbed and climbed, we just could not believe it could climb so high on the plants given its lean body. I was just too good.
We continued further after having the snake show, now we were getting closer to the peak. The sun was a bit too harsh on us during this part of the day. Now we were into the open zone, not much vegetation and no shade excepting some trees here and there. All of us began to feel the heat and strain. Now we were almost at the foot of the Amedikal peak and it was just getting even tougher. We had trekked nearly 3 hours to reach the base of the Peak. The climb was slow for all of us, but Balu did not even show a hint of fatigue, he was just too good (No doubt I became his fan!!!).
The hot scorching sun had drained a lot out of me, the winds were blowing along the surface of the mountain, some times a cloud or two would give a small shade to these mountains. I could see the natural processes of creation of sod from stone there.
A small time after the accent began I chose to sit for some time. The blowing winds was enough to push me to slumber, I did get driven off by the winds into the sleepy would a couple of times when I was resting to rejuvenate myself.All of us rested for a while at different places on the way up to get boosted often to continue the upward trek. It was the hardest terk I had done till date, the sun was virtually eating my energy. The previous hardest trek I had done was to climb the KumaraParvatha from the Somavarpet side.
This stone mountain was, more open and taller to scale. The height and the distance to be covered were making the trek even more demanding. This combined with our lack of regular preparation for something like this was making the trek look more massive than it might just be. Balu lead us to a shady shelter were we rested to take up our lunch. I had been nearly a 4 hour trek till now and all of us were just too hungry to wait. Once we reached there we immediately opened the pack of pooris, and Chitranna that we had carried along. We rested here for around 45 minutes, kept our bags to carry them along when we returned. We carried along only a few water-bottles that would help us quench our thirst on the way to the peak. Balu spotted a wild jackfruit tree and within a flash was down with the fruit for us. We decided to take take time to have a taste of it on the way back.
We asked Balu what might be the history behind the name of the peak being Amedikal, the told us that in the local language - tulu, Dikel means stove. So that's how the name AmeDikal comes to be. We see 3 stones atop the peak; it looks like a stove in the village kitchens.
We advanced towards the peak, and came found a panoramic view once we found our-self out of the forest cover into the open. Another 10 minutes trek from here we reached the peak from were we found our-self atop the world. The view was just too splendid. We rested at the peak for 30 min before we set back. We tried various poses for our camera, and jumped from one stone to another with Balu's guidance for the whole process. On the way to the peak we climbed a few stones which made the view look very scary. All of us crossed a few tough points, thanks to the expert assistance of Balu, we were able to experience the thrill of such a climb.
After the photo shoot at the peak we began the return. It was almost a journey of 5 hours for us to the peak, and we set out to the base at 4:30pm.
We all started off back to the base with Balu again leading from the front. We got down form the peak and reached the shady region, were we had rested for lunch prior to continuing our journey to the peak. Balu got the Jack-fruit and opened it up for us, all of us were up eating the fruit. We enjoyed the fruit and resumed our journey to the base. On the way back the small grass that grew all over the place was very misleading and if it was not for Balu. The grass had grown so symmetrically that we could not find a well defined path back. We continued on under the guidance of Balu to reach the base.
The light was getting dark and we were gearing up for a night trek. We got out our torches. We took about an hour to reach to the base of the Amedikal peak. We then started on our route back. Slowly but steadily we continued on the trek, and reached the base camp after a trek of 2 and half hours from the peak.
One of the memorable incidents on the way back was Dean asking us all of a sudden to switch off all the torches, and maintain absolute silence... we were expecting something very curious... and asked him what was the matter. Dean replied...."Enjoy the silence"... and lo all others were on him for this attempt... All of us being tiered just wanted to reach home now... not enjoy the silence.
Once we reached the home all of us wanted to get to the river nearby and wash off the fatigue. Sunil, the home boy with a lot of enthusiasm took all of us to the river. We spent about an hour before we decided to wind off to sleep. Harish and I slept on the platform that was there near the home, Lohit on a bench, Smitha inside the home and the remaining people in the space that was available in front of the home.
