Eastern Ghats Trek - My first Trek

Every time I visit Araku Valley, I think of doing trek on the hills rather than a drive through the valley. All the time I sit near a window, I used to watch all those lovely curves and the lush green trees and the beautiful water streams passing through the road at times.

Araku Valley looks very beautiful in the months of rainy season and winter season. It attracts people because of its pleasant weather, hills and the beautiful valleys. Araku valley is naturally and pleasantly sistuated amid the Ananthagiri hills, Eastern Ghats.

So finally, I had the pleasure of doing trek in these Eastern Ghats along with Youth Hostels Association of India, Andhra Pradesh State Branch in the month of December–07. They were the trek organizers.

It was a 6-day trek from the base camp Shivlingapuram situated 70 kms from Visakhapatnam en route to Araku Valley (which is 112 km from Visakhapatnam).

Day 1 - Reporting – Orientation at Base Camp Shivalingapuram - 21^st Dec 07

The journey began to the base camp on 21^st Dec –07, where we have to report for the trek. Boarded a bus in the afternoon around 2:30PM for the base camp and the journey took for about two and half-hours. During the journey my adventure started, there was a sound from behind my seat, which said “CHAITANYA”. I was shocked to hear my name in the bus as I was travelling alone without any of my friends and foe. When I turned back there was a person who is also travelling along with me to participate in the trek. It was that moment, I started making friends and the first person I met during the journey was Jagannath Krishna (Krishhh, which became his pet name later) a mariner in Merchant Navy. Quickly we became close friends as if we were friends for a long time. That was lovely start for me.

Finally we reached the base came at 5 PM. Quickly we were allotted a tent to place our bags and we joined the volleyball team who were playing beside the camp. Slowly I made friends who were at the camp. Then we had snacks and I was interacting with the people who have come for the trek. It was getting dark and I made a good bond with two more people along with Krishh. They were Sriram and Srikanth. Sriram doing his Btech final year in Kakinada and Srikanth is a SAP programmer working in a company named ____ (oops forgot, Srikant fillup the blank plz!)in Vizag. We were almost of the same age group and hence we four came along together. Later on as the night was progressing, the whistle blew up for dinnertime at 8 by our camp leader Mr. Prasad. Below the star studded sky I came to meet Mrs. AnitaRao, an artist by preofession. She worked as an arts teacher in Kendra vidyalaya in Andaman n nicobar. Then I met Mr. Sivaji who is working in a National Insurance, Vizag. Slowly I was interacting with almost all of them. Again the whistle blew for the orientation. In that we were introduced ourselves and all the event directors Mr. Prasad, Mr. Ravi Paul, Mr. Krishna Murthy, Mr. Satyanandam and Mr. Sagar explained about their experiences and gave instructions and all the guidelines about the 6-day trek. Interesting part was I met some more interesting people, KIDS. Parents dropped them alone to do the trek and I was happened to meet Mithlesh, Vatsal, Jayanth, Ankit and Prateek. Later as we were dispersing for sleep, met a family who also came to trek from Hyderabad. Mr. Ramesh and his family joined the camp for doing the trek, they had a kid and his name was also Chaitanya!!! Then I met Mr. Manish from Maldives, Mr. Swapnil from Pune, Mr. Ashish from Hyd, Mr. RamaNaidu from Hyd and a group of people (a gang) from the Navy working in MOV department. Also Mrs Uma and co, who were housewives and trekkers by interest. Miss. Ramya, daughter of Mrs.Uma, doing her Btech final year in Vizag. Finally, the night ended with a set of instructions regarding the early morning Nature call places and after that we all went into our respective tents under a very beautiful sight. There were so many stars glowing very brightly in the dark sky. It was a very wonderful scene to watch. It was exactly sitting in a huge planitorium, WOW!!.

I was feeling so thrilled for the next day and praying for the Sun to raise quickly for a week long adventure.

EGT - Day 2

Day – 2 - Trek to Pedda Bidda – 22nd Dec 07

We started the day early at 4AM (Nature calls ;) ) and we were ready by 6AM.
All geared up to go for the kill (later at the end we were killed, coz of the first time trekking that too a long distance trek). So as usual the whistle blew and we all lined up for the breakfast by 8AM, along with that we had few photo sessions done and we were ready with our packed lunches and rucksacks. For the packed lunch, I was carrying the Puris and Anitha M'am was carrying the curry for us.



Everyone were so thrilled for the trek but were being killed by the waiting time for the Forest officer to flag off the trek event. We were said that its going to start by 8AM but time was passing and at 10AM the guest came and flagged off the event.




