Parvathamalai trek - Path of the rishis...

About Parvathamalai:

One of the most popular theories attributed to the origin of Parvathamalai is that it was formed when a part of the Sanjeevini mountain that Lord Hanuman carried, fell down to form this existing hill. Parvathamalai is a part of Javvadhi hills and as the name suggests is a hill standing tall at approximately 3500ft above sea level. The hill is located south-west to Chennai close to Thenmathimangalam village  in Thiruvannamalai District, Tamil Nadu. The hill is also popular for its medicinal plants. Devotees mentioned the hills hosts 119 varieties of medicinal herbs.

It's been a while since I did a trek and was itching to go to one. Heard about Parvathamalai a week ago, and googled some information. It wasn't too far from Chennai and could be covered in a day. So put on my planning hat to do it this weekend. Made some quick calls, but being short notice all my friends had other plans. Finally managed to gang up my sister Deepika, and cousin Udaya for the trip.

The morning, 06 Mar, 2011:

Started my drive from home early at 5:30 am, and made sure we hit the Bangalore highway by 6:00 am. Had our breakfast past Sriperambathur,and then drove past Kanchipuram and Arcot. I preferred the Arcot-Arani-Polur route because it saves me about 30 kms compared to the Dindivanam-Thiruvanamalai route. I was skeptical about the road conditions once I got off the Bangalore highway at Arcot, but to my surprise, the roads were pretty well maintained all the way to Polur and have to regrets on taking this route. Drove past Arcot, Arani and reached Polur at 9:30 am where we had to wait an hour for Udaya who had a wedding to attend and was noticably late. We hurriedly made it to Thenmathimangalam, the village from where we would begin our trek. The locals advised to offer some prayers at the local temple before beginning the ascent as it would safeguard us against all evils. Well, we didn't want an inauspicious start after all, so went ahead with the prayers. At sharp 11:30 am we began our ascent.

The Afternoon:

At March, this part of India gets pretty hot in the day, thats the tropical sun for you. 11:30 wasn't too pleasant. I was hoping the forest trees would help us soon. The first stretch is about a 2 km walk to the base of the hill, where again we found a temple. The temple offered us hot rice porridge, and we obliged. It was a filling one after the 2 km walk. This also marked the beginning of our trek. 

The second stretch is where there are steps that take you till one-third the distance. The steps are relatively easier to walk, and get steep in some places. If you've done the 3000 odd steps in Tirupathi, this is a cake-walk. Ok not exactly a cake-walk but definitely do-able. But before we began climbing an old man requested us to carry what were small bags of sand and bricks all the way to the hill-top. We had a choice between a brick bag, or a bag of sand. Already carrying 5 kgs on me (Water bottles, eats and camera) I wanted to load test myself,  so took 2 bags of sand (approximately 2 kgs) and Udaya one brick. it was to help the construction of the temple above the hill. Now we got into business. There are some numbers written on the steps, but not sure if they are the number of steps completed or the distance completed, Didn't make any sense to me anyway. Took small breaks for Deep and Udaya, and were relieved to see the steps getting over and rocks coming along. 

This meant 2 things, either the destination is near or real far that steps can't be laid farther. Deep was hoping it was the former, to her dismay it ended up being the latter. Having trekked before, I knew walking on boulders is much easier than steps and was proved right once again. We couldn't see the mountain top but managed to do great deal of walking in the forest. This stretch was in the shades, the forest trees protecting us. We had lime soda in the occasional make-shift stalls, quite helpful actually. We finally reached the base of the top cliff around 3:30, almost an hour behind schedule, thanks to our long breaks.

The final ascent:

I heard a lot about the monkey troubles, but we were fortunate not to be troubled by any, that's probably our hands were relatively free, except for the bags of sand and brick. We got some splendid views from this side of the hill, we indeed felt we were over the top and could see villages on either side of the mountain. The other hills were dwarfed by the sheer size of this one. We had one last hurdle the great rock to climb. To our surprise or rather shock, this was much steeper than I had imagined. It was a 90 degrees climb, ok that's a little overboard, but must have been about 80 degree climb and trust me, it's not easy to make this 

ascent. We had to rely on our tired legs, strong hands and the iron railings embedded in the rocks to make this climb. All 3 of us made it through with little fuss, but looking back, it's quite scary and we were always just one step away from what could be a terrible incident. Well, moving on, the last stretch is also little challenging, but eventually all managed to make it. At this point, Udaya was the most tired of us three and was slowing us down. We reached the mountain top at 4 pm, Almost an hour behind schedule again.

The descent:

Now the thought of driving in the dark was bothering me, so decided to start back and started our descent at 4:30 pm sharp and gave ourselves 1.5 hours to reach the car park. The descent as always was more tricky but quicker. We gained plenty of momentum in the boulders but got tired soon too, especially Deep. She was hoping steps came soon, and when it did, she was hoping we end this walk soon. It was getting dark soon too because the mountain was blocking sunlight on this side of the mountain. We took short breaks and finally made it to the car park at 6:30 about 30 minutes behind schedule. I took the same route, Polur, Arani, 

Arcot, Bangalore highway and finally reached Chennai at 11 in the night. 

