A TRAVEL TO VELLIANGIRI

A TRAVEL TO VELLIANGIRI

 My legs are sore, knees with pain, no energy left with my body. My mind no more rejoicing. I feel my soul out of my body. This is just opposite before 19 hours I was.

It is started by a friend of mine, Karthik. He was an experienced hand, gonna guide us. “A trekking trip to velliangiri”, Idea proposed and became viral. It was started with 15 members and as time passed the group dropped to 10. This was my first ever trekking experience, I had bounced with excitement. The plan was set and ready to execute. We had dinner at hostel and got equipped ourselves.

Travel started from hostel at 9:10pm. We climbed sadivayal bus to reach alandurai, which was in the route of poondi foothills. We bought toy torch, biscuits, glucose, food and waited for Vishnu’s arrival with AMMA water bottles. We missed the last bus to reach poondi before vishnu’s arrival. No cab or auto was ready to take us to poondi at that crucial time due to the fear of attack by Wild Elephants between isha centre and poondi. Luckily one auto driver accepted the task for a demanded fair. Finally trekking started. “this is going to be an unforgettable experience” my mind husked into my ears.

The vehicle carried us blowed the only light source throughout the travel. The darkness surrounded made us freeze, our pulse rate increased every moment. The road had many bends and our driver blowed sound horn for a no man road, and explained that was to avoid encounter with elephants. The travel of 30 minutes gave us many goose bumps, even without an encounter with the giant.

Reached poodi foothills. We saw a board of government with picture of an elephant and tiger, and the board stated that the velliangiri is a reserved area and trekking is made by our own risk. We took some memories as selfies Climbing hills takes all our body and mental power. We bought bamboo log each for a moral support. We had ejected our foot from our footwear as the top was ruled by divine. Cracking a camper lid coconut as a token of worship, we started by 11:32pm. The hill series counted seven and each one meant to be unique. I found no difficulty in climbing hills, but after crossing the first hill I found my legs shivered terribly by the steps (row of flat rocks one above another). Crossing over three hills we experienced the replacement of steps by solid rocks and narrow paths for instance we climbed some rocks as like a baby climbs the stair.

Our torches started to lose their life, the intensity fade away as time passed. We also found our water bottles empty, soon we saw a water source which tastes not less than mineralized water. We took some food and water and filled our bottles and continued again. We got split by our climbing speed. I was accompanied by Vishnu. Narrow ways, dim lights, tiring travel made us distracted. Suddenly Vishnu paused a step and also made me stop moving. I glowed my dim torch light at the path and found footprints of humans and some other creatures. We got close to for further examination and found that it was the foot prints of a tiger which had crossed our way minutes ago. A shock wave passed in our spine.

Challenging hills absorbed all our energy. The range and hardness had been increasing. Mid way, we heard some sound disturbing the dark silence surrounded us and found some movement in the crops at 30 meter distance from us. After some serious investigation we heard a trumpet of an Elephant. My legs started shivering, this time not by the tiredness. Out of fear the split gang joined as one and we climbed chatting to distract from fear and tired.

We reached the foot of 7^th challenge, the hill stood 70 degree in angle, not an easy task. The motivation to reach top is the bell sound we heard the sais the location of Lord Shiva. The last hill took fully one hour. Reaching the top we felt like we are at the top of the world. We worshiped Lord ganesh, who was sitting bare top where we couldn’t face the cold even after sweatering ourselves. The time read 5:45am when we stepped at top. We waited till 6:15am to experience the beauty of sunrise. The place was looked like a resting place of Lord Shiva while travelling above earth. Shivalingas, thrishul, and a godess all made the trip worth to climb that distance.

Rest, photos sessions, little sleep contributed for an hour and so. The chillness of the air refreshed our mind to make it ready to return. I personally had a belief that climbing down will be easier than climbing up. The team started to down at 7:15am. By the bright sky, we missed smokes without cigarettes. For some extent we made group and it broke while some stopped to rest and some continued to avoid hot sun. Choosing the easy paths now by the sun, we saw the route we passed through last night. The scary route with one step dead ends and cliffs made us realise the luck. With bare foot and tired body it took more time than expected as we shared about Shiva lingas, serial trisuls, night travels etc.,

My hard time started at a point where my leg got sprain. As I was late I had been isolated, but I can’t give up. Time got over the sun got stronger, eventually I got weak. It was hard to travel by bare foot in soft sand which hurts by heat and the rocks are thorny, stabbing like an over dosed acupuncture treatment. Short running between little shade made the best plan. Temporary relaxation spotted near the pond which we crossed with fun last night. Bala and Vishnu took bath at 3am in that pond, and got all us in wonder. When I reached the pond crossing one and half hills solo, I met my friends at 10:34am. Still the water was freezing cold when I got into the pond to refresh my limbs. I know, I can’t go fast with my friends with my sprain. My fortune gave me a company of Binu and Deva for some time.

Frequent rests, tiredness and sleepless night travel made me feel like quitting. Whenever I feel like quitting, I asked the shopkeeper for the distance to reach the foothills. I shamed myself seeing that the shopkeepers carry load on their back and climb to their shops. Never wonder the high price of goods at hills, it worth the sweat of the carrier. Hearing the word you are near down I travelled a long distance and finally found the end.

It was 3:40pm, I am sitting on the rock nearby, seeing the destination 70 steps away. From the first line I had narrated my experience in this resting gap, gotta go, Bye.

Ram kumar got down gasping a deep breath to reach his today’s destiny. Trekking, tough routes, dim lights, tiger palms, elephants, linga, freezing pond, sunrise, so many wonders within 24 hours and 5833 feet  “VELLIANGIRI”.

                                                                                                Che. Ra