Sakleshpur - Green Route !

My next blog is gonna be about the trek that we had on the Green Route !!
Watch out for more details at the same place !! :)

Sakleshpur - On track on the Green Route !!

All that we had was a trek bag which contained a few necessities and a whole lot of instant food,tent material , vessels (in case the chef in us woke up), matchsticks , salt (not to taste but to protect..hehe) and yeah last but not the least 2 digital cameras :) andddddddddd.... we were off to the splendid trek on the "Green Route".

The "Green Route" is a 42 kms stretch of evergreen forests on the Western Ghats situated between the places of Subramanya and Sakleshpur.Verdant forests, unexplored hill ranges, deep blue waters...this is what the green route is all about.

Check out the aerial view of the "Green Route" @ http://www.wikimapia.org/#y=12922588&x=75746527&z=13&l=0&m=a&v=2


The entire route between these 2 places is connected via a Railway Track which was once abandoned due to the risk involved and lack of manpower to maintain the same.The entire stretch of the track has around 50+ tunnels and narrow bridges which run up to a maximum of 0.5 kms in length only connected via 1/2 feet wide iron sheets placed a feet apart from each other.Due to certain expert trekkers in our group we were pretty confidant about scaling this distance without any hassle (was what we thought atleast).

It was the usual Friday on the 6th of Oct,2006.The 7 of us were very excited about the weekend trek to Sakleshpur and we were more than ready to leave :).We boarded the KSRTC Mangalore Bus at the one and only Magestic Bus Stand and left around 10:45PM.The initial few hours were filled with the usual talks and gossips but the next few hours was a treat to our back sides... thx to the amazingly maintained roads towards Mangalore.We got down at a point on the highway which was said to be the closest point to reach the Donigal Railway Station(our starting point for the trek).

As we alighted from the bus we were welcomed by a whiff of fresh air filled with pure oxygen and a light drizzle..just heavenly :) on the other side of the road was a small waterfall where we just played around and took a few snaps as a mark of our Starting Point !! Here began our venture into the "Unknown".

It was still around 4:45 AM.We just refreshed ourselves at the small waterfall and prepared ourselves for a "long long way to go...".The sun was still lazy to get up and was just stretching his arms out to provide us with enough rays to see the muddy watered roads towards the station.After a few slippery steps and confusing crossroads we saw a small shack at the end of a hilly road which was the Donigal Railway station.This already gave me a sense of pride and god knows why ;) I guess i didn't know what was in store for me in the next few hours and considered this baby step of mine as a very courageous one..hahaha

We sat at the platform bench for a few minutes and then got down to the track and enthusiastically kept the first foot forward towards what I call "The Best and the Scariest Trek" :)

During the initial few kilometers the highway was winding along the track but slowly the roads were out of our visibility though we could still hear the sounds of vehicles taking sharp turns at the hairpin bends.Our visibility was not too good but still we continued with a lot of zest and zeal.We first encountered a 50 metre bridge which i couldn't quite clearly see until someone from our group called out to me and said "come here come here.. our first bridge" It was all fine until i kept my first step on the bridge.I felt the ground beneath me just crumble and melt into wet sand and me being carried away with it.Yes this so called "bridge" is around 300meters high and has no banisters on either side and is just made of 1/2 ft wide iron sheets kept around 1 feet from each other.I didn't know the meaning of the word"scared" until i stepped onto this bridge.I didn't want to scream coz this trek was meant to be this way and yeah come on i cant just act like a kid..hehe...Anyways i did see the other side of the bridge alive using the help of a few brave guys who willingly held my hand and helped me thru the "living hell". Actually the bridge is just half as scary as the scene below it.All you can see during the wee hours of the morning is a dark sheet of trees and the sound of rippling water somewhere faaar faaar beneath the bridge.Ain't it scary ?? U need to live the moment to experience it.. seriously :) Soon followed another bridge which was comparatively much shorter and yes this time I was not as "scared" as before but yes i was hoping that this bridge would be the last one...hehe wht a fool i was ;)

Then we decided to take short nap on the track until the sun rose coz it was pointless to trek the "Green Route" without being able to actually see the "green" :P.So we settled down on the tracks,covered our faces with our jerkin and had a quick nap which proved to be very refreshing.
After about 15-20 minutes we were back to carrying our heavy trek sacks , tent material and we started off traversing through the most beautiful hill side :)


We came across a lotta scary bridges and yeah not to forget the eerie,dark tunnels.Most of the tunnels were atleast 100m long.They were deep,dark and dangerous.We needed to switch on our torches to find our way through it coz as u walk deeper into the tunnel visibility reaches zilch and to add to the danger the gap between the tracks is deeper and chances of miscalculating your step and spraining your leg is very high.A torch is your only savior.Oh yeah you have friends called "Bats" who might just tap you on ur head occasionally to say "Hi"..so don't be surprised if they join you !!