On the whole, an eventful day and I liked the thought of making it to this trek with my sister and cousin. It gave them a feel of what treks mean. I'm already looking forward to my next trek shortly.

Directions:
Chennai to Arcot 110 kms [Drive on the Chennai Bangalore highway and take the left into Arcot]
Arcot to Arani - 24 kms [Drive past signboard to reach Arani]
Arani to Polur - 28 kms [Drive past signboards to reach Polur and drive beyond the railway crossing]
Polur - Thenmadimangalam - 18 kms [Take the right at 3 kms after Polur rail crossing and drive straight for 15 kms to reach the destination]
Trek begins here. 
Approx driving time: 4 hours with short breaks
Approx distance: 180 kms one way.
Road Conditions: Good

Wildlife:

- Rare birds which are uncommon in the metro. 

- Insects, nothing that will harm you.

Trekking Conditions:

Difficulty level: 
- Difficult for non-regulars if you're trying to return on the same day.
- Moderate for regular trekkers if you're returning on the same day
- Easy if you're staying overnight.

Tips: 
- Carry plenty of fluid if you're making it between Mar and Sep due to hot tropical weather
- Avoid trekking during rains, will make the terrain slippery and prone to falls, especially since the last phase is on the rocks.
- Begin climbing as early in the morning as possible, giving yourself enough time if you plan on returning the same day.


It's worth a visit, especially because of it's proximity to Chennai and its relatively safe for newbees, except for the last stretch. 

Scaling the Venkatagiri Hills

Saturday, February 20, 2010.

It's not about conquering 2 mountains in 2 days, It's not about letting those thorns tear you apart, not about carrying your heavy backpack across the rocky, thorny steep terrain, or not about the moment when you doubt if this trek was such a good idea after all, but it's about the heart pounding so fast, you could feel it right on your forehead, and then a chill breeze hits your face and rejuvenates you all over again, all this while you sit with your legs swinging on the edge of a cliff. Now how's that for a feel ! That's exactly what the bravehearts of the Venkatagiri trek went through. Here's where I recollect the event of the weekend trek to Venkatagiri, the second by CTC itself.

Woke at 3:15 in the morning even before the alarm went off, and this after I went to sleep just 3 hours before, such is the excitement the morning of a trek brings along. Got ready, packed my bags and ran through the checklist in my mind, and took my little alto. I joined the group outside Nathan's cafe at 4:40 am, the usual meeting point right outside the Koyambedu bus stand. The usual attendance procedure, and each of them were assigned their cars. My car had a Mechanical Engineer (Alex) and a Bharatnatiyam dancer (Meenakshi), great company they were. Unusually and fortunately this time, there were more accomodation than needed. So we had to split 3 per car instead of the earlier planned 5. There were 3 bikers among us, including a roadies couple (The couple had participated in MTV Roadies Battleground and it was not until the end of the trek did I know this). We took off at 5:30, our next regroup was near the Puzhal flyover and then a couple of halts because of the bikes, biking was not a good idea especially when there were enough space in the cars, some people just don't learn. We then reached Naidupet, the breakfast point at 8:30 and it was almost an hour before we proceeded. Some guys from Bangalore joined us here.

From here, it was another 1.5 hours drive off the Chennai-Hyderabad highway before we reached the Venkatagiri town, seemed like a pretty old town to me. Parked our cars/bikes, split all the eats and packed our bags and began our walk at 11:00 am, trust me, the February tropical sun does get hot!

We had a total of 11 km to reach the destination. By number it sounds quite easy, but adding the terrain, it's a mammoth task, this we realized later in the day. The initial walk was through dry grasslands and was a 5 km walk till we reached the base of the hill. From here the thorn forest started. It was now that our hands, legs, backpacks and sleeping bags were torn from all sides. It was like the forest was unwelcoming us, and warned us to stay away, just that we wouldn't listen. An hour later, the thorns reduced but the trail got steeper and the climb was through irregular rocks. I was carrying a total of 4 litres of water along with my other essentials. This was taking a heavy toll on me now. Not just me, but everyone seemed to struggle this trail. I had to reload myself with glucose fluids and high-energy bars. But I wasn't able to walk more than 10 min at a time. Meenakshi from my car walked with me, I was surprised to find her keep up pace with me. Finally Peter came around and announced we were just 5 min away. It was now that I learnt, never trust Peter when he says 5 minutes or 50 meters, both mean eternity !

We finally reached a cave at 600 mts high. By now I was exhausted and squeezed. Managed to catch some sleep near the cave, Peter filled water from drops dripping from between the rocks. This mineral water is the best part of any trek, this could refresh you beyond you can imagine. We regrouped here, lunched and started our way up again at 2:00 pm. We still had one-third to climb. If the terrain so far was difficult the terrain that followed for truly Herculean and I MEAN IT. Even though the thorns and sun was behind us, this time it was the rock boulder climb that made it difficult. It is believed that robbers used this Mountain top as a hideout location 1000 years ago. There was a proper path carved out at this large 300 mt rock. This was by far the most difficult climb I have made in all my previous treks. Me and the Thoughtworks guy grouped up and would climb not more than 5 min at a stretch. By now most trekkers had given up and vowed not to come back again. Even the strong looking guys now gave up. At this point it gets more mental than physical, and I was able to make it. Ironically the trip so far was relatively safe for me until I tripped on the last steprock of the hill, got a little bruise on my knees and I happily accepted it now that I reached the hill top.

