Talakona post trek mail

[Ravi S Ghosh]

Gang of 36 completed trek to Talakona. Going through deep gorges
pools, exotic water falls and camping thorough the rain.
Please post all your mails related to this trek in this thread. -
Regards
Ravi S Ghosh
Blog: http://ravisghosh.blogspot.com
Orkut: http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#Profile.aspx?uid=1176546930559259367

[sujai karhik]

WOW !!! What an ultimate n relaxing trek ! The main highlight of the
trek was the group. We gelled really well.The group was pretty fast.
Kudos to u guys !!!

It was a fun packed weekend. Thanks to the organisers.

Waiting for the photos n the write ups !!!

[vijay R]

Hi All,

 

We Bangalore guys reached safely after the wonderful trek. This trek had everything in it like Tuf Trekking, Camping, Photography, Fun, Entertainment, Mouth watering food etc.

 

Thanks to all for fun loving experience. Awaiting for the snaps :).

 

Regards,

Vijay.R

[Jeyakumar Arokcia]

Greetings....

 

That was an excellent days in my life….Amazing places and awesome gang..…

 

I have got 35 friends now… J

 

Thanks to people who made the Bisibillabath and hot ginger lemon black tea….

 

There is no words to say other than Tons of thanks to Ravi G, Nara and Ravi A….

 

CTC is rocking always ….

 

Thanks

Jeyakumar.A

9884235530

[Ananth]

Hey All,

Was telling my wife about some "elements" dancing Dappaankuthu (See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dappaankuth) on the return journey to Chennai and some of the antics done on bus.

She commented how cheap some guys are, and how local they can get. She does not like guys like these.

Will mail the reaction once she sees the pics ;-)

Some highlights of the trek:

* Super-duper gang, decent pace. Sweepers were complaining about very little sweeping ;-)

* The initial 200m climb was a toughie, pretty much vertical. Decent into the valley slippery due to rain drops. Rest of the trek was like a picnic, how much food people hogged, egads!

* The third waterfall with big pool - one word: Awesome!

* Did everyone know Gujarat does not have water, and that is why the second largest Dinosaur died and became a fossil? Factoid Courtesy Arpitha (nicked akroot) She now plans to direct a movie: Gujju Dino

* Dancing around & antics done in bus - it was like a college bus guys, but then isnt that what CTC is about :-)

See ya next trek,

Ananth

98843 64441

On Sun, Jul 5, 2009 at 11:05 PM, Ravi S Ghosh <ravis...@gmail.com> wrote:

[kanthesh dc]

Hello buddies,

 

It was a great & 'once in a life time movement...' trek.

 

Thanks to organizers & all my 35 buddies, joined me in treck.

The photos taken from my mobile

http://picasaweb.google.com/kanthesh.dc/TalakonaTrek?authkey=Gv1sRgCMWq69TTnsvaogE#5355339998445540530

 

To CTC

 

Har kadam par imtihan leti hai zindagi !

Har waqt neye sadme deti hai zindagi !

Hum zindagi se shikwa kaise karen !

Ke tum jaisa doston ko bhi to deti hai zindagi !

 

Regards,

Kanthesh

[Nara]

We had a nice trek.I like to thank the enthusiastic team which made the trek like a college tour.
Thanks to Indira,we had a fantastic Bissibalebath & the hot lemon tea.
Only with CTC,we can get such a tasty food somewhere in the middle of deep forest.


I would like to thank Peter for composing such a beautiful trail for us.Without guidance of Peter and his nitty gritty details of the trail,we would not have reached the destination.
Thanks to Sreedhar for talking to Forest officials to get permissions.Without Sreedhar,the trek would not have started.
Thanks to Ranjit for helping & leading in identyfiying the trails.

It would be nice,if any of the participant could come-up with a write-up that can be posted in our blogs.

Regards
Narasimhan

[Ravi Alagappan]

What happens when you hire a bus with CTC

 

 http://picasaweb.google.com/aceravi/BusTripTalakona#

[PURUSHOTHAMAN K]

It was a vere memorable trek in the midst of forest with beautiful sites of water pool & falls.

It was my first 2 day trek with CTC and a grand experience of night halt in forest.

