The Trek to Hell..Part III

So as I was saying, the best part was yet to come..Eventually we dis decide to go into the tent...The moment i entered i realised there was no place we could sit, the floor of the tent being already wet. I took bag, God knows who's and after placing a plastic wrap on it sat down. It was poky, hard and uncomfortable and however uncomfortable i was i thought we will settle down in some time. The other tents were up and i was actually hoping that I could even sit in another dryer one. Basically, I was being too optimistic. We were joined by another two co-trekkers and there were four of us, trying to get comfortable by sitting on soaking wet bags with little back rest in that small little tent with water leaking in from a few infinitesimal holes in that tent. The smiles were still there on our faces, we were chatting and trying to get comfortable with some banal conversation when something hot poked me from beneath the ground accompanied by a faint flash like that of a low-battery camera. I looked around and suddenly there was commotion not only in our tent but also outside. We had been STRUCK by lightening. Yes, it is was a lightening. Of course with that continuous pouring and saturated sodden clothes that they had become, our last hope of surviving the ordeal decided to leave us and go. Someone was shouting that we should go back and some knew that we would die. I looked around at the faces of the last people that I would see in this life of mine, yet the magnanimity of the situation had not really assailed my mind else I would surely have panicked. We continued to play cards, somehow a favourite for me but just couldn't concentrate, I tried to have a conversation, again sometime i am looking towards and couldn't manage coherent sentences and i tried to tell myself that we will come out of it alive. Some one's tent had flown away and the hubbub outside told me that the others were not doing too good too. There were a few light hearted attempts at humour and games but all it got to our faces were a wry smile and then we resumed our gloomy expressions. It was 4pm and we had the whole day and night to be tolerated in front of us. There was still some light when someone in our melancholic tent spotted a leech on the thin canvas of our tent. That was when we knew we were gone . Walking amongst leeches all through the Day, when we knew those slimes could only access our legs and be chucked out with relative effortlessness was nothing compared to the feeling of one of those black eerie insect roaming around freely in our tent, not visible to our naked eye and sucking our blood liberally. At that point I decided to freak out. Yes, this was too much, I could survive continuous rain, being drenched and a gloomy tent, however now the state of affairs had reached the circumference of my patience.

By the way did i mention that we were soaking wet from the bottom,and i could feel the my socks inside my shoes getting juicier with water and was it cold or was it cold. So in that cocoon of wetness & cold, i suddenly decided i had to pee. Yes, i surely did have to with absolutely no alternative. My co-sufferers and co-inhabitants of the soggy tent refused to open the tent fearing a shower of leeches getting in and if not I inviting them over when i come back. But nature won over man gain...and i stepped out....It was wet and beautiful, if i wasn't feeling so dreadful I might even have spoken a word or two about the scenic pleasures for the eyes...mind you only the eyes. I did the deed and came back. before the tent would open, i was asked "leech check done", i checked my shoes, myself all over along with my companion who too had decided to come out for the leeches and when we were sure we were "clean" we stepped in...

Somehow life becomes easier when u know your insides are at peace ...now the only drudgery was that we were getting wetter. Over the next two hours we made small attempts to be comfortable in between the vain attempts of one of the soggy members in the tent to get all of us to sleep. But as it got darker...our spirits got feebler and the fear of getting wrinkled in the water started seeping in along with the apprehension of the surreptitious entry of the leeches at night.

Thankfully we had a torch that fortunately was not dependent on batteries that kept us sane. Every few minutes, a leech check was done to ensure there were no creepy-crawlies squirming to get into our tent. At eight someone decided that we should sleep and we finally listened...I think we did sleep...

tried to imagine i was on a bed...of water...that it was not very cold, that we were not sodden by the compound molecules of water & oxygen and that i was not getting shrivelled with too much water. I knew we had walked a lot and the fear of getting cramps or some permanant disease was high.

We slept...with mushy sleeping bags below us, then above us, then away from us, then onn top again and so on...the torch leading us through the dark dripping night. And finally there was light:)