DAY 1

First came the preparation which in itself was tiring. I being a first-timer, had to purchase a host of stuff, including a backpack (a rather large one), cooling glasses, a sleeping mat, and a cap – all of which cost a cool 3k. And then came the heaviest of them all – water – 8 whole litres of it (for just two days!). When my bag was fully loaded (with 2 kgs of food), it became difficult to carry. I was wondering how far I could go with this before collapsing .

We (14 of us) took Machilipatnam Exp from Secunderabad.

DAY 2

We reached Tadikalapudi at 4.15 in the morning. Having a penchant for frequent headaches, I emptied a litre of water early in the morning, hoping to keep one at bay that day. We started our walk from the station at dawn around 6 AM and kept walking through lovely cotton and paddy fields. Then I saw the ornage morning sun – something which I hadn’t seen in a while . We walked around a couple of hills and approached a small hill. It looked puny to us, but no one had an idea of what it had in store for us. We met one of the villagers on a bullock cart (which was in itself a rare instance – the first and the last time we ever saw humans in the trek!) who suggested to us to take a path a little further away to cross the hill. We ignored his suggestion, and took the nearest ‘route’ right in front of us. By the time we reached the peak, my breath had become faster, and we all needed rest. So much for this ‘tiny’ hill!

Having climbed down this hill, which in itself was an ordeal with lots of thorns (my protruding sleeping , we then reached the plains and our walk became easier. We reached the base of a taller mountain around 8 and settled for breakfast near a stream. A hundred grams of corn flakes with soya milk was all we had for breakfast (Poor me…I was used to eating upma and pongal!).

Yours truly emerged stylish after breakfast with sunglasses and a cap . We then started our ascent through the pass between a couple of hills. Our mission was the head of the stream, where we were planning to cool off with a possible bath and a swim. The ascent was smooth at first, and then became rocky. Climbing became difficult, but I was able to manage rather well, usually among the first few in the group. We crisscrossed the stream, and the weather was also perfect during this time (still morning at around 10 AM).

Somehow, in the next half hour or so, we lost the stream, and the land became kindof barren, with just dry grass and fewer trees. Combined with the hotter sun (the season being almost summer), trekking became difficult with more dehydration. I started sweating more, and consuming much more water.

A word has to be said about our leaders. None in the group had any idea where we were going, and simply followed Ravi and Raghu. Both these guys knew this place (this was their third trip here) and often asked the group to rest while they ventured out in the sun to explore routes when they were not sure of the path to take. And yet, they continued to climb with ease! Where did these guys get their stamina from???

The group as a whole started taking more frequent breaks till lunch. Then came the search for a lunch point. We couldn’t find a single area with a shade for around half an hour. Then came two smaller such areas, where we split in two and accommodated ourselves. Five chapathis with rajma and channa masala was our lunch. We stayed there for an hour and half (a few even slept).

Thinking we would all be energized post lunch, we resumed our trek – only to rest in another ten minutes . We had reached the peak of a 400m high hill and agreed to find the nearest decent plain area to retire for the night. Ten minutes later we found a good spot; but Ravi was still reluctant. “Our original resting point is atop that peak”, and he pointed to the top of a adjacent hill 600m tall (”peak 2075″ – which measured 2075 feet)! To reach there, we had to descend the peak we were on and ascend the other one.

“Come on guys, it’s just 1 km!” Yeah.. if we jump down straight, break our heads and then climb up straight! Otherwise, easily more than 2-3 kms, if we were to properly get down and then up. The group managed to convince Ravi to calm himself down and rest for the night . We then prepared the spot – flattened the grass, spread out our sleeping mats atop plastic sheets, and prepared a fire for dinner after collecting dried wood, and removing all the grass off a 2m wide circle. (The last thing we wanted in that scorching heat was a forest fire that we triggered). That was when my headache which started around noon worsened, and I took a tablet and slept soundly for an hour or so. I appeared in such a poor shape to quite a few people that they thought I was dead

After sunset, we began our dinner prep – a pack of noodles each for most people on a kadai. We noticed a couple of forest fires – one, on peak 2075, was composed of two magnificently bright lines tapering towards each other, and the other on our peak (the fire itself was not visible, but the fumes were). This was what really scared us – we did not know if and when this fire would hit us, and were told to pack up our stuff and be ready to start descending if we actually saw the fire. However, I and most others slept rather soundly, believing that it wouldn’t hit us. Karthik later revealed that he was so afraid (he even woke me up a couple of times), that he didn’t sleep well, what with both his legs bent (fearing a snake bite ).

DAY 3

Sure enough, as the night got cold, the forest fires disappeared – and when we awoke the next day at 5 AM, they were no longer there. We started our descent at 530 AM – the descent was tougher than the ascent since we usually do not use our hands during descent for grip (we would be on all fours throughout the descent if we did ) and had to rely on trees, and consequently I fell down twice. Thankfully we reached the base by 730 AM well before the shadows left. We moved on near the breakfast point, and after freshening up, walked towards the station. We were there by 11 AM and took a passenger train to Bhadrachalam by 12. We were there at Bhadrachalam Road by 1230 AM, and took a dorm. Most of us were truly relieved to see a town with facilities that we usually take for granted . After a good lunch, most of us went to the Ram temple there (35 kms away from the station) while Karthik, Venkat and myself stayed behind (Karthik had a swollen knee, thanks to his bent leg the previous night . I had been to Bhadrachalam the week before and had visited the temple, and Venkat was not interested). After idling around for the rest of the day, we had dinner and boarded the train to Secunderabad.

Overall, it was a fun trip and I’m looking forward to the next one!

16 members from Deccan Trekkers have successfully completed DT’s first trek in Sahyadris to Rathangad. Let’s read what Snehal, a first time trekker with Deccan Trekkers had to say about this trek …

We planned to cover Ratangad and Harishchandragad in a span of 3 days from 24^th Jan to 26^th Jan, with the gang of 16 people (14 guys and 2 gals among us). Out of which 7-8 first time trekkers including me. This was our first trek in Sahyadris. Our plan was to reach Ratangad first, stay there for the night, next morning descend down and proceed to Harischandragad via katrabai pass (though it didn’t work as planned).

We started from Hyderabad, gathered at Secunderabad station, where food packs were distributed. We boarded 6.00 PM Ajanta express on 23^rd jan to Manmad. We reached Manmad on 24^th by 7.00 AM. Everyone got freshen up here and we packed our water bottles, 6 liter for each person as well our breakfast (All- time favorite Mumbai food Wada Pav though it was not good I loved it as I tasted it after a long time). We have taken tea and few people busy in trying the hands on their own photography. After this adventures journey started to our next destination, which was Igatputi. We had a train at 8.30 AM for the same, by mistake out of 16, 13 persons tickets got reserved for 23rd date, and we realized this just few minutes before the departure time. Then Ragu and LSP with his twisted ankle rushed to get the ticket for the general class. Leaving 3 persons wth few bag packs in the reservation bogie few of us started walking towards the general compartment with our bag packs. On the last moment LSP and Ragu managed to come back with the tickets, I managed to get the place with my marathi and tried to get more seats for rest of us. Before nasik almost each one of us got the seats. We have taken our breakfast in train itself. We got down at Igatpuri somewhere around 10.30 AM, Everyone has taken the tea and few snacks as the breakfast was not sufficient. From here we were suppose to go to Shendi directly. But as we reached almost close to 11.00 AM in morning there were no direct buses to Shendi from Igatpuri bus stand.

I got the information from the tea stall that we can get the transportation only from Ghoti. Till ghoti we reached via auto We packed up our lunch from Igatpuri and packed bag packs properly. We managed 4 persons in 1 auto and paid 50 bucks per auto. From there we have taken a tempo kind of transport It accommodated 16 people. Which dropped us to Shendi near the Amruteshwar lake. It’s actually a dam. We reached the Shendi around 1.30 PM and we decided to take the lunch at Shendi itself and then start the journey via boat towards the Ratanwadi.After first time experience of travelling in tempo everyone got freshen up in lake water. We have taken our lunch (spicy sabji though) and pack-off around 2.30 PM. Before that everyone have made their glucose water ready and we boarded the boat.It was wonderful experience to travel in boat half an hour journey. The lake water was deep greenish, cool and still. It was an awesome view to see the Sahyadri hill ranges image in water. We reached to the Ratanwadi around 3.30 PM, we had a talk with one local guy in the boat he took us from the bank of Ratanwadi to the main village.We crossed fields, also the path that was full of magenta, violet colored flowers; it’s been another beautiful view to see fields covered with such beautiful flowers.

First we went to the Ratanwadi temple to take the darshan. This temple is almost at the border of the village. Then we hired a guide, actually guide is not need to Ratangad trek as its a simple straight route till top, but as we had a plan for the Harichandragad as well and there is no sufficient info on blogs we have hired a guide for combined trek by negotiating and managed to get for 800 for 2 days. Then we started our trek to the Ratangad almost around 4.30 PM, which made us sure that we will not be able to make till top before the sunset. Our plan was to reach the top before 7.00 PM. But I would say I would not have been so thrilling if everything would have worked out as per the plan. We could able to climb up to the 40% of the top by 6.00 PM and I gave up here itself. I was the last person to reach this point. Till this point a small puppy also accompanied us, I don’t know what attachment he had got with our group, he was not going back at all. Somehow we have shushed him off.

We have taken some rest here and started again we got information from the people going down, that there are some stairs after some distance. So everyone was relaxed that ok fine we have staircases. It was getting dark by then and we have started the trek in the torch light, we have divided ourselfs among groups and was very cautious to be in group and also be at the reachable distance from other groups.

The darkness was one of the most important factor because of which people like me (first time trekkers) were giving up at many points. Another point was we had packed the 3 days food items so bag packs were bit heavy. We reached the point where we have to cross the staircase, we shocked to see that it is a iron rod stairs and its shaking as well there is no proper sidebar. Amit was the first person that climbed up the shaking staircase, which doesn’t have sidebars that too he has done this without torchlight and with his bag pack, hats off to him.With great teamwork we managed to cross both the staircase and then we thought we reached the destination. But no we have to cross another narrow path where at a time only one person can go. We crossed this and came in small cave.Taken some rest here till the time everyone crosses the top and then we climbed to the top cave where there was already one college gang. There are only 2 caves. 1 big cave can accommodate around 25-30 people and other can accommodate 8-10 people. There is open space as well.

We reached the top almost by 9.00 PM, not bad 4 and half hours trek considering the darkness that too with 7-8 first time trekkers.

We got the settled in the cave and we got freshen off and taken our dinner. The snaffy roti and Rajama masala/Chana Masala never tasted so good to me at least. We got the desert as well at the hilltop the bun cakes (off course carried by me). LSP, Ragu, Guhan tried to start ghost stories and scare me while having the dinner but it was a flop show. After dinner everyone was so tired everyone wanted to sleep. But before going to sleep 5 people discussed, as they were first time trekkers and has opted for the option to go back to ratanwadi and then reach to pune somehow and not going forward to the Harichandrabad.We have informed this to the trek leaders as well. But the basic funda of the deccan trekkers is never split into the group and take the quick decision based on the situation. (Which I came to know from this experience, as I was also among those 5 members who gave up on first day itself).