The surrounding views were indeed breathtaking. What was disappointing was the lack of breeze, may be the geography didn't support strong breeze here. By now we had climbed 6 straight hours. Me and 2 more guys went in search for some water and were lucky to find a source of water, a better drip source than the one down. We filled about 4 bottles each and made our way to the hill top again. This time I fell victim to a cramp in my leg and slowed my climb. I enjoyed the sunset view, the sun looked real innocent, it was hard to believe it was the same sun than tormented us all day long sucking every ounce of our energy ! At one point we could see one side pitch dark and the other slightly lit up by the sinking sun. Felt lucky to witness this. With no source of light, it got dark very soon, Guru and co were busy getting soup and maggi for dinner. It tasted heaven after such a days effort. I was quick to doze off on my sleeping mat by 9 pm. The mist around ensured we missed any possible sight of a star.

It was around 12:30 when I suddenly woke up, it was not just me, but the entire group that woke up. The dew was so thick, it wet all our bedsheets and it was like I was covered in a wet cloth. I was shivering inside, and all hopes of a good night sleep vanished. Some guys lit up the camp fire, but I was too tired to even sit and rather preferred to stay in my wet bed. When I barely managed to open my eyes, I ended up seeing the clear night sky with stars embedded throughout. It was a sight to savour. Even managed to witness a shooting star, made no specific wish though. By 5, the bed dried a bit and I caught some sleep till 7.

Woke up to witness the morning sun, it was as pleasant as I had expected it to be. Caught up some pics and went with Biju to fill in more water for the group. By 9, the group decided to dismantle. Peter and we 14 others agreed to scale the next peak. I was surprised so little of us agreed to make it, others just wanted to head back to the cars and reach their homes at all cost. We had to find new trails to reach the new hill top, and at times even create new trails. Many got hurt in this process, but such is the spirit of these treks, it is way more than the physical pains. We caught up some wild gooseberries enroute to the top, and finally found our way up there. Even though this peak was not as tall as the previous one, the views were equally breathtaking. Infact all of us sat on the edge of the cliff getting the breeze on our faces. This was probably the most satisfying moment of the trip !

We had to make our way back down, and join the groups that split earlier in the day. The descent was harder than imagined but nevertheless we made it through. We were certainly a high energy pack. Finally reached the base through our walk back through the boulders and the thorn forest. This time the thorns seemed to request us not to leave the forest, for it found a friend in us, but we didn't belong here. We were all battered and tired and with aching legs managed to reach the village side by 6 in the evening. Had a little bath at the water pump on the way, and settled our accounts. Finally began our drive back home, it was a daunting 4 hours, 170kms drive back home.

Later parted with my car poolers, Alex and Meena and reached home loaded with scars, bruises, aching legs and an unforgettable twin peak memory. Given a chance, would I repeat this trek.... HELL YES !

Monday Sep 21, 2009

Ride to Thirukazhukundram

Karthikeyan and me were on the third day of a 3 day weekend and we hadn't done anything. This was normally not my style so decided to take my pulsar for a road-trip. My earlier plan was to ride till Gingee hills about 150 kms south of Chennai and do little trekking there, but later went against that plan since Karthikeyan had to return earlier in the evening. Then it stuck me to visit the hill-top mountain of Thirukazhukundram which is about 70 kms south of Chennai. I had last been there 18 yrs back on a school field trip.

Me and Karthikeyan met up at Anna Nagar round-tana and decided to take the OMR (Old Mahabalipuram Road) on our onward journey. We hit the OMR at 11:00 a.m and went cruising on that road. We took a couple of stops to enquire the route to the temple and to buy ourselves gum and cold-drink. Riding on the road, we brushed past countless software firms. These companies are the main reason for Chennai's accelerated growth and subsequently price-hikes and dynamicity. I'm one among them too, so no complaining. It's ironical that the government claims that work on OMR is completed till Siruseri, but riding on this road makes one realise work is not even 50% complete, hope work expedites in the coming months. An hour later we reach SIPCOT the SEZ hosting the large software firms. Riding further it's the slew of apartment complexes along the road-side this time. Again it's ironical, these builders charge 40-50 lakh INR for a 2 BHK apartment about 30km outside of Chennai, crazy city I must say.

We had instructions to keep riding for 9 kms more to reach Thiruporur and take a right from there and then a km later take a left and that would take us to our destination. We didn't feel like it was the outskirts till the time we crossed Thiruporur. Suddenly we got the feeling we were riding amidst the forest's lonely lean road, occasionally some vehicles brushing our side. The road quality here was bad, so we had to slow down. We had to travel 19 kms on this road before we could finally see the temple at a distance. We were even stopped by a gang of rogue looking boys in this highway. We thought we were done, but the guys just demanded some contribution to their village temple and I obliged with a smile. We reached the temple footsteps at 12:50 pm. and parked our bike. We got instructions to reach the temple-top in 10 mins because the temple shuts at 1:00 pm sharp. Now we had to make our ascent ASAP. Karthikeyan seemed to climb effortlessly while I stuggled to complete the 400 odd steps in 10 minutes.

