Nagala 12 - Febrauary 15, 2009
Hari Kumar Balasundaram
All in the name of fun and adventure that is so missed in the concrete jungle. And what a trek it turned out to be in the end - the descent session, post-lunch, am sure will ROCK all the first timer's minds for a lifetime to come. The Valentine weekend could have been a simple dine n date routine to most of the placid lot but it wasn't meant to be so for the Chennai trekkers.
Having missed the Tirumala trek, the photography session and the beach cleaning one - I was desperately looking forward to this one and finally made it too; We started from Koyambedu at about 5ish after the morning routine of picking people up at various points. A cuppa tea at periyapalayam and about an hour later, we reached the base of the foothills. After receiving instructions from the organisers and getting a glimpse of everyone, we started off in earnest to check out on what was store for us. From the moment's blink of an eye with a glimpse of the silent valley and the hills that lay ahead of us, it began from nowhere and started to grow on us and wouldn't stop until we touched base at our first rendezvous point.
A dip in the ice cold waters and gobbling a couple of idlis finally bought my mind back to rest from the heights of excitement it truly deserved for a very long time to come. And if I thought this was it ? there was more in store. The climb up the hill was an unusual affair for most of us techie-zombies and it sure was a test in the first place. Nothing really mattered when it came to reaching the heights as long as there were helping hands when ever in need and this kinda set the tone for the entire shape of things to come culminating in a grand finale of sorts. Attitude seeks altitude and so it was an extraordinary teamwork and with one hell of a sweeper in Balaji to push everyone when in need,ensured that we reached the peak and the drop zone in time.
A good lunch and a moment's rest later, we were on our way back to climbing a 15 deg drop [if am not wrong ] although just a few feet up, only a few would have been through it until thence. Amidst from nowhere - came the boulder spiralling downwards and a few seconds later missing Paari by a few inches, thudded in the waters like a meteor.
This was enough to put our thoughts of invincibility to test and we did come up trumps in the end. Thanks once again to a phenomenal team driven by a very thoughtful young brigade; the whole team made it safely up the hill - a momentary scare soon gave way to a scintillating view of the valley helping us loosen up a bit and trek down to the safety of our own civilised-savage world.
I would never have made it to the trek if not for a beer and a bellied mate who kind of questioned the logic of travel and the madness that comes from being alone while travelling, courtesy the movie - 'Into the Wild'. The Hindu fittingly came with a reply n voila - it was the Chennai Trekking Club. After a few misses and finally making it through a successful trek, I can safely vouch that a traveller no matter what can never be alone for a moment when the whole world shines upon himself and even better - when you have a group like the CTC - It can only get better...
Kudos to the organisers and team for having shared a great Valentine week with each other.. Moving on - I can't wait until the next time I get to close the gap with the rest of the team.
Until then - Let me dream on - Rocky Mountain High...!!!
Mukund
The ride @ 80s, 90s made the fingers numb when we stopped for a while to pick our breakfast. Debra, Ricky and live were the new faces we got in touch with. The sun was up by the time and the journey started again. Archie wanted to try out her biking skills. She had a very,very decent drive by the time our sweeperleft us behind. We managed to catch them soon and had a pleasant drive till the Nagala base. I saw a different base this time whn compared to the Nag-2 trip, here we drove on a rocky road. Backpacks packed with the food, glucon D and other essentials, the trek started pretty well @ around 10. The organizers gave us the announcements and we marched towards the pool. We reached their very soon and got into the coool waters. It was deep as said by other swimmers where I felt the absence of Mr. Peter. He who pulled me out of the water @ TADA and helped to swim across to the falls @ NAGALA, @ my earlier treks. Glee caught me as I was dipping into the waters so did the COLD.
We finished our breakfast and started climbing the steep mountain and descended to reach the stream. We really missed Mahi @ Tanmoy. Archie felt lonesome without a Hindi speaking companion while we got introduced to Mahesh, Rahul, Praveen, Animesh and to an IITian (forgot his name) in the mean time. The trek had lots of breaks and had got enough time to rest. Refreshed after an half an hour back we trekked further towards the stream. We came across many pools and stopped @ around 2 for lunch. The Pongal went in and invited sleep. After sufficient rest, we came back the same route to reach our starting point. The upclimb was @ a different point where the rocks were really loose and we had to step carefully. A big rock came down falling and someone was warning us from the top about it. One of our friend got terrified. He lost control and fell down on our UNCLE. Our Uncle was strong enough to take control of the situation. We ascended slowly to the top and got tothe view point. Got introduced to Basha, Dhinesh, RC, Karthik and some more gentlemen.
