Trek Diary: Tada Top January 2012

This post content was posted in the official blog of Chennai Trekkers Club with a lot of adventurous photos added in between. Do head over to the CTC site to read the entire post.

http://www.chennaitrekkers.org/2012/01/emperors-welcoming-2012team-3-medium_19.html

PS: The photos that I took during the trip can be found at http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150474440750496.365889.501815495&type=3

Coorg December 2011

Planning started for this trip unexpectedly as one of my friends called me up and asked me if I was interested. And when it comes to travelling, the answer from me is always ‘yes’. A mail chain, a few inclusions, a few drop outs and a few phone calls later, the trip was finally confirmed and okay-ed two days before the travel date.

Few of us from Chennai took a train to Bangalore on Friday night and reached Bangalore station where we got into the Innova which was waiting for us and started off to Coorg directly from there. After stopping briefly for breakfast, we reached Ranganathaswamy Temple at Srirangapatna. (Only after reaching the parking lot did I realize that I had already come to this temple when I was in Mysore with my GA team fellas in October 2010).

The next stop was Namrodoling monastery (also called Golden Temple) in the Tibetan settlement of Bylakuppe. The place was almost identical to some of the monasteries that I saw in Ladakh, with similar paintings, dragon statues, monks etc.  After roaming around the shops nearby, we went to a forest (this one somewhat similar to Kuruva Islands in Wayanad), the name of which I don’t know because it was written only in Kannada. (Damn you!). (Update – The name of the place is Nisargadhama, which is an island similar to Kuruva formed by the river Kaveri). The entrance to the place had a rope bridge hanging over a river. We also went on an Elephant ride at the place. (This is not the Dubare Elephant Camp!). We spent some time there taking pics at the river and then among the bamboo culms with the sunrays emerging from between them.

Still water rafting was lined up next. At the entrance to the Dubare Forest, we got a chance to do some rafting. We got into an inflatable boat and the instructor gave a paddle to each one of us. He gave a couple of instructions regarding coordination and something which no one bothered to listen to anyway. We spent half an hour in the river rowing. It surely was tiring. (Now I understand why the Winklevoss brothers are hulks). We didn’t go to the Elephant Camp at Dubare and started off to our resort near Sunticoppa.

The great part about our trip to Coorg was the resort. Riverside Cottages. Set 8kms away from the nearest town, Sunticoppa, this place provided some awesome panoramic views. One old retired army officer owns the place. The dude came and gave us some gyaan about Coorg and its history since some 17th or 18th century.

As specified in the resort’s website, at night, the true glory of nature comes out in the open. One could see millions of stars just waiting for you to reach out and touch them. An amazing view. Really.

The next day we went to the river bank at the bottom of the hill near the resort. Then after a few pics with the owners of the cottages, we checked out. Our next stop in the journey was at the Sri Omkareshwara Temple followed by another temple the name of which I think is the Sri Bhagandeshwara Temple. Then we went to the birth place of Kaveri river, Talakaveri. A temple tank has been erected at the place, where most pilgrims wash their feet and some take bath. A few hundred feet above the tank level, lies the hilltop which provides an astonishing 360 degree panoramic view. After some pics at that spot, we proceeded to another view point on the way down where again we kept taking more photos.

After a very late lunch at Madikeri town and some coffee shopping, we went to Raja’s Seat where we watched the setting sun and got mesmerized in its magic. While waiting for the sunset, we also went on a tiny toy train. That was the end of the trip. From that place it was a long drive all the way to Bangalore.

For the road trip, thankfully, we bought an aux cable on the way to Coorg and we connected our phones and music players to the car stereo to listen to a huge collection of amazing songs whenever we were inside the Innova. I don’t think we listened to any song more than once, except for a couple of songs which we couldn’t resist listening twice.

Leh Ladakh November 2011

This was in my wishlist for long. Who wouldn’t have wanted to visit the Himalayas and see the snow clad peaks in their full glory? I did. And my dream came true when a group of office guys planned a trip. I immediately asked them to book tickets for me as well.

