Nagala trail run trek - The trail run that never happened

You must be wondering, "trail run trek?, now what's that supposed to be ?".  Well, due to certain reasons like time constraints, late start, sleep deprivation, or just whatever it was, what was intended to be a trail run, became a trek. It is unplanned events like these that actually made most of my treks in the past interesting. It was also because of this, that we had plenty of time to dive and swim in the amazing pools of Nagala.

The original plan for the trek was this: Mark out a 20 km trail on the GPS, do a recce of the trail on Saturday with trekking bags, reach the campsite by dusk, leave the trekking bags there with one of us guarding them, and then run the same loop on Sunday with trail running bags.

There were five of us, and Kashyap volunteered to guard the trekking bags while we ran the loop on Sunday.  Our planned campsite was Magic pool and it was one that was well thought out. I have to give it to Karthik for his navigation and trail marking skills. For one, magic pool was ridiculously close to the dam (the place where we enter/exit the forest). Secondly, it made a good campsite with an ample amount of open space (with faint mobile signals as well), and thirdly, if the volunteer got bored, he/she could easily spend plenty of time diving, swimming, or lazily enjoying a fish pedicure while taking in the sights.

on the slide

We started for Tirupati by the 12 am Airavat from Bangalore, reached Nagalapuram bus stand at around 7 after changing buses at Tirupati, had breakfast, and then waited a while for Saumia who was to join us from Chennai. After she arrived and was done with breakfast, we took an auto rickshaw to the starting point of our trek, the T.P Kota dam.  On the way, we picked up our packed lunches from Subbarao's house. His wife makes and packs food for trekkers on almost every weekend and this has been the tradition for some years now.

We got off to late start as it was 8 by the time we reached the dam and we could commence trekking only by 8.30. I was excited at the prospect of having to trek with just four more people after trekking with 39 others on the same trail (partly) two weeks ago. Imagine the noise and commotion that could be made by a tribe of 40 humans! Phew!! The plan for the day was to reach Picnic pool, have lunch and then commence for Magic pool, which would be our campsite for the night.  We reached Picnic pool at exactly noon, had fun diving and swimming for a while, and then quickly finished lunch.

Picnic pool

 After that, we took a side stream which was to the top left of the picnic pool and kept following it for some distance. After a point, it got dry and the size of the boulders started increasing. Climbing these huge boulders upstream at a fast pace is a joy that can't be described perfectly. It was exhilarating, thrilling and gave us a trekkers high. It was an endorphin release festival. Nothing, and I mean not even a marathon, has given me a high as much as running on the boulders of Nagala. However, we had to get off the dry stream as we realized that we were running short of time and had to bush whack our way to the ridge on our right. This was time consuming.

It was 4.30 by the time we were out of the bushes and had found a trail.  Kashyap and Prateek were totally worn out by this time and were desperate to settle down at a campsite.  With only 2 hours left for sundown and our pace being slower that what it previously was, Karthik decided to camp at another campsite that was not very far from the Magic pool.  We reached this campsite just as the light was fading and stared collecting firewood to make soup and Maggi. There was a water point just two minutes from the campsite. It was a full moon night and there was enough light to get around the campsite without a torch. Other than a few galloping sounds that could be heard very close by at around 3am, everything else went fine and we woke up to a magical Sunday morning with dew fall and bird song all around us.

It was 8 am and we had still not started our trek for the day. We had intended to start at least by 6.  We quickly finished breakfast, checked the GPS for the right trail, and were on our way in no time. After crossing two ridges and a dry stream, we finally arrived at magic pool. Karthik and Kashyap had picked up a couple of gooseberries en route and we were now munching on them. As always,  the monkeys on the adjacent hill made sure that their presence was felt and that we were intruding on their home ground.  Their alarm calls reverberated all across the adjacent hill and valley.

Kashyap and I were an elated lot as we decided to go to sliding pool first and then hit magic pool.  We had the time of our lives at sliding pool, diving, sliding, going on underwater exploration, taking videos and photos.  We were enjoying ourselves so much here, that we almost forgot to save some energy for magic pool. As a result of this, we were all worn out after reaching magic pool and so didn't spend much time there.  However, on one of our mini underwater exploratory missions, I found a pair of Nabaji goggles at the shallow end of the pool.

There is always something waiting to be found at the bottom of the shallow end of magic pool. Towels, batteries, plastic, you name it. After our treasure hunt, I resolved to improve my diving and swimming skills so that we can go deeper and look for even more treasure in future.

Magic pool

It was 2.30 now and we decided to go to a waterfall just 5 minutes away to cook lunch and take a power nap.  We had decided not to trail run as we had found no suitable trail around us for a 10km run.  After lunch, Kashyap and I decided to nap at sliding pool rather than here as it was very stuffy and humid with mosquitoes all around.  We decided to leave at around 4.30 for Subbarao's house, where we were to have an early dinner.

We found ourselves gorging on the delicious fare served to us at Subbarao's place at 7.  After a day long trek, curry tastes ten times better than it usually is and we were in no mood to stop the chapatis from coming.  After this, we set off for the main road at a brisk pace as we had a 11pm bus to catch at Tirupati.

Walking from the dam to Subbarao's house, having food there, bidding my goodbye to the Chennai folks at the main road, waiting for a bus or auto at the T.P Kota bus stand, and waiting for the Bangalore bus at the AC waiting room at Tirupati are things that a Chennai trekker would never get to experience and I will cherish them forever.  I will sorely miss all these treasured moments once I move to Chennai and start a new trekking journey there.