Makalidurga Full Moon Trek

Makalidurga fort exploration on a full moon day; I guess nothing gets better. No words would never be sufficient to describe how splendid nature gets showing its true colours to those who head towards exploring it genuinely.

It was a very usual Saturday morning on April 4th, 2015 but evening, I knew would never be a usual one. We were to embark on to a journey which I claim myself ( I don’t require any one’s permission; do I ? :P ) as one of the beautiful night treks I have ever done ( this trek being my first night trek :D :D ). Though 22 BTC trekkers had registered, the number finally came down to 14.

As usual, we have to first meet at the spot mentioned by our Mr. Organizer i.e., Viru and Ramya. They have asked us to get to Canara bank ATM but as I never actually entered the bus stand to know places ( I always walked from the signal as that is faster ), I had to meet them directly in the railway station on platform no. 9 where I firstly saw Mr. Bing (Mithun)  and then Virander and rest of the gang.

We soon caught the train and what do you expect the train to do ? It headed headed towards our destination. But in the one hour span we had, we made a hell out of the situation ( but in a good way ) where our dumb charades had to be given adult rating for our Mr. No’s actions ( Sagar :D :P ), our voices were getting louder but with all this, our bonds started to grow.

We then got down at Makalidurga station; it was night; and we had to head towards some street light to start our introduction. There were few first time trekkers with BTC; Milind, Amit and etc. :P ( if I am not wrong ).  And as we started with our intro’s; we saw Night Trekkers gang trying to start their trek towards Makalidurga, on seeing which, all our introductions were stopped and we just had to start the trek for avoiding delays during the trek caused due to other gangs. So our introduction had to end after we summited the peak.

Oh BTW, Milind has lots of sweet paranthas; I had choco dips and oranges; Viru had water ( lots and lots of water ); Mithun had chocolates; Ganesh had something which I don’t remember and many had everything that is shared by all of us but I didn’t realize where it came from( Sorry guys but still thanks ). I remember someone brought cake too ( might be one of Sushma, Prince, kissssslay, amit, pradip, dinesh :P ).

We have reached the base at around 2015 hrs and it took almost two hours for us to reach the peak. We climbed the boulders, narrow stretches of grassy paths ( the road less taken ) and it is only after climbing half the hill, we realized we were taking the less travelled path. Very soon we got to the normal track and headed towards the peak. Our first time organizer for the BTC event, Ms. Ramya was very much leading from behind with Mr. Amit making all his efforts to regain his breathe and start climbing all along until he finally reached the node. All this while, we were slowly feeling the moon light taking over our torches in intensity and by the time we reached the top, it was almost a very big zero watt bulb that was illuminating the entire sky. The view from the edge of the cliff was amazingly breath taking. 

We very soon headed towards collecting fire wood ( just kidding, it was normal wood ); to make hot water and within half an hour, every one of us started having cup noodles; followed by making the camp fire, which was only for a while; but as it wasn’t the normal everyday, even the temperature wasn’t too cool.

Then started the best part after 2300 hrs where we had all the time in the world to catch a glimpse of the nature. We heard stories of Virander’s Street Bob, his spiti valley expeditionst to Milind’s 25+ years experience in trekking. Dunno when, but slowly Amit slept and then within a while, Viru slept. We then had to kill the time and while having pass pass, we all started dancing. Wait a minute, it was never dance that we did. We were just busy making joker out of ourselves. Very soon, Mr.  Milind has started to shake his legssssssss :D and we were even more busy getting closer to being a joker than ever. We did bhangda, garba, hip-hop, break dance, mud dance, salsa; what not, everything. And we then had some very deep beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep discussion (*not to be mentioned here*).  These few hours brought us bit more closer; such was that beep discussion :D :D.

We talked to our heart, headed out on a small chatter walk for a while and then there came BANG. On lots of tries, finally we made fire in a very windy atmosphere; a salted cofeee in the making :D. I never drank such a wonderful coffee ( not sarcasm, NO !! ). It was brilliant. We were able to feel salt, coffee and the milk as separate entities. Ramya gets all the credit for this stuff. Just brilliant. :D :D 

It was 0430 hrs as we descended the fort. We passed through the scenic views which you only can experience; the lake view with the moon light that seemed like gazing just the surface of water ), the passing train; the passing clouds over the moon ( the harry potter dementor style ) and by 0630, we have reached the base where we saw the rising red sun. The trek had never come to an end, for it was marking just the beginning of the life long journey filled with amusement, excitement, adventure and a resplendent journey ahead.

With the memories of NO NO NO NO ( just 4 times :P :P ), and a short fellow NO ( hey organizer, has that person not grown yet :P ), to a friend who should not be trusted; the un-noticed 14th guy ( one of our bestest photographer ); the only selfieeees man and then to a marriage that ended before it even started; I cherish and render all this wealth of joy into everyone’s lives so long as the stars glitter in the sky and so long we live to experience what Mother Nature truly holds for us, just a big thank you for bearing me :D. Bye-Bye my fellow trekkers. Keep trekking. Stay Healthy, stay fit. 

Written By     : pv aditya

Organized By : Ramya & Virander

Date of event : 4th Apr, 2015

Place              : Makalidurga

Pictures          : BTC FB Page