We set off on a Wednesday night from Chennai. The first flight was from Chennai to Delhi. We reached Delhi at around 10 in the night. And the next flight to Leh was in the morning. So we took a taxi and went to a hotel for night stay. I was setting foot in Delhi after almost ten years. It felt a lot different now, that it was when I lived there. We didn’t get to spend much time in Delhi as we had a high time constraint.

The next day morning the flight took us to Leh, via Jammu. Before the flight even landed, Leh greeted us with thousands of tiny peaks glimmering in the sunshine. It was a surreal experience. I had no idea where the flight was going to land, because all I could see was peaks and there seemed to be no surface flat enough for a runway to be constructed. Then all of a sudden a tiny runway appeared and we landed within a matter of seconds. The Leh airport was tiny compared to the the Delhi and Chennai airport.

Soon after we came out, we got two taxis and went to the hotel that we had booked. It was Oriental Guesthouse. It is run buy a very hospitable Ladakhi family. It was right next to the famous Shanti Stupa. It is a quiet place with a nice courtyard. After some brief refreshments at the hotel, most of us chose to take some rest before embarking on a local trip. So after lunch, we decided to move out. We visited a couple of monasteries viz Thiksey and Shey. There are so many of them in the region. Majestically constructed and beautifully decorated, each of these were more than centuries old. All of them had numerous prayer wheels placed all over and there were many Buddhists monks praying at these places. Perched on top of small mountain peaks, these command panoramic view of the surroundings.

After it was dark enough to not to be able to see the panoramas at its majestic best, we went to the Leh marketplace to try out a few Kashmiri sweets while a few others bought some clothes. Then we returned to our hotel to eat dinner and play Scotland Yard for sometime, before going to sleep.

The next day, one guy in the group was sick. Probably because we didn’t take enough rest to get ourselves acclimatize to the climate. He chose to stay back at the hotel, while the rest of us set off to see Alchi and Zanskar Valley. It snowed just before we started. It was my first brush with real snowfall and it was simply amazing. On the way, the driver stopped the vehicle at a valley where we got the chance to play around with snow. We got a glimpse of the Zanskar flowing from atop a nearby peak on our way to the Alchi monastery. The color of water was a shade of blue that you only see in photoshopped images. The region looked like the Grand Canyon of India. Simply spellbinding.

The other days were reserved for Pangong Tso lake and Khardung La Pass, the highest motor-able road in the world. In both cases, we set off early in the day and halfway the drivers realized that it was dangerous to go beyond a point since the snow levels were high and the chances of accidents and getting stuck were also high. So we enjoyed the snow, panoramic views at these points, which themselves were thousands of feet above sea level. Disappointed we were, but apparently it is common if you visit Leh/Ladakh in Nov/Dec.

The return journey was on Sunday, when we boarded the flight in Leh airport in the morning and reached Chennai by the end of the day. It was a memorable trip. A dream come true. I would have loved to spend more time there and I would definitely go there again if I get such a chance.

Take Back Memories, Leave No Trace

I found this statement on one of the boards at Eravikulam National Park in Munnar. It stuck on to my memory and I am planning to use it whenever and wherever I can.

Its an ingrained habit. I hate littering. Any plastic cover or paper that I happen to use always ends up in the garbage bin. If I don’t find one near by I keep it in my pockets and drop it off whenever I find one.

When I travelled to Munnar town, we found tons of litter thrown around near the roads. We had stopped nearby for breakfast. After our breakfast, guys started throwing the paper plates on the roads. I and a couple of friends got a cardboard box and requested everyone to put their waste in that box, so that we could throw it elsewhere. When we got into the bus with the cardboard box in our hands, the driver looked shocked and asked us to put the box away on the roads. We somehow convinced him that we wanted to throw it only at a garbage bin and not on the roads.

After all, when even software engineers have no sense of responsibility towards the nature, how can we expect uneducated people like drivers to understand its importance. Its a collective responsibility and we need to take some conscious effort to bring some change.

We at Chennai Trekking Club ensure that everyone coming to the treks respects nature. We don’t litter at the wonderful places we trek to. We enter the trekking area and leave the place as it was before. We carry garbage bags with us and make sure that we leave no trace.

