The day started with the
idea to conquer one of highest peaks in the city of Visakhapatnam. I
along with two of my buddies Shukla & Sharma started early in the
morning mounted on 3 bikes. Shukla like me is a cycling enthusiast but
his friend Sharma detested the idea of sweating it out early morning,
that too on a Holiday. Nonetheless, both of us with our positive outlook
convinced him to accompany us on our small adventure.
We
started at around 07 am with our stomachs groaning. The total distance
that we had to cycle was 26 Kms one way with a positive height gradient
of 4313 ft and then back. We commenced on a long stretch, a straight
road being quite empty early morning with the dull dust from ness of the
city setting over it. The only eventful instance during this stretch
was the sweet taste of fresh coconut juice, with which we rejuvenated
our bodies for the trip ahead.
A few hours later after our
clothes were decently wet and our stomachs about to burst inside-out, we
decided to take a break and replenish ourselves with some food. The
local fruit sellers near NAD Junction were our first stop with a small
easy going restaurant next where we enjoyed the aroma with the
traditional taste of an early morning dosa with idli and chutney.
With
the food settling in our stomach, we were now at the base of
Simachalam. Looking ahead we found the peak towering us with its
overbearing shadow. We cycled for some more distance when we saw a long
staircase rising from the base to the hill top. We were quite tempted to
climb up these steps with our bikes hoisted on our shoulders. It
appeared to be a few hours walk, but somehow thanks to lazy sharma we
decided against it and continued on our road journey.
The
climb had just begun when lazy sharma’s bike decided to betray us all
and its chain ring bent into something like a mobius strip. The three of
us off loaded ourselves from our bikes and tried our level best to
de-disfigure the chain ring. Unsucessful at our attempt to correct the
disfigured ring, we did manage to pull out the newly formed mobius
completely from the bike.
Keeping the chain ring aside we
resumed our journey. A short distance down the winding roads to the top
of the hill, I offered my bike to Shukla, knowing pretty well that he
had a fad for it. I had recently bought the Bergamont Vitox, a bicycle
whose design and manufacturing relates back to St. Pauli, a football
club based out of Hamburg in Germany. Believe me when I say this, when
this bike moves it puts a hot knife slicing butter to shame. The only
thing that my ears coould make out was the faint hum akin to a bee
whizzing past.
Suddenly, after a minute we heard a long
screech… and saw Shukla fall off the bike. His hands were scathed and
his entire body was shivering with shock. There was a tiny amount of
blood oozing out of his palm, but other than his body held together.
Sharma got him up and washed his injury off. After a few moments of
consolation and self denial we got back on track and I realized just how
trecharous a hot knife can be contrary to its eloquence towards
butter.
As time passed our ascent progressed and we
kept nearing our goal. By now our entire bodies were tanned and wet with
tear-drops of sweat dripping down the edges of our sleeves and leaving
dark imprints on the tarred road. The chocklates which I was carrying
turned out to be quite handy and helped substitute our bodies with the
requisite energy. We kept going on under the scorching sun, sometimes
walking and sometimes cycling. Many cars and buses crossed our tracks,
making us feel like snails in a rabbit’s burrow. With time passing we
finally made it to the top of the hill where the road meandered and
opened up into a small flat top filled with various shops.
We
decided to take a cool break to keep our pace going and had some of the
best juice, I have ever had in my life. This is the place where the
Simachalam Temple is situated and tourists come aboard to pay a visit to
the relegious shrine.
Being bike junkies, we decided to
skip the temple for now and find ourselves a way up to the peak of the
hill. The aerial view of this hill had given me an insight on what it
housed atop. A long winding road runs from the temple towards the
Eastern edge of the hill surrounded by dense foliage. This road appears
like a poisonous viper slithering through natures grasp. It hits the
edge of the hill and then descends down to the coastline alongside the
Bay of Bengal. The terrain around it is as rough as the mighty Himalayas
and the temperatures as hot as the Sahara.
So we
initiated the climb up a cemented path which infiltrated into the
forest. Cycling through it we initially went somewhat upslope. Then
after some winding turns we were surrounded by shrubs on both sides. As
we cycled through the wind hit our faces and some thorns pricked our
shoulders. After going about a mile we reached a small shrine where we
laid camp for the next 2 hours. We had our bananas and laid down on our
backs looking high above at the skys from the highest point in the city
of Vizag.
We had finally achieved our goal!