We managed to reach the dark hill-top temple at the nick of time and got the darshan of the Siva Lingam. Grabbed some prasadam, took pics of the monkeys around there and rested for a while before starting our descent. I was somehow amazed to see how unpopular and crowdless this temple was, may be they lacked the right kind of marketing, but then it's hard to find such traditional temples these days. We drank some fruit juice at the parking lot and began our ride back to Chennai. In all, it took us less than an hour to climb, pray and descend the hill. This time we took the ECR (East Coast Road) on our way back. ECR entry was 15 kms from this temple point and we covered this distance in short time, it was good roads too. Riding down the ECR was a cruise and we managed to reach our home at 4 pm, with just one break this time.

Routes:

Route-1: Mogappair - OMR (12km) - Siruseri (29km) - Thiruporur (9km) - Thirukazhukundram (20km)

Directions: Reach Madhya Kailash, ride on the OMR till Siruseri SIPCOT, ride further 9 km till Thiruporur take a right, ride for another 1 km, take the left and ride for 19 kms. Follow directions to reach the temple. (Approx time - 2 hours and Bad road beyond Thiruporur)

Route-2: Mogappair - Thiruvanmayur (15 km) - Mahabalipuram (30km) - Thirukazhukundram (15km)

Directions: Ride along the ECR till Mahabalipuram - Take the Pondicherry road instead of entering Mahabalipuram - Take the State Highway which is the second major right after crossing Mahabalipuram and follow directions to reach Thirukazhukundram. (Approx time - 2 hours and good roads)

HOGENEKKAL - THE NIAGARA OF INDIA

Date of Post: 09th July, 2006

Destination: Hogenekkal Falls in Dharmapuri District, Tamil Nadu
Hi folks.. it's me again blogging after a long break. To be honest, I've been a little lazy to pen down my blogs, but just active enough to achieve my monthly target of travels. Had been to lush green villages of the God's own land (Kerala) this May, followed by a bike trip to the green valleys of Yelagiri this June.
Well, now back to the purpose of this blog, my trip to the vicious, volumnous Hogenekkal falls (i'm running short of adjectives here :-p).. oh yeah and I admit to that Niagara in the title.. it was a little exaggeration from my side.
Hogenekkal has always been on my agenda, just didn't materialise. It was a Friday evening, Senthil, Durai and me suddenly decided that we should make it Hogenekkal this weekend. We shortlisted Sunday to be our ideal day to ride our way down.

Saturday 8th July'06, Bangalore
I did my share of homework by reading blogs of other fellow travellers who'd been there before (thanks to Anurag Jain for his informative blog). Took printouts of the details, finalised the agenda with Durai and Senthil and dozed off at midnight.

Sunday, 9th July'06, Bangalore
Woke at 4:30 a.m., half sleep, hoped that I could continue my sleep rather than making it to Hogenekkal (how very wrong I was !!!) Forced myself off the bed, bathed in cold morning water and was ready by 5.15.am. Ratheesh was too tired to make it, and opted to sleep the whole day off. Senthil and me packed our bikes and started to our Office in Kasturba Road to meet up with our fellow travellers for the day - Raj, Durai and his wife Viji. We gathered by 5.45 a.m., Senthil and Durai smoked up their cigarettes (something they did the whole day long ....phew !!) and off we were to our bike quest to Hogenekkal at 6.10a.m . Last thing I wanted was a race against time on our way back, which eventually we ended up doing.
Our first pit stop was at Hosur 7:10 a.m after 50 kms of travel for a tea break. Didn't wait long, filled gas in the bunks around (saved a few bucks due to price difference between Karnataka and TN :-) ..), started off immediately to our next league of journey till Krishnagiri. The road between Hosur and Krishnagiri and an iPOD is any Bikers paradise (and mine too :-D..). Went enroute to Dharmapuri after Krishnagiri (42 kms from Hosur) , had our next pit stop to sip tender coconut juices. Started to Dharmapuri where we would halt for our breakfast. The road between Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri is one of the worst stretch with 42 kms of pot-holes. Somewhere in between my bike was almost knocked off by a 20 wheel truck, was a miracle we stayed on road (the even still gives me jitters...!!). Grabbed a hearty breakfast at Dharmapuri and took our last stretch of ride before reaching Hogenekkal - This was a stretch of 49 kms of really good roads for this part of the state. It was a single lane road but a cruise. Our bikes had fun overtaking each other throughout the stretch, and an hour later, we were there.

Hogenekkal, 11.00 a.m.
We had to pay a toll fee to get into the roads leading to the falls (Rs. 10/- per bike). We could see the dense forest and mountains in the backdrop of this toll gate, had no idea what breathtaking views were in store. We rode along taking pictures , and suddenly we were riding the Hair pin bends of the moutains getting deeper into the forest. At one point I could not proceed with the dream scene around me. I was looking into what would have been a CANYON formed by the mighty river flow. Well now the missing element in this Canyon was the river. A 10 minutes ride took us to our destination. We were halted by cops at the entrance who checked our licenses, and thanks to a wantonly stupid question by Senthil, cops laughed and let us continue (cops love feeling intelligent !!) The boatman accompanied us from the village start to the parking lot and now we found ourselves negotiating to make them our guides (started at Rs.1500 and finalised at Rs.700/- for 5 of us, thanks to my bargaining skills - believe me I am really bad at it, and this deal is still on the higher side).