 

What to say. I could only say "Thanks are not enough".  All praise to Mr Peter for discovering the train path, CTC organisers !!

 

The trip was full of thrill though we faced only easy obstacles in the trail. The water body to swim in the mountain and standing on top of the water  falls are really rare ex[perience.

 

Bangalore friends gave opportunity to brush up my Kannada.

 

I look forward to such trails. 

 

K Purushothaman 97890 97191

2009/7/7 Ravi Alagappan <ace...@gmail.com>

[indira Kadambi]

hi all :)
here comes few pics from my camera..due to battery problem, i cudnt click more:(
http://picasaweb.google.com/trekindira/TalakonaTrek2009?authkey=Gv1sRgCPb8os7I1q_ntgE#
indira

On Sun, Jul 5, 2009 at 11:05 PM, Ravi S Ghosh <ravis...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Ravi S Ghosh]

Much less is talked about the unsung hero of the trek, Shreedhar, who managed to get the permission from DFO and arranged for breakfast and lunch at forest office restaurant. Many thanks to him who took his time out to help us enjoy even though he was not going to join it. 

[Vishuu]

Hi guys,
here comes my experience of first trek with all my
35 frnds. :-)

As this was my first trek i was very exited and bit tensed also
thinking that whether i can make it or not, but i can tell proudly
that i have done it.........................


the day (friday) when i was suppose to catch the bus from Bangalore to
Tirupathi, the same thing happened with me also as how it happened
with others. In my office, i had a Monthly review meeting and it
extended more from the normal time. when i reached home (CV raman
nagar other end of the city) it was 8 O clock and got a shocking news
that bus leaves at sharp 9:00 pm instead of 9:15 pm. I lost the hope
that i can make it to bus stand but thanks to the auto driver who
charged me rs. 20 more on the metered charge. but he took exactly 45
mins from my place which was highly impossible at that time. finally i
got the bus at the exit point of the bus stand but felt bad by hearing
that we have missed one of our friend kantesh who took the next bus
from there. ( At that moment i never thought that we will become very
close buddies).

Saturday morning we reached tirupathi, and then ravi announced that
we have to wait for chennai guys to reach the place. that time chitra
found some closed shops where we spent our time waiting for chennai
guys. i dint got sleep coz waiting for my new friends. finally they
reached the place and we all got into the bus to reach talkona. there
we introduced overselves to our friends and after collecting our food
and instructions from nara and other co trekkers we started our
journy.

To reach the water fall we had to walk for a distance of 2km. kantesh
was very exited and asked me to walk fast but i was having the
tortoise story in mind - slow and study win the race. i walked along
with Indira and chitra to the falls. On the way i and indira had a
chit chat and knowing abt her, i got motivated. After enjoying at the
falls we all headed to the shed where the yummy break fast was waiting
for us. After having our breakfast, again we started towards our camp
site crossing the beautiful black berry trees. While crossing we
tasted some berries which was awesome. after crossing the berry tress
there came the excitement. we crossed the canal by a fallen tree. Then
we rested for a while, when ranjith and ravi were busy in tracing out
the path. While we were resting karthick dived in to the canal
followed by Ravi G, Sujal, pranav and arpitha.


Its the spot from where i started walking with the sweepers and
realised whts the importance of the sweepers. Finally we reached the
camp site. when everyone was busy in stretching there legs and resting
ranjith took us (karthik, kantesh, pranav, my self and arpitha) to a
beautiful water fall. the place is amazing and the way to reach there
was also amazing. (we swam across two small ponds to reach that place)
i had never seen a beautiful place like that in my life, and the
thrill of swimming when it was raining.


back at the camp when we reached there were preparations for the
dinner but sad due to rain we were not able to light the fire for
cooking. but once again Ravi G striked at the right time by letting us
know that we can find the dry wood in between rock caves. We all
collected the woods and light the fire for cooking and the mean time
we played antakshari too. After singing some beautiful tracks from
both the sides in multiple languages we had our dinner bisibele bath
(which i had tasted first time in my life ). Thanks to indira for the
beautiful recipe.



