Ombathu Gudda

This is the one trek which i think will remember forever. Be it the worst trek I ever had in my life so far, but so far and by far, the most memorable one. There are various reasons why i am saying that this was the worst trek, which will be narrated later in the post.
Here is how the adventure started.

Pre-trek day:
It was shutdown time in the company and I had no clue as to what to do in the long vacation. Me and my friend Ajay who are nature admirers thought of going for this trek. So, the responsibility of finding a place to venture was at my hands. I had one of my friends "Prasad" mentioning about this new "unexplored" place. It was a virgin trek and even he was quite interested in it. Since Prasad was the only person to know about the place, i delegated the work of researching about the place to him. All this was done 1 day in advance. I set off to book the tickets for the bus and then later, went to buy a new camera. (Photography is another hobby which is about to become my passion soon hopefully).

The bus was booked at 8:30pm and i was in majestic buying camera which took till 7 pm. Ajay was busy working in office till late in the evening and Prasad was busy researching (or that is what we assumed). I came back home, somehow managed to pack all important things, me and Ajay met in Kempegowda Bus stand at around 8pm. We waitied for Prasad who was supposed to arrive much before us looking at the way he communicated. Suddenly I got a call on my mobile and there we got our first shock - Prasad ditched us due to some personal reasons.

So, 2 of us set off to Gundya checkpost not knowing where to go. On the way, we were contemplating whether to go to Ombathu gudda which we had no clue of or to go to Kumaraparvatha which is close to Kukke Subramanya. KP was already explored trek and many of them had done it quite some time before. Ajay himself had done it twice. So, there was less risk in doing that. So, not sure what to do or where to go, we thought of deciding the next day morning when we get down in Gundya checkpost. I had a sound sleep that night because i possessed my dream gadget - an SLR - Canon 450D :)

Day-One:
We got off in Gundya checkpost at 5 am in the morning. We were still clueless. We tried asking the localites to accompany us to Ombathu gudda. Since there were no guides, we dropped the idea. We even tried checking with forest guards if they were willing to accompany us, but in vain. Then after sometime, we found 3 guys with heavy backpacks (which looked like trekking bags) getting down a bus and had a piece of paper in their hand. We were hoping that at least those guys had some idea of going to a destination. We got to know that they were going to Ombathu Gudda and had done all research of the place. We got convinced when they showed us the amount of research material they carried. So, we decided to join them. But first, me and murthy had to fill our stomach before starting anything.

We asked those guys to wait and we searched for any clue of a restaurant who was willing to feed 2 hungry people few kgs of food. During the search, our sight caught a small chai shop which had very less option, nevertheless had something to eat. The only 2 things to eat in that shop was a packet full of bun and the parantha prepared the previous night. We ate the parantha and asked to pack the bun (to survive the 2 day trek). After having the sumptuous breakfast, we set off. By that time, the guys had left us and had started walking. We had to catch up really fast.

We walked as fast as we can and found them in just 10 mins of our walk. They were waiting near a pool planning to take bath and get freshened. After getting fresh, all of us started off to Ombathu gudda. As people say, it is a virgin trek. Very less people have explored the place and it was most difficult not in terms of the terrain, but the conditions and environment makes it tough. The path is through dense forests of Sakleshpura which is mostly humid for most part of the year. Also have to take into account that it has the densest population of snakes apart from other reptile species and insects and animals which roam around the forest.

According the a blog, which we carried as our guide to the trek, it was written that we had to walk along the stream for almost 4-5 hours and there will be a point when we cant go any further. And on the right side, there will be a 70 deg climb which will lead to the peak. Reading it, we kept following the stream for almost 5 hours. We had started off at around 7:30 am in the morning, and according to the blog, we were supposed to reach the destination (first day's camping point) within 2-3 pm in the afternoon. But we never reached the dead end which the blog was talking about till 2pm. That is the first time when we realized that we were lost in the jungle. However we continued to follow the stream climbing through huge rocks and crossing the clear streams. I was loving the sight of every stream although i was damn tired carrying the huge camera and a tripod(which i dont know why i brought it to the trek). All of us were decent trekkers and we had maintained a good pace so far. So, we were expecting to reach the base camp much earlier than what was described. After a long walk, we thought we reached the destination because everything seemed as described in the blog. We saw a water falls and there was no chance of climbing it. We saw a 70 deg climb on its right side. Satisfied and tired, we thought of taking bath and playing in the water falls. It was almost 5 in the evening and we had to cover another 1 hour's steep climb to reach the top where we can camp for the night. We set off panting and puffing. The route seemed difficult especially for me since i was carrying the most weight and i was the weakest in that group. It was around 6pm by the time we reached the top. That is when we realized and got confirmed that we had got lost.