Lots of interesting incidents happened: Archie, Rahul and Animesh started Antakshari in a language which is alien to me. No other go for me except listening it. My IIT friend took a book out of his bag and was reading it. We all acknowledged that he is from IIT and requested him to put it in. When the big loose rocks were rolling, one of my junior called me and ask me to clarify some technical stuffs in j2ee. I had to reply him that my life is @ stake now and wud call him if I reach home safely
Organisers:
Baskar, Vikram, Anand, Balaji
Participants:
Vikram J, Anand Chanduri, Ansar, Baskar, Hima Bindu , Sudhir, Sudhir T Balaji, Badrinarayanan R, Philip K , Eranat, Diwakar, Nagaraj M, Sathish, Shriram, Ronald, Livyat, Libu Balakrishnan, Mahesh KM, Dinesh Kumar, Rajasekar, Mukund, Archana Sharma, Ramasubramaniyan, Rahul Sood, Sripal(Sathish friend), Manivannan G, Vinay V, Jegatheesh Mohan, Palanidaran C, Sudhakar.k, Sathish B, Sekhar Jajimoggala, Praveen Babu M, Anand Renganath, Raghuvir Reddy, Karthik Ranaganathan, Varadarajan V, VinothKumar.A, K. Padma C, Jeevakumar J, Sathik Basha, Sandeep V, Ambarish, Hari Kumar B, Paari G, Vishnu, Gowri Shankar M, Balaji Lakshmanan, Sujai Karthik, Nanda Kishore M, Nagamayur T.M, Bharath Anuroop Gudiwada, Sreethi, Vinay, Akhilesh Krishnan, Tushar Rathee, Siddhartha Deb, Sarvesh R, Achal Jain, Praneet Mungara, Kartik B, Sayash Kumar, Siddharth B, Dhruv H, Aniket P, Giridhar bail
Hari Kumar Balasundaram
" To be is to do " said Kant and I say - life is not just doing it but living it in the real sense of the word and what better way can it be when you team up with total strangers - a totally incoherent lot when it comes to defining boundaries on differences yet united for one common reason - Being one with Mother Nature and doing it the right way .
All in the name of fun and adventure that is so missed in the concrete jungle. And what a trek it turned out to be in the end - the descent session, post-lunch, am sure will ROCK all the first timer's minds for a lifetime to come. The Valentine weekend could have been a simple dine n date routine to most of the placid lot but it wasn't meant to be so for the Chennai trekkers.
Having missed the Tirumala trek, the photography session and the beach cleaning one - I was desperately looking forward to this one and finally made it too; We started from Koyambedu at about 5ish after the morning routine of picking people up at various points. A cuppa tea at periyapalayam and about an hour later, we reached the base of the foothills. After receiving instructions from the organisers and getting a glimpse of everyone, we started off in earnest to check out on what was store for us. From the moment's blink of an eye with a glimpse of the silent valley and the hills that lay ahead of us, it began from nowhere and started to grow on us and wouldn't stop until we touched base at our first rendezvous point.
A dip in the ice cold waters and gobbling a couple of idlis finally bought my mind back to rest from the heights of excitement it truly deserved for a very long time to come. And if I thought this was it ? there was more in store. The climb up the hill was an unusual affair for most of us techie-zombies and it sure was a test in the first place. Nothing really mattered when it came to reaching the heights as long as there were helping hands when ever in need and this kinda set the tone for the entire shape of things to come culminating in a grand finale of sorts. Attitude seeks altitude and so it was an extraordinary teamwork and with one hell of a sweeper in Balaji to push everyone when in need,ensured that we reached the peak and the drop zone in time.
A good lunch and a moment's rest later, we were on our way back to climbing a 15 deg drop [if am not wrong ] although just a few feet up, only a few would have been through it until thence. Amidst from nowhere - came the boulder spiralling downwards and a few seconds later missing Paari by a few inches, thudded in the waters like a meteor.This was enough to put our thoughts of invincibility to test and we did come up trumps in the end. Thanks once again to a phenomenal team driven by a very thoughtful young brigade; the whole team made it safely up the hill - a momentary scare soon gave way to a scintillating view of the valley helping us loosen up a bit and trek down to the safety of our own civilised-savage world.
I would never have made it to the trek if not for a beer and a bellied mate who kind of questioned the logic of travel and the madness that comes from being alone while travelling, courtesy the movie - 'Into the Wild'. The Hindu fittingly came with a reply n voila - it was the Chennai Trekking Club. After a few misses and finally making it through a successful trek, I can safely vouch that a traveller no matter what can never be alone for a moment when the whole world shines upon himself and even better - when you have a group like the CTC - It can only get better...Kudos to the organisers and team for having shared a great Valentine week with each other.. Moving on - I can't wait until the next time I get to close the gap with the rest of the team.
Until then - Let me dream on - Rocky Mountain High...!!!
