Venkatagiri (Ex/2 repeat), Nov 27-28

[peter.vangeit]

[Sampath]

Wonderful Trek,
Water, Water and Water everywhere.
Guys please post the pictures soon !

[vishnukumar]

Walked on the stream was awesome.Technology fails some time but experince never fail, The old guy who leaded the trek proves that.  Enjoyed the hot yummy soup-noodle with hot tea. Thanks to Nithyan for brought the second group in the strip mountain at dark night.  Thanks to all the organizers who made the trek very successfully.

[Ramesh Azhagar Solai]

Dear all,

These are the photos from my Nikon.
http://picasaweb.google.com/a.s.ramesh/Venkatagiri27Nov2010#

Regards,
Ramesh

[Nataraj]

Wow..what a trek that was? The falls in which we spent whole 1-2 hrs in the last day of the trek was just fantastic. The early morning views from the top was simply mind blowing and set the tone for the day. Had a great time and found some great new friends. Life is full of uncertainities and this trek is no exception to that - Losing the trail, camp at 9:00 PM and meeting stranded friends at 10:45 PM. This what makes is exciting or 'Adventure'

[ss]

http://picasaweb.google.com/agentsss/Venkatagiri#

[Karthick]

It was Fun.! I have posted selected few pics in flickr [Post processed] -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/karthickhariharan/sets/72157625493668626/with/5217904281/ 
I will be adding some more pics later. If needed, you can subscribe to the feeds in flickr for updates.

I will be uploading my entire collection to a site called zoomin. I will share the complete set [ unedited version ] later.

Thanks
Karthick
hariharan.karthick[at]gmail[dot]com

[kaushik ranganath]

Yet another fully loaded week end with CTC in a new destination Venketagiri
Hills .

First of all it was an awesome Trek to to the Venketagiri Hills. 55 souls
gathered to the Venketagiri forest on Saturday morning at Koyambedu.
We proceeded towards the Venketagiri after a chaos created by the bus
fellows which was sorted out in an hour. The food distribution took place
inside the bus and also our fellow trekker Karthik Radhakrishnan's birthday
was also celebrated.


We reached our base around 11 and had our breakfast(yummy idly vada) . In
the meantime we hired a local villager along with us to navigate us to the
hill top. We started the trek at a fairly brisk pace in the jeep trail. The
weather gods supported us by being kind. After a walk of three hours we
regrouped in a pool where people had a dip and had lunch.


We proceeded further inside the forest loaded with fun and excitement of
water everywhere and walking over it. We reached a a small waterfall where
we regrouped. Vadivel and Nagin were discussing the trail to proceed
further. With loads of analysis we found out that we have to climb up hill
to cross the stream. With the help of the villager mission to reach the peak
started at 4.30. On the way we tied ribbons for identification of people
coming behind. It was steep climp of 150 meters.After a group reached the
top we were searching for the trail which will take us to the Dip indicated
in the GPS but it was vain as the there was only drops and no paths.


Finally around 8 PM  we decided to Camp . Nithyan , Vadivel and few others
went in search of a camp site and found a nice place to camp which was
500 meters from the an awesome viewpoint.
Firewood were collected and the Campfire was set. People were dead tired and
hit their Sleeping Bags fast skipping their dinner. After a good night sleep
we proceeded towards the viewpoint and clicked snaps and had a galla time.


We proceeded to the waterfall below with the help of human GPS(villager).
After reaching the waterfall Nithyan started preparing Tea and yummy Soup
and others hit the waterfalls and few took a nap. People had a sumptuous
noon meal and took a small nap.


Finally we started to reach the base before it becomes dark. We regrouped at
a pool and had some water games and then proceeded. As we say trek never
ends with people getting lost and Rescue team coming to the rescue. The Last
group of 25 missed the trail and proceeded in the different direction.
Vadivel ,Rinkesh and Ajay set to find a trail others camped at a place there
was a little signal in a mobile. We sent a word to Nagin and Natraj that 25
people have stuck inside the forest. They sprung into immediate action along
with guru to come to rescue along with villagers. Meanwhile we had lots of
fun by setting a campfire and singing songs knowing that rescue is on our
way. the rescue team finally reached us after two hours of search. We
started our trip back to bus and reached around 12.30 midnight
and proceeded to Chennai after and adventurous trek.


Thanks to Nagin, Natraj ,guru and hari for bringing the villagers to rescue
the people caught inside.


Thanks to Peter who gave us a brainstorming session at his place about the
trail on Friday Night.


Wish to see you soon in future treks.


Here is my share of photos


http://picasaweb.google.com/kaushikranganath3387/VenketagiriEx2Repeat_1# 


http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=267295&id=628356660 


cheers,


Kaushik

[Arun B S]

Hey Peter,

We all really missed your company ! I would like to go for a trek to Venkateswara other than the New Year Trek ! We loved Nithyans company and Supervision on us..

We loved our time ..

