Rescue Missions in the mysterious trails of OG

After all the build-up to the trek, the time has arrived to start.With the inexperience sitting on my shoulders supplemented by the common food, noudles and soup packets i volunteered to take up contirbuting in a heavy backpack which i realized only after 3 hours of hiking.I always learn things the harsh way (#1).

At 7AM (19/2) Started along a rough jungle path aiming for the first peak at height of 1100m and by 10AM we came out of the forest cover and should hike the broad sun light.




Plan is to conquer 4 adjoining peaks all approx at height of 1000m and then by 2 start descent and get to the stream by nightfall and camp there for first night.So till 4PM we wont have a sight of a drop of water and the insructions were clear for all to carry atleast 3 litres of water at the start fo the trek.(You may ask why not more, but the heavier the more problematic it is to hike).There are 2-3 people who didn't carry any water and the explanation given is that they didn't listen the instrctions.Rakesh, unfortunately was sent back just one hour after of hiking, decision taken in the best interest of the whole group.Sorry mate.People started to slow down once we are out into the scorching sun and water was drained away from body and bottles in equal amounts.By 12:30 first batch of people got to the first peak,I reached there by 12:45 types, and the last one reached by 2.Our organizer biju lost his camera, he went all the way back to track it down and he came back only with his camera in his hand.WILL.

An interesting thing happened during this interval.The terrain is basically small rock boulders (smaller ones are the dangerous ones) and grasslands to a large extent.But it was all very steep ascent as we have to ascend 1000m in 4 hours.One slip and you don't where you'll end up.I was taking pics of a person and suddenly heard shouts of ROCKS and what I saw made me had goosebumps.Ramesh and sundar are separated by 10m and a rock double the size my head was accidentally set-off by ramesh and when i turned my head, sundar already bent down with the bag on his head, but luckily the rock slit into two just before him and the two pieces rolled down from either side of him.Pure luck it was.Don't know how sundar felt but i had goosebumps..Pics of the terrain and the path




continuing...

Had a pack of chappathis, had an intersting chit-chat about ticks, snakes, some horrifying bee experiences, tick allergies.. Very intriguing stories.At around 2 PM,started to conquer 3 more peaks.In this path of journeys sole of my shoe came off completely and my worst fear came true.I took out my sandals, thinking that if it gets very difficult, will leave the next day.In 2 hours finished all the 3 peaks and at the end of the 3rd peak.Some pics of the vast, steepy grasslands..



Stunning view of a train passing through the mountains opposite to us.



We didnt have peter or biju or anyone to guide which way to descend to get the water stream.We found a dry stream with full of boulders and a gang of 16 people proceeded along that dry stream, under the inference all the dry streams would/should lead to the main stream(which is at ~200m).Ascent was just energy sapping, the terrain was not that difficult.But the descent, full of bushes, we are inside the green cover, so in a way descemt was difficult than ascent.At one point we hit very dense bushes and had to come out of the dense stream.Me n durai went around and found a way back into the dry stream though the detour was very thorny we went ahead and kept trekking.At around 4 30 we found a small trail of water, which was flowing just drop by drop but that was enough to revivify the 16 dried up souls.Some of us had a bottle filled up.We had no idea where the other 20 people are, but at around 5 PM we heard 6 others and waited for them and we proceeded.It was getting dark and we took our torch lights out.At one point of time,owing to the darkness and my sandals i slid into a pool of water losing the grip.Had no idea where i was going until i reached the bottom.Around 6 40, concluded there's still a long way to go and waited for a regrouping.All the count we got is 31 with peter at the back helping Sinu who saw her Hip pain restricting her to move
freely.We had 5 people missing and have no idea whether all of them are together or not.Among those 5 guys excpet Biju, rest all were amateurs like me.Two of the friends of one of the 5 started to panick and even started praying that they all are with Biju.Anyhow nothing to do in our hands, we started cooking soup, then noodles with the small trails of water available to us.Had a tasty food and slept.



