It has been a long time since I have trekked on this route... almost 2 yrs. I shall try recollecting as much as I can and write down... I don’t recall the exact date of this trek, but just remember the month - Dec, 2005.
It was just after our last exam of the 7th sem, that we chose to go on this trek. I had a function the day after the trek so wanted to do just 1 day trek, while others wanted to complete a two day one. PJ had just been to this trek around 3 weeks before and had shared the snaps and the route info with us.
We got a printout of the route, some shopping followed to purchase the food items and stuff. We had enough for store for two days. We set out from our college to the Mangalore KSRTC bus-stand and wanted to reach Donigal.
We climbed a semi-luxury bus. The seats were rather empty, so it was more than a semi-luxury for us.... some of us stretched ourselves to occupy the full seats and enjoy the luxury of Sleeper coach!!!
Well after about some 4 hours journey we reached the famous "Picnic" hotel. It was a cold winter night, and in the ghat section it made the cold even chiller. We immediately reached out for a cup of coffee at the road side tea-stall, besides the Picnic. In the cold night we I could see a busy vendor showing off his prowess in swinging the tea/coffee from a tumbler into a bigger container and then back... The passing buses would stop beside the tea stall; the drivers would resume their driving after a cup of tea.
We were about 9 people in number on this trek. Some first timers some experienced... a nice mix. We had PJ's blog of the trek with us... and took that as our reference. We asked the tea vendor for directions to the rail station (Donigal Railway station). This was to be our starting point. The blog told us, we had to walk back by the road about 2kms to find a temple.
We set out form the hotel, with torches in our hand and flashing it up all along the road, we moved towards the destination… a bridge to be more specific from where we could get to the station. We waked around a couple of kms from the hotel and spotted another small hotel beside the road… we continued on the road side to reach a small falls… we got down to feel how the water was in there – shivering cold… eee….
We then resumed our walk by the road side… we just took note of the distance we had covered, it was around 4 kms so we thought we might have lost the critical turn, it would be better we ask for some guidance… so we walked back to the small hotel that we had noticed. There was no power in there, just some candle light and we got in to have our second cup of tea/coffee.
He told us that we were on the right track, just that you had to go a bit further from the point were we decided to return, we took a break of around half an hour here and then decided to continue our search, we got to a small temple first after retracing along the highway. We just went a bit further as directed by the hotel owner and we got a mud road, we continued on but that road seemed to go to an estate, so we got back to the temple and two of us decided that we would go a bit further, check if we had some way to reach the rail track a bit further down the road.. We got a bit further spotted an asphalted road that would take us to the railway track, we got back to inform the others,… All of us got back to the road and decided to have a small nap before we would continue the trek early morning the next day.
At around 5:30 am, just waited for the light to improve, so that we could start off on the trek. We started off at around 6:15 when the light was sufficiently good so that we could spot the rails clearly. A small distance ahead we came across the first bridge, it was my first experience crossing a bridge, I think I had a small problem with heights so chose to cross them slowly and cautiously. Once we crossed the bridge, I gained in confidence and then rest of the journey was not much of the problem. We got down in to the stream that flowed below the bridge, did freshen up a bit; then we got back to the track. We continued on the rail road, some time later, we found the sun making its presence for the day. We were quick to click a couple of pictures and then continued on the track. It was a very nice experience with the morning due just subsiding, the sunlight cutting through the mountains and then getting to the rail track, occasionally spotting other trekkers, who were in a hurry to finish the trek.
