The Tale of OG ..... My ultimate trek

The name Ombattu Gudda [OG] itself is enough to make a regular trekker to think 100 times before even he start to think conquering the peak ... the reason is very simple , first ...it is one of those trekking spots which are truly untouched by man .. the jungles are pure virgin and u won;t find a trace of any civilization and second... this is the place where there is no defined trekking path. and the success rate of conquering this peak is very bleak and there is 70% chances that u can easily stray in jungles forever.. third ... there are wild animal every where. and Fourth without GPS its impossible to reach the peak

This trekking was long pending for me because of the simple reason that i don;t had the trekkers who can dare to trek this place. last month i just asked fellow frnds from Bangalore Acsenders [trekking group] about this place and luckily they are also planned for the OG on the Christmas weekend , so i decided to join them and this was the first time that i am trekking with a group other than our own frnds so i was lil worried abt the team and there spirit [later i found out that this is the best trekking grp that u'll ever get].

The saga Begins : -

on the eve of 24th Dec 2009 I along with 3 of my frnds gathered and headed towards KSRTC bus stand where we had planned to take the Dharmastala bus along with Bangalore Acsenders [hence onwards reffered as BA] .. as soon as we reached the bus stand we didn't find it difficult to find others as there were 29 people in the grp including us for OG trek, so we started our journey towards Dharmastala and we needed to get down at gundiya chekpost on the way to dharmastala.

Day 1 :-

We got down near to gundiya chekpost early morning around 6 am on 25th Dec 2009 and relaxed a bit while waiting for other team members to arrive who are on the other bus, while I and some other frnds were feeling very hungry and waiting to have break fast as last night i did'nt had the time for dinner the some BASC core members went to dharmastala to bring the plastic sheets and some other materials which we left in the bus mistakenly.


finally we split-ed ourself in to two groups as some members didn't return from dharmastala and now we are getting late for the trek.
I was very much worried about reaching the peak of the OG as there were so many people who terribly failed many times and few of them lost in these dense forests...but some how i was confident about this one as some BASC members are really have high spirit ...
so around 20 people we started first and the initial 2 hours are find without any difficulty and path is also not soo confusing. on the way we also met one more group of trekkers who are planning for jenkal gudda [opposite to OG] . by this time i was very much hungry as we failed to have breakfast before starting the trek. soon we hit the beautiful river side and its very much relaxing to feel the fresh air, we spent some time there tacking some pics and eating some breakfast.


after a short session we started again besides the river side and our goal is to reach the first checkpoint where we can meet the other team which started late and within an hour we met the remaining members of our team and after a short brake, we started towords our next checkpoint the camping site.

the whole day we trekked alongside the river bed and we crossed the river couple of times finally we fell short of an hour to our planned camp site and needed to settle down to good place for the night. finally we spotted the place where we can spend the night.

we had put camp fire and till midnight most of us are enjoying the music and songs by fellow trekkers and it was very good night , we all enjoyed a lot.


Day 2 : - The D-Day

The next day we woke up early and after finishing our breakfast , we prepared to the most toughest trek day ever.
the initial two hours were easy and all i can think about is the OG peak .. and i used to say myself this is the trek which surely i gonna remember for very long time. one good thing i did in this trek compared to other treks which i went is, this time i brought hunter shoes and trust me this is the best thing that u can use for any leech infested treks in the entire trek i got only one leech bite :) .... and the shoes have awesome grip even in the wet rocks ..
well the whole trek i was very eager to see some wild animals but for sad thing i didn;t notice any animals except for couple of snakes

finally after some 2 hours we reached the last water point , from there we have to take diversion and start the actual uphill trek ... and that means we need to stock up water .. as for the rest of the trek u won;t find any water source ... we have lunch there and couple of guys including me took bath in the refreshing water .. which relaxed our mind and body ..

later we started the uphill trek in the deepest and dense forest u'll every get in the westren ghats ... imagine some 45 people climbing almost 70 degree uphill forest with all the strength and carefulness .. like ants line .. some times some people use to slip a bit causing rocks to slide down ..creating panic in the people down who are following u .. and it all worth of the try to reach a peak which is so illusive to so many people.


It will not only take great stamina to climb these dense uphill forests but also alertness as there are countless bushes which hides different poisonous small creatures and countless bushes with sharp thrones which can slice ur skin like sharp knife on butter. and along with it there's our most friendly leeches which can stick to ur skins like forever frnds. well along with all these there is one more small creature which can make u pass out with its bite ..yes its fire ants .. a couple of bites from them can cause serious dizziness.

after struggling for more than an hour finally we crossed the dense forest uphill and reached the gross lands which is also very challenging as there is straight uphill climb we need to do and there is no shade from the blazing sun, and there are multiple peaks u need to cross to reach the ultimate OG peak which is situated at a height of 970m above sea level.

all of us took some rest before starting the continues trek to reach the top and most of us started have fun in that 15 min break with some chocolates ,dates and most delicious of them all the water. well i and along with few more guys started ahead leaving the rest of the team to rest and started the difficult climb to reach the near by first peak .. once i reached there i couldn;t believe my eyes .. it was soo beautiful and amazing scene and the surrounding hills are so mammoth its like u realize that if these mountains are so big imagine about himalayas how gigantic they may be.
we'll rest of the path was almost similar and by evening we reached the top of OG .. the ultimate victory .. all of us soo happy and relaxed and the view is breathtaking so much beauty and so much power ful the nature can be .. it was the view that very few people have witnessed.

finally after the brief moment and good snaps we started our trek towards the exit point and according to our knowledge we needed to cross a small stretch of forest to reach a jeep trail which can lead us to the exit point after some distance and we reached the jeep trail soon within 2 hour and the time was almost 7pm and its getting darker every moment , we were happy that finally we reached the peak and found the jeep trail to the estate but soon that excitement was gonna end as still we need to trek for another 8km in that jeep trails which covers 2 mountains and couple of jungle stretch with no civilization .. and it was very tiredness to trek in that trail with almost no water left and almost all of us legs are so tiered that they almost lost control with our brains command. finally we reached the estate to find out that no body was there , it is almost abandoned and finall some how we made contact with some minibus driver and requested him to come to the estate so that we can reach chikkamagalore where we can board the bus back to bangalore , and in all these adventures we finally missed our reserved bus as we were too late to reach the bus stop and finally need to settle down to ordinary bus to bangalore ...


To End with : -

Well this was the ultimate trek for me and most difficult one also .. but very entertaining.

if ur planning to OG take my word GPS is a must .. otherwise dont even think about it ..

The BASC team is ultimate .. one should really appreciate them .. they have really never dying spirit .. and especially the core members they have real sense of responsibility ... and some of them are really a good scouts...

please Visit the BASC : - http://groups.google.co.in/group/bangaloreascenders?hl=en

I'll be seeing them very soon again .. ..... .... ...