And so the day started, everyone were so energized and started with great spirits. The troop began to march into the hills after a strict head count(twice, we did the head counts). Initially it wasn't at all a hard one to walk along with the baggage at our back, later as we were ascending the hills slowly could feel the weight. But that was nothing towards the enjoyment that we were doing. Adoring nature as we walk through the hills and streams. As It was the first day everyone were walking as per the instructions laid to us. Well we were following our guide Tycon and our group in charge was following us at the back and our environmentalist leader Master Ankit was busy in ordering us not to litter plastic and chocolate wrappers in the way. Ankit did a good job as an environmentalist.
At around 1PM we halted for a lunch near a stream and under a huge mango tree. It was nice spot to have lunch as the scenic was a picture perfect with beautiful valley at the backdrop. I was on a lookout for Anitha m'am for the curry. When I met her, she started playing pranks that the curry got finished and they ate it on the way itself. After a few moments of having made me fool around, I had my curry and we all had a good lunch break. By the lunch break time itself few trekkers were tired and were making themselves comfortable there for a nap. But had just halh-an-hour break and again we started. At that time itself some of them were fuming at the guide, asking him about the distance still to be covered. Tycon was replying them its just a few more distance "just one more hour of walk". And so we all started again this time with baggage and heavy stomachs (hahaha). Now there were groups forming up. In one group, experience was being shared about their past treks, then in another about the culture of Maldives. In our group about the works that we do. And some they were walking walking and on. We were like on a marathon, kept on walking walking. But I should say it was the beauty of the ghats that didnt made us feel tired. The valleys were so deep and lush in green color. The sky was showing up in dark blue color as the valley was free from pollution the air was so clean. We were at a height by now and from the place where we stand was an awesome view of the valley. It was the beautiful sight .Everyone by this time were feeling very tired as we were continuously ascending and descending the valley. All our bottles became empty and wherever we find stream again filled them with water. To our batch(myself, krish, srikanth and sriram) some more rucksacks were added. They were the bags of the kids. They were totally taken aback by the valley and so all their luggage were now on our heads and shoulders. Phew!! But they were feeding us with biscuits and water from their share too!! And so we came across a village and all the kids started playing with a flock of sheep. We just halted there for a while and some of them started interacting with the villagers and I was busy taking photographs for others who were giving pose with lambs out there. It was around 3PM and still we had a long way to go. It was the first day and we had a grueling task up till now. After a brief halt started our journey. We were so tired and it was like we all were left alone in a desert and there were no directions to the destination and just walking walking. But to me it was like joy with no bounds, as I wanted this kind of trek to happen in my life and was doing so ;).
Finally we were said that the camp is just around the corner and by descending the steepy hill will be reaching the camp. And by hearing this there was a "Josh factor" arouse in all of us and started moving very fast. But after descending we came across a road, it did not looked like a road but like a bed and everyone relaxed on that.

Well we all waited for the others to rejoin and then marched for the camp. An interesting part was, the camp which has to be at Pedda Bidda got shifted to Cherukumedatha. It was because of scarcity of water at that place. So we travelled half a kilometer more than the actual said distance. But that was nothing. On the way to camp, some of the members stayed back just 100 meters from camp at the stream. They had a good evening bath in the cold. Boy!!! I was feeling cold and dropped the idea to get into water. So we reached the camp at around 5:30PM. The evening was so beautiful, with a full moon rising and slowly could feel the chill in the air. To that we had a warm welcome at the camp with a "Rasna Drink". We had a hot cup of tea (a bit watery tea!!) then a bowl of peanuts. It was all for a hard day's work!! We were sheltered in a church that night and for ladies a small house in that village beside the church. We ended the day with a speech by the local Paster and again with a set of instructions for_____ (Good guess!!, NCs).
Attention please!!!!! uh hhhhmmm!!! Here at this place we met a new set of people. "Beebatsam Trekkers" by which they were called. Mr Venu, Mr Prasad and co! They all joined lately and came from Hyderabad for this trek. They were a very cool and jovial persons.

