Trekking is not my cup of tea!

Hello! I’m a 10 kg overweight with a less than average lung capacity, zero exercise routine, sheer passion for an awesome adventure and zero determination for the same. With all these attributes, I started to trek, Kalaverahalli Betta with the rest of B+ve (That’s what we call ourselves).

DISCLAIMER: The blog is huge, with three sections – trek up, Flat top and trek down!

So you can read one section at a time.

TREK UP

The mountain top, clouds, the silhouette, the climb, the golden ring at the horizon at sunrise– kept flashing in my mind when we began the trek. It was 12.45am when I set my foot on the first stone. Three guides, 13 enthusiastic trekkers – Porkey, Bunty, Ram, Rat, Vijay, Savana, Joy, SR, Style, Suyash, Radha, Charlu and me. The terrain was beautiful – rocks, boulders, dried grass, thorny bushes and shrubs, steep slopes; trekkers paradise, if you ask me. And I enjoyed it until I was out of breath. And we had just trekked 10% of the entire climb. And that’s precisely when I looked up. And the whole climb sound like a big joke. ‘I can’t do it’. And this more precisely kept echoing throughout the trek. We reached our 1^st pit stop in 15 min and I was flat on my back on the rock. And the rest of them – ‘What do you expect with Porkey around?’ climbing Boulders are trees and having their snaps taken, which will tell their heroic tales when they would get back. And this time, he had good company. Savana was climbing Boulders as if he’s been doing it for his entire life. Bunty and Vijay joined in with Rat, our official photographer who would do crazier things to take the snaps. We moved on for another half hour and my lungs gave up! And we were only 25% through. I could see Savana well ahead with the guides, calling back every minute to the guys – ‘Common guys! Make it fast’. I would have killed him, only if I could have reached him. The climb got tougher with every minute. The mountain got steeper and terrain, narrower. And all that I could think of now, was the next pit stop. I would just stop, breathing heavily and Vijay and Porkey would pull me to the next step. I was able to move my feet, but couldn’t match their pace. That’s when I almost gave up.’ I just can’t move any further. You people continue and please take me with you when moving down’. And we called for a split – Bunty, Savana and Porkey disappeared in no-time without a guide. Vijay, Suyash, Rat, Radha, SR and Style kept moving. And the rest including me got into the 3^rd group.

My only motivation was the hare and the tortoise story! And in sometime, we were 50% through. I had the feeling that we were almost there when the guide said, we’ve just trekked halfway through. And I looked up again. And the echo sounded louder, ‘I can’t do it’. But Ram and Charlu kept company and I moved on - with a banana and two spoons of Glucose sponsored by Ram and Charlu’s tips on’ How to breathe’. I would stop all of a sudden, take huge gulps of air and then start again. I was feeling nauseated. And every step I took told me it would hit me harder if I fell down. And just when I thought the whole process was impossible, we had made 80% of the climb. And the sight we saw from the hill top was breathtaking. I could see the entire city lit up with street lamps. And Joy just did the perfect thing. He put on the music and we enjoyed the moonlight, cold breeze and hill top for quite sometime. Now reaching the top was only a matter of time. With half orange and another couple of spoons of glucose, ‘I finally made it’.

FLAT TOP

There were already two groups camping on the hill top. And the 3^rd group was ours. The clock read 3.35 am. Then came the music, and I don’t remember myself so longing to listen to music, ever. It was as though time stood still for a while. Reaching the hill top was a tedious job, but the rewards were no less welcoming. We munched a lot before taking a small nap! The weather grew colder and the music, louder. And then, I could hear a whisper. Now that I was awake, I could hear Savana. Poor fellow saw a frog limping and was feeling bad for stamping its leg which had come to kiss his divine feet. And just when I decided to get back under the blanket, I could hear more and see too - sparks! BONFIRE! The fire gave some relief from the cold. But it meant much more to the people who were keeping it alive.

And it was time for the moment which had brought us here - the sunrise. It was 5.10 am when I saw some light in the sky. We sat at the edge of the mountain for almost an hour. There was no golden ring at the horizon, no clouds beneath us and naturally nothing to capture on our digicams. Nevertheless, the photo-session did take place. And the food packets did get empty! And we were ready for the decent.

TREK DOWN

When I looked down at the steep slopes, I still felt happy that I would be finally going home. But the happiness did last only till I realized that trekking down was an another challenge. At night, I just kept looking down at my steps, not to get discouraged by the amount of climb remaining. But now, I couldn’t afford to look at the sky! The steeper, sandy slopes made it even more difficult. I couldn’t stretch my legs enough to jump form one stone to another. I was scared, but so was I eager to reach down and this time I couldn’t tell people to let go of me and pick me up later. I felt better with every step I took. And in about an hour we reached the place which was our 2^nd pit stop while trekking up.

Joy and Bunty’s R&D on biodegradable wastes kept us entertained, when at sometime I realized that my legs weren’t moving fast. Each time I moved one step down, the lack of energy scared me twice as hard. There was little left now. But that felt like eternity and finally when I reached down, I couldn’t stand up by myself. I was the last person to board the bus and the first one to doze off.

OUTCOME

Today, May 07, almost everybody at the office realized that I had a terrible trek. I limped thoughout the day and I might still limp for the rest of the week. I can’t call it my best holiday so far, I’m happy that I reached the top and did return to work the next day.