Thanks to the girls ladies who made the trek(LaDiEs AnD lAdIeS – II) as so rememberable.. U were one awesome gang !!!!!!Also the support team(Rajanna,Vicky,Cimbu,yoga, Rajavel and Nagul) who are the backbone for the day!
- Subhashiny
The fun and the memories as follow from few fellow ladies (writers :P)
Write up from Minu:
Well.. I am not much of a writer but will try to convey whatever is in my mind..
Jul 23 - Received an email from Subhashiny Devendiran with the subject "[Chennai Trekking Club] LaDiEs aNd LadIeS aGaiN - II - 10th August 2013".. As soon as I saw this email in ma mobile, I registered immediately without worrying about asking permission from anyone (Well.. I am married and need to ask prior permission from ma husband :-D).. After registering I told my husband tat I will be going for a trek organized by Subha from CTC. He was a bit worried abt sending me for the trek since I had sprained my foot in my construction site a month back and was asked to keep my leg in an elevated position for one whole month. Since I didn’t go back with my decision, he decided to help me to pick up my gear for the day. In the meanwhile, I was not certain whether my registration was complete from my mobile. So, I re-registered from ma laptop.
On Jul 27, I received a call from Subha. The first question she asked was whether
I was soooooooooo damn interested that I had registered twice!! "OF COURSE YEAH" was the answer to me but I just told her that I was not certain whether I had registered correctly the first time. I volunteered to bring a car if needed since I loved to drive and Subha ensured that she will keep it in her mind and keep me posted about the travel. I was also informed by her that I will be receiving a preparatory email for the trek. Received the prep email on Jul 29 with whatever one needs to know regarding treks and how to prepare them.
Pre-trek, I had to prepare myself mentally and physically. As everyone knows, trekking is totally different from taking long walks in beaches r parks. It needs more of stamina, will power and endurance. My fitness level was bad after my foot sprain. Too much time being idle. I had to get back my stamina and endurance. I started going for swimming, jogging and yoga. It had good results.
Girls.. give it a try and you will start loving it!! I had to choose between my Quechua and Woodlands shoes to keep my leg safe from getting twisted again. Both of them are great shoes but I went on with Quechua since they covered my ankle. Very comfortable and light weight as well!!
Aug 9: I was picked as one of the coordinators for the trek. My task was to coordinate with the girls who got up in CMBT. Before calling them, I called up Vignesh to confirm on our transportation and the time of arrival. He told me that our plan is to leave CMBT before 5:30 AM. The following things were in my backpack. After speaking with him, I started calling one by one from my landline to the girls in my list. Each and everyone I spoke with were very enthusiastic and positive that they will make it to the trek for sure. I was 100% confident that there wasn’t going to be any dropouts in our pickup point. At around 6PM, I received a call from Archana saying that she will also be joining in CMBT and also wanted to know where she can get a swimming tube in tnagar. After doing a small research and calling up a shop, I called her back and gave the info. All of us were asked to assemble by 4:40 AM the next day.
My husband had agreed to drop me in front of Nathan’s Café in the morning. We kept the alarm and dozed. I started having dreams about forests, streams and waterfalls already.. Was definitely feeling very excited to meet all the gals and ladies..
On the day of the trek, I got a call from Malar at 4:13 AM saying tat she has started from Ayanavaram in her cab!! I was on my way to take my bath. Went there, had a splash, got ready, waked my husband and started off. At 4:34 AM, got a call from Vasanthi asking whether she wanted to pick me up since she stayed in Vanagaram. I had already started from home and told her that I will meet her there. My husband left the scenario once he was sure that I was comfortable with the gals. Subha arrived in a van and called us in. My excitement was going high. By 5:45 AM, we were starting off for the trek with a bunch of ladies and I was sure that I was gonna make cool friends. I could see all happy and excited faces filled with enthusiasm and warm smiles.
