Into the Wild - II
If our life is in our hand, why can’t our world!!!
Organiser’s – Fitness Master –Rajasekaran (the lead) and
All in all - Nambi (the guide)
(A perfect fusion for a perfect trek)
It was not a spam mail, not an advertisement, not any deepawali offer and not any season sale but it is a mail with CTC tag, for which we all always pay immediate attention. And, it is a mail for a trek to Nagalapuram. After seeing all the tempting “Into the Wild Edition – I” photos, it’s now a call for Edition II.!
With so much of excitement I registered for the trek and waited patiently for the next mail from the organisers. Of-course I got one (Otherwise, I would have not made this write-up :p), it is not a preparatory mail but an invitation for fitness test. Yes, it is a moderate+ trek and it is mandatory even for a fit person to prove that we are capable for moderate+ treks to the organisers. Done with the test a week before the trek and now I got the preparatory mail. Yeahhhh!!
A day before the trek, Friday night the back-bag is filled with all the necessities for the next days and I slept early for catch the vehicle on time. My pick-up point was fixed at Madya-Kailash at 4:45 AM.I was expecting a Van but what I got is a share-auto: p (A prime Car) at 5:10AM it is already occupied with 9 and I am the 10thpersonto board and no wonder I was packed myself to fit inside the car, and I sat on Nagarajan’s lap, the first person to get introduced ;) more than any others I was eagerly expecting CMBT to come fast to free myself from the car.
It was 5:40 AM we reached CMBT and there was another part of the gang with few familiar faces welcomed us for a tea. Exchanging intro’s by each other’s, we finally started our trip at 6:00 AM in Micro, Swift, Enjoy and Wagon R back to back and headed towards the next stop for break-fast.
Without wasting much time and after a light break-fast we started to the final destination and yes, it is Nagalapuram. It is just 8:30 AM and the sun already started to test everyone’s patients. After few click’s we walked to cross the dam, just above the dam the view of the dry plains was not welcoming at all.
After a few minutes of walking we realised that we hit the bottom of the mountain and there was a stream with water (point to be noted). A call from Rajasekaran (Raj) to fill the water bottles and he informed that, this trek will be dry and then he gave instructions to be followed throughout the trek.
With much expectation we took a dry stream from south to reach the central peak. We all had a comfortable (comparatively) walk till we find a fault block. Raj gave instructions to take a different trail, which will be easy for everyone whereas he continued alone to claim the block. Then we took a steep trail which was very much testing and we reached a peak of an unknown spot.
And we figured out that we lost the path: p Raj came back for us and said to take a down trail to catch the dry stream again. Since we lost the path, there were no trails and we literarily got ourselves stuck in a bunch of thorns, now everyone got their Nagalapuram trademarks: D
Trademark
Its 1:00 PM now and we reached some average peak and still there were no sign of water, and all most everybody’s water bottle is empty. Now it is the time to test everyone’s endurance, Raj said we will reach the water point in 1:30hrs if nobody stops in-between (but that never happens). All the people were completely exhausted, after eating some fruits, we all started again to hit the first water point. Ignoring the sun and for the thirst of water we tried continued to walk in the same pace of Raj but he is ultra-fast.
Finally at 3:00 PM, Raj led us to a perennial stream. After taking a bottle of water I could able to feel myself back. Raj immediately after drinking some water filled all the bottles and left the spot to guide the rest of the team to the same water point. All gathered at 3:30 PM then we started with our lunch, Raj’s homemade tiger-rice (Tamarind Rice) was so delicious, as everyone filled their belly now it’s time for power nap (that is what I thought), since it was 4:30 PM, Raj said to spend the night at the same water point and he continued to say that he is going to take vengeance on day2 for not reaching the day 1 destination on time.
Perennial Stream
As the sun set, we lit the fire to prepare dinner (menu: Pop-corn, Mixed-Flavours Soup and Noodles) as everyone circled the fire the night went on with common discussions, songs and tea sing’s:D.
After dinner, Raj guided everyone to the nearest camp site in the dark at 9:00 PM later everyone found their comfortable spot for sleeping. As everyone decided to sleep few started with Antakshari, later half of the population joined together (Few highlights about the singers: na na na – Sahana, beep – Saro, Gana – Karthick and finally the one with good voice - Prabhu). At 10:45 PM everyone winded-off everything and went off to sleep. And that’s all for Day-1 we oddly finished 8-9Kms.
Day : 2
5:30 AM in the morning, as one by one started to stretch their body from tarp. And after, quickly completing morning duties everyone filled their water bottles and got prepared to face Raj’s revenge:p without any break in-between.
We reached the Central Peak at 8:30 AM. Wow the view from 750 meters from the centre peak of Nagalapuram was mesmerising. After having a some photo-shoot we took a downward trail and travelled towards the west walking through few greater upward steeps and downward steeps with very few minutes of breaks and no wonder as again there were no sign of water in between. Raj was literally punishing everyone by not giving any breaks.
At 11:30AM we found the second perennial stream and we got few minutes break, 11:45 AM again everyone started towards west and caught the south trails. Raj boosted everyone by saying that, “we are heading towards water stream” and at1:45 PM we witnessed it. Then it was time for lunch and few jumped into the water to get refreshed.
2:15 PM everyone packed their bags and walked through the water stream to catch the dead-end pool. Everyone had an easy walk over the stream as there were no deviations in between.
Finally, we reached the dead-end pool at 4:00 PM as the rest of the gang arrived at 4:30 PM. Now everyone got a chance to jump into water for the first time in this trek. Swimmers had a comfortable time while non-swimmers were floating with the help of their tubes; everyone enjoyed the water for some time.
At 5:30PM, as the sun light was fading away everyone realised that this trek was about to over and hardly digested that tomorrow will be a Monday Lafter walking few meters the complete darkness surrounded us at 6:30PM and with the help of torchlight and by listening to all the creeping sounds we came back to the start point at 7:30PM. Revenge was well executed as on day-2 everyone crossed 17-18 kms.
Before boarding the vehicles everyone started discussion about their dinner menu at Dabba starting from Chicken to Paal Payasam.
With so much of hunger for food everyone reached the famous Dabba at 9:45PM and all filled their bellies, our orders made the hotel server to feel tired :p Since it getting late for everyone, we exchanged our thanks to each other’s and left with a hope to meet the guys again in any other CTC events and treks and then everyone vanished to reach their home.
It was one amazing team to make an awesome trek and of course everyone got their respective Nagalapuram Trade-Marks, whereas Saravanan and Saranaya got minor injury (Happy recovery to you two). And, yes I got one wonderful gift from Nagalapuram it is a Stag’s Horn <3 .="" span="">3>