We continued at our own pace and reached the first common rest place of trekkers, it was beside an old junction room if I am right, A stream flows wide at this point and it looks too neat…think there was some construction work as well at that point of time. We decided to continue a bit further, we notices a net covering the slope of the mountain… typically done to prevent the mud slide down to the track during rains, on the opposite side it was a boulder that was cut through to make the rail line. We tried our hand on some Spiderman like stunts, and then picked up a few snaps of the place. We continued on the track further, we got to meet the first tunnel… this was one of the smallest tunnels that we would get along the trek. Just after the 1st tunnel we get an opening, we have a small opening in the thick bush cover on the right side, we had been informed by PJ that in between the 2nd and third tunnel we could spot a falls, and may be we could get down to the falls immediately after the first tunnel. Through the small opening we got down and reached the stream, a small walk upstream from the point we reached the falls, it was a nice one to visit, not many people come down to watch this falls, so its neat…. Some of us got down to have some fun in the water, while I decided to take a nap on the rock side… after an hour of rest we decided to continue on the trek… we completed our breakfast at the same point and then got back to the rail road…
Then there was nothing much along the route, it was more of a repetition of the scenic beauty. I for one felt bored by the same repetitive… it was more of the stoned track the killed my interest, I had not got along shoes and was trekking with my leather sandals so it was making it all the more painful. Well all that aside…
We continued on the journey after the first tunnel….a couple of tunnels and then we were again on some nice clear railroad… Think that spot might have been used for filming some time. Just a bit further and then we decided to take a break again, this time to do some good photography, a neat job by some of our team members... and then we continued on the trek… A nice trek along the railroad with the stream flowing along side… the birds singing their morning raga’s to entertain the trekkers, I felt like paradise in those morning hours… We continued on the trek, initially it was nice to take note of a lot of scenery, along side the track, some nice cool breeze, the walk through the dark tunnels and then back on to the rail road occasionally encounter a bridge over some stream, It began to bore me after some time… The sun increasing the heat was just adding to the already bore trek (personally).
We continued on the same lines and the only enjoying part for me was the small falls all along the route… it was around 11am when we decided to take a small rest along the road, that’s when we heard the rail blow a horn; We were surprised to hear it, as it was unexpected. As the horn got closer, we were on the on look with high curiosity, it turned out to be a goods train to transport the rail roads for the gauge widening that was being done… The train passed bye and we crossed another bridge, we decided to take a break for our lunch here. An hours break and then we decided to continue the trek. Our team slowly started to feel the heat and we broke down into groups, I was in the lead and in a bit of hurry coz I had to reach Udupi by 8:30pm.
We all gathered just before a huge repair site along the route, I transferred the food packets to the group which I had carried till then on my back and just collected some chocolates and a water can to continue ahead….
From now on it was a lone trek for me at my own pace, I was quick when I felt like and moderate when I felt tired, the only point that was in my mind was reaching Edakumeri at the earliest. My deadline for it was 4pm.
Along the route, I encountered the first longest bridge, It was more that 400 mts in length and much taller than the others that I had seen earlier, I could spot a lot of trekkers along the route, who had broken up to have their lunch and enjoy some time in the stream, I just stood there to pick up a few snaps and then continued on with my journey, it was quite nice doin this part of the trek all alone, I could devout as much time as I wanted where I wanted. A bit further I got to be in the longest tunnel of the journey to Edakumeri, all along the tunnel it was pitch dark, could not see the other end of it, water dripped through the roof of the tunnel. Bats would occasionally fly across, the tunnel was almost empty and I could hear my footsteps and the echo that it generated… All I had was a torch that was to take me through the dark tunnel. Just as I crossed a couple more tunnels, I met the train driver who was busy getting the rails down beside the track to get them replaced. I asked the distance to Edakumeri station... he told it would take at least an hour to reach there, its around 4 kms from there, It was already around 3:20 and I wanted to reach Edakumeri at the earliest. I decided I would not waste time picking snaps and just concentrate on walking quicker to the station. Another 30 min of walk and I found a small stream, may be a falls, just met a an old guy here and enquired about Edakumeri, he told its jut five minutes away, this got more enthusiasm into me to get to the station…
Edakumeri station is an old station… I could spot an old radio station may be used to get information from else where about the trains reaching on time, some problems and things like that… I just sat down for about 5 minutes, before asking directions to reach the NH.
Some one showed me a small mud path down the forest and told me, you will find a stream, cross over the stream and you will reach a road, just go by the road and then u will reach another river… cross it and you will get to the NH. I followed the direction and reached the small stream in no time, reached the mud road, it was nice fun, I got meet this road at a bifurcation, one going uphill and the other down hill, I chose the down hill one… just that I could spot some shoe trails on the sod, It was nice guess but a right one… around 10min down an I could spot the river and the NH beside it. I found a couple of trekkers who were crossing over the river – KempuHole.
I too joined them in crossing over... they were to reach
From Dharmasthala I caught a bus to Beltangadi, then another one from Beltangadi to Karkal, it was around 7pm and had a nice nap in these buses, my bus to Udupi was at 7:25 having missed the earlier one by 5 min, It took around an hour to reach Udupi, and I had a nice nap in it as wellJ. Finally I had reached Udupi,
It was real experience truing to keep up the time… will remember it for a long time to come no doubt about it.
1 comment:
You wrote a great article about the green line
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