Before going to Nagalapuram, we stopped over in a road side shop to have breakfast. Since I had heavy dinner last night, I skipped solid food and stuck with juice and energy bar. From the sight of other ladies, I could say tat they had a hearty breakfast. Shoot!! I missed it .. Abirami, the girl who sitting right next to me in the van offered to bring in a parcel but I said I will manage. Thank you very much grl.. You were a gr8 companion. Subha who was sitting to left side is a bubbly and simple girl who doesn’t like the routine office work and always looking out to do something different and adventurous. After breakfast and relieving ourself, the ride started again and we were in Nagala West in another half an hour. An old lady blocked our way to collect money for parking our vans inside. Well.. That is called local development!!
After getting down from the van to start our treks, each of us were given a disclaimer form to sign first. Of course we are responsible for our own safety and nobody can help us if we were about to do something which we are not supposed to do. Keeping tat in mind, signed the form and gave it back to them. Subha and the others started distributing chocolates, chapattis and juices for us to carry in our backpacks. After keeping everything inside, we lined up to start the trek. Vignesh aka Vicky lead the way along with Nagul for us to follow. You can Vicky the Barbarian since he was trekking without shoes and with such ease!! Man.. are you even for real??? Subha, Cimbu and Yoga were right behind us. We were informed that two more men will join us soon.
The trail was plain in the beginning filled with red soil and pebbles here and there. As we moved on, we could see that we were walking on more pebbles. Then we could see a small stream which we crossed over and took a small break to give introductions about each one of us. Something likes an ice breaker. The team was filled different age groups and different backgrounds though there many from IT companies. After this short intro and refreshing by the stream, we moved on with the trek. The trail started becoming narrower with trees on one side and the stream on the other side. I was aware that we will be trekking along the stream. This was easy and we reached the first pool which had a small waterfall. What a sight??
It was as if it was made only for us to enjoy!! We were informed that the pool is 10ft in depth. Everyone started blowing their tubes. The guys were helpful in blowing the tubes for those who couldn’t (that will be almost everyone :-D)..
I went on without a tube since I was not planning to swim to the waterfall. It was fun to watch everyone have fun and to have fun yourself and by doing whatever you want and not a soul to ask why are you doing like this..
After half an hour, we went on to trek to the second pool. More eager to go the second pool this time since we had great fun n the first one. This part was a bit challenging since we had to climb a rock and see to it tat we didn’t hurt our head during that process. Didn’t know that we will be disappointed by a bunch stupid men who were taking oil massage and having fun in their own pathetic way!! I wonder why they want to dirty every place they set their eyes upon .. Poor mother nature. How much is she gonna bear for us?? The organizers didn’t want to disappoint us and told us that we can move on to the third pool and come back to this later. We eagerly said yes and moved on (Yay!!).. As we moved on, we were joined in by Rajanna, Rajavel and Elango.Oh boy.. little did we know tat this path was gonna be slippery, rocky and filled with caterpillars and thorny bushes.
Definitely not an easy task to walk with big swimming tubes. I could see that most of them managed pretty well even with those. I unfortunately had a slip while climbing a path with rocks and sprained my thumb. Tat was definitely damn painful. But this didn’t stop me to take break. How can I lose it with all the wonderful and cheerful people around encouraging you and telling you that everything is fine?? Well.. I wanted to reach the third pool no matter what and we made it!! Once we reached the top, the view was breathtaking.. the water was crystal clear. The surrounding was soooo damn peaceful. Vicky took a jump from the top for everyone to start and later one by one, everyone started jumping in. Seeing this was more than enough for me. I called Dr. Yoga to check whether anything was wrong with my thumb and he assured me that it was not a fracture. Thank you very much for taking your time an assuring that nothing is wrng .. Having said that I just put on some spray and started watching ppl enjoy them.
The fun and the memories as follow from few fellow ladies (writers :P)
Write up from Minu:
Well.. I am not much of a writer but will try to convey whatever is in my mind..
