Trek dates: 10-11 March 2007
After the successful 1 day treks at Kondaveedu and Venkatayyapalem, this time, the mood of the team is to have a 2-day trek. As this needed more planning and preparation, Ravi143, Sridhar334 and Basu424 increased the team size to 6 by including Kumar373, Rajiv342 and Shiv597. As the Kondaveedu terrain is known, the team decided to spend the weekend at Kondaveedu. Kumar and Ravi are busy involved in getting the required equipment. Shiv was taking care of the safety needs. Sridhar was assigned about the Food where as Basu and Rajiv are planning the detailed route.
Everybody left office by 17:00 hrs on Friday to complete the last minute purchases only to meet each other at 20:30 to catch Delta Fast Passenger at Secunderabad the train to Guntur. As Sridhar reached by 20:40, the train is not placed on the platform and he started searching for the other members of the team, suddenly he realized that the train is strolling on to platform 4. He quickly ran to coach S5 and took the place waiting for the rest of the team. To his pleasant surprise, basu voiced his name and the team greeted each other and exchanged pleasantries.
Before the train reached Maulali, the complete team (except for Sridhar) had their dinner. As the train started at 21:00 hrs, it took its dinner at Maulali. After the busy trains Goutami and Nizamuddin Express whistled past, the delta fast passenger took its stride towards Guntur. As some of the members took a quick rest, Shiv, Basu and Kumar were chatting. At 4:00 AM, Sridhar woke up and to his surprise found the TT waking up all the members who are destined to get down at Guntur. Thanks to Lalu’s initiatives the Railways have become a better place. The team quickly packed their bags and got ready to alight at Guntur.
As the train stopped at Guntur, everybody got down and quickly completed the morning routine and were ready to leave only to find out that Shiv was missing. As Dr. Martin Cooper’s invention (Mobile Phone) has helpful to trace him, he was having his morning walk, after he joined the rest, everybody started towards Bus Stand. After having a quick breakfast at Siri Tiffins (our breakfast point in the earlier trek as well), we packed our lunch in the form of Idlis, re-packed our backpacks with water (4 lts for each member), biscuits, chocolates, chewing gum, etc., and took the bus to Phirangipuram. Before we boarded the bus, we quickly measured the weight of the luggage each of us is carrying in the backpacks (@12.5 Kg’s average). We also weighed each of us for statistics before and after the trek. As the bus reached Phirangipuram, we quickly found an Auto to drop us at the foothill of the Kondaveedu range.
As the mountain and the trekkers are aware of each other, little did the mountain knew about the adventurists plans this weekend nor did the trekkers knew about the eastern side terrain of the mountain. The team started the trek at 7:30 AM, at the foot hill and the six started with a 300 meter walk towards the Kondaveedu Fort Hill (1st hill). As the team started climbing, with the heavy backpacks, everybody needed a break at half-way into the climb as some of the members are refreshing the cool breeze, Shiv picked up the juice to refresh and Rajiv the water bottle. Rajiv quickly changed to casual wear, as his Jeans were not allowing a free climb. As we reached the top of the Fort Hill, took a quick break to regroup our energy. As we are taking the break, the Spy monkey (SM) arrived. First playing hide and seek so that we do not notice it. Once the SM knew that we have noticed him, he took a vantage point right above Sridhar and scanning our luggage for free meal. As we did not unpack our luggage, he did not get a clue. He quickly ran away into the bushes. After a while Sridhar, Ravi and Rajiv setoff towards the deviation point (a designated place where a deviation must be taken from the first trek route), Shiv and Kumar went up the fort ruins to get an aerial view of the Fort Hill Top. Basu accompanied them so that we do not loose track. Sridhar explained the three water loggings found enroute and mapped them to the aerial maps taken. Rajiv quickly mapped the distances between them to the map to get a gut feeling about the distances he has planned earlier. As the maps were being digested, Ravi quickly got up a monolithic rock to get another view point (he missed this during our earlier trek). From here, he could see the Spy monkeys running around. In the meanwhile Basu, Shiv and Kumar joined and the complete team set out towards the deviation point.
