Walk in the woods!

Bangalore Oxfam Trailwalker 2014

The night was spent in packing, unpacking and repacking.

It had my kids question my intent- was I really going for a walk or was I going on  a picnic?

It was a sleepless night- what if I miss hearing the alarm, what if I am late, what if the cab comes and honks and am not ready!!

Finally 3:00 am dawned and I was up and about!

Left home at 4:00 am, not sure if we were ready or not!

Picked up folks and a lot of stuff on our way and we were soon on the road to nowhere!

Reaching the starting point at 5:00 am seemed easy, till we reached a point where we had no idea where we were!

Note to self: learn to read maps and directions!

Managed to find the place thanks to other stragglers like us and we were a bit late but worked out well for us..

We avoided the traffic at start point, we started 12 minutes late.

We missed the hullaballoo and got right down to business.

The morning was still dark and the clouds casting shadows over the moon.

Slowly light crept through the grey and everything looked ok.

We walked in perfect harmony for a while, 2 in front leading, 2 following.

We followed all rules of the road, make way for faster folks, do not occupy the whole road. Try not to be too noisy.

It started out well, we maintained our pace and smiled at fellow walkers as we crossed them, feeling a bit proud that we were not the last ones!!

As the sun peeped through the clouds we had mixed reactions, it was comforting to know we would not get drenched in surprise showers, but had to be prepared for the unforgiving sun!

Reaching Check point 1 was right on time! and easy! 10 kms was doable.

But we were not prepared for what we saw at CP 1. There was a long queue for breakfast and we heard breakfast was not ready!

Other teams were getting tired waiting and requesting their support crews to pick up breakfast for them and meet them half way to the next check point.

Left with no choice but to wait as we had no support crew, we filled water, we had a cup of coffee and sat.

We got a bit of food and we were hungry enough not to complain.

Soon we were on our way, wanting to take advantage of the still cool morning.

The next stretch of walk was also a breeze!

Not too tiring, walkers along the way, lovely green fields, village scenes and time for pictures too.

Check point 2 was at a church , we spent few minutes there and had a cup of tea by the roadside, met a bunch of support crew on a bicycle!

And back on the road.

This next stretch got hot and dusty.

There were farmlands,  several small villages and trees to provide shade from the mid morning sun.

Reaching check point 3 was bliss only because we knew lunch was waiting and we would have covered 25 Kms!!!

But again, we were in for a shock, lunch was over and they were making the next batch and we had a wait.

We took advantage of the wait to get out of our shoes and air them and stay barefoot for a while.

Went through the motions of filling water, hydrating ourselves and finally got our lunch, much later than what we thought.

Several walkers were already struggling with blisters, we decided to take precautionary measures and I taped my feet as well as I could.

Many of the teams had left by then.

Soon after lunch, we were on to meet the sun head on!!!

This stretch from check point 3- 4 was an eyeopener.

We struggled in the heat!  We were in Krishnagiri, around 2:00 pm or so and that is not the right time to be in this part of the state!!!

One of our walkers had a problem with his footwear and was wearing slippers, blisters got to him!

He slowed down drastically and we did too.

Our water supplies were dangerously low, the tar roads not helping with the heat.

Reaching Check point 4 was bliss.

Our walker rushed to get first aid and relief from the cramps which were hitting him hard.

The rest of us, struggled, to find place to sit and sat.

I chanced upon friends new and old, got talking  and we got some time to relax while our walker suffered!

By now, having walked 35 kms, we could feel the pain closer to home, the legs and calves were feeling the fatigue, our back was broken thanks to carrying our heavy backpacks and our body giving up due to insufficient food and water.

We spent a long time at Check point 4 and watched everyone leaving, we had no choice but to stay.

After a long break, watching the sun slowly giving up on its fight, we picked our bags up once again to start on our way.

The next stretch was the longest, at 13.5 kms and the pace we were making, we knew we would take 3 hours.

We were 3 hours behind our planned schedule and were one of the last few teams to leave the check point.

But with the sun down, we were comfortable walking slowly and enjoying the absolutely marvelous sun set and jazzed up skies.

The roads were full of surprises, curves, ups, downs and soon dusk turned to night.

We had a couple of torches with us to guide us as we crossed signs warning us of Elephants, we crossed over into Karnataka again and were wary of elephants.

My music kept me company, enjoying the calm of the night.

We did feel the aches, the pains, the cramps, but we knew we could make it.

That is when we hit upon a roadblock!

Our already injured walker broke down with a painful back!

We took him aside, sprayed him down with Moov and rubbed it also.

Provided a bit of relief but not enough to help him move.

We guessed we were about a km away from the check point.

Having no support vehicle at our disposal right then, not knowing where to call him to meet us, we were confused and slowly made our way in the night to the check point.

We quickly reached the checkpoint, and flopped into a chair.

It was a wide open area, where there were lot of volunteers and tents set up.

This was where we had dinner, struggled to get up to wash our hands, cried in pain when we had to press the foot pedal to get the wash basin working, pleaded for someone to hand over a spoon to avoid getting up.

We were a bunch of messed up walkers.

We were one of the last few to check in here.

I walked towards the first aid tent, hoping to get relief from burning soles and quickly cramping thighs.

The place was packed with walkers getting massages and sprays.

I walked away dejected, not even sitting down, fearing the getting up part.

We contemplated waiting at the check point for the night.

After a long enough break, we walked to our waiting car which had reached by then.

