Our day had started early. In fact, you could almost say that yesterday never ended. We had all been to our respective offices, and either sneaked out during working hours, or blithely left early, to complete our preparations for this weekend trek. Having got out of office, we scurried around trying to organize snacks, fruit, tents, sleeping bags and backpacks. Saishree and Rajeev had a complicated situation: He had the packs and sleeping bags and tent; she had food and clothes that she was looking to pack. They arrived separately at our place a scant half hour before the reporting time at the bus stand (which was 30 minutes away in normal evening traffic).

Everything was flung onto the floor and then hurriedly stuffed into whichever pack was at hand. Three light foam sleeping mats had to be rolled up and tied. There were only two threads to tie them with. I whipped out an old salwar and tugged the nara tape out of its waist, an assault from which the poor garment has not yet recovered and possibly never will. Biscuits and bananas were crushed in under cameras. Loaves of bread were squashed into corners intended for nothing bulkier than a comb. Saishree’s spare pair of jeans were summarily cast out to make space for oranges and a packet of Lays.

At the end of this exercise, only half the stuff had been packed, and all the packs were overstuffed and awkward. The bulky 4-person tent had not been packed at all! Missing the bus was beginning to look more like an inevitability than a possibility, so we picked up whatever we could and set off in two autos, hoping we hadn’t left out any vital survival equipment. The house, when we left it, looked rather worse than it might have if a hurricane had hit it.

We reached the reporting point and were relieved to find the bus had not yet left – or even arrived. It arrived soon enough and did not tarry. As soon as we had boarded, we set off purposefully and were then driven around Bangalore as though on a city tour for the next two hours, the purpose being to load the maximum possible amount of luggage and passengers aboard. Amit used this time to unpack his pack completely and start again, managing to bring it down to half its original size. I wished I could have done the same – mine already weighed a ton and I hadn’t even loaded in the mandatory 3 bottles of water yet.

It was past 10 before we finally left the city and headed out on the Mysore highway. After our chaotic and energetic day, all four of us were looking forward to stopping for dinner. A terrible Hindi movie was blasted forth from the DVD player that went on till 12.30, without an intermission of any kind. By then, it was clear that the driver had no intention of stopping for dinner. Amit and I devoured a packet of biscuits in desperation, and tried to sleep. Though the bus was reasonably comfortable, we were kept awake by the thought that we would reach Kalpetta around 4.30 a.m. and we had to be alert to hop off at the time (remembering to put on shoes and gather all our odds and ends together before we did). The bus would go on till Calicut, and we had no intention of being carried along thither.

At 4 a.m., we were duly and (on our part) resenting-ly thrown off the bus. It wasn’t until four hours later, after breakfast, that we realized that this was not Kalpetta; that Kalpetta was, in fact, another 12 km down the road. Our resentment against the bus, its driver and conductor, already high, rose a few more notches.

In any case, despite the ungodliness of the hour, we managed to find a room and crowded into it and tried to keep ourselves awake till dawn, when we could set off on our trek. In this attempt, we were partly successful: all of us were partly awake three hours later. At 7 a.m. we left the room to look for breakfast (appams and egg curry, washed down with one coffee and three teas) and get our bearings. The hills were showing their shadowy outlines already and the weak morning sun and crisp morning air were effective stimulants, pushing away the last vestiges of sleep and increasing our eagerness to be off.