Ombattu Guddde Trek Day 2 Before Lunch

Am I lazy ? Yes a bit. Another reason that I havent completed my travellogues is once the moment is gone , I dont think I will be able to recreate it, there are so many strands to it, I will not be able to do justice to it if I miss some. But some days back, I dreamt of Ladakh, visuals through the trekking days.... it felt as if I am there again, quite vivid and how beautiful , clear blue skys snow capped peaks , a nice breeze , sheeps grazing in a distance, silence ......solitude ....

How different it was in the jungle , almost every moment I feared of snakes.....

It was still drizzling, the sky overcast and dawn breaking through. I was not very sure of doing this, I felt a bit tired from travelling contniously for about 24 hrs and a general lack of sleep. Having come all this way I couldnt muster the courage to tell me to go back.One thing that trekkers do is totell a whole bunch of lies , to themselves, cause once you admit to yourself that its getting difficult , it will become more difficult. So instead you focus on the positives and then you begin to enjoy it.

After walking a while, we stopped near a bridge on what looked like a small river, it ahd a stiff current and we knew we were going to cross it somewhere. It looked mre like a challenge than a risk. Our trek was to follow along the banks of this river upstream deep into the forest. Time to introduce "God and Priest", this was my first trip with travellerz club and these guys "Sridhar and LSP" are undisputed gang leaders, especially Sridhar , a veteran trekker, aware of all the little things that comes only with experience. In a trek its very important to have a leader, whom people follow without questions, he decides when to stop, when to start , where to camp, there is no room for confusion. From a group perspective, you can be confident that the trek is in safe hands and you can concentrate on the job at hand. This was the first trek where I was carrying all my supllies, it was difficult and added a dimension to the whole experience.

After confirming witha local villager, we were on our way to Ombattu Gudde. The first thing that hits you in a Western Ghats forest is the humidity, water was really condensing through any exposed surface, along with that rotting leaves, a nat geo forest, birds chripping away, overcast conditions all added to the resolve!. After a while people stopped chatting, the immediate goal was to reach the camp site by night fall.

So God and priest set the pace, and that was seriously fast pace, I consider my pace to be fast enough but soon I was falling behind. In a jungle trek where there is a fair chance of gettign lost, you always walk in a group and maintain eye contact. So it was the responsibility of the guy walking in front to ensure that he can see the one behind. THat way the onus is always on teh fast walkers.

Leeches someone shouted. I bent down to take a closer look and there they were small slimy creatures crawling all over , The forest floor was teeming with these all over, one had even managed to reach my arm. These dudes just wait to latch on to anythign that passes by and once they latch onto your shoes they find their way to the exposed skin , just above your socks, They have a natural anesthetic so you wont feel their bite.

After walking about 3 hrs we reached the river crossing, we were on schedule we had planned to reach this place by 10:30 rest here and make the final dash for the camp site, which was abt 2 hrs from this river crossing. After a leech cleaning session, they were all over , inside teh socks, shoes and smelled awful. We decided to first cross the river and then rest.