Venkatgiri/2, 20-21 Sept 2008

Our trekking started on a fine Saturday morning. We all started from Koyembedu at 6 am with 35 people, 5 cars, 2 bikes and Peter’s Scorpio leading us, and me driving my car with 4 people that includes my colleague Sabari as well, After one and half hour of drive in NH5 (Nice highway), we turned left to Naidupet and stopped for breakfast and to load water. I knew this was going to be my last spot to have a proper food for the weekend, as we knew, it was going to be just packed and canned food for the next 2 days. Everyone got 3 liters of water each, loaded it into the car. Then the route became tricky, we had to follow Peter’s car carefully so not to miss him. At 11.a.m. we reached the village where we were supposed to park the car and meet our trek-mate Chenchu (the native of VenkataGiri town). All things got distributed here: Theplas, Bread, Jam, Snacks and most important – Glucon-D (Peter shouting “guys, pick it up – It’s the Life saver”).


“Here we go… 42nd trek”, said Peter. It was a 2 hour walk to reach the base of the hill. The scorching sun was beating us down at Andhra :( Many first timers and myself began to wonder “How the hell are were going to make it to the top?”, “Was it a bad to decision to have come here?”, but there was Chenchu pushing us to go on and encouraging us to walk.

“Water Water Water No-where” from 11 am till 4 pm. Thorns pierced my t-shirt, my cap and my sleeping mat got torn at all it’s edges. We still kept trekking with all our energy, draining out every minute, thinking and hoping all the way, that it is “just another 5 minutes to the top”. After we kept fooling ourselves withthat 5 min Top thoughts, we reached the 700m base camp of the hill at 3.30 p.m., and Peter, who reached there before us, was happily taking a nap there knowing that these guys will always be late.

Completing our lunch with eggs and sweets (Thanks to Chenchu for carrying it all along :) ) and relaxing, we were surprised on seeing the clouds touching us, we all felt that all the climbing was in fact a nice idea.



But when we were all wondering where the tents were and where do we sleep, Chenchu says we still have another 200m to climb and if we go in a good pace ( :( which we can’t ), he said it would take another hour. The best part of the trek started there. No more heat, no more sun beating us down, just clouds everywhere, telling us to “Catch me if you can” :D

For every meter we ascended, we were able to catch breathtaking views, astonishing greenery, which made our expedition a little easier and we reached the top around 6.p.m. We were all treated and welcomed to the top, by the sunset views, with awesome colors changing every minute in the sky, which made everyone forget all the trouble we had while climbing:) Chenchu and the local guides took all the empty bottles and filled up with water. (We thought there was water stream flowing down somewhere in another path).



People then started unwinding things and each found a place for his/her sleeping mat. Each one kept praising and exclaiming “what a wonderful place this is!” and felt sorry for the people who missed this trek. The guides arranged water for all of us who needed to quench their thirst and mix it for a drink. Peter and some trek-mates claimed the ruined fort, and started enjoying themselves by playing games, having discussions. Then it was time to sleep, and the chillness kept creeping in; good thing that it didn’t rain, otherwise it would have made things worst. Aeolus(Greek God of Wind) tells Zeus (God of rain), “Let me take care of these fellows from CTC, leave ‘em to me”. Then she started with all her strength, changed my sleeping bag into an air-balloon and barely let me sleep with all the noise. We all woke up in the morning with the roaring-wake-up call from Aeolus and then I got ready to capture the sunrise. After enjoying the sunrise we all decided to go down to another edge of the peak to take group photos on the rocks and we could see amazing views again. We left Sam and Viki, at the same place to capture us in their cam when we reach the top. And so we all climbed to the peak again.




After completing the breakfast our descent started. All my thoughts were to go to the water stream and get the 3 litres of water and Chenchu showed us the way to the stream. While I was happily rushing to the water spot I was shocked to see water droplets dripping underneath a rock and all of us needed 3 bottles each (Was this the same place where the guides got water to entire group the previous night? :-?) After accepting that this is the only way to get water from this place (My hundred rupees note in my pocket is of no value here), we started collecting the water slowly from the droplets. We started the descent slowly to reach the 700m area, where we had some rest. Since it was a slow descent I was able to capture some macro shots of insects, butterflies in my cam.




While most of us were resting we heard sounds of people from the other side of the hill. So many questions crossed our mind.. “Whoz that? What’s happening ?” “Did some people take a wrong trail ?”. The answer was “no” :) It was Peter and the pro-trekkers who did not want to go back early and so they decided to reach the other peak. They are indeed great guys, I sincerely wish I could be one of them someday (But certainly not today..ha…ha…:D ), For all of us who thought descending would be easy, we were wrong – “It’s not”, with the toes slamming into the shoes, it was painful throughout the journey. With some tiny breaks inbetween, we reached the ground level. On the way we heard of people shouting and a sudden burst of one name “CCCHHHENNNCHHHHUUUUUUU…………………” :D The group looked relieved and happy, since they lost the trail for about an hour and then saw Chenchu. So they joined us and everybody took a long walk to the village with Glucose in hand, totally exhausted for the weekend, hoping to have a good meal for dinner. We waited for Peter to arrive with the pro-trekkers and we all started at 7 p.m. and reached Chennai at 10:30p.m.


Overall the trekking expedition was amazing. Trek your way to life’s peak, is all I could say :) I wish to thank Peter and organizers for arranging this.


Writer: Ravi Alagappan






Participants: Chenchu Muni, Ram Prasad. D, Balaji Seshan, anand chanduri, Rajesh KR, karthik V, Peter, Vinod, Shankar S, Gopikrishna Mandapati, Nisha Roseline Luiz, Vikram J, Siddharth Srinivasan, Paneesh, Samyak Kaninde, Arun gowda, Rama Mohan Reddy, PRABHU K, Lakshman Swamy, Koushick, Selva kumar, Hari Haran .V, Sanjay Bhattacharya, Angel Glady Magdalin, Selva Pandian, Prabhu S, Ravi Alagappan, Sabarirajan Saravanan, Ebby, Rajesh CV, vikraman, Santhosh Kumar, Raghuvir Reddy, Jibin Scaria, Kumar.K.T, Sharon, Krishna kumar, Dhaval, Diwakar, Rupaa, Suresh, Anita, Ramesh S



Organizer: Chenchu

Image Library:
Samyakk
Vikram
Koushick
Ravi Alagappan
Bhagathkumar
Selva