Nagala - A summer release for the soul

First, a little bit about trekking

Nagalapuram is not just another tourist spot, trek destination, or weekend getaway. It is a place where you build the mental foundation for a fuller life & wholesome existence. To experience this, you'll need to be open to the idea of back-to-back trekking in the same place repeatedly, which not many people are open to. If you are resilient, and persistent enough to keep visiting that place again and again, for months together, you'll see it build on you, and notice the changes it brings to your daily experience of life.

Back-to-back trekking has provided me with a finer perception, and appreciation of reality. I've always noticed this happen to me on treks. Whenever I'm back from one, the week following it is guaranteed to be filled with a vivid perception and assimilation of reality. Trekking kind of gives you those mental spectacles to wear to civilization, that just filters out all the junk and complexity, so that you feel calm and at ease, no matter what the ground reality is. I've felt much more in control of many situations, during trekking phases of my life, rather than otherwise. It's made me much more stronger and resilient in the face of many uncomfortable changes.

Anyways, enough of philosophical babble. Let's talk about the trek.

Planning

It was just another boring weekend that was coming up with nothing to do, and I was contemplating whether to go trekking, or to visit my parents place. I called up some trek buddies in the hope that they would be free to trek. After inquiring around for a bit, I found two friends free for that weekend. Individually, we tried recruiting at least one more person to come along with us, but in vain. So the three of us it was!

We planned the trail in such a way that it would be a picnic. Neither my friends, nor I were in any shape to do a complete two dayer. 😁

Day 0

Come Friday night, and I was the first to start from home in the evening, since we planned to drive down in my car. We decided to drive rather than go by bus, since it was just the three of us, and it wasn't a planned trek anyway. We had initially planned to depart late evening in order to reach Nagalapuram closer to midnight, to get a good nights rest to prepare us for the next day's trek. Somehow, all those plans went right out the window. After a lot of initial delay, and a couple of holdups, we finally managed to start by midnight. Quite to our surprise and delight, Highway Star Kolar, a highway rest stop as the name suggests, was open at the time we were passing by. It is located just a few km's after you pass Kolar town, on the left side of the highway. We optimistically popped in for a bite, and pic or two later, we were back on the road.

A few pics at Highway Star Kolar:

After a tiring but blissful drive on the desolate, dark and eerie state highway, we finally arrived at Nagalapuram at the unearthly hour of 330 in the morning. During the drive, Aashish and Sampath had both volunteered to keep the conversation going, to help me stay awake but I outrightly refused and so it really felt solitudinous, cause it was just me, the empty road, and two sleeping trekkers in the car.

The desolate, lonely highway at 2.30 in the morning:

Solitude

The entire stretch of main road in the village was decked up for a festival, and we passed by caricatures of Hindu gods, that were erected on either side of the road. This gave a very festive look to the village and it brought some life into us, at 3 in the morning. Aashish and Sampath were both awake, as I had woken them up when we exited the State Highway to enter the village. This trek happened during one of those festival weekends. I don't quite recall which one, it was Holi or Dussehra I guess.

To be honest, seeing these multi-colored caricatures was pretty trippy at 3AM, after driving on the lonely highway all night, being totally sleep deprived. 👀

We then headed straight for our homestay, pissed off the owner, and immediately crashed into bed. With barely 3 hours to go for sunrise, we were not too optimistic on the sleep sufficiency for this trek, even though it was designated to be a walk in the park.

Day 1

We woke up to a bright, humid, and exceptionally sunny day at around 7 in the morning. Bangalore folks will certainly be able to make out the difference, as Bangalore air is cool and dry throughout the year. Here it is the complete opposite!

With barking dogs, chirping birds, and hens cooing since 5 in the morning, it wasn't what one would exactly call a "good nights sleep". I was jolted out of my REM stage as quickly as I fell into it by the three above mentioned villains. Instead of waking up refreshed and raring to get onto the trail, I was all irritable and moody. At this point, I was busy wrestling with the idea of just abandoning the trek and dozing off inside the hut. My eyes were dry and crusty as hell! It would be crazy to think I could go out staring at the sun with these zombie eyes.

