“We had to survive in the wild!”
That was the first thought which came to my
mind was when we finally managed to reach the Kumara Parvata after a tough
climb.We were completely drained out. The Pushpagiri peak is completely barren
save a few stretches with bushes. On the peak is a primitively built stone
temple dedicated to Lord Shiva.
We scouted for a clearing
sheltered by bushes to camp, to put up our tents, rest our aching limbs and
wait for our fellow trekkers. They arrived one by one tired, relieved and
exhilarated at the same time on having finally reached the summit.
By then all of us were so
hungry that we could have eaten the raw vegetation around us… Thankfully, we
had carried enough food with us. We
gorged on chapatis with chatnipudi, ghee, ketchup and HaldiramNamkeens!! It was
one of the tastiest meals I ever had! After this simple but filling lunch, a
few guys went around to search for and gather firewood for the night.
Gathering firewood is
also an art… Not all wood is fit for burning. Some logs have too high moisture
content to be fit for burning and some others burn out in no time. Thankfully,
we had enough experienced people to tell us the what and how of this life in
the wilderness!
After the firewood, it
was time to refill our empty waterbottles. At the start of the ascend, each one
of us had at least 2 liters of water… However, then, at the summit after lunch
we had exactly 3 one litre bottles left for an army of 19 trekkers! An hour was
still left for the sun to end its journey on our side of the planet. The source
of potable water was a kilometre away from where we were camping. On went 7 of
us armed with as many water bottles as we can carry. We had carried around
10-12 one litre bottles and 3 two litre bottles.
After a short trek we
reached a rocky barren slope where water was trickling in a few centimeter wide
streams. Judging by the speed of the water flow, we could have easily taken 5
days to fill 15 litres of water! A couple of trekkers were actually filling
water from the same stream! We were perplexed. Water was a necessity. We needed
it for the entire night and for the next day too. It was then that we came to
know that the water formed a small pond a couple of feet across, at the foot of
the slope on top of which we were then standing…
Thus began the real
struggle to acquire the “elixir of life”. One of us went sliding down the steep
rocky slope. We all threw our water bottles to him… And then we enjoyed a
natural slide to the base of the slope! That time we were not thinking of
coming back up… All we wanted was water…and getting it was no mean feat! We
descended for another 5 minutes and finally came across a pond, which held
potable water. It was then that I experienced the amazing feeling of spotting
water amidst the forests and barren land, to quench our parched throats and
soak our dirty aching limbs into the cool liquid!
We had slid down a rocky
and very steep incline to fill water… Now we had to go back again! Coming down
was a cakewalk. We did not have any water and it was a descent after all! But
we had to go up again…!
So there we were 7 people
lying flat over the slope in a chain that reached from the base of the slope to
the top, as we passed the water bottles upwards! Talking of Teamwork! We
actually enjoyed the game of passing water bottles over to each other along the
difficult incline… The effort truly opened our eyes to the value of water… For
a few seconds, I thought of those unfortunate souls in the world that had to
travel miles to bring home a pot of water and shuddered!
Now we had enough water,
food, firewood and shelter and we were prepared to get a taste of a night at
the top of a mountain, under the open sky!
…To be continued.
At the top of the mountain
From the top of KP
Setting up the tent
(Photographs courtesy Anindya Das)
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