Jul 23 - Received an email from Subhashiny Devendiran with the subject "[Chennai Trekking Club] LaDiEs aNd LadIeS aGaiN - II - 10th August 2013".. As soon as I saw this email in ma mobile, I registered immediately without worrying about asking permission from anyone (Well.. I am married and need to ask prior permission from ma husband :-D).. After registering I told my husband tat I will be going for a trek organized by Subha from CTC. He was a bit worried abt sending me for the trek since I had sprained my foot in my construction site a month back and was asked to keep my leg in an elevated position for one whole month. Since I didn’t go back with my decision, he decided to help me to pick up my gear for the day. In the meanwhile, I was not certain whether my registration was complete from my mobile. So, I re-registered from ma laptop.
On Jul 27, I received a call from Subha. The first question she asked was whether
I was soooooooooo damn interested that I had registered twice!! "OF COURSE YEAH" was the answer to me but I just told her that I was not certain whether I had registered correctly the first time. I volunteered to bring a car if needed since I loved to drive and Subha ensured that she will keep it in her mind and keep me posted about the travel. I was also informed by her that I will be receiving a preparatory email for the trek. Received the prep email on Jul 29 with whatever one needs to know regarding treks and how to prepare them.
Pre-trek, I had to prepare myself mentally and physically. As everyone knows, trekking is totally different from taking long walks in beaches r parks. It needs more of stamina, will power and endurance. My fitness level was bad after my foot sprain. Too much time being idle. I had to get back my stamina and endurance. I started going for swimming, jogging and yoga. It had good results.
Girls.. give it a try and you will start loving it!! I had to choose between my Quechua and Woodlands shoes to keep my leg safe from getting twisted again. Both of them are great shoes but I went on with Quechua since they covered my ankle. Very comfortable and light weight as well!!
Aug 9: I was picked as one of the coordinators for the trek. My task was to coordinate with the girls who got up in CMBT. Before calling them, I called up Vignesh to confirm on our transportation and the time of arrival. He told me that our plan is to leave CMBT before 5:30 AM. The following things were in my backpack. After speaking with him, I started calling one by one from my landline to the girls in my list. Each and everyone I spoke with were very enthusiastic and positive that they will make it to the trek for sure. I was 100% confident that there wasn’t going to be any dropouts in our pickup point. At around 6PM, I received a call from Archana saying that she will also be joining in CMBT and also wanted to know where she can get a swimming tube in tnagar. After doing a small research and calling up a shop, I called her back and gave the info. All of us were asked to assemble by 4:40 AM the next day.
My husband had agreed to drop me in front of Nathan’s Café in the morning. We kept the alarm and dozed. I started having dreams about forests, streams and waterfalls already.. Was definitely feeling very excited to meet all the gals and ladies..
On the day of the trek, I got a call from Malar at 4:13 AM saying tat she has started from Ayanavaram in her cab!! I was on my way to take my bath. Went there, had a splash, got ready, waked my husband and started off. At 4:34 AM, got a call from Vasanthi asking whether she wanted to pick me up since she stayed in Vanagaram. I had already started from home and told her that I will meet her there. My husband left the scenario once he was sure that I was comfortable with the gals. Subha arrived in a van and called us in. My excitement was going high. By 5:45 AM, we were starting off for the trek with a bunch of ladies and I was sure that I was gonna make cool friends. I could see all happy and excited faces filled with enthusiasm and warm smiles.
Before going to Nagalapuram, we stopped over in a road side shop to have breakfast. Since I had heavy dinner last night, I skipped solid food and stuck with juice and energy bar. From the sight of other ladies, I could say tat they had a hearty breakfast. Shoot!! I missed it .. Abirami, the girl who sitting right next to me in the van offered to bring in a parcel but I said I will manage. Thank you very much grl.. You were a gr8 companion. Subha who was sitting to left side is a bubbly and simple girl who doesn’t like the routine office work and always looking out to do something different and adventurous. After breakfast and relieving ourself, the ride started again and we were in Nagala West in another half an hour. An old lady blocked our way to collect money for parking our vans inside. Well.. That is called local development!!