I got very good sleep that night. Next day morning few of us got up around 6.15 to capture the sunrise from the cave. I cant explain the view in words which we have seen, I was speechless, its really worth to reach that top and see such a wonderful nature in front of your eyes when you woke up with rubbing your eyes. 3 sides of hill ranges are surrounded by the Amruteshwar lake. Watching and capturing the sunrise was one off the best part of this trek.Slowly everyone got up around 7.00 Am. We went and searched for the water sources on the top, we got few water kundas, from which we can use, the water for refreshment.

Once everyone back to cave around 8.00 AM, LSP and Ragu made a announcement that we are going to stay at Ratangad for one more day and canceling the plan for the Harischandragad, instead we will explore the ratangad and enjoy the camping in night. I was amazed so see that everyone agreed to this decision. Such a great gang, which cares for each and every individuals with them. As we had a lot of time by then we were relaxed. We have taken our breakfast. We also made our coffee off course individuals sponsoring their own 1-cup water, the milk powder coffee never have tasted so good.Almost by 10.00 AM we have finished off our breakfast and coffee and photo session.By now we were ready to explore the surroundings. As we cannot leave our baggages just like that in cave, we have taken a decision that somebody will stay back and rest will go. LSP with his twisted ankle opted to stay back and guard our bagages. Ragu was the first person to climb up the peak. He asked the group to follow the route and climb up. I took the wrong route and I was going alone by that way, where I saw a snake after which I could not climb up. Somehow I managed to go back to the cave. Other people have enjoyed climbing till the niddle hole point. Also while coming back they discovered the drinking water sources. Entire gang came back and relaxed a bit and we have taken our lunch. We have mixed rajama masala and chana masala together and heated it up. We also managed to toss our masala roties. It was such nice experience to eat the hot food. After Lunch some of us played the cards and few were just sitting and chit chatting. Meanwhile there also came another gang from NasiK, that gang has undertaken a good work to collect the garbage from the hill tops; they also had one snake friend among them. They catched one snake in bottle, which scared a laksmi a lot. Thank god I was not there to see another snake.This Gang occupied the half space of the cave and because of which we had to move into the inner cave, which was full off rats. That night at least me could not sleep, as rats were moving freely around us.

After 3.30- 4.00 PM in afternoon the gang of 6-7 people who could not reach till the peak point in the morning got ready to go to the top. Ragu has taken us via the way, which was almost like a footway, and easily walk able to reach to the top. Its bit lengthy though I preferred this. Before reaching to the niddle hole point we found another route, which is a proper stone staircase, which goes towards the village called sangamwadi/sangameshwar(don’t remember the exact name). These stairs are so proper that you can walk very easily. At last we reached the top most point. Which I never thought I will do it. Exploring the Ratangad top points we started our journey back to the Cave. While coming back we have seen Sunset view. Watching the sunset was one of the most wonderful experiences. While coming back we have checked the drinking water source, and collected some water. The water was so sweet and clear that we were able to see the bottom of the kund.

Meanwhile the gang, which stayed back in cave, has tried the same staircase, how risky it will be to go down. Lakshmi was one who was most scared of the staircase way, after this exercise she was very much confident enough to climb down. The time we reached the cave there were almost 3 gangs who occupied the open space below the cave as well. Then we realized it was almost kind of a picnic spot.

We have played a dumb Shiraz, I would appreciate Guhan for breaking all the english movie names, He has done a gr8 job and we could easily find out many movies.We have taken our dinner as Maggie. We thought of having bone fire at the open space below the cave, but as that space was also occupied we have dropped our plan. The second night was scary night with rats surrounding. Next day morning we woke up by 7.00 AM, got freshen off and taken our breakfast and bell rang for pack up.All of us ready to go back by 10.00 A.M. I was most worried about the staircase way as it was shaking and in night I could not the height but now I can easily see that, my legs were shaking.But as our bag packs were almost empty as we were just carrying our garbage, 2-liter water and other stuffs only. We have taken rest only at 2 points while coming down and then everyone realized it was a really a easy trek.Only darkness has added the effect. We managed to come back to village by 12.30.We came to know that the boat is already there and waiting for people, we have started to walk towards the bank of the lake. Almost 2-3 km. and we thought the boat will come any side but we were wrong some other gang occupied the first boat and we could not catch it up. So we decided to take the lunch and wait for the second boat, which will come approximately after 1 hr. After lunch and rest we realized that we are on the wrong side of the lake and we started to walk so that we will reach to the other side. It was so painful to walk after the lunch. We managed to catch the next boat, it was overloaded though 16 of us and 10 more guys from other gang. The small puppy accompanied us from the temple till the lake bank. We have given him some cheese slices. I don’t know he got so attached to our group, that when we boarded the boat and our boat started he was there and trying to just get into the water. I was able to see him for long time there.

We reached the Shendi by 3.30 and then we came to know that there is no direct bus, which can go to Pune. We have to rush to pune before 10.PM, as we had to catch the train to Hyderabad from there. With Amit’s and my marathi we managed to get 2 private cabs. 2000 per cab to reach Pune. As there was no other option we had to go with this. The 4 hours journey was very painful, as both the cabs were overloaded and no space to move your legs as well. We managed to reach the pune station by 9.40 PM and we boarded the Rajkot express. Had our dinner in train and got up in morning by 7.30-00 AM. At last we reached Hyderabad by 10.00 AM morning. Most of us got down at Hafizpeth signal stoppage, getting scattered for their own destination home sweet home, off course having the sweet memories of the 3 days and waving the hands to each other saying bye -bye and also plans for next trek in mind.

Overall it was one of wonderful experience for me with such a huge entho gang.

Experience shared by Snehal Kulkarni

Fill your eyes with some Pics

Sharing an exciting weekend with all those who were not there -

11 DTC members completed an amazing trekking expedition to Nagalapuram this weekend along with CTC. We started at 4pm Friday from Kacheguda and returned around 8am Tuesday morning delayed by a day, since we missed our scheduled train on Sunday evening.  45 hours of sheer pleasure, intensive trekking over trail-less slopes, through mountain streams and bedazzled by breath taking views.

We started at 4pm 12th Dec from Kacheguda by Kacheguda express and reached Puttur by 3:45AM 13th Dec. We walked out of Puttur railway station looking for some transportation and got surprised to see a tea stall open out side. We had a nice coffee over there. Sridhar and Nani went to bus station to enquire about the bus timings to Nagalapuram which is 20 Km from Puttur. We all walked to bus stand and boarded into a bus which we thought goes to Nagalapuram. After 10 min driver came and we got to know we boarded into wrong bus. Then we got down and caught another bus. We started our bus journey from Puttur to Nagalapuram by 4:30am. We reached Nagalapuram around 5:45am. As per Plan we decided to go to Vishnu temple, but few people wanted to take a room and fresh them up, after few jinks team got separated and one team of 5 people went to Sai Baba temple which has more taps to take bath and the rest stayed back to go to Vishnu temple itself and take bath in a tap in the street. After wonderful Dharsan, Ragu and LSP walked first to the Nagala bus station to enquire about the transportaion to T.P Kotta, which is our actual trekking starting point. They got no information since nobody in bus station knew about that place. Rest of the people also gathered and decided to have breakfast. From the hotel guy we got the transportation details. He said there is no bus since some roadwork is happening and asked us to take auto. We took two autos and reached the T.P.Kotta. The road to T.P.Kotta was not a well laid and water was running all over. So autos got struck in their way, and we walked down to reach our destination. We waited for CTC guys to reach the venue. By 9am every body reached the place and distributed the food and snacks. Everybody’s backpack is packed and it was time to kick start the trek. By 9:30am we walked over the walls of reservoir to reach the base of the mountain. The reservoir was completely submerged – the recent rains had transformed the place into a big lake that stretched deep inside the valley through which we trek. As a result we had to trek along the mountains bordering the western/left side for around 500m before joining the valley at a point behind the submerged area. There was noticeably more water in all streams we trekked through along the trail. The water was now streaming generously through rivers.

Target was to scale the 600m peak towards the right side of the reservoir. The weather was quite enjoyable which made the trek much more comfortable. We encountered big pool and a waterfall. We all jumped in and had a nice break. After the break, we started walking following the main river/valley before taking a right turn towards the caves. From here we proceeded towards the small waterfall/pool, after which we climbed over a small hill on the left/western side. We encountered a small pool and water stream we all had our lunch there. After our lunch we all filled our water bottles and everyone started to prepare their Glucose water. We started walking along the stream. Around 1.5km we started climb up the 600m peak along a fairly steep slope. We were climbing and sun was beating down, It was getting dark. Around 6pm it became darker and everybody was asked to use their torch. We trekked 1Hr 30Min in the dark. Darkness, steep inclines, long grass everywhere (due to recent rains) and rocks underneath the grass made things more challenging. Few people were shouting for help and thorns along side made life more difficult. Few fell, people from back were encouraging them to move ahead. After a long trek with the help of torches, we finally reached the flat mountain peak and set up tents. The full moon was peeking through the low-passing clouds. It was a quiet, peaceful night, although a bit chill at 600m altitudes in the winter. Everyone slept deeply after a first intensive and long day trek. Parotta’s and Chappathi’s with pickle and jam complimented with pure Nagala Glucon-D water never tasted so good before. The next day morning the alarm rang at 6am and some started to get up and around 7am the team were ready to proceed with the mission. We had reached the mountain on the Northern side and now proceeded towards the South where the single river draining this 3km long x 500m wide mountain takes a 300m vertical dip into the valley below. We were treated on some really amazing views from both sides of the mountains.

We reached the top of the 300m falls late Sunday morning and took a refreshing dip in a cool water pool on top. The views from the top of this vertical drop areamazing. Sitting on a rock and seeing the water tumbling down beneath your feet, so high above the valley floor really fills you with a feeling of deep peacefulness, relaxation and accomplishment. We enjoyed the pool and views from the top of the falls for more than 1 hour before proceeding further Southeast to start our descent back towards the dam. At the same time the worry started about getting late to our train since we had booked our return train by 7pm from Puttur. The descent was quite steep. People were struggling while descending. Few borrowed help to carry their backpack. Few need helping hands to assist them. The clock was ticking and we were started to worry about our train. After some time we could sense that we are going to miss our train. But with the little hope of catching the train we walked. We could only walk very slowly since the decent was so steep. At 6pm we were again caught by darkness and we preceded carefully avoiding steep slopes and dense scrub along the trail. We were able to navigate towards the shining lake in the night at the entry of the Nagala valley and made a perfect landing on the right side of the dam around 7:30pm Sunday.

