Ex-Students Climb Plummy Septmebr 2004

Plod up Plummy.

 Too much exercise makes me hallucinate, so its possibly a warped perspective of our hike to Plummy.

A healthy group of ex-students gathered on the A div with Br. Ward and Noel D’sa. Wait ! do I see a woman there? Yups ! it’s Sindu, a friend of Domnic D’silva. With cheerful enthusiasm we briskly set out from the school, over the hill before Paddys Bridge towards Sunrise Valley. The sun was shining, and the birds were singing, and the universe was one hell of a happy place.  Never realised Abu was so pretty before.

Passed the new toll bar with its noise and diesel fumes and entered peaceful Sunrise Valley which has not changed at all. Passed the big dam and on to the little dam via a narrow path through tall bushes. Fondly reminiscing about our favorite fishing and crabbing spots. All hunky dory.

Pass a group of kids from another school on a hike and head into the valley below Plummy. Strange, this place used to be famous for its tall elephant grass, but now it’s like a well tended lawn. Oh well, so much the better. Slaunter on like a walk in the park, past the stream and pause for a couple of minutes at the base of Plumy. Lying on the grass and looking at funny cloud shapes – ah ! isn’t life wonderful?

And then we set off up the slope past the grazing buffaloes and start climbing the hill. Singing a tuneless tune, following the rear, life is fun. Yak a little with Sunil Noronha on the way… smile brightly at Sindu as I pass, take a little scenery on Francis’s handycam. Ah this is life.

And up a little, must be close to the top now. Little sweat breaking on my brow but the air is still cool. Then we break out of the bushes and – oops ! the hill seems exactly the same as when we started climbing. Must be something wrong here. Copuld have sworn we climbed kilometres into the stratosphere.

Oh well, no worries. Plod on… the path gets steeper, and steeper, and (huff puff) steeper. Excuse me? Didn’t anyone think of putting sofa sets and a refrigerator with cold drinks on the mountainside? Very inconsiderate, I must say. And plod on, plod on…

Ah ! the wise have paused for a rest on a ledge half way up ! Man, I love this life! Plod, plod, plod…  PLOP ! Flat on my back checking the cloud shapes is such a wonderful experience. One trick is to forget the rest of the hill dominating the peripheral vision. Sit up after a while and look into the valley below. Beeeaaauuutttiiiffuull !!! Man, really need to get a little house there to stay in. So clean and beautiful.

Then that silly mind of mind pops the reality check question. ‘But what if you needed a light bulb, groceries or … a matchbox to cook your food?’  Well, one option is to get a flint and try and get a spark to make a fire, but the more enlightened answer would be to hike for hours and hours to the nearest shop. Um, so much for fanciful thoughts.

And then Michael echoes the same thought about getting a house in the pretty valley below and have a few Abu guys together. The discussion goes into the feasibility of getting sufficient bandwidth to communicate and work from there. Well, the conversation is a brilliant way to ignore the rest of the fellows already getting up and climbing that mountain behind us. Whatever made me call it a hill before?

Ok, ok. Before I get left behind, lets get on with it. Plod, plod plod… the mountain gets steeper. Grumble, grumble… plod plod. Others grumbling too. Plod, plod… steeper. Pant pant ! Grumbles to the front of me, grumbles to the back of me. Pant pant! Steeper… holding on to plants and pulling myself up now.

Ah ! Ulysses stops before me and removes a bottle of water from his bag. Reach out for the water with bright eyes. Ulysses says to just sip the water. Right ! GLUG ! GLUG ! Glug ! Aaaahhh ! Oops! Was that more than a sip? Oh well. Look crestfallen and turn to see the valley below - which is much happier to look at than the never-ending peak above.

Plod, plod… small ledge with a few guys resting. Great… Plop again… look down the valley till the plains. Never realised Abu was so pretty – but have said that before, haven’t I? Chat a while with guys who you never met for years but still qualify as brothers from another mother. Much more than mere friends. Argue mindlessly with Francis a bit and its time to move on.

Plod plod… pant pant. Hold root, pull one self up another step. Path almost vertical now. Plod, pant, pant pant. Plod, wheeze, wheeze, wheeze. Plod, wheeze, wheeze… oooh ! feeling lightheaded now. Plod, wheeze, wheeze. Then just wheeze, wheeze, wheeze. Legs and body are Indian and do the national pastime of going on strike. With me is Sunil Noronha now. So we stop and rest and yak a bit till we are able to breathe again. Off we go again.

See the top close now. Wheeze our way to the last part which is a vertical nine foot rock which no one can do alone. So, off with the floaters ( too slippery) and reach for the hand from above, and pull oneself up. Oops ! someone is pushing my butt too… quite unnecessary! Right ! and someone decides to take a picture of this event. Oh well… its good to be the designated clown.

And on top. Heh heh heh ! Look proud, look intelligent, look at the SCENERY ! Wow ! that’s school and that’s … all get together to spot places from there. All of Abu can be seen now. And there is Sindu – the only woman I know who climbed Plummy. Everyone poses for photographs and look proud of themselves.

And then we set off for the bottom again. This is good. Just let gravity help you on. Till we reach a point where the path ends and Noel D’sa is embedding himself in the cactus at the edge of the cliff to find a path down. Br. Ward decides to got the other way and I decide to follow Noel – at least till Noel decides to follow Br. Ward. And the Br. Ward shows us the easy way down.

That Br. Ward is some thing else. When, (ok, make that if) I grow up, I want to be just like him. He was leading the guys up Plummy, and the next day he actually pulled the guys up Golden Horn with his hands and encouragement. We could constantly hear his voice going ‘ that’s it lads, just one more step now’.  Right now, am busy convincing myself to loose weight and get fit – and reasoning the good points of growing up. J

And back to the bottom we fly. Happy again. We get some of those huge cucumbers from the farm and chomp away as we reach the road just near Toddy Grounds – below the toll bar. Then gulp cold water at the toll bar, and rest before heading back to the hotel room.

Next time up Plummy is going to be a piece of cake.

Ashley Rodrigues
ashrod@hotmail.com