Nagala East Foodie Trek

As I planned to go for every month a trek and applied this trek Nagala East foodie Trek on 22-23 June.  My colleagues also interested on this trek so 4 of us applied and unfortunately except me others are not selected. Arun the Organiser selected this group with the criteria of Coastal cleanup participated and Tree Plantation participated guys. I had participated in CCC4 and went few treks so I got selected. It was very short time and preparation mails are received from Organizers and a mail thread was created for no of items and what kind of items to be prepared for eat. Everything was set on Friday itself and 5 cars and a van was arranged for pickup of 41 likeminded souls. I have to board in Atul’s car so I called Atul and asked where he was living and he said he is living near kolathur and it was near to me. So we fixed a point to meet at 3.30pm. I started from home by 3.15 pm with my brother in bike and on the half way to that point I remembered that I was not taken my plate for food. So I returned to home and picked my plate and reached the point in Kolathur where we fixed to meet. Atul reached there in few minutes time and he found me immediately as I was wearing CTC T-shirt. We introduced ourselves and reached to CMBT bus stand by 4.10pm where the common meeting point for everyone.

Nagala Dam

People are coming one by one and introduced ourselves. In that few of them are familiar with me as they are met in my previous treks. Bala(ji) collected money from all for the expenses and we are all set to proceed to Nagala the Emperor’s favorite destination. Finally Arun asked us to buy some fruits for Salad, so we went to Koyambedu Market for buying fruits. By the time it was 6.00pm and we proceeded to Nagala and reached the mid  way meeting point Utthukkottai by 8.00pm where Arun and team are bought some chicken and eggs for dinner. Finally we reached Nagala east base (Near TP Kotta) by 8.45pm.

Soup preparation

Curd Rice Preparation

Immediately we opened our Groceries boxes for preparing food for dinner. In our group 8 members are Vegetarians including me and rest were Non-Vegetarians. So I, Krishna and few others are deputed for Veg food preparation. First we prepared Veg soup and Curd Rice. Mean time Arun, Senthil, Kannan, Bala, Dilip and others are readied a Charcoal Grill for cooking Grilled Chicken and Fish. They had Grilled chiken, Grilled fish, Prawn, Chicken soup and Dry Fish for dinner. We ate Veg Soup, Curd Rice, and Boiled Sweet corn. Balkis, Morgan and chloe prepared a wonderful dish Banana Chocolate, everyone tasted the new dish.

Finally we went to sleep by 12.30, but I heard somebody’s voice throughout the night. It may be Ishwarya and Nithya’s voice I think.

Inside Nagala Dam

Early morning everybody wake up by 5.30am and did our morning routines. By 6.30 am everybody packed our backpacks and Grocery bags (Arun Distributed food items and common gears to everyone) and started walking towards the Nagala Hills.

Carrying Common Gears

The Nagala dam was fully dry this time. When my first trek in November’12 it was filled with water. Few of our group members walked inside the dam and we few take the usual route along the dam in to the forest. Both trail would join somewhere ahead at the regular trail. Trekking until this spot was pretty much easy. Gradual ascents and descents later, we reached the first pool. This was my second trip so I was little familiar with the trail and walked in front of the group to reach first.

First Pool Top View

First Pool

3rd Pool

Everyone reached in in few minutes gap and immediately jumped into the water. There is a small flow of water but it is enough to swim and enjoy. Some part of the pool was 10feet depth so the non-swimmers (including me) used life jackets and swim tubes to swim. Around an hour’s excitement at this place, we started cooking our breakfast. We prepared Milk and cornflakes for Veg peoples and Egg and Bread for Non-Veg peoples. After breakfast everybody proceeded to our next halt point Sliding pool. We reached that fool in less than 30 minutes time. There are some local peoples having liquor, so we decided to leave the place and moved to our final destination. It took another 30 minutes to reach there.

Cave Rock

We are planning our lunch preparation, Mutton Briyani, Chicken 65 and boiled Egg for Non Vegetarians and Fruit salad, Veg Briyani and Potato fry for Vegetarians. Few guys jumped in to the water near small falls and few of us are busy in preparing food. Dilip and me are prepared Veg Salad with Honey. It was awesome and everybody filled their stomach. In between I went to the pool for sometime for freshen me up. The other team Bala, Arun, Divya, Saba, Abi and few more are prepared the other food items. Everybody ate unlimited food and felt happy. In the middle of the jungle we prepared almost 25 items (including previous day dinner, morning breakfast) for 40 peoples, Thanks to Arun the Organizer and their team. We cannot forget this trek in our life time as it was so much of fun filled and stomach filled event. 

Fruit Salad Preparation

3rd Pool Falls

3rd Pool

Few guys taken rest after heavy lunch and the cooking team preparing the evening snacks by then. Evening we had Gulab jamun, Bajji and Nannari sherbath. After our evening snacks we started descending from the hills by 5.30pm. We reached the base around 7.30 and waited for the other team members has to come. Finally after the bye-bye to everyone Me, Senthil, Dinesh boarded in Atul's car and left Nagala with sweet memories towards Chennai. 

Nagala East Hill Range

We are heading first towards Chennai and I am sitting near Atul and giving instruction to him for the route, after 1 hour we found we are going in the wrong route and stopped our car. Behind our Car Paritosh car and Siva Car are following us and asked Siva about the route as he is living near Thiruvellore and he said we are on the right route so we proceeded further. After few more minutes, no sign board of Tamil nadu and Tamil language signboard shop was seen, so we stopped again and asked a local person and they said you are heading Thirupathi and we are near Puthur. O God! it was already 10.00pm and we waster time and travelled almost 30-40 kms extra. We U turned all our vehicles and proceeded towards Chennai. In between everybody feel tired, so we halted in a bunk shop and had some biscuits and cool drinks. We started again and reached Chennai by 11.15pm. Atul dropped others there and dropped me near my home. I reached my home around 11.45pm and had my dinner and slept. Thanks for Arun and other fellow trekkers for the Wonderful Foodie Trek.

Gulab Jamun