Hermitage Trip- The Bear hill trek

We took rest for an hour and got ready for the “stamina test” which is mandatory for all the guests who are interested in trekking. David the examiner, the guide and the owner of the place is supposedly living in this place for past 28 years. Abhi-k the muscle man of our group took panga with David on the very first day. He started making big claims “we can easily do a 25 km trek, we have run the marathons, we are gym ppl….etc….”, The next two days involved heavy leg pulling of Abhi-k by David (wonder what grudge the whole host family developed against him).

Of all this I was trying hard to find a way to get introduced to the dogs. And the wish was full filled, with just initial sniffing and staring they came near me without barking. The ice was broken and we became friends. Of Badmash (the kid), Bahadur(the brother) and skully (the mother) , Badmash (one with red collar belt in the pics) was the most friendly one.

Before starting for the bear hill trek (read stamina test) one contender i.e. Ajit (Casualty no. 1) surrendered.He had stomach upset and was lying on the bed. Decision was made to go without him also he was really not well and needed rest. We started at around 5 pm with David leading us through the trails. The initial half climb was quite easy because of the enthu and quest to reach the top. After every fifteen minutes David use to stop to give us some flora-fauna gyaan. On the way we saw various kinds of insects, parasitic trees, and non-parasite yet clinging together trees, Bear homes, Termite hills, birds and shit of some animals. Stop giggling; in jungles animal shit (& water sources) are real important signs of predicting their presence nearby. But as we were talking aloud and making lot of noise, we dint encounter a single Bear, Jaguar or Leopard.

I was really exhausted after 40 minutes .The uphill trek was quite tough for me. Moreover the jungle became thicker with more thorny bushes and trails/path was also gone. Suddenly we were amidst a huge colony of insects wandering in all directions. From one of the David’s gyaan session- These insects population is on rise as they feed on bamboo flowers. All bamboo flowers heavily only once in their life time and dries off to die. This phenomenon (gregarious bamboo) happens every 45 years, where the entire bamboo plantation dries off to rejuvenate again in 10 years.
Phew after passing the last stage in an hour we were on top of the bear hill, Hurray! .It was an awesome sight .The beautiful sunset and tanned +exhausted yet cheerful trekkers were captured in cams in various moods. After taking some rest we headed back as it was getting dark.
Just before reaching Mini (Casualty no 2) twisted her ankle very badly while descending down. Luckily we were very near to the guest house and a jeep was brought for her.

PS2 story:

Under the starry sky .Amidst the faded moon light .Around the born fire sight,
She gave a sweet chocolaty smile.
He couldn’t say much, was mesmerized.
Just admired and was listening to her ….
Hoping –“oh god please hold the time”.
Suddenly the spell was broken! Friends appeared strangers, as they arrived.
But there was another heart - broken, of jealousy it cried.

She-Katz, He-Ajit, Another heart-Sid.

That roughly sums up the scene when Abhi-W, Amanchi, Sid arrived at the guest house to pick up the rescue jeep for mini and saw Ajit and katz chatting around the born fire. She immediately left when the kabab mein haddies came.
Some of us missed the scene and arrived later with injured Mini. On return we realized none of us carried proper medicines (as everybody assumed that somebody will carry, but nobody did). After Mini’s ankle examination which was swollen badly , it was declared as sprain .Actually we all feared hair line crack but were trying to cheer her up as nothing much could have been done late night in middle of jungle with no network connectivity. Volini was massaged and Aspirin was taken as a workaround.

Later that night on enquiry, Ajit started revealing things. How they lighted 10 + Laltans together (He was not in a state to get up from bed in morningJ).How he was specially taken care of the whole day. Which he claims to be hospitality.

“Katz has done her schooling in a boarding at Ooty , Is currently pursuing PhD in Australia , Wants to visit Bihar, Will Visit Hyderabad, loves this place, likes this, hates that, wants to marry soon and have kids , blah blah.................... “She told him every damn thing. You call this hospitality? One thing I must say Ajit u are a chuppa rustham-Kuddos.
And Sid you are positive. Instead of “ dost dost na raha” kinds , he was trying to help her out clearing dining table , switching off Laltans (read impress).She kept on refusing for any help from his side and he still tried , flaunting his 10 k run t-shirt and Mumbai 42k run achievement in the backdrop.
Poor Sid seldom he knows some girls don’t care how many kms you run. You should be capable of running a household. But Don’t worry katz is definitely not of that category-You should just be capable of running a household in a Jungle.

PS: Enough has been written about this trip. No more posts.
PS1: Ajit plzzzzzzzzzzzz ignore the PS2 content .That’s written just for fun.
PS2: Read the poem again ……slowly
PS3: hmmmmmm1
PS4: hmmmmmm2
PS5: I am running out of ps statements: D
PS6: hey, but nobody has written about the river trek, where I was left all ALONE in the middle of the jungle by a group of “Gentleman’s “.
PS7: Yes that’s supposed to be sarcastic.
PS8: The end.
PS9: Oh btw I was tagged Future Casualty no 3, coz of my alluring twists and falls. Luckily I wasn’t hurt.
PS10: hmmmmmm3, Fine ! The End .Packa.