Nagalapuram is a small trekking spot in Tamil Nadu Andhra border, about 70 km from Chennai. But it's tough to reach there from Chennai if you don't have a bike or car. We had to change quite a few buses to reach there, but buses are available from CMBT to Pichatur.
Trekking starts from Arai village to 5 cascades of Siddheswara Swami Konai falls. We trekked up to the second one. Our plan was to camp for the night. Though, we didn't find the place quite suitable for camping.
Day 1
Me and 3 of my colleagues, started on Sunday morning by 7 am. I started from Guduvanchery. Reached Tambaram by train, had breakfast. Then got on route 566 bus towards Tiravallur by 8:30. Then bus to Uthukottai, and then to Pichatur. There we bought some water and Headed to Arai village in bus. It was total ₹70 per head for total bus journey from Tambaram. Reached Arai village by 4 pm.
Walked about 2 km to Nagalapuram trekking car parking. There were already a lot of cars and bikes there when we reached. So lot of people must have come for trekking. We had to go over the higher ground to get down on the other side.
Then we went into the forest by taking the path on side of the lake. It was about 2 km from there till we reached the stream. On the way there was a whole lot of butterflies swarming everywhere. Might be because this is their breeding season. We stopped at one place to rest and shot a whole lot of butterflies.
Then there was a place looked like a camping place, but really dirty. There was a sign board warning not to swim as the pond is too deep. After a while we saw the stream.
Then we came across another part of the stream, where few people were taking bath. There were 2 paths, one going up and another going down to the stream. We went upwards. Walked for about an hour on a very steep ascending road. I was completely exhausted even after stopping a few times. Then we stopped by a place, from there we could view the hills. There were a large amount of butterflies too. And after meeting a group of people, realized that we are on the wrong track. 2 of us checked out what is in the path ahead of us and then confirmed from google maps that actual path is parallel to this one and at the bottom.
Then we started to get down on the correct route. Took us half an our more to get down. Correct one was the one that goes down to the stream. We heard that there was a board before pointing to the correct route, but it was broken. Then followed the advice we read from somewhere, Follow the stream. Reached the first pool and the waterfall. A lot of people were already there, taking bath. We had to hurry towards the second pool to find a camping site. As it was already 6:30 and getting dark. From first pool we had to climb a narrow path between rocks.
We reached the second pool by 7 pm. The pool was very clear, but the place was quite dirty with bottles and plates everywhere. So the environment was not quite suitable for camping. Could be that if we climbed to the next pool, may be the place would have been more camping friendly.
Anyway as it was already quite dark, we searched for some twigs and set up our tents and campfire as fast as we could. Took bath in the pool. Had our meal, with some breads and chips we bought with us. Went inside our tents by 9pm. It was really hot inside tents. We wished we had some battery operated fans. Had to sleep, keeping our tent open whole night.
Day 2
We woke up by 7 am. Heard that a bunch of monkeys came outside our tent at night. Took bath in the pool again. Now we could see a lot of fishes in the pool too. Some acquainted aquarium fishes were there too.
Already 2 more group had come there. We packed our belongings and started for Arai village by 9 am. It took about one hour to reach the parking place. One of us took our bags to Arai in a bike of a local guy. We walked.
Got a share auto rickshaw for Pichatur. The auto took total 13 people in it on the way, excluding the driver. After reaching Pichatur we had a meal with poori and vada. Bought some more water and started in a direct bus to Chennai. It took 3 hours for ₹70 per head. We reached CMBT by 2 pm. Took metro to Alandur and then bus to Guduvanchery.
--------------------------------------
Visit my blog at bhromonn.wordpress.com for more travel stories.
