One day exploration trek to Kanawai Hills
Exploring treks with BTC are sure fun,
even if it means getting scratches all over your body. The name Kanawai hills
doesn't even show up when searched online except for BTC references. It
hosts the Bala Kondarayana Swamy Thirukoil (temple) and 2-3 houses at the base
on one side (with proper steps all the way to peak)
We had our usual intro session there.
Organizers Ashish Chouhan, Dinesh Yadav and Bharti re-iterated BTC policies.
Shopkeeper nearby helped us with rough way ahead to the hill. Dinesh Yadav
had bought seed-balls from previous day go-green event - we dispersed them as
we trekked.
Sun played hide and seek throughout
the day. Overall, it wasn't too hot as can be in these parts. Being first trek
as organizer, Bharti was the primary bakra to pile jokes upon.
As we neared the base, we came upon
large open grassy field. The villager overlooking his herd of sheep called to
us and advised not to proceed the way we were going. He said that this path was
full of thorny plants and trees and that our clothing was bound to be all
shredded. Given other organizers had done this route the previous week, we
still wanted to go ahead and the villager told what he knew about the path.
Pretty soon, we got a taste of thorny
challenges that would follow us all the way up to peak. It wasn't that
difficult initially. Branches and bushes to be avoided here and there, still on
legs.
Then the bad stretches started. Our
progress came to a standstill very often. Dinesh Yadav and his lieutenants did
their best to choose the way ahead as well as clearing bit of thorny branches.
Still, we had to literally crawl, using our bags as protection wherever
possible. Many a times, we didn't even have space to use our hands for support.
Despite our best efforts, we got plenty of scratches. Certain kind of clothing
were ill-suited and likely thrown away when they reached back home that day :P
The rocky clearings were a great
relief. Not only did they allow momentary change from thorns everywhere, we
could gather as group for rest, snacks and photo-shoots. Green spiders, wild
flowers and fruits, weird insects, etc. were another source of entertainment
and photography.
Our progress had same story repeated
again and again. Crawling through bad stretches sometimes took as long as half
an hour to cross about 20 meters. Often we would joke that we might have to
come back the same way, may be as bad as returning after going 90% of the way
up.
After three hours of slow going, we
finally emerged out of worst of the thorny forests. The peak was still elusive,
but we got much needed breather. And the team has to be applauded for sticking
through patiently and joking (for ex: game of thorns) during the
climb instead of complaining.
We still had another hour of climb
left. More than negotiating around thorns, we faced with finding the right way
up. For few minutes we worried we would have to go back the same way when we
hit a dead end. But we were able to find another way and finally we could see
the path to peak clearly.
The neat temple at top is nestled amidst largely bare rocky surface. A
few tiny ponds with lotus and a narrow split is re-purposed to serve as water
well. It was quite windy and lovely view all around. After bit of rest, we sat
for tasty potluck. Special thanks to those who brought sandwich, stuffed chapatti,
fruits and sweets. Monkeys surrounded us but compared to other places weren't
overly attacking.
Afterwards, we descended a short
distance to rest under the shade of a tree. Given heavy lunch and difficulties
while climbing up, we weren't in a hurry to go back. Lots of chitter-chatter
and leg-pulling.
As we took the normal stairs way back, it was lot
easier and quicker - just about 40 minutes to reach base (including breaks). We
were running short of water but then we hadn't expected the morning
difficulties.
Before starting back, we had feedback
session under the shade. Everybody expressed joy and amazement for finishing
the trek, especially the newbies. Few nice suggestions were made as well. We
filled our bottles and were on our way. Turned out that the remaining distance
to highway was always around 2-3 KMs irrespective of whom we asked along the
way. Our exhaustion showed and we took breaks often.
Finally, we did reach the highway and
spent another hour refreshing and eating along with a dose of anthakshiri.
It was getting dark but everybody was happy to rest, eat and then go instead of
rushing back. We were lucky to get a bus to stop for us, which took us till
Hosur. There yet again we bought water before catching bus back to Bengaluru.
Written By :
Sundeep Agarwal
Organized By : Dinesh Yadav, Ashish Chouhan & Bharti Karma
Date of event : 30th July 2017
Place
: Krishnagiri
Pictures : BTC FB Page
Post a Comment