We missed our train. Hoping we will get some transportation back to Hyderabad we decided to move immediately leaving CTC folks. We walked over the reservoir walls and walked across to the path where we came. Meantime we tried to call the auto rickshaw guys whom we asked to wait for us. But we could not get them we decided to walk. After some 1.5km we found two autos were parked and we were back in business. We boarded the auto and reached Nagalpuram around 9pm. immediately we got a bus to Thirupathi and we reached Thirupathi by 10. 30pm. We decided to send Murthy first since he had his daughter’s 21-day birth celebration back home. We got a bus to Kurnool and there was only one seat available as per our plan we asked Murthy to leave and by the time Prakash found a place in the same bus after few negotiations with conductor. Rest of the people decided to stay back and travel next day. Next day we visited couple of temples and boarded 6pm bus to Hyderabad and reached Hyderabad by 8am Tuesday the 16^th Dec.

Fill your eyes with some pics

http://picasaweb.google.com/lsprasath/NagalapuramTrek#
http://picasaweb.google.com/ragupathi.p/NagalapuramDec1314#
http://picasaweb.google.com/chandmama/Nagalapuram#
http://picasaweb.google.com/bvsnmurthy/Nagalapuram#

The alarm struck by 5:30 and as usual, annoyingly I ran my hands around to silence my time piece… the pest was snoozed and I turned around rubbing my eyes and covering myself to enjoy my sleep, when something caught my eyes… hey, Isn’t that my third leg… (circles with same center different radius… flash back)

Check list for the trek was checked and re checked to confirm that I have not missed anything… Backpack was stuffed to hold enough fluid supplies for the two days and it mounted up to 15 kilos once packing was through… Cursing the driver of the three-wheeler transportation we reached Secunderabad railway station half an hour prior to the expected meeting time…

A list of twenty-two high spirited youngsters and one middle aged, hey I will come back to him later… spread across two compartments; we occupied the seats randomly as inclusion of a new berth had changed our seating arrangements… List pasted on the compartment was ruled out for confirmation as train was already on its run; so it was decided that we wait for the TT to show up…

Not waiting for anyone, shamelessly I climbed to the top berth of my compartment and started preparing myself for sleep, many vowed that they won’t let me sleep peacefully… I was laughing inside… once my shutter are closed, only next morning could wake me up… but circumstances didn’t give me the liberty to sleep at ease as train was supposed to reach Tadikalapudi by morning 4:30…

Day 1

Train was on time… just to mention how it would be at 4:30AM, it was slightly drizzling and clouds added to the darkness… Time to talk about the middle aged high spirited person which I mentioned initially… our Big boss, grey shades here and there… lean… a man in his early forties… but with the energy of his twenties … let me stick with the name Big boss which suited him well…

Big boss appeared with his head light placed rite over his forehead with a white baggage on his right hand… being in charge of the food committee I could blindly guess that it would be IDLIS for our breakfast… Idli boy (again my naming convention) transferred his load to Big Boss to distribute the breakfast before the trek starts… all other food materials were shared and we waited for light to come up to show us the way… In mean time Asst of our Big boss started displaying stunts on the railway track… the stunt was to walk on the rail without losing balance… As in circus many followed the Asst and displayed their skills, so did I… why to keep away from the show…

Light brought with it the time to move on and we loaded ourselves with our slightly loaded baggage’s … Two more characters in frame, let me call him the Pathfinder … and the Coordi (as the name conveys he was the coordinator of the trek)…

Pathfinder was back with his thoughts and the route we needed to trace as per the plan… Coordi and Pathfinder took the lead; we followed as obedient disciples and our big boss tailing us with his Asst…

We were supposed to cross a number of fields before reaching the foot of the hill where the actual trek was to kick off which could be rounded off to 2-3 kilometers… It was raining continuously for the previous days which made the fields like a soft bed and one foot on the mud would either dig us deep in or to at least make us slip and taste the mud… As a front-runner our Financer demonstrated with a fall in his style, followed by Jungle boy and Aadi… With my first fall I decided to get a stick for support, for in the slippery fields this was mandatory and could even help in the ascent…

We reached a plain land before the ascent, where we divided ourselves in to two teams with the understanding that we would meet in the plains for breakfast. One headed by our Big boss and the other by Asst and Path finder… I followed the latter as we were to explore something out of our plan… Along came Financer, Jungle boy, Idli boy, Coordi and another character with a French beard… let me call him the Manager… and the thinnest guy in our team with a heavy load on his back and a sweet smile, Smiley… Fatty, he had nice cam with him and was pretty interested in photography… followed by the Gud guy, the most helpful person in team and the Mr. Cool… why Mr. Cool??? Never bothered about anything, with a small backpack and a piece of cloth below his cap… enjoying nature and in his own world of thoughts…

We started with a small hill covered mostly by bushes. I looked around to find a stick for support, the one that I was talking about in the beginning of the trek. Search came to a halt soon, as I could find a pretty nice piece of stick which was one forth short of my height… one side slightly thinner than the other… Less than an hour or so we completed our warm up climb and ended up in a plain where the peak 1680 was in our vicinity… We passed voices in air to get in touch with the team headed by the Big boss… we were happy for getting lost before the real trek started and rested for a while… in the mean time Asst and Path finder were breaking their heads to track the actual route…

Within half an hour time the Big boss appeared in front as if from thin air with a plastic cover on his head to beat the drizzle… We decided to break our fast and placed ourselves on the ground with our idli packets… The real fun of the trek was about to start in the mean time… Asst, Coordi and Pathfinder on one side and Big boss and Fatty on the other started with their gut feeling about the route… each side pointing to an entirely different direction… Big boss displayed his diplomatic skills by challenging others to convince him with their plans… and in the end we all ended up following the Big boss… where he lead us to the remaining members of the team…

We were on the move in no time. With small halts in between either to catch our breath or to take a couple of snaps… we continued our ascent crossing small streams and enjoying the art of nature. As we progressed, the degree of ascent started building up from 30 to 40 and finally to 80degrees where I almost tasted my intestine, hopefully many of them would have got the opportunity… Three to four hours of ascent finally led us to a plain in the hilltop where we settled for lunch… Chapattis with pickles was an exquisite lunch for the day and with that we divided ourselves into groups for finding a place for the night camp… Big boss and myself took a route which led us further high up the hill where the visibility of the nearby hills was pretty clear… there I had my encounter with the Skull headed eight legger, that would be another story…

Travelling an hour or so we reached the night camp location as proposed by the planning team. Ropes were tied and tents pitched with long grass spread below the sheets giving us a cushion effect, if you ask me I would say it was quite an experience of a lifetime… Big boss along with a couple of others started lighting fire for our dinner… we all had our share and all went to their respective tents leaving Asst, Financer, Jungle boy, Coordi, Manager, Gud guy, Idli boy, Pathfinder and Myself… We decided to have our cut in front of bonfire…which we enjoyed and continued with singing and shouting at the top of our voices… Optimizing the bonfire was done by drying up our shoes and keeping us warm… which was followed by a cup of coffee…

My sleep was broke as the Jungle boy woke up shouting, when I enquired, his explanation was a frog tried to kiss him or so… adding his wildest of fantasies that he visualized a snake following the frog and leading itself to the tent… half an hour or so he woke me up again hearing some sound… I decided to myself… ‘Jungle boy next time you wake me up… you are out of the tent’.Fortunately for him nothing happened after that, Manager continued from where the Jungle boy stopped with his snoring, which reminded me of a rusted motor reaching all resonance and finding it hard to run throughout the night… God given gift stopped me from nothing and I had a peaceful sleep in my sleeping bag…

Day2

Early morning my sleep was broken when the Style King came out with his story of spotting a Wild Dog, which detained him from coming out the tent for controlling his body fluids… For our daily routine we took to the nature and as per schedule we were supposed to start soon after breakfast… Planning team came up with the news that they found a valley and a clear view of the horizon…

Should I call it heaven or not…well…I am not sure, but the view was so beautiful. I should say it was a feast for our eyes… I wished we could camp there for a while… I couldn’t find a better place to be with the nature … Soon we started our descent and this time we were as per the planned route and before lunch we touched the Narsapuram village. I knew that the fun was gonna end, but someone had a different plan for us…

We moved through the path where mud touched our knees, third leg was indeed a blessing for me at that point of time… the muddy path led us to a small pond which in turn led us to the villagers who mistook us for Naxalites… Few had discussions and clarifications with them, as I stood dumb struck not knowing the language and context of their debate… Manager joined me by pointing at Cooridi and Team for all the questionings being done to us. A wise guy took us or should I say saved us from the villagers and with a three-wheeler as our mode of transportation we reached the High way in another 30min…

We took a room close to the railway station and took time to freshen up… followed by dinner and way back home…

Alarm struck again, as a precautionary measure I used to set up multiple alarms… I open my eyes with a smile on my face, as if I was back from trek the same morning. As the Pathfinder used to say I could smell green, the spirit of the trek was still clinging on to me…

By the time we reached Phirangipuram it was already 7:00 AM in the morning and from the base we could see a nice silhouette of a watchtower at the top of the hill, with the rising sun sneaking behind it. As we started climbing up, we split ourselves into 2 teams and the goal was to meet at the watchtower, which we could see from the base. One team would follow an easy or already set path to reach the watchtower and another team would explore its way to the top through rocks and bushes. I took charge of the team that would explore the route and reach the watchtower.

Next 2 hours saw a really tough knee-breaking climb. We had to crouch, crawl and climb through the rocks and ruins of the fort. Initially a ruined entrance beneath a demolished fort wall greeted us. We started tracing the path along the fort wall assuming it would lead us to the watchtower. But it wasn’t an easy climb, as it seemed to be. Some places were really too tough to climb. At times we had to blindly rely on the strength of the wild bushes to push ourselves up. After some slipping, holding, screaming, guiding, sweat, push and pull, we finally managed to reach our first goal point!! – The same watchtower that we saw from the base of the hill. I think it was around 10:30 AM then.

As always any tough action should be rewarded. So the tough climb was rewarded by a brief photography session at the top, near the watchtower to celebrate the sense of achievement. Not to forget, the beautiful faraway fields and hillocks in the background. A small ‘fruit and juice’ break followed it. Did I miss to mention? We all carried 4 water bottles each for this trek! Well yes. By the time we reached the watchtower, one water bottle was over and the second one was already in use.

Our second goal was to trek through the ruins and bushes to our next destination – “The Kondaveedu Fort”. The fort is located little deep into the forest. To reach there, we had to quickly descend from the watchtower on the other side and hike a couple of kilometers deep into the forest. But it wasn’t an easy task as it just sounded to be. We had to crawl at times and walk on top of sharp stones with the fear of it toppling and twisting our foot any time. Also sun had placed itself in a most comfortable location to give us additional trouble. But after all the hurdles and hardships, we managed to reach the fort around 11:30 AM in the morning!!

