YEDAKUMERI TREKKING

October 1988

It all started when a weekend trekking expedition was announced by the Nature Club of Indian Institute Of Science. It was to be in the Western Ghats of Karnataka between Sakleshpur and Subramanya Road, along Bangalore‑ Mangalore railway track. The Netravati Express was not running due to landslides in the region, and fifteen persons who formed the group discovered what late night bus travel without seats meant.

We reach Sakleshpur early in the morning, groggy from lack of sleep ... it is 3 AM. There is a street vendor at the bus stop. We have tea and cold idlis, and then walk upto the railway station. The Station Master is really nice ... we are offered First Class waiting rooms for washing up. He is very exited about our trekking, and starts reeling out precautions to be taken. There are no trains that day, and there is no need for concern about meeting one in a tunnel or over a bridge. The kind old station master also rings up his counterpart at the Yadamari station to arrange dinner for us. A group photo is taken with him at the center ... he is so happy to be with us. Just as the sun begins to rise, we are on to the railway track.

Everyone carried clothes, food provisions ‑ bread, raw 'avalakki', fruit juice, biscuits, glucose, milkmaid, chocolates.., salt for leeches (although we didn't need it), torches for tunnels, caps against sunlight, blankets and carrymats for sleeping, a first‑aid kit and whistles for communication. We just hoped there would be no rains.

Green fields of paddy, fringed by forests and bills rising beyond.. seen thru the morning fog... We are in coffee plantations ... there is a nice tiled house just by the side of the track. The owner welcomes us, shows us around the estate and offers coffee. After thanking them and taking a couple of photographs, we are soon on our way.

Several small streams and falls are on the way, and one of the streams offered a fabulous setting for taking a bath. But it is still quite early in the morning and we expect more magnificent places, so we push on. This was to be regretted later, since throughout the day we never found a stream or fall that could be approached easily.

We are still at low altitude. It is not before Donegal, a distance of 7 km, that the ghats start. Just before Donegal there is a roadside hotel where we stuff ourselves with idlis, plantains and coffee... the bread and jam is reserved for use later on.

With a breathtaking drop on one side and steep mountains on the other, the high elevation railway track offers magnificent views of far away mountains and valleys... soon we have the first tunnel. It is pitch dark inside, and small torches are of no use except to see only the ground before the next step.

More tunnels follow; someone screams when something falls from above ... a drop of water. In one of the tunnels, there are screeching hordes of bats, and it is scary. But we soon gain experience in crossing them. The longest one is half a kilometer.

Between the tunnels there are the bridges over deep ravines. They don't have any side walls, only a foot wide strip of iron over the sleepers at the middle of the track to walk on ... it feels dizzy.

By noon we are desperate for a place to bath. Several streams are to be seen but not a single one is approachable. By now the group has split, and the whistle calls are no longer audible. We in the leading team started looking for paths to reach a stream.

Meanwhile, in the middle team, someone was having trouble with his shoe sole. Soon it came off alto~ gether.. walking like that on the stones of the railway track was certainly painful. Godsent relief arrived in the form of a railway inspection trolley passing in the opposite direction. He goes back to Sakleshpur, to take a bus back to Bangalore.

The sun is hot by now... someone in the last team faints. Glucose, honey and a bit of rest, however puts him on his feet again. These things cause delays, and they are able to catch up with the leading team only in late afternoon. Then, near a bridge, over a splashing stream, and with tunnels on either side, we have our late lunch... bread and jam.

Just after this, we reach a place where the stream we had seen earlier is not far below, and four of us decide to find the way through the jungle to reach it. The undergrowth is dense and we are very careful about snakes. Soon the only path possible seems to be going away from the stream and up towards a hill. But we deride to push just a bit further, and Lo! were we rewarded! There is a sharp bend, and there is the stream splashing through rocks set in a picturesque secluded spot. There is no time to call the rest of the gang, so we doff our clothes, and plunge.

Meanwhile others are getting anxious. There is no answer to repeated whistling. When we reappear, it is a mixture of relief, anger and jealousy with which we are greeted.

It is already evening, the soles and backs are hurting, and there is no sign of Yadamari yet ... we start walking fast. But after an hour's walk, there is a small waterfall just by the side of the track. The temptation to take a dip is too hard to resist, specially for those who had missed the last one. Others give in.

By the time we reach Yadamari it is dusk and we are completely enervated. Yadamari turns out to be just a station and a few huts... there is no power. This Station Master is also good. Dinner is prepared specially for us, and after that we stretch ourselves under an open shed. That, and the carry mats are more than ample for our tired bodies, we sleep like logs.

We had covered 25 km that day and most of us were reluctant to trek the next 31 km to Subramanya Road. The only alternative was to go through the jungle for about 7 km to reach the nearest road connection. This was quite dangerous and needed the services of an expert local guide, which was not available. The only hope seemed to be a goods train which was supposed to pass that way early in the morning.

At precisely 3 AM the Station Master wakes us up... the goods train is a few minutes away. The star constellations against the jet black sky are beautiful.

From Yadamari to Subramanya Road we travel in the guards van of the goods train. The scenery is grander. The guard falls into a reverie telling us about the region. Part of the ghats are frequented by tigers and other wild animals. He narrates an incident a couple of years back about a local chap who was about to lean against the branch of a tree only to discover with horror that it was a python. We pass through the longest tunnel‑ 1 km. We observe that there are quite a few good water falls that could be approached easily.

At the Subramanya Road station the Mangalore Express is waiting on the platform... we decide to take it. It reaches Mangalore at about 10 AM. We have lunch, rush to the sea ~h and splash in. By evening there is a colorful local crowd ... BheIpuri is delicious. However, four hews of frolicking in the sea doesn't seem to be enough. We go back to the city reluctantly and by 10 PM are in the Banqalore bus.

Considering that none of us had trekked on this route earlier and few had any trekking experience at all, the trip was very successful. Those for whom this was the initiation to trekking, were  the most exuberant. Western Ghats in any case. specially this region, has to be seen to be believed.