Nagala central peak - Dec 2016

Christmas weekend was approaching and I was contemplating what to do on New Years eve and on Christmas weekend as well.  I got in touch with a trekker who I had met on a previous trek called Manu.  He too was in favor of trekking  on that weekend, so we started asking around on whatsapp groups for people to join us.  Manohar and I hatched this plan on Monday, and it was Wednesday now.  We had already received substantial number of people that would financially justify booking a traveller vehicle for the trip.  We were already 13 by now, and with some last minute drop outs it came down to eleven of us.

All set to start the trek

After carefully deciding the trail with Manu, we got on with the trip on Friday night.  It wouldn't be before midnight on Friday, that we could leave from Tin factory bridge, owing to the huge surge of vacationers leaving the city for popular as well as not so popular tourist destinations.  With the last person boarding the tempo at Tin factory we finally exited the city and started for Nagala.  It was an icy cold night as we found out at one of the pit stops when everyone got down to stretch and have a cup of Joe.  With not one being able to get much of a shut eye all night, we arrived at Nagalapuram at around 4 in the morning and headed straight for the lodge to catch a snooze and freshen up.  Other than Manu and I, no one else had been here before so there was a bit of excitement and anticipation in the air.

Piping hot idlis and dosas were served to us at 7 and that not only satiated our tummies, but made us completely forget about our sleeplessness as well.  We started for the dam at 8, picked up our packed lunches from a house on the way and reached it by around 9.  After distributing some common items and briefing everyone on what the itinerary was for the day, we started trekking.  It was decided that I would lead the group, while Manu would do the sweeping so that he could refresh his memories of the trail from the first trek.

We started trekking at around 9.30 which we realized later on, wasn't too bad, considering the pace of the group.  Everyone was fit enough and maintained a good pace all the way till the first pool, so Manu and I decided that we would spend a good 15 minutes there.

First pool

After frolicking in the water for a good amount of time, we decided to start for the dead end pool as there would be lots of ferrying to do, which is a time consuming activity.

Dead end pool

We ferried the bags, crossed the huge boulder on our way (where everyone needs help, hence time consuming again), and then had a well deserved lunch and break.

Lunch point after the big boulder

We were all pretty sloshed after lunch as it was quite a heavy one.  The quantity of tomato/lemon rice packed is usually ample for one person and one pack should ideally serve two.  It took some time to get people up and moving after this.  We decided not to take any breaks from here on as crossing the gorge would be time consuming as well.

crossing the gorge

At the viewpoint

Reaching the gorge took way lesser time than I had expected as everyone was fast and had maintained a good pace.  Due to this we had plenty of photo and video sessions at the gorge viewpoint and during the crossing as well.  With that done, we only had 30 percent of the trek left to be completed, but it took time since descending the gorge took more time as it was a 90 degree slope with loose rocks all along the way.  Even the soil isn't very moist here and has plenty of gravel and mud, so slipping isn't an option.  We decided to take it one at a time.  Once everyone got down, I told them not to stop anymore as the daylight was fading and we had to catch a nice flat space at the campsite before any other group gets to it.  Since there were no other deviations from here, everyone did whatever they could to move as fast as possible.  I dashed ahead to place my bag at the campsite and book our seat at the billion star hotel for the space odyssey which would begin at night.

Picnic pool

My all time favorite sleeping spot

I caught my usual sleeping spot which is adjacent to the main pool, and right next to the stream that flows out of it.  I have so many memories of this spot that to even start describing them would be difficult.  I've slept at this very spot for so many times that Sulai Sha of 'The Crazy Indian's Diary' even asked me to get the papers done for it.  How cool is that !

Everyone reached the campsite by dusk and we started preparing food.  Not everyone was in the mood to swim as most of us were either too tired or sleep deprived to do so and decided to keep swimming and diving for the next day morning and decided to take a quick nap while the food was being prepared.  I was way too sleepy for food and decided to sleep instead so I skipped eating and went in and out of different states of sleep through out the night.  At one point when I was in a half asleep state, the moon was right above me and it was a spectacle to behold with all the stars around it providing enough light for the moon to look majestic.  The next time I woke up, it was dawn and the birds entertained us with their morning melody.

At this point, I decided that I had gotten enough sleep for the night and decided to take a couple of guys who were already up for a small hike to 'Treasure hunt pool' (another pool named by the Chennai Trekking Club) and back.  5 of us got ready, and started moving towards the left of the picnic pool to ascend at steep rock face.  We had to then descend this very small section on the other side to join the main stream and continue trekking upstream in order to reach the treasure hunt pool.  The treasure hunt pool is a "dead end" pool of sorts as one has to ascend the vertical section to the right of it if they wanted to continue trekking along the stream.

Treasure hunt pool

The five of us with the pool in the background

The Treasure hunt pool is approximately 700 meters from the picnic pool.  We reached it in around 20 minutes. No one was in the mood to swim here (as we were all excited to get back to picnic pool and join in the fun with everyone else), so we clicked a couple of pictures and got back to the picnic pool.

After doing a couple of dives and group dives, we started packing up the campsite and asked everyone to get ready for the return journey along the eastern stream.  Within no time we were already on our way back, and reached the dead end pool by 2.  We decided that we would have lunch after crossing the pool. It was almost 330 by the time the last of us reached the cave spot after the dead end pool and started preparing Maggi, and we decided that we would depart from here no later than 5.  Those who were hungry had lunch and we left just as it started getting dark.  The group was cooperative and moved swiftly and because of this we were able to exit the forest just as it was getting dark.  We were out by 7 and most of the freshers were quite exhausted , it being their first trek. We then proceeded to have hot bondas and chai at a house in the village en route our exit.  They were exceptionally tasty.  Village food is generally tastier than city food, and when had after two days of subsisting only on ready to eat meals, it tastes divine.  Everyone gorged on them like there was no limit and with that we bid goodbye to Nagala and started for Bangalore.

Happy exit just as it was getting dark