The hard trek of the day was enough for us to send us dozing off in not time. We woke up early in the morning only to appreciate how well the villagers are used to the saying "Early bird gets the worm". All day long I was to learn a lot of things about this rustic life... the originality of the life and learn to appreciate it.
Balu returned to check with us the day's plans. We initially had thought of reaching "Ettina Bhuja" and Moodigere from there, then to Dharmasthala, but the previous day's trek had taken its toll on us and we knew all of us could not complete the trek in the sate we were. Balu too suggested the same... so we decided to just keep the second day simple and searched for a place to recline and spend a good amount of time in the river there.
So that decided we began our trek to the place around a kilometer and half from the home. On the way we spotted a few children peeping out, Sunil was all enthu calling them out to join us to the place. The walk through the mud road was a pleasant one. We had stream criss-crossing the mud road occasionally other times it just flowed silently along the route. We found a wild fruit all along the way till we reached the river, I just threw them to the side of the road... just that the child in me felt like doing it.
We reached the river and walked upstream to reach a dam that had been built by the locals to harvest the water of the "Kapila" also called "Sudhe" by the locals. Balu just warned about a deep "Gundi" some distance away and let us get into the water. 5 of us got down into the water and had a play there, while the remaining were busy thowing stones into the silent river water and counting the bounce, some times just picking snaps and other times attempting some gimmicks.
We could spot the Ettina bhuja occasionally but the clouds would hamper our sight of the peak. There is dense bamboo vegetation, Sunil was making a mention that there are elephants down the valley and this location just seemed to be too ideal a place for the huge animal. The serene water of the river, dammed to make it look more beautiful, bamboo vegetation, The mountains and the forest covered slopes that make the scene very picturesque.
After about an hour and half that we spent in the river we decided to get back to the home. We visited some Deity that had been placed on an altar beside the river, may be it holds a high esteem and has a local folk-lore associated with it. I am not sure about it. After picking up snaps of this we set out on our way back to the home. I was busy clicking pics on the way back and Sunil was even more enthusiastic to try his hand at photography. All of us reached the home and waited for the lunch to be served.
We cought up into individual discussions on various topics and, it was quite an enlightening experience for me. I got to know a lot of different dimensions to a lot of things. The topics of the discussion from songs, singers, movie review to author/poet styles and the kind. Having a research journalist like Harish along with an established author like Vasudhendra in the group was a great experience. Arun & dean with their wast experience in the trekking domain kept me latched to their discussion most of the time.
After our lunch we decided to visit the temple of Shishileshwara on the way back to Dharmasthala. Balu called up a Jeep from Shishila to the place and we got it. After bidding the family that had taken such a good care about us, we dumped our luggage on the roof of the jeep and set out on the way to the temple. In about 25 minutes we reached the temple.

Shishila got it name from the temple here. The deity here is Shishileshwara. This temple is beside the river kapila. A lot of folklore may be associated with this temple and the river. There are a lot of fishes in the water here. They are a feast for the eyes to watch. The devotees get along with them rice and puri to feed them (you can get them at the rice and poori in the temple premises itself in case you have not got it.)
Some time back there was a very bad accident that caused the death of a numerable number of these fishes; some one had poisoned the fishes to increase their fish catch or something like it. In memory of this incident a memorial with the sculpture of fish has been erected near the temple. The fisheries department has also banned any fishing or the sort in the 2 km radius of the temple.
The last bus from Shishila towards Dharmasthala was at 4:30pm, we thought it might be at 4:00pm and reached the stand half an hour early. We climbed the bus that was right on time and we climbed it with all our big bags and stuff. We reached Dharmasthala at 6:00pm, went to the temple after having our evening tiffin. We returned to the bus-stop waiting for our bus, it was destined to leave at 10:30 pm. We reached Bangalore in the wee hours to get back to work, after a couple of days of hard trek all of us got back to work, and our routine.