YERCAUD TREKKING

(4‑5 March, 1989)

Situated 33 km from Salem in Tamil Nadu, at an altitude of 1400 m above sea level, Yercaud is described as the 'poor man's Ooty'. The Bangalore‑Nagur fast passenger was found to be the most convenient train to travel upto Salem: though it takes seven hours to cover the 265 km distance, being an overnight train, the effort and expenses involving
a night accommodation is saved.

Mishra, Nagesh, Hari and Ravi did the bare necessary preparations; collecting bread and jam from the mess and filing rucksacks with the essentials ‑ bedsheets, hats, spare clothing, matches, candles, first aid, glucose, salt, old newspapers and so on... Ravi loaded his camera.

At 1900 h, four more persons joined us: Sriram, Ajit, Murugappan and Nirupama. We were a bit reluctant about including a girl, but her sheer determination literally made us eat our hats later.

After dinner at Kamat in Majestic, we boarded the empty train and spent the next few hours by playing cards and before we could snatch a decent bit of sleep, Salem had arrived. We finished washing in the waiting rooms, reached the main bus‑stand and after a little delay because the water bottles had to be filled, we were on way to Yeracaud. It was five in the morning, and the glittering lights of Salem looked beautiful from the ghat road as the bus started to climb.

We climbed down the bus midway to Yercaud leaving other passengers bewildered, and continued along the road till dawn. Unfortunately we were on the western side of the mountain; all we could see was the quarter moon high in the sky.

Soon we reached a place where the incline was not too much and someone proposed that we do 'just a little bit' of rock climbing, then come back to the road. That was all ‑ we never came down !! From a height of 700 MSL to 1400 MSL, we climbed up through rocks, thorn bushes and ash of forest fires.

The challenge of mountain climbing is irresistible and exhilarating. Ravi was leading the group, testing various paths and directing others to easier and safer ones. At one place it was particularly tricky. There was vertical rock directly above me and the only way to proceed involved going sideways on a steeply inclined rock that had no gripping points. Ravi warned others not to come my way, but go toward left, which was visibly much easier. Ravi did not want to come down, so he embraced the rock and slowly and surely, inched his way across.

Unfortunately, Mishra and Sriram, who were a bit behind because of heavier loads, could not hear Ravi's warning and came up the same path. We waited for more than half an hour while they struggled. Later we came to know that Sriram had to take off his shoes to obtain a better grip and once he was through, and the loads transferred, Mishra managed without much difficulty.

The climbing was generally tough. Thorny bushes, widely separated rocks and slipping caused by loose earth and ashes made it more difficult. After two hours we were fairly high, but still way down from top. At this point, the mountain was too steep directly ahead and toward the left there was a ravine. It almost seemed that we would have to give up. Ravi, Nirupama and Ajit decided to see if a path to go up could be found by going sideways to right. Within a few minutes they were cut off from the main group (even our shouts was beyond their reach), and it took them almost an hour to reach a place from where going up seemed plausible. Ravi climbed an overhanging rock and signaled their position to others by shaking a tree.

Once together, we surveyed each other ‑ full of grime, dust, ashes and thorn scratches. With the diminishing supply of water, Nirupama washed hands and served sandwiches.

Investigating the bush movements some distance away, Murugappan and Ajit met an old man looking after coffee plantations. He showed us a beaten path along which we proceeded. A little diversion took us to a small waterhole shaded with trees. Here we washed our faces and filled the water bottles after filtering. Ajit, who was looking like a typical car mechanic, borrowed a clean shirt from Nirupama and while changing, as he discovered later, lost his room keys in the process.

The path after this was easy, but going was tough because of exhaustion, and there was no excitement to 
compensate since the path was a regular one used by the locals. Murugappan slipped while trying to catch a hat hurled by Hari and got a full coating of dust all along his front. That however didn't dampen his spirits, and he was his usual self in a few minutes. Anyway, we all had a bit of glucose and put salt in the drinking water.

It took us eight hours to reach Yercaud this way. By road it would have taken at the most six hours to cover the 18 km distance. But, as the locals told us, we were the first to attempt the direct path successfully.

A family specialising in cottage manufacture of jams and pickles offered us water; we bought a small bottle of tomato pickle. After this we had lunch in a hotel with fabulous lawns but poor service, then walked upto the boat club lake, and enjoyed a brief afternoon siesta on the short. A cute little girl passed by us in a boat: she was very self conscious and watched us only from the corner of eyes for sometime, then suddenly turned back and waved to us.

At 1730 hours, after coffee and cool drinks in the lake restaurant, we decided to walk down the road to Salem and stop a bus after tiring. We did not exactly follow the road however; we made short cuts connecting the hairpin bends. At one such a place the slope was too steep and slippery, Ravi and Murugappan who were in the front, had to grip trees to prevent rolling off altogether. At the end of the slope, there was a thirty feet vertical drop. They warned others to continue along the road and Ajit, who had just started down the slope had a difficult time going back. For both of them it was impossible to go back up. Mishra joined them, and they cleared the bushes, carved some steps in the earth and climbed down a bit. Then they passed down the luggage to others who had already come down by the road, and jumped down.

It was dark by now and we faithfully followed the road, carefully avoiding the passing vehicles. Some of us removed our shoes to experience the sensation of the road, At eight, we tried in vain to stop a bus. The next one, which was a loaded truck, didn't have space for all eight of us. The next vehicle we attempted to stop turned out to be an ambulance, but the driver fortunately agreed to take us the remaining 15 km to Salem.

We had a pleasant ride, watching again the lights of Salem City glittering in the night. Near the bus stand we searched for a hotel, found one, found it too crowded, searched further, found none, returned to the first one, found two tables, then discovered that the meals were over and so ordered idlis and dosas.

Then we took a bus to station where we spread the bed sheets over newspapers and lied down, since the train was due at 1230 am. If Nirupama and Ajit had not kept awake, we might have been sleeping till eternity ‑ such was our condition !

The mail passenger was crowded, but Nagesh managed to get berths and seats in	 the reserved compartment and we continued our slumber. At eight in the morning we got down at Yeshwantpur and 'trekked' upto 	the Institute, and that is the end of this story.