I’d like to quote another famous trek blogger Sandeep – “One humble request to all the people planning to go to for treks. Please respect nature and remember other people. Never litter these wonderful places. Infact, it will be great, if you can pick up some of the litter (especially the non-bio-degradable) and carry it back. Please abstain from smoking and drinking when you are with nature. Even if you cant help it, atleast carry back cigarette buds and liquor bottles. If couple of us show some responsibility, we can keep these places clean and pristine for the coming generations!!!”

Trek Diary – Nagala – Western Entry

I went on this trek to Nagalapuram with CTC on Feb 12-13th earlier this year. I know. This blog post is coming quite late. But better late than never. I just wanted to ensure that this gets recorded in my blog.

I had been over four months since my previous trek to Nagari. I was (and still I am) badly out of shape and thought its high time I went for another trek. Another one of my friends felt the same way and we registered for a two day trek to Nagala organized by Biju.

We got our prep mail from Biju a couple of days before the trek with the customary ‘Things to Carry’, ‘Timings’ and the ‘Pickup points’. Around 70 people had registered for the trek. The friend along with whom I registered had some work in office and said that he wouldn’t be able to make it. Now I was unsure whether to go to the trek or not. I asked around and finally found another friend interested in joining me for the trek.

We started at around 4 as always and reached Nagala after having breakfast at one of the villages on the way. There was a dam near which we got down from the bus. It was around half an hour walk from there to reach the stream. Unlike Nagari Combo, this was much better since we had water all along the way. About half an hour from the bottom of the stream was the first pool. We walked and jumped over boulders all along the way. It was like Kuruva Islands in Wayanad. It was spectacular. I was one of the first guys to reach the pool so I got the chance to take a few pics of the undisturbed water.

After spending over an hour in that pool we proceed towards the next. Its was now that the climb began. But still it was not a big deal and anyone with an above average fitness level should be able to climb it in a jiffy. The second pool was as good as the first one. Biju took the rope and soon tied one end of the rope to a tree and the other next to another tree near the falls. Non-swimmers were able to reach the falls by hanging on to the rope. Here too we spent around an hour soaking ourselves in the water.

We had our lunch at the second pool and moved on. The third pool was amazing with a wonderful waterfall at the end. We climbed the rocks along the falls and reached the top of the falls to proceed further. After a few mins walk from the third pool comes another nice and refreshing waterfall which CTC has named Mini-Kutrallam. After some time under the falls we slept for another half hour. From there began the arduously steep climb. It was almost equivalent to rock-climbing. We almost reached the peak when Biju stopped us. He went alone further ahead and then hurriedly came back and went down. He returned after half an hour. It was sunset time by then. He informed us that we won’t be able to camp at the usual campsite and instead had to move down in a different direction.

We took our torches and started climbing down. It was harder to climb down with our bags, torches and total darkness. Somehow we managed to climb down and reached the camp site at around 8. We took out our noodles and soup packets and got ready for dinner. A couple of guys started the fire and we got cooking. In about an hour all our hunger was satisfied and we went to have a wonderful sleep in the jungle watching the stars.

It was unbelievably chill in the night and I got up quite early to click more photos. After eating ready-to-cook chappathis heated directly on the fire, we set off on our return journey. While on our way back we followed the same trial and it was quite easier than how it was when we climbed up. It took us considerably much time and we didn’t stop at all the pools either.

We covered the entire distance by noon and slept off at the first pool. After everyone woke up we had a intro session before resuming our journey back to the bus.

It was a wonderful two days trekking with CTC. I should also say that Biju did a great job organizing the trek.

Munnar – Music Above The Clouds

Munnar. Clean. Green. Beautiful. My third time in God’s Own Country Kerala.

This was my second team outing with Global Analytics (first one was to Mysore around six months back). Twenty seven of us started from Chennai in a special train which religiously followed the Indian Stretchable Time and took us to Dindigul an hour late. Almost immediately we boarded the bus which was waiting for us outside the station and began our journey to Munnar. It took us around six and a half hours to travel to Munnar, which included a brief halt at Theni for breakfast.

