Trek to Tadyianda Mol
On Friday night we met at 10pm at the bus terminal in Bangalore, ready to catch the K.S.R.T.C Rajahamsa Bus to Virajpet, a 6 hour trip. We were catching a Deluxe bus — so we had mod cons like reclining seats which were actually quite comfortable. No reading lights though so it was a case of trying to sleep through the blaring of horns.
We were pretty much on time thanks to the insane driving on the wrong side of the road that is normal here, arriving at about 5:30am. We had to wait until 6:45 for a local bus towards Tadyianda Mol, so we sat on the side of the road watching while the town slowly awoke. At 6am the mullah’s starting calling the morning prayer and people slowly started coming in to open their stalls near the bus station, while the occasional truck blasted through town joining its smoke to the fog.
At 6:15 we were the first customers at a small dosa restaurant — the food was quite good even if we had to rush it a bit to get to the bus. This bus was a more typical local bus which rattled and thumped over the single lane roads, blasting its horn at any corner to warn any oncoming traffic that it was about to be knocked off the road.
An hour later we were dropped on the side of the road about 3kms from the Palace and started our walk. It was quite overcast although still warm so the walking was quite pleasant. We got to the palace after another half an hour and had a quick look around and a rest, although the doors were locked so we couldn’t get inside.
The next 3 hours we walked up the hill, until we reached a place where Nuresh assured us there was a spring. Some of us sat with the bags while the others went to fill up their water bottles. Owen and I stuck with our safe firangi mineral water.
We kept on up the mountain to 1680m — Nuresh confirmed the altitude with his watch. I arrived later at the top than the others because I was straggling with Hema, and when we got there it was to see Owen holding court with some other trekkers who were also developers, telling them about CruiseControl and how we do distributed agile development.
We (well mostly Nuresh) cooked a lunch of sambhar and papads cooked on the coals before drinking the last of our water and falling asleep for 3 hours.
I think this was the point where I got sunburned, as both Owen and I had forgotten the sunburn cream. D’oh.
After about 3 hours of sleep we all started to stir. It was getting towards 4pm and as we planned to sleep on the peak, some of us needed to get back down to the spring to fetch more water. I went to get changed into my shorts as it was getting hot, and heard the tantalising sound of running water. Maybe we didn’t have a two hour round trip before us after all!
I told the others and we started trying to find it by bush bashing, but the jungle was far too tangled right there so I went around the outside trying to locate the source. It seemed to be coming from quite close but as I walked down what was almost a cliff at the side of the peak I couldn’t hear it any more strongly. I did try and get into the jungle again but there were some nasty thorny branches which dissuaded me (and I have the scratches to remind me).
At the bottom of this valley it was not possible to hear the water, so Owen, who had by now joined the search, went across the next ridge to see if he could see it there. We ended up searching for about three quarters of an hour to no avail (except to availing of a large amount of rather nice scenery).
Unfortunately by the time we finished we were not only exhausted again but it was far too late to get back down and back before dark, so we had to pack up and head back down to camp by the spring. We got there just as dusk was falling, and I got a chance to try out my microfilter, which luckily I had bought in Australia over christmas. It must have worked, because no-one got sick. Actually that’s a logical fallacy but I don’t think it hurt to filter the water. And I wasn’t going to volunteer as the control.
Anyway we set up camp, collected some firewood and cooked some dinner just as the sun went down. We chatted for ages about arranged marriages and religion and all those things that you’re never supposed to talk about at dinner parties. and then fell asleep telling ghost stories as the half moon slowly set.
Sunday we woke fairly early, refilled the water bottles (I am so glad we didnt camp far away from the spring) and after a breakfast including a really good sweet tea headed back down the hill. It was much hotter walking than Saturday as there was no cloud cover, but given that it was downhill it was not to bad. And we were lucky in that we only had to wait about 10 minutes at the bottom for the bus back to Vijrapet.
Even luckier was that when we got to Vijrapet, and walked back to the main bus station, we arrived literally 5 minutes before a deluxe bus left for Bangalore. I spent most of the time talking with Hema - this time about hindu religious practices. Really inteesting stuff, and amazing how many similarities there are between humanity’s different beliefs.
It made the trip fly (well no 6 hour trip really flies, but it definitely helped). we got back into Bangalore at about 9pm, and all of us headed back to a well deserved nights sleep.
All in all it was a great introduction to trekking in India.