I also had absolutely no appetite for food because of the long sleepless night, combined with the heat. When you are sleep-deprived, the last thing your body needs is for you to start the digestion process. Secondly, this kind of heat seriously reduces your need for food, as food only creates more body heat, something that the body is desperately trying to shed.
Reluctantly, I dragged myself to breakfast, forcefully downed one, and went back to nap in our hut, while the others finished their meals. Breakfast consisted of plain and simple, Upma with chutney. No variety at breakfast. It's the lunch you should be coming here for!

Getting onto the trail

We started pretty late, at 8.30, when the sun was high up in the sky, shining nice and bright. We were greeted to breathtaking views of the rocky ridges, with puffy, sunlit clouds overhead, casting a spectacular glow on all of the land. That totally woke me up from my passive slumber, and my internal trek machine was slowly limping back to life. We decided to park the car at the homestay due to safety concerns and proceeded on foot. We had to walk for quite a few kilometers before we could find an auto driver who'd take us to the start point. Due to that, I was able to take pics that I'd usually not take, as we would never usually stop on this road.

These stunning vistas are what actually woke me up and got me moving:

Incredibly stunning vistas all around

blue white and green. definitely a sight for sore eyes

just before entering the forest

And the trek begins

We arrived at the trailhead only by around 10.30 or so, and had to trek in the hot sun for some time before we could get into canopy cover. Since the three of us were seasoned trekkers in this exact region, we had absolutely no problem doing so. We hurried along the Eastern Stream of Nagala, and got to the beautiful dead-end pool. The late night driving, sleep deprivation and low stamina took its toll on me and I immediately passed out (not literally) on the flat rock at our destined campsite, which was just a few metres before dead-end pool.

We were already at our campsite for the day anyway! What more was there to do ?

One of the best campsites we've stayed at

Getting around to campsite duties

I took a nice power nap for a jolly good hour. Then Ashish and Sampath, both, bugged me to join them at the dead-end pool, for a small afternoon swim to beat the heat. I very reluctantly went; more because of safety reasons, than to actually swim. The sight of the emerald green water with its reflections of the brown overhanging rock face, the boulders, the sky and some gigantic trees instantly got me pepped up again. And guess what? The moment I hit the water, I was back to my usual self. It was almost like the previous night's slumbrous drive on the lonely highway, and this morning's zombie trek never happened. Boy was I glad that I was back !

Dead-end pool

I was not just "back", I was jumping, diving, and even swimming in the water, much more than the others were. You should have seen the look on their faces. They were equally stunned as to how someone who had to be nudged, and dragged out of bed to come here just a few minutes ago, was all of a sudden, not just frolicking and splashing around in the water, but was beating them at it. And they were the ones who wanted to come swimming huh! well, what do you know!

I actually felt good as the cool water gave some respite from the heat we had endured since the beginning of the day.

So after diving, jumping, swimming and lazing around in the water, getting fish pedicures, for more than an hour, we got back to camp. There was no need to cook since we had brought packed lunch with us from the village. It consisted of lemon rice with pickles. After having a hearty meal, I was feeling sluggish again, and straight away passed out for I don't even know how long. I'm not even going to speak for the others, as I have no idea what they did. I just passed out after that hearty meal! 😄

Hot hot soup!

We're already lit and cooking before darkness even set in

My face after the evening slumber :D

When I was later woken up, the sun was already pretty low in the sky, and the light was fading. Our campsite was at a place where we were set up on a flat rock, right beside the stream, where the flow was pretty thin, but just good enough for our campsite needs. We were protected by a cave-like structure that almost covered us from above. The downstream direction was wide and open, and both sides of the stream were walled up with vertical ascents in either direction, with trees in the center. We were pretty much closed off to the upstream part of the stream, as it was all covered in huge boulders, and vegetation that grew right off the centre of the stream. So not much light was coming through anyway.

