Night Trek and Cave Exploration at Antargange: 12-Jan, 2013

To start travelling more was one of the resolutions which I made for this year so while Facebook'ing, in news feed, I saw a new trek and first trek organized by Bangalore Trekking Club, I just registered for it without even thinking, after registering,  it just flashed that my college leaves at 4pm and I have to be at railway station within 5:30 which is impossible in Bangalore traffic and I was also worried about special classes on Sunday, at-last I left a message to Virander about my situation.  Finally the day came and for my surprise, my college let us off by 2:30 and there were no special classes on Sunday  I reached railway station around 3:30. Hurrrrr too early, I had to kill approximately 3hrs, I had a coffee, samosa, toast and was listening to music and around 5pm I messaged Virander, he said, he will reach within 15mins and he did reach. We talked for sometime later Meghraj joined us, then Chaithanya, Anthony and Dinesh and then came Ajita (not Ajithaaa :P).

We all boarded the train and reached Kolar around 8:30Pm and started hunting for food, after a long search we found a 'darshini' at Kolar Bus station, had good food and started our trek towards 'Anthara Gange',  I guess we had to walk 3kms to reach the base of 'Anthara Gange', on the way we found few people stalking us, after sometime they came towards us and told us not to spend much time there as their will be 'Dakoos' and 'Wild Animals', we thanked them for their suggestions and continued.

I don't know at what time we reached the base, I guess around 10:30Pm we reached the base. We had to climb 300 steps to reach the temple and from there we had to trek to reach caves. There were many dogs at the base, though they were aggressive at first, they became cool later, A good dog guided us, we reached the temple explored the temple for some time and started trekking towards caves, the dog was still guiding us, on the way, the view was spectacular. Never did I see such a view of town, glittered by lights in real life. It was only through photographs clicked by others I used to enjoy the beauty of them and now, it was me standing there, in real, enjoying the magic of lights through all my 6 Senses!  I stood still for few moments and enjoyed it thoroughly and made a pact not to miss any of the night treks.

We reached the caves and started exploring them, at first I though I ain't gonna sneak through the rocks, I thought I'm gonna stuck somewhere and die :| but it was not like what I thought, people around me made it easy, they were helpful, caring. We climbed, jumped, crawled, sneaked, got stuck between rocks but it was FUN, it was indeed FUN. My first experience in cave experience was amazing  On the spot I decided to do it more often.

On half the way we didn't find the path to move forward. Virander and Chaithanya ventured forward to find the path, leaving rest of us behind. Rest  5 of us sat there, we talked, talked and talked and yeah talked. Finally we couldn't find the way to move forward so we decided to come back. Though I was little(Very little, mind you!) disappointed, over all I was HAPPY. I was happy that, I found 6 new friends, I'm happy because I trekked, I'm happy because I took first step in fulfilling my resolution!

We all started descending and reached the temple by 3Am. We cut the cake, it was the tastiest cake :P I ever had, I guess because I was little hungry :P :P. Later we discussed about groups future goals, rules regulations and norms and decided to leave to catch the bus to Bangalore!

Now let me tell about my new friends:

Dinesh: Was really amazed by his energy and language skills. Learnt a lot of things which I didn't know before! Thanks a lot for that Dinesh.

Chaithanya: He made sure we all were comfortable through out trek, cracked jokes, made us laugh :D

Meghraj: another good friend whom I got through this trek, we talked about his hometown, food and stuff!

Anthony: we were sitting together in train and for whole 3hrs we talked about only Movies and Music. We share a same interest. We spoke about books too.

Viru: No words for this BRO! *makes a bro fist* An amazing organizer, takes care of all minute details, cares for everyone, good planner, over all an amazing human.

Ajita: Once again its Ajita not Ajithaaa, mind you! :P :P Ha ha what should I tell about this lady, she's just awesome! And Ajita, now please don't say 'ASTE NAA'? after reading this! :P

Overall it was an amazing trek with amazing people! Thanks a lot people for making it memorable. Looking forward for future treks. 

Written By: Prabhakar Gurumurthy

Organized By: Virander Sirohi

Date of the event: 12th-Jan, 2013

Place: Antargange