OmbattuGudda.. again!

This is my second trek to OmbattuGudda and the place doesn't fail to amaze me. I repeat from what I wrote in the post from my first trek: Newbie trekkers donot try this trek. Experienced trekkers donot go to this place without a map and a GPS and loads of water! And get ready to get lost! Brace yourself for one of the toughest treks in the south.

Going to this place once itself is madness enough. To go there the second time, you either must be supremely fit (OmbattuGudda doesn't bog you down) or you are plain insane. I belong to the second category.

Subbu had been wanting to go this place for more than a year now. Finally last weekend his prayers were answered when Mahesha and his friends decided to go to the place looking for a new route (if there is one!). We were 10 of us: Jitha, Mahesha, Subbu, Jagga, Madhu, Sandeep, Srini, Shyama, Veeru and yours truly!

Hiring a TT, we reached Gundya, the starting point for the trek. The jeep track starts from about a km from Gundya gate towards Mangalore. The first landmark, the kabbinale river junction is about 2 hours walk from the highway and is pretty straightforward. As last time, we had breakfast at this place, where we met two other groups of trekkers to OmbattuGudda. That was the last we saw of them! :-)

The kabbinale river junction

From this place, instead of going straight, we decided to check out a new route, to the left, which the Chennai trekkers had used to get to the peak successfully. Instead of going along the stream, we also decided to find a short cut to reach the destination faster, in which we failed miserably. Till around 5:30 in the evening, we hadn't gained any altitude, and distance wise, we hadn't even covered half the distance. Disappointing, when you know that the last time we had done the whole trek in one day. So if you are thinking that this time we took two days to complete and hence would have done it quite comfortably... read on!

So we decided to camp wherever we were, right next to a stream, in the middle of the thick forest. Luckily for us, within 100 meters, we found this deserted hut sort of a thing probably built by the forest guys.

The camping hut

Now a place like this, right next to a stream in the jungle, might sound all nice and a good "get-away from the hustle and bustle of the city" sort of thing. But these are exactly the kind of places animals would come to quench their thirst. The place is known to house elephants and bears, mind you. So, to keep the animals away, we needed a camp-fire and for that to happen easily, we needed a match-box. And none among the 10 of us had it! At the abandoned camp site, I found an empty match box. Damn. Haath mein aaya, muh na laga. It was a desperate attempt by the 10 of us to get a camp fire going. Some of us were desperately looking for loose match sticks that might have been accidentally spilt by the campers before. A few others tried their hand at lighting a fire using batteries by shorting them.

Using batteries to make fire

A few more tried friction to get the fire going, a la Bear Grylls.

Friction to get some fire

Madhu even tried to get fire by hitting two stones together! It was fun watching all these. After some time, we gave up. Still worried about the possibility of animals coming near the camping site, the 10 of us decided to keep watch in shifts. In case someone sees an animal, he was to wake others up and start making a hell lot of a noise and scare the animal away! To do that, we even had a steel plate and a wooden stick handy!!!

The night shift. Notice the steel plate in my hand!

Doing my duty from 8 to 11, I woke a few people up and went to sleep, trusting the others with my life. Next morning around 4:00 I happened to get up only to find that all the others are sleeping blissfully! What the heck, even I went back to sleep.

Day two: We had to find a way to the peak and get to the estate before late. We traveled up the stream for about an hour, had breakfast and filled up our water bottles, knowing that this will be the last time we get any sort of water source. Looking at the map and the GPS, we somehow found a path for some distance. And, as it always happens with OmbattuGudda, it disappeared after some time...

Being aware that the peak is to our east, we decided to head east by climbing a hill. But soon we realized we were going south. We got down and climbed another peak but this time we realized we were going west! How is this possible!? Upon investigation, we realized the compass in the GPS was not functioning properly! What next? Brute force eastwards to the peak. We were climbing a smaller peak on our way, when suddenly we heard something which sounded like fire. Getting curious, we marched forward and the sound grew louder and louder. Onwards we marched. We could now see smoke from some distance. More curious, onwards we marched till we saw a raging forest fire about 50 feet in front of us! Almost panicking, everyone began to sound off ideas. I suggested we get back to the last known trail, and try to go to OmbattuGudda afresh. But the trail was a long way back. Subbu suggested we go around the forest fire, without climbing down, to the other side of the small peak and move onwards! And what if the fire catches up with us by then? He had a simple theory, fire doesn't enter the forest region. So we stick to the forest region without exposing ourselves in the grasslands till we reach a safe distance!! And that is what we did, walking across the slope, inside the jungle, just below the forest fire, till we got to the other side of the peak.

By this time, it was already 2 in the afternoon and the tiredness was getting to us. Water was also at premium and we had to preserve it till we reach the estate which was another 6-7 hours trek. Also, since we had no path to follow, we had to wade through the thicket and thorny bushes till we hit the grassland.

The OmbattuGudda series

When we came out in the grasslands, we could see the nine peaks (OmbattuGudda) right in front of us and we made it to the peak at sunset time, just like my first trek to the place. Only that in this case, we had taken two full days to reach the peak!

Sunset at the peak

Having learnt from our mistake the last time, we didn't unnecessarily get into any jungle. And we could see the jeeptrack on the other side of a thick forest. Easily finding a narrow trail, we entered the forest, in complete darkness. Believe me, only the fact that we were 10 of us made me slightly less uncomfortable. And when we somewhere in the middle of the forest, "Jagga the bugger" realized he had left his monkey cap at the peak, turned around and ran away! There we were, the 9 of us, in the lurch, standing in the middle of the forest in complete darkness, having absolutely no idea whats 10 feet away from us, waiting for Jagga. Finally he turned up 10 minutes later and we soon reached the bloody jeep track which had irritated us the previous time with it's long and winding and ascending path. But this time, we knew what to expect and we were ready for it. Also, we had conserved enough water this time. It was 9:00 when we reached the estate (Lakshmi Saraswathi estate) and another half an hour when we got to our TT to get back to Bangalore...

As last time, we had plans of doing Dipadakallu, which had to be abandoned once we couldn't make it to the peak the first day itself.

The map of the place can be found here (thanks to Subbu). But I wouldn't recommend this place to anyone. Even if you are serious, think twice before heading off to the place. You might be tempted to hang your trekking shoes forever (like Sirish did!).

Photos can be found here and here!

Thus continues the quest...