After crossing the third pool, we moved under the shrubs for 30 mts and quickly found a vantage point to our left. As Sridhar and Rajiv reached this point, they found as if this was visited before quickly Rajiv voiced for Basu and he joined them. As the view from this point is being studied, Rajiv and Basu realized that this is nothing but R751 in the map. Now the path are being chalked out to reach B1052. As they found a path H2P1 (Hill 2 Path 1) at a distance, they decided to reach H2P1 and then cross the hill range in the vicinity before camping for the night. The team picked up couple of spots D1BL1 (Day 1 Before Lunch 1) and D1BL2 (Day 1 Before Lunch 2) in between and keeping them as reference to reach H2P1. The rest of the team members in the meanwhile are enjoying the nature and capturing the same in the camera. The team regrouped and everybody is appraised about the path being taken and everybody started walking towards D1BL1. As we took a few steps towards D1BL1, we found another small rock that gave a clear view of D1BL1. As we were progressing in the right direction and the destination in sight, we quickly reached D1BL1. Now the time is 10:00 AM.
Now we have to reach D1BL2 (a point between two small peaks) so that we can find our way towards the path viewed from R751. From here, we could not find any easy path. As Basu and Ravi were exploring the path of taking the walk towards the rocks leading to one of the peak, Sridhar was of the impression that the opposite direction will take us between the peaks. The teams started exploring the options, Sridhar walked and found a path which is thorny as he walked for 5 minutes he was convinced that this path will lead us between the peaks. In the mean time, Basu, Ravi, Kumar, Rajiv and Shiv were even exploring alternates to reach the path avoiding D1BL2. As we spent nearly 30 minutes here exploring the options, the team was tired as the sun started showing its power. The team discussed and a call was made to move in the direction investigated by Sridhar. After travelling this path for 5 minutes, we almost reached a dead end. As Ravi and Shiv started exploring a small path, Basu and Rajiv were exploring through the bushes. Basu was using the sickle and the knife to the maximum extent making the path and Rajiv following him. The big fat sticks picked up by the members were very helpful in clearing some of the thorns. ( Ravi / Shiv …) Ravi shouted after a while that he made a navigable path for us, quickly all of us followed him. As the team moved slowly from here, we found a 7 feet rock to be slide down. (Gyan Session 1 …) Though this rock was slippery, everyone managed to slide down safely.
Now we are in deep bushes encircling us and we had to use the compass to find the direction to move. The bushes were actually saving us from the heat. As we moved with care on the dry leaves, we were constantly checking the direction under the pathfinder for this stretch, Kumar. When walking under this huge umbrella, we travessed the peaks and now had a clearer view of H2P1 but still a distance away. Now, Kumar and Shiv started exploring the path and they reached another vantage point between D1BL2 and H2P1. As they could find a path from this vantage point as well, the team followed them. After traveling a little distance down hill, we are stuck as the path we are navigating is closed. Ravi and Basu now started taking the lead in exploring alternates paths. As the path navigated by Basu and Ravi was tangential towards the direction of current path is going in the same direction as H2P1 which is at a gradient, we have to climb up the hill to reach H2P1. Kumar and Sridhar thought of crawling along the original path that seemed closed. Sridhar and Kumar crawled through the path and further exploration lead to a flat place nearer to H2P1 that was observed from R751. They quickly retreated; collected the team and all of them successfully came out of the deep bushes.
Shiv, Ravi and Sridhar explored the route from here towards H2P1. As they found a place that had little more shade, they decided to have lunch here. As they retreated to move ahead with the team, Kumar informed that Rajiv and Basu have gone in search of Rajiv’s mobile. Soon Ravi and Sridhar also joined the pack and started searching for the mobile. The path was retraced for 15 minutes. As the path was covered with dry leaves, it was difficult to trace the mobile. After searching for 30mts, the team gave up and team united to move towards the designated lunch spot. The packed idli’s filled the hunger but it was the lime juice prepared by Sridhar and the glucose that gave the required energy to the team.