Kondaveedu Fort is yet another ruin at this point of time. As such there is nothing interesting to do there apart from swinging from the roots of an old banyan tree. Also the fort wasn’t the final destination in our itinerary. Our plan was to trek across the range and reach a village called Gopanpalli on the other side of the hill ranges. So after a brief rest and customary photography session, the trek continued into the ruins of Kondaveedu…

Next 30 minutes walk was comparatively easy. Less or almost no rocks to hip hop, more plain lands. All the way ruins, ruins and more ruins. At the end of this short trek, we spotted a huge rock formation (which we later came to know is 1200 ft high). Some of us were curious to climb that rock and get a bird’s eye view of the entire path we just traced. As we were getting late for lunch, we decided to do it after the lunch session. Another 5 minutes walk from that rock formation, we reached a small pristine lake in the middle of nowhere.With stomach already sending signals for food, the lake seemed to be “the perfect place” for having lunch. Packed roti’s were unpacked. Pickles and jams for touch and taste. After half a day of strenuous walking, the rotis with pickles and jams never tasted better ever before!! 15 minutes nap along the lakeside and we were ready to walk the remaining challenge ahead. Adios 2 bottles of water.

Well, at that point some of us wanted to go back and climb the rock formation while some decided to stay back near the lake. Climbing that rock wasn’t easy at all. Everything has a price to pay in this world. To get a nice bird’s eye view of the place, we had to undergo a really tough climb. We had to grab the crevices in the rock to push ourselves up and move ahead. After certain elevation, surprisingly there was a paved pathway that led us to the top. Though it was a hard climb, every second and effort spent on it was worth it! The view from the top was absolutely stunning and breathtaking. We could actually spot the way we traced from the watchtower to the lake. This was one stunning moment. We climbed further up to reach a flat place and took a group snap there to celebrate the proud moment.

Only when we reached the top of the rock that we came to know, the other group that stayed back near the lake luckily caught hold of a villager who could make path for us across the range to the other side. So the group left the place, hiked a mile from the lake and was waiting for us to join there. Thanks to the invention of mobile phones, we could effectively communicate even in the middle of the jungle and spot their location from the top.

We descended the huge rock slowly and steadily. Without taking much break, we started walking towards the place where the other group has stationed. Finally after 30 minutes of walking through a tough trail covered with dense bushes, we reached the place where the other group was waiting for us to continue with the rest of the journey. It was around 2:00 PM at that time.With the villager leading the way, cutting the trees and making path for us, the next 3 hours of trekking through the forest and descent was as easy as removing the word “Easy” or any of its variants from the dictionary. In the beginning the word “Tough” slowly transformed to “Tougher” and to “Toughest” in no time. A fruit break some where in the middle of the jungle and adieu to 3rd bottle of water as well. Tough and steep descend ahead and with the necessity of water management, everyone’s face read only one thing – “Is there an option to time travel and reach the city?” But everybody knew the obvious. Trees, more trees, big trees, stones and rocks of various sizes, after a while the smell of raw greens becomes totally daunting.

Suddenly shining asbestos at a distance caught our attention and some factories were spotted. Immediately shutters opened, “few smiles” and a sigh of relief at last. Some motivation refueled our journey ahead. Another tough hour of descent, we had actually hit the base on the other side. Hurray! Now the smiles slowly transformed to laughter for the few jokes cracked. 2 km walk from the base of the hills through a bamboo forest took us to our final destination – “Gopanpalli Village”, a very primitive civilization. But “civilization” is all that mattered at that time. We could get some “drinking water” and “lime soda”!! Life sometimes hit the very basics and it’s quiet interesting to deal with it in such situations.

It was already late in the evening then. A quick piggyback ride on a local luggage carrier auto brought us to a nearby town, Boyapalem. From there a local bus to Guntur brought us to the smell of real civilization and marked an end to a memorable trekking trip that took us into the slice of history.

Fact file – Kondaveedu

Kondaveedu fort was built during the reign of the Reddy kings in 14th century A.D. There are 21 structures in the fort. The ruins of the fort located on the hilltop offer unraveled mysteries. It is an ideal place for beginner level exploratory trekking. It is not necessary to trek the entire range. One can trek up to the fort and retrace the path back to Phirangipuram. The huge rock formations also aid in practicing rappelling.

How to reach there?

Kondaveedu is approximately 25 km from Guntur and is easily accessible via road. Lots of local buses run from Guntur bus stand (platform number 17) to Narsaraopet. From there one can take a private auto or a mini-bus to reach Phirangipuram (base).

Guntur (Andhra Pradesh) itself is well connected by Bus and Railroad from different parts of the country. It is approximately 260 km from Hyderabad and 390 km from Chennai. Express trains like Hyderabad-Chennai express stops at Guntur. Guntur railway station has a decent cloakroom and retiring room facility. Commuting inside Guntur is pretty cheap. Shared autos are available between the railway station and bus stand at just Rs.6 per head.

After an successful attempt to climb the hill range at Tadakalpudi from the “Water Fall” approach on 2nd September 2007, we are determined to cross the hill range this time.  Having complete knowledge about the location and terrain, the enthusiasts included Arpan, Prathik, Deb, Sayanthan, Ravi, Shiv and Sridhar to cross the hill range.  Ravi was taking care of the transportation, Sridhar the food, Shiv and Deb the barbeque for the night stay, Sayanthan the route.

As the plan was to cross the range over 2 days and we did not have sleeping bags for all the members so 4 members (Ravi, Prathik, Sayanthan and Deb) purchased their own sleeping bags.  The planning for the transportation went for a toss as we could not get reserved tickets to Kothagudem.  So, we all decided to assemble at Imliban bus stand by 8:30 PM on 7th December 2007 and take the available bus for Kothagudem.  The “Snaffy” rotis (packed rotis which can be used upto 4 days from the date of making) we normally take for the trek were not available.  So at the last minute Sridhar had to make alternate arrangements and was unable to reach Imliban as planned.  Sayanthan reached sridhar over the mobile and the tickets can be reserved tickets by the 11:30 PM bus for all the 7 members.  After Sridhar reached Imliban, the common luggage was shared and the baggage repacked.  The bus started its stroll at 11:30 PM.

As we reached Kothagudem by 6:30 AM, we all rushed to the Railway station to catch the first train to Tadakalpudi.  The platform looked deserted and as we enquired at the station, the train left at 5:45 and the next train is available only at 8:00 AM.  The option of going by bus is ruled out as we do not gain much time by the bus journey and we have to do an hour’s walk from the nearest bus stand.  We quickly completed our routines at the railway station and awaited the 8:00 AM train to be bearthed.  The train dropped us at Tadakalpudi by 8:30 and enroute, Deb and Sayantan had a glimpse of the hills and the terrain.

We quickly retraced our path along the railway track till Tadakalpudi railway gate and started walking towards the hill.  This route from the railway station is quite opposite to the route we have taken for the “Water fall” trek.  We met a few villagers who were walking towards their fields for harvesting the Cotton crop.  The villagers were curious to get our where abouts and we were trying to get the details about the terrain and possible paths to start our trek.  After we exchanged the required information, they have shown us a small deviation from their routine walk path which will take us towards a hill behind which we palnned to start our trek.  As we walked along the path, the path became less prominent and we reached a cotton crop beyond which, the hill was visible.  We were sceptic to walk through the field as it is the harvesting season.  With extra care and slow walking, we crossed the field and walked around the hill.  Now we could see our planned path and everybody was ready for the trek.

The route planners Sayantan and Deb were leading the way and the rest of the team is following them.  The first objective is to cross the 100 feet hill range (3 small peaks) and as we climbed the hill, we could see our approach for the hill nearly 2 KM away.  Now we decided a plain ground as a references started towards the same.  By now, the time is 10:00 AM and the Sun started to show his power.  As we were walking towards the intermediate point, the climb down the hill was very easy as we could find a path, but after that it was a bushy jungle and walking through the rivulet was nearly impossible.  Ravi and Sridhar started exploring new paths and as we reached a small stream (with almost still water), Sridhar and Shiv found a way towards the reference point.  Everybody was delighted as we were reaching the reference point.  We found a huge tree giving us enough shade to have our breakfast and a quick rest.

Now we started moving towards the starting point of the trek again through a bushy jungle.  With criss crossing paths, we were sure that there would be wood cutters in this place.  After travelling for nearly 20 mins, we found couple of wood cutters and they informed that there is a path next to the stream and showed us the way towards the stream.  Our google research showed us that there is some rivulet and the information provided by the wood cutters lifted our spirits.  We quickly reached the stream and started walking along the path which was giving a gradual climb.  We made sure that we could see the stream or atleast listen to the sound of water flow when were moving.  After some time, the path and the stream were separated and we could not notice the stream.  Now the path was not at all prominent and more over, the bamboo grass was covering the path and we had to cut them.  Sridhar after talking to Ravi and Sayantan decided to walk through the stream instead of the path and move back to the path once it is visible.

The trek along the dry rivulet was tough for some of the members as they had to jump over the stones to avoid getting wet.  It was very tough for the first timers as they had to balance themselves and jump over the rocks and climb them with the rucksack (@12 Kg).  The first hurdle we faced in the rivulet is “you must jump”.  Here the rivulet was broad and we had couple of paths to move up.  One of them was very slippary and the lead runners got their feet wet.  Sridhar took another path, but this path needed a big jump and with the weight, it was tricky so, first the bags were passed across and then the members jumped to the other side.  Immediately after this, we faced a huge pool of water where in we had to climb along the rivulet bank towards the hill and join back.  Here as well, the slim and balanced guys squeezed through the narrow space available between the rock and tree and climbed up the 6 feet rock.  The movement along the rivulet was slow and tiresome.  We were having quick breaks and we actually reached our starting point of the trek @ 11:00 AM so the effective climb was very less.  The lunch was taken @13:00 hrs and we started walking quickly as the destined point for the night halt is a distance away.  As we were walking along the rivulet, the path became more and more difficult and steep.  We could see a path on our left side and we decided to explore the same, as the jungle track was even more tough, we decided to move back to the rivulet.  Walking along the rivulet, now we again faced huge boulders now we had no other option but to make our path, climb up the hill and join back after crossing the boulders.  We had to do this couple of times and every time we face such an obstacle, we are spending nearly 30 minutes for the entire team to navigate.

At 1600 hrs, we could see the change in the light and we quickly needed to find our resting place for the night.  Everybody is very tired.  Sayantan started climbing up the hill to get a vantage point, Sridhar started walking along the path to find a dwelling place, Ravi started assiting Sayantan to find the way up the hill by climbing a near by tree.  The path taken by Sayantan was very difficult as he had to crawl through the bamboo grass and all along the path.  Sridhar returned back with the news that the path is clear and navigable, but there is slope on either side of the path and fully covered with grass.  Ravi after reviewing both the paths navigated by Sridhar and Sayantan, decided to walk along the path travelled by Sridhar then climb up the slope along the grass and reach the top and camp for the night, even if we had to sleep along the slope, the the objective is to stay away from the water stream.

