SkandaGiri --- Trip of a lifetime....trip of Grit and sheer motivation

29th April 2007 was a day in our lives that made us take our friendships to a totally different level. What was in store on this day was something special and I am sure all of us would remember it forever. We cherish it as our best trip ever.

It was Friday morning(27/04/2007) when Nidish started of a mail chain for a trekking trip. This trekking was different than our usual treks because it was a Plan for a Moonlight trek. It did not take much time for all of us to send a mail saying "Yes I am in".

The MoonLight trekker were Amit,VS,Rakesh,­Nish,Sajanu,Sarath,­Abhi,Nid and Jay

Saturday 28th Night
9:00PM: Everybody reached my home. We had 4 bikes and a Car.
9:30PM: Our Journey towards Skandagiri near Chikaballapur Started
9:45PM: Everybody realized that we dont even have a torch. Guys said never mind we will still go ahead. It was a Full moon day :) and we were anyhow going for Moonlight trek.
10:15PM: Out first Stop near Devanahalli was for having dinner in a Dhabha.
11.15PM: Finished dinner and from a lorry driver bought a small torch.


Sunday 29th
12:00AM: Reached the base of the Skandagiri mountain
12:05AM: Woke up people sleeping near the base to ask for a guide. But nobody was willing to come
12:20AM: One guys just showed us a way where we can start the trek(I really thank this guy for showing us the wrong way).
12:30AM: We started our trek with full Josh :). We could not find any trails. But we are not the ones who follow trails. We make our own way.
01:30AM: We realized we had reached a dead end. There was no way forward. We also then realized that the guy showed us the wrong way.
02:00AM: We were again back to square one from where we had started. The single torch also ran out of Battery. But Moon was bright enough :)
But not even for once we thought of going back without trekking :)

Suddenly from 1KM far we saw a light flashing. We started moving towards the light. Even from the otherside the light was moving towards us. We went close enough so that we could shout and talk.
Since I was the only kannada guy, I shouted "Yaar adu". It was a villeger with a strong torch on his head. We could hardly see him due to the bushes all around.
We were hesitant but we moved forward closer to him. We were stunned to see him with a rifle in his hand. We could not go back also because we were just at 20 feet distance from him.
I must say I took a deep breath and went closer to him and started speaking to him in kannada. I also asked him to give his rifle to me since I was afraid.
Since he was a local guy we convinced him to become our Guide.

02:15AM: We started our Treck again. We were already tired because we had finished an unsuccessful trek.
03:00AM: The Guide took from the ways that we could not even imagine. He was climbing so effortlessly that we just were stunned.
After close to an hour our tiring body made us ask him the question "Guruve inna yeshtu mele hogbeku" which means "how much more left."
The reply which we got only made us more tired. He said "We still have to climb 3 times what we had already covered"
03:30AM: Our bodies started screaming for rest. We were climbing a steep rock. There was no point looking down because it would only worsen things. Wind trying its best to push us down. Every step was a challenge. Where ever possible we held the rock and rested for couple of minutes. Had a sip of water probably every 30sec :). Suddenly my water bottle slipped. It just went rolling down. That made us realize what would happen if we slip.

4:00AM: We again asked the Guide how much more to go. But the guide never wanted to make us feel better. He said "Sir you have only come half way".
I bet half of us did not want to continue since our bodies had given up. But it was impossible to go back the way which we came in. Not even the guide could go back the same way. So we had only one way out. To only go forward.

4:30AM: From far we thought we could see the peak. But when we were almost abt to reach we realized it was just the beginning of the next peak.
I had never felt so tired in my life. But then I knew others were more tired than I was. Myself and Nid motivated others by saying "Little more to go". "We can do it". "We have done this before"
Every 10 steps we took rest. I cannot forget Sajanu who weighed almost 100Kg climbing. For every 2 steps he took he rested. At a point I was afraid if he would fall since the climb was steep and wind blowing pushing us down. For a moment I also thought what we would say if Sajanu died. All kinds of thoughts started coming into my mind. But it only made me give a hand to sajanu and made sure I held him pulling him up for every step he took.

5:00AM: We could see the last mountain that we had to climb. Me and Nid used to climb faster than others. After climbing little bit we used to say "Its very easy to climb". "Come on Guys its not tuff". We could see everybody was just dragging their body which was not ready to go any further. But our Grit and determination. The motivation that each we were giving to each other made us do all this.

5:30AM: The last step of the summit. If anybody has not seen heaven then ask us how it feels to be in heaven. We had never felt happier in life. We had achieved something that was close to impossible. We found new energy. The adrenalin was pumping. We were no more tired. We just hugged each other for finishing the trek.

Things were not over yet. Our great Nishanth had a surprise. He took out the wine bottle. Believe me Wine had never tasted better. Few sips of wine to celebrate our climb.
We were bang on time to see the Beautiful Sunrise. The cold breeze, friends, Wine, beautiful Sunrise what else can you ask for in a Bachelors Life.

That was one of the best Moon light trek we ever had.
A big thanks to the guy who showed us the wrong way because if he had shown the correct way. It would have been like any other trek where we had to follow the trail and climb without much difficultly.
But because of the wrong way it made the climb special and memorable.