Now, H2P1 was a stone throw distance away, but no sight of any path. Ravi, Basu and Kumar decided to make a path through the bushes. The objective was that the other 3 members would join after making a path for 30 meters. Rajiv was guiding the path makers towards H2P1. After cutting through the bushes for nearly an hour, Ravi, Basu and Kumar returned in a tired state. A quick rest was taken till the 3 path makers are ready for the move. As the path makers lead the rest in the newly created path, suddenly Ravi realized that there is an alternate route to reach H2P1 that is shorter than the path they just made for the rest. And all of us started moving on this route. Shiv was leading the team at the right pace that none of the members even felt like taking any rest and we have covered a huge distance in an hour. During this trek, we found the porcupine spikes, looks like the porcupine had shred off all its spikes here in its defense. After walking for nearly 1 hour the team took a quick break to have the cucumbers which were very refreshing. The lime juice taken after lunch was refreshing but did not quench the thirst. The cucumbers taken now did quench the thirst and made the body feel cooler. Shiv lead us from here keeping the same pace and we moved quickly and were crossing the second mountain. Rajiv and Basu informed the team that “I like this spot”, our designated dwelling place for the night must be just over the peak. So, we decided to climb the peak K2-1059 and then decide on the path towards “I like this spot”. Rajiv, Basu and Ravi quickly started moving towards K2-1059 everybody started following them. The climb became difficult as we started reaching the peak. Basu and Rajiv decided that it would be difficult for everybody to reach the peak. So, we abandoned the climb towards K2-1059 and decided to move around the hill and find a place to sleep. Sridhar, Rajiv and Shiv now went on a search of the route and quickly a navigable path was found. As Sridhar and Rajiv had left their backpacks with the other team members, they requested Shiv to stay at a X roads. This will be helpful to retrace the path and Sridhar and Rajiv can move quickly along the path. As they walked briskly for nearly 10 minutes, they found a flat place that can be used as the dwelling place. They immediately returned and the team reached the dwelling place by 16:30 hrs.
The dwelling place was an excellent viewpoint. From here, we were able to view the cotton mill of Thummalapalem towards south east, to the south stood a huge peak, towards south west, we could find Boyapalem at a distance. The Vallies in the South West and South East are providing cool breeze with natural cooling. The remaining directions are filled with peaks. As the team wanted to gear up for the dinner, they wanted to spend some time relaxing. Ravi quickly found out couple of big rocks each big enough to take the complete team. Sridhar, Basu and Shiv were exploring if there are any alternate places to dwell. They traveled along the same path (towards south east) and found that the current place is the best in the vicinity to take rest for the night. Now the team relaxed on the big rocks for 30 minutes, a well deserved rest. After the rest, the team quickly started preparations for the night.
Rajiv and Kumar collected the firewood in the vicinity and started pitching the tents here by cleaning up the stones. Shiv quickly found a better place which is towards the North which is away from the path, a clear area all around, on the rocks, giving a good view of 180 degrees and an ideal place to dwell in any trek. Everybody thanked Shiv and the luggage was moved quickly to this place. Rajiv and Kumar started camping the mosquito nets in the new place. At the same time, Basu and Sridhar went in search of firewood by retracing the path. Sridhar and Basu quickly returned with their handfuls. The firewood was very dry and will burn out very quickly so we needed huge firewood to burn the complete night. We could not find any logs as well. In the meanwhile Kumar and Rajiv were exploring about the options to camp the mosquito nets. There were two small trees on the northwest and all the other directions are open. The challenge was to tie 2 mosquito nets. They quickly tied both the nets together which left them to tie 3 supports on either side to keep the nets stable. The winds are blowing at a high speed and we wanted the nets to be stable through out the night. There were trees on one side, but the ropes cannot be tied here as the tree branches are swinging to the strong breeze coming from the South East and South West are disturbing the balance of the nets. So, the ropes were taken over the trees and tied to the stones so that the disturbance is minimal. Then came up the idea of planting a pole on the rocks on one side and tying all the supports on one side to this pole. Imagine planting a pole on a hard rock, the team struggled to plant the pole and finally it was planted at an angle “/” so that it will be stable. As we cannot make a hole to plant the pole, we created supports to the pole so that it is able to stand on the rock and withstand the heavy breeze comming in different directions. Now we tied all the three ropes to this pole and the nets stood. A huge sigh of relief and a satisfaction of achievement as the support to the pole were strong enough.
