A falls and Sweat Trek – Thumbhe + A Jinx Breaking Trek – BR Falls

Yes this trek needs two headings;

Indeed a trek full of falls and sweat! Indeed a trek which broke the jinx.

Baqwas
It’s been close to 2 years since I did any trek; what I had in the last 2 years is Typhoid, loss of fitness/confidence and mental peace; what added was only body weight and my body growing across.

Well, I have been seeing mails from Sampath, some times I read some times I delete and some I have replied too that was the busy schedule I had.
But then I saw an email which sort of made me feel a bit piqued at. The quandary was understandable, no treks for a long time and not a single hop, jump or jog in these years. Not many know how difficult it is to make a come back in to sports or any activity which involves a good combination of mind and body. When it comes to trekking/mountaineering, It is bringing heart soul, mind and Body together.
Probably nature wanted it this way and made me wait for a mail which sort of challenged me and threw me out of the comfortable couch; I was sleeping on for a good period of time. Thanks to Sampath that way.

Kooings
Fished out the ruck sack which was hiding in the attic; I washed it around 6:30 PM, while the departure from house was planned at 8:00 PM (Bus at 9:45PM). Stuffed few clothes in to a polythene cover and made my ruck sack. I did get the usual follow up call from Sampath and I showed up first at the Majestic Bust stand, after Sampath first one to appear was Siddarth, a very soft spoken personality, then came Mahesh, a man who claims sober but then realized he is ultra sober, the last one was an ambivert who dropped only bombs (by his words) at right times Samith

Platu
Had idli samabar and burnt brinjal chatni as the break fast and of course the Kashaaya. Right from packing the ruck sack I told myself Ananth stick to basics do nothing special on this trek just stick on to basics. I did say that to myself immediately after breakfast and few moments before the start.

Startu
The trek started off as any other trek with all the 5 in a good mood. But then nature will have its ways always. It was a typical malenaadu country side trail with small ups and downs. But then after the banana plantation it extended in to a steep climb. With in a short span all of us were sweating crazy due to the humid and semi cloudy (somewhat pleasant) weather.

A disquieting incident
I was waiting along with Sampath and slowly the Sober Mahesh and << >> joined us, it was only Siddarth who was lagging behind, Siddarth just lied down for a while and we all were farting about the entire world . A few words about few treks and Sampath rolled down to check on Siddarth, The reaction from him alerted me. While I took those few steps down I was nostalgic recollecting some of the earlier incidents. To be frank, I did get few shivers down. Common sense more than experience pays rich at times and we just made him sit upright and he was good in a short span. That was probably the body’s way of asking for few minutes of additional rest. Just that!

Sampath’s gut feel was we all can make it upwards and he was right at the end of the day. We were sweating like hell and of course we had frequent breaks for water even if the trek some times was steep down.
Slowly the trail moved in to the core jungle and by the time we realized any thing the Lead trekkers had lost the way. For a passionate trekker this is what energieses and such things really turn a trekker ON. We had to make our way through a thick dried up malenaadu jungle. Thorns are fine BUT, what IF a viper wants a lick. What IF a scorpion wants a bite? Most of the malenaadu forests have loads of reptiles and of various kinds. They have to come out during summer to beat the heat.

Making our way downwards amidst few chirps and whistles of the birds, we heard the jhulu jhulu of the stream. Sampath probably calculated that we are near the falls. But what took us from there was a long zig zag , treacherous, slippery route with hardly any holds to descend down. Each one took extreme caution descending down. Thankfully none had any major fall. I and Sampath and the leaders were a little ahead and could see the stream but Sampath’s eyes were searching the water fall. I could make out Sampath saw the water fall by his reactions, whow sir all nodi sir alli – indeed it was an amazing find. A modest waterfall of over 120 Foot trying to hide from every body’s view and falling down with all it’s majesty giving side and front poses for a photographer.
This water fall is quite special in its ways. A person who sees it from the top can’t make out the width, glory and the mild roar. It flows like a jhulu jhulu stream but then opens up to a big waterfall. It also hosts a pond at the foot of the waterfall. It’s quite deep (minimum 20 Ft), only a few made it to the bottom of the waterfall. We all swam in the big pond the water fall had. We could hardly come out of the ecstasy, but by the time we realized we should come out of water, food was ready and the sight of food made us even hungrier. We hogged at least I hogged and slept for some time on the rocks.

I just rolled on to the snaps and could realize the weight I have put on. Thanks to the IT industry and the horrible work life I have. Well we had to climb up again and after the cool water it was sweat again rolling down our body. Our clothes were wet As though they were immersed in water and taken out.

We reached the hut much earlier to sun set, Sampath and co still wanted to have another go in the water but I lied down like a log. The wait yielded mensinakaai bajji and erulli bajji and Tea as well.

As dusk and darkness encroached, to escape the aching legs we lied down and started talking about the country we are. Nehru was badly taken to task. Well Father and daughter had a good 30 + years between them and Congress had about 30 years with it. I Wish Edwina was close to Vajpayee than Nehru,  well this could be the topic for our next trek evening.

Tasty food and fairly cool night led us to sleep on the flat lawns of a typical malenaadu mane. I actually remembered few ranagana padagalu before sleep.

Day 2
Clean Shit
The trek that we had, the food we ate the previous night, the sound sleep and a sip of tea - led us straight to the paikaane. It was sudden fast and in one shot a full and total clean up of shit.

Kashaya, akki rotti chatni and water as break fast made the beginning of Day 2. Today it was BR falls. We took the village route and again the route slowly narrowed down to a jungle path. We had to follow the stream and it was real fun trekking along with path. I strived hard not to make my shoes drenched but nature has won it so far. In about an hour and a half it was the water falls again. This time again a class of its own, this one was dancing and had three floors in all. It had a platform and was inviting badly. I swam made good room to climb on to the chair of the water falls and enjoyed a good water fall massage. Siddarth and Mahesh made their own ponds and Jacuzzi’s, while Samit once again had a good water massage. Mahesh and Samit were the wettest in the whole trek.

In all BR falls was the icing on the trek of falls and sweat. Its hot summer and we had chilled water to swim and enjoy the water fall massage. It was good walk back on the stream side. Of course Dharma didn’t disappoint we had a heavy successive lunch on day 2 too.

Leech bites
It was only on Tuesday morning I realized there were leech bites on my foot.

In all it was a great trek of series of big and small water falls and Sweat Trek - for me it was a jinx breaking trek.