EGT - Day 3

It was dam cold outside at 4AM. Dont be surprised in thinking that why at 4AM we are wandering around! Aaaahh! for NCs!!!! Its my pleasure to introduce you our leader in this act, Mr Manish! From this moment he became our leader for all the next days NC times. It was soooooooooo cold and I dared to have a bath too!!! Aaahhhh man! It was deadly at that time for me. For about one hour it was like teeth grinding for me, full body shake!!! Just one dip caused this much effect.
It was 5 in the morning, had a very good hot cup of tea!! Then I started with my cam for the snaps. I was busy capturing the sunrise. The morning was so pleasant and was chilly. Slowly myself and my gang(krish, SriRam, Srikanth) doing modeling in that cold. We were accompanied by Mr.Ramesh and Mr. Satyanarayana to take our group snaps. There was a hay stack and we all 4 rolling on it as we were feeling warm in that.
As the day progressed by 7:50 we were done with a great breakfast. A healthy one for the day's trek. Then packed the lunch and by 8AM we all lined for head counts! We collected biscuit packets and frooty juice as energy boosters in the middle of day during the trek. Hmmm! so after the head counts started to the next camp at Valasi. It was a 9km trek.
So the journey began! We started on road for about 2 kms. This time we were accompanied by one of the camp leader Mr. Krishna Murthy in guiding us the way along with Tycon.
Then we were stuck at a place where both Tycon and Mr.Krishna Murthy lost the direction of our way. There was no sign of YAHI marking lost track of the things. So we halted there at 10:45am under a nice and shady place. Well even though it was a winter season sun was very bright in the dark blue sky. We were feeling hot at day. We could see all shades of nature! Blue, Green, Brown and mostly the colors of our wear and tear in the sun on our faces! (hahahaha)
After 20 or 30 minutes we started again as the way got confirmed. Now the trek is getting interesting. We were informed before the start that this day we would come across 5 streams, and there we go the first stream. My feet were running towards the stream. Took off the shoes and splash!!!!! Ahhhh the water was so cool. It was fun.





















And after that we were passing through a thin steepy path. It was such a very narrow path that a wrong step could lead us down into the valley. Also to that it was a bit muddy as there were few terrace farming fields. So it was a bit steady head moment for all of us.








This kind of stretch was about 1 to 2 kms. After that we crossed a bid waterfall. It was so excellent and the water was gushing from the top making a very big noise. It was roaring! We were walking along the stream and crossing the same stream from this side to that side and vice versa and the time was 12:25PM. We halted for our lunch. The place was beside the stream and everyone picked up spots to have their lunch comfortably. We sat on the rocks in between the stream and had the lunch. After having lunch played some water games along with the kids. After an hour we started to the camp at Valasi. We crossed streams, walked on the muddy slopes, along the narrow paths of the terrace farming fields and at 3:30 PM reached the camp at Valasi. Tents were laid beside the Ananthagiri mandal school. It was out and all an excellent trek better than the previous day. As this trek had some challenges to face on the muddy slopes.
All the men were shared among two tents and the ladies were provided with the school shelter. We had some welcome juice and tea. After that we all went out for a bath at the near by stream.
Woooooooooooooooo! before getting into the water itself my legs were dancing!! Jumped! Splashed! Cried! Shouted! ahh! took a bath and were in water for about 1/2 hour. We had a blast in the water. Once again we along with the kids had masti out in water.

After a good bath we all got ready and played some catches with a ball. Catching and Bowling!!
The camp was located in such a scenic place , that the camp was surrounded by hills. It was like a huge closed walls protecting us from any danger! Like a kings fort! As it became dark, some local kids studying at that school came by. We were strangers to them. I took some pictures of them. They all got excited after seeing the preview of their snaps. They were all like a live wire laughing out loud after seeing their faces back in camera! I recollect their names - Deepika, Lakshmi, Juran, Mahesh Babu, Siva, Lalitha......... (ahhhh! still scratching my head!!). Then Shivaji interacted with them played some interactive games with those local kids. By 7PM we started our dinner. The food was excellent!!! Again after having the head counts, the most exciting part happened. We all went to a near by village and came across some of the Dhimsa Dancers. They played and danced to the local tunes - Dhimsa Dance. Later we too joined them and made a Himsa dance. No one were able to make up the correct steps. Our legs were tumbling to each other's legs. Finally we all contributed an amount of 500 ruoees to those dances as a token of appreciation.
After that we reached to our tents and started a camp fire for which there was no fire at all. Most of the people went back to sleep, the kids already into a deep sleep. But there was some josh going on at the camp fire. Mr Beebatsam(Venu) sang some few good songs! And during that we came to meet three more new members, who joined for this event on the third day at this Valasi camp.
They were Mrs. Manomayee, who is working in Army and is a resident of Delhi. The other two names were Ravi, both have the same name and came from Orrissa. They are from different professions. One is a job holder and the other is a business person. After this, had our regular Bournvita which we had before sleep during all the camp nights and went to tents ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

EGT - Day 4

After the last night's shaky Dhimsa dance we woke up half-an-hour late. It was 4:30AM and we started off for our co-curricular activities headed by Manish. We had our breakfast done by 6AM and we all geared up for the day's trek to the village Borja. We were told that the trek consists of a 4KM uphill task, but that did not deterred us as we had 3 days of trekking experience by now. We were ready to face any uphill tasks. We were so motivated to go for the kill, only later on we realized that it was really a strenuous uphill task.

