Day6: Thursday - 13th December, 2012
Cherrapunji-Krem Ri Blai-Mawlynnong
Quick question - what is the best activity to do after horizontal caving?
Quick answer - vertical caving!
We were supposed to start early for the day, finish the caving by 1300hrs and head to Mawlynnong after lunch. We wanted to reach Mawlynnong before dark and hence decided to wrap up caving a bit early.
I started the morning with a bang! Literally, but in the loo. My queasy stomach from yesterday took over for the day which resulted in me doing frequent rounds of the loo throughout the morning. Another guy suffered the same fate. We both then decided to opt-out of the days activity and visit the Cherrapunji hospital/health-centre instead. However, the person who was down yesterday was up and running today!
The rest of the gang left for caving by 0900hrs which was a little late. We both decided to rest till 1000hrs after which the hospital would open. Ended up resting till 1100hrs and left the resort only after 1130hrs. The resort manager said he could not get a cab at this time (he'd got one yesterday). We waited outside the resort for a shared cab. One finally turned up after 15mins. We were a total of 8 people in the cab including the driver. The cab in question was a Maruti800. The ride was oddly comfortable despite the crowd.
The cab dropped us at the petrol pump near the hospital and charged Rs10 per person. Not bad. The hospital was a further 100m walk from the pump. We took the OPD slips from the counter for a price of Rs2 per person. We had to wait in a queue where people who came later went ahead. After waiting for about 30mins we went in together. We both had the same symptoms and were prescribed the same medicines which we got at the in-house pharmacy. There was a bottle of antacid which we agreed to share. Not a penny was charged at the pharmacy.
We did not get a taxi for the ride back and had to walk all the way. We rested till almost 1430hrs with quick rounds of the loo and had lunch after the others returned.
I did miss the caving, but you should not. Time for the second hand caving report! The caving for the day was planned at Krem Ri Blai. Today we were joined by Teddy, one of Men's friends, to assist in the caving. The guys left the resort at 0900hrs. The starting point of the cave was a good 45mins of downhill trek away. And the trek had stairs for most part; the same ones as at the Double Decker bridge.
Men said that no body had ventured in Kerm Ri Blai for the past two years. The path from the base of stairs to the mouth of the cave was full of overgrown vegetation. Men and teddy had brought a chopper to clear the way. The last section of the path had sharp rocks with a precarious pathway. One mistake and the person would be halved! There was also a poisonous plant on the way with sharp leaves. Any wound from the plant would take a long time to heal.
By the time my friends described this I was already cursing myself for the stomach bug.
The entrance of the cave was small hole with a 15m initial drop. There were two more drops which followed. One of the guys had bruised his knee the last day and decided not to attempt this. It took them some time to ready the ladder and the harness for descending. The ladder used here is a peculiar one: it can be coiled while packing, and each step is only few inches wide. The idea is to descend/ascend by digging your heels on each step, such that the ladder is between your legs and the body. You will understand it better after seeing the pics.
Going down was fairly easy compared to coming up. The loose soil and rocks and the cave were not helping either. It took quite a bit of time for everyone to complete the first descent. Hence it was decided to head back without completing the other descents so as to reach back on time. A few guys did not get the technique right, I am told, due to which they started swinging on the ladder. This meant they had to put a lot of effort while getting up. One of the guys got so exhausted that he was stuck for a while. It took a lot of encouragement from others for him to reach the top safely.
After completing the caving the guys also had to negotiate the stairs. The "huff, puff, break and curse!" routine was repeated ardently this time around. By the time the guys returned to the car Men, Teddy and Gear had reached and finished their lunch. The guys reached the resort by 1430hrs.
Immediately after lunch, by 1600hrs, we headed to Mawlynonng. We reached Mawlynong by 2000hrs, checked in to our rooms and rested till dinner. There was nothing to do in Mawlynnong after dark. Half the guys were accommodated in the tree house while the other half were in another guest house. We had a local veg dinner and then promptly went to sleep as most of us were tired: either by caving or by running to the loo.
Here we bid farewell to Men and Gear who had accompanied us till Mawlynnong and had been an integral part of the group. Thank you guys for all the fun!
Originally posted in Indiamike.
All photos by Mayank Sharma.
- Kapil Pilankar
Cherrapunji-Krem Ri Blai-Mawlynnong
Quick question - what is the best activity to do after horizontal caving?
Quick answer - vertical caving!
