Trekking Days..

The Venues included on this Life Poster :

Gerusoppa valley - Sharavati waters , Jakkor stream Near kalleshwar , Unnamed fantastic falls near Burude Jog , and Places near Sirsi.

It used to be 6 Days a week and sometimes I used to make it 7 days week with my affinity for work back in my earlier days. From now one i will call it as Phase 1 . Our core trekking team used to comb the forest every week ( On Sundays ) for new trails or pathways made by wild streams. The forest as usual is not friendly. Its always punishing and demanding . The strain it puts on you is worth it , once you are out of the green canopy and relish on the memories of ur ordeal. The sheer joy of physical exertion used to bring us back to the wild chase after an unknown stream , Go after Peak after Peak or any place near to Nature. Many streams we used to chase after were known only to the locals and it was word of mouth propagation we used to get info about next ' Green Hunt '. The days of green are vivid and enchanting with each season offering its best.

Our core team had 'Harishpant Damodharpant Dattopant Krishnapant Haripant Devnawathe' - or shortly Harish Nawathe ( Taking only the first and the last name !. Its how a traditional old timer Hindu will tell his name.. The name will include the forefathers name .. as far as u can remember ! ) , Amit and Me. This Amit is a freelance photographer with a creative approach. I have seen his creativity on Photo film. He is doing wonderful things with his analog camera. He used to chase his dreams in forest alone during the early days. He used to go to bus stop and catch the bus to remote villages , get down at the last stop and used to start his unscheduled journey from there and usually he used to come back brimming with nice experience to share with. He had that sense of direction in forest and real hard core I can say. Contrary to Amit, Harish is organised and employee of LIC of India and he is the driving force - who made all our treks a reality by getting info required and planning. Some times when I couldn't get a bike for the weekly trek , we 3 used to ride on the single bike to our dream destination , in rain , in wind and in scorching sun. We never published our treks but I chronicled each one of them with photos and points I kept. The trek was purely personal like the exercise we do in a gym. Myself and Amit were capable of the dawn to dusk trekking without food and water. We were camels on the go ! And Harish was just the opposite. With our differences we grew stronger and richer.. richer with experience.

We used every mode of communication to reach our destination.. Yezdi (1972 model) which used to run comfortably with 50-50 petrol and kerosene mixture ! , 50 cc Luna TFR ( I will some time write about this Luna rides myself and Harish took - those are one our best days till date.I Personally equate that to journeys of Ernest 'Che' Guevara chronicled in his 'The Motorcycle Diaries' ) , Cycle , Bus , Truk and Walk. During some treks we had accompanying mates who had got cars to reach the starting points. Usually our starting points used to be 20kms to 50kms away from our houses. The number used to vary. The members used to change. But core remained the same for nearly 12 years.

Memoirs:

I have to thank my father for the inculcating the habit of walking. His normal walking gait was equal to brisk walking speed. As he hailed from a small , remote village and as was a old timer, the only way to town was walking. He made walking pleasurable exercise.