When I can pedal the world, when I can trot on the streets, when I can wade through seas and rivers, when I can take a brisk walk in the park, when there are myriad ways amongst fitness freaks to keep fit, a very interesting question that struck me two years back, when I chose to step out on my first trek, was “why do ‘I’ trek?”
Two years ago, in October 2010, when I was a novice trekker, I completed the Nagari Combo which had five different stages meant for different levels of trekkers. Although successful completion of the trek gave me the happiness of accomplishing a Herculean feat, I was still not able to answer convincingly my question, “why do ‘I’ trek?”
I then had the good fortune of trekking the unexplored trails in Venkateswara forest, walking along streams in Nagalapuram, and bouldering in Western Ghats, after which I realized, serious trekking was not facile.
The question “why do ‘I’ trek?” kept and still keeps haunting me when I recollect the memories of clinging on to that boulder during the 1st Palani Exploratory trek, of being almost washed away while traversing a ferocious river at Kabinhole forest during ‘monsoon survival mission’, and especially when I am woken up by weird dreams of hanging from cliffs and sleeping amidst vipers.
Gradually, the question “why do ‘I’ trek?” got a little less difficult to answer, when my skin was torn while negotiating with the bushes in the Venkateswara forest, when my heart was thumping and was on the verge of exploding during the marathons, when my knee was weeping in pain during the survival missions, when I was counting wasp bites on my body after exploring Eastern Ghats, when my blood was sucked by leeches in Palani hills, when I had sleepless nights on wet and slippery terrain in the Kabinhole forest, when the venomous vipers were waiting to kiss me, and when the attractive pools were ready to engulf me. My mind was echoing this question throughout – Is trekking really worth all these risks?
Is trekking an obsession? Will “the Encounters” answer this question? I am reminded of what Greg Child, an Australian-born rock climber once said, “Somewhere between the bottom of the climb and the summit is the answer to the mystery why we climb.” Keep guessing and hold on till it rolls out!
Happy Trekking,
Durai Murugan
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