From my childhood I was very much interested in
reading Lena Tamilvanan's Travel Experience in Tamil Magazine
"Kalkandu", from where my travel interest was grown up. I am not a good writer to write Travel write-ups, So I thought I can travel to the places to know more about the places. I travelled some of the South Indian Places like Madurai, Palani, Coimbatore, Kumbakonam, Tirunelveli, Kanyakumari, Nagercoil, Rameswaram, Ooty, Kodaikanal, Palakkad, Thiruvananthapuram and in North India Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur, Udaipur, Jodhpur, Agra, Mathura, Mount Abu, Haridwar, Rishikesh and Ahmedabad etc., I
started my first trekking in Parvatha Malai near Tiruvannamalai in the year
2011 with one of my friend.
(http://interestingindianravi.blogspot.in/2011/09/trekking-to-parvatha-malai.html)
This was a temple visit but my unquenchable thirst in
trekking was increased after this. After that in September 2012 I went to
Sathuragiri Hills near Srivilliputhur. This was also a temple visit.
(http://iniyaindiyavilravi.blogspot.in/2012/10/blog-post.html) In mean time I was in searching for trekkers club. I found CTC in July 2012. I applied for a first trekking in Nagala with CTC and got rejected. My temptation was increased again and I am wondering why they rejected? May be they have some selection criteria for this and got more registrations than the actual. On the third time I got selected for this Fresher's Nagala East Trekking on 3rd and 4th November trip. I was very happy to see my name in the selection list. I think they selected me this time for my blog post Mumbai Adventure HR Meet at Alibaug. (In this trip I did some adventure events)
(http://iniyaindiyavilravi.blogspot.in/2012/10/blog-post.html) In mean time I was in searching for trekkers club. I found CTC in July 2012. I applied for a first trekking in Nagala with CTC and got rejected. My temptation was increased again and I am wondering why they rejected? May be they have some selection criteria for this and got more registrations than the actual. On the third time I got selected for this Fresher's Nagala East Trekking on 3rd and 4th November trip. I was very happy to see my name in the selection list. I think they selected me this time for my blog post Mumbai Adventure HR Meet at Alibaug. (In this trip I did some adventure events)
(http://interestingindianravi.blogspot.in/2012/10/mumbai-adventure-hr-meet-at-alibaug.html)
After saw my name in selection list, I am waiting for
the day to fulfill my thirst on trekking. In mean time I did
some preparations for buying sleeping mat and life Jacket ( yup.. I
don't know swimming). Finally the day has come. I went to CMBT (my pickup
point) to meet the like-minded peoples whom they are coming along with me for
trekking and the Organizers. Everyone assembled
and we were started around 11.00pm.
The Vehicle running fast to reach to Nagala Base camp and the rain was started to welcome us with cool showers. We reached near the base around 2.00am and the mud road was very bad and our vehicle was struggling to move so we all get down from our vehicle and started walking to the base camp. Some of them are holding torch in their hand and moved slowly. My torch was stuck in my bag with other bags in a Car So I started walking front without light. It was very wonderful to walk in early morning (?) at a base hill with cool breeze. We heard a stream flow sound throughout our way, where it’s leading me the way to the base camp in the dark (?).
We ended up our walking in a temple,
where organizing team was preparing a
tarpaulin hut for us to sleep and we opened our
back packs to spread our mats and sleeping bags to take rest for some time. After
a small nap we wake up by 6 am and the Organizers are ready to start the
trekking. One of the volunteer (Tara) collected Disclaimer forms and the other
(Jim Bino) collected money from us. Food and common gears are distributed to
everyone and we started a fresh morning walk to reach the Nagala East peak.
Arun Prabhakar was leading the team and I was following the team with
my camera turned on. I took few photos with my camera in the beginning of the
trek after some time I realized that it was better to capture the scenes in my
eyes instead in my camera, because in the trail there were streams all the way,
few steep climbing and have to hold something for balance. Therefore I kept my
camera in my back pack to avoid loosing in the stream. We formed human chains
to cross the speedy streams and helping each other to move on.
We stopped at a small pool for a
break (fast) around 9.00am and some of the members are started preparing Uppuma
for breakfast. Some people are jumped in to the pool for refreshing themselves.
By the time the uppuma were ready, I want to have a bath and entered the pool
wearing my life jacket. Once I finished my quick bath I found that the uppuma
vessel were empty. My stomach needs something to fill so I opened my bread pack
and had some slices of bread. Mean time some fellow members (I guess Raji and
Gayathri) are prepared pulka roti for whom they not had Uppuma. Nice to see the
unknown faces are (By the time I know some of the members name) preparing food
for us and I helped a little to collect some firewood.