So as the day broke, we started with our head count session and by 8AM, we marched to the next camp at Borja. As and when we left the camp we came across the first stream of the day. As we were moving ahead, we were looking forward for that 4KM uphill. In the mean time we were having fun and singing all along the way. As it was the winter season the sir was cool and the sky was so clear filled with dark blue color. The landscape was picture perfect. The batch from navy was always ahead of the remaining batches. They were always with the guide pushing Tycon(the guide) to move quickly to the next camp.
Well talking about the guide I forgot to mention that this time our guide change. It was Narsing, he was the fellow drummer of the Dhimsa dance troop. He too joined us to lead us along with Tycon.
So it was Narsing this time showing us the way to Borja.
So we were marching along the lush green forest with a dark blue sheet covering above us. So again we were ascending and descending the hills. As we were about to ascend there came a small village.




Women were carrying 2,3 vessels of water collected from the near by stream and were doing a balancing act on their heads while climbing up the hill. We could see most of the land was utilized for farming. There were fields all around the way. We too started talking out the ploughs not to do farming but for the lens. We were giving pose for the camera.


So most of the time we were ascending the hill. We then came across a beautiful valley. The valley had lots of terrace farming fields. It was an excellent view. The terrace farms were like a piece of cakes ordered in a symmetric fashion.
It was an excellent view to watch down the valley. We then after having a tough time getting up the hill rested for few minutes at the near by village. We were also waiting for the other fellow trekkers to come by. We can find all kinds of spices grown out there. People get all kinds of spices cheap in the valley. As we were resting a farmer was busy separating the weeds from the chopped crop. The weeds were actually used to extract oil from them. In the mean time we were having a photo session as usually.

After that we started to move on to the destination. On the way we spotted a place which was an excellent one to have one photographed there. It was a heap of dry grass laid at a certain height made by some wooden planks. At first there was Ashish on it getting photographed, later we too joined the party.
Slowly there were people getting on it and having fun.

Like this we were busy in taking snaps and the troop left us behind and they went forward. We were left behind, thankfully there was Tycon with us but later he too was confused with the route. So the situation here is like "WE WERE LOST". Hmmmmm! we were walking and walking to catch the trrop which was ahead of us. Tycon was playing a guessing game and we were playing along with him. Final there was a rock which signified the path in which the troop went. Even the batch which was ahead of us felt that we were lost and so they made a marker for us.

After this mark we were relieved of tension that we were lost. So we followed the track and we found them having lunch. So we too had our lunch and we rested for about an hour and then we moved on again. Boy! after lunch it became hard to climb. Even though it was winter season we were feeling the heat because of the direct sun and to that we were ascending a steepy hill. After walking for a couple of hours we halted to take some rest. It was a continuous steep climbing all the way long. There were some other who were left behind too and hence we planned to take some rest under a giant mango tree . It was a cool shady place and were experiencing a cool breeze at that height. We could see a wonderful view from there. All the mountains and the valley deep down from where we climbed all the way. Up above the hills darks blue sky without a single white cloud and the green(trees) covered mountains and the cool breeze all the time making us feel not tired no matter what how hard we were making out. Having the joy by viewing the scenic beauty of the valley made us not at all feel tired. Instead motivated us to move further to have lot more of those kind.

















We had our camp at Borja, but we were instructed at the beginning of the day that if our truck could pass through the steepy hill then we can have our camp located at Borja. We reached the camp borja and we could not locate our camps there. Then we came to know that our Van could not make it. From there we walked some more about 3 to 4 kms to the next village KorraGuda.
At this Korraguda village we had our camps located and after reaching the camp we had a good 5 to 6 glasses of welcome juice. Eventhough the juice wasnt a perfect mix, but was tasty because of we being thirsty. And so we all rested at the end of the day. During the night we had some experience shared by Swapnil about his past treks and gave some tips for trekking. Along with Swapnil, Anita mam too joined in giving tips. After a good meal all rested for the next day to begin.