As it was getting dark (6:30 PM), the preparations were on for dinner. Sridhar quickly made a salad with the cucumber, onions, carrots, chillies and lime; Shiv made soup for the team. The packed chapati’s brought from Hyderabad along with Jam and Pickles served the dinner for everybody. It was dark by 7:00 PM as the visibility reduced to near zero. The firewood brought for the campfire was quickly consumed as the wood was very dry and the good breeze did not give us a chance to re-ignite the fire. Everybody was in the nets by 7:30 PM to take a deserved rest. It was decided that we are going to have a night out. Keeping guard of the remaining team members. Rajiv, Ravi and Shiv took the tent facing South (looking down hill) where as Sridhar, Basu and Kumar took the other tent facing North (looking up hill).
The activity is splitted into shifts and the first shift is up to 11:00 being taken care by Rajiv and Sridhar. It was pitch dark and pin drop silence. The only disturbance we had been the swinging of the branches and the dropping of the leaves onto the ground. The occasional screaming of the monkeys was music to keep us awake. We also heard the tyre sound of the vehicles running on the highway only to remind us how pollution (sound) free the environment was. Rajiv and Sridhar were pinging each other every 10-15 minutes just to make sure that both are awake. Whenever there was a small sound both the members used to coordinate to find out what the sound was. It was around 10:00 PM when Sridhar heard a sound coming from the west and he could not see anything out as the view had to pass through 3 layers of the nets. He quickly whispered for Rajiv and there was no response. He quickly woke up Basu and they are inquisitive to find out what the noise is all about. And as the noise is heard again, Sridhar shouted to shoo away the animals (thinking so). In the mean while Rajiv saw a white shape at a distance and was shocked for a minute just trying to see what the figure is all about. He was also surprised at the shout of Sridhar and quickly flashed his torch on the figure. Ravi also woke up for the shout and everyone was attentive. As the torches flashed on the images seen at a distance, they started running only for the team to identify that they are cows. The team was relaxed from the shock of the unexpected visitors. Looks like the visitors are also equally surprised to see someone occupying their dwelling area.
Ravi and Basu took charge of the duty from 11:00 PM to 1:00 AM and when the handover is being given to Shiv and Kumar, Shiv was surprised at the unplanned event, but he agreed with the team to take his shift from 1:00 AM to 4:00 AM. As Rajiv and Sridhar resumed their duty from 4:00 AM Sridhar heard a voice at 5:00 AM. This time he quickly calculated as if someone is at this place at 5:00 AM, then they would have started their climb at 1:00 AM or so. And in that case who will be travelling at such an emergency? All these thoughts/doubts were cleared when Rajiv said that the voice heard was from the loud speakers at the nearby village which were audible the previous day night as well.
As everybody woke up in the morning and completing their routines, packed the entire luggage and had the “Saffy” rotis for the breakfast along with pickle and jam. Everybody checked their food items for the rest of the trek. Some of the members were trying to reduce their weight by consuming some of the food items and some were conserving them for the rest of the trek. The most valuable item was the amount of water each person had. The team started the trek slowly at 8:30 AM thinking that they will be reaching back Guntur much before dusk.
