Excellent write up by Mr. Elangovan Visvanathan
How I was Introduced to CTC
It was one pleasant evening when I googled for a himalayan trek which might have led me to a “Valley of flowers trek”, But how fortunate I was then, Wow….I landed up to knowing about this great team of trekkers….thanks google, what a break through it was…………..” CHENNAI TREKKING CLUB”
I was immersed for an another 3-4 hours in reading the blogs, surfing the enchanting pictures, viewing the trekking legends, the gorgeous terrains conquered, the towering peaks eclipsed, socialism exhibited, I would be lying if I said I was tired….those pictures, videos, shared experiences literally drove me to register with CTC.
It was late September I guess, it was every evening check, to the mail connected to CTC, to my sheer dismay the trek organizing was only in trickles and it increased my disappointment, But until then, I wasn’t sure as to which trek to sign up. I was of the opinion that all treks are one and same, even after reading the narrations, so what come may, the first trek that knocks my mail account will have to be signed up….sounded my will.
There came one which announced the invitations for a “MONSOON SURVIVAL MISSION” by Peter the legend himself. I was absolutely thrilled just in reading the notification…immediately called up the guy who’s responsible for organizing….
a small bit of interview started brewing…he enquired my experience at CTC, it was NIL, that was revealed …he was very polite and gently reminded me that I am hitting the top notch and need to get it slow for a first timer….and suggested for a easy or a moderate trek to nagala…thanks friend.
So once again the start to wait started. Iam back to my “end of day” mail checks and frustrations…came October there was a invite for this particular trek, Nagala Freshers party III.
And there started the Journey…..It can only be called fantastic…to have come to know about this set of organizers……Saravanan Rathnavel the skipper and his young talented brigade comprising Vicky, Vinod, Rajavel who were impeccable in their preparation and execution…..which was literally visible.
NAGALA WEST 21& 22 JAN’12
So when I saw a invite from the same team ( But this time around Saravanan had passed the mantle to Vicky, and he is having is Debuchary as a Organiser) to NAGALA WEST my favorite paradise, I jumped into it. The usual procedures went by…and we started our trip at 5.45AM from CMBT. So we were the SWEEPERS as rajavel the Co-organizer was in our cab. There started the journey, hardly a minute passed by the usual intro with the co-passengers was on…and “BANG”……there was huge thud and I was thrown to the front and my face hit the front seat..…yah the action has started I thought….Dili our rider had no clue about what happened…a call taxi riding in front had stopped suddenly mid-road and dili promptly punished that…. : ) , so the usual altercation cooked up, and raja informed the organizers
1st Incident rather accident:
Vicky and Cimbu rode back to us from the lead position….cimbu did a great job to get that situation under control and the method suggested by him was bought by the call taxi owner. So our journey started again…..of course, in the same car. Aarthi the only gal in our car who had her seat belts “on” already, had it extra tight, this time around ( Just kidding aarthi)..we reached Uthukottai, an our and half after and we reached the famous, self proclaimed, SARAVANA BHAVAN at least to be called by the CTC’ians….gulped few idlies / poories and vadas…and went on our course.
Reached our Base camp the scenic twin tree’s….parked our vehicle’s, shared our food for the remaining part of the trek, bundled our common trekking gears, kicked of the trek towards the best place near Chennai. When we hit the Dam, there came a rude shock, our usual trail was nowhere to be found, filled with waist full of lake catchments….vicky and saravana had a little chat…the trail was altered. We took a circular route and reached the first stream in around 30mts if I am right…
Lucky Aarthi & Poor Vicky: (Kayapudichu illuthiya….haha)
The first site of water, relaxed us and we headed towards the 1st pool, “our car” team was together and we continued our chat and suddenly found aarthi lagging…her backpack was bit heavy and she requested some rest….there came the true organizing skill of Vicky….he offered to carry the medium sized but considerably heavy backpack …a relieved aarthi never stopped him…now she was left with only her water bottle and a thermal wear!!!!!
We hit the 1st pool in a short while and everybody except for shailu jumped in…we had a great time chilling ourselves when the organizers requested us to move…so its time to hit the trail and we kept moving…in a usual stream crossing aarthi had to use both her hands to support and hence she gave her water bottle to rajavel, and never got it back…hence the only load had shifted hands……whattta trek aarthi.(Kidding J ) “Is that apple heavy “commented anusya seeing her holding an apple. Haha the trek had pepped up…
We reached the 2nd pool, wow what a sight…..Its my favorite by any means, it doesn’t match the majestic touch of the 3rd pool but its beauty is incomparable and it’s the, and must be the best of all lot in the western entry. Its crystal clear, see through chilly water displaying the whitish yellow pebbles, and the shoals of fishes which are ready to do a free manicure to your legs, not to mention the inverted ‘V’ small falls converging into the pool, can anyone show me a beautiful Jacuzzi……stupendous.
