[Prasanna]
N30!!! This is not any Nokia Advertisement. If you dont belong to CTC, you wont understand this and if you belong to CTC, you cant miss this one. I went trekking again after 3 long months.
After V9 in April, i was scared to walk there in the jungle with hot sun beating down. So i didnt have any plans to trek on May. June and july just went past quickly. So I decided to enroll for a trek again. As I do work on weekends, i was not able to take part in 2 day treks. When Muthukumar sent out an invitation for a one day trek to Nagala on August 2nd i just called him and confirmed whether it would be a one day trek. Then when I saw the co-organizer Santosh, i immediately signed in. Santosh and Muthu both of them were with me in Nagala 15. The Nagala series is called N series and we the CTCians frequently trek to Nagala. Its like a home away from home for CTC. Friendly village people, not so difficult to reach, crystal clear water, deep pools make Nagala ever interesting one. As one more trek was happening in Nagala that weekend (though in a different trail), we were forced to start half an hour advance of planned time. By 4:15 I was in koyambedu, getting acquainted Patanjali and Ananth, the cricketer. There were so many Ananths in this particular trek. My buddy from N15 Raghavendra joined me for my excitement. There were few known faces. 
We got in to Jigar’s car, who was a wonderful driver and a great guy to be with. He made sure that everybody is comfortable in the car. We started playing songs in his Ipod touch and the cars began to zoom to Nagala. There was a procession in a village which we should cross to get to Nagala. As this is Aadi month there was quite heavy rush. Jigar managed to catch up with the guys near the foothills though we were far behind them for some time. Then everybody came together. We had even arranged 2 private cars to transport us. I just had a rough head count and it was like 51 guys. N30 is a men majority trek and there were only 2 girls who came to the trek. Janani and Nomita. Once we parked the cars, organizers got into the action. They started distributing the water bottles, breakfast, lunch and fruits. This was the first time I saw CTC distributing Poppins. Most of the people had some yummy bisibelabath and curd rice which was left over in the parking place itself. 
We started walking to the first pool post the temple. It was fun to walk with Ananth, Karthick and Paari who had been there before and in no time we reached the first pool. As usual the guys got into action. I am no special. I stepped into the cold, crystal clear first pool of Nagala. I dont know swimming but still i enjoyed in the pool. Thanks to Paari who ferried me with the help of sleeping mat to the water fall. Thats the best part in CTC treks. Everybody will get their share of fun. We had our breakfast here. Then we started to climb up the slippery mountain to get on top of the waterfall and follow the stream from there. This time it was really scary. So many slippery rocks. We cant even trust a tree when we were sliding coz they came with us. At this point of time some stone hit Karthick’s legs and he had to stay in the first pool till we returned. We missed you Karthick. If you were there trek would have been much fun. Similarly Nomitha was hurt and she stayed back with her bro making Janani the only girl to trek. After a number of thorn stitchings and slidings we reached the top of the waterfall. Guys were really happy to be back on their feet. We then started following the stream. Paari did the leading while Santosh and Muthukumar were sweeping. I was kinda in the middle getting introduced to everyone. Then came the second obstacle. We had to climb a very steep and narrow gorge kinda thing with water down there. People were not afraid of water but they were more concerned about their camera’s. Janani passed her backpack and took the water route while we took the steep narrow route. The great thing about the group is they didnt need much encouragement. They themselves were so enthusiastic to cross all the obstacles. Then we took some rest in the bed like pool on the way to the sliding pool. Had some nice time talking with Vipin, Varun and Gautham. 
As in all CTC treks the participants were friendly. I had no problem in mingling with them. It so hard to find the like minded people meet in a same place. I had to tell about Simon, who had three big tattoos in his arms, rides a royal enfield, have killing European look and still talked nice tamil. Then we again had to climb a slippery, somewhat steep and narrow gorge to reach the sliding pool. Nothing mattered now as the trekkers had already seen the sliding pool. They were very excited and they climbed to top of the slide in a giffy. Being a non swimmer i just went and planned to take a nap till these guys finish. But I learnt from Muthukumar that we are stopping there and not moving further. Though little disappointed, i was surprised by their understanding about the group. I am sure this group which consisted of lot of new comers would have been in trouble in the dark. I spent quality time lazing around in the small pool near the sliding pool. Had lunch in the rocks with yummy potato chips. One should say about the food. There was lot of cashews in both Bisibelabath and Curd rice. We even started searching for cashews in gravy and chappathi. It would be nice if we could retain the same caterer for senior and family treks. :)
We started to walk back around 3 in the evening and it was very easy to climb downhill. Not so much problem. People didnt need sweepers. They themselves were energetic. When other people started to think of the dreadful slippery mountain we had to cross, Muthukumar and Santosh had different ideas :) . Like N15 we planned to get down through the waterfalls. It was so much fun. We first formed a human chain to transport the bags. Karthick who was injured and waiting for us in the first pool joined to help us. Great many thanks to Dr. Varunkumar, Patanjali and Karthick to pass all those bags to shore without getting wet and even passing the shoes. Everybody got down. Here we must talk about a person. “Trust Me” Vipin. This good guy who got down, did not go sit and dry instead he was giving all his body parts for the people who were finding it difficult to get down into water. When they hesitate, these two words came from him “Trust me”. We got down and had a blast in the pool. The water splash game started by Santosh went well like everybody who came to the trek had their quota. I am sneezing till now guys. We started walking to the parking and we were quite More Yay !early.
Way back, Karthick took us in a different route. This was quite quicker than the morning. We stopped for a coffee and then drove back. Should thank Jigar for his responsible driving. He dropped me and Raghu in CMBT, from where i took my bike and came back home. Sundays had never been this exciting, except for my other treks.
