Green route trek - Donigal to Yedakumeri

It was the mid of November 2009 when after a long discussion me, my friend Srivatsa, Manoj and some other friends decided to get on to the Sakaleshpur Railway track trek from Donegal to Yedakumeri (distance 18 to 19 km) with one of the trekking organizers. It was really an awesome trek, once in a lifetime kind. Everyone must experience it. Photos are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/Pratap.Sikdar/SsakleshpuraDonigalToYadakumeri#

As scheduled, we assembled at Symphony Theater @ 10 PM on Friday night with the entire team of around 30 people. Finally we started @ 11 PM. On the way to Sakaleshpur it was little horrible experience. The driver, in spite of taking couple of breaks fall asleep and almost hit the divider. But "All was well". One of us sat with him and kept watching him to ensure that he does not sleep. Finally we reached Sakaleshpur at around 4:30-5 O clock in the morning. It was quite dark. After finishing daily biological activities at Sakaleshpur bus stand's dormitory , we took little heavy breakfast and then we boarded the bus to reach trek start point.


Here we assembled to start the trek..

This was the first train sighted at the beginning of our railway track trek.
We were about to start the trek and were standing on the track and the train suddenly passed making us little scared.

In this route there is only one passenger train runs every day, i.e. Bangalore to Mangalore... And couple of goods trains also use this route.
One the way to Yadakumeri we passed through tunnels after tunnels....crossed bridges after bridges...and of course track with full of stones. Foot started paining a lot, but nothing doing. We kept moving. We saw 2-3 trains passes through. Watching trains from so nearby was really a great experience and never in life kind of stuff. But luckily no trains came while crossing the bridges. But yes, while crossing one of the longest tunnels a goods train approached, we 7-8 people were in the mid of the tunnel and luckily there was enough space next to the track to stand. Immediately we gathered there and kept watching the passing demon. It was really horrible in that pitch darkness, there could have been one of the most poisonous snakes of India, the Indian Vipor. Its there paradise also. This place is famous for leeches. As the train hit the tunnel, all of a sudden it was full of smoke. Soon the train passed we got a relief and we started moving. We took 2-3 breaks on the way. Everything went really well. We saw lot of tiny streams....water falls... hills, greenaries. We had our lunch near to one the small streams. Little up to that the place was full of leeches.














































