Nagalapuram/2, July 19-20, 2008

I am back with an excited post. This is about a Trek to an Eastern Ghats last weekend. (19th and 20th of July). I think this is one of the very exciting weekends in my life. And Yes, I can never forgot this splendid moment. “TREK” would actually be a new word in the dictionary of my life. I have never gone for the trek before. And I never had any idea that Trek can be this exciting. As soon as I came to know about Chennai Trekkers the next thing that i have done is registering with that club. I came to know from Mukund that there is a trek organized by Chennai Trekkers to Eastern Ghats. I decided finally to go along with mukund to the trek.


It was morning 4.00 clock on Saturday (July 19), I got up from bed and got fresh up. All set to start to CMBT. Before that, i checked all the stuff as per the checklist provided in chennai trekkers blog. Reached CMBT at around 5.10 by an auto. The first CTC member i met was Raveen. With in few minutes, the Gang assembled there near the footpath before the CMBT Bus stand. Perter took over and shacked hands with couple of new CTC members. All the vehicle less participants have been adjusted to different vehicles and finally we started.


The Guys on the back of the bikes have camera’s in their hand’s shooting different creative pics. I was in the back seat of Mukund’s bike with a helmet and a camera in my hand. We traveled along NH5 at the speed of 60-70. During the travel to the actual Trek place, I enjoyed the nature around and the bike feats done my Kannan. On the way we stooped at a hotel to have breakfast and the packed lunch for Saturday. We also bought the water bottles for all the participants which are been accommodated in peter’s Scorpio. At this hotel I met a french guy named Lionel, who came down to India to explore it and is doing his B.Tech in SRM University.



We, then started to reach base of the hill and unpacked all the luggage and distributed the food packets to every one. That is where we parked our vehicles and spoke to a local person to look after these bikes. We, then started with our race to the pinnacle of the Eastern Ghats. The line is headed by Peter and then followed by the regular trekkers like Arul, Ram, Shreedhar, and Divya. After we crossed the newly build dam, we started getting in to the forest. We were walking under a hot sun and some deep bushes. We kept on moving until we get a small pool with no much of deepness.



This is our first halt in this trek. We just had a first refreshing face wash in that small pool and headed to the target pool which is around 300 meters high from the sea level. Here started the slope and we kept on walking on the hot rocks watching the beautiful nature around. We always followed the line and kept on following each other. Every body was very excited to see the pool and just jumped in to it. We stayed there for around one and a half hour. I enjoyed a lot in the pool along with the other swimmers. There were some terrific divers among our troop, who enjoyed jumping from the big rock in the middle of the pool.

Some have enjoyed taking the photographers of the divers with their SLR cameras. And some have enjoyed taking the bath in the water fall. After we spent some time there at the pool, filled out water bottles and started to our next destiny, which is the pinnacle of the mountain 614 meters above the sea level.



Here is where, I feel, the actual trek starts. As we kept on climbed up the hill of 45 Degrees slope, the sweat started burning out of our bodies. To keep this cool, as expected, the rain has started wetting us. We initially have set a temporary tent, but then started traveling in the rain as it never ends. Every step was very careful as the place is very slippery. Guys have taken lots of breaks in the middle. The rain didn’t stop yet and we didn’t stop our journey yet. As we kept on moving across the deep jungle, we came to an open area were we were able to see the sunlight again. We stopped there for a few minutes to enjoy the barking sun out of the black clouds. A sip of Glucon-D had saved us all along the way to get the instant energy and keep on moving up the mountain.



“Move move move move move move” , “Go Go Go Go Go Go”, “Come on Guys Move on Move on Move On” were the different slogans for all of us during our trek. After a long along the grassy steep mountain, we finally reached the top of the hill 613 meters high at 6:00 PM. By that time guys are so tired and just fell down in an open place to take a nap. The pinnacle is ellipse in shape and our next mission is to find out a flat place to setup our tents to stay tonight. We finally set up the tents and next step is have dinner. As the floor is wet that night, we were not able to make the camp fire and every body have switched on their torches. We opened out Teepla packets and enjoyed the dinner together. After that everybody went back in to their own tents and slept off. Before I sleep, we (Me, mukund, peter, vivek, Mony and Divya) have played a game named Uno that was very interesting. We slept off in the tent with the same wet clothes. The Day1 of out Trek is over.