That,s it guys... still more i want ti write but its the first
experience which will never end. thank you very much everyone for
making this so beautiful..




with love


Vishuu

On Sun, Jul 5, 2009 at 11:05 PM, Ravi S Ghosh<ravis...@gmail.com> wrote:
>

[hema govind]

      What could be a mind ,a body without a soul.Why would we go into woods for knowing we could have had a safe journey through this world.

 

Knowing there is pain ,why do we burn ourselves like a flame.Life would have touched many ...i guess the change is because ,this life was lived once and now there is another life being lead .For one life has seen so many wear and tear, the sense of being alive is lost.

 

We all sign the bond before we take up the trek and we do so with our own will .Why would we give up, life treasured for so long  just for 2days of trial,without a second thought , Why ?Did we lose ourselfs in the crowd .Walking with millions did we  get unnoticed in the trial of this life.

Deep inside our souls called to be witnessed and here we were witnessing our own lifes .

Crossing the ocean ,climbing the mountains we felt like wild horse in the wild.Just like the below song by bryan adams

---------quote------

Gotta fight another fight
I gotta run another night
Get it out, check it out
I´m on my way
and it don´t feel right
I gotta get me back
I cant be beat
and thats a fact
It´s okay, I´ll find a way
Ain´t gonna take me down, no way
No, oh, oh, oh

Yeah, don´t judge a thing
till you know whats inside it
Don´t push me, I´ll fight it
Never gonna give in,
never gonna give it up, no
No, oh, oh, oh
If you can´t catch a wave then
you´re never gonna ride it
You can´t come uninvited
Never gonna give in,
never gonna give it up, no
You can´t take me, I´m free

Why did it all go wrong?
I wan´t to know whats going on
What´s this holding me?
I´m not where I´m supposed to be
I gotta fight another fight
I gotta fight with all my might
I´m getting out, so check it out
You´re in my way, yeah,
you better watch out...

Come on! Don´t judge a thing
till you know whats inside it
Don´t push me, i´ll fight it
Never gonna give in,
never gonna give it up, no
No, oh, oh, oh
If you can´t catch a wave
then you´re never gonna ride it
You can´t come uninvited
Never gonna give in,
never gonna give it up, no
You can´t take me, I´m free
I´m free

---------unquote------

 

 

Sandwiched between the rocks we were trying to settle ourselfs down and thats when came god of rain trying to peep into our house.We had the wits we had to fight nature ...and  we managed to keep the flame on.

 

Life freezes sometime not knowing for the reason why, being just at the altar of mountain feels like there is actually a heaven below the sky.

Smile of  a child is the most beautiful gesture in this world .We all were child sometime in our life .For now the smile was hidden inside us for so many years until it came flashing through us while we felt young just looking at this world .

 

Now waiting for the pics from my collegues to witness what we had just 4days back in our lifes .....

 

Best Regards

Hema.G

[Ravi Alagappan]

Vare va.....Vare va......

 

Here are my trek snaps

 

http://picasaweb.google.com/aceravi/TalakonaDOA1#

[indira Kadambi]

expecting more pics from karthik, ravi ghosh, ramesh,....hurry up guys :)

On Thu, Jul 9, 2009 at 12:36 AM, hema govind <hema...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Ram Ram]

Hi all,

 

Uploaded some pics.........

 

Follow: http://picasaweb.google.co.in/raofthemesh/  .

More to follow soon after the weekend.......
 

Ram

[Joy]

Here are a few pics from my camera...............

http://www.flickr.com/photos/35690577@N04/sets/72157621051640989/

I was so busy enjoying myself...that I did not bother taking
pictures :)
Looking forward to meeting u all ....

Joy

On Jul 9, 1:07 pm, indira Kadambi <trekind...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Karthick Sundararajan]

Talakona trek writeup is now posted on the blog. I shall republish it when Nara/Ravi Ghosh/other photographers come up with their exotic pictures. Sorry Indira, it was a busy week. I could just manage to get a writeup. I shall post the pictures soon. 

