Mogala Betta on May 1st & 2nd 2010

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  Virgin Trek to Mogala Betta 

Six of us headed by Rohit, decided to venture in to the virgin trek to Mogul Betta + Devara Betta.  The team of Rohit, Guru, Puru, Sandeep, Ravi, and myself were wandering in Bengaloru Bus stand as if, we were there to survey the area, as none of us keen on finding the bus.  Later around 12.00 we found a Bus which will take us to Gundya Check post, the starting point of the trek. 

The new tarred track of shiradi ghat was in awesome condition, waiting for the rain gods, and the monstrous trucks, to put the engineers work on an acid test, reached Gundya check post around 6.30 in the morning.  I was the taste man for the hard hitting idli’s served in the refreshment zone, which eventually turned out to be my nemesis for the trek.  We had Tea, and biscuits and started moving in Rohit’s compass & map directed path.

I started feeling the effect of bullet proof idli after a walk of about 20 mins feeling restless, took rest and then moved on.   The heat of the sun was peaking slowly, with more breaks in between continued. 

At some point when we almost hit a quarter way mark, when our destination started to showing up, Sandeep and Ravi decided to turn back.  Their return from the trek was really adventurous, will come back to that.

After an initial struggle, I decided to move on with my heavy back pack.  At one point, I decided to go back in Sandeep and Ravi’s way, but there was no choice, as it was now or never situation.  Without a single drop of water in our bag, it was difficult for all of us.  Only our brave heart,  Puru, was in fittest condition.  Rohit carried my bag for some distance, many thanks to him, I was totally dead tired, I slept in the scorching sun for more than 30 minutes, when rest of the three guys was moving ahead.  Rohit call woke me up; with great difficulty I joined them.  By the time rain started heavily, since I was totally dehydrated, I slept in the heavy rains.  After about 20 minutes drenching in the rain, I regained my lost energy, and the hovering clouds on the valley ignited my passion to move on.

We started peaking again with a clear site of our destination.  Puru and Guru left me and Rohit back, and they started inching towards the peak, where myself and Rohit took the deviation towards the descent.  Guru stopped when he was about  to reach the peak due to cramp in the legs, but the hero of our trek Puru ran towards the peak and he made it to the peak. 

After rejoining, all four of us started going down the valley, we found a perfect path of dried up stream.  With fading light and torches on, we started sliding down the stream carefully.  After almost 3 to 4 hours we started hearing the noise of water on our left side.  After quenching our thirst for water, we went little further and our artificial lights also started fading, decided to rest there only for the camp fire.

Since it rained heavily all the leaves, wood were out and out wet, our struggle to put the fire went in vain, and we started getting adjusted to the pitch darkness.   I was dead tired, without taking thinking too much, I slipped in the to the sleeping bag.  Rest of the three, were didn’t sleep properly due to the showers, but I was like a dead body, slept till the morning.

After the first ray of light, we started going down the stream, soon we found a prominent trail which lead us to Gundya.

We came back the same spot where we started our trek.  After refreshments, Rohit, Who was totally tired, first time to see him in that condition, decided to head towards Bangaloru. We turned towards Kukke, and then late night bus to Bengaloru.

Coming back to Sandeep and Ravi’s saga in the forest :-

After several failed attempts to reach them, Ravi answered my call, after almost 30 hours  they decided to go back.  We were worried about their whereabouts. They were really a brave hearts, They didn’t had any compass to guide them nor the map, but still they managed to  reach the human habitation after wandering in the thick forest for almost 24 hours.  They had been to Dharmasthala and then to Bangalore. 

•  It was a memorable trek for me.
•  I learnt few lessons from my past trek to EB+OB, carried minimum weight; even then it was too    
• much for me in the dehydrated status.
•  A big thanks to Rohit, Guru, and Puru who inspired me to keep going
•  The night trek down the dried up stream in the pitch dark was really an breathtaking experience
•  This trek was even more adventurous than the never ending EB+OG trek.
•  Thanks to the rain gods, without which I would have never gained my energy back.