On a trek to Yetthinabuja

The idea of going to Yetthinabuja first occurred when we were in a park near
my friend's house, where we usually hold our casual talks. Chetan first came up with the idea as usual, as he’s is the one who is most informative about things related to trekking, traveling and other happenings.

On hearing this absurd name for the first time, I enquired him about the place, overcoming from my curiosity, to that he replied that it was a place near Dhramsthala and also that the peak had a shape of the hump of an ox (Kannada: Yetthu- ox, Buja - shoulders) and to reach the peak we had to go through forests where wild animals roamed about. On hearing this I dismissed the plan of going there due to several reasons namely,
1) It was the first time I was going on a trek
2) The place we had planned was not famous and it was a remote place so you can’t expect many people over there
3) The animal factor was the most important one, "I thought why take risks unnecessarily??”

The topic ended there with Chetan enthusiastically bouncing  around with his idea and Rajath and Hebbar with neutral consent as usual.
The plan did not find any further progress as we were better off to prepare for our exams which was a month away

December 26th - 2009

Our 3rd semester exams had finished completely though I didn’t have the confidence of writing these for the last time. I left the pain, anxiety, restlessness & tension  in the exam hall, only to retain it back a month later while anticipating the result.
That day we discussed the schedule for  our trip, the final candidates being Karthik, Rajath, Chetan, Navajeevan, Arjun and yours truly.


December 29th - 8pm

Navajeevan, Karthik and I with a hefty baggage and a litre of petrol left from DG Bunk and regrouped with the other guys namely Chetan, Rajath and Arjun  at the Majestic bus stand where we boarded the bus to Dharmastala at around 10 pm

December 30th - 5:30am

On our way in the bus, I was woke up early in the morning by a sudden quivering object in my pants. On feeling it, I picked up my mobile only to be shocked in awe to hear the news of  the sudden demise of our Sahasa Shima Vishnuvardhan. By this time apart from Karthik all were awake and were enthusiastically peeping out of the windows sunlight was getting brighter with each passing minute and the surroundings were slowly being visible and the place was beautiful with a thick canopy of bushes and trees nothing could be seen beyond the trees of the charmudi ghats and the place virtually had no inhabitants with a very few shops here and there

December 30th - 7:00am

We got down at Kukadu about 20 kms from Dhramsthala and hired an auto to take us to the foothills where we could start our journey.
During the drive we asked the auto driver about the place, strangely in spite of being a localite he hadn’t been to that place even once and had a very little knowledge to offer to us though he told us about the animals we may have to encounter during our trek some of which were animals like Tiger, Bear, Wolves etc which made us terrified.......................

End of Part 1

PART 2
.
DECEMBER 30th – 8AM

The auto guy helped us find a guide and our journey started from the foothills of the peak.
Our guide was a slender and dark complexion village man maybe around 50 years. He was quite a decent and self-contained man who answered only to the questions asked to him. We fondly used to address him as "yajamanre" (Kannada:owner). Yajmanru led the way for us , we were quite dreary at the beginning of the journey itself, I had brought a huge bag which weighed around 15 kg and it was the main cause of my tiredness. After we walked for half an hour we stopped by the river to have our breakfast. I had a heavy breakfast with pulav and cucumbers while the others fancied by eating bread, chocolates and other (unhealthy) things. While having our breakfast we met upon two other guys from Bangalore, they didn’t wait for us and went on their way. After eating we set out again, this time the route was a bit difficult as we were going uphill. On the way we came across a waterfall, by this time we had not even covered 1% of our journey and we were all exhausted except Yajamanru. Further, the path was still tough and many of us couldn’t catch up with the guide and  Rajath was way back walking lethargically, we took break for every five min, and at that time I had a feeling that trekking was not for us. By the time we reached half of the journey the enthusiasm of the boys had lowered down and occasionally Arjun was making some testy noises when he saw some beautiful scenes, and the others joined him in chorus.

The path after midway was quite dangerous with swiveling rocks on one side and a deep drop on the other side, one slip could lead you directly to death, we carefully managed to walk. Now the journey seemed a bit enjoyable as our big pointy destination was right ahead of us.

AROUND 3:30 PM

With great difficulty we climbed to the top of the mountain. We were very happy and at that moment we had a feeling that we had done a great feat in our lives. The sight from the top was very beautiful, it was a very scenic place, it was my first and a very scintillating experience. It appeared as if the huge rocky mountains was draped in a blanket of trees. There was a lot of fog cover over the mountains and at times it became so dense that, ‘’It suddenly appeared as though the mountains which were exhibiting their beauty had suddenly disappeared and when the fog was blown away by winds it appeared as if the mountains has been washed away thoroughly by someone”.

We had our lunch at sisila (peak) and started preparing the tent, the two other boys we had met before while we were having breakfast had finished their trek and were heading to another place.

