A trek to the Eastern Ghats - Nagalapuram

We started at 11:30 pm in a TT from Bangalore.  Nagalapuram town is approximately 290kms from Bangalore. 

DAY 2

We  reached Nagalapuram city by 4:30 am thanks to the good roads and consistent speed. 

We were keen on starting early and thus, freshened up quickly and drove towards the base, which is another 25 kms away - the roads were good and the route, scenic.  We witnessed a beautiful sunrise and reached the base (near a Temple) at about 6:00 am, had breakfast, packed lunch and set out to explore the famed Nagalapuram waterfall trek (East). 

All while, the creative, over-enthusiastic cells of my brain picturised wading through streams with knee deep water, walking along the waterfalls - alas, my fairytale notions didn't take too long crumble.  We did find streams and waterfalls on the way, yes, but not the way my over adventurous mind had imagined it to be.  The disappointment was short-lived - we came across enchanting views of the hills, streams flowing with crystal clear water, the dried river bed, full of stones, awaiting for the monsoon's kids to bring itself back to life. 

We reached out first pool by 7:45 am and spent a good 4 hours there swimming, diving and diving again!  The child in me came alive and how!  All those childhood fantasies of jumping into a river finally came true, albeit in a stream.  Also, important to note here that it's safer to wear a life jacket irrespective of your swimming talents.  So many hours in the water made us hungry, we ate the packed lunch and then proceeded uphill towards the sliding waterfall and to find a camping site - yes folks, we decided to camp there.  The most exciting trip ever!!

The sliding waterfall was by far the most thrilling natural adventure for me - even in my wildest dreams I hadn't imagined standing on the edge of a waterfall let alone sliding down from there.  With a lot of tantrums, persuasion and fear, I finally got myself to do it and oh boy, what an exhilarating experience!  Such was the excitement and adrenaline rush that I decided to do it again!

After we were done playing in water, we decided to get some firewood for the dinner and bonfire but rains decided to play a spoil sport and we had to find another shelter (we carried only sleeping bags) instead of the sleeping right under the stars.  as dusk settled in, we cooked ourselves a delicious dinner (biryani!) followed by little bit of star/ moon gazing on the hill top and then retired for the day as most of us were extremely tired from the day long activities.

DAY 3

This was the last day of our trek.  Rejuvenated with a good sleep, we were up by 6:00 am and ready to head towards our last pitstop, the "Dead-end Pool".  It took us a little over an hour to reach the last pool.  Once there, while some of them started breakfast preparations (this could make for a good Meri Maggie story) others quickly jumped into the water!

 

There was a surprise waiting for us at the other end of the pool, a water fall.  The waterfall, although a tiny one, was enthralling.  The force of the water was so good that all of us took turns to sit under it and enjoy our little own massage followed by another round of diving.

We took a less tedious, mostly flat, path on our way back to the base. We departed for Bangalore at about 3:00 pm, stopped at Mr. And Mrs. Idly for a light dinner and reached the city by 10:00 pm.

Written by     : Parul Jain

Organized by  : Arun Kumar & Subha Sundaram

Date of event : 5th & 6th Aug 2017

Place             : Nagalapuram

Pictures        : Two Days Treknic to Nagala East