"Ombathu gudda" in Kannada means "nine hills". According to the blog and according to the photos shared in the blog, there was supposed to be nine hills connected to each other but we were in hill which was standing solitarily. Some of us were pretty tensed and didnt know if it is good to go in search again for the exact location. There was another mistake that we did. We had planned this trek on a new moon day. So, there was a scare of night being pitch dark. We saw elephant dung everywhere in the hill top. That was the most important thing which we were afraid of. All we could do is to rest in the hill top hoping that we dont get attacked by any animal.

The other 3 guys had got a tent which is suited for 2 people. Me and murthy slided into our sleeping bags. After sometime me and murthy were attacked by butterfly sized mosquitoes. It was damn humid because of which we could not cover the sleeping bags completely, but when we came out of our sleeping bags, we were attacked by mosquitoes. Then we decided to check on other guys if we could get some space for sleeping in the tent. Somehow me and murthy slided in the tent. The tent was supposed to be for 2 men, was now accomodating 5 people. This proved that we Indians are good in squeezing in every amount of space available, be it in traffic, be it in tent.

Day-Two:
None of us had a good night's sleep although we were tired. We got up at 5 in the morning and decided to reach the destination no matter whatever time it is. We meant serious business on the second day. We set off as soon as we got up since we were not sure the distance to be covered and the time it would take. Hurriedly packing the tents and bags, set off finding the path again. Our plan was simple - get to the stream and keep following the stream. On the way down, we tried to get fresh which took around 30 mins, and then continued the journey. It was around 8 am when we found a ray of hope of reaching the destination. There were arrow marks being written on the rocks. It looked fresh and we had seen similar mark the previous day on the trail which we thought was leading to Ombathu gudda. We followed the direction which the arrow mark suggested. It was around 9:30 am in the morning when we realized that we had lost the way again. We couldn't find arrow marks for some distance. And we couldn't locate any other path also which we failed to take diversion to. Dejected and frustrated, we thought of climbing the peak again just to find where we are. While climbing up, we encountered a long forbidden jeep track. We could identify that it was jeep track even though it was covered with bush and climbers. We started following the jeep track hoping that it would somehow connect to the civilization or atleast some main road from where we can find the civilization. We continued the jeep track path for more than an hour. And we were quite relieved then since we were sure that it might lead us to the civilization. But we lost track of the trail after sometime due to a landslide which had covered the jeep track and there was no clue of jeep track beyond that point.

We tried searching the track for sometime. Murthy and another guy went ahead looking for the jeep track. They had hardly covered some 50 feet distance, we couldnt see or even hear them. Such dense was the forest. All we could hear is the insects and bird's chirping sound and sound of leaves rattling due to wind. That is the time when we decided to walk back on the way we had come. It was almost 12 in the afternoon and we were still unable to decide if we can go ahead or go back. Collectively we decided that we will go back since we were sure that we would reach some civilization if we keep following the stream back. And since we were only following the stream mostly throughout the journey, it was the best chance of reaching the source point. We were also almost finished with the food supply we had. The only chance of survival was to get back to the source the same day. In half a day, we had to cover the distance of what we had covered in one and half days.

This was the only time, when we were clearly having a plan in mind. It was plain and simple - Walk back as fast as we can without any breaks. We were literally running back the second day. Even though all of us were tired, we had to do it just because that was the best chance of survival. Climbing down seemed more stressful and risky since most of the rocks were slippery and we had to climb down huge rocks as well. On the way we found numerous snakes and we didnt even bother thinking about them. It was around 5pm, we were getting worried of getting lost inbetween the dense forest. It was getting darker since the day was bit cloudy. We found a huge river which we couldn't cross, so, we decided to go inbetween the forest. We walked as fast as we could, we waded through thick bushes and shrubs. It was around 6:15 and it was getting dark. At that time, one of the person in the other gang started getting tensed and was shouting that we had taken a wrong route. We somehow convinced him that we were in the right track and continued pushing ourselves. The sun had set and the light was that of the dusk.

We still hadn't reached where we were supposed to reach. We walked faster and faster and suddenly, at around 6:40pm, we found the route which we had taken while coming. Everyone was so relieved. No one had thought we could have made it the same day. Although we were dead tired and knowing that there was another 2 hours journey by walk, we couldn't control the excitement. We tried to freshen up in the stream. That was the last time we saw the stream. Filled our water bottles and set off. We reached Gundya checkpost by around 10 pm. Barely able to move around, we walked for some more distance to get the chai shope. We had dinner in a different small chai shop on the highway. Me and murthy bid adieu to those guys who were part of the torture. They wanted to go back home the same day, and Me and Murthy had decided to stay in Kukke subramanya on that night since i could barely lift my leg. Even murthy was in enough pain even though he was the best trekker amongst the lot. We found a small lodge that night, somehow dragged ourself to bed. Next day had darshan of Kukke Subramanya temple and set off to Bangalore.

Me and murthy didnt talk a single word about the trek the entire night and the previous day. Such was the extent of the damage it had done to us. We lived happily ever after. :)