Chennarayana Durga, you beauty!!

So, this is a very long waited blog ever of my journey. Why? you ask.. because my cousin, her husband and I did this in 2021 and I have still not shared my experience about this difficult yet beautiful trek I’ve ever done. So, the BTS goes like this my cousin was recently married and wanted us to visit her new home. I, with all the excitement planned with other cousin, who dodged the plan of visiting ended up alone.

It was a simple visit, and I wanted home food because I was back in college by then.

I went around 6 on Saturday evening to their place.  We had fun and dinner. They were known as the trekkers of family by then. They had completed dozens of treks and different kinds of activities. I wanted to start trekking and wanted a safe bet. I had casually mentioned but I hadn’t expected them to take it seriously. But next morning, all of us were surprisingly ( I am the surprising element as I cannot wake up early) up and ready to do. Trust me, this was the most unprepared trek I have ever had. I didn’t have a shoe, I had borrowed from my cousin you know!!

We woke up by 5. When the couple were busy preparing the breakfast and packing the necessary, I was still wondering if we are really going for this trek. Chennarayana Durga is approximately 2 hours from Bangalore. We started around 6 in the morning and reached the base camp by 8:30. The trek looked extremely tough to me being a beginner. It was around 70 degree steep and was very scary to me. I turned back at my BIL  horrified by the height and steep of the trek, for which he said we are gonna be oki!!

We started the trek and it was looking good in the beginning but as we started inclining, it got tougher and tougher. I literally used all my limbs to climb this mountain yet struggling. Seeing my condition and struggle for an hour, my cousin decided to take a break and have our breakfast. The place were we had our breakfast was such a peaceful place by the lakeside. It was calm, composed and warm. Sun was shining bright but was gentle. We rested, had our breakfast, clicked a ton of photos and around 10 we started again to concur the rest of the trek.

The second part of the trek was better than the first half as the ground level gradually increased and not straight up inclined. We chatted, we raced, we crossed each other, we laughed and we encouraged each other to walk a km more. And just like that we reached the second point which looked like a resting point for guards during the King’s time. We could see the whole village from there. The scene was breathtaking. I could just stand and watch that scenery for hours if I could. But we still had little more to climb, or that was what I thought.

In the third part of the trek, we had to cross through a lot of shrugs and bushes. It was like crossing through jungle but the plants and tress being my height. And after a lot of walking, walking and walking, there it was the tip of the trek, from where I could see far far far away and almost near to the cloud. I can not still forget the scene, the most mesmerising scenery from there. It was serene. It was almost 12 when we reached the top. We were so tired yet so much hyped in energy. The wind there was so breezy and cold that, sitting there would decrease every last bit of anxiety or stress cells in the body.

Once we regained the normal pace of our breath, I slowly induced them into the series of “ How you met my cousin?”. And boy! I was surprised with the story about how they met. My cousin kept blushing and told the story about their first date, their first ride, their favourite ice cream from Naturals, how they got each other’s attention and every bit of the story without a miss. I can vouch that as a love story which turned into arranged wedding, no matter what the whole family said otherwise. It indeed was a cute little love story!!

Around 2 in the noon we started descending and trust me, descending is always tougher. The steep which we climbed earlier in the day seemed impossible to get down. I really didn’t except to climb down without tripping or falling. Thankfully we all did it without getting hurt. Being back to base, I turned and looked back thinking how did I manage to climb up that steep height. And I am still wondering how I did it. It surely wouldn’t be possible without cousin and BIL’s help.

Until today, it’s still the hardest trek I have ever made and also it was the beautiful one which I am able to pin down every bit of even after 2 years.

What I learnt from this trek was that, even though it seems impossible to reach the peak, achieving the smaller milestones and keep it going is the way. Second lesson, you never know who you meet and just keep them with you for the rest of your lives.

After scene was also surprising to me because, the next day I didn’t have any muscle sore. I was as fit as a horse but with more pumped up energy.

I 100% recommend this trek to everyone who loves trekking and adventures.

Thats it for this week.

Until next week.

Cheerios.