When we think of ‘trekking’, we immediately have a picture of people with heavy rucksacks; walking laboriously up a mountain road. We think of people passing by exotic flora and fauna, and, of course, clicking pictures with beautiful sceneries behind them to post on Instagram.
Well, the heavy rucksacks were there. As were miles of walking and the beautiful sceneries and the photos. Only that this wasn’t in the mountains. For four days, we trekked along the beaches of Orissa enjoying each other’s company, cracking silly jokes and most importantly, just enjoying the true beauty of Mother Nature during The BSS School Coastal Trek organized by none other than Soma’s Camps.
I had gone camping with Soma’s Camps last year and it had turned out to be an unforgettable experience. So, naturally, I signed up for this trek by the beaches when I heard about it.
We all had absolutely no idea what we were up for when we signed up for this trek since we all were new trekkers. Sure, we all knew it was going to be strenuous, but we did not understand the magnitude of this trek. Later, we realized that we were the second school and the first girls’ school to go on a coastal trek in West Bengal. Needless to say, we were proud of ourselves….and maybe a bit nervous too.
Day 1: We were all told to pack as light as possible because we would be walking 8-9 hours each day. By 1:30 pm we all were inside the train as it left the station, waving goodbye to our parents and looking forward to our journey that had just started.
We reached Balasore station by 5:00 pm. After that, we journeyed to the Chandipur OTDC Panthanivas. For the night, we stayed in threes after we had had dinner and had been taught how to pack our rucksacks properly for a trek.
Day 2 :-
The next day, after breakfast, we started walking from the Chandipur beach. On the beach, we were greeted by an important part and parcel of human lives – garbage, in all its glory. Plastic bottles here, food packets there – only humans could mess up their own home like this. Our instructors told us how these plastics took years to decompose and how much they polluted the sea. Also, we learnt that many animals, both marine and on land, mistake plastics for food and eat them up, leading them to choke and die. Some even suffered from cancers ! We were deeply moved by what we saw and what we learnt.It’s a shame what we ourselves were doing to our own planet! So, we, as a team, carried our own non-biodegradable wastes and promised to dispose of them properly once we reached a proper city. And carry this lesson of waste management, especially the non-biodegradable ones, for the rest of our lives.
After walking on the beach for some time, we saw boats being made and repaired. Couple of kilometers later, we came across the historic Buribalam river. We had been made aware of the fact that this was the historic place where Indian revolutionary Bagha Jatin and his friends had fought their last battle with the British. Being in presence of this river as we crossed it on a boat made us feel so small and insignificant; but so proud to be an Indian at the same time.
After crossing the Buribalam, we followed our instructors along the banks of the Buriamari river and through a tiny village, stopping once to refill our water bottles and have some rest.
As the village ended, we started to walk towards the sea. After crossing a small grove of trees, we suddenly stopped, speechless as we faced the open, blue, magnificent sea and the almost untouched, plastic-free beach.
Collecting beautiful shells along the way, we walked along the beaches for about an hour, singing the silliest songs we could think of before we started to feel a bit tired. But we pushed it to back of our minds as we went along, enjoying the view of the cyan sea and white seagulls flying against a blue sky.
Our goal was to reach the boat dock by 1:45 to catch the ferry that would take us across the Kasafal river to the Kasafal village. By 1:30, we thought we were way behind schedule, feeling too tired to walk anymore. Our pace had slowed down. But we were pushing ourselves to step out of our comfort zone and bear that pain, telling ourselves it would be worth it. And indeed, we did catch the boat to cross Kasafal. After crossing the river, we had our lunch in a small thicket of trees. During lunch, some of us followed our instructors to the beach nearby, only to be struck dumb by an amazing view. The sun had just started to set over the sea and there were seagulls flying everywhere. Their cries, mixed with the sound of the waves crashing onto the beach, sounded like a beautiful melody which only nature could create.
From the beach, we journeyed to a cyclone shelter where we would be staying for the night. There, we had a fun self-introduction session where we got to know each other better and we all chatted for a while before we had dinner. At dinner (we had plain rice with curry, fries and chutney), it was announced that we had walked for about 16 kilometers. Some of us had blisters on their feet, but we forgot all of it in the midst of our happiness at being able to complete such a long distance.
Day 3 :-
The following day, we woke up at 6 o’clock and got ready. We had a long day ahead of us. Today we would trek from our current location, Kasafal to Dogra. For a kilometer or two, we trekked through a village path, heading for the beach. We were already fatigued out because of walking that much the previous day. But we tried to forget the pain in our legs and kept talking with each other.