After we had our breakfast we started our journey
again to reach Magic pool and sun were above our head scorching us by his rays.
We crossed some of the streams boulders, rocky
grass slopes and steep gradients to reach the 2nd destination
Magic pool around 12pm. The swimmers are jumped into the pool immediately and
the non-swimmers are watching this with excitement. Organisers Arun and Vibin
are encouraging us to jump into the pool wearing life jacket. Then some of us
are entered the pool with little fear. I don’t know swimming and didn’t jump in
any of the pools never before. So I had a small hesitation to jump into the
pool. After seeing my co-trekkers sliding and jumping into the pool I changed
my mind to jump into the pool. It was a once in lifetime opportunity which I
had in my life time. I tried twice to slide on the Magic pool.
Then we moved into a next deep pool
with dark water, a waterfall at one end and the stream draining it at the other
end. Unlike the sliding pool, this had a much stronger current and was almost
surrounded by high cliffs which made it one of the most enchanting vistas. Small
Fishes in the water giving you a free pedicure, you just have to be there to
feel it! Any tiredness we felt was washed away by the water and the shrieks of
people enjoying it really lifts your heart. After that, our team prepared Vegetable
Sambar rice and our stomachs are filled with that.
We took some rest there. By 4 pm the organizers
Arun, Sridhar and Bala went back to Nagala town to buy chicken and other
members decided to do a short trek without back packs. Even though most of us
were tired out after the two pools , lunch and a little rest soon revitalized
us and when a plan to walk ahead to the 300 mts falls was proposed, most of us
took up our torches and were ready to go. The ensuing trek was different from
what we had previously encountered as we were deeper into the forest and the
ground below was more dry leaves and mud when compared to rock and sand earlier.
Few of the Co-organizers Vibin, Senthil and Hari guided us to the 300m water
falls. We pass through lush green forest to reach the mini falls on the
way to 300m falls. Sun is going to set and it’s getting dark, so we had a
discussion that we will return from there. But, most of the members are decided
to climb and reach the 300m falls so we started our trek again. When we reached
the 300m falls the view was really an excitement. I had a thought that I will
take shower in this falls up to my life end. But rain interfered my desire, so
we took some quick shower and decided to climb down to our night camp near
Magic pool. In return the path was very slippery due to rain and dark. We slipped
several times like water sliding.
Everybody returned to camp safely
with small scratches and wounds on their legs and hands as a symbol of trekking.
We changed to dry fit clothes and
camped near a cave rock. Gayathri, Vibin, Sridhar and Arun are prepared food
for Dinner. Few peoples are played cards and few people taken a small nap. Veggie
peoples got Chapattis and Palak panner and Non Veg peoples had rice with Chicken
gravy. All are fall asleep by 12pm in the small area by adjusting themselves
inside their sleeping bags or in their blankets. In morning rising sun waken up with his rays
and we had finished our morning refresh near the magic pool and tasted a cup of
coffee with rusk. Some people entered into the magic pool again to play.
Finally we left the camp by 11.00am with green memories and started back to Nagala
Base. We collected all the waste like plastics covers (used for food packing)
and carried all the way to base and left it in the garbage dumping box.
It was now little easy to come down
from the hill. The trail was easy but if we have to follow the right trial, if
we miss the trial means it will lead us to the other direction and come back to
the right track will take time and make you tired. So don’t do private trekking
by your own without expert’s guidance, I came to know this as on that day some
of the private trekkers are lost their way in the jungle and helped by our
captain Arun. Finally we reached the base
by 1.00pm and had soda and bonda.(These things only available in that house /shopJ). There
our intro session and our experience sharing started finallyJ.
Everyone shared their experience and
feeling about the trekking. No one wants to leave the place and want to come
again and again with the same team. The unknown faces are now came closer and
became good friends as everyone helped anyone in that trek in some manner. (Thanks
to all who helped me in some way or otherJ)It’s a wonderful experience for
everyone and it leaves us a note that If you care Nature, Nature will care for
you.
After our experience sharing session,
we started back to our home by car. On the way to Chennai we stopped in a Hotel
and had our lunch. There is the climax, 3 drunken monkeys are fought with us in
the hotel and ended up with a hand clash. The organizers dropped everyone at their
respective points and we left to our home with a signing off.
Visit my Tamil Blog: http://iniyaindiyavilravi.blogspot.in
Visit my Hindi Blog: http://merabharatmahan-mountabu.blogspot.in/