After reaching the top, Shiv and Ravi found a level place to camp for the night.  Quickly everyone moved towards the camping spot.  The climb through the grass was very tricky as the grass was dry and the climb was steep and we could not see where the foot was landing.  Everyone was tired and wanted a rest.  Cairns were made enroute for safety.  But the fact that we found an even place to camp for the night motivated everyone to move towards the camping place.  From this point, we could listen to the water flowing through one of the reentry points on the other side of the hill.  Deb quickly cut the grass and used the same as a cushion on the little unevenness on the ground.  He was helped by Shiv, Arpan and Prathik in pitching the nets.  Sridhar, Ravi and Sayantan collected firewood for the night.  The logs were very heavy and to move them up the hill was tough especially when you are tired.  As we settled, the camp fire was lit and everyone started sharing their experiences.  There was a big discussion whether we can cross the hill and reach Narsapur from here or go back to Tadakalpudi.  Looking at the terrain, we decided to go back to Tadakalpudi.  The barking deers voice were heard from a distance.  We kept an open eye for any other noices that could be heard.  Cooked parathas and the ready to eat that was brought helped us to make Dal Makhni.  The sky was crystal clear but for the shining stars and being the day after new moon, even the shy stars could show their face.

The cusion of the grass was very helpful to get a well-deserved rest.  The wind was blowing ocassionally and gently and this helped the team get a good and well deserved sleep.  We woke up by 6:30 and packed everything by 7:30 and ready to get down to tadakalpudi.  As we walked down the slope and reached the path, we could not locate the spot from where we took the deviation to climb up the hill last evening.  Sridhar tried to navigate along the path, but no luck. Deb and Sayantan quickly cut the bamboo grass and made a new route towards the rivulet.  Once we are at the rivulet, we started walking along only to know that the point we reached now is upstream to where we left yesterday.  We abandoned the walk through the rivulet yesterday because the path was very difficult and now, we need to navigate the same.  But we had no option but to walk through the tough route.  After walking for nearly 30 minutes, we reached the spot from where we could retrace our path along the rivulet.  Now we moved quickly through the rivulet and recollecting our activities the previous day.  As we reached the 6 feet rock and the huge pool of water, Sayantan, Deb, Prathik and Ravi jumped in to refresh themselves.  After spending more than 30 minutes here, we started our walk down the stream.  It was noticed that the water is flowing at a few places and dry at some other places.  The mystery was solved at the next water log that the water was flowing through some small gaps along the stones this is only to confirm that all the while the water is moving down below the rocks and sand we were walking on.

As we were walking along the rivulet, we could not trace the point where we joined the rivulet from the path.  As we understood that the stream we saw after we crossed the 100 feet hill and the one in which we are moving are the same, we were sure that we will not be lost, but the navigation was becomming difficult.  At this point of time, Sridhar found a small path which was leading onto the bank of the rivulet and from there another path was visible.  The confidence that this path (which was not the one we travelled along the previous day) was one of the cris crossing paths, the navigation through this path will definitely take us towards the spot where we had breakfast.  So the team got on to the path and started exploring the paths and soon we were on the right track to reach back.  Everyone was delighted as we reached the spot where we took breakfast the previous day.  By now it is nearly 11:00 AM and the sun was beating us down.

Now we had to cross the 100 feet hill and reach the fields. After reaching the stream after the breakfast point, we could not retrace the path we climbed down the 100 feet hill.  So, we decided to explore the path.  Deb, Ravi and Sridhar started exploring the paths and after couple of unsuccessful attempts, we found a path which will take us across the hill.  After climbing down the hill, we walked nearly 3 KMS to tadakalpudi railway station through the fields where bullock cart paths exist.  As we were walking towards the railway station, we saw the train leaving, we were late by just 15 minutes.  We reached the railway station by 14:45 only to know that the next train is at 17:30 hrs.  So, we decided to walk to Tekulapalli and climb the bus back to Kothagudem.  The distance is nearly 6 kms and walking through this hot sun and without lunch was taking its toll.  Shiv was lucky to escape in the Auto who was willing to take only one person.  A tractor moving along the way was kind enough to offer us lift till Tekulapalli.  Once we reached Tekulapalli, we quickly moved to Kothagudem and took a Taxi back to Hyderabad.

After an unsuccessful attempt to cross the hill range at Thadakalpudi on 19th August 2007 by Sridhar and Ravi (weather not permitting), we decided to cross the hill range.  Having the knowledge about the location and the transportation details, the enthusiasts included Kumar, the experienced; and Lakshman the core developer for the thadakalpudi trek.  As the planning started on Friday, the team decided to have a 1 day trek on Sunday.  The starting point, Thadakalpudi is known place to Ravi and Sridhar.  As Ravi took care of booking the transport and planning the route, Sridhar/Kumar took care of the food and Lakshman assisting Ravi.

On Saturday, the bus was starting from BHEL and Ravi, Kumar and Lakshman decided to borad the bus at KPHB where as Sridhar decided to board the same at SR Nagar.  The scheduled deparature of the bus from KPHB is at 20:05 hrs and 20:30 from SR Nagar.  Ravi, Lakshman and Kumar had dinner together and ready to board the Auto to KPHB only to realise that last minute shopping needs to be done by Ravi for the fruits.  As Ravi and Lakshman grabbed the fruits all three took a speed Auto to KPHB.  In the mean time, Sridhar reached SR Nagar by 20:05 and trying to contact Kumar for the status of the bus.  Kumar responded that they just reached KPHB and the bus is yet to arrive.  Sridhar made couple of friends in SR Nagar trying to find the return journey details.  The best alternative is to reach Kothagudem and then try for a bus back to Hyderabad: alternatively if the team is near Yellandu, reach Warangal and then to Hyderabad.

Finally the long awatited Super Luxury bus to Bhadrachalam (via Kothagudem) reached at 20:45 hrs much to the relief of the team waiting at KPHB.  As soon as the bus strolled out of KPHB bus stand, Kumar communicated to Sridhar who was delighted by the call.  As the team enquired, they came to know that there was a huge traffic jam at JNTU which resulted in the delay of all the long distance busses.  As the bus left Hyderabad at 23:00 hrs, the team was more than happy as the scheduled time of arrival at Kothagudem will be 5:00 AM which is ideal to catch the ongoing train to Thadakalpudi at 5:45.  Ravi, as usually quickly went into a deep sleep setting up the alarm for 4:30 AM hoping to wake up the team and Kumar quickly ecliminitised to the new weather.  Sridhar found the same music on his main road side apartment in the team sitting right behind Lakshman, but Lakshman had little tough time in getting a deserved sleep as the music was different and new to him.

As the bus was about to stroll into Kothagudem, Sridhar woke up and requested the team to get ready for alightment.  Quickly the team ran to Bhadrachalam Road (Rly station of Kothagudem) which is @0.75 km away and quickly took the tickets to Thadakalpudi.  As the train is yet to be bearthed (the train starts from Bhadrachalam Road), the train from Hyderabad had just arrived and yet to be taken off the platform before our train can be bearthed.  Lakshman quickly took a cup of Tea and Ravi joined him for the same.  As Sridhar spotted the train on the sleeping platform, the team ran quickly to take the seats for the 20 minute journey.  Kumar and Lakshman completed the freshup even before the train reached the platform.  The train started its stride at 6:00 AM from Bhadrachalam Road.

After reaching Thadakalpudi by 6:30, Sridhar and Ravi quickly completed the formalities and within 10 minutes they were on the mainroad of Thadakalpudi walking towards the hill range.  The team talked to the villagers to find out the route for the planned trek.  The guidance from the villagers was “just follow this path”, the team started walking.  The route is full of greenary and after walking a few meters, there were deviations; decisions were made to move left and right.  Sridhar in his usual style asked the memebers which way to move and got them say that they must move in the direction of the nearby hill.  Rains over the last two days made the route muddy and slurry.  After 1.5 hrs of walk, the team were looking at a hill, which they need to cross to start the trek.  Looking at the weather and terrain, they decided to climb this hill and return back.  The stomach cried for breakfast at 8:30 and we had breakfast here.  We also created xxx crains so that we can trace back the path.  After the breakfast, and taking a closer look at the terrain, it was decided to abandon climbing the hill.  The planned starting point cannot be reached as it was over the hill ahead of us.  The thought of walking around the hill was also abandoned as it was very muddy and we need to make a long path.  The impression was that we could end up reaching the starting point only.  So we decided to start climb from a different point.  Being innovative, we started walking in the direction of the path along the fields (trying to avoid the retracing).  After walking a few steps through the field, the shoes were tested to the limit as the black soil was sticking.  We started walking slowly and by the time, we crossed the first field, we were very tired and frustated.  As we realised that we took too many turns towards the hill and one of the paths will be in sight quickly.  The fields were fenced and then we realised that we were in a maze.  We started walking through the fields in the direction of another hill (towards west).  The maze was never ending and we were getting tired.  suddenly we found an old man in the fields.  The prior knoledge of Sridhar and Ravi prompted us to ask the old man the direction for the WaterFall, a known local spot for villagers.  The old man has shown us a rock formation on the hill and asked us to move in the direction.

The old man was kind enough to direct us towards a “Machan” where another person was sitting and he will guide us towards the water fall.  As we could see the “Machan”, we started walking with little more confidence and enthusiasm.  The old man was thanked (with a tip).  As we reached the “Machan”, we met “Trailer Ramadasu” who showed us a jungle track to move ahead.  We spent a few minutes here enjoying the view from the “Machan”.  This machan was erected as this being the last field of the village and being close to the hill, the monkeys, come here to pluck/eat the cotton seeds.  Thanking Ramadasu, we walked through the bushes.  Though the villagers were confident about the route, we were checking our way at each cross paths.  We kept cairns and walked towards the hill by making way through the shruby bamboo grass.  Couple of approaches towards the hill were unsuccessful and we had to traceback and walk along the hill side till we reached a small stream.  Now we had a little break and quickly started walking up the stream.  The terrain was just rocks and the water flowing fluently.  We hopped over the rocks only to find Kumar and Lakshman were getting tired quickly.  At 13:00 hrs, we decided to have our lunch but the sight of the top of the hill, motivated Ravi and Sridhar to jump a few more rocks to reach the top.  As Sridhar and Ravi travelled for @15 mins, the path seemed to be never ending and they returned back to have lunch with the team.

After a well deserved bath, we had lunch and started walking down.  The pace was very good and we reached the entry point to the stream within 1 hr.  Surprisingly, it took us more than 2 1/2 hrs to climb this part.  We retraced the path and reached back the “Machan” and talked to Ramadasu to find the way back.  As we were talking to Ramadasu, he has mentioned that walking in the field is not acceptable and it will be difficult when the manuring of the fields is done.  He almost warned us and suggested to walk away from the fields.  We took his help in finding the route and walked away from the fields.  Now, to reach Thadakalpudi from here just took 1/2 an hour.  But the onward journey to reach the Machan took us nearly 3 hrs (including the break for breakfast).  As we reached Thadakalpudi, we found out that the train is 1 hr away from reaching us.  As Ravi, Kumar and Lakshman took some deserved rest, Sridhar was exploiting the terrain for the next trek.  As the train reached Thadakalpudi by 17:45 hrs (15 mts behind schedule), we reached Kothagudem, followed the tradition of watching a movie; Yamadonga this time and started by 22:30 to reach back Hyderabad.