WHAT'S OUT THERE ???
We followed our boatman to wherever he led us, actually to the Cauvery river side. They were 2 of them, Kumar - the masseur (our guide) and Prakash (the parisal pilot) (Parisal - Tamil word for a round boat) along with the 5 of us. First bought massage oil and then started off in the Parisal, taking pics all the way. Once on our parisal, our pilot showed us some boat stunts by rotating the boat, more of a head-spin than thrill. In about 15 minuntes we neared a shore, witnessed small whirl-pools in the water(obviously harmless). We got off the parisal at a location. The river here flows in a shallow wide stream of water flowing through countless boulders before continuing its usual course. We took a few pictures and started stripping off to get ready for the massage. I was the first victim, next 15 minutes were cruel, unpredictable stretch and pull from all sides. Then I retired and watched Raj, Durai and finally Senthil going through the same. Physically I felt a lot of difference, more of a relief actually.
Now it was time to get into the water stream. The water force was really intense at certain points. We avoided most of them looking out for safe spots. Each one of us got under some rocks facing the force of water. It was amazing how we struggled to cross even a 2 metre stream of water or sit under a 6 feet waterfall. Many times we were thrown off our grips but luckily clinged onto some piece of rock and survived the one hour. We were more of BASKING in the water for an hour before sensing Viji getting restlessness who was gaurding our belongings. We packed off, and had to walk a few hundred meters through this stream before reaching a more crowded location. It was now, while crossing one of the streams my leg tangled into a rock and I fell into the water, hurting my knee and wetting all my stuffs :-(. After reaching our next pick-up point, we ordered our lunch, (boatman ordered it for us). Some fish curry and fried fishes. The boatman guided our parisal towards a point in the water which was the center of attraction of a majority of crowd. The pilot had a very tough time guiding the boat through this stretch, but finally managed to drop us safely.
THE WATERFALL: From far we could see mist generating from between the river. A few hops between the rocks towards the mist let me into one of the most breath-taking views I've ever seen. It was a U-Shaped valley with water gushing into the depths with forces that could crush metals with ease and the noise was deafening. We took a few pics, I could not help but just looking into the fall and doing nothing else. There was this Rainbow created out of the splashing water droplets everytime the sun shows up. On one such occasion, I could see the rainbow starting from me :-.. atleast I thought so.. Spent about 30 minutes at the falls, before we packed off to our next destination - LUNCHING.

THE LUNCH:
Lunch was prepared by local women, our menu combined Fish Curry and Fish fry, poor Raj, all the women asking him to eat, none realised he was a Brahmin, well not their fault, he lacks all traits of a Brahmin..

POST LUNCH:
Now I had begun to realise that our return journey was going to be a race against time, something which I did not want to happen. Hurried to our coracle and we headed to our last stretch of boating. The pilot interested us with some more options around Hogenekkal, a trek into the Forests. So we have our options open the next time we decide to come here. Now he steered our coracle to about a kilometer away and this time headed to the other side of the same waterfall that we earlier witnessed. This one was little less intense than the earlier set of falls. The guide showed us a few locations where movie scenes were shot, the most famous one being the Coracle scene in "Chinna Chinna Aasai" (Tamil lyrics) from the movie "Roja" (a Tamil movie), others being a song from "Rythm" (Tamil movie, haven't watched it myself). Took a few pictures around, and the clock ticked 5.00 pm, and I knew we were terribly late. We would have only 2 hours of daylight to ride and nearly 200 kms (125 miles) to travel. We settled our payments to the guide and Pilot (Rs.1000/-) and off we started. Picked our bikes and wanted to try the Karnataka route to our destination Bangalore.

THE RETURN...
Our guide earlier mentioned that the distance through the Karnataka route was around 110 kms, which would save us 90kms had we taken the Tamil Nadu route !!. I was really skeptical about this distance, because this was too less a distance to be true. We decided to take our chance and take the Karnataka route. Start was bad, I dropped up a stranded fellow with a tyre that he got fixed, by now I had realised why his bike tyre gave up. The next 6kms were bad roads, with patches of tar, making the travel pathetic. We were worried for 2 things basically, what if the road going to be like this forever, and which one of our bikes would give in to these roads. Luckily for us, none of it was true !! The roads got much better after 6 kms. It was a single lane road through the forest, we climbed up and down countless moutains, and we were maintaining a decent speed. The awesome views of forest via the mountain roads never let us realise our fatigue. It was slowly getting darker too, and we averaged our speed up. I showed a bike stunt to our fellows on the Hair Pin bends on the mountain, just lean the bike at the turns, lean it so much that my knee touches the road !!! This is something I like doing a lot. We travelled 80 kms before we took a break at a village about 25 kms from Hosur which was inturn 40 kms from Bangalore. I grabbed a plaintain and off we started, this time knowing for sure that our last stretch would be in the dark. It was tougher than expected, the helmet lens glaring the high beam rays, so had to expose my eyes to high speed and flying insects. My sincere advice to bikers, never do a night journey on a bike.
We missed the road that joined Hosur but managed to join the National Highway to Bangalore somewhere near Attibele, which was well into Karnataka. Now we were getting into the city through the Hosur Road, this was even more painful. By now I was exhausted too. Finally reached home at 9.00 pm after 3.5 hrs and 140 kms. I wanted to crash into the night after almost 400 kms travel in a day.
I'm sure everytime I think of the gushing water force of Hogenekkal falls, it will give me a rejunevation of a new kind. Hope in future I can spend more time at the falls.
Add this to your must watch list !!
Already looking forward to my trips to Delhi&Agra this month-end and to Goa next month ;-)

