Monsoon trek - day1

Monsoon trek - the name itself is enough to get the butterflies in the stomach rolling. Last year's experience was absolutely superb and so I was quite hopeful about this year as well. The trek started on a very pleasant note. As we were sitting over the breakfast in a local village eatery, we saw a bunch of school kids in all size and shapes moving towards us. Jumping over and in the puddles, pushing and pulling each other, they reminded us of our own golden days. That made me think - this is probably the very lost spirit that we have come to rediscover - miles away from the comfort of home. Those kids set the tone for our next two days to come.

We didn't have to wait long for the rain. About an hour in the trek, the clouds gave way. I had my raincoat in my backpack but decided against taking it out. A monsoon trek with a raincoat on, somehow sounded too fake to me. As we moved more and more away from civilization, earth turned greener and more beautiful. This green is very typical of the Western ghats of India - very fresh, young and bright shade of green. So bright that even on a complete overcast day, the colour of the grass and the mountains covered with them is captivating. It was afternoon by the time we reached the base camp in a village where we had already arranged for our night stay. But this was not the destination for today. The plan was to visit the fort which was atop the hill next to the village. The path leading to the fort was as beautiful as the fort itself. A narrow track in the midst of greens, developed probably because of movement of people. The fort itself has to be the most beautiful fort I have ever seen in my life. The moment we climbed up the fort and walk up to its edge, a whole new world awaited there to welcome us. What we saw in front of us was absolutely - nothing. There's no other way to describe it. We were in the middle of the clouds. Visibility was almost zero but it created an illusion of infinity. You feel like you can see till the end of the universe but you don't actually see a thing - just clouds, clouds and more clouds. Ever felt as if you're standing at the edge of the world? One more step and you don't know which unknown world you'll land into. While you just couldn't stop wondering at the emptyness, a strong gust of wind blows all the clouds away and what emerges out of "nothing" is nothing less than spectacular. Hills in different shades of greens with peaks vanishing into the clouds. You just stand in silence at the edge of the fort, admiring nature's true beauty and then shut your eyes for a moment to capture the beauty in your mind for eternity. Next moment you open your eyes and it is all gone again; what lies ahead of you is again an abysmal emptyness. Nature kept on playing this hide and seek with us for quite some time and we being mere mortals, were getting amazed at every flip of the frame.

Darkness started to fall and we decided (reluctantly) to retreat back to the base. Halfway down, we felt that something's missing. In the spur of the moment, it was decided that we should go and scale the second fort as well. It had started raining heavily and the light didn't seem like it would last for long. Still, a crazy few of us gathered our torches and started off for the second fort. We literally ran up the wet hill to the fort. If the first fort had a breath-taking view in front of it, this one had lot of interesting nooks and corners in the fort itself to be explored. It was after all, not a bad idea to give the second fort a try. Drenched from hair to toe, we were soon back at the base, wondering what more the second day of the trek has to bring.

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