Ombattu Gudda .... No more a Myth

Avid for adventure.

The first time when Kanta had asked me to join for Ombattu Gudda(..that translates to “9 hills” in English..... a hill range and the prominent peak measures 971 metres above sea level. Located amidst the dense forests of the Western Ghats, it borders Hassan and Chikmagalur districts. It is named for the nine prominent humps on top, almost in a straight line.) I had been really busy since my Sis had flown from pune for vacation I couldn’t make up for that trek.Later when Kanta had related me bout his memoirs of his unsuccessul attempt to capture the peak and encounters with Malbar pit viper snakes …I had made up my mind definitely not to miss this one in future.

On Thursday when kanta asked me whilst munching “Corn masala” at our regular meeting spot near Lalbagh whether I was interested for OG comin weekend… I was all game for it. I didn’t think twice before giving a green signal from my side. Kanta called up someone to confirm my attendance for that trip.He assured me that this time around they are having a GPS and a Topo map of the area surrounding OG so that we wont be getting lost in any case.

So on the final Friday 15^th Feb 2008…nine of us Mohammed, Jitha, Mahesha, Adithya, Madhu, Kanta, Nitin our driver for the journey and yours lovingly set off from Bangalore in a qualis. I badly needed a good night sleep for two reasons. One that I had woken up @ 4 in the morning to pick up my friend from the airport and the other for the next day’s voyage. To add for my woes our very own driver looked as though he couldn’t steer his wheel without the latest Kannada movie songs blaring from the stereo right onto his ears. Kanta sensing my discomfort was too generous offering his ipod for the rest of the journey ..which I promptly plugged into my ears listening to some mellifluous numbers and drifted to my favourite activity Sleeping (…The closest way to experience death without actually dying…). I vaguely remember Jitha and Nitin singing in a choir to the songs of G.A.J.A in between…Not until we took a pitstop for tea near Manjarabad fort after Sakleshpur. I wondered myself how I slept like a log till then. We left that place @ 4.30AM and woohoo I had no problem in getting my sleep back again …I slept as though I had been drugged. By the time I got up we were already in Gundya check post.The driver had stopped there long back and everyone were still catching their part of sleep. With the weary eyes I managed to click some snaps of the place.

The adventure was here to start from now on …

Nature’s own Jacuzzi.

The trek place starts about a km after Gundya Gate. Immediately after crossing a bridge, there is a mud road on the right side.. We loaded our rucksacks with required paraphernalia and started walking in that mud road that eventually leads to the forest in the direction of Ombattu gudda. The villagers were accustomed to occasional adventure seekers coming in that path I suppose so they didn’t show any kind of surprise or amazement except for two domestic dogs in the bushes (Aaakhir “Kutte” Kutte hi hote hain :P.) which started to bark and howl continuously at us till we disappeared in the greens…

After a 1.5 – 2 hrs of brisk walk in the well defined forest trail we came across a stream where everybody finished their morning chores and had breakfast.Mochi and Bhatta were too busy reading the current location from the GPS and Topo map.Meanwhile Mahesha was too tempted to get into the water which made Kanta furious as he was not ready to commit the same mistake this time. Aditya joined Kanta warned everyone that we’ll be late so we better get started from that place and so we obliged and started walking towards the next location pointed by the GPS and whooa… Adi fell in the stream (accidently).....nice trick pal !!!! and lost his water bottle in the course (…later learnt how costly the loss was for a bottle of water…)

We continued in the trail along with the river for another couple of hours with the sun soaking on us until the itch to get into the water got to us and all of us took the plunge. Relaxed under water falling with humongous force hitting our back truly it was Nature’s own Jacuzzi.The picnic was over and so was our rendezvous with the stream. The real adventure lay ahead now.There was absolutely no path from thereon……..

The Inclination…

There was absolutely no path from thereon.Looking onto the GPS and Topo map we headed towards the peak taking a roundabout left turn in the NorthWest direction.We were losing our water reserves and there wasn’t any hint of a drop of water to found anywhere near and the forest too dense to see farther.The ascent too steep to climb with loose mud below and thorns all over the place literally drove us mad. Everyone received their share of prickles from the thorn trees and creepers with me topping them all receiving on every possible places on my leg and hands.

We climbed on the thorn laden steep ascent for another coupla hours toppling frequently with no one daring to take shots from their camera…By the time we hit the open grasslands at around 4:30PM we were out of our Water reserves and all of us were extremely thirsty but lo…. we could see the peak right in front of us.The GPS showed the reading just below a km to the peak.We clicked few snaps from here and started the arduous task of climbing the peak from the base.Another two hours of laborious climb and we reached the peak... Yoohooo !!! we had atlast made it…. right on the day one…Everyone were too dehydrated and too tired to celebrate...We sat there for a while clicking some snaps of golden moments of sunset… Nitin opened a can of buttermilk but it hardly quenched our humongous thirst infact it made us more thirsty.