Mukund
My 2nd trip to the Nagala mountains. I trekked after a very long time. It was DP last time and was very lucky enough to get Archie?s company this time. On contrast to the first trip, this was just a one day trek. The day unusually started @ 2:30 am in the morning. Packing things and a very early morning bath @ 3 made me fresh. I pitied on myself. My PULSAR roared the beach road. I wondered why all the neon lamps were on in that empty road. We were in front of Tidel sharp by 4. Balaji was the first to met and got introduced to our beloved Uncle, Mr. Giridharan. Formal introductions were on and the team geared up for the trek soon. The half an hour wait @ Koyambedu made us impatient but soon we were into action by 5:30.
The ride @ 80s, 90s made the fingers numb when we stopped for a while to pick our breakfast. Debra, Ricky and live were the new faces we got in touch with. The sun was up by the time and the journey started again. Archie wanted to try out her biking skills. She had a very,very decent drive by the time our sweeperleft us behind. We managed to catch them soon and had a pleasant drive till the Nagala base. I saw a different base this time whn compared to the Nag-2 trip, here we drove on a rocky road. Backpacks packed with the food, glucon D and other essentials, the trek started pretty well @ around 10. The organizers gave us the announcements and we marched towards the pool. We reached their very soon and got into the coool waters. It was deep as said by other swimmers where I felt the absence of Mr. Peter. He who pulled me out of the water @ TADA and helped to swim across to the falls @ NAGALA, @ my earlier treks. Glee caught me as I was dipping into the waters so did the COLD. We finished our breakfast and started climbing the steep mountain and descended to reach the stream. We really missed Mahi @ Tanmoy. Archie felt lonesome without a Hindi speaking companion while we got introduced to Mahesh, Rahul, Praveen, Animesh and to an IITian (forgot his name) in the mean time. The trek had lots of breaks and had got enough time to rest. Refreshed after an half an hour back we trekked further towards the stream. We came across many pools and stopped @ around 2 for lunch. The Pongal went in and invited sleep. After sufficient rest, we came back the same route to reach our starting point. The upclimb was @ a different point where the rocks were really loose and we had to step carefully. A big rock came down falling and someone was warning us from the top about it. One of our friend got terrified. He lost control and fell down on our UNCLE. Our Uncle was strong enough to take control of the situation. We ascended slowly to the top and got tothe view point. Got introduced to Basha, Dhinesh, RC, Karthik and some more gentlemen.
Lots of interesting incidents happened: Archie, Rahul and Animesh started Antakshari in a language which is alien to me. No other go for me except listening it. My IIT friend took a book out of his bag and was reading it. We all acknowledged that he is from IIT and requested him to put it in. When the big loose rocks were rolling, one of my junior called me and ask me to clarify some technical stuffs in j2ee. I had to reply him that my life is @ stake now and wud call him if I reach home safely
All of us climbed up successfully and again descended the slope to reach the starting point. We rested for a while and started marching towards the base where we parked our vehicle. Some in our batch lost track and had taken a different route but reached safely to the parking place. We were amused to see Anand coming and settling the accounts. The stay lasted for 30 mins and we started our trip back home. The return 100 km on the same day was a bit painful with the whole body aching. The tea @ Oothukottai refreshed us and we 3 bikers gathered together for the return journey. We maintained a constant speed around 50 where @ 1 occasion my bike went in freely into a big hole. Balance was intact and nothing great happened. Seconds later we started and reached Chennai around 10. It was too late for us to skip the dinner @ chennai deluxe and we preferred to dine in @ Murugan Idli Kadai, GN Chetty Rd.A couple of idlies made us feel so ecstatic and we returned home with a great sense of pleasure and pain.
Write up:
Write up:
Haribalasubramaniam, Mukund
Organisers:
Participants:
Vikram J, Anand Chanduri, Ansar, Baskar, Hima Bindu , Sudhir, Sudhir T Balaji, Badrinarayanan R, Philip K , Eranat, Diwakar, Nagaraj M, Sathish, Shriram, Ronald, Livyat, Libu Balakrishnan, Mahesh KM, Dinesh Kumar, Rajasekar, Mukund, Archana Sharma, Ramasubramaniyan, Rahul Sood, Sripal(Sathish friend), Manivannan G, Vinay V, Jegatheesh Mohan, Palanidaran C, Sudhakar.k, Sathish B, Sekhar Jajimoggala, Praveen Babu M, Anand Renganath, Raghuvir Reddy, Karthik Ranaganathan, Varadarajan V, VinothKumar.A, K. Padma C, Jeevakumar J, Sathik Basha, Sandeep V, Ambarish, Hari Kumar B, Paari G, Vishnu, Gowri Shankar M, Balaji Lakshmanan, Sujai Karthik, Nanda Kishore M, Nagamayur T.M, Bharath Anuroop Gudiwada, Sreethi, Vinay, Akhilesh Krishnan, Tushar Rathee, Siddhartha Deb, Sarvesh R, Achal Jain, Praneet Mungara, Kartik B, Sayash Kumar, Siddharth B, Dhruv H, Aniket P, Giridhar bail
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