Written by : trablogger

The Fear That comes with Darkness : Skandagiri Trek | Part 2

Published on : October 15, 2015
Filed Under : , Tagged as :
Last Updated on July 26, 2018 by trablogger
Reading Time: 4 minutes

Read Part 1 : At The Other End Of Fear : Skandagiri Trek


Part 2:

At Skandagiri Peak : @ 5pm

It was around 5 in the evening when I finally reached the top. I walked around the Shiva temple and Nandi statue at the top.

At the Top of Skandagiri

At the Top of Skandagiri

Side view of Temple @ Skandagiri

Side view of Temple @ Skandagiri

Nandi at Skandagiri

Nandi at Skandagiri

The view of the valley from the top of a mountain is always a pleasure to watch. Things were no different here too.

valley from Skandagiri top

valley from Skandagiri top

from the top of skandagiri

from the top of skandagiri

But Not all the views were that great.

Some patches on the

Some patches on the “green land”

The buildings made the patches

The buildings made the patches

The saddest scene of all

The saddest scene of all

But when you are helpless about something, all you have to do is to change your focus from that thing to something better. So I did the same.

Distant Mountain range

Distant Mountain range

The Mountain range on a closer look

The Mountain range on a closer look

At Skandagiri Peak : @ 6pm

The atmosphere was a bit cloudy. It looked like, it was going to rain. There was no trace of a red colored round sun anywhere.

Rays of hope

Rays of hope

But rays of hopes can appear all of a sudden from nowhere. The sky started getting infected with the red hues of the evening sun.

Nature applied Color Gradient on the sky

Nature applied Color Gradient on the sky

The red hues gave me the hope for seeing the sunset

The red hues gave me the hope to see the sunset

But still there was no signs of spotting the sun. Then, all of a sudden Sun made a quick appearance from behind the clouds.

Beginning of Sunset at Skandagiri

Beginning of Sunset at Skandagiri

Sunset at Skandagiri

Sunset at Skandagiri

I was happy that, even though it was cloudy, I was somehow able to see the sunset

At Skandagiri Peak : @ 7pm

The atmosphere started to change its hues. The sky had started reducing its brightness. As it started to get dark, I kept my backpack inside the safest place available and prepared the place to make it “stay-worthy”

And the only safe place at the top of the mountain was the Temple!

The Safe Temple

The Safe Temple

I picked up some dry grass, twigs, sticks, leaves and whatever I could find and kept it inside the stone temple, before the rains, just in case if I had to make some fire at night.

The Happiness from watching the sunset slowly drowned in the darkness and was replaced by a tinge of fear. Darkness has such super powers!

At Skandagiri Peak : @ 8pm

The wind started to blow stronger and colder than before. By that time even the last ray of reflected, refracted and diffracted light was hidden by darkness.

Did I tell you that I didn’t have a proper torch or a jacket with me?!

Anyway as I didn’t have a jacket that day, I have the advantage of having a benefit of doubt regarding my shivering. It could be either because of cold or fear. And I would go with cold.

But being alone in the darkness in a strange place can be a bit scary for a first timer. And I could see the nearest civilization at a far distance, shining bright like stars in the sky.

night view from skandagiri

night view from skandagiri

My excuses for the not so sharp pictures are as follows. Lack of light, Lack of tripod, Lack of jacket and so on.

Night Lights from the village

Night Lights from the village

But you get an idea, how the villages and town at a distance, look at night from the top of Skandagiri.

At Skandagiri Peak : @ 9pm

Then suddenly from one of those villages/towns some people started to celebrate some festival or something of that sort, with fire crackers. My camera was set for a long exposure shot and those explosions of celebrations added some colors in my photograph.

Long exposure at Skandagiri ( Shutter speed : 2

Long exposure at Skandagiri ( Shutter speed : 2″, f/4, ISO 6400 )

At Skandagiri Peak : @ 10pm

By this time, even the slightest movement of the branches of any trees could give me the images of wild animals. The sound of the strong wind, added the much needed frightening sound effects.

Those

Those “wild trees”

The night, lights and the mountain

The night, lights and the mountain

At Skandagiri Peak : @ 11pm

There was no light left to chase. The ISO of the camera was pushed to its limits. There was no possibility of capturing any more images. So I decided to go inside the temple and take shelter.

Lack of activities brought me back to my thoughts about darkness and the associated fearful thoughts. Fear started to come back.

To kill the darkness and in turn to kill the fear, I tried to make a bonfire. As the clouds hinted a rain any time soon, I made the fire inside the temple which soon resulted into filling the interiors with smoke. Thus making the fire turned out to be a bad idea.

I put out the fire and let the smoke to clear from inside the temple and then prepared my bed on the floor by laying down a few sheets of news paper I had brought with me.

Then started the struggle to sleep.

At Skandagiri Peak : @ Midnight

Even after an hour, I found myself closing my eyes, listening to some strange sounds and opening my eyes immediately, only to find out that it was just my imagination.

The long stick I kept near my side was still there. And I stayed there looking at the roof made by big granite slabs.

At Skandagiri Peak : @ 1am

Water droplets started getting sprayed inside the temple. The rain had started and the water was coming inside through the gaps between the slabs of the side wall.

I wish I had a blanket or a jacket. But all I could find was a plastic bag.

And I stayed there, inside the dilapidated temple all alone, shivering with cold, scared in the darkness and waiting for the morning light.

At Skandagiri Peak : @ After 2 am

At some point in time, I fell asleep for a short time.

And suddenly when I woke up, something was standing at the entrance of the temple.

(To be continued in Part 3 )


If you missed Read Part 1 : At The Other End Of Fear : Skandagiri Trek

Written by : trablogger
Trablogger aka Jithin is an Indian travel blogger who is obsessed with leading a travel life. When he is not traveling, photographing, writing or blogging, you can see him thinking about sustaining this travel life or helping someone to travel more.
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