Moch pointed us to leave the peak asap as the dusk was about to set-in and we had to clear two forest patches for our next task ….to reach “Jeep trails”. The GPS pointed that it was a almost a km and half from the peak in the Northwest direction.It was already dark (around 7pm).I was very much exhausted and dehydrated to walk even a mile.But the first sight of the jungle at night time scared me and made me walk and catch up with my group. Our worst fears of getting into the forest after dark soon became a reality. We stood infront of the forest patch for a while and decided to cross it no matter what. Moch and Bhatta went inside the forest to find the path while others including me waited for them to give green signal to enter into the forest…

Lost

We started to enter into the dark green patch flashing our torch (…though it looked like a dragon’s den for me…) one by one. The forest patch gave us a way initially and then slowly once we descended into the forest ..I felt as though we’ve been covered and held as hostage by the deep dense and dark forest. Everything went so dark that we couldnt see each other (…forget the trail to get out of it …) To make the matter worse the GPS stopped functioning as it needed a clear sky up above to calculate its current position and our natural satellite of Mother Earth “The moon” was obfuscated due to the presence clouds at that point of time.With great difficulty we got to an acclivity soon to realise there wasn’t any path before or after us…. This stirred us to move forward (…as in come whatever may… ) The path lead us to a descent again and finally after 20min brisk walk we managed to reach a place which in no doubt was the same place where we had been before . The same drill repeated once more to convince us that we were indeed LOST in the greens….

The Lifeline Jeep trails

We were standing on a flat patch now and bhatta hinted to sit n relax for a while instead of panicking.We obliged like a flock of sheeps. None were in a state to complain ( same problem…too dehydrated to talk !!)

Moch n Bhatta slept in the middle surrounded by Jitha,Mahesha,Adi,Kanta and myself. From there I could see only contours of Moch and Bhatta. Enthu cutlet Bhatta started fibbing about the forest being haunted and urban legends associated with OG hoping that it might scare some of us …but with no luck. :D

Our minds was just filled by thoughts of the sight of water and nothing else. The water started to gain a special place in everyone’s mind. Just then we sighted the Moon coming out of the state of obscurity.

A Silverlining !!!! … We now had the sense of direction… We just had to move towards North and move without a break for half an hour. It didn’t take long for Lady Luck to smile at us. Voila !!!! we were out of the forest patch and GPS started functioning !!!!... The reading showed we were just 700m away from the Jeep trails. We moved in full pace in the open patch until we encountered one more forest patch..!!!!! This didn’t deter us to get into forest again … We were soon to realise it had trails to get into it…. Without any hiccups we paced ourselves to come out of the other side of forest patch to find Jeep Trails…. Our joy knew no bounds … we kissed the trails and hugged each other…. We were just a few km from the nearest water table. We rested there for 15 min …..celeb the occasion by popping the last can of buttermilk we had. We could now easily get to the estate where we could get those two molecules of hydrogen and a molecule of water (as Bhatta likes to call)… But we were to suffer for some more time…

Pain Again

The jeep track was frustratingly long and winding and ascending. After every corner everyone flashing their torch to see any traces of water on the roadside. I was in a state even to taste muddy water. I could no longer eat anything even a chocolate candy. All that I (we) wanted was H2O. We were driven unknowingly to a state that we slowly we started to hallucinate with the thought of water flowing nearby.

Die another day…

After a long walk and what it seemed eternity we saw a glimmer of hope when we entered Saraswati Estate.

The emotion that rushed from inside of us upon the sight of water trickling from a hose pipe cannot be explained in words.We didn’t bother where the water was comin from or whether it was potable.All that mattered was Water.We savoured every drop of water we drank. Made us realise how a colourless,odourless,tasteless liquid can be so tasty and fulfilling at times….Gone were the times lost in thickets without water.It was the time to celebrate. We now had the most priced possession on earth Water. We drank water like camels toasting in between. I cannot forget the sweetness of the water I had at that darkest hour.The sight of water and the events that unfolded after that will forever stay etched in my memory.We could now eat our FOOD that we’d carried finally !!!! Chapati wid MTR Shahi Kurma. After supper, the estate workers were kind to provide us a room where we could crash for the night. Zipping into my sleeping bag I didn’t find difficult to drift away to sleep.

Bright blessed day…Not so sacred night

I was suddenly woken up by the sound of a bell early in the morning. It was the calling bell for the estate workers to get started with their daily work.I came out of the room to find the same hose pipe trickling same amount of water blithely. I couldn't resist from gulping a bottle of water again.We were suppose to trek for another 5km to reach Hoskere to catch a bus to Mudigere!!.Lady luck was with us this time around an estate jeep offered us a drop till Mudigere which is 22km from the Lakshmi Saraswati estate. Everyone were too tired to bargain for his high rent of 500Rs for 22km ride…!!! we were back again in full swing once we had sumptuous breakfast in Mudigere. We had to call our Qualis driver who was still having a good time in Dharmasthala. Once he was there everyone jumped into the jeep and were all set to start to head towards Blore via Chickmagalur and Mullayangiri. The journey back wasn’t too smooth as I had expected. With witnessing a head on collision between two cars while we had lunch in a roadside dhaba near Hassan(luckily there wasn’t any fatalities ) and our Rajani-style driver locking our jeep leaving the keys hanging inside while we were off to tea break near Nelmangala added to our woes.Nevertheless we were Happy and satisfied to have conquered the mythical hill….Ombattu Gudda.I slept like a log following that nit ...

Afterword :

All these events made our Ombattu gudda trek a real adventure. We had more adventure, more uncertainities,faced more challenges, did more trek to reach the peak. After the strenuous trek, we really learnt to appreciate the luxuries of city life. I started looking Water at an entirely different dimension altogether.Tested and learnt to live without it for nearly half a day and got to taste the ambience of a raw forest at nit times.And also to enjoy the journey along the path the fate dictates us rather than we choose…..

Your's Lovingly....

Vatsa

P.S : Note to the future trekkers ... please do not venture into this forest unless you are packed with loads of water and armed with a GPS/Navigator Compass + Topological Map.....