Hitching About

Snowdon

2009-09-21T04:50:00.006+05:30

why do people climb mountains?
For the thrill? the adventure may be? Or just to prove their superiority (or of their kind). For many people I know, the whole thing is just silly. Why go out to such dangerous places? Leave the safety of your home and home town. and for what? all that walking and climbing and tiring yourself....

Well, I do not think so....

So this time, the target was The Snowdon! In case you don't want to google it, Snowdon is the highest peak in the whole Great Britain! With an altitude of 1,085 meters (3,560 feet) it is known for challenging cliffs and terrain for rock climbers and scramblers. Specially the Crib Goch ridge trail up to Snowdon summit is considered a real challenge. Not that I want to boast, but I have climbed higher, I have climbed tougher (arguably), but THIS was one of a kind experience and I did it all so well! (oohhkkkk. may be I want to boast just a lil bit! :D)

So, few mails were sent to gather all who were interested. Finally, it was Ashish, Tanmay, Krishna, Santosh and me. We made provisions for stay (or as they say in this country, got our "gig" sorted) at the youth hostel of Pen-Y-Pass. (How to pronounce this name, "pen waay pass" or "penny pass", I never found out. As I came to know later on,they have a different language down in Wales. Its called the Welsh language! Me thinks Welsh names are hard to pronounce and weirdly spelt. Like the names from lord of the rings!!)
And as for getting there, a five seater a car was hired and the driver, your truly, was reading and digesting the highway code and every symbol within it!
Plan was simple enough. We had to start at 3.30 AM on Saturday 8th August, reach Snowdonia National Park by 7.00 AM. find parking space in the car park of the national park to park the car(lots of parks in there). Start and Finish the trek on Saturday, stay at the youth hostel at Pen-Y-Pass and spend the Sunday at some sunny welsh beach! And that is exactly what we did. End of story....

or is it? :P

As all good things do, we started late. At 5.00 AM we were still roaming around derby, looking for a open petrol bunk and fiddling with the sat nav. There was this other confusion among us No one was sure who the driver was! This lead to everyone trying to drive and all front and back seats where full of drivers!! The rookie first timer that I was, I fell in to the vicious cycle of nag, aggravation, mistake, self-doubt, nag.... But, as soon as we hit the empty M6, the sat nav said go dead straight for several miles, I was in control! I was the pilot, the captain of that ship and I let 'em know that! But I must acknowledge the help and support I got from my crew. Without their sensors scanning and reporting all the activity in the surrounding quadrant of space, I would have had a hard(er) time steering the enterprise (we hired the car from enterprise car rental!). We took less time than the “google maps” estimates to get there.(I guess google obeys speed limits.. :P) 8.00 AM we crossed Llanberis. After a quick road side snack out of our back packs, we were parked at the pen-y-pass youth hostel. We started our climb towards the summit of Snowdon at 8.30 AM.

The map showed a scramble up the Crib Goch and then the ridge walk. Crib Goch, the peak next to Snowdon, is no place for inexperienced. After a gentle start of the ascent, the path goes almost straight up the face of the hill. This is where you need the scrambling skills. Once on top, the path goes along a very narrow ridge. Chiseled sharp by the wind and the ice the ridge gives a feeling of walking along the edge of a jagged knife! All the rocks being razor sharp and path no wider than 3 feet wide at places, one must be careful about choosing each step, each hand hold. With sharp drop of 800 (...ish) meters on either side, some people preferred crawling till they reached wider ground! To add to all this, icy wind was blowing over the ridge. Even in the summer, you would need multiple layers of clothing to keep warm. And if you were glasses, please install a set of wipers on them......

For a place of such difficulty, the ridge was awfully crowded. Mountaineering enthusiasts of all ages, sexes, shapes, sizes and weight classes can be found here. With no space to pass one another, at times there was a queue along the ridge waiting for the first crawler to move along. We took about three and a half hours to finish the complete stretch of ridges. Once we reached the slopes of the Snowdon, the terrain was quite easy. Thirsty and hungry, we kept climbing for 30 more minutes and we reached the summit of Snowdon!

And boy was it crowded! We climbed 1,085 meters only to find a train which brings few dozens of people up the mountain every 30 minutes! All the tourists the train brought crammed up the summit more than old madras road at 8.45 AM on a Monday! No wonder Snowdon is called the busiest mountain in Britain! But we didn't care! We came there to climb a mountain and climb we did! Trains and gift-shops are for the tourists!! We were sitting triamphant at the top, admiring the beautiful welsh landscape...