Finally @ 5:30 PM we reached Yadakumeri.
It was getting surrounded by clouds. It was really great to see the hills far away was taking the could shed as the evening was approaching slowly. Some of us took cool bath at the waterfall nearby and others took just head bath at the tap in the station. Water was really cold and coming from the hilltop. In the night we stayed in the Yadakumeri station. For the next day plan was to catch early morning train and reach the next station and board the bus. Most of the trekkers take the Bisle forest route to reach the national highway and board the bus to Bangalore. This route involves crossing a stream and it was almost flooded due to heavy rainfall and was really dangerous to cross. Also we came to know that couple of weeks back 2 people were washed away while crossing this stream. So we decided to catch 4 O clock train. The challenge was, this train does not stop there and just for us the station master agreed to stop it just for 30 seconds..hahaaaaa...
As the evening approached it started raining heavily and the darkness engulfed. Actually there's no electricity in this area surrounded by hills and forest, its the generator which keeps this place lightened to some extent till 11 PM, when the last train of the day passes. And after that they switch off the generator and the entire platform area sleeps into darkness. Soon we finished our dinner with MTR ready made foods. Then sleeping time. All of us were dam tired. Space was a big issue there as we were 30 people and the rooms were not spacious enough to accommodate all. Soon one of us found a small Indian Vipor in his sleeping bag. And this incident hampered everybody's sleep to some extent. But slowly most of us got settled and slept. But we 4-6 (including me) people got really a bad place to sleep, the floor was dirty, littered and rough. It was like a haunted house. We decided to enjoy the campfire rather sleeping there. Although the rain stopped but woods were drenched and was not catching fire. Finally Manoj found a log and the campfire started.
This attracted some more sleeping beauties. They started playing what not so called ganes like Antakhshari and blah blah.... I started watching them from far. I was getting bored and went loitering on the platform. While loitering I went beyond the light area, you wont believe I had never seen that kind of darkness before. Stars in the sky were looking so bright that it seemed there was no darkness. Sooner or later I had to return to that same boring place.
Campfire activities went on for almost 2 hours. Slowly we reached to the endpoint and it was getting quite colder. Meanwhile Srivatsa came to me. We were chit chatting and enjoying the campfire. After that we three decided to settle in the sleeping bag at the place allotted to us. It was really horrible and scary. Sometimes I felt any cockroach loitering on my face...could not sleep at all..some local guy was trying to steal something in the next room, but could not succeed. Till this part of the journey was really great, in spite of all these hurdles. This I realized next day morning when some 14 of us failed to get into the train at 4 AM. We all got up at 3:30 AM and withing a sec. packed up and came on the platform for the train. All of a sudden, the station master told us that the train would not stop at the platform. Immediately we left the platform and stood in a line on the track. Till then we did not know what was waiting for 14 of us (below photograph).
Slowly the train arrived, but alas all the doors were closed. There is no locality nearby and nobody boards or gets down at this place. Some of us somehow managed to get into the train. My both the friends managed board the train. And the train slowly started moving. We were helpless and watched the train moving out. The issue was, most of them were standing on the doorstep pushing others to get inside. So there was no space to stand on the doorstep also. And moreover that would have been even much riskier as you don't know when the train is going to enter a tunnel. (Later we came to know that immediately after leaving this station the train passed through a long tunnel.) So we didn't even try to get into the moving train. I just can't explain the mental trauma I was experiencing at that situation. Soon the train disappeared and we started arguing on how to proceed. It was 4 O clock in the morning and we were completely stranded into the darkness. Our trek guide spoke to the station master and came to know that there would be a goods train coming but when? nobody knows. 2nd option was to trek further 12 km ahead and find out the unknown trekking trail to hit the NH. After a little 'No' & 'yes' we opted the 2nd option. Me and few others in this left out team, had no sleep last night. Soon we filled up our water bottles and started walking in a line with our torches on into that darkness. Again we started crossing bridges after bridges, tunnels after tunnels. This part of the journey was full of mystery and we were completely unprepared for this. When the Sun appeared we got a little relief. On the way we heard the melodious song of Malabar Thrush. I never experienced in my life before. We also got see the early morning beauties, which I never thought of and can never forget also. My lifetime experience. We went ahead. We took one small break for munching on the left out items and again moved on. During this part of the journey I found myself alone in one of the longest tunnels. Oh my God! It was really horrible and scary. I wanted to experience that. It was pitch dark around me and many a time I felt someone is following me, still I get a jerk when I remember about that moment. But the more scariest news was waiting for me when after crossing this tunnel I met the team and came to know that nobody (even our trekking guide) knows where the real trail is hidden. We were told to walk for 12kms but by that time we crossed almost 14kms. There was one more group on the same route, but they were prepared for this part of the journey too. We all with that group crossed back that tunnel. That group managed to find a so called trail for climbing down, which was not a real trekking trail at all. We followed them. Till this it was railway track now the steep fall started. It was really steep down, sleepery, full of bushes and NONE OF US WERE PREPARED TO TREK ON THIS ROUTE. But there was no other option. One by one we moved on. Once I slipped my bag being the camera inside. One person fell down got hurt on his teeth. It was like one by one we kept dropping ourselves from one slope to another. And finally we reached jeep track and slowly hit the NH and met the other team members waiting for us and then boarded the bus after having quite a heavy meal.
The experience of this part of the trekking was "I should not be alive" kind. In spite of that, all of us (the 14 left out ppl) enjoyed a lot and returned home with once in a lifetime kind of experience. And the Sakaleshpur railway track trek really means the "Trekkers Paradise".