After the successful 1 day treks at Kondaveedu and Venkatayyapalem, this time, the mood of the team is to have a 2-day trek.  As this needed more planning and preparation, Ravi143, Sridhar334 and Basu424 increased the team size to 6 by including Kumar373, Rajiv342 and Shiv597.  As the Kondaveedu terrain is known, the team decided to spend the weekend at Kondaveedu.  Kumar and Ravi are busy involved in getting the required equipment.  Shiv was taking care of the safety needs.  Sridhar was assigned about the Food where as Basu and Rajiv are planning the detailed route.

Everybody left office by 17:00 hrs on Friday to complete the last minute purchases only to meet each other at 20:30 to catch Delta Fast Passenger at Secunderabad the train to Guntur.  As Sridhar reached by 20:40, the train is not placed on the platform and he started searching for the other members of the team, suddenly he realized that the train is strolling on to platform 4.  He quickly ran to coach S5 and took the place waiting for the rest of the team.  To his pleasant surprise, basu voiced his name and the team greeted each other and exchanged pleasantries.

Before the train reached Maulali, the complete team (except for Sridhar) had their dinner.  As the train started at 21:00 hrs, it took its dinner at Maulali.  After the busy trains Goutami and Nizamuddin Express whistled past, the delta fast passenger took its stride towards Guntur.  As some of the members took a quick rest, Shiv, Basu and Kumar were chatting.  At 4:00 AM, Sridhar woke up and to his surprise found the TT waking up all the members who are destined to get down at Guntur.  Thanks to Lalu’s initiatives the Railways have become a better place.  The team quickly packed their bags and got ready to alight at Guntur.

As the train stopped at Guntur, everybody got down and quickly completed the morning routine and were ready to leave only to find out that Shiv was missing.  As Dr. Martin Cooper’s invention (Mobile Phone) has helpful to trace him, he was having his morning walk, after he joined the rest, everybody started towards Bus Stand.  After having a quick breakfast at Siri Tiffins (our breakfast point in the earlier trek as well), we packed our lunch in the form of Idlis, re-packed our backpacks with water (4 lts for each member), biscuits, chocolates, chewing gum, etc., and took the bus to Phirangipuram.  Before we boarded the bus, we quickly measured the weight of the luggage each of us is carrying in the backpacks (@12.5 Kg’s average).  We also weighed each of us for statistics before and after the trek.  As the bus reached Phirangipuram, we quickly found an Auto to drop us at the foothill of the Kondaveedu range.

As the mountain and the trekkers are aware of each other, little did the mountain knew about the adventurists plans this weekend nor did the trekkers knew about the eastern side terrain of the mountain.  The team started the trek at 7:30 AM, at the foot hill and the six started with a 300 meter walk towards the Kondaveedu Fort Hill (1st hill).  As the team started climbing, with the heavy backpacks, everybody needed a break at half-way into the climb as some of the members are refreshing the cool breeze, Shiv picked up the juice to refresh and Rajiv the water bottle.  Rajiv quickly changed to casual wear, as his Jeans were not allowing a free climb.  As we reached the top of the Fort Hill, took a quick break to regroup our energy.  As we are taking the break, the Spy monkey (SM) arrived.  First playing hide and seek so that we do not notice it.  Once the SM knew that we have noticed him, he took a vantage point right above Sridhar and scanning our luggage for free meal.  As we did not unpack our luggage, he did not get a clue.  He quickly ran away into the bushes.  After a while Sridhar, Ravi and Rajiv setoff towards the deviation point (a designated place where a deviation must be taken from the first trek route), Shiv and Kumar went up the fort ruins to get an aerial view of the Fort Hill Top.  Basu accompanied them so that we do not loose track.  Sridhar explained the three water loggings found enroute and mapped them to the aerial maps taken.  Rajiv quickly mapped the distances between them to the map to get a gut feeling about the distances he has planned earlier.  As the maps were being digested, Ravi quickly got up a monolithic rock to get another view point (he missed this during our earlier trek).  From here, he could see the Spy monkeys running around.  In the meanwhile Basu, Shiv and Kumar joined and the complete team set out towards the deviation point.

After crossing the third pool, we moved under the shrubs for 30 mts and quickly found a vantage point to our left.  As Sridhar and Rajiv reached this point, they found as if this was visited before quickly Rajiv voiced for Basu and he joined them.  As the view from this point is being studied, Rajiv and Basu realized that this is nothing but R751 in the map.  Now the path are being chalked out to reach B1052.  As they found a path H2P1 (Hill 2 Path 1) at a distance, they decided to reach H2P1 and then cross the hill range in the vicinity before camping for the night.  The team picked up couple of spots D1BL1 (Day 1 Before Lunch 1) and D1BL2 (Day 1 Before Lunch 2) in between and keeping them as reference to reach H2P1.  The rest of the team members in the meanwhile are enjoying the nature and capturing the same in the camera.  The team regrouped and everybody is appraised about the path being taken and everybody started walking towards D1BL1.  As we took a few steps towards D1BL1, we found another small rock that gave a clear view of D1BL1.  As we were progressing in the right direction and the destination in sight, we quickly reached D1BL1.  Now the time is 10:00 AM.

Now we have to reach D1BL2 (a point between two small peaks) so that we can find our way towards the path viewed from R751.  From here, we could not find any easy path.  As Basu and Ravi were exploring the path of taking the walk towards the rocks leading to one of the peak, Sridhar was of the impression that the opposite direction will take us between the peaks.  The teams started exploring the options, Sridhar walked and found a path which is thorny as he walked for 5 minutes he was convinced that this path will lead us between the peaks.  In the mean time, Basu, Ravi, Kumar, Rajiv and Shiv were even exploring alternates to reach the path avoiding D1BL2. As we spent nearly 30 minutes here exploring the options, the team was tired as the sun started showing its power.  The team discussed and a call was made to move in the direction investigated by Sridhar.  After travelling this path for 5 minutes, we almost reached a dead end.  As Ravi and Shiv started exploring a small path, Basu and Rajiv were exploring through the bushes.  Basu was using the sickle and the knife to the maximum extent making the path and Rajiv following him.  The big fat sticks picked up by the members were very helpful in clearing some of the thorns. ( Ravi / Shiv …) Ravi shouted after a while that he made a navigable path for us, quickly all of us followed him.  As the team moved slowly from here, we found a 7 feet rock to be slide down.  (Gyan Session 1 …) Though this rock was slippery, everyone managed to slide down safely.

Now we are in deep bushes encircling us and we had to use the compass to find the direction to move.  The bushes were actually saving us from the heat.  As we moved with care on the dry leaves, we were constantly checking the direction under the pathfinder for this stretch, Kumar.  When walking under this huge umbrella, we travessed the peaks and now had a clearer view of H2P1 but still a distance away.  Now, Kumar and Shiv started exploring the path and they reached another vantage point between D1BL2 and H2P1.  As they could find a path from this vantage point as well, the team followed them.  After traveling a little distance down hill, we are stuck as the path we are navigating is closed.  Ravi and Basu now started taking the lead in exploring alternates paths.  As the path navigated by Basu and Ravi was tangential towards the direction of current path is going in the same direction as H2P1 which is at a gradient, we have to climb up the hill to reach H2P1.  Kumar and Sridhar thought of crawling along the original path that seemed closed.  Sridhar and Kumar crawled through the path and further exploration lead to a flat place nearer to H2P1 that was observed from R751.  They quickly retreated; collected the team and all of them successfully came out of the deep bushes.

Shiv, Ravi and Sridhar explored the route from here towards H2P1.  As they found a place that had little more shade, they decided to have lunch here.  As they retreated to move ahead with the team, Kumar informed that Rajiv and Basu have gone in search of Rajiv’s mobile.  Soon Ravi and Sridhar also joined the pack and started searching for the mobile.  The path was retraced for 15 minutes.  As the path was covered with dry leaves, it was difficult to trace the mobile.  After searching for 30mts, the team gave up and team united to move towards the designated lunch spot.  The packed idli’s filled the hunger but it was the lime juice prepared by Sridhar and the glucose that gave the required energy to the team.

Now, H2P1 was a stone throw distance away, but no sight of any path.  Ravi, Basu and Kumar decided to make a path through the bushes.  The objective was that the other 3 members would join after making a path for 30 meters.  Rajiv was guiding the path makers towards H2P1.  After cutting through the bushes for nearly an hour, Ravi, Basu and Kumar returned in a tired state.  A quick rest was taken till the 3 path makers are ready for the move.  As the path makers lead the rest in the newly created path, suddenly Ravi realized that there is an alternate route to reach H2P1 that is shorter than the path they just made for the rest.  And all of us started moving on this route.  Shiv was leading the team at the right pace that none of the members even felt like taking any rest and we have covered a huge distance in an hour.  During this trek, we found the porcupine spikes, looks like the porcupine had shred off all its spikes here in its defense.  After walking for nearly 1 hour the team took a quick break to have the cucumbers which were very refreshing.  The lime juice taken after lunch was refreshing but did not quench the thirst.  The cucumbers taken now did quench the thirst and made the body feel cooler.  Shiv lead us from here keeping the same pace and we moved quickly and were crossing the second mountain.  Rajiv and Basu informed the team that “I like this spot”, our designated dwelling place for the night must be just over the peak.  So, we decided to climb the peak K2-1059 and then decide on the path towards “I like this spot”.  Rajiv, Basu and Ravi quickly started moving towards K2-1059 everybody started following them.  The climb became difficult as we started reaching the peak.  Basu and Rajiv decided that it would be difficult for everybody to reach the peak.  So, we abandoned the climb towards K2-1059 and decided to move around the hill and find a place to sleep.  Sridhar, Rajiv and Shiv now went on a search of the route and quickly a navigable path was found.  As Sridhar and Rajiv had left their backpacks with the other team members, they requested Shiv to stay at a X roads.  This will be helpful to retrace the path and Sridhar and Rajiv can move quickly along the path.  As they walked briskly for nearly 10 minutes, they found a flat place that can be used as the dwelling place.  They immediately returned and the team reached the dwelling place by 16:30 hrs.

The dwelling place was an excellent viewpoint.  From here, we were able to view the cotton mill of Thummalapalem towards south east, to the south stood a huge peak, towards south west, we could find Boyapalem at a distance.  The Vallies in the South West and South East are providing cool breeze with natural cooling.  The remaining directions are filled with peaks.  As the team wanted to gear up for the dinner, they wanted to spend some time relaxing.  Ravi quickly found out couple of big rocks each big enough to take the complete team.  Sridhar, Basu and Shiv were exploring if there are any alternate places to dwell.  They traveled along the same path (towards south east) and found that the current place is the best in the vicinity to take rest for the night.  Now the team relaxed on the big rocks for 30 minutes, a well deserved rest.  After the rest, the team quickly started preparations for the night.