Trying hard to filter out all the tourist activity around me, I try to be a part of the landscape. Be a part of the nature again. Like the grazing sheep on the slope, sea gulls hovering on my head or the boulder I sat on.
Sitting in the clouds, I look at the rugged mountains, the curvy valleys. The water rushing downhill and the grass swaying with the wind. Silence fell upon me. I didn't want to describe it to myself. I didn't want to move. I didn't want to go home. I just wanted to be there and be there alone.....

Why do we climb mountains?

We climb them to be belittled. Not to conquer them, but to be conquered.. To realize that we are just a part in this contraption of universe. We may have managed to gather more than what is need for survival. We may be smart enough to have invented the wheel, built roads and waged wars. But we are no more than the pieces of dominoes tumbling one after the one before...

The Day I Almost Died

2009-01-31T00:11:00.006+05:30

24th January 2009 about 3 in the afternoon
Anjuna beach in Goa

I almost drowned while trying to swim to this rock some 100/ 150 meters in the sea....
saved by a friend and fellow swimmer and a rock half way across
my life did not flash in front of my eyes.
i did not see myself walking in to the light.
but i know what it feels like..
what it feels like to sink...
when all you ask for, is the next breath.

Beached! - Part 3

2009-01-09T23:16:00.010+05:30

contd..

Way off course on Belikan beach, a fellow called Manju, his eyes saying I gotta be mad, agreed to drop me at the next village along the bank of the river. It took me some effort to make him understand that I wanted to "walk" all the way to Dhareshwar and not take the bus and that I was going to stay in a tent on the beach and that I was alone! From the village, he informed, I can cross the river by a "dinghy" and then find my way to the beach.

So there I was. On the docks of fishing port of village “Tadadi”. All my gear, cloths and unfamiliarity with the language, was working like a charm. It was like "OUTSIDER!" tattooed on my forehead. everywhere I went, I attracted "looks" from people. not necessarily hostile, but looks saying "what the heck is that!?". I stashed my camera just to "sober up" to the environs.

Now, at the docks, there were boats tied. fishing boats. Heaps of fish being cleaned and shoveled into craters with ice. Mounds of fishing nets piled up against every boat. everything smelled like fish and something smelled fishy.

I had to locate the ferry boat now. Asked a some people to no avail. There was this guy "cleaning" fish close to the boats. I went to him with my query. He was completely involved in the job in the hand.

take a fish.....knife in....guts out.....fish in the box........

take a fish.....knife in....guts out.....fish in the box..........

must be a rrreall sharp knife, I found my self thinking.

"aahhhh, sir, ye, woh.... ferry boat kahannnn aataa hai?", yours truly, sentence fading into a mumble.

"hannnnnn!??" a lookful question and take a fish.....knife in....guts out.....fish in the box........

"woh ferry boat, who...cross karna hai." with apt gestures of my propped up confidence...

take a fish.....knife in....guts out.....Pause.....a nod and wave of the knife hand.....fish in the box

I took the clue and made my way.

eyes on my back (I felt them!).....take a fish.....knife in..........

Let me make one thing clear.

None of these people meant any harm to me. I wasn't in a stick-up, wasn't being mugged nor was I in a very terrible place. but doubt, fear and paranoia are very potent operators in human mind.

like friends and family who doubted if I could endure this journey.

fear of my “well wishers” for my safety while traveling alone.

my own paranoia that I may have to face some evil concealed in innocence.

this doubt, this paranoia, wrenches your mind to think wicked things. Makes fear the shadows for no reason. trust no stranger, beware of the unknown. triggering a defensive posture. and facing these demons was what i wanted to do. fight the fear we live in, believe in goodness in this world, or find it for that matter...

but i found it hard to do. now, i understood why we have security personnel posted every corner. why we don't let our children talk to strangers. why we have a dozen security checks at the airport. All that perceived danger and threats and fear we live in, its coming naught from a “foreign hand” but it oozing out right from our innards.

as i was about to realize, this paranoia wasn't unilateral. the locals harbored similar feelings for me. I was waiting for the ferry and people started to gather for the ferry to Aganashi village. I asked several people about path for the beach. some said that the path is too long for me to make it before dark. some said there is no path. there were even some fellow who said there is no beach! I was asked what religion I was of. By “both” sides. And strategies to deal with this intruder (me) were formulated accordingly. It was quite an experience to watch that psycho-social dynamics and things that affected interaction between people in our country. For moment there, I could withdraw myself from being a pawn in that game and just feel what really was going on, holistically yet incompletely, Clearly but nothing I could pinpoint.