After getting down from the van to start our treks, each of us were given a disclaimer form to sign first. Of course we are responsible for our own safety and nobody can help us if we were about to do something which we are not supposed to do. Keeping tat in mind, signed the form and gave it back to them. Subha and the others started distributing chocolates, chapattis and juices for us to carry in our backpacks. After keeping everything inside, we lined up to start the trek. Vignesh aka Vicky lead the way along with Nagul for us to follow. You can Vicky the Barbarian since he was trekking without shoes and with such ease!! Man.. are you even for real??? Subha, Cimbu and Yoga were right behind us. We were informed that two more men will join us soon.
The trail was plain in the beginning filled with red soil and pebbles here and there. As we moved on, we could see that we were walking on more pebbles. Then we could see a small stream which we crossed over and took a small break to give introductions about each one of us. Something likes an ice breaker. The team was filled different age groups and different backgrounds though there many from IT companies. After this short intro and refreshing by the stream, we moved on with the trek. The trail started becoming narrower with trees on one side and the stream on the other side. I was aware that we will be trekking along the stream. This was easy and we reached the first pool which had a small waterfall. What a sight??
It was as if it was made only for us to enjoy!! We were informed that the pool is 10ft in depth. Everyone started blowing their tubes. The guys were helpful in blowing the tubes for those who couldn’t (that will be almost everyone :-D)..
I went on without a tube since I was not planning to swim to the waterfall. It was fun to watch everyone have fun and to have fun yourself and by doing whatever you want and not a soul to ask why are you doing like this..
After half an hour, we went on to trek to the second pool. More eager to go the second pool this time since we had great fun n the first one. This part was a bit challenging since we had to climb a rock and see to it tat we didn’t hurt our head during that process. Didn’t know that we will be disappointed by a bunch stupid men who were taking oil massage and having fun in their own pathetic way!! I wonder why they want to dirty every place they set their eyes upon .. Poor mother nature. How much is she gonna bear for us?? The organizers didn’t want to disappoint us and told us that we can move on to the third pool and come back to this later. We eagerly said yes and moved on (Yay!!).. As we moved on, we were joined in by Rajanna, Rajavel and Elango.Oh boy.. little did we know tat this path was gonna be slippery, rocky and filled with caterpillars and thorny bushes.
Definitely not an easy task to walk with big swimming tubes. I could see that most of them managed pretty well even with those. I unfortunately had a slip while climbing a path with rocks and sprained my thumb. Tat was definitely damn painful. But this didn’t stop me to take break. How can I lose it with all the wonderful and cheerful people around encouraging you and telling you that everything is fine?? Well.. I wanted to reach the third pool no matter what and we made it!! Once we reached the top, the view was breathtaking.. the water was crystal clear. The surrounding was soooo damn peaceful. Vicky took a jump from the top for everyone to start and later one by one, everyone started jumping in. Seeing this was more than enough for me. I called Dr. Yoga to check whether anything was wrong with my thumb and he assured me that it was not a fracture. Thank you very much for taking your time an assuring that nothing is wrng .. Having said that I just put on some spray and started watching ppl enjoy them.
In the meantime, we started having chappatis with pickles (lemon and mango). What a meal I say!! Nothing has been tastier than this ever in my life. After having my fill, I started watching ppl having fun again. Abirami and Sheena went on to jump as soon as they finished the meal. After much hesitation, they jumped in. and once in, there was no stopping them in havn fun. Prajakta who was sitting next to me wanted to go in the pool but was afraid bcos the depth. I asked her if she would like to take my tube. She took it and went in. It was fun to see her enjoy as well. I wanted to go in too but restrained myself due to the sprain. Few girls went inside the pool when they jumped in but they were rescued immediately by the co-organizers who were always nearby and knew what to do when something went wrong. After seeing all this, Deepika, who was with me suggested that we cud go the other way round and stay in the shallow waters for some time.
Once we got tubes from other girls, we went on and stayed there for some time. Later, we were joined by Abirami. I was with her for some more time and then we moved on to dry ourselves a bit and get ready to descend.
Vicky had started a fire to cook the chappatis and Gayathiri was the main chef there to make them. Swetha made sure tat whoever wanted to have a chappati had it!! After having chappatis again, we started to descend to reach the second pool. Yet again, we were disappointed to see that the place was not empty and still occupied by those monkeys in the guise of men. Well bad luck again but we continued to move on to the first pool and have some fun b4 finishing the trek. Descending part was not bad since I thought tat it might be very difficult. The girls had fun for another 30 minutes in the first pool and then we started descending to a point for us to take group pics and profile pics.
