Somebody described the Green Route as a haven for trekkers and I couldn't agree more. The Green route trek has been in my 'to-do' list for a pretty long time, but somehow it was put on the backburner. But then, a long weekend and the urge to get my creative juices flowing through photography egged me on, and that's when Vadi and I started seriously contemplating on undertaking the trek. We started on doing our homework by going through blogs on the web and to ourdismay, discovered that the railway line was converted to broad gauge and rail services were active on the line. Apparently, we didn't want to run into a train when we were on a bridge or in a tunnel and so the thought of dropping the plan again cropped up. Meanwhile we heard from a group of trekkers that they were planning on the Green route trek and adjudicated that we wait for their report. Based on the reports of the previous group, we finally decided to go for the Green route trek. Next came the tough job of convincing people to get on the trek because folks in the IT industry are a bunch of indolent blokes who prefer to have things done with a click! Subsequently after a lot of negotiations, the trek team was formed.. Vadi, Sakhib, Vicky, Vinod, Vasu, Sandeep and myself.
Thursday, 13th August, 2009
The team gathered at the bus stand to board the 2315 IST bus to Mangalore via Hassan. We enquired with the conductor regarding the place where we had to alight, but he had no clue about Manjarabad fort. Fortunately he was helpful to enquire from other bystanders and shop keepers and established that Manjarabad fort was approximately 2-3 kms from the Sakleshpur bus stand, at a hair pin bend near Hotel Picnic.
Friday, 14th August, 2009
With the help of the conductor, we were correctly able to identify the location and we alighted at Hotel Picnic at around 0430 IST. Out came our first round of snacks along with some piping hot coffee. A nosy cop enquired with us, as to our whereabouts and plans. Assuming that he would be helpful, we told him of our trek plans which were a misapprehension. On the contrary, he disparaged our trek plans and began rambling about happenings within his police limits. We were itching to get rid off that cop, but then we had to wait for sunrise. At the first ray of sunlight, we took a few snaps, and set out for the steep flight of steps leading to the Manjarabad Fort [apparently called so because of the thick shrouds of mist ('manju' in Kannada)]. A brief 15 minute climb and we were at the fort. The view from the top was amazing. The fort hadn’t opened, so had to skip going inside the fort. We posed for a few photographs along the perimeter walls of the fort and then came down to Hotel Picnic for our breakfast. Dosa and Idli for breakfast, and we had second helpings knowing very well that we had a long way to walk and lunch was perhaps 5-6 hours away.
We enquired with the owner of Hotel Picnic for directions towards the railway tracks. He gave us directions and we headed out at around 0845 IST along winding roads meandering through estates and farm lands. We were told to be on the lookout for 'Tourist Hotel' supposedly 2 kms away. At 'Tourist Hotel' we were again directed towards Bheemeshwari estate at an approximate distance some 300 metres where we had to take a beaten path on the right to get on to the tracks. Following the directions, we were overwhelmed on our first sighting of the railway track on which we had to walk the rest of the day. The sight of the endless tracks brought to my reminiscence, the lines of a poem written by Robert Frost; "..The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.” Our entry point onto the railway track was somewhere at the 47th km on the Hassan-Mangalore. Some 1 km into the trek, we encountered the first bridge. Excited, as we were, we posed for a few snaps and continued on towards Donigal some 2+ kms away. We had read some blog that trekking was illegal, so as we neared Donigal station, we were apprehensive that someone would question us. We decided that we would walk on inconspicuously. As it turned out, no one questioned us and we passed on through Donigal station. We had our first break at around 1030 IST just after Donigal station. We had hardly covered 3 kms in an hour! The going was slow and cumbersome as we had to either walk on the railway concrete sleepers or walk on the ballast. We chose the former for obvious reasons, but that was very annoying as we had to focus and look down to keep our next step. Reinvigorated by chocolates, we again started off with the determination and zest that we would do more than a '3km per hour'. Hardly into the next km, we had to stop again to treat bruised and blistered feet. Phew! It was still a long way to Yedakumaeri and to make matters worse, the sun started beating down as a sledge hammer on a waiting anvil. It was supposed to be a monsoon trek, but there was no sign of rain. We pressed on, taking short breaks in between and enjoying the greenery all around us, the birds chirping away in the trees, the gushing creeks and sights of distant mountains. The spectacular scenery were a photographers delight and Vadi, Vicky and me couldn’t ask for more. But soon we began to get miffed as there was no betterment in the weather and there was no sight of any tunnel either. But there was no stopping now, we had to press forward. We encountered a few gang-men doing repairs on the rails. We were again apprehensive at being questioned, but they only warned us of a soon coming train. And rightly, we heard the blast of the horn and soon the first of the freight trains chugged along past us, probably freighting iron ore from the ports of Mangalore to various parts of the nation. A gang-man advised us to have lunch near a stream and it was past 1230 IST and somewhere around the 55th km on the line that we stopped for lunch. A few of us had bath in the stream. We were famished and needed no chiding to have lunch.