We heaved a sigh of relief to be able to leave our bags behind and rest our backs.

Popping a brufen, wearing warm jackets and pants for the night, carrying our lanterns and torches, we set off for the night.

Our original plan was to rest a while at night and continue at dawn.

But since we had only covered 48 kms and our goal had been to hit 56 by then, we decided to walk on.

The night was cool, the stars looked cool, our moods were better, the brufen was kicking in.

Were we scared, yes!

Of the night, of the dark, of getting lost, of snakes, of scorpions, of tigers!!!!!

This was a short stretch and we got there sooner than we realized.

After a quick break, removing our jackets since the night seemed warm now, and back again with our lanterns.

We were half way there at 56.4 Kms and it was already well into the night.

The next stretch was again a long stretch! At 12 Kms we knew in the night it could take over 3 hours, we were prepared for that.

The painkillers still had its effect and we could move on.

We walked through fields, searching for elusive markings on the road, searching for flying ribbons on bushes, all the while keeping an eye out for snakes!

Most of the distance we were alone- not seeing even a flicker of another torch bearer.

We bore on, calmly, quietly, talking loudly when we saw the snake, our fear making us chatter!

The night was turning chill and we were anxious to reach our check point and meet our cab driver to get our jackets on.

Our legs were sore, our feet was turning numb, our heads were aching from the cold.

We reached the check point, grateful to have reached CP 7 and completed 68 kms.

Unfortunately we had not taken into consideration the fact that our cab driver was not aware of what we were doing and had dozed off at the previous check point.

Reaching the check point, we shivered, shook, tried to find a warm place to sit and rest, all the beds were taken.

We had no support crew waiting for us with warm coffee or a wollen blanket or a bed to rest.

We sat on the few chairs we could spot and waited.

Finally once the cab reached, we checked out, rushed, got our jackets on and just soaked in the warmth of the cab!

Loading our pockets once again with batteries and supplies for the night, we started off after a 1 ½ hour break.

We walked more cautiously this time, since this was a long stretch and a tough one supposedly with uphills, rocky roads and downhills.

There were stone quarrying, lack of signs, lack of proper roads, no markers,  finally as dawn broke we reached check point 8.

We were supposed to get our lunch at this point, but we had reached at 7:00 am!! We had already missed our breakfast at the previous check point since we had reached there at around 2:30 am!

We were hungry, tired, the walk had been strenuous and we had reached 80 kms!!

We were exhilarated that we had only about a HM run to complete the 100 kms.

But the state we were in, we were wondering if we could do the next 20 kms.....

We had started off all our planning with the goal of completing by 1:00 pm.

When we had reached check point 4 and 5 , we felt we could not meet our goal.

But walking through the night, had got us back on track, but were we fit enough to do it?

 We took a short break here, and got the best news ever!

Lunch was ready!

We grabbed our boxes, gobbled roti and rice at 7:00 am!

Felt energized, filled our bottles and felt good that we were one of the early teams to have made it to CP 8.

We did see a few tents where people were still sleeping, we decided to take advantage of the coolness of the morning and we set out again.

The next walk was a lovely stretch, we saw parrots screeching, coconut groves, crossed some lovely village houses, made way for a VIP crossing, crossed over Kanakapura road and walked as the sun rose high.

We were on time and very early at the next check point- 9!

This was the last check point and it surprised us that we were among the top 80 teams to get there!!

This by itself was motivating and we did not stop for long here.

A quick check of the shoes, bandages and we grabbed our oranges and left.

This was the home run, the final stretch, the one we were waiting for!!

We knew we could do this.!

But…

The heat and lack of water and the rush without sleep were slowly taking its toll.

The sun at 11:00 am on a dry, treeless road, beats down mercilessly. 

Would it make sense to take your clothes off and walk in minimal clothes, no!!!! but the clothes were burning against the skin.

Feet felt like lead, the head felt like someone was pounding inside and outside.

The brain was addled.

The last 3-4 kms was the worst!!!

 We pushed ourselves, ran a bit, walked a bit, kept our sanity in check, trying to feebly joke about reaching the finish in the top 60.

Crossing other teams on the road, made us feel good and helped us think maybe we could!!

Slowly and steadily we edged on, stopping only to breathe!

We encouraged other walkers , just as they did us!

Everyone had one goal- complete!

Finally seeing the resort was like an oasis in the desert.

The 1 km walk inside the resort seemed like the longest I have ever walked,

We started running, walking, running , till we came to the last 100 kms.

To stop ourselves from collapsing, we slowed, walked in calmly and stopped our clock!

The overwhelming joy of having completed something so difficult, slowly started seeping in!

Kicking off our shoes, gulping cold juice, we crashed!

When we were called to collect our medals and certificates, we dragged ourselves.

But Boy, were we smiling!!

We could not stop grinning!!

We had not only completed the 100 kms walk, we had finished it in the time we had set out to do: 30 hours!!

We completed it in 30 hours 47 minutes!

Watch this video and in the background you can hear our names being called to collect our medals!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifJNPpvFAMQ

This has been my toughest and best physical endurance activity ever!!

I look forward to more- it pushed me to my limits- physically and mentally!

It taught me the importance of team work and keeping each other motivated.

It taught me how a simple smile and word of cheer can change the whole mood!

Hats off to all the teams who started off on this challenge and completed it!

I know there were teams who completed it in 16 hours, 19 hours, 23 hours and so on!

But to me:

Everyone is a winner!