We waited for rest of the team to join us. Once everyone were back, had group pics shot and also a small feedback session. The dogs which subha mentioned earlier as terror pieces made their way in and had fun in their own cute way. After it turned dark, we got our torches and started walking towards our van. Many of us dozed off once we started off and the cool night breeze hit our face.
End of the day, the organizers did a great job by stationing themselves in those places which they knew will be difficult for us to make it. They were easily accessible for any kind of help and were very jovial at all times. Got to know more places for trekking from the organizers. Looking forward for more treks like be it one day or two days or three days. A great stress buster indeed!! One wonderful experience which will easily come to my mind when someone asks me what is the most adventurous thing that you have done till date with a group of newly found friends. My sincere thanks to everyone who has made this into a wonderful day with or without their knowledge ..
Write up From Pavithra:
Please re-direct to the link to read few more wonderful write up and photos.
http://chennai-trekking-club.
End of the day, the organizers did a great job by stationing themselves in those places which they knew will be difficult for us to make it. They were easily accessible for any kind of help and were very jovial at all times. Got to know more places for trekking from the organizers. Looking forward for more treks like be it one day or two days or three days. A great stress buster indeed!! One wonderful experience which will easily come to my mind when someone asks me what is the most adventurous thing that you have done till date with a group of newly found friends. My sincere thanks to everyone who has made this into a wonderful day with or without their knowledge ..
Write up From Pavithra:
A typical conversation between a give-me-my adrenaline-break girl and her Indian mom:
Mom: How did you get the guts to apply alone??
Me: Ma, don’t freak out!
Mom: What if the organizer is a psycho?
Me: Ma, don’t freak out!
Mom: What if your fellow trekkers threaten you during the journey?
Me: Ma, don’t freak out!
Mom: You are hopeless!!
Me: Ma, I spoke to Subashiny, she is the co-coordinator, a very nice person, very responsible (P.S.. except the hello-you-got-selected conversation I dint talk anything to her until Friday :P)
Mom: Give her number to me; just ensure you come back alive!!
Me: Ma, you are the best!!
Next day, when my brother dropped me off at 4:30am in Guindy:
Brother: It’s like it’s going to rain, what will you guys do then?
Me: I have no idea
Brother: You are hopeless!!
I met Gayathri 1st and posed her the question, “Gayathri, what do we do if it rains?”
Gayathri: What else? We get WET!!
Me and Brother: Oh ya! We get wet!!
With so much of pre-requisites filled, her I was standing in Guindy with Gayathri and checking Nandini’s progress once in a while.. Then came the van, we zipped across the city, escaping the traffic and me anticipating the rain!
Having breakfast in a “tea kadai” was a new experience. When do we get such chances
We proceeded to Nagala and I was flabbergasted at the sight of the mountains, the paths and trees. Man! I have lived a choking life in the city, I could feel my lungs breathe free here.
Mom: How did you get the guts to apply alone??
Me: Ma, don’t freak out!
Mom: What if the organizer is a psycho?
Me: Ma, don’t freak out!
Mom: What if your fellow trekkers threaten you during the journey?
Me: Ma, don’t freak out!
Mom: You are hopeless!!
Me: Ma, I spoke to Subashiny, she is the co-coordinator, a very nice person, very responsible (P.S.. except the hello-you-got-selected conversation I dint talk anything to her until Friday :P)
Mom: Give her number to me; just ensure you come back alive!!
Me: Ma, you are the best!!
Next day, when my brother dropped me off at 4:30am in Guindy:
Brother: It’s like it’s going to rain, what will you guys do then?
Me: I have no idea
Brother: You are hopeless!!
I met Gayathri 1st and posed her the question, “Gayathri, what do we do if it rains?”
Gayathri: What else? We get WET!!
Me and Brother: Oh ya! We get wet!!