It was almost 1400 IST by the time we were done with lunch. We were still some 11 kilometers away from Yedakumeri. A rough calculation, and we reckoned that we should reach Yedakumeri by 1830 IST, but only if we were to walk more than 4 kms to the hour. Again, with a strengthened resolve we set out and fortunately the sun shone less. Soon we had the first of the tunnels in our sight and this excited us. At the same time we were also filled with a sense of trepidation as the tunnels were dark, and perhaps had bats, snakes, scorpions and what not and maybe a train!! But no one spoke aloud their fear. Armed with torches we moved on. Inside the tunnels, it’s like being in an air-conditioned room with no lights. We passed through many more tunnels and bridges in the afternoon and the jungle around became denser, with waterfalls cascading over the sides and creeks gushing below the bridges. In one of the quarter kilometer long tunnels, an opening in the side lets you out into a view point of the valley. The view from this view point is simply spectacular, with tall hills and a creek flowing in the valley below. The sight reminded me of a Christian hymn: "..When thru' the woods, And forest glades I wander, And hear the birds sing, Sweetly in the trees. When I look down, From lofty mountain grandeur, And hear the brook, And feel the gentle breeze.... Then sings my soul......” Most of the bridges, except for one, had metal plates that make walking over them easier. Yet this is no place for an acrophobic. Mind you, folks who had been on the Green Route trek a few years back had to walk across the bridge on rotting, slippery wooden sleepers! We came across several freight trains and locomotives along the way, but none gave us any trouble.
Towards evening, the air became a lot thicker and soon it began to drizzle. We came across several places where landslides had ocurred recently. The tracks were slushy in these places making it difficult to walk and slowed us down. We still had about 7-8 kilometers to Yedakumeri. The prospect of reaching Yedakumeri before sunset seemed bleak. We decided to speed up a little, but there came a point where all of us were too tired and could move no further without energizing ourselves. So we stopped in one of the tunnels, for our evening snacks and that was when we encountered a train in the tunnel. We pressed against the wall of the tunnel, while the train thundered through with juddering wheels. Having ourselves replenished we set off trying to beat the sunset to Yedakumeri. I reckon this is the part of the trek where we all pushed ourselves really hard! It was on this stretch that we came across the longest bridge and the longest tunnel. The light was fast fading and the rain was coming down harder, but all of us reached the Yedakumeri station by 1900 IST. What a relief to our fatigued legs! By now, it was pouring, and there we sat on the railway platform, without any care in the world. The night was far too young, but we were worn down. We had the stove fired up and cooked ourselves the two minute food, Maggi and then before we knew, we were in our sleeping bags fast asleep.
Saturday, 15th August, 2009
The previous night, we had decided to catch the train to Subramaya, instead of continuing on the trek to Siribagilu. The station master promptly woke us up at 0400 IST and signaled down the train for us, somewhere around 0430. We bundled ourselves into the unreserved compartment, some of us standing, some of us sitting on the footboard of the bogie. As the morning eased in, we had wonderful view of the bridges, tunnels and the jungles as the train chugged through until we reached Subramanya. We caught a bus from Kukke Subramanya and reached Bangalore in the evening.
Beautiful is too soft a word to be used for a place like this it's harsh, in your face reality. But, no matter how difficult, the place has a character and an attitude of it's own. Making an urbanite feel how far we are from the reality...but is that the bigger reality?...I wonder.