We cleaned the surface and placed the tarpole right next to the forest. The climate was very humid and there was a fear in our minds that it would rain tonight, and if at all it rains we’ll be washed away for sure and there would be nobody to even claim our bodies.

AROUND 5:45PM 

Light was slowly fading as the sun was setting, and the sky was full of clouds, we were shocked to see the clouds, and with a heavy heart we started preparing for the night. We collected twigs and branches for a camp fire. As it was getting darker our fear grew, now we were not only worried about the rain but also about the wild animals. We thought of collecting as much logs as possible so that we can have the camp fire for the whole night so that we can get a good night’s sleep and without the fear of wild animals attacking our camp .The main reason we were afraid of all these factors was because of the fact that we had no tents and the rain could pretty much wreak havoc on us with no shelter.
At around dusk we lit the logs soaked in petrol, suddenly the fire engulfed the logs with a bright glare and diminished with the same intensity it came. Somehow we got the flame controlled to certain level while suddenly all our hopes dashed to the wall, and the worst happened, it started drizzling.


End of Part 2 

Part-3

The clouds seemed to like the attention it was getting and it appeared as though it was playing hide and seek with us, as the sky would be full clear at one point and full of clouds at the other point of time.
But at last it started raining at 7o clock. Our brains went blank at this horrendous situation we were left with no other option but to pray god to stop the rain as the fire we had just lit was slowly diminishing. God seemed to have heard our prayers and the rain stopped after 15 minutes of downpour damping all our accessories required for a sound sleep as well as the logs and twigs we had collected for the campfire.

Around 9PM

 The fire had completely diminished along with our hopes of having a sound sleep. The tarpole was completely damp and we had to sleep on it. Chetan and Arjun seemed afraid of an impending danger of an encounter with an animal; in a state of fear Chetan eyes saw imaginary animals appearing towards him making imaginary sounds. Seeing our gang leader in this plight we were quite shaken.
At around 9:30 – Navajeevan had blissfully gone to sleep while Karthik and Rajath seemed calm and we all went to sleep. The night seemed very long to me as I couldn’t sleep properly as the tiny rocks would poke your back causing utmost irritation especially when you are trying to rest your tired body after 12 km of uphill scale and to add to our woes the tarpole along with our shoes clothes and our blanket were all damp and if we leave all these factors there was this boda (rajath) who was shivering like a machine gun beside me. I couldn’t sleep till 2o clock and the case was the same with Chetan and Arjun as well, at last I overcame with my fear anxiety and went to sleep.

All of a sudden there was huge commotion as my friends started to shout at the top of our voice. I was shocked hearing this as I saw that my worst fear had come true and there were two bears at a distance of 100ft from us. We had never planned what to do in this situation and were confused and the fear gripped our heart and body and we were not able to move  and our throats went dry and it almost choked as we tried to shout further when suddenly Chetan tried to run away from us. Seeing him run (like the chicken he is) two other guys ran  and suddenly we were distributed in different directions into the forest. We couldn’t see anything in front of us, and I was running like hell and  fell into a pit and became unconscious when I heard someone pushing me and calling my name.

Deekshith Deekshith!! Uh yen maga; this is how I got up from my nightmare by tensed chetan as he asked me to check out whether the skies were clear. He could have done it himself  but thank god he woke me up to do it ;)

From 4:30 Chetan almost functioned like a snooze app in a mobile disturbing me every 20 minutes just to check the skies and also to see if sunlight was appearing.

Finally, at around 5:30 there was a faint light that was appearing and were glad that it was morning and that morning was the most prominent thing in my life as we had to wait for it for so long.

At around 5:50 the sun started to come out from the mountains in a fresh clean form, cleansed by the ocean (which we assumed in our younger days but it really seemed like that in that clean and green environment which made me wonder if scientists made a mistake while seeing through their telescope as they may have never witnessed anything like this)

We reach the top spot of the mountain with our cameras while the sun slowly rose above the horizon greeting us with a bright glare of light which filled us with enormous joy in our hearts.
 We were very ecstatic and the bright light brightened up our moment and boosted our confidence, no wonder we realized that sun was a prime god in many parts of the world.
We took some great photos of the sunrise, the forest looked very fresh and beautiful, and there was dew on the grass which seemed like diamonds strewn all over the place. We felt very happy and started preparing for our journey downwards.

At 8:30AM 

We had our breakfast and were ready to go down but we were exactly not sure of the way down when suddenly Yajmanru appeared to the scene as our savior, he lead the way for us, The way down was very narrow and the distance was very less and was very easy, we walked all the way till we came upon a village bus stop we had almost reached the other side of the mountain we had climbed. At the start of our trek at Sisila, Dhramsthala was about 8 km, but from this place it was about 87 kms.
At the village we boarded a bus to Dhramsthala and thereby ended our trekking drama by seeking divine blessings of Dhramsthala Manjunatha