on the dinghy an elderly gentleman struck up a conversation with me. sitting right by my side, he tapped my shoulder, leaned towards me and irrespective of the closeness, spoke quite loudly, "kahannn se aaye ho?". I was relieved to hear some clear hindi. his expressions, he could hardly hide. he was intrigued that a guy is traveling alone in unknown country and he could sense that i was scared. he was trying to be sympathetic, smiling and hiding it all at the same time! he asked where i was from and where i wanted to go. when i explained that i intended to walk all the way along the sea shore, he asked me with genuine curiosity, "itana chalke kyun jaana hai?". why do (you) want to walk so much?

I had no answer! until that moment, I never asked that question to myself. I found myself completely blank. and he found a new smirk! I blurted out some lame excuse about how its hard to get exercise in the big city where i come from. but I understood, that no explanation I can give, will be rational to him.

the people living here, place which we regard as places of great natural beauty, calm and serenity. It is all second nature to them! watching a sunset on Arabian sea with waves breaking on the shore rocks is something so well known, that its no longer valued.

after he pardoned me for my foolishness, ignorance and for being from a city, he gave me directions for the beach. "go straight along that hedge, turn right and climb a little, you will find some rocks, cross them and then walk along the shore on tracks made by cattle", he told me.

"Okayyyy, how far is it?", I was actually expecting an answer in kilometers (silly me!).

"I don't really know. I have never been beyond those rocks!", the answer.

and it was just an answer. not regret, no shame, not trying to hide anything. he lived all his life in that village, and never crossed the borders to venture into the wilderness that neighbored his home!?

I was absolutely flabbergasted. Am I to laugh? or Cry? is it a good thing or bad? for a moment or two I had no idea what to think of it...

"so, why ARE you walking?", he shot the question again.

"uh!?...", my face must have been really stupid at this point.

a shrug from me and he waved his hand and it was all good. we found the "mutual" understanding that we didn't understand each other! and hence, can not judge each other either. two people, alien to each others purposes and ways agreed to let it be.

Once on the shore, with my anxiety about finding the beach and camping safely increasing all along, The elderly guy (should have gotten his name) yelled to a fellow and said something pointing at me. the guy nodded and i was told to follow him, as he knew the way to the beach and agreed to guide me. we exchanged goodbyes and parted our ways for good.

may he live in his world happily ever after!

My new companion was a man of few words. We crossed the hedge, crossed the rocks. and were on the climb now. sun had set and the twilight was lingering to go. i could sense that i was not to make it to the beach before night fall. i asked my guide how far the beach was. he spoke, at last, in hindi mixed with konkani. he told me, the beach is reachable by a trail going downwards, right after a few trees. but it will be dark there and he would be going straight to his village on the other side of hill. In other words I was on my own, if i chose to go to the beach. For an option, he offered me to come with him and stay at his home. Which meant walking quite a bit more. I could figure out by the description that he was talking about the Sangam beach and thats where his house must be. sangam beach was my next day target. but given the situation, i decided to go with him to his place and we kept walking.

it was dark by this time.

it was also in the middle of no where.

i was tired.

i was paranoid-ish. No, I was paranoid.

and i was following a complete stranger into strange place.

doubts......!

what was i thinking? or was i thinking at all? i mean, this guy could have taken me to any place!? could have done any kind of harm to me and i could have done nothing about it! I felt very insecure and was plotting schemes for self defense!

in retrospect i feel guilty about thinking all that. The same stranger, was leading me to his home. where his wife and sister lived. HE was leading a complete stranger to his home and didn't seem to have any doubts about it. didn't seem to put conditions on me or interrogate me about my intentions. he didn't even say a thing!

i realized all this, of course, after we reached his home. his wife greeted us with a smile and vanished in the house in a hurry after some instructions from him. Obedient “bharatiya nari”....

his name was Purandhar Deshbhandari. He was a farmer, and stayed in here, in the village Birkodi. And I have no words to describe how relieved I was. Relieved and ashamed and exhausted from running away from ghosts in my mind. I was treated with a glass of hot tea, potato wafers and laddu! All with no fuss, no tourist treatment. Just a guest in the household. We finished the tea while iterating the same talk about why I was walking. Purandhar's wife asked me, if I was writing a book. I said no and wondered if I should explain the blogging affair. But I was weird enough for them already.