My bed for the first night with OG.








Next day morning two of the friends started to contact shashidhar(their dosth) and biju too with the feeeeeble signal available on Airtel but with no luck.Somehow Biju got the info and messaged to that number that all 5 r together and that Rajeev is hurt.They are in another parallel stream(Later came to know it's all the power of BSNL).With our first aim being to reach the main stream we continued along the stream which got broadened fairly as we got lower and lower and the trail was relatively easy.We had a mini pool in b/w to relax.

By 12 the next day (20/2) we reached the main stream.Cooking, bathing, swimming, sleeping everyone was doing whatever they wished to.

Intersting stats came up.
Durai, our chief chef was asking people to take out the noodles packets out and ll we got is 5 apart from 3 we had on the night, the day before.So total 8 out of the 15 we had.7 are with Biju and co.Then comes milk powder to make tea(we had rest all sugar, tea powder) and surprisingly those are also with Biju and co. Then soup pakcets 2/4 are also with Biju & co.They even had one of the pair of vessels we
brought.In a way we are happy they had enough food.Anyways at around 3:30 a rescue mission started in their search but owing to my cut and the bleeding i could hardly walk(mind you the First aid kit is laso with Biju).I cudnt go in the rescue mission.Another group opted to go out,following the stream into the village and get food supplues for that night.By 7:30 botht he groups returned.Rescue mission with no luck, but the food group gt rice, ifsh curry(cooked one, they got it from a very kind village woman) and then eggs.Had a great dinner and all the guys slept off i guess around 9 30.But 6 ofus stayed awake because 9 eggs were remaining :D and we made an egg masala curry and had them with yummy chapathis which are otherwise iedible.

Some stunning views of the Stream








(20/2) Morning another rescue mission started for Biju and this time I joined them:total of 11.My leg was ok if not perfectly alright.Peter: "we are not coming back w/o them".Instructions were that by 11:30 if we won't return, sibn will be there with our bags, rest all should leave as we have bus to Bangalore at 2:30.We started and we were literally running along the rocks.After 1 hour,2 of them unable
to keep up with the pack, went back to the stream.9 of us kept going and kept going and at around 9 30AM me and Raj spotted Biju and surya.I hardly knew them for 4 hours before they went missing for 46 hours.But the rush of adrenaline at seeing them is still surprising to me.We both just hopped on from one rock to another, ran like deers and rushed to the bunch and hugged them one after the other.That emotion alone is worth the two days trek.
Get-together snaps








Then Biju started explaining how Rajiv sprained his ankle, how badly it was swollen,how he was not able to move, how they reached our camp fire by 11AM the prev day and the way they are conserving their food for a plan of 2 more days to get to the stream.That calculation was perfectly spot-on given the speed at which the he was locomoting.Can't use 'walking' here because he was using all his body parts including his bum except his legs, to move.Anyways luckily biju found an ancient jeep trail on which it was easy to carry him.Biju reckons it's easily a 100 year old trail.Learnt many more interesting things.We carried him on our shoulders for nearly 1.5-2 hrs, though Raj and Peter for the most part bore the wrath of 85Kgs of Rajeev. (Yeah, he was that heavy..No offence mate, Rajeev :D).I just pitched in
for some time.BY 11 we were back at the camp site.A stretcher was made to carry him along the trail along the stream into the village.
Here are the pics and the video.




Link1:Carrying him on stretcher:
Link2:Carrying him on stretcher:
Link3:Carrying Rajeev on stretcher:







And thus came the end to one of the most thrilling treks of my life.Thankyou Biju and Co.... :D

Interesting facts
#1 Biju had everything to cook and eat as I said above.The point where we felt happy, but we came to know that they didnt have the match box. They wnt back tot he stone age and triend generating fire but with no luck.They had everything to eat but not fire.All the way they were carrying the supplies futiley.
#2 Because of BSNL, Biju came to know that someone is trying to call him and he sent a message.He had signal for most part of the trek it seems... BSNL \m/ :)