Talakona – July4, 5 2009

That was a lazy Tuesday morning (30 June) at office. I was gazing through the office emails hopelessly. When I took a break, I quickly checked my personal emails and was surprised to see a trek invite to Talakona from Nara for the same weekend (July 4 and 5). Talakona – wait! What is that? I immediately remembered the teal colored huge water pool, which I had seen in the blog already. I went through the blog, saw few pictures and realized that it was none other than the mighty Venkateswara forest – ‘Trekker’s paradise’ in Peter’s words. I had always wanted to go to the Venkateswara forest, after all, who would not want to after seeing the DOA pictures. I checked for my weekend plans and enrolled for the trek. Registration was full in another two days and the confirmed list was sent out. Background works were going on for the car-pooling (Ravi Alagappan, Nara, Ravi Ghosh and other organizers). Shreedhar got us the permission from the DFO and was kind enough to arrange for the breakfast and lunch for the first day. Ravi and Ravi were sending some emails about what to do and what not to. I was dreaming about the teal colored water pool without knowing that we were going to get something much better. Meanwhile, decision was made to drop out the idea of car-pooling and to hire a bus from Chennai and grab the Bangalore/Hyderabad guys at Tirupathi and then proceed to Talakona, which we did as per the plan.

July4:

After parking the bus in the base camp Talakona, we were sharing the food to be taken through out the trek. There were more monkeys than trekkers ;) and they were keen in plucking up the food from us. Leaving them to the bus driver and the cleaner until the next evening, the energetic crew of 36 started the trek.

Initial walks along the jeep trail and towards the falls were enjoyable with the nice weather that actually continued for the whole of the two days. Talakona was mostly cloudy and drizzling the remaining time. After walking for some time through the well-built path to the Talakona falls (a tourist attraction), we saw that – a mind-boggling cascade of two levels and the top most one was dancing in the wind. Sujai and I decided to sweep for the trek and were collecting the people who had gone into the second level fall for a dip. Looked like the message has gotten wide-spread - the first timers already knew the fact that CTCians take a dip in even half an inch of water and they wanted to abide by that. Many of them were already in. After collecting them, we went walking to the first level pool – first level of the ~270 m water fall where the water showers up like a thread and dances to the tune of the winds. It was an amazing sight for photography and as well as an enjoyable shower for people. We all got in, making noise whenever the water fell on us, and took pictures then. Monkeys were playing with us during the change and this time, they were plucking up the energy bars and glucon-ds from us. The porters who were helping us with bringing the food to the shed above (which is the actual start of the jungle journey) were keeping them aside for the time we were in the falls. After that there was a steep climb (had well-build path) to the shed. After everyone reached the shed, breakfast and lunch were distributed. It was the spot where the CTC had camped last June. Chappathis and spicy Andhra style groundnut chutney were given for the breakfast. After sharing the lemon rice / curd rice for lunch, and filling up the water bottles in the stream nearby, we started our way into the jungle. Few of us who went to fetch water had to go through a fleet of bees. Also, we saw some elephant dung which was one of the real jungle moments.

This time, we had been telling that the group is taking a bit too much of rest and should get to speed up to go per plan. Is this a trek, or a treknic, I asked? Well, with all the sweat and jungle walk, scratches, thorns, rocks, less water, some people were staring at me as if I was sarcastic. At the end, they knew that it was, indeed. We then got into a first major obstacle, crossing a turbid but big stream. There was tree that had fallen in the middle paving the path to get on to the other side. On the other hand, we could circumvent. We chose to cross the stream through the tree and everyone did so with ease. Yay, the group was so good. We were resting on the banks when Ranjith, Ravi A had gone to check for the trail / way. It was a nice place for photography. Nara and Ravi Ghosh were in action with their cameras. After some time, without being able to resist my urge to get a dip, disregarding the fact that the water is turbid, not so deep, not clear, I got in, later pulling Sujai and few others. Usual CTC style diving photo shoots, pushing and pulling people were going on when Ravi A and Ranjith came up with the way. Ravi Ghosh, as I remember, was the one who took the maximum dips in the whole of the trek (not even did he miss a half a feet stagnant stream enroute and he wanted the sleeping mat for it ;))

After trekking for sometime, we got into a dry stream as per the plan. We decided to have lunch in the middle of the dry stream. The place was cool and had a 10 feet decline. Hema managed to successfully fall and get up without getting hurt. We did our lunch there sharing the lemon rice and curd rice and started again.