Day 2:


The second day was the most adventurous, frightening, scary and Thrilling day of our trek. The day started smoothly at 7.30 in the morning. Every body were ready with their back packs to reach our next destiny, ie, a water pool. This water pool is the mother of the pool which we have seen the previous day. We also have plans to stay there for lunch. Guys were so excited to go to the pool. Before we go, we went to different view points of that ellipse shaped mountain pinnacle.



All the view points are simply mind blowing and we didn’t wanted to move out those places. Guys with tripods and SLR camera’s were in action. Its time for a group photo. During our photo session, we heard a sound from some where on the opposite hill. Peter said, Shhhhhhhhhhh. We shouted back, and we got the response back. Then peter said. “Yeah…..! Guys. We are not alone here”. When kannan zoomed the place with his camera, it proved that some body else was staying on the other hill along with their tents. Once we are done with our view points, we started to the pool.


The route was too steep down and we had to be very careful all the way. Every step forward was only with a support, I didn’t dare to walk down with out any support. At some places, if there was no support, i preferred to crawl down. I never cared about the dress and other things during the trek, except my Gadgets. As we keep on moving, we came across many thorny bushes. As i did wear the ankle socks, most of the thorns targeted my legs and my hands. With in few minutes, we were out of those thorny bushes, and came across a river stream (dry). We started following the river stream which will lead to the mother pool. The dry river is very steep at some places and guys had to be very careful to come down that river. The mountain climbers like Arul, were able to make it very easy, But for me it was really tough. But, I enjoyed it. We all assembled at a point to have a group snap by our professional photographer Samyak. Had a sip of water and started again to the pool.


The pool is located still down from this point. We started finding the small streams along way which goes the actual pool. But, at some point of time, the way was cut. There was a big stream in the middle and it seemed tough to cross it. Some of the experienced guys, have climbed down the rock and jumped on the other side of the stream. It was my turn next. Not sure, if i am gonna make it or not. It was very scary. If i miss jumping on the other side. I will be directly in to the stream which is deeper. With all these thoughts i was finally able to make it. Whoaahhhhh!!!! I made it. Thrilled. Excited. And jumped. After that, we kept walking along the same river, to reach the pool finally.


This pool doesn’t look as expected. Its very small in size and we didn’t had a provision to jump in to it. This place was one of the most beautiful places in our trek. It has a pool and a small waterfall and a rocky area covered with a deep trees not letting the sun light coming in. Is that it..??????? Well…That’s not it. The most exciting thing of this place is that there is a valley of almost 90 Degrees slope and of 300 Meters high. Guys have rushed to the edge to have a look at the beautiful valley. We sat there for a very long time and had a chit chat about different things. Meanwhile, guys have started making fire to prepare the lunch. After a long struggle, Vivek, Peter and sreedhar made the fire and we all helped in getting the dry wood to feed the fire god. Taken out all our maggi packets out and made the noodles.


After noodles, its Soup. Mukund, Kannan and me were busy in filling up the bottles for the rest of our journey. We stayed there for a long time and started back to the base camp at around 1.30 PM. This is the start of the adventurous part of our trek. To go to the base camp, we had to climb up a sloppy hill and then follow the dry stream to get back to the pool where we had spent lot of time the previous day. So, our next target would be the POOL2 (POOL1 is the first pool which we never stepped in). We had to step still to reach the top of another hill that is 700 meters above the sea level. As we kept on moving, the sun god started drinking our energy. And by the time we reached the pinnacle, every body is almost out of water. We still have a very long way to reach the down of the hill. I was not very sure what am i going to do if i am thisty for the rest of the journey.


