(Couple of beautiful girls in the above pic, keep searching!)
The total surface area of the peak is very less and most of the suitable ground was already occupied by other groups who had reached the top earlier.
(Akshay, Avinash, Diganth, Shivu, Vjay, Guru)
We had to pay the price for being the last set of trekking boys for the day! Finding no other place to settle we decided to set up both the tents in the rock filled, grass grown slopy terrain as visible in the above picture (only one tent shown).
Shivu and Akshay had learnt the basics of setting up the tent a day earlier! With their expertize we managed to get the tent up and ready to use in hardly few minutes! phew... that was quick. Tent has four legs which needs to be firmly pointed in 4 opposite directions. It needs to be covered with water proof cover to protect from rain, mist etc. The grey colour cloth over the yellow coloured tent in the image below is the waterproof cover I am talking about.
With all set in place we had plenty of time at the peak to enjoy the sunset!
In the pic above you can see the sun rays penetrating the bed of clouds. It was beautiful sight.
It was not a dark sight after sunset as it was 27th Feb evening, one day before Full Moon! When moonlight started dominating we entered one of the tents to play cards. Tent was fully packed with six of us and the food stuffs. There was hardly any place to move. Moreover we had to settle our ass on top of grassy, rocky slope within the tent. With all the circus we played cards for morethan an hour.
(Taken in between gambling!)
Earlier trekking on the way we had picked up a heavy log of wood and carried all the way to the peak! Yea... you guessed it right!We had planned to set up a campfire at the top. We also had carried petrol all the way! But it never got materialized!!! Lack of space can easily be blamed for it! All the effort to carry the wood all the way sounds funny....as wood was available readily in the peak and we never used it!
Anyways....after the game of cards we had a satisfying dinner with chapathi and jam. As we were tired we decided to log off early around 9PM itself. Guru, Shivu and VJ opted to be partners to stay in one tent! and rest in the other. Now the real fun began...
The surface inside the tent was is such a bad shape it was impossible for all three of us to settle in! On top of that it was slightly windy at the top. We spent some time repositioning the tent so that the uneven surface can be taken care of! We tried it for some time but in vain. The tent was big enough just to fit in three of us. Once you settle your back on the slopy floor you dare not move from that position or else it would take god knows how long to adjust!!! Diganth was the most badly hit victim inside out tent followed by Akshay and ten myself. Diganth was awake almost most part of the night.He used to ask every few minutes for the time to check if any of us was awake! He in fact went outside the tent for around 4 AM in the morning accompanied by a local breed of dog which was the roaming around the peak!!! During the night we could here snoring sound from the other tent.... wonder who it was!!!
All of us were awake by 6AM. VJ was the only person to respect nature's call early in the morning. Rest of us did wait for the right time! then we had a small photo session in the morning. Long night inside the tent filled with rocks and bushes was the topic of discussion...! It was indeed an amazing night out at Tadiyandamol.
FYI: Tadiyandamol means highest peak in Kodava language and it is 2nd highest peak in Karnataka!
1 comment:
"There is a thin line between the adventure and risk". This was the statement to remember for the rest of our lives and we learnt it in a hard way from one of our fellow trekkers!.
Post a Comment