Route Info:
Route-1: Bangalore - Hosur(50kms) - Krishnagiri(~50kms) - Dharmapuri (~42kms)- Hogenekkal(~42kms) - Approx time with breaks: 4 hrs
Route-2: Hogenekkal - Attibele (~100 kms) - Bangalore (~40 kms) - Approx time: 3.5 hrs

N14 - Trip to the Nagala hills (01 Mar, 2009)

What a way to start this March. It was my resolution last year to continue my treks, but unfortunately didn't do any. This year trekking was not in my list, and here I am just back from one of the best treks I've ever done.

Nagala hills (aka Nagalapuram) is a group of hills located about 100 kms North of Chennai on the Tamil-Nadu Andhra border. I hadn't heard of this until about a few weeks back, thanks to Chennai Trekking Club (CTC). I joined this group a few weeks ago and was monitoring the activities closely. This one day trek suddenly caught my attention, and there was nothing much on my agenda the following Sunday, so I saw myself enrolling to this one. This trek was christened N14, as this was the 14th time the group was trekking this hills.

11.30 pm 28 Feb, 2009: My room

I was busy packing my bags for tomorrow early morning departure. I was packing against a checklist mailed by Peter Van Geit (moderator of the CTC group). I had to catch up some sleep too since I knew the next day would be a long one. Off I went to sleep in a few minutes after packing my bag.

3.45 am, 01 Mar, 2009: My room

I could sleep no longer at the thought of joining the group at 4.30 in Koyembedu. So woke up, freshened up, picked my baggage and hopped on my bike and reached Koyambedu by 4.20. There was just one guy (Sekar from Photon Infotech and later came to know we had 3 common friends !) and we had a 4.30 deadline for 100 of us to assemble, I didn't see it happening though. Steadily people started trickling in and most of them seemed first timers. Then around 4.45, the whole area outside Nathan's cafe in Koyambedu was buzzing with CTC cars and bikes & CTC regulars cladded in shorts, bermudas and trekking outfits. There were some last minute attendance counting going on. There were enough cars so 8 bikes were asked to drop and I promptly did so. In all we were a group of 100 trekkers in 15 cars and 15 bikes.

5.30 am, 01 Mar, 2009: Koyambedu

I got into a car which had a relatively younger crowd, a group of 4 guys, all SRM college passouts. We were prompt to exchange introduction formalities. I remember just the 2 names , Selva and Gokul. In a few minutes, we were hitting the Chennai ring road heading towards the Nagala hills. It was a very pleasant morning and daylight yet to set in, our convoy of 15 cars and 15 bike progressing on the Chennai-Calcutta highway. As we reached the village roads, we rolled down our car glasses. The air had a scent of green freshness, it was the kind that felt suffocating after spending many years in the city pollution. It was now that most guys from the cars peeped out of the cars and waved frantically at the rest of us. This was when I realised this crowd was a daring one, and not the conservative type that I first thought. We finally reached the Nagalapuram village at around 8 after about 2.5 hours of drive. This was where we had to park our cars and pick up our food packs and other baggages for the rest of the day.

I munched a quick pack of "Upma" and "Vada" for breakfast and picked my baggages and followed that crowd that was walking in a direction that led to some mountains far far away. Seeing the distance, I thought we're going to wander around the base of the hills the rest of the day, but that was not what fate had in store for us today. We were told that this N14 had 7 main hurdles to cross, I was already looking forward to them.

The Dam:

After about 4 kms of walk we reached our first pitstop. It was an artificial dam hoisted to prevent mountain waters from flowing into the nearby villages. The first little challenge (not hurdle) was to climb over that 30 ft incomplete dam. It wasn't much of a challenge but the sand-filled descent and poor grips on my shoes made me a little jittery. The entire bunch of 100 crossed over the dam and took the only group picture of the day. It was here that we picked a couple of local guides, village dogs who accompanied us till our first hurdle.

Into the jungle:

After crossing the dam, we started walking into the forest and this is when I stopped tracking time, and was focussed on enjoying the serenity of the forest around me. It was seemingly quiet, the kind I miss in the city.

The trees were so dense and bushes so bushy, that we hardly felt the sunlight on us during the entire course of the trek. We also noticed several rivulets by now which meant plenty of water up the hills.