As the team started their descent after nearly 30 minutes of walking, we found “I like this spot”. Much to the satisfaction of Rajiv and Basu just to know how precise the team was in planning and execution of the path towards the destination. This has brought more confidence into all the team members and the voice echoed that we would be reaching Guntur early. Some people voiced about reaching Guntur by Lunch time. Not a bad idea in fact. After traveling for 15 more minutes, we reached a dead end. As Ravi and Sridhar started exploring the path through the bushes in the valley, Kumar and Basu were looking at other alternatives. Sridhar and Ravi found that the path through the valley is tough and it will be tough to make a route here. So they were trying to find out if there is any rivulet to climb the next hill and look for a path from there. Kumar and Basu found one along the same hill. As the path found by Kumar and Basu looked realistic, every body joined the team and traveling for nearly 15 minutes, we faced a huge boulder and the boulder was along the valley which Sridhar and Ravi found earlier. Ravi and Basu set out to explore the boulder and possible paths. Quickly Sridhar also joined them. As the team walked across the boulder, they realized that getting down into the valley is difficult. Alternates of getting down into the valley along the boulder were explored. There were couple of places where the explorers could get into the valley but walking along the valley seemed difficult. At the top of the boulder (D2BL1), there seemed to be a distant path that will lead us out towards the spin mill at Thummalapalem. Now the plan is to take the team to D2BL1 and then explore the alternatives. Basu, Sridhar and Ravi returned back to the team and explained the further course of action. The team need to walk along this boulder, everyone struggled to climb this boulder as it was very steep and the with the back packs it was a balancing act. Rajiv took an alternate path round the rock but got struck in the shrubs growing in the rock cravasse. Kumar tried to climb the rock but slipped, he also took the path in which Rajiv went. Basu gave his backpack to Ravi and walked along the rock and joined the team at a distance. Now the team started moving towards D2BL1 (Gyan Session 2)
As the team reached D2BL1, the spin mills of Thummalapalem were visible towards the East and the path (H3P1) is also traveling in the same direction. From here, we had three alternatives. First option is to get down into the valley along the boulder and then make path through the valley. The second was to find a path from the end of the boulder and get down the hill. The third option was to climb up towards the next hill and and get down towards the H3P1. Ravi and Shiv started exploring the second option and found too many thorns in the beginning. After clearing the thorns, they found couple of boulders and after crossing them, they could not find any path, but only shrubs and the complete floor is covered with dry leaves. They returned and shared the experience. Now, Basu and Ravi went to explore the path along the first option. In the mean time, Sridhar, Rajiv and Shiv started exploring second path further. As they started cutting the creepers and moving down, they realized that the path is difficult to navigate. After exploring for nearly 30 minutes they found themselves at the foothill, but still a valley to cross. In the mean time, Ravi tried the third option and got lost in the thick bushes. He retreated back and his earlier experience with Basu that the first option is not possible made every body fingers crossed for the feedback to be brought back by Sridhar, Rajiv and Shiv. As they brought back the good news, everybody was relaxed.
As the team started moving along the second option, barely 25 meters into the path, the complete team was lost! Sridhar, Rajiv and Shiv started discussing about the path to be taken. It is only then that they realized the path in which they went down is different from the one they came up and now they are in a different route! As the team had a sense of direction, they started exploring a new path and were walking along the hill without any gradient. This path was moving in the direction of South. After walking for nearly 30 minutes, they found a huge boulder which gave another vantage point and from there a small path was visible much to the delight of everybody. From here they found smoke at a distance indicating that some body was there and a good point of reference. So, the team started walking towards the smoke which is in the direction of the Spinning mills.
The team, slowly started walking along the path and were a bit confident that the path will lead them out. The only doubt they had was about the crossroads. As they briskly walked along this path, they found couple of wood cutters who came to collect firewood. With the help of the wood cutters, Sridhar was able to get the direction in which they need to travel. But the wood cutters were not very helpful. With the available information, the team moved quickly knowing that the destination to catch the bus to Guntur is another 3 Km away. Once we are in the valley where the wood cutters are found, we came to know that this is a commonly visited path and we will not have any difficulty in reaching the destination. As we walked for a while found couple of bicycles on the road side. This put us the confidence that the tyre marks will help us reach the village. We took a break after walking nearly 2KM and then refreshed ourselves with Oranges and rationed water from Sridhar. As we are about to reach the village a voice was heard requesting for water. As we desparately needed water, we went to the fields and the farmers (Ranga Rao Gowda with his co-farmers) are more than willing to offer us what little they had. We took water and also helped them with the chocos, biscuits we had. The villagers were surprised that there exists a route between Kondaveedu and Thummalapalem. As we reached the busstand, there was a small canteen to help us with food. All of us at once requested for Butter milk and drank to the thirst. We took the bus to Guntur which dropped us at 14:00 hrs.
As we decided earlier, we measured the weights of each of us and to the surprise most of us lost good amounts. Ravi 6.5, Sridhar 2.5, Kumar 2.5, Rajiv 1.5, Shiv 0.5 and Basu 0.0 (thanks mainly to the 7 glasses of water and 5 packets of butter milk he had).
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). No sooner had I registered than I fell ill with just two weeks to go for the trek! Fear began to creep into me, and I wondered at one point whether to cancel the trek. Luckily, I recovered in time.