The amazing climate began soon after we crossed Theni. One by one most of the cameras started coming out followed by some furious clicking. We reached our resort ‘Ayur County‘. Its a nice resort with quite a few cottages and offered a stunning view of Munnar.

Music Above The Clouds - Munnar

After lunch at a restaurant just outside the resort we stood with no idea of what we were going to do next. The resort usually organizes fishing and trekking for its visitors. But that day we didn’t have any of those options. The only option that we had was to to go for a safari. Many of our team guys didn’t wish to go for that. Hence after a long discussion with our bus drivers we went to a dam located a few miles away. There were a couple of elephants taking thrilled tourists for a few metres long ride near the dam. We had plans to go for boating at that dam but it was closing time and there were quite a few people ahead of us. The sad thing about Munnar is that everything closes early. All we could do was to get back to our rooms and have an early night, just to see Chennai losing to Mumbai in the IPL.

The next day all of us started at around 7.30 and moved among the misty mountains to reach the Eravikulam National Park. There was a huge line where we stood for about an hour just to get the tickets. Once we had the tickets in our hand we boarded one the mini-buses to get into an area that is restricted for private vehicles. We travelled further along those fascinating tea estate roads to reach the Eravikulam Park. It has a small room at the top with some enchanting images depicting the story of the park.

The park is famous for the rare Nilgiri Tahr and the Neelakurinji. The Nilgiri Tahr is a type of mountain goat that was amazingly acclimatized to human presence. They behaved as though they were domesticated. Neelakurinji is a type of flower that blooms once in twelve years and paints the hills violet. And the time that we went there wasn’t the season for the flowers. I hope I get a chance to see these hills transformed into floral festivity in the near future.

We walked about one to two kilometers further along the roads to see a small family of Nilgiri Tahrs grazing around. We were stopped at a point beyond which we weren’t allowed to proceed, even though it was well accessible. We were a bit disappointed but well, nothing can ever satisfy the human desire. We tried to satisfied ourselves with the mesmerizing views that the spot provided. Soon clouds started covering the entire place and it gradually began to rain. We started running down to get back into one the mini-buses to reached our base.

The rest of the day was spent in bus travelling back to Dindigul to catch our return train. It indeed was a very small trip but even then we was sufficient for us to be seduced by Munnar’s charm and I would never forget the few hours we spent there.

The following is one statement which I found at the Eravikulam – Take back memories. Leave no trace. This sure would resonate well with my fellow trekkers at Chennai Trekkers Club who follow it devoutly.

Link to a few of the photos that I clicked - http://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.10150163590935496.299898.501815495&l=7f554f1bb0

Trek Diary – Nagari Hills October 23-24, 2010

It was one of those trekking experiences which I would not forget in a long time. It had some of the best and worst experiences. The whole trek was arranged by the Chennai Trekkers Club which organizes weekend treks to places in and around Chennai. Me along with four of my friends, Somnath, Badri, Arun and Prasanna went for the trek along with 180 odd strangers.

This was a two-day trek which was divided into 5 levels. With such deceptive descriptions for each level I was pretty confident that I would easily reach at least level 4. We had pick up points at various locations in the city where buses arranged by CTC were waiting for us. I reached Guindy pick up point by 4.20 with all my luggage and trek gear. The organizers checked our names with their lists and get the signed disclaimer forms from us. We got into the bus and set off positively for the trek.

We reached the base camp at around 8.45 and joined others in the queue for eating breakfast. Then had to hurry and gather food items for the next two days which we had to carry all the way to the top. So after stuffing our bags with all the food we started walking towards the hills at around 10. The heat was unbearable. After walking quite some distance on a flat slope, we started having some moderate ascent. That was when I placed my left foot on a loose stone and slipped and ended up spraining my ankle. After resting for a while, I started moving again. By this time Badri and Prasanna had taken a  considerable lead. It was just Somnath, Arun and Me walking all the way with fellow trekkers.

The whole group was allowed to trek at their own pace, following ribbons tied at few locations along the trail. It was after a long while that all of us walked this distance and it really tested our endurance. Somnath had a bit of headache and Arun had cramps. We had to take rest quite a few times on the way to drink water and consume some glucose.