We were supposed to start early for the day, finish the caving by 1300hrs and head to Mawlynnong after lunch. We wanted to reach Mawlynnong before dark and hence decided to wrap up caving a bit early.
I started the morning with a bang! Literally, but in the loo. My queasy stomach from yesterday took over for the day which resulted in me doing frequent rounds of the loo throughout the morning. Another guy suffered the same fate. We both then decided to opt-out of the days activity and visit the Cherrapunji hospital/health-centre instead. However, the person who was down yesterday was up and running today!
The rest of the gang left for caving by 0900hrs which was a little late. We both decided to rest till 1000hrs after which the hospital would open. Ended up resting till 1100hrs and left the resort only after 1130hrs. The resort manager said he could not get a cab at this time (he'd got one yesterday). We waited outside the resort for a shared cab. One finally turned up after 15mins. We were a total of 8 people in the cab including the driver. The cab in question was a Maruti800. The ride was oddly comfortable despite the crowd.
The cab dropped us at the petrol pump near the hospital and charged Rs10 per person. Not bad. The hospital was a further 100m walk from the pump. We took the OPD slips from the counter for a price of Rs2 per person. We had to wait in a queue where people who came later went ahead. After waiting for about 30mins we went in together. We both had the same symptoms and were prescribed the same medicines which we got at the in-house pharmacy. There was a bottle of antacid which we agreed to share. Not a penny was charged at the pharmacy.
We did not get a taxi for the ride back and had to walk all the way. We rested till almost 1430hrs with quick rounds of the loo and had lunch after the others returned.
I did miss the caving, but you should not. Time for the second hand caving report! The caving for the day was planned at Krem Ri Blai. Today we were joined by Teddy, one of Men's friends, to assist in the caving. The guys left the resort at 0900hrs. The starting point of the cave was a good 45mins of downhill trek away. And the trek had stairs for most part; the same ones as at the Double Decker bridge.
Puppies!
Stairs again!
Men said that no body had ventured in Kerm Ri Blai for the past two years. The path from the base of stairs to the mouth of the cave was full of overgrown vegetation. Men and teddy had brought a chopper to clear the way. The last section of the path had sharp rocks with a precarious pathway. One mistake and the person would be halved! There was also a poisonous plant on the way with sharp leaves. Any wound from the plant would take a long time to heal.
Men (proper noun) clearing the way
Making our way through the vegetation
By the time my friends described this I was already cursing myself for the stomach bug.
The entrance of the cave was small hole with a 15m initial drop. There were two more drops which followed. One of the guys had bruised his knee the last day and decided not to attempt this. It took them some time to ready the ladder and the harness for descending. The ladder used here is a peculiar one: it can be coiled while packing, and each step is only few inches wide. The idea is to descend/ascend by digging your heels on each step, such that the ladder is between your legs and the body. You will understand it better after seeing the pics.
Entrance to Krem Ri Blai
Inside the cave
The descending technique
The ladder goes on ...
Creepy crawler
Going down was fairly easy compared to coming up. The loose soil and rocks and the cave were not helping either. It took quite a bit of time for everyone to complete the first descent. Hence it was decided to head back without completing the other descents so as to reach back on time. A few guys did not get the technique right, I am told, due to which they started swinging on the ladder. This meant they had to put a lot of effort while getting up. One of the guys got so exhausted that he was stuck for a while. It took a lot of encouragement from others for him to reach the top safely.
After completing the caving the guys also had to negotiate the stairs. The "huff, puff, break and curse!" routine was repeated ardently this time around. By the time the guys returned to the car Men, Teddy and Gear had reached and finished their lunch. The guys reached the resort by 1430hrs.
End of caving
L-R: Gear, Teddy, Pradeep, Men
Immediately after lunch, by 1600hrs, we headed to Mawlynonng. We reached Mawlynong by 2000hrs, checked in to our rooms and rested till dinner. There was nothing to do in Mawlynnong after dark. Half the guys were accommodated in the tree house while the other half were in another guest house. We had a local veg dinner and then promptly went to sleep as most of us were tired: either by caving or by running to the loo.
Here we bid farewell to Men and Gear who had accompanied us till Mawlynnong and had been an integral part of the group. Thank you guys for all the fun!
Farewell Men! (proper noun again)
L-R: Mayank, me, Praful, Ajay, Men, Deepak
Originally posted in Indiamike.
All photos by Mayank Sharma.
- Kapil Pilankar
No comments:
Post a Comment