The Angathesari Injection

Injection Trek is a term my trek friends use to describe a trek which is physically and mentally demanding. These are one of those treks where you walk for 12 hours, ascend few thousand feet and descend equal height if not more. These treks when planned well and executed could be great fun.

The problem with these treks is that they are constant race against time and sometimes you concentrate your attention so much on the destination that you tend to miss out on the smaller joys of trekking.

I am not a big fan of such treks, for me trekking is not about the destination it’s the journey which makes it worthwhile. It’s an rare opportunity to venture into some of the most remote areas where there is no air pollution or the sound pollution, the only sound you will hear is of yourself and the birds chirping or the wild animals if you are lucky. These places demand a great respect and admiration something which you cannot give if you are on a tight time constraint.

A trek needs to be a stress buster and shouldn't have adverse effect on your professional life. In my opinion if we can split these injections over two days we tend to enjoy them better. This opinion may make me a lesser trekker but anyways I am one of those guy who can do ratangad throughout the year and live with it happily.

Having said that these treks could be great fun and challenging, I am all game for them if we consider the following factors while planning,

1      Sleep:- the most important factor , a good sleep will keep you awake and aware and reduce the fatigue.

2

             Body limitations:- Respect your body and know human limitations , you cannot walk for 24 hours and after certain extent the body will start consuming itself , this is the time when you can have injuries , the long term once.

3

       Time:- Calculate the estimation and keep the sufficient buffer, there is no point in taking jungle walk at night , even though the jungle would be as much beautiful the human eye is not equipped to see it at night.

       Safety:- never compromise it , know the risks , avoid them as much possible and don’t be over ambitious.

For me a ideal trek allows you to spend some time with the nature, enjoy the small water ponds , observe the jungle , witness the sunrise and the magnificent sunset.

Kandat-Angathesari is one of those treks which will blow your estimates, 19kms trek in 12 hours with 3000ft ascend and descend, but this doesn’t quite express the difficulties involved.

Angathesari , the mountain ridge which descends into Kandoshi village , which we estimates to take 2-3 hours , took close to 5-6 hours , it was treacherous , full of gravels with sun shining hot at our face was even more difficult. A small mistake and you could be skydiving 3000ft.

We fancied staying in kandoshi itself and doing the ascend the other morning but then the adrenaline pump activates and you start the ascend via waterfall route ( naal ) post 5 pm. Which we did successfully and were able to reach kandat village by 9pm but I think we missed out on lot than we earned.

The most memorable part of the treks has to be that it started , not that it ended.