Before we reached the beach, we had to cross the Haskara Khari by foot. It was a new experience for all of us and the cool water relaxed the ache in our feet.
After crossing the Haskara Khari, we started trekking by the sea. These beaches were almost virgin, since very few people had come on this route. Therefore, the garbage and pollution were less too. We kept on walking, though we were resting more frequently than we had the last day. Yesterday was tough, but that was nothing compared to today. The sand got into our shoes sometimes, the sun shone down on us, our rucksacks felt like they weighed a ton, our feet were aching like anything. But somehow, we managed to look at the whole situation from a different perspective. We saw this as an opportunity to go beyond our limits and capabilities, to push our bodies to the breaking point so that we could enhance our physical, and also mental strength. We couldn’t ignore the pain. So, we tried to distract ourselves by focusing on the many objects around us.
The sand on the beach had beautiful designs etched on it. And around us, red crabs were scurrying around. We got to know from our instructors that it were these crabs who unknowingly made these splendid designs, while they constructed their own homes in the sand.
Our lunch was simple, and unique. We had it on the way. Sitting on the sand, we got some chapattis that were leftovers from our breakfast (chapatti and curry) and there was a packet of chanachur. So, in the end we all had chapatti mixed with chanachur and pieces of chocolate or granola bars.
As we neared Dogra, our feet went completely numb. The last couple of kilometers, we just trudged wearily along the beach, pushing ourselves beyond our breaking points. We did not even want to talk, as that would take up energy. Once we had arrived at the Dogra beach, we just fell on the sand, fatigued beyond belief. But, in that moment, it felt worth it – every step we had taken, every blister on our feet, and all our enervation. Everything was worth the satisfaction and the pride we felt while sitting on the beach. After we had had some coconut water, we felt a bit energized and managed to make it to the accommodation where we would be staying for the night.
That night, we had our campfire. All our pain and exhaustion vanished as we sat around the fire, proud because we had trekked for 20 kilometers. Needless to say, the campfire was a blast. We sang each and every song we could think of under the sun, starting from old 90’s Bollywood songs to recent English hits. We danced to a number of songs. It was a truly memorable experience.
Day 4 :-
We did not have much walking on the 30th of December, just 12 kilometers. We followed a narrow dirt track that twisted through a small village and led us to the banks of river Subarnarekha. It was now that we got to see how people away from the urban metropolis cities lived their lives.
We saw men coming and going on bicycles, children playing on fields and we saw women going out to the sea, sailing boats, catching fish in rivers to earn their livelihood just like the men of their families do. This was when we understood the true meaning of women liberation. It did not mean just living in a city, waving boards and preaching. It rather meant women doing whatever they can to earn a livelihood, to be independent and showing the world what they were capable of, without boasting even once.
Once we had reached the banks of the river, we waited for an hour till the boat that was supposed to take us across the river arrived. Once we were all aboard, it set sail.
The journey across the river Subarnarekha took around 45 minutes. And the wind blowing combined with the sound of the motor in the boat and the gentle lapping of waves against the boat nearly lulled us to sleep. After we reached the other side of the river, we sat in a small shack and had lunch. Then it was an hour’s journey from there by cars to reach the OTDC Panthanivas at Talsari. After trekking for days in deserted beaches, we felt overwhelmed as we came back to civilization.
The hotel was nice. We had good rooms and we were again kept groups of threes and fours. Even though we all preferred the uninhabited beaches, it felt nice to take a bath and sleep in a real bed once more.
That night, we stayed up late, wanting to enjoy the last night at our trek to the fullest.
Day 5 :-
We woke up late in the morning, allowing ourselves to be a little lazy. We took showers and chatted with each other till lunchtime, after which we had to leave our rooms. After that, we walked to the beach, stopping every now and then to purchase show-pieces. We strolled along the beach for some time before we went back to the hotel and just sat in the park, clicking pictures and basically just savoring the last moments with our friends.
At 4 o’clock, we boarded the sumos and went to the Digha railway station. We waited for about an hour for our train – the Kandari Express since it was late. We were all happy to have successfully completed our trek but were sad because we had to go back to our daily lives.
The train journey was long. We joked around and played ‘truth or dare’. Finally, the train reached Howrah station. We all wished each other a ‘happy new year’ in advance as we got out of the train. We were sad to leave each other but we knew we would meet again in school, and who knew, maybe next year, we would go on other treks too. It was a new year, and who knew what it might hold for us, I thought as I left the station, tired but happy.