Debiprasad Dash, PhD
Xavier Institute of Management, Xavier Square
Bhubaneswar 751013, INDIA
E-mail: dpdash[at]ximb.ac.in
A TRAIL OF ADVENTURE AND COMRADESHIP
SEA-BEACH TREKKING IN ORISSA
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Debiprasad Dash, PhD Xavier Institute of Management, Xavier Square Bhubaneswar 751013, INDIA E-mail: dpdash[at]ximb.ac.in
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1 January 2003
My New Year resolution: This year, I shall wander, explore, and expand! This comes from the experience I had last month. It turned out to be one that changed my perspective on life to some extent. It helped me balance my otherwise monotonous life with some fascinating variety and a shot of adventure. I wish to share that story with you.
I had the good fortune of participating in the National Winter Sea Beach Trekking Expedition 2002, organised in December 2002 by the Orissa State Branch of the Youth Hostels Association of India (YHAI, http://www.yhaindia.org/). It was a typical Youth Hostel programme, organised in Orissa, by volunteers from the Orissa State Branch of the YHAI as well as those from various regional Units within Orissa. The programme received ample encouragement and support from the Department of Tourism, Government of Orissa, which made some infrastructure and tourist services available for the purpose. Anyone over 12 years of age and meeting the specified health standard was eligible to take part in the expedition. The broader purposes behind such Youth Hostel programmes are to create a sense of attachment for the countryside in the minds of the participants and to provide an outdoor recreational activity that involves adventure and comradeship within a natural setting. It is interesting that there is no upper age-limit for any Youth Hostel programmes. Anyone with a youthful attitude qualifies!
This trekking expedition involved a distance of about 60 km (from Konark to Satapada) along the coast in Puri district. The base camp was established at the Muktakash Rangamanch (Konark) and night-halts arranged along the trek route, at Beleswar, Puri, Bali Harchandi, and Satapada. I happened to join the first group of 50 members that started the trek on 23 Dec 2002. The participants in my group were from all age-groups--starting from teenagers to those in their sixties! This being a national programme, there was participation from all over the country. There were 18 students from St. Xavier's High School at Berhampur (Orissa). Others were from various walks of life: for example, academic people, engineering students, lawyers, industrialists, businessmen, managers, engineers, a doctor, a photo journalist, one Navy officer, and one industrial security expert, to list a few. This variety translated into interesting opportunities for interactions. The school children served as go-betweens, apart from adding a touch of playfulness to the group's experience.
The day of reporting was also a day of instructions. The evening programme included a round of introductions by the participants and the organisers, followed by a campfire. We were taught when and how to express gratitude or pleasure by clapping the Youth Hostel way: clap-clap clap-clap-clap! We were reminded of the discipline and the simplicity of life associated with Youth Hostel programmes. Moreover, we were taught to trek light, carrying nothing more than the bare essentials in our rucksacks (which became rakshak--the protector, in our playful Hindi). The first day after reporting was kept for acclimatisation. Mild exercises and a short trek in the morning (with a standard load to carry on the back), followed by an extended briefing on the trek route in the afternoon, marked the day. The evening saw a gala opening with senior officials from the State Government and the Youth Hostel addressing the participants. The cultural programme included a brilliant exposition of Odissi dance on the Muktakash Rangamanch. The next morning was the first day of trekking. We were flagged off amid great fanfare. Each trekker received a surprise gift from the organisers: glucose biscuits and candies for the way! Walking on the Konark beach (from Chandrabhaga towards Beleswar) proved more difficult than most of us had imagined. The choice was either to walk close to the water, on an incline of wet sand, or on the more flat but loose sand further away from the water. Literally, between the devil and the deep sea! You cannot keep the inside of your shoes clean for too long--both sand and water are likely to get in. The bright sun was not helping either. The strain began to show. Crossing the Kushabhadra river mouth in dodgy boats, wobbling out of control, added to the anxiety. The Beleswar camp--our first on the route--seemed like an ever receding target. But we finally made it after 4-6 hours of walking, with intermittent stops. The only conversations at the camp were either about the distance (i.e., whether the organisers really underestimated it or knowingly understated it to keep our morale high!) or about the aching feet! Ointments and painkillers were in high demand. Anyone with massaging skills became the most sought after! The only toilets were the wide open fields. Some of us heroically suppressed the higher call of nature, with the hope that the next camp would be at Youth Hostel, Puri, with the necessary public conveniences.
As we continued our trek from camp to camp, traversing long stretches of the beach, some forest, crossing some rivulets, and backwaters, an interesting thing happened to the group. The aching feet became less and less important and the group sought out ways of enjoying the experience. We learnt to walk slowly, generally maintaining a visible distance from those walking behind us, taking adequate breaks in between, paying attention to the flora and the fauna, and talking more among ourselves. The group leader we had identified on the acclimatisation day, turned out to be a person of great merit. He drilled in a sense of responsibility. At the camps, we noticed an undeclared competition going on among the camp leaders (YHAI volunteers) to make our stay comfortable and memorable--each camp trying to outdo the other. A visit to the Jagannath Temple in the evening marked a high-point at the Puri camp. The third camp was at Bali Harchandi, in Swiss-type tents. That is where we celebrated the Christmas Day around a campfire. The last camp was at Satapada, in a local high school. The high-points here included a boat-trip in Chilika, a visit to the Chilika information centre, and a bus-ride back to the base camp at Konark. The debriefing session at the base, with the trekkers recounting their stories of the expedition, was a touching experience. Next morning, the departure emotions were overwhelming, as the members exchanged addresses and promises to meet again.
The organisers did a splendid job of planning and coordinating this programme. Obviously, they had with them the Youth Hostel experience of conducting such programmes elsewhere. It seemed, a standard format (and a standard vocabulary) has evolved over the years to coordinate such programmes. Terms like "base camp," "higher camps," etc., indicate the mountaineering origins of the organising scheme. So, it seemed a case of applying a procedure developed and perfected in one context to a different one. Obviously, it is likely to throw up challenges of its own. For instance, it was not very clear how best to account for the climatic differences between mountaineering and sea beach trekking. There was another interesting facet to the coordination task. Although we were subjected to a high degree of discipline and order at the camps, the same could not be achieved when the group was out and about on the trek route. Whether any form of self-coordination could have been achieved, appeared to be an interesting question to my academic mind.
It is said, "A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step." Taking that single step involves stepping into the unknown. No amount of cold rationality can fully justify that action. There are simply too many unknowns in life. However, the attitude of youthfulness (so well captured in a commercial punch-line: "Just do it!") demands that the first step be taken. In the extreme, this might mean foolhardiness; but that is the human predicament. We must learn to live with incomplete information about the past and limited visibility into the future. We have only each other to fall back upon, in adversity. I guess, that is what youthfulness is all about--adventure and comradeship! Nothing has so far demonstrated this to me as vividly as this trekking programme did. Long live the Youth Hostel movement!