Midnight trek!

For those of you who have not tried it, trekking is hard but great fun! Ok, I am not a professional at it and this was my second trek(the first one was a piece of cake compared to this), but I loved it! Actually more than the trekking, I think I love the concept of night trekking. The advantages are several - the weather is cooler, you won't realise it initially as you will be sweating so much but it beats trekking under the sun any day!

It's more adventurous! So what if we were carrying torches(ratio wasn't 1:1, more like one torch for 5 people which was actually more than enough), the fact that you are barely aware of what lies beyond five or six more steps it thrilling!

The biggest clincher - moonlight. No artificial lights, no street lamps, darkness all around with only moonlight to guide you. I wish it were full moon but it was close enough last night(for all purposes, I am telling others the moon was full!). Once your eyes get adapted to the faint yet strong enough rays, any other source of light seems to cause strain to the eyes. So much so that in almost all the pics my friends can barely keep their eyes open due to the "harsh" lights of the camera. These are the same friends who otherwise freeze in their places and pose perfectly whenever there is a camera around or even the mention of it!

Now the mini travelogue. I say "mini" because given my love for details and unnecessary blabber, if I write a full fledged one, it might cross more than ten pages. Who has the patience for that right?(I prove my point again, by digressing from the topic)

The place is called Skandagiri Hills and is around 70 km from Bangalore. We reached there by midnight and after dilly dallying around, started the trek around 1 am in the morning. It took us more than two-two and a half hours to reach the peak. One of the main reasons was the no. of breaks we took. People take breaks in between the trek, we trek in between breaks. It was a hard climb and the difficulty gradually increased with the altitude. Couple of my friends(girls, sheesh!) had to be really pushed to finish it. Eventually all of us did make it to the top but not before people swearing that this would be the last trek in their life(drama queens!)!

A few mistakes we committed, out of which the major one was not taking sufficient water along with us. Everyone assumed there would be shops near the foot of the hills and even otherwise 3 litres for 14 people would be sufficient. Don't look at me like that, I tried and I failed to drive logic into them. I think I can distinctly remember having just two sips of water throughout the trek.

The best part was obviously reaching the peak, shit tired but really jubilant. We nearly froze to death but that's another story(we did have jackets but other "practiced" trekkers present on the peak were well equipped with blankets, shawls etc.). There were angels present on the peak, in the form of a few locals selling hot tea(sugar water, but beggars can't be choosers) and freshly prepared omelet!

The whole purpose of the trip - the sunrise and being "above the clouds" was disappointing, to put it mildly. It wasn't too great and there were no clouds below us, so to speak. But as someone rightly said - "what matters is the journey, not the destination"(did I jumble up the words?). Anyway, you get my point.

I wish I could keep writing, describing each and every (in)significant detail, but I think I should stop. A few parting notes:
1. I think my throat is so parched that there are cracks formed, similar to those on the ground in severe drought affected areas. It pains every time I swallow.
2. You are never too fit. For all my days spent in the gym, I still was panting like a dog all the way up(gulped Glucon D once,was sucking on Poppins, all measures to keep my energy level up). Although I discovered that I am way fitter than most of my friends present there(*yay*).
3. Err..this one is weird. Exhaustion and high altitude gives me a high. I was literally and figuratively high! I couldn't stop giggling, when we were sitting on the peak waiting for sunrise! I would giggle for no reason and when asked why, I would giggle and reply that I had no clue! Heh, I always knew I am a goner but not to this extent.