The Climb with Tango Five

PMs Hannah W, Lynne, Charlotte & Polly B

6.30am on Friday 5th November, the new venturer team had said goodbye to their old friends from Phase One and set off on a new adventure, a 19 day trek and I was lucky enough to be joining the PM team for the first seven days.

It was obvious from the quiet chat on the bus that many of the ventures were apprehensive about what lay ahead. They had plenty of time to catch up on sleep and get to know their new mates on the one and a half day journey to the south of India and the southern Western Ghats of Kerala where the trek begins. Although this sounds like a chore, most members of our team had been on static sites for Phase One and so the journey gave them a new and exciting view of this wonderfully eccentric country.

We stopped a couple of times on route to enjoy some local cuisine with the help of our host country venturer, Ajee, translating and explaining all the food on offer, the venturers began their journey of discovery.

We stayed overnight in a motel dorm room where we had real beds and pillows, a real treat, something we all fully appreciated. We discussed our group contact over dinner and shared our hopes and wishes for the phase. By now the ventures have a good idea of what makes a good and bad team, so it was interesting to hear them share their experiences from Phase One and great to hear of the lessons they had already learned.

We had an easy first day a 4k walk through tea plantation to our first campsite that had a solid shelter and camp fire to dry us off from the rain that was to become a big part of our first week.

We were in our tents early as we had a 4am wake up call for our first big day a 16K trek to the summit of Messipullimala 2650 meters above sea level. We began our climb in the dark as the sun rose to reveal a truly stunning scene. We made slow progress to start with as some of the team struggled with the weight they were carrying after an hour some of the girls decided to redistribute the team kit between them to those who felt they could carry more and we were soon making good progress.

The scenery was truly amazing, the sky was hazy and it was quite windy. As we reached our first view point we looked across the ridge at the mountain we were about to climb, the task we had ahead was quite overwhelming but the team dug deep and sang our way to the summit.

“Climbing mount Misappuli Mala was hard but we all made it as a team and the views were out of this world. I can’t describe how happy the team were when we reached the top and looked down over Tamil Nadu to the east and across Kerala to the west. The sense of achievement was phenomenal!” Kirsten Elliot

After lunch with a view and a long decent off the mountain we had a cup of tea in the highest organic tea plantation in the world a truly stunning location for a seriously well earned cup of tea!!

Day three was survival day, a much anticipated moment for the team. The challenge was to build a shelter from natural resources, sleep in the shelter and cook a meal on an open fire with produce available from the land in the local area.

The team split in to sub teams and set about their day. James Mcintosh led the shelter team, who all did an amazing job, whilst Jack, Owen , Liz and Laura spent all day preparing the evening meal and everyone took turns to collect fire wood and other natural materials for the shelter. As PM’s we were all very proud of every member of the team who put maximum effort into the day under extremely hot conditions and managed to meet their challenge of spending the whole night battling with the cold in the shelter.

 Morning was a welcome relief, a 6k hike took us to our next location by the reservoir where we spent the afternoon building the rafts that we would paddle across the water the following day.

“This experiences helps you appreciate how hard day to day life in rural India really is.” Laura Hulley

 

The last couple of days of my trip saw a lot of rain, some amazing food cooked by the venturers, hiking through beautiful tea plantations and cardamom farms. Unfortunately the rain prevented us from completing the infamous windy ridge but the team did get an extra, well earned, rest day to catch up on washing and simply enjoy eachothers company.

The whole team have overcome some difficult challenges in the few days I spent with them, but they are all having a wonderful time and I was sad to leave them as they went on their way - only another 145k to go....

Text and photos by Polly Baldwin http://www.dynamicpictures.co.uk/ (unless stated otherwise).