This was undoubtedly one of the best campsites we'd ever stayed in. It's open at the top to gaze at the stars, it's got a cave to run into the moment it rains, its windy due to the open area, there's a stream flowing right next to our beds, there's a designated campfire spot to the side, which isn't windy, its a dead end on one side of the stream, and the other side is all stream and boulders. What more does a trekker need?

stream dining table

Our campfire

After heaving a sigh from my first, well-rested sleep in the last 24 hours, I got around to campsite duties with the others. We were collecting firewood for three purposes, namely:

1. Our soup preparation.

2. Our main course dinner preparation.

3. Our night long safety net.

By the time soup was done, our cave already had this dusky ambience to it. It was quite warm for October, considering peak winter was just a month away, so I got into the stream to have my soup. Soup is usually carried on treks not just to reward an entire day's trekking, but to also rejoice having it in the cold. And that's exactly what I did! The air wasn't cool, but the water was! I absolutely relished every second of it, while sitting next to the small spouts gushing by. It was an absolutely enchanting night with a starlit sky, spectacle of torch light bouncing off the water, sound of the stream, cold trickles and shivers running down my back, while hot soup went down my throat and into my stomach. I took an eternity to finish the soup, and by the time I was done, Aashish and Sampath were already done with round 2.

Campsite bed, flat and comfy, a rarity in treks

Zombie eyes :D

Struggled like hell to keep em open for this pic :D

With the hum of the insects, and melody of the stream for company, we all gladly hit the sack at around 9 in the night. Pretty damn early for city folks eh! The clouds played hide 'n seek with the moon and stars, and this was a phenomenon that kept me awake for most part of the night. I still remember it being an incredibly bright moon that night, that shone directly on our faces all night long, and it was almost like day time, where you had to put a towel over your face to sleep.

The rock bed was pleasurably flat, facilitating a great nights rest. However, my cardiovascular system had other plans, and I was continuously sneezing and blowing my nose for the first half of the night. We were also anxious about the fire going out, so I used this opportunity to be the one to replace the fire. Later when my ENT finally let up and allowed me to go to bed, Sampath took up the reins to replace the firewood whenever it was required.

Beginning the day with a hot pot of maggi

our campsite bed, next to the stream

Day 2

We woke up to a bright sunny morning, after a warm night, with a faint breeze that was just enough to keep us from sweating. The weather was actually quite clement and salubrious. But that's not what we came here for! It was supposed to be at least a little bit cool during this month. No idea where all the cold went. We usually carry sleeping bags, to tide over the night time dip in temperature that happens especially in December. We were at the beginning of October, but the early onset of winter still hadn't set in for some reason.

Anyways, we got about washing the utensils to prepare soup and noodles for breakfast again. That is all that we carried in terms of food that needs to be cooked. No other group visited the camp, as we kind of expected on day 1; and that was a relief. We still had our privacy. We packed up all the stuff and I got into the stream again to have breakfast, this time spending more time in it, to make up for the warm night sleeping on the stone.

Cooling off in the stream with hot soup in hand

We then decided to start immediately, so that we could spend maximum time at the sliding and magic pools, which was our agenda for the day. We got there, and luckily there were no other people over there as well. Being a Sunday, I was a mighty sure that we'd bump into some group or the other. We were really relieved to have our privacy again, and started frolicking around in the water as quickly as possible.

Frolicking around at sliding pool

We decided that we'd do sliding pool first and then magic pool, as we wanted to utilize our early morning energy to slide, where most of the effort would go in sliding, and climbing back up the rock to slide again. This time, Aashish and I were the only ones to get into the water, as Sampath was a bit apprehensive, after what transpired the previous day at dead end pool. So in we went, with Sampath guarding all of our bags from the daredevil raucous monkeys, who were desperately waiting for us to let our guard down.

The monkeys here are accustomed and habituated to seeing humans almost every weekend; especially the one's that cook and camp here; hence their addiction to processed food. These pools are barely 2-3 km's from the main dam, so it is pretty doable for even the most sluggish couch potatoes. There was an instance where I almost lost my car keys and wallet to these scoundrels. I think it was during my trek here with another group just the previous month. By the luck of all our stars, one of us had noticed them and had scared them away just in the nick of time, and they instantly dropped my bag which they were furtively camping away with. That was a really close call! So henceforth, from that trek onwards, I had  sworn to keep this fact at the top of my mind on every trek, no matter how sleep deprived I am.

