Skandagiri-Night trekking

26th Jan, dawn of the freedom in the sky.
It was cold; the temperature would be 5 C. I was freezing. I remembered Lake Michigan. But here is the sea… you can stand upon waves. We had just finished our ghost stories after 2 to 2.30 hrs of climbing.
This is called night trekking at Skandagiri, also known as kalvarhalli betta. Eleven of us started from Bangalore at 11.30 PM and reached the destination at 1.30 AM. Ascent started at 1.45 AM and it was an amazing trek, though moderate in difficulty…the best part was stars…Millions of twinkling stars, Sky full of stars, Eyes full of stars in the mid night…I remember my childhood. We climbed up around 4-5 KM with torch. I did not have the torch. :-)

Lesson Learnt: It is difficult to rely on others light, while climbing
up.
In the absence of moon, on the slope of the hill, in the middle of the
night, I must use my own lights.

Well, with decreased activeness, It was getting colder as we reached the top. To avoid the piercing wind we all sat encircled, wrapped and covered, by the cliff, for the sun to appear. After 1.30 hr the wind moved faster, clouds started touching us, and the sky turned deep blue. That deep blue turned into smooth grey, deep red and orphic orange and brilliant golden…we saw the layers of clouds below us from vantage point. The wind was warm and everything was clear. Lot of clicks around, took few deep breaths, and saw the splendor of the lazy Ocean of clouds in the sky. After spending 1-1.30 hr now, it was a time to descend. Coming down was easy as usual. At 9 AM we were overly exhausted and straight headed back to Bangalore with the lazy ocean in the eyes.

PLEASE
Do not leave any plastic behind. (If possible, avoid carrying the plastic)Avoid campfire/bonfire, to keep off the forest fire.Be environmental friendly and come to gather to preserve such great places.