Now, it was Mrs. Purandhars turn to give orders. With my little understanding of konkani (which is close to Marathi), I understood she was asking him to go out and buy some groceries. we just came in after a walk of about 3 km, and by the looks of the surroundings, nearest shop must not be very close. But Mr. Purandhar obliged without a word, in fact showed signs of obedience towards his wife. He left me in the porch of his house, while his wife was working in the kitchen and sister watching TV! (Recall the complete stranger chain of thoughts........)

while he was doing that, I found a new friend to play with. a little puppy dog they had, named Tipu! Tipu was real well behaved and friendly dog. This was another surprise considering my experience with dogs in Bangalore at night!

He came back after a while with a bag of goodies. goodies went to kitchen and he busied himself with the some electrical wire. later I realized, he was arranging lights for the shack where i was supposed to live! Here is a pic of that place

All this time, we had minimum conversation. May be because I was tired and the guys didn't want to stress me or may be just because we were not very good at each others languages. But that didn't stop him from helping me!

Again, this was a strange thing for me. One who boasted to be hailing from a big city of civilized people. supposedly better off than the people on countryside. what part of me or my existence was better than them? nothing! I KNOW this by my first hand experience. I came from a world where people were segregated according to their language, colour, religion and what not. And out here, in the middle of no where. I was witnessing something of a miracle, where people were still regarding other people as people.

there was a sadistic part of me still wriggling its filthy self around my thoughts. asking meself, what do these people want from me? money it must be. or may be they think I was some famous book writer or something and helping me would make them famous. I literally had to fight these thoughts away...

was I to believe my eyes and my perceptions of genuineness of my hosts?

or was I to believe in my prejudices about strangers? And I must say, those are based on the world I experienced so far.

Believe in good or at least find it..... then find it I will! And Find I did!!

Dinner was served on a stone table in the garden. I wouldn't care mentioning what was the menu. It would be insulting to label it with anything. We ate our dinner in almost complete silence. Except Mrs. Purandhars requests to have some more and of course, the ocean right behind us! Full stomach .and fuller heart, I was escorted to my high mansion. Before i knew it myself, I was deep in sleep. And so i remained till the first light of the day. Mr. And Mrs. Purandhar were already up and running. Cleaning the yard, feeding the chicken, fire up the stove, preparing breakfast. All with perfect bliss or so it seemed. After I brushed and freshened up, I was called to porch for breakfast. Glass of tea, plate full of dosas with some achar and suger! Did I love it or did I love it! Purandhar asked me what my plans were while we ate. Topped up with optimism for humanity from them, I told him I was resolved to go on walking. He said fine and gave me directions to the bus stop. Just in case!!

I was given an all smiles farewell, after of course, Purandhars denied the payment I offered....

I am eternally thankful to these people! As people like these exist, we may still have a chance!

and so I walked on, along the shore, along the beaches, across the hills and boulders. met more people. experienced more things. none went deeper than these few hours. I reached the end of my trek and knew that I still had along way to go........

the end..

View Gokarna trek path in a larger map

Beached! - Part 2

2009-01-08T12:11:00.011+05:30

contd..........

I boarded a VRL bus on 31^st evening from Bangalore. Obviously, my 2009 started on the upper birth of a not so smooth bus ride to Gokarna. After enjoying 12 hours of bouncy comfort of my “birth” in the bus, I finally got to Gokarna. Quite a vibrant place for a pilgrimage and It seems to attract foreigners a lot. Without spending much time in the town or the market, which I must admit would have been fun, I hit the Gokarna beach.

This was starting point of my journey. The beach wasnt exactly empty, but if you are familiar with Dadar and Girgaon choupati (only), this might seem deserted!

After a quick breakfast in a beach side restaurant, I started walking for the Kudle beach. Path to Kudle beach took the ocean out of sight for a while. But I reached the beach in no time. In stark contrast with Gokarna beach, Kudle beach was mostly populated by foreigners.

Here, I made my first stop to admire the ocean. Just sat on the sand, soaking in the sun and sound of ocean. I got myself rigged for the long walk to come. Made a make shift sling to hang my tent from the shoulder, got my camera out and loaded it up on the front for easy access and secured the tripod to my backpack. With shoes in my hand, I crossed the Kudle beach with waves washing up my feet.

There is some hilly terrain you need to cross before you get to Om beach. Path is well trodden and there is high chance that you will find someone going to or coming from om. Locals are helpful enough to show you the road. You just have to make sure that they understand your intention of walking to the place and not take the easier route.