I not only plan to join the other treks, but thinking of organizing one too. Let’s see.
[Krishna]
Typical Sunday morning, get up at 10am, brush at your will, laze around for breakfast to come, rub your back at on the sofa….and watch some dumb dubbed English movie without knowing what it is all about.. this is how most of the people spend their Sundays…………………….. Well not the 51 crazy souls who thought the other way…. They were crazy enough to get drunk on Saturday night and still managed to get up at around 2.30 am and get ready for one of the wildest days in their life…….. Welcome to the party…..welcome to Nagalapuram N30!!!!!!
It was a typical Sunday morning for the CTCinas…. Yeah that’s right CRAZY TREKKERS of CHENNAI!!!!
This trip was well planned (as usual) by the organizers Muthu, Santhosh and Paari….and followed accordingly by the fellow trekkers….
The first rendezvous point was at Tidel park where around 20 of them assembled at around 3.30 am, after a little shuffling and re-location of the food stuff, we started from there….. this was the first time where taxis where also brought for those who couldn’t bring their own vehicle…..the organizers not realizing that they were in for a surprise. The gang started from Tidel park at around 4.10 am and reached Madhya Kailash and picked up the second bunch and then reached Guindy in the next 15 mins, reaching there we had the second shuffle and to the surprise of many first time trekkers there were people who were going to come by bikes..still wondering who will they drive back home after a hard day’s work, unaware that they were not normal people :P. Starting from there , the cars were on their way to Koyambedu when one for taxi’s stopped because it ran out of fuel, not as expected, the guys in that car were furious and cursing the driver for being so lame about it…. finally after a little hustle we found a petrol station a few yards away and again on road we reached Koyambedu at around 5.05am. New trekkers not knowing where exactly going, had to convince the taxi drivers that permit would not be required as we were not going exactly into Andra but only near the border, the taxi drivers won’t listen after much argument, they said that there is another place to get the permit and its much near than the one in Andra which was like an hour diversified from the normal en route. So Santhosh told the gang in the taxis to start early and told that we would again meet up at Uthkottai… the other gang started at 5.30am from Koyambedu… it was fun for the usual gangsters who were enjoying the scenery, not for the fresher’s who were already snoring inside the cars. Everyone again got united at Uthkottai junction much for the relief of the fresher’s who were already starting to think that they were lost, their mobile phones also ditched them..the organizers finally reached there at 7.10am. 
We reached the Base camp at 7.30am, unpacked the stuff and had the breakfast. Many people, mainly fresher’s were already hungry and found themselves filling with food stuff. After everyone had their share of breakfast, the lunch packets were distributed to the members and many people volunteered to carry the common stuff. We started from there and had anyone seen us from the sky would have mistook us for a giant caterpillar, we went on shouting, singing and whistling…. The organizers did have little hard time trying to keep the gang together, there were the enthusiasts who were far ahead and there were fresher’s who were lagging a bit. We reached the first pool at 8.45am and as if everyone was waiting to get down in the pool started jumping right away into it and some jumped back onto the land finding the water very cold. After convincing themselves they again went into the pool. A few guys were crazy enough to climb up the steep rock wall and jump from there in the pool, many others preferred staying in the pool since they were scared of getting onto the wall. They were on for a big surprise later during the day when they would have to get down the same way… had they known it, guess they would also have taken their chances…. 
After having enough in the first pool and refreshing ourselves, we started the trek uphill which would last for 2 gruesome hours…at least for the first timers, the people who had already been there were having fun..big time fun. The climb was getting steeper and steeper and loose rocks were a challenge too, but the great team effort and the guidance from the senior trekkers helped the fresher’s a lot. This walk lasted almost 3hrs thanks to the small breaks which we took at the top of the hill, we actually felt that we were at the top of the world, the view was just amazing. After enough jumping, sliding, walking, we reached the second pool much for the help of the fresher’s at 11.30am, everybody sat down there and rested for a small while, many still busy taking photos. We started from there and reached the much awaited sliding pool at 12.30pm, that was our second base camp and the freaks straight away started jumping into the pool, some preferred taking the second pool nearby and relaxing in the cold water. We had our lunch there and slept under the shade. At his point of time we ought to mention Dr.Varun J who help 2 people with slight injuries and help them again jump into the pool. We spent solid 2 hours there and started back to get back to our cars.. we literally had to drag back the gang near the sliding pool because they were so very involved that they didn’t want to go back at all. Finally we did manager to convince them that we will be coming back here again.
The whole gang, at least the first timers were in for a surprise, which was because the organizers felt that going back the same way which we came through would take the whole night and everyone was tired. We came back to the area where the first pool was located, the only difference was that we were at the top of the rock wall like 50 feet high and the pool was at the bottom. The first timers were totally freaked out about the thought that they will have to jump of the top, the organizers convinced us that it was not as difficult as it looked, it really wasn’t that difficult after all, thanks to the brave volunteers who formed a chain on the wall and helped other gets down at ease. There were a few crazy souls who did jump off the cliff, they had fun for sure and the onlookers too. Everyone reached the bottom and man they were happy to get down. Guess after the down trek, everyone had got a boost of energy, everyone jumped in the pool even those who stood back the first time we went there and started having a bash. There were one last group photo and we started towards our car park area. We had a small get together and started back home.
It was a special trek for one good reason that many new friends were made on friendship day!!!!
Written by: Prasanna, Krishna Organized by: Muthu, Santhosh
Image Galleries:
Ravi
Gavaskar
Karthikeyan
Vyas
Janani
Jigar
Venkat
Posted by: Karthick Sundararajan
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