We reached the running water stream and after few short breaks, we went to the flat rock camping site at around 5 in the evening – heard from someone that it was a part of DOA1 or something. We relaxed a bit, started collecting firewood. I had been cursing Indira for making me carry a bag of rice for no reason. I later learnt that she made someone carry dal and some powder mixes. To my surprise, they unwinded a small grocery in no time which had carrots, beans to variety of powders to jaggery (but why is that??). Indira finally unveiled her secret plan of making a bissibelabath for dinner. Wow! Could see people were cheerful after hearing that one word. Next is the part that actually made up my trek. By the time we were collecting firewoods, few people went on the opposite stream and came back saying that there was a big pool at about 20 minutes. Ranjith and I along with 6 more decided to go there starting at 6 in the evening.

Was it an odd time for that? Yes, but we thought we would do a night trek back after all that was a straight way back through the stream over the boulders. We took few torches in a plastic bag and started towards the pool. We did find it, but it was not so big as expected and when we got there it was drizzling. Ranjith was telling that Peter had taken them to this place already and he said there is something if we could cross the pool and go on with the stream. We swam across, Aditya, the KF guy was looking pathetic with his bloated jean but he managed to do that. Then came a second pool, we swam across that too, and after climbing up and down a couple of big rocks, we were at the dead end of the stream. We were sitting on a rock, the stream was flowing beneath that, and some fifty feet under, we were hearing the sound of waterfall. The water that passed through our feet was falling down with a huge sound. The place gave an amazing, breath-taking view of the Venkateswara Mountains. Forest and water stream looking back, waterfall under our feet, a 180 degree view the mighty Venkateswara mountain range in our front, it was duskier and drizzling too. I was telling someone that we would never ever get such a sight in our lifetime, never ever. We were enjoying ourselves forgetting the fact that we have to go back all the way through boulders, two swim and cross channels and conquer the darkness. Few of us were willing to get little down and see how the water is falling like, but Ranjith was against that considering the safety.

After we started, after crossing the two pools, the boulders were slippery due to rain and the water level was so high in many places. Few places, we could not climb up the way we used to get down. This time, we were worried about taking back Pranav (youngest of the group – Sujai’s bro), Aditya (with heavy wet jeans and not-so-good shoes who was falling down in every rock) and Arpitha (the only girl in the venture). Ranjith was navigating and I was at the end. Pranav could not go with their pace for long time and started slowing down. Arpitha was hanging in a five feet gorge and with shivering hands when I lifted her up, I was blaming myself for calling her and was even thinking whether this was worth taking up. After few fall-downs, Pranav slowly got into rhythm and we made it in another half an hour to the base camp where we could make others envy with our bravado. We decided to go there again in the morning. Bissibelabath was getting ready and Antakshari was going on in full swing meanwhile. Hema’s team took the lead, and the opposite team concluded that it was breakfast time. Bissibelabath was extremely delicious after a hard day, following with a good night’s sleep.

July5:

A pleasant morning, with black tea. Oops, we were late, so we decided to go with the plan. Some people did not get a chance to make it to the viewpoint, adventurous get off, but Ravi Ghosh and Nara were promising about more exotic places and viewpoints later in the evening. Convinced with that, we started moving biting the breakfast.

Pictures, pictures and more pictures on the way back. Everything looked beautiful. Sujai went in the middle giving up the sweeping job. Ranjith, Ravi ghosh, Nara and I were sweeping and at one point, we, a gang of 12 or 14, realized that we were lost.
LOST – we had missed them somewhere, we got out of the dry stream somewhere where we should not have and we were actually on the top of some hill. Making few people sit at a visible place, four of us started searching in random directions. Without GPS, without directions, we realized the pain of finding trails and people. Only tool that we had was a whistle. Ravi Ghosh was blowing it up heavily, yet no luck. After some 45 minutes, we could hear a distant whistle sound in some direction. Ravi ghosh and I were running to pick them up and were relieved to find Ravi A and Sujai. But then, we did not find the way back to the place where we left the crew. We took the GPS, marked that place, went on search for the lost crew again. It took over one and a half hours to sort all this out and to make a reunion. After seeing the GPS trail of the path we took to find the lost crew, many were commenting that it was as if a jilebi :). Important lessons learnt were to listen to the directions and give a signal to the next group when there was an unknown deviation. Getting lost in jungles – it was fun too.

