At around 9:00 a.m. after having trekked for nearly four to five kilometers we could not believe our luck when we spotted an old man walking towards us (this was the beginning of the end of all our troubles). After, enquiring we found that he was a villager from Gundya. His name was Lingappa. He earned his living by collecting ‘Saamrani’ leaves from these forests and selling it to people in Gundya. His daily routine was to venture into these forests and spend a whole day collecting these medicinal leaves. Hence he was familiar with the terrain and knew all the exit points from these woods. We told him our story and he let us know that three days before we met him there was another group of trekkers who got lost in the forests in search of the escape route. Lingappa told us that he had shown them the way out of this forest. He told us that at least after six to eight kilometers from the spot where we met him, there was a deviation to get out of the forests. This path was around six kilometers and led into Gundya town, from where we could catch a bus back to Bangalore. This was what we had been waiting to hear since the previous evening.

We asked him if he could kindly lead us into that path and out of this forest. He told us that he would help us if we could give him his one day salary, which according to him was two hundred bucks. From the way he spoke Kannada I was in no doubt that this guy belonged to south canara and was a tulu-speaking chap. I spoke to this guy in tulu and negotiated a deal for hundred and fifty bucks to lead us out of this forest.

So, we followed Lingappa all along in the remaining part of the trek. After trekking for an hour or so we came at the entrance of another tunnel which looked really long. At the entrance, there was a huge hut which fit the description which was given to us by the Manipal gang. We decided to take a break for the breakfast. We realized that Lingappa used to use this hut very often during his venture into the forests in search of ‘Saamrani’ leaves.

We got an insight into some of the facts of these forests, thanks to this old man. He had spent his lifetime in these woods and the things he knew of these forests would be more accurate than those found in the books. According to him there was one rare spice in these forests called as the ‘Black turmeric’. The cultivation and sale of the ‘Black turmeric’ was banned by the government. I don’t know why it was so nor did he tell me why it was banned. But, some people did grow and commercially use this spice without the government’s knowledge. He told us that the price of one kilogram of ‘black turmeric’ could be anything ranging between 100 bucks to 2000 bucks depending upon its quality. Curiosity couldn’t stop Pradeep from asking if people here grew marijuana too. Well, sometime back the outsiders to this part of the world did grow marijuana secretly in these forests unknown to the government. But recently, the entire mafia was caught and the crops destroyed ( good, say no to drugs).

At around 10:15 a.m. we started our trek again. The tunnel which we got into immediately was pitch dark and almost 3/4^th of a kilometer (the exact length not know to us). This tunnel was muddy and sloppy due to heavy rains and it took us sometime time to get through this tunnel. It was not easy to catch up with Lingappa’s pace as he was used to this terrain and it was his daily routine to walk through this. Moreover he did not have any load on his back whereas we carried our heavy trekking bags on our backs.

Throughout the remaining part of journey with took numerous stops to give rest to tired legs. I was surprisingly, feeling less tired than the previous day. The only problem was the shoe bites which cut down the pace. After traveling for quite a distance it was noon and we saw some people on the tracks, who were actually men from the railways supervising the things there. This was the point from where we could get the view of the highway. We couldn’t wait to get to the roads. We stopped by a water source from the hills to refill our bottles. At that moment, Lingappa had a chat with those railway guys and found out that the deviation to the right of the immediate tunnel would also join to the downhill route he had told us about and this will also shorten the distance by avoiding two more tunnels. This new path was carved out to provide access to jeeps to get to these remote places.

This downhill path was rocky all the way, making it difficult to walk at a pace. This path almost looked like the ‘escape route’ we had taken the previous day. After trekking down for nearly two hours we saw private estates with fences guarding them from the tusker. We saw more people on our way and this made us really impatient to get to the road. Some distance further we got view of the houses and then the fields. Finally we got to a mud road at the end of which we had a ‘tarred road’.

The whole gang rested under a tree for sometime near the end of the mud road. To our right was a small house with thatched roof and with three dogs barking at us. The inmates of the house were kind enough to provide us with drinking water. Now we were officially in the territory of south canara district. This could be felt by the characteristic hot and humid weather which is so typical in this coastal district of Karnataka. As promised we gave Lingappa 150 bucks. We were in no mood to cook anything and hence asked Lingappa to take us to a hotel where we could have our lunch. We took the tarred road which was perpendicular to this mud road. We actually took a right turn at the junction of the two roads and carried on walking on the tarred road till we reached a small restaurant which was one of the things on the left side of the road which was lined up with shops. This road was linking Kukke Subramanya, which was now behind us to NH 48 (the highway linking Mangalore and Bangalore). NH48 was right in front of us. We stopped over in this restaurant and had meals to fill our tummies. The entire lunch with unlimited rice and plus the huge quantities of soft drinks we had, cost us in total 371 bucks. We then bid farewell to Lingappa and headed straight to catch a bus back to Bangalore.

Straight in front of us was the Gundya bus stop. We waited for sometime and then came the Rajahamsa bus (Luxury KSRTC Bus) which was heading from Mangalore to Chennai via Bangalore. The ticket from Gundya to Bangalore was priced at R.s.157 /- per head. We were happy to throw ourselves onto the seats when we got into the bus. After an hour we reached Sakleshpur and bingo! There was cell phone reception here. We were able to contact home and inform everyone about our arrival.

As I lay on my seat I just summarized all the events that took place in those two days. Things could have gone totally wrong with us but, all’s well that ends well. It was not all that bad; we had our share of fun too. The place was worth the trek and all the trouble we took. It indeed was one of the most beautiful train routes. My relatives were right in describing that the train journey through these Western Ghats was a feast to a creative mind and to people like me who are wanderers to whom passion lies in traveling to unknown destinations. Trekking along these tracks, through the tunnels and over the bridges and the view of the green hills covered with mists of time is something we are going to cherish for a long time to come. The adventure we went through has made us mentally tougher and it has been a learning experience. We stuck on together in times of adversity and worked as a team and this has helped in our friendship growing stronger. Watching Kitta hang from the bridge and survive is something that has shown us the importance of ‘one life we get to live’ and it has made us to strive to make the best possible use of it. Kitta, hopefully will live up to tell his grandchildren his story. We couldn’t wait to get back home and narrate the adventure we had to the people we know because it’s not that every day you get lost in a wild forest and spend the night in a tunnel of fear.

Bus reaches Navarang bus stop in Bangalore at ten in the night. All of us got down at that stop except Karthik who was heading to Majestic. We took the autos and headed home. I was happy to be back home (and happy to be back alive) and when mom opened the door I gave her a big hug. It was as if I was meeting her after two years and not two days. Hot shower and a relishing dinner and I were telling dad the story. But I was too tired to tell the story beyond that of catching a bus to Donigal. I promised to continue the story the next morning and then crashed on to my bed for a well-deserved ten hour sleep. How I wish you were there.

Yours truly,

Nishant Ratnakar