Karni Betta..

The Western-Ghats revealed themselves in every mood, aspect and form. And then, the skies opened and nature revealed itself again in familiar acceptable contours of attractiveness. Contrasts of sun, sky and clouds, flowers and vivid butterflies, a whisper of Green it was a great experience to watch the beauty of nature which can’t be explained in simple words but just imagine, standing into the wild dark unfathomable jungle with unhoped feeble condition with a happy end I prefer to remember the Karni Betta experience for a right example....

Whenever I remember Karni betta this would come to my mind because for the very first time I had such a type of experience in my life. I had visited this wonderful place few years back with my Udupi YHA team in the peak summer.

By early morning we reached Hullukudike a small village and found one local person as guide. All arrangements had been made by Mr. K S Adiga a senior experienced member of our unit so we had no need to worry about anything especially food. It was disciplined and well arranged. Our team was full of well experienced trekkers but the luck was not with us this time. Our guide missed out the route ( there was No proper rout for this place) and it took us entirely in a narrowed wrong dead end into the dense.

After a long walk on a mud road we reached the next village the weather was exceedingly hot and not endurable. There I simply asked the details about the hill but all replayed in negative. Our guide was well experienced in that region so we didn’t worry about the route we believed on his confidence and simply followed him wherever he lead.

After crossing the village we started to walk into the deep timberland. Huge trees very thick evergreen vegetation the initial forest walk was dulcet but harsh humidity on that shaded forest everyone began to get weary. After a non stop walk our energy level went down each step all our food and water got empty. when the ardor of the nonstop climb left me more hot and thirsty and some our our teammates were not able to maintain the team gap and discipline and we came to know our guide had missed the route.

The sun shaded itself and the climb was barren and rarefied but our hike never ended. Finally Adiga sir took the initiative and made a small troop to find the peak. After much climbing we reached nether of the peak it was a ridge and a Kilometer wide steep rock concatenation which was never climbed or crossed. The Sun was going to cover its face we din’t have time to think climbing the rock was not possible.. All we decided was to get down the hill as soon as possible before it was dark.

Even it was a tough task descending in lubricious terrain in dim light with low energy. After a lot of helping each other in the dark night at one point we found a water point. Then we had a small break and almost agreed to spend that night at that place but the water was not sufficient to cook for one night.

Same time few guys went down and found a foot-wide path and that route took them to the village. They returned back with few villagers and we were happily shifted to bottom side village house. In that tired out condition only Adiga sir made very delicious food. Later we made a small campfire and slept off under clear star painted blue sky. Next day we changed our plan and we went to another nice place near by the village.