One Night @ Forest

Fear, loneliness, boredom, irritation, ecstasy…. How do you explain if these five different feelings put together dwell in !!!!! That’s how I would explain my Nagalapuram trekking experience. We were a group of 45 trekkers all set to explore the forest range near Nagalapuram (Eastern Ghats). We started our trek Saturday morning and had planned to return by Sunday evening.

On our way myself and a few fellow trekkers had lost our way and was in search of others. I decided to find some way out so that we do not lag behind, in the process I was LOST all alone, now that I could not even find my fellow trekkers who were lost with me. I am quite aware that the most important thing to survive during a Trek is WATER without which you cannot survive, so I started to hunt for a stream or a pool where I could Camp till my fellow trekkers find me.

Finally I managed to find an excellent pool by following a thin stream. I decided to stay back in the pool for two reasons, one, I would not run short of water, two, other trekkers have to cross this pool to get out of the forest. I was completely in control of whatever decision I took initially.. But….. sooner I realized that it was a BAD idea (But it was too late then) to stay in the forest for more than 30 hours ALONE…

Well, things were not so bad for the initial couple of hours, I walked around the pool, took a dip, clicked some photograph to kill time.. but left with nothing more.. I desperately wanted a Book, iPod, newspaper, something or the other to keep myself engaged, but unfortunately nothing was with me… I was resting on the rocks evaluating options to destroy time till it became dark…

Now it was getting darker, the fact of the matter is that I had to spend the whole night alone… and that thought in itself killed me… I started to hunt for a good rock where I could sleep, selection criteria was quite simple, it has to be plain enough without much of curves and safe enough to the extent that even if I slip I must not fall and get hurt, and yes finally found some place to sleep and got settled to spend the night which was first and probably the last of its kind.  ;)

Now it was pitch dark, I bundled myself into my sleeping bag to stay safe without being bitten by a snake or any insect for that matter… It was 9 PM, the sky was filled with stars, the moon was at its best, lot of glowworms around me, well all I wanted was a good sleep, not that I was tired but that’s the best and only way to kill time, but God was not kind enough to bestow me what I desperately wanted for the moment..

Now I started to sweat, it wasn’t too hot, later I realized that I was SCARED, and that made me sweat.. Trust me, I was scared.. A mild sound was good enough to upset me, the movement of leaves, sound of breeze, rolling stones, the strange noise made by the frogs, insects or whatever, irritated me to the core, it was a feeling of anxiety and frustration put together, I could not explain my state better..

At some point of time, even without my knowledge tears started to roll out.. Not just because I was scared or alone, thoughts of my loved ones were haunting me.. how many times I would have ignored them when they wanted me the most, how selfish I had been throughout, all such unwanted, unnecessary thoughts breezed through my mind, my heart became very heavy and that was the cause for those drops which rolled out of my eyes…

Why such thoughts are haunting me, why that too now, I could not sense the reason behind, might be God wanted me to spend some time thinking about my past, my relationships, breakups which I had almost forgot for quite some time, that could be the possible reason why I was left alone in the mid of a forest for close to 30 hours… Well that is how I spent the whole night, realized my own mistakes I had committed and reassured myself that I am not going to repeat them again (Constructive isn’t it)..

It was morning by then, I was relaxed, at last the lonely night came to an end, now I knew that I just need to kill time till 5 or 6 pm (which I know is not so easy) till my fellow trekkers find me and take me out of the haunting jungle.. Took a dip in the fresh water pool by which I was refreshed.. Since I didn’t sleep much the whole night I decided to sleep, and yes I did sleep indeed, in fact it was a sound sleep.. It was around 1:30 PM when I got up, I was hungry as I did not eat anything since last night, luckily had some fruits with me (apple, orange and berry) which I munched for lunch..

A local tribe named Munusamy passed by that way, since the place was located in the border of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, he managed to speak fragmented Tamil which I struggled to understand, nonetheless I was happy to see a Human face after a long time.

I was asking him about his occupation, family, livelihood etc to pass time and poor fellow he responded to all my questions happily. I requested him to take me out of the forest which he accepted to, we both walked our way back to the dam. I thanked him and waited for other trekkers to join me, in the meanwhile informed the organizer that I am near temple which is in the foothills and not to search for me inside the forest.

Comments and suggestions are welcome.