Atop Skandagiri

And there I was. In an unknown city, living amidst strangers, having no idea of what I was doing. I just wanted to do all that I had always wanted to do in my life. But as it happens sometimes, not always would things work for me.

My plan to go for an overnight Narayangiri trek had cancelled and I was very upset about it. I had done all the preparations: made sure that there was a right check on the list of items to be carried, figured out my travel and most importantly, completed the packing well in time. Just as I was returning home in anticipation of the amazing sunrise the next morning at Narayangiri, I saw that it was thundering and drizzling. By the time I entered my house I felt a thud in my heart. Was it going to rain heavily? Should I go for the trek? And then I said to myself... "Oh come on...You most certainly can. You are not alone. There will be many people in the group. And most importantly there will be guides to see to it that you are safe. So... Just chill!"

Just as I finished my self talk and motivated myself, my phone buzzed...

"Hello." I said.

"Hello Madam. We are calling from RGV trekkers.

" Hey hi! Tell me." I replied.

"Actually, the thing is that we have to cancel the trek today because of bad weather. We have received inputs from our coordinators at Narayangiri that it is raining very heavily there and it will be very risky to trek as the terrain would be very slippery.", The voice answered..

"Okay" I replied.

"You don't have to worry madam, you can avail the ticket for any other trip with us according to the next available dates." The person paused for me to reply.

I said, "Okay. Alright." and hung the phone.

Boy... I must say I was never so disappointed. A week passed and then I called at RGV to ask them if there was any trek scheduled and they told me to joint the group for their Skandagiri trek. Unlike Narayangiri which had a lake and an awesome sunrise view, Narayangiri was a rock climb. And I hate climbing. But I anyways decided to go for the trek. Don't know why? Really...

It was an overnight trek and the tour bus picked me at Esteem mall in Bangalore. From there it was a 70 km hour long ride and we reached the base camp at midnight. The guide explained to us that most trekking groups begin trekking around 2 am so that we can reach the mountain top around sunrise. Our group was irritated by the fact that we would have to wait for two long hours in the middle of nowhere. We were even forbidden from getting out of the bus as the surrounding area was a forest. So we all waited patiently. The only relief was the chilly weather which wasn't very extreme and thus enjoyable.

We started the ascend around 2.10 and I realized how steep the mountain is. It was extremely tiring, yet exciting. Every moment of it! After climbing for about two hours I felt a bit drained and took a small halt to sip some water and gulp some Enerzal to give myself the much needed boost. Fellow trekkers were really encouraging, either directly by praising me or sometimes pushing me to do better by being sarcastic. I can say now that it certainly helped.

I climbed for another half an hour and reached the most steep point which, due to the rain had also become very slippery and dangerous to climb. For a patch of around ten minutes or so we were finding it very difficult as the rocks were very uneven and the wet mud on the rocks made it very difficult to hold onto them. Many of them had fortunately taken a break before reaching this difficult point and I was cursing myself for being amongst the first few who had made it there. There were hardly any group members around me and for a moment I felt I want to go back. And then, I looked back, or should I say I looked down. "God!" I exclaimed. I have screwed myself, I felt. I had completed more than half of the ascend and now was in the middle of nowhere wanting to go back. It was just not possible. If it was, I would have. But for the first time I pulled myself up and headed in the forward direction without anyone to motivate me. That was my moment! Without stopping I made it to the top around 5.45 am and there were only six to seven more group members from twenty-five or so who had reached with me.

The view at the top was ecstatic. I could not see the clouds as expected because of the weather, but nevertheless the view of watching the whole city asleep as witnessed by the pitch dark view when we had reached and then the slow transition of the lights getting lit in certain unidentifiable patches around the city welcoming the dawn from a height of 1350 meters was nice. As the sun started to rise I took in a deep breath and sat down with a bunch of group members enjoying the scenic beauty and the weather. We spent a good two hours clicking pictures of each other and munching on some energy foods and then started the descend around 8.30 - 9.00.

I felt the descend was more difficult than the ascend but the group was very supportive and we all made it through in due time. The most rewarding thing was a small break for a good south Indian breakfast at a local joint where we all just sat back absorbing the pain, the bruises, the laughter and the jokes from our journey to and fro. In due time we all gathered back in the bus and then headed back to our respective destinations.

I decided that even if I never trek again in life because that is not my preference, never was, this experience was worthwhile. Everything is worthwhile in life, at least once! If you really like it you can do it again, if not, it definitely teaches you something. Just as this trek had taught me to trust strangers, depend on the group and most importantly have a firm belief in myself that I can make it through!