One refreshing thing was that we only need to climb down the hill. “No more climbing up” this one scentence brought the hidden energy in everybody over there and we started climbing down to our next destination. Unfortunately, Peter’s GPS machine stopped working and the only way we had, is to follow the dry stream which should meet POOL2 some where. And from there the route was known. Initially it was alright. After that, we started facing the extreme thorney bushes. And as I wear the ankle socks, they started hurting me every where. I still didn’t care about them, because of my concentration to reach the destiny. We kept on walking the dry stream, making the way through the extremely thorny bushes. Arul, (the mountain climber) , Raam and sreedhar, were leading us along the way and Peter was coming last with one guy whose Knee is damaged.


The time was 6.00 PM and the light is going down. At that poing of time, we discovered that we still have a very long way to go to POOl2. And from POOL2, we have to go down the hill for 2 1/2 hours. People on the front keep on saying “We are nearing the POOL2.” All of us turned on our torches and started moving along the dry stream. At some point along the stream, we were struck up and we were not able to make a way through a very thorny bushes. We stopped there for almost half an hour. The explorer’s kept on searching a way to get out of the thorny bushes. Arul called peter by walky talky to discuss about the way.


We were almost lost in deep jungle, sitting in a dark place with all our torches off (To get rid of any wild animals), and longing for water (By that time we were out of water). Everybody was thirsty and were trying to take out the energy hidden somewhere in the corner of our bodies. Every body was wet with sweat ,lying down somewhere in the jungle, discussing about the way to go. The explorers were still searching for a way. Finally after 45-50 minutes of waiting (the time was 8:00 PM), Peter is back with a good news. The news is “WE WILL BE OUT OF THIS BUSH WITH IN FIVE MINUTES”. Roared “WhooooooaaaH!!” with our thirsty throats, We all are on the track. The thorns didn’t stop attacking us. And finally we were out of that bush. We found a way which is kind of sandy and rocky (small round rocks). After a long walk for around 20 Min, Guess where we go.


Yes, its the pool. But, to our surprise, its not the POOL2. Its POOL1. This is were we had our first halt for around five minutes in this trek. This means that we have are very near to our base camp. Even though the pool is not so deeper, everybody just jumped into it, drank water, lied down in it. The time was 10:00 PM. We were still lying down in the pool. Nobody wanted to come out of it, and nobody cared about the time. We were all shouting, playing, and celebraing the happy ending of an awesome trek. Some people kept on lying down on the bank of the pool taking the photographs. After a long stay over there, we started back to our cars at 10:40 PM and reached out base camp at 11.00 PM.


Peter, took out the Teepla’s that he had stored before and distributed to everybody. We had a bite of it and assembled to calculate the trek expenses. We started back to Chennai on vehicles and we are gonna meet again at CMBT to clear all the expenses. I am back again on mukund’s bike. My Knee’s are paining like hell. Called up home and my friends on the way to let them know my safe return from my first trek. And finally we are back at CMBT. Vivek, was ready with his calculations and i have got 50/- back. We shaked hand’s with Peter’s and other Mates. Mukund dropped me at my home at 1.45PM. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Whew..!! That was a splendid trek. Being my first trek, I was damn excited. I think this is one of the memorable weekend’s in my life. Thanks Peter and Others who made this moment a grand success.

Written by Durga Prasad

Another write-up on this trek at Mukund's blog

Participants: Peter, Divya, Sreedhar, Samyak, Hariharan, Rama Mohan, Balaji, Ram Prasad, Paneesh, Subhra, Kannan, Rajesh, Balamurugan, Chezian, Promod kumar, Durga, Vivek, Lionel, Mukund, Raveen, Vani, Vikas, Shivendra, Prashant, Vinod, Viigneshvar, Arul, Subramony, Karthik, Rithwik


Image Library:

Best Photos
Samyak
Kannan
Subhro
Lionel
Bala
Karthik
Prashant
Durga
Vani
Raveen






Trail in Google Earth