Nagalapuram/9 with the Chennai Trekking Club.
My alarm ( in phone ) was supposed to ring at 3.15 am, but my phone rang at 3.45. Someone from CTC reminding me of the trip. I quickly freshened up, got my luggage and walked to the Taramani gate. My cousin Ambarish and I started from Taramani early in the morning at 4 and met others from CTC in Tidel Park. Our next stop was the Koyambedu Bus Stand where around 30 of us met up, reassembled our luggage and started for the 2 hour drive to Nagalapuram, a town 50 Km from Tirupati. Ram Prasad was leading the trek and Peter was guiding us. This was my first trek with CTC.
My interest in hiking began after I saw the movie "Into the Wild" ( 2007, Sean Penn ), a story about a college graduate who deserts his societal life, burns all his money and sets on a journey to rediscover himself. The movie is an adaptation of John Krakauer's narration of the true story. The problems of society, its culture and people had been brewing in my mind even before I came across this movie. There was something which most of us took for granted - that we get to live in a society and reap its benefits. I began questioning my right to all the material wealth and knowledge I could procure and then it hit me. I needed to live away from society for a while to appreciate it better. Get out of the box to see what's in it fully. How do you observe a system, if you are in the system.....Looks like I am getting carried away here, I'll get back to describing the trek.
One and a half hours of drive and we stopped for breakfast. Picked up loads of water and packed lunch and drove for another 45 mins to reach our destination. The last kilometer was tricky for cars to maneuver due to rocky path and loose soil. After sufficient damage to the chassis, the owners decided they would be better off walking the rest of the road, and so we did. This being the 9th Nagala trek for CTC, they expected the dam to be as usual - like any other place in chennai - dry. But the cyclone Nisha had bestowed upon the dam a blessing of 20 feet of water forcing us to take a diversion from the left to join the main trail. We tried to stick to the existing trail, but despite Ram's best efforts we couldn't find one which wasn't completely submerged in water. With the help of GPS and their past experience Ram and Peter managed to guide us through fresh paths up and down the hill slopes to Fall 1. A small pool of fresh and clean water was nothing less than heavenly for our tired legs, bruised bodies and aching muscles. ( Ok...it wasn't that bad ). I think this was about when the sun was at its peak. And then we walked and we walked and we walked, an uneventful trek uphill and downhill to circumvent the pools of swamp. At six in the evening, it was getting perceptibly dark and we were, from the looks of it, pretty far from our destination. My first trek in the night. All of us got our flashlights out and slowly started to climb up the final 300 meters. The uphill was pretty steep - about 45 degrees at least and we needed to hold onto trees for support. Only consolation was that the rocks under our feet were firm. We reached up at about 8 in the night. After 10 hours of climb, most of us were pretty exhausted. I simply dropped my bag on the next meter square of flat land and crashed. Tents were arranged but I preferred to sleep under the blanket of stars, like many others. If the wind was a little less chilly, I could say I slept like a baby.
At 3.15 am my cell phone alarm rang. Did it have to ring today, instead of yesterday? Though partially muted as it was deep in my bag, I am sure of at least two people cursing in my general direction for ruining their perfect sleep. I redirected their curses towards Murphy, turned off the alarm and went back to sleep.
Peter woke us up at 6.30. We rolled up our mattresses, zipped our backpacks and without brushing our teeth, started climbing downhill towards some amazing viewpoints. Hundreds of clicks later we proceeded towards another pool navigating through a fair bit of moderately high boulders and thorny bushes. We spent a considerable chunk of time there in the waters and I could sense the Hyderabad chaps getting a little impatient. They had reservations in a train at 7 from a village about 2 hours from the foot of the hill, which meant we were supposed to be back at the foot of the hill by 5 pm. If i remember correctly, the time was 12 pm and people were still getting out of water. Nevertheless, people trickled out of the pool and followed their way back to square one - to the top of the hill.
What followed next can be best described as the worst part of the journey, at least for me. I was carrying the trash bag though I admit, i kept forgetting it at various pit stops. We were climbing down the other side of the hillock where the declivity was greater. To add to our woes there were loose rocks, smooth sandy soil, tree trunks pretending to be strong but mocking you when you need their help. But, Alas! after plenty of sliding on butt and tumbling on rocks, we managed to exit that area and enter into lower lands with pretty thick vegetation. We sat there for a while when Peter and Ram were figuring out the way - we could either go downhill and follow the stream or climb up another hill and climb down. We eventually chose the latter. Sun was generous only until we climbed up the third hill. The final descent, like the final ascent, was in the moonlight and flashlights. The Hyderabad guys had long given up any hope of catching their train. It was 7 pm already. We were stuck once again, but we could see Peter, effortlessly climbing up the hill to tell us that he had found the way to the dam. Once again, everyone was cheerful, and half an hour later we were at the foot of the hill.
For some people this will be a very memorable trek because of the challenges of climbing in the dark and for more than 20 hours in 2 days.
For me I hope this trek will be memorable only because it is my first with CTC.