We made it to the shed again shortly and from there to the third ever biggest pool in CTC’s history (It was the second, but Peter and few others had found the biggest on the same day in the same Venkateswara range which they claim it to be the first). We had so much of water fun, diving, somersaulting, jumping, what not – Many non-swimmers showed their valor, they were in with sleeping mats and were having fun. We got out after an hour, proceeded towards a viewpoint. That was amazing – it was looking like Grand Canyon valleys from one side. So huge, mighty, something that cannot be fully portrayed. Pure breeze, 100s of feet deep down under, weird pictures, group pictures – it was the highlight of the day. We started descending down on the valley side, but there was a clear route (not a trail, but a well-built route). We were enjoying the valley view all through the walk and some great viewpoints. We finally made it to the jeep trail at around 5 in the evening and were walking peacefully towards the bus grazing our Talakona memories.

We named it as Treknic because, the trek was moderate, the crowd was enthusiastic, had loads of energy way back, great fun people. The dance fun started when the driver started playing ‘kuthu’ songs way back in the bus. Everyone was made to dance ;) and it was like a college picnic day.

We had a delightful dinner at the Bliss in Tirupathi, bid bye to the Bangalore guys and made our way back to Chennai, the concrete jungle.

Verdict is, Talakona is a must-must-must-go trek, which offers loads of surprises.

Written by: Karthick Sundararajan

Organized by: Nara, Ravi A, Ravi Ghosh

Participants: 36

Image Galleries:

Indira
Ravi A
Ravi A - 1
Kanthesh

Posted by Karthick Sundararajan at 11:59 AM 0 comments  

--
Karthick

http://www.google.com/profiles/karthick.sundararajan

[Nara]

Here is the link to my Photos taken during Talakona trek.

http://picasaweb.google.com/narasimhan.k/TalakonaDOA1?feat=directlink

Regards
Narasimhan

[indira Kadambi]

still more pics to come from both karthiks, ramesh-blore, ravi ghosh,....???? :)

On Mon, Jul 6, 2009 at 4:47 PM, Ananth <ananth.tm@gmail.com> wrote:

[Ravi S Ghosh]

U have to wait for another month for my pics. :)

Regards
Ravi S Ghosh
www.google.com/profiles/ravisghosh

[Vasanth]

Here goes the capture from Karthi's Cam:

http://picasaweb.google.com/vasanth123/Talakona#

--
----
"If there is a way to do it better...find it."
-- Thomas Edison

[Ram Ram]

 

more pictures here

http://picasaweb.google.co.in/raofthemesh/TalakonaTrek#

 

[Karthick Sundararajan]

Sorry for the delay. Pics from my cam are here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/Karthick.Sundararajan1/Talakona_4_5July_2009?authkey=Gv1sRgCMfgkdL6mqmSwAE#

--
Karthick

http://www.google.com/profiles/karthick.sundararajan

[Ravi S Ghosh]

Sorry for the delayed upload of pics from the most wonderful, most fun filled trek. Hope I was able to capture some of the fun in my camera..

http://picasaweb.google.com/ravisghosh/200907Talakona

Accepting and expecting creative constructive criticism.

[Vikram J]

Worth waiting for it!

Ravi, the pictures are really good and it just says how much you guys had in the trek! This is good way to take pictures of important happenings and funs in a trek! Great pictures and keep going! 

--
Thanks and Regards
Viki

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vikramj/
http://picasaweb.google.com/vikramse
http://istruck.blogspot.com/
http://yevanooruvanz.blogspot.com/
http://emancipate.wordpress.com/

"Buying a camera doesn't make you a photographer.  It makes you a camera owner"

[indira Kadambi]

wow:)....finally:)..thx ravi:)..awesome photos:)

[Ansar Ahamed]

Dude...Nice Capturisation of the Beauty of Talakona & The Images of the nature & the sky were simply MindBlowing.....They are on Par with the works of the Professionals & as Viks said they were worth the wait !!

[imran ahmed]

super pics :)... brought back all the memories of the super trek :)

--
http://www.facebook.com/i.imranahmed

[H. L. Ratan]

Great Pics

 

Really good

 

You have captured the thrill and mood of the trek

 

Hari Ratan

 

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