Makalidurga Night Trek

It was my first trek with BTC and it was one of the brilliant night treks.

Starting the travel by train to reach Makalidurga which is located at 60kms Bangalore, took an hour and half to reach the place. When we hopped on the platform it was evening around 7 30pm. A brief intro round to know our fellow trekkers started our journey to the rocky mountain. Crossing the railway track, jumping of the bushes amidst two huge mountains guided the way for us to the fort - 'Makalidurga'. 

Being in a team of twenty, climbing to conquer the peak at night is always a fun. A torch in a hand and rarely visible arrow marks lead us the way. It was an easy terrain to trek, for first timers it would still be little tough. Even a slight miss of track would send on a wild goose chase, thanks to our trek captain who never got us into that situation. On the way to peak the chillness was picking up its strength so the uphill trek and the chillness kept us none dehydrated also our energy levels high. Meanwhile, something more interesting was we found a Saw-scaled viper which made us think twice before we sit to take rest. Few meters below the peak we reached an area surrounded by trees all over, and we were kind of off-track, but hold on! Our trek lead and other senior member divided themselves into a team of two and headed to find the way as we were waiting. In less than a minute we were on track. Then the peak was peekaboo, but I should not forget to mention before reaching peak we got to climb a place where wind and souls met!! Ha Ha... Yes that was the place where you go stand and open your hands wide, put your chest out and say Whooooo!!!! 

It took couple of hours to get on the peak. The iciness was forgotten because we were hungry, meaning we need food, meaning we need wood - for fire. So we went in search of dead and dry stocks of wood and not harming any plants alive. Team effort got us a heavy lot of wood and with all deeds we got the fire on. Gazing stars at night and the camp-fire is always a treat to watch and what not it’s a sign to start enjoying. We cooked maggies, oats, soups and coffees and filled our bowels. By then, the weather had lost its sympathy on us and we were like typically in a refrigerator. Some slept, some sang, some walked while some danced awaiting daybreak to head back down. While dawn was an hour far the wood stocks were about to end to increase our misery. Then every small stick, every dead leaf came to our rescue!! Yaahh, only nature can save us from nature.

We started morning around 5am leaving the frigidity behind and taking the memories down with us. On the way back we watched the glorious sun rise between the mountain ranges. Again to railway tracks and train station we stopped to share few experiences of the trek with new people and BTC before the train arrived. A last group pic concluded the trip and we boarded the train back to busy Bangalore to end the trek.

Thanks to BTC for very well planned and well guided night trek. Organizers were very responsible enough to handle any situation there. They were seen leading the group from front and trailing from back end ensuring no ones left out. Over all I rather we had an awesome trexperience. 

Written By     : Anup Veerapur

Organized By : Monisha and Vikram

Date of event : 14th Mar, 2015

Place              : Makalidurga

Pictures          : BTC FB Page