My alarm ( in phone ) was supposed to ring at 3.15 am, but my phone rang at 3.45. Someone from CTC reminding me of the trip. I quickly freshened up, got my luggage and walked to the Taramani gate. My cousin Ambarish and I started from Taramani early in the morning at 4 and met others from CTC in Tidel Park. Our next stop was the Koyambedu Bus Stand where around 30 of us met up, reassembled our luggage and started for the 2 hour drive to Nagalapuram, a town 50 Km from Tirupati. Ram Prasad was leading the trek and Peter was guiding us. This was my first trek with CTC.
My interest in hiking began after I saw the movie "Into the Wild" ( 2007, Sean Penn ), a story about a college graduate who deserts his societal life, burns all his money and sets on a journey to rediscover himself. The movie is an adaptation of John Krakauer's narration of the true story. The problems of society, its culture and people had been brewing in my mind even before I came across this movie. There was something which most of us took for granted - that we get to live in a society and reap its benefits. I began questioning my right to all the material wealth and knowledge I could procure and then it hit me. I needed to live away from society for a while to appreciate it better. Get out of the box to see what's in it fully. How do you observe a system, if you are in the system.....Looks like I am getting carried away here, I'll get back to describing the trek.
One and a half hours of drive and we stopped for breakfast. Picked up loads of water and packed lunch and drove for another 45 mins to reach our destination. The last kilometer was tricky for cars to maneuver due to rocky path and loose soil. After sufficient damage to the chassis, the owners decided they would be better off walking the rest of the road, and so we did. This being the 9th Nagala trek for CTC, they expected the dam to be as usual - like any other place in chennai - dry. But the cyclone Nisha had bestowed upon the dam a blessing of 20 feet of water forcing us to take a diversion from the left to join the main trail. We tried to stick to the existing trail, but despite Ram's best efforts we couldn't find one which wasn't completely submerged in water. With the help of GPS and their past experience Ram and Peter managed to guide us through fresh paths up and down the hill slopes to Fall 1. A small pool of fresh and clean water was nothing less than heavenly for our tired legs, bruised bodies and aching muscles. ( Ok...it wasn't that bad ). I think this was about when the sun was at its peak. And then we walked and we walked and we walked, an uneventful trek uphill and downhill to circumvent the pools of swamp. At six in the evening, it was getting perceptibly dark and we were, from the looks of it, pretty far from our destination. My first trek in the night. All of us got our flashlights out and slowly started to climb up the final 300 meters. The uphill was pretty steep - about 45 degrees at least and we needed to hold onto trees for support. Only consolation was that the rocks under our feet were firm. We reached up at about 8 in the night. After 10 hours of climb, most of us were pretty exhausted. I simply dropped my bag on the next meter square of flat land and crashed. Tents were arranged but I preferred to sleep under the blanket of stars, like many others. If the wind was a little less chilly, I could say I slept like a baby.
At 3.15 am my cell phone alarm rang. Did it have to ring today, instead of yesterday? Though partially muted as it was deep in my bag, I am sure of at least two people cursing in my general direction for ruining their perfect sleep. I redirected their curses towards Murphy, turned off the alarm and went back to sleep.
Peter woke us up at 6.30. We rolled up our mattresses, zipped our backpacks and without brushing our teeth, started climbing downhill towards some amazing viewpoints. Hundreds of clicks later we proceeded towards another pool navigating through a fair bit of moderately high boulders and thorny bushes. We spent a considerable chunk of time there in the waters and I could sense the Hyderabad chaps getting a little impatient. They had reservations in a train at 7 from a village about 2 hours from the foot of the hill, which meant we were supposed to be back at the foot of the hill by 5 pm. If i remember correctly, the time was 12 pm and people were still getting out of water. Nevertheless, people trickled out of the pool and followed their way back to square one - to the top of the hill.
What followed next can be best described as the worst part of the journey, at least for me. I was carrying the trash bag though I admit, i kept forgetting it at various pit stops. We were climbing down the other side of the hillock where the declivity was greater. To add to our woes there were loose rocks, smooth sandy soil, tree trunks pretending to be strong but mocking you when you need their help. But, Alas! after plenty of sliding on butt and tumbling on rocks, we managed to exit that area and enter into lower lands with pretty thick vegetation. We sat there for a while when Peter and Ram were figuring out the way - we could either go downhill and follow the stream or climb up another hill and climb down. We eventually chose the latter. Sun was generous only until we climbed up the third hill. The final descent, like the final ascent, was in the moonlight and flashlights. The Hyderabad guys had long given up any hope of catching their train. It was 7 pm already. We were stuck once again, but we could see Peter, effortlessly climbing up the hill to tell us that he had found the way to the dam. Once again, everyone was cheerful, and half an hour later we were at the foot of the hill.
For some people this will be a very memorable trek because of the challenges of climbing in the dark and for more than 20 hours in 2 days.
For me I hope this trek will be memorable only because it is my first with CTC.
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