The bridges and tunnels came one after the other nearly every 100 meters and we all kinda got used to them.What kept us really occupied was the breathtaking view of the Western Ghats.Each frame that we saw could easily take place of the "Wallpaper" at my office desktop.Hills were covered with lush green tall trees which was a part of a dense jungle.Affluent vegetation and an amazing weather added to this beauty.There was a hill on one side of the track whose edges were cut off during the construction of this track and on the other side lay a gorge which was thousands of meters deep and filled with trees which formed a beautiful canopy.We could also see streams of clear blue water flowing beneath the bridges which got lost amongst the thick trees after a few meters.All through our trek we could here the sound of rippling water which was finding its way through the thick jungle to reach the lake at the far end :)

We stopped occasionally for nibbling on a few eateries to keep us away from gettin exhausted.We also encountered a few over-friendly leaches who really didn't wanna leave a few friends of mine and yeah snakes said Hi too :) As we covered the distance, though our legs started crying "No more.No more" the beauty just captivated us and we were all spellbound by the wonderful scenic nature that surrounded us.It was a treat to the eye and an F5 to the brain.I individually was just so engrossed with the surroundings that a few moments I thought that I have reached a place which does not have a destination and I was all alone in the journey to find the unknown :) Believe me this feeling is worth millions.

An out of the usual experience is when we heard the hoot of a train as we were trekking.We all were taken aback coz we thought that this was an abandoned track and no trains ever travelled on these tracks.Each of us started making wild guesses as to which side the train was coming from.Slowly the hoot started getting closer and louder.We crossed the bridge that we were on as quickly as possible and reached the other end and put our bags down on the sides and waited for the train to pass by.It took quite some time for the train to reach the place we were standing.But when it arrived we were shocked to see that it was a goods train with 6 engines and nearly 53 compartments.We also tried the 1Rs trick and it worked !! haha :) It took a surprising 4 minutes for the entire train to pass us and then we were back on track ;)

As the sun rose high in the sky our backs started straining and every bone and muscle started hurting.It was gettin tougher now to take measured steps on the track and we were wishing for plain road to replace the uncomfortable tracks.The breaks we took got longer but all along this tiresome period nature never stopped showing us her worth.The jungles and mountains around us got denser and higher.Streams were curving in and out beneath us and many of us wanted to just plunge into the clear waters and play around till evening.But we had to reach our destination The Yedukumari Station by evening as it would be very risky to cross bridges and tunnels when its dark.We moved on and on, side by side with the beautiful streams , cascading falls and wild forests :)

Though we were totally poofed we continued trekking and yeah pranks on each other and funny fotos entertained us and talks about absolutely weird things happened nearly all through our trek.Finally after scaling nearly 17kms we reached our destination - Yedukumari Railway Platform".I could see the edge of the platform at a distance of around 1 km and i was so happy to see plain land again..haha.. believe me its a pain to take calculated steps on tracks :( I just ran on the platform and found myself a place to sit and thennnnnnnn ooooooooooooofffffffffffff... my legs just gave way and i felt like they were no more a part of my body.We boiled water and made ourselves noodles and drank a lot of juice.Food just relived us from our tiredness and we were back to normal except for the leg pain.

After a few photo sessions and the usual talks we saw a lorry-train arrive at the station. Yeah don't be surprised.. it is called as a lorry-train coz it has the body of a truck/lorry and the wheels of a train :).The driver was friendly enough to let us all into the vehicle and transport us back to Sakleshpur via the same track that we trekked on just a few hours back.We were more than happy to get back in that vehicle coz its somethin we have and will never do.
Each of us had to be lifted up to get into the vehicle and once all of us were aboard we were off to one of the best rides !! It can be compared to the feeling you get while moving down slope on a roller-coaster.Adrenaline push all the way :)

There was a light drizzle and we had no roof top to guard us from the rain so we might as well enjoy till it lasts :) This vehicle was mostly used to carry the crane which is used to clear ground during land slides back to town.It was great fun scaling the entire stretch of the "green route" on top of a lorry-train.It was indeed scary when we looked down the bridges that we had crossed now from an aerial view.Ooooooooooof what if i missed just one step ? I guess that would have been my last step :(
Then after a super duper, exciting , joyful , enchanting ride we reached the Sakleshpur Railway station by late evening which marked the end of one of the best and scariest treks ever !!

If i had to describe this trek in a few words its gotta be Amazing , Enchanting , Beautiful , Scary and indeed One Of A Kind !!
That is the "Green Route" trekking for you !!

Cheers,

Pavi !! :)

P.S : This route now has a fully functional broad gauge track and trains are successfully operating connecting Hassan-Sakleshpur-Mangalore.Now i am waiting to traverse the same locations via train sometime soon :)

Guys and Gals are u readyyyyyy ??? haha :)