The organizers essentially followed the carrot and stick approach to keep us moving. Well I wouldn’t say it was bad, but still it made us swear a lot at the organizers. We walked for about 5km after they said that we’d reach level 1 in 1km. We almost emptied our stock of water before we reached level one. About half a km away from campsite, I slipped again and had to rest for another 10 mins or so. Then I resumed walking and it was downhill most of the time now. At the end point we found a stream of water redirected from the falls at a higher level. It was a great feeling to taste some water after a long time and I should say the water was really really good.

There was a small waterfalls a few meters ahead. Badri and Prasanna had reached that spot an hour before us. They got out of the falls by the time we entered it. We rested for about half an hour there before going to a shack like structure. We rolled out our sleeping mats and went to sleep for sometime. Meanwhile, Badri and Prasanna started their trek to level 2.

I got up at around 5 to see Prasanna coming back. He said he had cramps and couldn’t go further. There were three others who were regular trekkers with CTC and had camped with us. The rest of the group had camped at a higher level next to Sada Siva Kone temple. We didn’t go there since it was dark by the time we woke up. It was getting dark and we had nothing to do. O_o. So a few of us started gathering firewood to light a fire. After a lot of struggle we found some suitable dry wood and some kerosene. Now the next huge task was to get the fire burning comfortably. We did all sort of tricks like adding dry leaves, newspapers and such to get the fire burning. After some half an hour struggle we could get the job done. Fortunately one guy had a pot in our group and we boiled some water. We then mixed our noodles packets with hot water and completed our dinner. After some chatting, we started our second innings of sleep. It was just eight when we went to sleep. (It had been ages since I’ve slept before 10 ).

We had a couple of dogs roaming around the place we slept. They occasionally started barking and howling to disturb our sleep. We slept for a long time and woke up at around 5.30. After brushing, pissing and all that, we went to the waterfalls to take bath. Then we boiled water again to finish the remaining packets of noodles.

Initially we thought of waiting for the rest of the gang before we went down. But then the remaining guys persuaded us that if we start early we can walk at a leisurely pace and take photographs on the way. We started out return journey at around 9. We now had to walk quite some distance uphill. There were a few places where there were a few turns, but Somnath assured us that we were walking on the right path and kept moving. After walking a lot further we realized that it was the wrong path. This new path would lead to a small temple at ground level and Puthur was nearest spot there. This was a shorter path and was usually travelled by the pilgrims. After cursing Somnath for a while we started walking again following a group of pilgrims who were on their way back. We reached a small temple at the bottom and had to wait for sometime till a ‘gult’ bus came along.

Now we had two options. Either to go to Vadamalapet and wait for the other trekkers. Or to go to Puthur and then travel to Chennai on our own. A few guys felt that it would be a waste of time to go and wait for others and instead we could reach Chennai a lot earlier, take rest, and go conveniently for the next day’s office work. So, we reached Puthur station at around 1 and got a ticket to Chennai. Dadar express came to Puthur at around 2 and reached Chennai Central at 4.30. We got local trains to reach our homes and I was at Velachery station by 5.45.

We later got to know that Badri reached Chennai along with the others at around 11pm in the night. And he had gone up to level 2 which was one km away from level 1, though on a path which didn’t have trails and was more difficult to climb.

One of the worst things about this trek is the ankle sprain I had. I felt that if not for the sprain, I could have gone to a higher level. The trek also was a sort of endurance test. Add to the list a hot blistering sun on top of our heads. It was the only reason for making our trek too tiring. I have now decided that I would be going for a lot more such treks in the future and at the same time develop my stamina by regular running and regular work outs in the gym.

Thank You

I am thankful to Peter and other CTC members for organizing the trek. I know how difficult it is to organize such a trip and the amount of preparation that it takes to get the job done. There were a lot of glitches here and there. A lot of things could have been done beter. But all that adds to the adventure too.

Update : I started clicking photographs only on the way back to base. I have uploaded those photos to my facebook album. Click here to view them.