Cheers ,

Arun

[Karthick]

http://www.zoomin.com/Album/1017254/

For the full list of Photos.

karthick
hariharan[dot]karthick[at]gmail[dot]com

[Harikumar]

Wow! That's the word that comes to my mind after my first camping trek! It was simply a wonderful experience. The initial flat walk, the steep climb, the campsite, the stunning viewpoint, the crystal clear stream water,  some excellent food all through the way considering the circumstances, the return walk, the wait and then finally the rescue everything had something for me to learn from. Thanks to Nagin and Nataraj for taking me along for the rescue, that was very useful and enlightening. Also, thanks a million to all the organisers for organising my best trek yet at CTC :)

[Nataraj]

Hari, i think you need a special mention. Although you have just couple of trek experience, volunteered to the rescue operation. This is commendable and appreciate your attitude. Hats off.

[Mohan]

At First I would like to thank everyone for this awesome exp !!!!

DAY1:

We started from the base after having a yummy breakfast 4 idlis + Vada. We started walking continuously following the stream and reached the first pool, had lunch, spent some time in the pool. After walking for 10 minutes we found one more pool which was very good and thought we could have had our lunch here. The beauty of that second pool, I don’t have words to explain (I think I am a very weak in English never mind).After walking for another 2 hrs from there we reached one more stream; we took rest and took some snaps and waited for regrouping.

In the left of us there was a steep of approx 150 Meters and in the right side there was a stream, as per our human GPS (Thatha) we were asked to climb the steep and reach the destiny, as swimming and crossing the stream might be difficult and risky. I and group of 4 people were the first to follow our Thatha, we just started climbing and climbing .........When I saw up it was going on. Our hero vadivel was sitting on a Nellika tree (Gooseberry tree) and helping us .After 1.5 hrs we reached the plain area, we then started searching the trail and it was totally dark. We were walking with the torches in search of stream and camping site, by that time the remaining group of people reached and we regrouped.

Nithyan, vadivel and Rinku went to search for a campsite and they found it. We went there and started setting up the campsite .Nithya and team had put their bag on a tree (while searching for camp site) and they couldn’t find it .Everyone was in search of the bags; thank god it was found.OOps he was missing his camera too. It was dark and we tried to search but then after sometime we thought of searching it in the morning. We had good dinner and enjoyed the campfire, had fun and slept :)

DAY2:

After a sound (very sound) sleep we all woke up around 7 Am. Nithya and Thatha (human GPS) went in search of camera .We all slowly started waking up one by one .Rinku went to attend an important call in the morning (Nature's call) , he found the camera. We shouted Nithyaaaaaaa and we found Nithya and he was happy....!!! Everyone started getting ready and we went to see a view point near our campsite which was found by Vadivel and team, took snaps and spent some time there. We started climbing down around 9, reached the pool around 10:45.Nithaya prepared hot tea, soup and noodles, had good lunch and jumped into the pool.

Around 3 we started walking in groups .I was not feeling well, (Prasanna, Lavanya and Raja and Few others sorry forgot d names) helped me by giving breaks every now and then. I vomited 4 times and still I was active because of the support given by the group. Thanks for the apples and chocolates given to me after every time I vomited .I was wearing a Yellow T shirt in which it had a caption 'BENGAL TIGER’, so everyone started calling me "BENGAL TIGER" .With that enthu and fun filled group around me, I happily reached the base camp. When I and Raja reached the base camp we had a warm welcome :) Especially Durai Sir thank you!!!I enjoyed your company very much!!!

We heard that another group is missing and they missed the trail.Natraj and team went for rescue .In the mean time we went to a shop in the village, everybody was asking about where we went and what we did and infact how much we paid that Thatha (old man).It was fun talking to them with my telugu .

At last by 12.45 missing group also reached, we started from the base and reached Koyambedu by 5.30 AM.
Would like to meet you all in future treks!!!

Last but not least we missed you very much! We would like trek Venkatagiri once again with you!!

See you Venkatagiri once again  !!!!

(Hmmm guys don’t mind, it’s after a very long time I tried to write something!!!)

Thanks & Regards,
Mohan

MAIL # [e-mail]
MOB # [phone]

[Mohan]

Last but not least we missed you very much! We would like trek Venkatagiri once again with you!!

Missed Peter  ( here as well )!!

Last but not least we missed you very much Peter ! We would like trek Venkatagiri once again with you!!

Thanks & Regards,
Mohan

[Sourabindu]

Please find my photos at
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=27473&id=100000815492538&saved

http://picasaweb.google.com/sourabindu/Venkatagiri#

Will upload the youtube videos soon.
Regards,
Sourabindu

[Harikumar]

Hey all finally wrote a blog on it !! Only Day 1 is complete...Day 2 on its way: http://aharkirum.blogspot.com/ 

[Sourabindu]

Youtube Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNrOLnIWQvM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JEYVn5CCqs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOUTC1tcV5A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tMN-3LBUIg

[Prasanna]

Great  Fun filled trek ;);)

IT was fun all along ......


Will like to do it again and  next time hit the peak ;) ;)



Prasanna
 

[Nagin]

Hello friends
Sorry for postings my pics so late. The link-
http://picasaweb.google.com/pnagin/VenkatagiriEX2RepeatNov2010?authkey=Gv1sRgCI-IiOvanLTccw#

nagin