Nagalapuram/5, 4 Oct, 2008

Newbies paradise!

For the CTC gang, the hills of Nagalapuram is almost like a second home. A place where they escape to every weekend, to rejuvenate and to push their mental and physical strength to the limits.

However, the trek to Nagala organized by Sharon on the first weekend of October 2008 was different in a lot of ways for a lot of people. For starters, it was one of the biggest in terms of sheer participation.

Out of the total 37 participants, this was the first trek with CTC for almost 80 percent of the them, and most of them had not trekked before. This was a trek where many of them took baby steps into the wonderful world of trekking.




I would like to skip the boring details and come straight to the fun part, but for those who were not part of the trek and would like to know who the arrangement were handled, here goes. I would suggest that Sharon start giving lessons in management when she is not trekking. :) though we started a bit late than we had expected to ( around 6.30 AM ) all the 37 participants were comfortably seated in seven cars and were raring to go. Ram had volunteered to call the participants to confirm their presence or absence, and they also took care of the food, snacks and water.

I am sure that we were not the only guys who were enjoying the drive to Nagala. The people in the villages we passed through must have thought that there is some political rally of some sort judging by the large number of cars speeding past them, and with some of the guys ( read Ram, Palani and Angel ) hanging out of the windows, it only added to the fun.



The first view of the mountains is always beautiful, even for someone who had been there often.

We quickly started from the base camp, our backpacks bulging with food, water and cameras.

It was fun watching the guys go berserk at the pools and they couldn't wait to get into the water. When we reached the first pool, we found that we were not alone.

There were two families complete with a husband wife couple and kids. They actually skinned a chicken and made Biriyani right there.

How we wished we could have done the same thing!! :)





The trek itself was not very difficult. We followed the meandering river up its course, climbing rocks, pushing away the thick undergrowth and even escaping the bees.

It was a good decision to stick to a known trail as it gave all of the new members a taste of the difficult treks ahead, and also an opportunity to get to know the other members. It also ensured that we reached our designated check points on time and everybody having a good time.

Thankfully, it dint rain, as not everyone was carrying a raincoat. It was pleasantly cloudy and stayed that way.

Coming back in the dark using our torches to guide us was also fun. And by the time we reached Chennai Deluxe, all of us were so tired that and hungry that we could have eaten an elephant, if it was cooked and served nicely.

Trekking teaches us to appreciate the value of simple things that we usually take for granted. The two puris that I ate after a long climb tasted better than the most expensive food I had eaten for a long time. No wonder, trekking and back packing is almost like a religion with a lot of us. It teaches us to survive on the necessities, rather than indulging in the luxuries. It also teaches us to trust the other person, and putting all our faith in them and not getting lost. With Sharon and Ram leading the way and Angel bringing up the rear, we knew we were in safe hands.

One really needs to appreciate Rajiv for putting up such a brave stance after having twisted his ankle. he and his cousin stayed back and waited by the first pool for almost three to four hours until the rest of us came back. And then, he stuck it up and hobbled all the way back to the base camp and even managed to climb the dam.


And the other person, of course is Sharon, who did not let the trek fizzle out despite having a really bad foot injury.
And the youngest member of our group, fifteen year old Arjun was so full of energy and enthusiasm, that just watching him gave a lot of people the energy that the glucose drinks couldn't.

And of course, kudos to the guys who drove the cars back. Trust me, it wouldn't have been easy to drive, especially when the people around you are sleeping like logs.
And all the guys and girls who thought that they would not be able to make it but pushed on till the end, without delaying the others. It is in these kinds of situations that we know what we are really capable of. And that is what trekking and backpacking is all about!

For me, the trekking was great, but what was awesome was that I could make friends with total strangers and really miss them when I came back home. I had never expected that a trek with a large number of participants would be so much fun, since I always thought that someone would do something stupid or misbehave or just spoil the experience in some way. But I am so happy to have been proved wrong. I would want to be a part of ALL the treks EVERY weekend if possible. See you guys in Kolli.


Write-up contributed by : Gopal Kishore






Organizer: Sharon

Participants List:
Sharon, Sridhar, Anand Radhakrishnan, Kumar.K.T, Umaima, Arul Kelvin, Jegan Sekar, Madhan Kumar, Karthik V, Shriram, Logarajan R, Karthik R, Santosh S N, Arjun N, Claudy Rayan, Hari Ratan, Radha Viswanathan, Sajish, Senthilkumar G, R.Padmanabhan, Rajneesh Kumar Sharma, Vicky Tuck, huzefa, Julian, Suresh Kanna, Gopinathan M R, J Suresh Kumar, Palanidaran, Gopal Kishore, vikraman, pritam kukillaya, Mohana Kumar, Sathish raj, Piyush, Navin Kumar, karthik, Sridharan Krishnamoorthy, Bharat Routray, Jagan, Ramprasad, Vishnu Ramprasad, Anand Radhakrishnan, Shruth, vigneswari, baskar, jeeva, Shankar, Suresh Kumar J, Dr Rajulan Lysander

Image Library:
Palanidaran
Bhagath Kumar
Suresh Kumar.J
Jegan Sekar
Routray Bharat
Suresh Kumar