A hike over the hill and I got the first glimpse of the beach! It is peculiarly shaped and crowded too. After Gokarna this beach is well connected by roads. Naturally, lot of Indian and foreign crowd.

On Om I ran into bunch of guys and gals from Bangalore. We were on the same bus but went our separate ways after Gokarna. They were all the way from Nepal and studied and worked part time in Bangalore. And did I mention they were all the way from Nepal?

The path Om to Half moon beach is again slightly difficult but not impossible. There is this part where you have to walk along a ridge on the mountain side. Cliff and ocean on one side and 80 degree climb on the other. That, was real fun!

Half moon beach wasn't much of an attraction. Perhaps because oh high tide, but it was mostly rocky. I passed on quickly.

Way from half moon to paradise was even trickier. You have to walk along sea shore full of rocks, nay, boulders. with no clear way to go through. The 20 kg of wight dangling form my torso made it quite a circus. If you slip and fall....

On a second thought, dont slip and fall!

Even when I was making my way through this rocky, watery and slippery place, I met a foreign dudette! She confirmed with a smile that I was indeed on my way to paradise. And I should just keep going ahead to get there. Now in retrospect, I think that it might have been a hallucination!

Paradise beach, same story as half moon. Mostly foreigners and high tide! I rested in a shack there with a “nimbu paani”. I looked in my watch and to my surprise, I had made it from Om to Paradise in under forty minutes! Was I quick or what? I know a few guys back at home, who would be glad to know that I have improved on my physical endurance.You readin this guys!?

My next challenge was to get a ferry to Barka beach. Barka beach is separated from paradise by mouth of Aganashini river. There was no way, I could have continued on this trip without a boat ride to Barka. Fortunately, there was another group, who wanted to go to Belikan beach and I managed to convince their boat driver(?) guy to drop me at Barka. Now that, wasn't as easy as typing it is! He started with a whooping Rs. 500! I had to use my excellent skills of persuation get him down to 50 bucks!

So, we all got on the boat and left paradise and the actual captain of the boat, refused to take me to Barka! He said the waves were too big for a safe beach landing. With no other option. I followed the rest of the passangers to Belikan beach.

Now...

I targeted to reach Barka by 4.30 PM, owing to sundown at around 6.00 PM.

Now......

Sun was sinking fast towards the Arabian sea, I was still on Gokarna side of Aganashini, I had no provision in my plan for this situation and of course, I had no Idea how I was going to Proceed!

Now.........

My journey, had just began..................................

Beached! - Part 1

2009-01-07T12:03:00.014+05:30

A BEACH TREK FROM GOKARNA TO DHARESHWARA

What do you do on weekends? Did you celebrate the new years eve? How about a Christmas party?

I am sure you had some fun with your friends and family on such occasions. Laid back, relaxed kinda fun. I on the other hand, did something entirely different, completely bizarre!

So there was this holiday from 1^st to 4^th Jan 2009. and here is an account of what i did in those days...

The plan was simple.

Day 1
- Get to Gokarna
- Hit the Gokarna Beach to start the trek
- Go to Kudle beach
- Om Beach
- Half moon Beach
- Paradise beach
- Take a ferry to cross the mouth of Aganashini river and reach Barka beach
- Camp at Barka beach for night
Day 2
- cross the adjacent hill to land on Sangam beach
- trek along the Sangam beach to reach Kadle beach
- cross the hills and few beaches to reach Dhareshwara Beach
- bus back to Bengaluru!

Simple isn't it? :)

Just to make it Little challenging i decided to do it alone!

I did some research before I landed on this plan. Here are some links which I found useful

http://usandeep.com/trekking/gokarna.html

http://travel.sulekha.com/india/andhra-pradesh/travelogue/3431.htm

http://mojosday.blogspot.com/2006/11/gokarna-trek-official-log.html

http://manjlanata.livejournal.com/42718.html

http://bharata.sulekha.com/blog/post/2005/11/beach-trek-ankola-to-gokarna.htm

http://bharata.sulekha.com/blog/post/2006/02/beach-trek-gokarna-to-honnavar.htm

To make sure that one could camp on the beaches, I mailed my query to Bharata Rao. With a prompt reply from Bharata it was clear that one could camp on the beaches. But he was a bit skeptical about camping alone for obvious safety reasons. So I gave it a real deep thought, and came to conclude, “Heck! There is only one way to find out for sure if it is safe or not!”

So, I started packing my bags......