Chambara beckons Ananth,

Chambara beckons Ananth,

Chambara beckons Ananth, The start was just like any other trek, but none of the trekkers knew what was in stock, for them, on the morrow’s trek. An article in a Kannada weekly SUDHA, somewhere in 1999 triggered the thirst to scale the Chambara peak in "Swamy", (The leader of the expedition) what blossomed post that is unveiled below.

The Start,Myself, Swamy (Former YHAI Trek Organizer), and the other 6 Men boarded Raja Hamsa of the KSRTC, heading towards Calicut. It was a typical Swamy's (Associated with KMA) way of organizing a trek. Well-informed and well-organized start. The trekkers were briefed about the proceedings and the backpacking etiquettes well in advance. Few had dinner and a few just Chaay during the journey breaks on board Raja Hamsa; all in all we had a fairly nice journey. After getting down from the bus, few had Chaay, few displayed their camera focusing antics, and few lazy ones like Ananth decided rest when u get idle time and slept. We then hired a jeep, my negotiation skills came in to act, we got a fair deal and we headed towards the base of the peak. A journey through the gorgeous green Tea and Coffee estates of Wynaad - Kerala and a pleasant weather, it had all the makings of a nice start.

Base Camp / Nostalgia / MasalaWe reached the base of the peak and organized ourselves for the ordeal. Jeep that carried us was sent back and asked to return next day morning at 9:00 AM. Cameras and cell phones made their presence felt and few expert opinions and the counters for the same were floating on various issues ranging from Cell Phones to future babies to A K Anthony and Sonia Gandhi. Earlier, (2- 3 years back) whenever we reached remote places, we used to pull each other, saying we would be having STD booths after this peak, well, One need not have STD / PCO’s any more we carry the cell phone in our hand and pockets now. Most of them by now were checking their signals on their respective cell phones and passing expert comments on the same, few apparently made a call to their houses and spouses and of course did get a few calls back, may be few suggestions and guidelines :). Cell phones did start making some unpleasant noise in the otherwise serene eco system. Well, we were on the base of the peak, but less did any participant realize the ordeal and the fun ahead, and the nescience of the place and language to all the 8, made it even more curious and eager.

The Trek BeginsWe started and headed towards the forest watch tower either side of the path were serene green tea plantations, about 400 M in to the trek we saw a man approaching us with a typical colorful Malayali Lungi (Red Pink Maroon, and a few more colors), we presumed him to be a localite, but he asked for a forest entry permission, he identified himself as a Forest officer / guard, with broken English and hard core Malayalam. He gave us the guidelines for the route and trek in his Malayalam and broken English, we all assumed and presumed (emperor’s new clothes kind) that we understood every thing and started. We followed the path (Jeepable route) suggested by that Malayali forest officer for about a Kilometer and realized it was going down hill and we are supposed to climb the peak.

Turning Point We then saw a small path heading upwards and decided to take that route 2 nutty trekkers went first and gave a confirmation that there was a route going upwards. The route did lead us upwards but after 15 minutes of confusion in that path leading upwards, we met the dead end in that route. Shrubs, Trees, Elephant Grass, slippery mud you name it. It had every thing of a thick jungle, the group turned towards me (Ananth) and Swamy It was decided Ananth and Chinmay should go and search the route. Being a hard-core trekker myself and fairly experienced, blended with age and maturity the duo treaded up with caution in search of the path. But Chambara posed all the treats that any trekker would dream of, treacherous paths, slippery grass, Rocks without holds.

The ordeal had begun
Again a dead end stopped the trekkers and were stranded on a place which gave no clue on the where abouts of the place and how abouts of the path ahead. Thick jungle covered with shrubs, trees and wind at a high speed on the outside, hey that’s not all, Leeches made their way in through the trousers and socks till the undergarments. Undeterred by all these, the trekkers made their own way and moved further up. After negotiating through hard, treacherous height gaining exercise through a jungle, which offered least of the assistance, the trekkers reached a place where not many options were there. Deep valley on either side, thorny bushes, and covered by elephant grass making it virtually impossible to know where would be the next foot landing - on the thorns or slip to the valley. I reached a precarious spot returned back and explained the scenario to Swamy the leader of the expedition, after seeing the place followed by some discussions and consultations Swamy signaled green for that path. The trekkers realized soon that there would be a repeat of precarious tread again. It was any trekkers delight to be confronted with such situations twice.

The gut feeling of some trekkers, backed by awesome experience in handling such situation by Ananth and Swamy. Few Trekkers, who by now had realized the ordeal and the skills of Ananth and Swamy, made the balancing act by being with rear bunch and helping them out. Ananth, Chinmay and Swamy made the front bunch for most part of the trek and explored safe routes towards the destination. It was after this, Swamy said Ananth, we should be getting the actual path some where after traversing these peaks. His words came true after 30 minutes of misleading grass paths and I first saw the path to Chambara peak and 15 minutes in to the trek after finding the path, we saw Chambara peak standing tall and high. We also came across a lake (an oasis), which was in the shape of a heart; few christened it Love Lake and few Lucky Lake. It was decided that we should be camping at this spot after the summit. Chambara scaled - Saturday, 27th Nov 2004Chambara had one more thing in the kitty, it portrayed as though the last stretched cannot be climbed, it was steep and edgy. We were asked to sit and relax on the base for almost 1 hour, but then few NSS students of Kerala started climbing the peak, we followed and in the true spirits of a leader Swamy stayed back at the base of the peak and let the team summit the peak. I Summitted the peak ahead of all the packs of trekkers available on that day and was calm and composed atop Chambara enjoying the high speed winds and serene beauty of nature.

There were photo sessions and we started descending down. We camped near the oasis lake or the Love lake or the lake in the shape of the LOVE HEART J. It was an awesome experience. It has to be experienced than written as plain text, Tents pitched on elephant grass, made the coolest of beds, high speed wind, gave us the floating experience, Moon light showered rays of pleasant light, Swamy cooked MTR fast food, I displayed my camera works, and lent my voice with some nice songs, few shared their experiences and dialogues, raised their opinions on various issues and a few pickled in all issues.

Nature Honors and Rewards As though a blessing to my efforts, I had the privelege of experiencing the midnight moonlight and the gale winds. The next day we were treated by Swamy for the awsome effort, we went sight seeing - places of interest like, Edakkal caves and SujiPora Falls, we had a very cooperative and enterprising jeep drivers who helped us reach the bus stop and we headed back to Bangalore. We had a bit of an issue in getting buses back to Bangalore or even Mysore or Gundlupet / Nanjangud. We hired a Jeep, it came with a price tag, no negotiations were the mantra we followed. The jeep driver agreed for Nanjangud and we convinced him up to Mysore for an extra thousand. The curtains were slowly descending down on a wonderful trek. We reached Bangalore, around 12:00 mid night and headed towards our houses with loads of adventurous and unforgettable memories.
Ananth the Parvatharohi