Rajiv and Kumar collected the firewood in the vicinity and started pitching the tents here by cleaning up the stones.  Shiv quickly found a better place which is towards the North which is away from the path, a clear area all around, on the rocks, giving a good view of 180 degrees and an ideal place to dwell in any trek.  Everybody thanked Shiv and the luggage was moved quickly to this place.  Rajiv and Kumar started camping the mosquito nets in the new place.  At the same time, Basu and Sridhar went in search of firewood by retracing the path.  Sridhar and Basu quickly returned with their handfuls.  The firewood was very dry and will burn out very quickly so we needed huge firewood to burn the complete night.  We could not find any logs as well.  In the meanwhile Kumar and Rajiv were exploring about the options to camp the mosquito nets.  There were two small trees on the northwest and all the other directions are open.  The challenge was to tie 2 mosquito nets.  They quickly tied both the nets together which left them to tie 3 supports on either side to keep the nets stable.  The winds are blowing at a high speed and we wanted the nets to be stable through out the night.  There were trees on one side, but the ropes cannot be tied here as the tree branches are swinging to the strong breeze coming from the South East and South West are disturbing the balance of the nets.  So, the ropes were taken over the trees and tied to the stones so that the disturbance is minimal.  Then came up the idea of planting a pole on the rocks on one side and tying all the supports on one side to this pole.  Imagine planting a pole on a hard rock, the team struggled to plant the pole and finally it was planted at an angle “/” so that it will be stable.  As we cannot make a hole to plant the pole, we created supports to the pole so that it is able to stand on the rock and withstand the heavy breeze comming in different directions.  Now we tied all the three ropes to this pole and the nets stood.  A huge sigh of relief and a satisfaction of achievement as the support to the pole were strong enough.

As it was getting dark (6:30 PM), the preparations were on for dinner.  Sridhar quickly made a salad with the cucumber, onions, carrots, chillies and lime; Shiv made soup for the team.  The packed chapati’s brought from Hyderabad along with Jam and Pickles served the dinner for everybody.  It was dark by 7:00 PM as the visibility reduced to near zero.  The firewood brought for the campfire was quickly consumed as the wood was very dry and the good breeze did not give us a chance to re-ignite the fire.  Everybody was in the nets by 7:30 PM to take a deserved rest.  It was decided that we are going to have a night out.  Keeping guard of the remaining team members.  Rajiv, Ravi and Shiv took the tent facing South (looking down hill) where as Sridhar, Basu and Kumar took the other tent facing North (looking up hill).

The activity is splitted into shifts and the first shift is up to 11:00 being taken care by Rajiv and Sridhar.  It was pitch dark and pin drop silence.  The only disturbance we had been the swinging of the branches and the dropping of the leaves onto the ground.  The occasional screaming of the monkeys was music to keep us awake.  We also heard the tyre sound of the vehicles running on the highway only to remind us how pollution (sound) free the environment was.  Rajiv and Sridhar were pinging each other every 10-15 minutes just to make sure that both are awake.  Whenever there was a small sound both the members used to coordinate to find out what the sound was.  It was around 10:00 PM when Sridhar heard a sound coming from the west and he could not see anything out as the view had to pass through 3 layers of the nets.  He quickly whispered for Rajiv and there was no response.  He quickly woke up Basu and they are inquisitive to find out what the noise is all about.  And as the noise is heard again, Sridhar shouted to shoo away the animals (thinking so).  In the mean while Rajiv saw a white shape at a distance and was shocked for a minute just trying to see what the figure is all about.  He was also surprised at the shout of Sridhar and quickly flashed his torch on the figure.  Ravi also woke up for the shout and everyone was attentive.  As the torches flashed on the images seen at a distance, they started running only for the team to identify that they are cows.  The team was relaxed from the shock of the unexpected visitors.  Looks like the visitors are also equally surprised to see someone occupying their dwelling area.

Ravi and Basu took charge of the duty from 11:00 PM to 1:00 AM and when the handover is being given to Shiv and Kumar, Shiv was surprised at the unplanned event, but he agreed with the team to take his shift from 1:00 AM to 4:00 AM.  As Rajiv and Sridhar resumed their duty from 4:00 AM Sridhar heard a voice at 5:00 AM.  This time he quickly calculated as if someone is at this place at 5:00 AM, then they would have started their climb at 1:00 AM  or so.  And in that case who will be travelling at such an emergency?  All these thoughts/doubts were cleared when Rajiv said that the voice heard was from the loud speakers at the nearby village which were audible the previous day night as well.

As everybody woke up in the morning and completing their routines, packed the entire luggage and had the “Saffy” rotis for the breakfast along with pickle and jam.  Everybody checked their food items for the rest of the trek.  Some of the members were trying to reduce their weight by consuming some of the food items and some were conserving them for the rest of the trek.  The most valuable item was the amount of water each person had.  The team started the trek slowly at 8:30 AM thinking that they will be reaching back Guntur much before dusk.

As the team started their descent after nearly 30 minutes of walking, we found “I like this spot”.  Much to the satisfaction of Rajiv and Basu just to know how precise the team was in planning and execution of the path towards the destination.  This has brought more confidence into all the team members and the voice echoed that we would be reaching Guntur early.  Some people voiced about reaching Guntur by Lunch time.  Not a bad idea in fact.  After traveling for 15 more minutes, we reached a dead end.  As Ravi and Sridhar started exploring the path through the bushes in the valley, Kumar and Basu were looking at other alternatives.  Sridhar and Ravi found that the path through the valley is tough and it will be tough to make a route here.  So they were trying to find out if there is any rivulet to climb the next hill and look for a path from there.  Kumar and Basu found one along the same hill.  As the path found by Kumar and Basu looked realistic, every  body joined the team and traveling for nearly 15 minutes, we faced a huge boulder and the boulder was along the valley which Sridhar and Ravi found earlier.  Ravi and Basu set out to explore the boulder and possible paths.  Quickly Sridhar also joined them.  As the team walked across the boulder, they realized that getting down into the valley is difficult. Alternates of getting down into the valley along the boulder were explored.  There were couple of places where the explorers could get into the valley but walking along the valley seemed difficult. At the top of the boulder (D2BL1), there seemed to be a distant path that will lead us out towards the spin mill at Thummalapalem.  Now the plan is to take the team to D2BL1 and then explore the alternatives.  Basu, Sridhar and Ravi returned back to the team and explained the further course of action.  The team need to walk along this boulder, everyone struggled to climb this boulder as it was very steep and the with the back packs it was a balancing act.  Rajiv took an alternate path round the rock but got struck in the shrubs growing in the rock cravasse.  Kumar tried to climb the rock but slipped, he also took the path in which Rajiv went.  Basu gave his backpack to Ravi and walked along the rock and joined the team at a distance.  Now the team started moving towards D2BL1 (Gyan Session 2)

As the team reached D2BL1, the spin mills of Thummalapalem were visible towards the East and the path (H3P1) is also traveling in the same direction.  From here, we had three alternatives.  First option is to get down into the valley along the boulder and then make path through the valley.  The second was to find a path from the end of the boulder and get down the hill.  The third option was to climb up towards the next hill and and get down towards the H3P1.  Ravi and Shiv started exploring the second option and found too many thorns in the beginning.  After clearing the thorns, they found couple of boulders and after crossing them, they could not find any path, but only shrubs and the complete floor is covered with dry leaves.  They returned and shared the experience.  Now, Basu and Ravi went to explore the path along the first option.  In the mean time, Sridhar, Rajiv and Shiv started exploring second path further.  As they started cutting the creepers and moving down, they realized that the path is difficult to navigate.  After exploring for nearly 30 minutes they found themselves at the foothill, but still a valley to cross.  In the mean time, Ravi tried the third option and got lost in the thick bushes.  He retreated back and his earlier experience with Basu that the first option is not possible made every body fingers crossed for the feedback to be brought back by Sridhar, Rajiv and Shiv.  As they brought back the good news, everybody was relaxed.

As the team started moving along the second option, barely 25 meters into the path, the complete team was lost!   Sridhar, Rajiv and Shiv started discussing about the path to be taken.  It is only then that they realized the path in which they went down is different from the one they came up and now they are in a different route!  As the team had a sense of direction, they started exploring a new path and were walking along the hill without any gradient.  This path was moving in the direction of South.  After walking for nearly 30 minutes, they found a huge boulder which gave another vantage point and from there a small path was visible much to the delight of everybody.  From here they found smoke at a distance indicating that some body was there and a good point of reference.  So, the team started walking towards the smoke which is in the direction of the Spinning mills.

The team, slowly started walking along the path and were a bit confident that the path will lead them out.  The only doubt they had was about the crossroads.  As they briskly walked along this path, they found couple of wood cutters who came to collect firewood.  With the help of the wood cutters, Sridhar was able to get the direction in which they need to travel.  But the wood cutters were not very helpful.  With the available information, the team moved quickly knowing that the destination to catch the bus to Guntur is another 3 Km away.  Once we are in the valley where the wood cutters are found, we came to know that this is a commonly visited path and we will not have any difficulty in reaching the destination.   As we walked for a while found couple of bicycles on the road side.  This put us the confidence that the tyre marks will help us reach the village.  We took a break after walking nearly 2KM and then refreshed ourselves with Oranges and rationed water from Sridhar.  As we are about to reach the village a voice was heard requesting for water.  As we desparately needed water, we went to the fields and the farmers (Ranga Rao Gowda with his co-farmers) are more than willing to offer us what little they had.  We took water and also helped them with the chocos, biscuits we had.  The villagers were surprised that there exists a route between Kondaveedu and Thummalapalem.  As we reached the busstand, there was a small canteen to help us with food.  All of us at once requested for Butter milk and drank to the thirst.  We took the bus to Guntur which dropped us at 14:00 hrs.

As we decided earlier, we measured the weights of each of us and to the surprise most of us lost good amounts.  Ravi 6.5, Sridhar 2.5, Kumar 2.5, Rajiv 1.5, Shiv 0.5 and Basu 0.0 (thanks mainly to the 7 glasses of water and 5 packets of butter milk he had).

Preparation:

Immediately after the Kondaveedu trek, the wanderers wanted to trek across those Mountain/Hill ranges and touching the river as well.  The Google search immediately flashed a beautiful area in Guntur / Nalgonda and Krishna districts borders where the new Pochampalli Project is being constructed.  Here river Krishna took a U turn.  Sridhar came up with the idea of trekking over the weekend.  Discussing with Ravi and after a little bit of exploring Google Earth, District Maps of Andhra Pradesh (http://www.mapsofindia.com/maps/andhrapradesh/districts/guntur.htm) & Live on Internet (http://mapmyindia.com/) a brief outline sketch of the trek route was envisaged.  In the meantime Anand, Kumar also expressed their views and are ready to take up the challenge.  The next day (15 Dec 2006) the trek route was finalized:

Starting from Hyderabad towards Guntur.

Alight at Sattenpalle.