After about an hour of walk, we reached our first water catchment. It was cold, clean and sweet. We took turns diving and jumping into the pristine waters. Infact the organisers had to save couple of fellows from drowning on two occasions. Such mountain waters are very dangerous as the rocks beneath make walking on them very uncomfortable and most often they suddenly get deeper. The last time I was in such cold waters was in the Kolli hills couple of years back. After about an hour in this water, we headed to what would be our first hurdle of the day.

The First Hurdle:

It was a placid water catchment between huge rocks. The only way to move forward would be to swim through this 40 ft water. The huge count of 100 members was of little help, because it meant more non-swimmers and more bags to be transported. We were 10 volunteers who got into the water first. With the help of sleeping mats we transported the non-swimmers first and later the bags. My right leg was cramped with too much swimming here. I must have done about 20 laps transporting people and baggages here. I played the role of a sweeper here, ensuring that no baggages were left. Even tried calling our local guides, the dogs to cross, but they seem less interested in coming along. After 2 hours we finally made it through the first hurdle !

Our next question to Peter was, is this the toughest hurdle or more to come. He didn't answer that one.

The later hurdles were not that tough, and included walking through water about 6 ft deep, then crossing rocky boulders with water stream flowing beneath us. A small slip would have landed us into the water stream and down to the rocks and a vertical climb with the support of small boulders and tree roots.

We finally rested for lunch at around 2 pm. After about 30 minutes, Peter came close to where I sat, and I asked him what our next route would be. I was hoping he would point me to a trail right next to where we lunched. But he instead pointed to a 90 degrees vertical hill and the only way to climb it would be by holding to the tree roots. There was about 30 ft to climb. It was not the climb that scared me, but the slippery 20 ft trail later that I had to cross. The poor grip of my shoe bothered me now and I even tripped a small rock that went crashing to the rocks and water stream about 50 ft below. I leapt onto a tree and went further, considering myself fortunate to have made it inspite of my shoes poor grip.

We had already made it through 6 hurdles by now. The seventh was cancelled off as we were short of time. We then walked through the highest point of this hill. What surprised me here was the lush green atop the hills. So far it was a bushy and thorny trail along the water rivulets. Now we were strolling through the bright green 4ft bushy grasses. We walked for about an hour until we reached a water stream where we refilled our empty bottles. By now, I was bruised all over my hands and legs, thanks to all those pokey thorns and branches. There were plenty of red ant bites on me as well. I knew it would bother me tomorrow, but who cares, I had better things to enjoy for now.

The entire group rested here for an hour and then we stared our descent. We reached the first water catchment area, and as before with no second thought, dived into the cold water, which seemed even colder with darkness closing in. We were here till 6 pm. The sweepers of the trek collected all the plastics and burned them off. Our bit to polluting this environment, but then leaving them behind would prove even harmful. The organisers carried on with the account settling process and at 6.30 pm we stared our final descent.

This time I was among the first few to lead the pack. As darkness grew, I realised I did a mistake by not bringing my torch along. Fortunately there were enough torches behind me that helped me move on. The walk back was a long one about 7 km in total. By now, the hurt in my feet began hurting me more.

As I walked in the dark I noticed the moon casting my shadow on the ground. I don't remember the last time I saw my shadow created by the moon. The sky was radiant with the bright stars and could see a bunch of constellations including the Ursa Major and Orion which were brightly visible over my head. I felt wondering what took me so long to rejuvenate my interest in trekking.

Finally we reached the car park at 8.30 pm after what seemed like an eternity of walking. After some last minute account settlement, the convoy started hitting the roads again and back we were driving our ways back home. It was now that Sanju called me to inform that he's become a dad to an adorable little girl. What a fitting news to end a perfect day at trek for me.

What seemed like an end of journey to me, was the beginning of a journey for my best friend !

Highlights of this trip:

Drive till Nagala, Zero Degrees of separation among the 100 enthusiastic members, Water rivulets, Dip in the cold mountain waters, Sweet mineral taste of the water, Red ant bites, Fishes nibbling our skin, Long walk under the starlit sky.

A trip into serenity, a trip to Kodaikanal...

I'm penning this blog a week after returning from a trip to Kodai (or Kodaikanal as it's commonly known). Even though it's been a week now, the fun, excitement and chilling fog is fresh all over me as I continue to write this with the very same excitement.

Friday, 20th July 2007, Chennai.

I had to catchup the evening train from Egmore at 9.30 p.m, and that after travelling 18km from office after a client call between 5.30-6.30p.m.. Managed it comfortably in the end, and joined my office folks at the Chennai Egmore station well before time. Ashish and Pagu were already running around grazing our herd, something which they did pretty good till our return the subsequent Monday. The highlight of the journey start was "Yengal Varungala Chief Minister Balajiku oru O podunga", nearest translation : "Three cheers to our future Chief Minister Balaji". (Balaji happens to be our Project Manager who made it to the trip with his family).

The night in train was fun as expected, bullying, ragging and all naughty stuffs college folks would do. Girls formed a little train chain and ran around, guys did their best to obstruct the train chain. Most guys retired around mid-night. We all envied Andrew and Ashwini, who were amidst the Accenture gang (not to mention some good girls too).


