It started with taking a holiday in Saturday college and my friend doing out in last minute. I woke up at 3 am, nervously excited bid my home bye, for I eat to be away for 2 days. I ducked my mom's annoying questions and reached the pickup point.
A car picked me up, and I met my fellow trekkers (Arun, Vijay, Saravanan). I knew none from the list of people who were to Kong for the trek. But certainly is fun to meet new people. Saravanan shared his past experience. It gave me a certain idea about the trek. We stopped at some shop for breakfast, we're I met the whole group, after breakfast we moved to Nagalapuram village, after parking or cars and packing our bags we started to the hills which meant to be cut off from flat land and mobile connectivity (I badly wanted to get away from it). We strolled our way into to the hills and found our first water point. A stream. We were told that only after 2-3 hours of trekking we could find our next water point. It looked very nice and water was pure, after taking out our cameras for few shots we sumptuously filled our bottles. On shailesh's advice I dipped my t-shirt into the water, only later I realized how helpful his advice was. And then we, a group of 26 people, started out for our actual trek with Shankar and Rajashekar as the leaders while Ela and Saravanan were the sweepers.I enjoyed the beginning, it was pretty steep and I was raring to go. Climbing up is naturally difficult, it tires you out. Sulei, one my 25 new friends, was the first person to get cramps. It was then I learnt few valuable tricks, in taking salt plus water, reduces cramps, salt plus sugar plus water saved you from dehydration.
After our first climb which lasted 2-3 hours, we found our first water point. It was refreshing to see and hear the flow of water. While some continued to trek to the peak, some decided to rest at our temporary camp site. We had lunch together for an hour, sharing whatever everyone had. Ravita's rotis and spicy rajasthani pickle was much sought after(I loved it) while rajashekar made plethora of combinations of sandwiches, Akash was a vegan, he wouldn't take milk related products. Arun throughout the day passed us refreshing oranges and pineapples.
After sufficient rest, we again continued to find our way to our camp base, the picnic pool. Thankfully our route had some flat land. I should mention about the group. In a one word 'Fabulous Group'. We were one hell of crazy, fun loving group. Jokes flew from every direction and laughs were enormous. It didn't matter if the jokes were lame or stupid, it simply have us energy to move on. Haha thank god, hardly anyone discussed about world politics or cinema. The idea of the whole trek, I believe, is to take a break from the crazy routine we follow.
We certainly were an explicitly indecent group. The best part, mind you, was there weren't any double entendres every thing was in a straight forward manner. Haha. Dirtier conversations are so much interesting than anything else. Jokes were aimed at every one and obviously No one were spared. People who have the ability to laugh at themselves are truly awesome.
'Non sense' Brijesh Bhai (as he tagged himself) was in full flow as he found 'Go Farting club' for which he made Divya the secretary. All the fact jokes were on her. Like for instance, when she was struggling to climb up, some one would shout "Divya, try using your natural jetpacks". Haha poor girl.
We reached at a point, hoping that we would find water, our hard luck we wouldn't find any. We had to share. But we did find a beautiful spot to rest at the edge of a hill. It's definitely marvelous view. After a short break we continued our path, this according to me was tough. It was another 2 hour trek with very less water. But also it was exciting Part. To reach our camp base we had to do 'night trekking', my word it was definitely dangerous but surely it was interesting for me to take on the challenge. And finally after 11km trek, at 7pm we reached our 'home', picnic pool. It truly was. We drank water to quench our thirst. Right away, our chief cook, rajashekar, started to prepare dinner. I was shocked to see some jumping into the pool, the very thought of cold water gave me jitters. We had mixture of tomato, vegetable soup for dinner along with ever saviour Maggie! After which side retired to the bed(the rocks were our bed) while some hung around the camp fire.
Day 2
The morning of day 2, was filled with so much fun. I'm sure none of us will ever forget. Early morning and people flung into the pool. Ram Kumar, helped me to swim (rather move xD) across the pool. While brijesh Bhai and Shankar ji helped others.
We started out again, most had sore legs, thanks to yesterday's trek.We kept moving along, we did some interesting stuff Like walking on the ledge over 20 feet above stagnant water. Along the boulders and streams. It was tiring no doubt but at the same time total fun. Personally, I was mentally raring to go though my body was not prepared to.
I took my time to interact with people individually, learnt quite a lot talking to rakesh, Arun, Saravanan, sandhiya, my favorite shaliesh Bhai, ravita about their previous treks. But then I loved talking to Subbu, super subbu, he has done it all, trekking, solo traveling, cycling, running, been to Sri Lanka, 7000m of mountaineering, he was little reserved to begin with, i of course I pestered him with lot of questions, but the again, it's not daily you meet a man of 13 years of trekking.! OMG. Arti struggled mostly due to her bad choice of shoes, but then she was resolute and did make it.
Soon became 3pm, until which we were yet to reach our water point. We had little water to do with and the moment we found water me and sulai literally slept in water.
Akash, Super subbu, Saravanan left early since they were from bangalore. While we found another pool and again did some swimming and got some pedicure done.
After an hour we finally reached the flat land, upon which we heard India beat South Africa! Such a fantastic news to hear. We drove to a restaurant for our dinner and feasted on biriyani and rotis. It was a well deserved meal. It was a fun day meeting a completely different set of people. I rued always, I didn't have many friends who would share the passion for trekking, thanks to the NGO, Chennai trekking club, brain child of Peter Van Geit and suggestion of my friend kavin dhandapani, it has changed.
It's more than a duty to thank the organizers Shankar, brijesh, Ela, Saravanan, Rajsheker for this wonderful experience and also safely bringing us back home.
You see, all these hurdles and hardships one might safe during trekking are nothing but just mental barriers. Yes sometimes I wished I was at home watching India vs south Africa in my 40 inch TV screen with the AC on eating my mom's biriyani, that would have been a normal day in my journal, trekking isn't like that. Looking back at weekend I spent in nagala Hills, It's totally, I mean totally worth it.
Please do subscribe to Chennai trekking club group and certainly make your first trek happen. I hope I have ignited the adventuorus person in you.
LINK : groups.google.com/group/sachennaitrekkingclub
Pictures : https://www.facebook.com/shaik.shahnoor/media_set?set=a.837635066298146.1073741841.100001549805851&type=3
