If you are in Bengaluru and if you are a trekking enthusiasts, then you would
have definitely heard about this group BTC - Bangalore Trekking Club! I have
always wanted to trek with this group and the opportunity came to me in August,2015. Grabbing my bestie Vijayalakshmi (vj) to register, we
were finally set to go on this trek. We got permission from her mom the
previous day in CTR, while having their yummy masala dosa and Mysore
bonda. The food indeed helped us to convince her mom!
Woke up early at 5am on a Sunday morning and got ready for the trek. Vj's mom
took extra effort to prepare our breakfast and lunch, thanks Aunty! Since we
were asked to be at Cantonment by 6.45am, we planned to leave the house at 6 and we did. This was
our first trek with BTC, and we didn't know anyone in the group. Ashwin directed
us to come to Platform 3 and there we were! We looked out
for a group dressed up in typical trekking costume and
found one. Hoping that it would be the BTC group, we tried our luck and it
worked!
Our train was already in the station and we took our seats. It was a passenger
train to Vijayawada which starts from Cantonment every morning. I highly doubt
if people would go all the way to AP in this train, but I noticed that it was
mostly used by localities who move between villages for selling their stuffs.
Our group size increased and we started mingling with the group. That's when we
met a chatter box Vikram, our favourite thatha and the bond happened so quickly
because he was a Tamilian. We had our breakfast (chapatti) as soon as the
train started because we were warned that the train will be flooded with
people in the coming stations. The slow moving passenger train finally halted
at our destination point Makalidurga and we hopped out quickly as the train
won't stop more than two minutes.
The station looked very remote, we could hardly see people around and the
majestic mountain was right in front of us. After a quick round of
introduction, we started to walk along the rails and took a slight deviation
into the bushes. Being a first-timer to BTC and treks, the enthusiasm and
thrill exponentially increased as we moved forward. While a little kid was
happily climbing, munching all the chocolates every 10 minutes, he motivated us
indirectly. As there was no proper route (not sure if we got deviated), the
path was little scary at certain places, yet our organiser Ashwin and an
experienced trekker Dev helped us cross the barricades. Even though my mind was
asking me to rest as I was gasping, my heart asked me to move on. Well.. the
heart's technique worked! With multiple short breaks, we reached the top of the
hill. After all, the view from the top was worth the effort.
The history behind Makalidurga dates
back to the Vijayanagara times, where the hillock was used to conduct army
trainings, which was finally ruled by Kempegowda. The top of the hill had a
small Shiva temple, mostly visited only by the local people. We finished our
lunch quickly to escape from monkeys stealing our food and rested for some
time. Then the real adventure began on our descend. We lost our path and our
organizer Ashwin suggested one route while our new-found friend Dev suggested
another. We trusted Dev in a hope that we would meet the rest of the group
soon, but that never happened. We didn’t know if we were lost in the middle or
moving in a completely opposite direction, but we were just hoping to reach the
base. Amidst all these, Vikram got a leg sprain and he was struggling to walk.
Ashwin was trying to reach us through our mobiles but alas, there was no
network coverage. The other group was also worried about our safety and we were
also unsure about the trail.
A small deviation which we took just for
fun became an adventure, but it was worth it. We reached the base much ahead of
the entire group as we did not take even a single break on our descend. We
waited for more than an hour till we met the rest of the group. We were
confident that a ban is definitely waiting for us from Ashwin, but he was kind
enough and ignored us. Being my first trek with BTC, it taught me lot of things
more than trekking. I learnt how to interact with people and trust them and
tackle unexpected situations. Bidding goodbye to the group, we boarded into the
train and headed to Bangalore. While the good bye was only temporary, I knew
that the new-formed gang would definitely stay in touch. And it would be a
surprise if I tell that the overall expense of the trek was 30Rs. (15Rs * 2 for
the train travel) If only I had stayed back in Bangalore on Sunday, I would
have definitely spent more than 100Rs.