There was another instance before this one, where I had taken this fact quite lightly. However, I had spoken about it to the group on day one, but very absent-mindedly forgotten about it on the second day.

Cost to team: We just lost a packet of Rusk. Phew !! Really close call again.

I could have put this on them, since I had explicitly warned them about it on Saturday evening, but I did not want to abdicate myself of the responsibility. By all means, it was my responsibility, as I was coming here for the nth time, whereas most of them were first timers. I didn't expect them to remember each and every thing I instructed; and the instructions which were critical to the safety of the group were repeated before engaging in that respective activity anyways, so it comfortably slipped out of my mind. It was the sleep deprivation for sure. Neither had I slept on the bus journey here on Friday night, nor had I slept while camping on Saturday night.

Wheeeee!!!!!

The view from above magic pool

With barely few hours to go for our tentative exit time, we left sliding pool after 4-5 sliding sessions and moved to magic pool.

Here the water was a bit cooler and we were able to see far more deeper than at sliding pool. I did a couple of jumps, a few dive sessions and then enjoyed a bit of fish pedicure as well. There is shallow point at the entrance of magic pool where one can go and see the bottom if they held their breath long enough. I did that, and came up with so much pressure in my face, that it felt like it was going to pop out of my ears like a pressure cooker.

This is what happens when you haven't gone swimming in a long time, but attempt such things on treks! 😜

wild beans?

Edible?

Exit and departure for Bangalore

It was around 1PM by now. The sun was directly above our heads, and we were seated on the rock bed at the entrance to the pool with the lower half of our bodies immersed in it. Sitting here at the pool, listening to the sound of the gushing falls, with the sight of greenery all around, butterflies and other insects fluttering by, the wind cooling the sweat on our bodies felt absolutely divine, with the fusion of the cold from the water, and the heat of the sun hitting our bare backs, creating a sort of an amalgamation of sensations.

With the clock ticking towards noon, we decided it was time to leave, and each of us gradually got out of the water. I quickly put on my running singlet and shoes. I didn't bother changing into my trekking shorts as my swimming trunks needed to dry. I am always doing this section of the trek on day 2 in swimming trunks, and I change into travel clothes only at the dam. Its easier to trek in them, plus you can always get into other pools on the way, one last time while exiting, without necessitating a change of clothes. Also, on most treks, my running singlet and swimming trunks would have almost dried up by the time I reached the village house after the 5km walk in the scorching sun.

I was the first one to exit and got to the top of magic pool in no time, staring up at the majestic hillock right in front of me:

Radiant and stunning: Nagala hills

As I waited, I clicked a few photos and took a well deserved sun bath. I love sun baths. That's the reason I even come to Nagala so frequently. There was absolutely no noise here above the pool, and the absence of the white noise of gushing water in my ears gave way to an eerie silence, as here on the top, all that was there was the whistling of the wind, the intermittent hum of birds and insects, and the faint but clear sound of the water from sliding pool. If you stood here as an explorer, you wouldn't even know that magic pool existed, unless you went down to check it out.

By the time we were done changing into our trek clothes, having our snacks, and re packing our bags, it was around 2, and this gave us plenty of time to go back to the house at the village to have lunch, before starting for the homestay.

Walking in the sweltering sun back to the village

We hiked back the muddy trail leading to a village that was 5km's away, in the scorching sun, that took almost 30 minutes. We had to halt at a house in that village to have the lunch we'd ordered beforehand. It must have been around 35 degrees that afternoon. We had called up the lady at the dam itself, and told her that we were to arrive there in an hour and, to start warming up our food.

A blissful drive: Nagalapuram-Bangalore

stunning scenery as you are exiting AP

We got to her house at around 2.30, and the three of us gulped around a litre of water each, before any food could even enter our mouths. We were quite famished; more because of the heat and less due to the trail itself. We had a sumptuous, delicious lunch of rice, sambar and vegetables. It was totally out of the world. Village food is always tastier than city food for some reason. Some say its the spices, some say it's the firewood, some say its their hands. I don't know what it is; but I make sure to dine at some village house or the other during every Nagala trek.