mogojaastro

Jungle Run!

Well, not that I am very much into trekking and hiking. But there are times when people casually try things just for the heck of it and they are the ones who usually end up in trouble. Frankly speaking, my 3 friends and I roughly fell into this category. Today I am going to tell you guys my first hand experience of getting lost in a dense forest and finally being brought back to the civilized world by a band of gunmen!

It was during the days we were fresh out of college, working for a company in the southern part of

India

, we were bold, carefree and had the confidence that we can do any damn thing in the world. It took us just 1 unplanned trip to rectify ourselves!

It was a boring winter weekend and we set out for a trekking expedition along the “Green Route” – a 20 km hike along an abandoned railway track through picturesque Nilgiri Mountains and lush green valleys. We were spellbound by the breathtaking natural beauty along the trail. And understandably, the first few hours of our trip, point-and-shoots reigned supreme. (Those days, we couldn’t afford SLRs L). The first hurdle came when we had to cross a pitch dark tunnel. Fortunately one of my friends had a torch to show the way and a whistle to keep bats away (he was the only person who did some homework). Finally we saw light at the other end of the tunnel only to realize that this was first of the 11 tunnels we were about to cross.

The close encounter of the 2^nd kind was crossing the bridges. There were small streams and rivulets intersecting our route. They went on to become wider and the bridges became longer and higher. These bridges didn’t have any railings and crossing them were no less than doing rhythmic gymnastics.

While crossing one such bridge I had a strange feeling in my stomach which later on gave way to something called hunger. Boy, it was lunchtime! Having lunch sitting on a railway track was a unique experience! We had with us sandwiches, energy bars and water. We feasted on them. However, till then, we had no idea that this was going to be our last meal of the day!

After lunch, we resumed our journey, but this time the surroundings changed to dense forest along both sides of the track. It was around 4:30 PM when we suddenly realized that it was starting to get dark and we were only halfway through the trail. The air was getting cooler. We were quickly inside our jackets and continued to walk, but this time much faster pace. Brisk walking made us exhausted pretty soon. By 5:30, it was totally dark and this was when we pressed the panic button. Going for the end of the trail was not an option now because walking along the track and bridges in dark was next to committing suicide. Within few minutes we realized that we had with us no food, only half bottle water, 1 torch, 4 cell phones with diminishing charge and no network – in short we were in deep trouble! One of my friend mentioned that he had once heard about an alternative route though the adjacent forest which would lead us to the highway. However none of us had a clear idea about this ‘survivor route’. Still, since there was no way out, we left the track and made our way through the jungle to catch the highway.

It took us just half an hour to realize that we have actually lost our way. We tried to go back to the railway track, but in the profound darkness, we were directionless. We didn’t realize that actually we had fallen into something called a “Death Circle”, a situation when people roam around the same place over and over again – a common phenomenon when people are lost in a jungle, even during the day time. And then the worst thing happened - in such a situation we started exactly what any inexperienced campaigner would do – start a nasty argument blaming each other for taking the wrong decision.

Amidst this dilemma, one of my friends spotted a source of light in the jungle – as if someone has lit a campfire. We cheered together and started running frantically towards the source of light. As we neared the light, we saw a group of people talking in low voices. We shouted for help….which caught their attention. When we came closer we realized that worst part might have just begun – they were not happy campers, but illegal poachers and they had guns with them. We saw them taking positions. Oops! It was like going from frying pan to fire - and now there was no turning back. We literally froze.

Fortunately one of us knew the local language and he started to explain the entire situation and begged for help. It seemed to work. And unbelievably, these armed outlaws became our savior!

I still don’t remember how we followed these poachers through the forest and how they eventually guided us to the highway. When we were about 50 yards from the highway, they stopped abruptly and asked us to move on. Even before we could thank them properly, they disappeared as if they were some mystical spirits sent by some supernatural being just to save us! When we finally saw the car headlights and heard noises of moving vehicles, we couldn’t believe ourselves. And somehow we reached home.

After this incident, at least one good thing happened – we never went for another trekking! We had the self realization that we were just like ordinary human beings and not super-heroes and understood the importance of doing proper homework before any trip. No doubt why the word ‘causality’ has the word ‘casual’ written all over it!