Nature Watch : Abhijith’s Farewell Trek

Whats-App group messages coming one after another spamming my phone and irritating me while I concentrate on work, a message pop’s “Cherry, My admissions are Confirmed, this weekend I shall meet you all, and probably it will be my last week with you all in Bengaluru.” This was the message from Abhijith one of the good friends I made through “Nature Watch.” Nature Watch is a small group of naturists which was created by the students of Acharya Institute of Technology; it personally gave me an opportunity to meet young students who inspire me in many ways and to meet nature.

Abhijith, Student from AIT, studied Computer Science and is a 2015 BE pass-out, while his friends were busy searching for Jobs, he was inspired by Artificial Intelligence which led to him choosing Masters in it. After a lot of search and discussion, he decided to stick with University of St. Andrews, where he shall pursue his M. Sc Artificial Intelligence under Science Faculty. He is like this cute Humpty Dumpty, always smiling with a pure heart.  My first trip with Nature watch consisted of 30 students,  while only a few stayed connected one of whom is Abhijith.  We planned to give him a surprise Farewell during his last visit to Bengaluru especially to spend time with us.

We batch of 7 decided to trek Channarayana Durga; and visiting some of the surrounding areas like – Devarayanadurga, Madhugiri, and finally the Jayamangali Black Buck Reserve. Along with Abhijith were my close associates Rajesh Gopinath, Vetrivel, Harsha, Arun, and Pallavi. We started our journey to Devarayanadurga from Bangalore in XUV, on reaching Durga where the temples remained close we explored the surrounding where a monkey fell in love with me. Below are few of the clicks and the view from Devarayanadurga.

Channarayana Durga Trek: To describe it in less than 50 words: This is one of the best and toughest treks we ever went on. Channarayana Durga standing at about 3800 feet, was no easy mission to complete. This hillock is hardly known to people I can say confidently as we were the only ones climbing it (Considering it as a weekend, but the shopkeepers around said usually there is small crowd during Sundays) Trust me,  we had not expected such big hillock; we were awestruck. With an inclination of about 60 degrees, it was challenging for most of us, since it was the first Trek for Pallavi, while Abhi had to carry his weight and Harsha feared heights. Vetri as always flew like a bird and was the first to reach every resting spot followed by me. This did not stop any of us from conquering it.

Motivating Abhi to climb was more fun, every time I look back at him show him chocolate and ask him to come collect them from me on reaching the top. With all the chit chat and motivating one another to climb it was the real beauty of nature that kept us going. The below is the collage of few clicks from the collection, we found a water reserve, did a little of bird watching and a lot of my nonsense talks without which all our trips are incomplete.

Last but not the least:
Dear Abhi,
All the best for your future, we look forward to seeing you succeed in every step you take. And remember our bets and trades made. Hope you have a beautiful journey ahead. We will miss you for sure, but then don’t forget to book our flights to come visit you this summer.
With Lots of Love,
Cherry.