Germalam trek

Date: Sept 10th and 11th 2005
Team: Regular trekking team + Sowmya (Manjula's friend)

It's been a while since we had done a really hard trek. This one really qualified as one of them at least for some of us. This place is about 190km from Bangalore. It is on the way to Coimbatore, if you are going via Malavalli-Kollegal route. This was a core Veerappan area and also a ration point for him. When he was alive probably not many people ventured into this forest. After he was killed in an encounter(??!!??) it became accessible to common people to see what is left of it. You can read more about the place here. We started very early in the morning. As usual I was the first victim to be picked up at 4:30AM. On the way we had an early breakfast at Lokaruchi. From Maddur we took a deviation towards Malavalli. Since Shivanasamudram was on the way we decided to visit the place. After spending few minutes and taking some snaps we were on our way to Germalam. The drive from Kollegal onwards is really scenic and surprisingly not hazy.


Gaganachukki falls

Lush green mountain ranges and the cultivated farm lands below resembles any European country side. This explains why the Tibetans chose this place to set up their monastery. When you reach the check posts just say "we are going to Daniel's farm house". This works like a secret magic words, police man opens the gate without another word. By 11:30 we reached the farm house. This place in itself is a beauty surrounded by peaks all around. First thing that we noticed here was the birds. I am not any bird expert but I can tell you that this place has got wide varieties of them. By the time we got settled down our lunch was ready. We had a hearty meal after that it was time for our first trek.


Tibetan Monastery


The Village

Monsoon trek:It was already cloudy when we arrived. Our plan was to leave after the lunch and be back by 6. Since I was the strongest (at least they thought so) I had to carry all the water bottles, cameras and umbrellas! Our guide was Basavanna, a tribal guy who works in the farm. Just few minutes into the trek it started raining. Even the umbrellas and the rain covers didn't help much. This also made the trail quite slippery. Fortunately though it was not a rain forest which means no leeches. Once you are inside the forest most of the time you are surrounded by thick vegetation. You hardly get any scenic views. But the scenic views are not the only thing in an avid trekker's mind. It is the adventure that is involved in it and the suspense of not knowing how many of them would make it back safely. It took us almost 2 hours before we reached an open area overlooking the valley. The view was not one would call breath taking. From here we could see the farm house. Couldn't believe that we covered so much distance. May be it was the rain that pushed us. But we did notice something. All the time we were only worried about reaching the destination instead of enjoying the nature around us. What's the point going all the way and just run through the woods. May be we should try to understand and interact more with the nature.
It was still raining and all were completely drenched. After a small break we were back on the trail. Soon after we reached another open area. Here we learned that few years back Veerappan had killed 7 villagers for failing to deliver the ration. Naturally Veerappan became our topic for discussion. People over here don't have anything bad to say about him. One of them even claimed that he had seen the man himself. Now that he is dead even I can claim that I had lunch with him! Since it was already getting late we headed back to the farm and made it by 6 as planned.


View from the top - Day 1

Night drive:When one goes for a trek inside a forest their main intension would be to spot some wild animals. But the fact is it rarely happens particularly when it is raining. You should be extremely lucky to spot any wild life. Though we were jaded after the trek, we went for a night drive around the farm house in search of wild animals. In the end all we could manage to see was a family of wild boar and some deer. As soon as we came back, we crashed in our tents. My tent was in a corner and the whole of it was for me! I was just praying that a leopard or something else wouldn't show up in the middle of the night.

Trek to Etnur betta:I had a nice night sleep. Chirping birds woke me up in the morning. Others were already up and had gone for a walk. During our breakfast our discussion turned to Kyoto agreement. Countries like Japan, which does not have much of their own land, donates around $360m to India for planting trees there by hoping that would reduce the green house gases. This also gives Japan the right to pollute. In reality though those trees would never be planted but only on papers. Our mahila mandal was not too keep to trek up the Etnur hill. So it was only me and Anil. After yesterdays experience I decided to wear a T-Shirt and a short for the trek. That would make life easier if it rains. We started off at around 9:30am. Initial part of the trek pretty easy. Soon enough we came across a water hole. Just near that was a bunch of rocks. Climbing up was quite steep but doable. Wearing a short made my task much easier.


Waterhole!

Smart guys always make smart moves. This was the last time I thought of myself this way. Things were about to change. From this point onwards there was absolutely no trail. To make matters worse it was full of thorny bushes. Even the ascent was very steep. Within no time my hands and legs were full of scratches. But look at the brighter side things could have been worse had I decided to wear slippers. Which I was seriously contemplating. Half way through we heard a trumpet of an elephant near by. Decided to take a closer look. But the path was so dense we had no chance of seeing the elephant unless we get really close. When you want to take a risk should always have an escape plan. We had one and that was to run!. But the problem was there was no easy way. Needless to say we ditched the plan. We reached the top in another hour. The view from there made all the effort worth. We couldn't quite believe that we made it so far from the farm house.


View from the top - Day 2

After a short break we began climbing down the hill. Again there was no shortcut but through those thorny bushes. On our way back we again missed the elephant by few minutes. Luckily or unluckily we crossed the same path barely few minutes apart. It was apparent from the foot marks and the strewn grass over the bushes. Couple of hours later, at 3pm, we were back at the farm. Another tasty meal it was time for us leave. Hope these two days has given us enough preparation for the ultim@te trek!