With so much of pre-requisites filled, her I was standing in Guindy with Gayathri and checking Nandini’s progress once in a while.. Then came the van, we zipped across the city, escaping the traffic and me anticipating the rain!
Having breakfast in a “tea kadai” was a new experience. When do we get such chances
We proceeded to Nagala and I was flabbergasted at the sight of the mountains, the paths and trees. Man! I have lived a choking life in the city, I could feel my lungs breathe free here.
Off we proceeded into the wilderness, with Vignesh aka Vicky leading our way. We reached a small 1st stream where we had our introduction sessions, people from diverse fields, but with the same passion – trekking, I was utterly thrilled.
Crossing few rocks, slimy paths and little jumps here and there, we reached the 1st pool.Off people went with their swimming tubes (thanks guys for blowing them!). I could thoroughly see people having a gala time; I was enjoying myself with nature.
Crossing few rocks, slimy paths and little jumps here and there, we reached the 1st pool.Off people went with their swimming tubes (thanks guys for blowing them!). I could thoroughly see people having a gala time; I was enjoying myself with nature.
We had to go to the 2nd pool and I now knew why we have 4 limbs! I literally used all my limbs to scatter around the boulders, jump, hop and what not! With the occasional comment from Rajanna – “enna ma enga engayo kaal vechi thandura??” I was telling in my mind “mountain climbing la nan enna PhD ah? Free aa vidunga”. The second pool was skipped due to obvious reasons and had to go to the 3rd pool. The trek path became more and more exciting, after climbing a huge slope, I would look back down and pat myself “aha,, sadichita di Pavithra”.
No words to describe the 3rd pool.. It’s the superlative tense of all good words in English! People went around after a bit of inhibition, I sat on the rocks and was having “ME” time (in which I usually talk to myself – long time since I did that). It was so calming… And buzzzzzzz went the calmness when one friend just had a freaky jump from a rock platform!! OMG, I really skipped a beat. From then on, I was closely watching the particular rock and would signal the guys if someone was on it!!
One self realization I had is (I know this paragraph is going to be mokkai), if I consider the pool to be my problem, and when I fear it, just by sitting outside it, my fear just grew multiple times (like everytime I see a friend attempting a dive), but when I endure the problem that is, when my friends who actually feared the water, but still wanted to get out the fear, they just a had a good time! So it’s better to endure our problems rather than sit with it..
Coming back, it was chapathi time, with the master chef Gayathri and Vicky baking us some hot barbeque chapathis The return journey was comparatively easy stopping for a short swim in the 1st pool again, and always, Nagul and Rajavel would come behind us, ask an excuse and zip fast ahead of us… people are you walking or just have Tarzan genes??
No words to describe the 3rd pool.. It’s the superlative tense of all good words in English! People went around after a bit of inhibition, I sat on the rocks and was having “ME” time (in which I usually talk to myself – long time since I did that). It was so calming… And buzzzzzzz went the calmness when one friend just had a freaky jump from a rock platform!! OMG, I really skipped a beat. From then on, I was closely watching the particular rock and would signal the guys if someone was on it!!
One self realization I had is (I know this paragraph is going to be mokkai), if I consider the pool to be my problem, and when I fear it, just by sitting outside it, my fear just grew multiple times (like everytime I see a friend attempting a dive), but when I endure the problem that is, when my friends who actually feared the water, but still wanted to get out the fear, they just a had a good time! So it’s better to endure our problems rather than sit with it..
Coming back, it was chapathi time, with the master chef Gayathri and Vicky baking us some hot barbeque chapathis The return journey was comparatively easy stopping for a short swim in the 1st pool again, and always, Nagul and Rajavel would come behind us, ask an excuse and zip fast ahead of us… people are you walking or just have Tarzan genes??
At the end of the day, I was all happy and smiles, thanks to CTC for making me love nature again… I understood few things, Subashiny was not a psycho, Vicky was a slipper-less wonder, Nagul and Rajavel were “vaa-ma-minnalu type” and my co-trekkers were just awesome companions making me all the more comfortable!!
http://chennai-trekking-club.
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