Move towards Achampet via Krosuru.

Get down at Achampet and then choose one of the following Options.

a. Take a bus across to Venkatayyapalem and from their move towards Kolluru. Get down somewhere between and trek the highest hill in the Mountain range (approx 1500ft) cross the First Hill range and again trek across another mountain, reach Tallacheruvu. From here reach the main road towards Achampet.

b. After reaching the base of the mountain (if the hilltop is not trek able) move along the Mountain range with Krishna River along. Reach Madipadu Agraharam and come back to Achampet.

c. Another option was – Going to Amaravathi, along the river Krishna

The challenges actually started as the route itself is challenging with the little information available.  Finally Anand, Kumar, Sridhar and Ravi decided to do even if it would take 2 days.

Leaving Hyderabad:

Sridhar was busy with a birthday party after reserving the Bus tickets to Sattenpalle.  As the party was delayed he found himself at 21:45 hrs at his residence.  He tried reaching Ravi but Ravi did not pickup the mobile.  Thinking that Ravi could be travelling, immediately rang up Anand (who was about to leave to MGBS) and informed him the Seat Nos and told him that he will reach just in time.  Anand started off and as Sridhar started there was a huge traffic jam near Maitrivanam and Ameerpet.  And at 22:30 hrs he was still at Ameerpet only.  At the same time, Ravi was on his mobile talking to his friend at MGBS.  His mobile indicated that Anand was trying to call him.  After disconnecting the call, Ravi asked Anand to reach Platform No 13 and resumed the important call with his friend.  As Anand came in to view, Kumar sighted him and called him up where they were sitting.  After exchanging pleasantries all the three started waiting for Sridhar.  In the mean time Anand had indicated that Seats No 22,23,24 & 25 were booked till Sattenpalle on the last bus to Guntur leaving at 23:00 hrs.  Sridhar would reach the bus station with Tickets.  Soon Anand spotted the Guntur bus and all the three boarded the bus waiting for Sridhar. 2255 Hrs still there was no sign of Sridhar; Anand got down from the Bus and was looking for Sridhar. In the meantime Kumar sitting next to the Window, saw Sridhar and just before the bus started to leave for Guntur all the four were comfortably seated.  After informing that the bus would be at our destination by 0515 – 0530 all of them went in to their own world.

As the bus (Audio special) sped away towards Guntur, little did anyone knew the audio speciality.  The bus windows started making noise and the cool breeze reminded us the temparature is going to be low this night.  Ravi went to deep sleep, opening his eyes only when the Bus Driver was forced to apply break – and that happened on very few occasions.  Thanks to the driving Skills of APSRTC bus drivers, Kumar and Ravi were able to sleep peacefully.

In the seat No 22,23 a different story was being enacted.  Anand was unable to get sleep all through the Journey. He fidgeted, adjusted, moved tried in vain to get some sleep so that he would be active the next day morning, but could not.  Sridhar was waking up almost every hour to find out the time and how far the destination is.  As the bus was approaching Sattenpalle, sridhar woke up and alerted the rest of the team to prepare for the alightment.  We reached Sattenpalle at 0530 hrs in the morning.  All the four alighted from the bus and decided to act as discussed the day before.

Reaching the Starting Point for Trek:

Armed with the printouts of Google map, District map of Andhra Pradesh, all the four were thinking of going further.  Luckily for them they were able to find the “Road map” of the busses run by Sattenpalle Depot (this was not to scale).  We added this valuable information also into our maps list for further reference during the trek.  Checking the road map, Bus routes, discussing with the kind hearted APSRTC Depot employees it was decided that the trek route would be modified slightly.  Instead of reaching Achampet from Venkatayyapalem, it was decided to start from Achampet and reach Venkatayyapalem.  The drivers also warned about the naxalite activity in the area that is calm now-a-days, thanks to the combing done by the Government in view of the Pochampalli Project. The first bus torwards Madipadu Agraharam is at 0630 hrs.  A cup of Coffee in the morning energized all of them as they waited for the bus.  As the bus made way between the Cotton, Jowar and Chilli fields along the dusty pot-holed roads, the Journey towards Achampet had begun.  As the bus moved towards Madipadu Agraharm in the morning, chill was felt.  It was really cold.  As all the four started to appreciate the surroundings, their spirits got dampened when the Bus Conductor informed that the area was exposed to Naxalite activities – although it was very less.  2 kms after Achampet, we got down at so called “Venkatayyapalem Road” and started the trek with the view of the Hill range at 8:15.

The trek:

As the journey continued by foot towards the base of the hill, Chilli and Cotton fields still kept pace with them.  The chirping of the birds made us stop here and there playing hide and seek with us to spot them.  A different experience we faced here, as there were bushes and fields all around us, it was difficult for us to spot the birds.  As we leaned over the barricaded bushes (preventing the members from entering the fields) the birds flew away.  At 0830 hrs a huge tree with a Hand Pump located at the foothill invited us with open arms for the breakfast.  The Idli’s brought by Anand (thanks to his idea of covering the idli with “karam podi”) are very delicious and gave a good energy for the team to move ahead.  The team was cautious only to leave the footprints in the trek, the trash was packed back into backpacks.  They decided to stick to the well-trodden path of rivulets.  Although there was no water flowing, they were able to quickly conclude that this was the route that people use to reach Venkatayyapalem and decided to stick to this route.  This route is very different from the rest of the treks taken so far as the path is filled up with stones of all sizes through out the route.  It was hard to find soil for long stretches.  As they continued along the foot trail, they once in a while halted to take snaps.  By the time they reached the top of this hill, it was 0930 hrs exactly 1 hr from the foothill.  The ascent was steep and a bit tiring.  At this point there was a discussion on the way to proceed further.  On their left the foot trail was still there going down this hill, but they felt this might not be exciting.  They could see another hilltop on to their right.  The challenge was accepted and after 15-20 minutes of moving ahead, found out that this route is going to be hard.  The voice of the team echoed to go back to the hilltop and go downhill.  As they trekked down the hill the chirping of the birds was more frequent and had a few stops to have a glimpse.  This is not a bad place to do some bird watching!!  There were no birds during the ascent.  This indicated that the temperature is going to be hot as the day proceeds.  As the footsteps started picking up speed, a good view of the other side of the hill was available.  Quickly a vantage point was found and everybody started analyzing the remaining trek from here.  From the vantage point, On to their front were crops; on to their Right at a far distance was the Hill point (They were able to correctly identify that this was the point which they had originally planned to trek – refer option a).  The team decided to take some rest and pondered over which route to take – with each one suggesting left, straight and the right direction.  There was even confusion about the direction East as we did not have the compass.  Even the sun shadow did not help us much as the sun is now touching “Tropic of Capricorn”.  Having some oranges and Appy juice, got them energized and all of them decided to stick to the crop fields path expecting the Venkatayyapalem in the nearby vicinity.  As the team reached the plains, they were able to see crops.  Soon it was confirmed when they met a village local while crossing the fields.  Reaching Venkatayyapalem, talking to the villagers there, found that the bus to Venkatayyapalem, from Sattenpalle did not reach in the morning and not sure if any bus will come for the rest of the day.  The team had the following options:

Wait for the bus till 14:30 hrs

Walk up to ManneSultanPalem (11 Kms)

Walk up to Kolluru (8 Kms), cross Krishna River, and reach the nearest town of Kodhada.

It was decided to take the route to Kolluru through the forest.

By the time they left Venkatayyapalem to Kolluru, it was 1125 hrs.  The trek was through the plains and forest.  They were able to see hill range to their right stretching along the path.  This route seems to be motarable but for the powerful 4 wheel drives with high ground clearance only.  As the sun was beating down with high power, the walk was brisk and few stops.  Kumar was struggling to walk that stretch of 3~4 kms and tired.  After an hour they took a break under a tree.  The team was tiring up, so, we decided to have some biscuits, Glucose and some lemon-salt.  Sridhar did not have anything as he wanted to relax his body.  After 15 minutes, they resumed their trek towards Kolluru.  Anand was very energetic throughout this walk.  After reaching the village and asking for directions to reach Krishna riverbank, they moved along.  As they continued further, suddenly a cool breeze was felt in the air indicating they were very near to the riverbank. But there was no sign of the river roaring, water hitting the rocks. As they came to the bank, Krishna was in calm mood.  The localites mentioned that the depth of the reiver here is @250-300ft.  The river was flowing as if it did not wanted to show its existence  – peace, calm, somber face of the river.  The pochampalli project is being constructed @8 KM downstream from here.  All of them crossed across the river on boat, reached Vellatur.  Having found a small shop for quenching their thirst, Initially the shop owner refused to take minor change thinking we belong to “Squad” – the “Naxalite police/detection squad”.

Return Journey:

Looking for a place to take rest and Enquiring about the directions to take to reach Kodhada, all of them decided to have lunch.  Witnessing a cricket match going on and having chapattis and Jam as lunch gave them the much needed relax.  Appreciation to Kumar/Ravi for packing the chapattis so that they stay during the trek and still remain fresh. (these are not home made).  All of them waited for the Auto/Bus to them to Kodhada.  After a long wait, an Auto turned up which is ready to take the villagers to “Mela Cheruvu”.  We quickly jumped on and the road being very dust, we had to cover our nose with handkerchief and to prevent the dust from entering the eyes, The team was tired and almost everybody took a quick nap during the 35 minute journey.  As we were reaching Mela Cheruvu at 15:20 the bus towards Kodhada was leaving towards Vellatur.  We knew that the bus would come back in 45 mins.  Ravi and Anand continued their sleep at Mela Cheruvu bus stand.  As the bus arrived from Vellatur towards Kodhada at 16:10, we got into the bus and as the bus started, Ravi & Anand went on to relaxing mode again. They closed their eyes impervious of the surroundings and slept. Some time after Kumar woke Ravi, informed him that they had reached Kodhada at 17:20 hrs.

There are quite a few busses that ply from Vijayawada towards Hyderabad but the tickets will be issued only after the bus arrives.  There were already 6 members in the queue by the time we arrived.  Sridhar and Anand decided to share the queue relaxing in between.  Kumar and Ravi were trying alternate means of transport from the Main road.  As a bus came after 45 mts, there was no room to travel to Hyderabad.  And suddenly a bus came at 18:35 and there was a rush towards the bus.  We all were scattered as Ravi quickly passed the two bags he had in his hand to reserve a few seats, Anand pushed his way through the crowd and went in.  Sridhar, came out from the queue of taking tickets and got into the bus.  As anand was returning back stating that there were no seats for all of us, Sridhar overheard the discussion of the Conductor stating that 8 seats will be vacated at “Suryapet”.  As Ravi has reserved two seats, we thought we can take a risk or atleast share these two seats amongst the four of us and reach Hyderabad by night.  Ravi could get the clue about the seats that will be available at Suryapet.  And was able to execute the plan to perfection more to the relief of everybody.  We reached Hyderabad safely at 22:30 hrs.

“This trek could not have been possible an year ago and cannot be done an year later”