Saturday, 21st July 2007, Somewhere few hours from Kodaikanal.

We guys woke at 6, freshened up and were all over the train looking forward to Kodai Road station which eventually arrived at 7. Our 3 mini buses that picked us from here were going to be the only transportation mode next 2 days. The roads to Kodai were curvy and curvy enough to cause vomiting among most of us, especially the ones who opted not to sleep. All 3 buses took a stop over before we reached our resort "Lilly Valley". Lilly Valley in simple was an average resort. The exterior garden and lawn were much impressive than the interiors of our rooms which never made me feel cozy both the days.

We had a hearty breakfast, and lazed around a bit, before which it started to pour hard. It was surprising to see the count of photo enthusiasts amongst us. Each one trying to grip every angle of the hill station and cover every damn flower or leaf. I managed to get some view of the oncoming fog that gripped us for next couple hours. This was when some alcohol lovers felt it was time for the hard drinks to come out. Had a few rounds of it and even more rounds of chat and fun. Post lunch the sun showed himself to us, and the group decided it was time to visit the lake.

We were there in a few minutes. I hopped on to a cycle in my bid to get rid of my little hangover. At first I thought the 5 km cylcing around the lake was an exaggeration, but later knew it was indeed 5 kms. After a lot of pit- stops finally made it. By now it began to pour hard again. A few of us hopped into our bus, and unfortunately this was where a little misunderstanding happened and we ended up driving back to hour resort, while the other 2 buses continued with the city tour. We missed the boating and the Coakers Park, the 2 main attractions of Kodaikanal.

Our batch retired in our rooms and re-united at 9 p.m, back to another round of drinks. We were all disappointed that no camp-fire or music was arranged owing to heavy rains today.
Meanwhile there was the other batch playing Anthakshari, I decided to opt out of it. We guys danced to songs on TV and danced to our own tunes too. It was all too much fun. Nitin and me bribed our driver to play songs in the bus, and we lit our own camp fire (burnt out of cartons ) and danced around it (the highlight song was "Pokiri Pongal" from a recent Tamil movie "Pokiri"). At about 12 all of us found ourselves snoring in our rooms.


Sunday, 22nd July 2007, Kodaikanal

Thanks to Ashish's snorts, I couldnt sleep beyond 6. Watched TV for a while and freshened up in the cold Kodaikanal morning water. Then walked all over our hotel lawns trying to fill my camera. Fed a few grass blades to a horse (more of a pony) in the campus, and woke up mates from other rooms. Our plan was to cover more tourist spots today, and leave by4 p.m to catch the 9.30 p.m train from Madurai to Chennai. We first travelled to the Pine Forest in our buses. This is where the fun began. Each of us dancing to the songs being played in the bus. Rinu and Asma need special mention for their never ending energy source that lasted till late in the evening.

I have earlier seen such pine forest scenes only in movies, where a pretty heroine is chased by a few gangsters. Now I found myself with Syntel gang in the same pine forest. By now almost all of us were running around the forest in all directions, more like an untied dog running all over a grass lawn when it finds itself in an overly excited state. We captured a lot of scenic pictures here, munched a few fresh carrots, shared some with monkeys too. This weather here was amazing, it would shine bright and then slowly but steadily we would be completely surrounded by fog, and then heavy downpours. It was so very predictable by now.

We then drove to the Pillar Rock ( I think so) which had a very steep descent. The recent rains made this path even treacherous. All except the 7 of us decided to venture through. It was a one of a kind experience, we all knew we were just one stumble away from a never ending roll down the cliff. This made it even more exciting. Finally made it as far as we could go, and then decided to join the waiting gang up there.

Next on our agenda was the Suicide Point. By now it rained again. We sheltered and had hot bajjis, milk and some shopping. Suicide point offered us no view, except a thick blanket of fog. I remember a similar blanket the last time I was here, 15 years back !, I mean 15 years and the fog still stayed on, beats me ! Bought some homemade chocolates and eucalyptus oil (the Kodai specialities), and off we went to our resort. Out of nowhere we decided to put up a dance party near the resort bus park. The whole bunch joined in, and it was a whole lota fun, a mid-day dance extravaganza. Very few were spared from dancing, and we rocked the next 1 hour. I think this 1 hour was the best in the entire trip.

The last part was our descent from Kodai to Madurai. It was a 3 hour curvy journey again. Our bus was filled with Dances till we took a puke break again. Then we started Anthakshari, which got us over the puking sensation and the next 2 hours went off in a fluff. Saveetha became the limelight now when she fainted the moment she got out of the bus in Madurai. I managed to get her some glucose, and in a while she was all charged up for the last leg of the tour.

Me, Sami, Thulasi and Chandrakanth split to have some juice and then back on our 9.30 train. Felt like even before the fun gripped us, the thought of returning back to a daily routine of status calls, meetings and work sank in. It was a little sober journey back to Chennai. I dozed off around 11 returning back after what I would simply call an absolutely fun filled trip to a scenic serene Kodaikanal.

Highlights of the tour: Scenic Kodai landscapes, Fog chilling the skin, Thick Pine Forest, Mid-day dances and the team's togetherness.