EGT - Day 5

Well we had a good sleep last night. Today it was very cold out in the morning as we were ascending the altitude day by day. After a good breakfast and packed lunch started our journey to Sunkarametta which was at a height of 3642 feet (MSL). This day it was a short trek. It was about 6km trek to Sunkarametta. This day was a special day. Know what it was December 26th Christmas Day. We wished our project director Mr. Ravi a "Merry Christmas" and started to the next camp. This day we started at around 7:40am and we were enjoying all along the way. This time there were no steepy slopes!! All the time we were on plains itself crossing through the fields and descending much of the time.
At a point we can cover the entire view of the valley. All mountains and in between there is a vast plain fields which looks like a gaint football field amongst the boundary walls of the mountains.


Last night Sriram injured his leg at the camp. So he was a bit slow and he was accompanied by Krishh. This day it was nothing much to say. We just walked, kept our pace right from the beginning. We had ups and downs but crossed them all with ease. As of now we became experts in trekking (We feel so).

We reached the camp Sunkarametta at around 10:30am. The place where we camped was also near the village's primary school. Beside the school there was a big old church. By the way that church had an history. It was built at the time of Britishers. At the back of the school there was a vast play ground. As it was a christmas day people from the near by villages were thronging in to the church. It was colorful. All dressed up in new clothes and wishing all the others whoever are in the way. Some of our toop planned to visit Araku and some stayed at the camp. We four planned to walk around the place. At the camp we were having some gala time.
All the kids were playing with little dogs which came from nowhere and were sighted to the eyes of the kids. Some were eating Icecreams some were sharing snaps.
Well at this point we had one of our trekker leave us due to his office work. Ashish was running tight on his work and schedule. So we all did a farewell to him as he left trek unaccomplished.
After lunch we slowly moved into our tents just to have a nap.

Well we were not exactly having a nap but some chitchats as there were huge background NOISE (music) was going on at the church. Later the day we 4 started to move around. We roamed across the Ananthagiri coffee plantations, black pepper plantations.


















After roaming here and there at the sunset time we reached the camp. There we played a bit of cricket. After that we set out to the Sunkarametta village and called up to our parents saying that we are absolutely doing good and not at all recollecting you at this point.

After that everyone by the daybreak reached the camp and after the dinner we had a camp fire. Now this had some fire in the people and there were songs, dances and jokes. With that the day ended.

EGT - Day 6

Ahhhhh! A Very Good morning!! This day was the last day of the trek. From next day onwards we will be back to our routine works and life. But this kind of feeling never came into our minds as we were rearing to chill out as there was a beautiful waterfall in the middle of today's trek. So we were very enthusiastically ready for the waterfall. So as usual we had our breakfast and had our lunch packed for the last time we set out for one more final time.
This time we were accompanied by our field director itself. He guided us like an Hitler through out the day. We reached at a point called Galikonda. The view of that mighty hill resembled me just like an elephants trunk and its head. It was majestic view to have.



From this point onwards we have to descend the hill to reach the waterfalls. The place where this waterfalls was located is called Katiki and hence the name Katiki waterfalls to it. So to reach the Katiki waterfalls we have to climb down the very steepy hill. One step you make a mistake, the other step you will find yourself into the valley. Everystep we have to make should be a very careful step. To this our field director is in no mood to have jokes and was very observant and responsive about the others.



After getting down the hill we find the railway track into the tunnel. We have to cross this railway track along the tunnel. There are chances of train coming at that time. If there is a train then we have to be very careful as there was very small room for us to stay aside of the tracks inside the tunnel. It would be interesting if there was a train at that moment. But luckily there was not any such train. So we crossed the tunnel safely.

Now comes a very narrow walkway which directly takes us to an awesome waterfall. You can only feel the roar of the mighty waterfall. It was breathless view. It was the Nature's canvas with a silky touch spread all over from a height of 50 feet.
Itseems this Katiki waterfall has its source at the Gosthani river. Just at the foot of the waterfall there is a pool kind of space in which the people were getting themselves soaked.
Later the waterfalls we had our lunch session and some people had booked for a ride to Borra caves and the rest came to the base camp in the jeeps.

Well the day has come close and in the evening there were some YHAI dignitaries to give away the certificates to all the participants. Everyone shared about their views and experience of this whole 6 days trek and we all shared our contact numbers.

Out and all the event gave me a rejuvenated mind and was back to the work with great spirits.

Thanks for all of you people who came to this blog and spent some time reading my first adventure.
Thanks once again!!