Keep Walking

There are moments when I am completely stressed out, fed up with things around be it at office or at home & I go completely blank as to how to go get myself a life. Umm…yeah get a life. The more I think about my targets at office & the more I wonder how I am going to achieve them the more depressed I get. The only thing I feel like doing is to get away from this once lovely city & escape to some quiet, scenic place & do nothing else but Keep Walking!

There is a certain joy in doing something like that. The vast open spaces, the noiseless terrain is like a beautiful girl spreading her arms wide & inviting you to hug her. What a feeling. Sheer Bliss. Walking amidst nature is also soothing to the extent that one can easily get switched off to pressures back home or office. No wonder that holidaying is being promoted a lot as a stress buster. Stress buster it surely is. And a stress buster which has a good mix of adventure & pleasant surprises

I still remember these few instances. One was when we were trekking from Edukemeri to Donigal (this is the route that the Bangalore – Mangalore rail will take). After a full day of trekking approx 18 Kms we were only thinking of reaching our camp site & take the load of our backs & the sticky socks off our feet & relax & may be eat a snack. But what we got instead was all that plus the most beautiful sight I have ever seen. A glorious water fall just a few meters away from our camping site. Although there was a hush sound that a water fall creates no body really knew what that was. Our walk path was also such that there was no sight of any water fall in the vicinity. Hence we just walked & looked ahead. At one point our walk path turned to the left, as we approached this point, the hush sound of the water fall grew louder and as soon as we took that left, the sight in front of us was breathtaking. A good 35 -40 meter water fall with bountiful of water. The reactions from all of us were the same – amazement, joy. A truly beautiful sight it was.

If this was the pleasant surprise part then there is the adventure part as well. This was during our trek to Brahmagiri. Anybody who has been to Brahmagiri will know that the final part of the trek to Brahmagiri is more of a hike. It is like climbing a 70 -75 degree slope. This time too, we had been walking a long time & we were keen to scale the Brahmagiri peak at the earliest. Our guide for this trip was guiding us at a nice even pace & we were also enjoying it because we had just sighted a herd of wild elephants along the way. The peak of Brahmagiri from a distance looked pretty flat, meaning it did slope upwards but from where we were looking at it, it looked like the slope was scalable & will require no extra effort than just a walk. But as we got closer & closer to it the slope got steeper & steeper & at one point we were actually climbing like I said a 70 -75 degree slope. Some of us were able to do it only after getting a good hand of support from some brave souls in our group. Of course when we did reach up the peak eventually not only was it a relief but the view around was simply marvelous and made the effort all the more fruitful.

Recently we did a day trip to Galibore. A 100 odd kms away from Bangalore near Muttati village. As part of the package was a small hill hike. Having climbed peaks like Brahmagiri & Thadiyandamol this hike got over in a few minutes but was definitely not an easy hike. When we eventually reached a watch tower we only wanted more. From the top of the watch tower we could see that the hills around were very nice & scalable. So off we went to climb up the nearest peak. At the top of the peak, we had a beautiful view of the cauvery river snaking its way through the forest. Being up there & looking at the sight is one thing & describing it is another. Of course being up there & looking at it is the best part. As we rested there, ate snacks & clicked photographs we noticed that the entire area was getting covered by grey clouds & it began to get windy. Within seconds there was a strong gush of wind & a drizzle. Somebody in our group spread his arms wide & lifted his face up towards the sky as if saying, “you want me to hug you…here you go”. Everyone followed suit immediately & loved those few moments of romance with nature.

After some time we were at it again….we were walking…. to another spot, another place, another adventure & another pleasant surprise….how I wish I could just Keep Walking.