My First Trek from 10K

This was an experience which I will probably remember throughout my life. It was something that started completely out of a whim but turned out to be so assuring like it was meant to be. I am not someone who strikes as an adventurous person. I have always chosen a book or a movie over outdoor activities any given day in my life. For someone like me, the Kumara Parvatha trek in Coorg was definitely no bed of roses. It is supposedly the second toughest trek in my state. But none of this was my first thought. My biggest anxiety was about trying something insane for the first time with people I barely knew.

  It’s my first job in 10K and it had only been two weeks when my senior manager, John informed me about the trek. Normally given all odds, one would think I would refrain from going but for whatever reason, my instincts told me to go for it. My biggest fear at that point was that I barely knew anyone at work but at the same time I thought the trek could be the solution to it, to get acquainted to everyone. For instance, even though a colleague, Uday, works close with my department, I barely knew him until after I interacted with him on the trek. Also, my senior manager encouraged me to try the new experience. What’s more, I learned that a new friend I had made at work, Netra was also going. As the days moved closer to the trek, I felt less fear and more excitement.

The day finally arrived and after a long journey, we all stood at the base of the great Kumara Parvatha. It was a steepy mountain enriched with a thick, dense forest. I had imagined that the trail wouldn’t be an easy one but the reality exceeded all my worst imaginations and I almost believed that I wouldn’t be able to make it. I had barely walked ten steps when I tripped and fell for the first time. I would have given up right then and the trek would be over if not for my wonderful trek companions who really were of great support. They helped me and encouraged me throughout and did not give up on me even when I wanted to give up on myself. The path continued to be steepy and rough, but the people I trekked with me made it seem smooth.

They made me very comfortable and I felt like I could easily blend in. Each had their own special trait. My senior manager, John, very friendly and enthusiastic, tends to keep people around him intact which is probably what makes him a good boss and a leader; Amar, the big brother to everyone, constantly caring, encouraging and super energetic, even being the oldest of all; Netra, my girlfriend, a caring fun-loving person who you can never get bored with; Uday, a kind, trust-worthy friend who shares my language; Krishna, a very friendly, pleasant person with the best sense of humour; Archana, the caring, responsible one who seemed to have knowledge about everything; Purna, our DJ, the composed one and a man of wisdom; And Sanjeet, the saviour who helped me the most and didn’t leave my side until we made it to the top.

Our surrounding was filled with complete silence that it seemed like we were the only ones there. Well, we did have some constant visitors who craved for our blood, the leeches. As we climbed higher, the path got harder and the exhaustion within us grew. This called for longer break times and snack-munching. Our goal for the day was to reach ‘batru mane’ which was kind of a base camp where all the trekkers would rest the night before continuing the trek. Our slowed down pace and prolonged breaks caused a huge time leap in our schedule. Initially, we chit-chated, cracked jokes and had a lot of fun along the way but gradually as time passed, we began to feel tired and frustrated. It seemed like we were walking forever to reach the destination. There were no sign boards to indicate directions which had us question ourselves if we were on the right path. The last few miles were the most challenging with very steep inclinations. After crossing each challenging hurdle, we hoped this was it but that wasn’t the case. I have no count of how many of such hurdles we crossed before finally reaching the destination. There was one point where everyone gave up out of frustration, thirst and exhaustion. At that point, we had no hopes left of finding the batru mane, we knew it was impossible to get back down before sunset, and thus we thought that our only option was to rest the night in the middle of the forest filled with snakes and leeches, with no food and water. Among us, Krishna was the only one to focus on the real problem through out this tough time, the state election. But finally, the universe seemed to show mercy on us as we came across a few descenders who assured us that we were on the right path and batru mane was only a little further away. We cheered ourselves up and gathered up all our energy left to make it through those final steps.

When we finally made it and reached batru mane, we felt like we reached the peek of Mt. Everest. For someone with no such previous insane experience, I was proud of myself that I made it so far and also felt grateful to my team, without whose support it wouldn’t have been possible. As the sun set and the night took over, we all felt pleasant and relieved. Amarji turned out to be a man of many talents as he waved his wand of magic and cooked us delicious Maggie which we all relished and enjoyed. Later we had the camp fire, which was another first-time experience for me. We had a lovely time as we danced around the fire in the middle of the forest. The men of our team built the tents and we finally curled into our sleeping bags after a long day of varied experiences.

  The next morning, we climbed up to the view point, where we had a photo session and spent quality time with each other before we began to climb down. The scenery from the view point was absolutely breathtaking. It was a picture perfect landscape view of alluring mountain ranges, thick green forest and far off tiny houses. It was something totally worthy of all the effort and pain we had put in to climb up that high.

  Descending was much easier and it only took half the effort and time as it took for climbing up. We had also learnt some important lessons while ascending which came handy while climbing down, like how to deal with the leeches, or how to use the trekking stick the right way, etc. Unfortunately, there was one lesson we missed and this could also be a warning for the readers. The middle of a highly steeped mountain is not the place for games like cricket or even throwing and catching. There was a funny, well, painful incident that took place while we were descending. We all stopped at a place to drink water and passed (threw) the water bottle around to each other. Sanjeet and I were standing close when the bottle came flying to us and we got so competitive to catch it that we lost grip of ourselves and I don’t really know what happened after that but he ended up falling, hurting his knee pretty hard. But he took it sportively and managed his way down.

  While climbing down, as we came across the familiar spots, we relished our previous day’s memory. That brought us all satisfactory smiles on our faces. At that point, all the doubts that I had in mind disappeared and I was truly glad that I had decided to join on this trek. I felt happy and proud that I pushed my limits and tried a new experience. More importantly, I was glad I didn’t miss a chance to go on a trip with such a wonderful team.

  This trek taught me an important message. The different experiences you try play an important role in shaping your life but what really matters is the right company you choose to share those experiences with.