Now it s time we left the pool and started our real testing treacherous journey towards the 3rd pool. The path immediately started rising and with some difficulty everybody managed to reach the 3rd pool. Once there everybody got rid off our loads and relaxed, but for the organizing team…. They started preparing for the night ahead, Dinner, Tenting etc… so every thing was in place…..
Rajanna & Anusya ( Made for each other):
The evening wasn’t event free….Anusya Rajanna, took a bad hit in her right leg and her thumb nail had come off….Ouch….i offered to put it back…but aarthi the “chief surgeon” J asked me to standby….she did a great job putting it back and it was wrapped so immaculately that it wouldn’t have come off for years!!! Kudos aarthi J. I have to mention it here, Rajanna is a dental surgeon by profession, u know what, he fled from the scene unable to see the pain Anu was going thru, and given a chance this guy would drill our jaw bone to implant a zirconium chip into our jaw, but his affection for his better half made him forget his skills… and that’s the bond…. the great Indian bond….its was perfect for me call them the “Made for each other couple” and can only be described by one word……….LOVE.
Sundar our master chef Started his magic, and all the co-chef’s were around to extend a helping hand. Shailu was head of Onion chopping, Sherin did a great job by pealing a Onion, and my dear enemy Jeffy was capturing the moments….with the supervision of our Chief chef Mr.Saravanan, the dinner was ready….a hot, steamy maggi and lots of fun with the “mayandi kudumbathaar” the dinner was over….its time to sleep, the resting place was allocated for the ladies and some immediately hit the bed (the flat rocky cradle of mother NAGALA obviously), but the majority turned a funny lot, teams formed and the great game of DHAMSHARATH (Sorry had I messed up with the name) started, Fabulous….
I had never experienced such fun in the mid of the forest….everybody was made to dance, even Saravanan, Vicky all had their routines, I managed to escape from the action, but a vigilant opposition got me…..we thought of a second round, but few of the people were at their verge of a big slumber, the culprit was sherin who had already into her nap. so that was end of the day….
We went to sleep, the mercury had got down on the scale….it was chilly…I had lend my double sheet to anusya and Rajanna as she was in a trauma I guess even with her winter wear on….so we pulled a sheet from aarthi….who had her Sleeping Bag, sleeping mat and a bed sheet….now u know why her Backpack weighed so heavy…..poor Vicky….But thanks a lot aarthi…..anyways it helped me. I forgot to tell u. we saw a COBRA skin (Our in house herpetologist rajanna rubbished that and declared it as a Rat snake) inside the crevice nearby our camping site….that unnecessarily came to my mind. I swear to my self that even if a cobra manages to climb and crawl, Iam gonna remain a statue the whole night…Mid night I could feel something jumping and resting in my legs….i pretended it to be a dream….only to be explained by nandeesh the next morning that it was actually a rat toggling all place in our camp site…thank god no cobra chased it….
The next morning I woke up to the hush of the nearby stream, which was incredible….If somebody asked me “When was the last time u did something for the first time” I can easily point this without any hesitancy……..marvelous. And again the organizers started preparing tea….I took the tea and found a super harmonious location near the camp site down stream, and I was joined by anish….we had a healthy chat....the Hot and super tasty tea with serene surrounding boost charged us. The breakfast was ready immediately and it was AVAL UPPUMA. Wah…..Kudos saravanan with an expertise of an 5star chef this guy made the tastiest of all lot……..this is no exaggeration. I had a belly full.
Now its time to Jump into the 3rd pool, we spent a happy swimming session and when Vicky announced that we proceeding to Mini Kuttralam, 15 of us opted and it was a great experience as always.
After returning we had our ready made chappatis and the prepared tomato masala.So that was it everybody were asked to pack, and our two day session to Nagala west had come to an end….Alas!! that was it….a tinge of disappointment filled my heart, Ok I thought until I am part of this great team of ORG, I was sure that I will be a part of another expedition to this wonderful place.
So we reached our Base camp at around six in the evening and clicked a few pictures and started to our next stop “The Dhaba”. It was fun altogether, we had a great dinner…the fun made the dinner more delicious. Now everybody was free to go on their own…no leading or sweeping….and it was really difficult when I reached CMBT and said good bye to my friends….
IT WAS AWESOME WITH U GUYS….LOOKING FORWARD TO ONE MORE TRIP…
EXTREMELY GOOD WORK DONE BY VICKY, RAJAVEL & SARAVANAN…Yah the mantle has truly been passed. Accept it guys…Accept pananvanga ellam oru “O” podunga please………
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