Tirupati Arimanu Bandalu Trek

Day 1

Tirupati Railway Station - Day 1

The group rocked! We were all set to conquer any mountains or forests or streams that came in our way. We are Survivors…

After that, we went to the local trekking group’s office, because he promised us free tea and coffee… The local group had agreed to provide us with guides, food, boiled water and protection from wild animals, for a small fee. The head of the group was Mr Balu, and he did a great job. The entire group appreciates his assistance in making our stay comfortable to a certain extent.

Mr Balu, local trek organizer

After this, we all got into a bus and were transported to the starting point on the highway. We had a lot of fun there… We had 30 minutes to spend, and all the hidden singing talent came to the fore…

Once we reached our spot, we got down with our backpacks. We were in the middle of nowhere. From there began our real trek… With large backpacks on out shoulders, we started walking towards the jungle. We were on our way to an ancient British bunglow that was now converted into a resort. We planned to have breakfast there and pack up our lunch.

All Set to Conquer - Day 1

We got down from the bus at around 8:30 am in the morning… all set to go…

On the way, we encountered railway tracks and decided to pose for a few pics, just for the heck of it…

Once we reached the British bunglow, we all waited in line for breakfast. There was only one bathroom for ladies and one for the men. So, not all of us could get a morning shower.

We had to bring our own plates, spoon and mugs. After a good smacking breakfast, we got ready to leave for our destination. We were going to camp in the jungle. Our lunch was packed in plastic vessels. It was nothing fancy, just curd-rice and some pickle. There in the resort, Jaee found a small toad which she showed to everybody…

Did you see that! She is holding that creature in her hands! Brave girl. I can never do that…

After breakfast, we started onwards towards our base camp. It must be a good 10-12 kilometers away, a lot of it was uphill. KSREE had a GPS device. Our starting altitude was around 220 meters and our topmost altitude was around 505 meters. Stay tuned for KSREE’s blog which is going to be jam-packed with all the information you need. He did a great job with his Camera too. Animesh also had an excellent camera.

Our trek in the forest was only interrupted by short resting periods for photo shoots… As usual, Cool Dude Naren has the most pics this time also…

At the start of the journey, we came across a dry river bed. We would encounter this same river bed on our way back 2 days later…

At around 2 pm, we reached a waterfall. Unfortunately, the water was missing! It was dry. We had packed curd-rice earlier. That was our lunch at that moment. We were very tired. The money in our pocket was worthless paper and we could not buy anything else to eat even if we wanted to… So, we relished whatever we had. It was our first taste of what the jungle had in store for us…

Our First Lunch in the Jungle - Curd Rice

Then, we continued to trek, and at around 4 pm in the afternoon, we reached our camp. It was a yellow tarpolene tent on a dry river bed. Solid rock under our feet.

Our First Camp site in the Jungle on Day 1

We were all exhausted, but there wasn’t enough room inside the tent for all 25 of us… Then a few of us spotted a small pond there… and were we glad. We raced to the pond, climbed down a rough terrain… and there it was… just waiting for us to show up…

Climbing down the steep rocks to reach the Pond

Climbing Down was a bit tough, but we made it…

(While going back this route, Nandu took a different route and was stuck pretty badly. He could neither go up nor go back down. It was a very tense situation, and Nandu was terrified. I can never forget the look on Nandu’s face…!)

But a few trekkers decided to stay out of the pond. It didn’t seem very clean. Guys in the water teased all those outside it… It was fun. The water wasn’t much deep… just about waist height. But still it was a life saver. The cold water soothed our aching muscles, and took away all the dust and sweat and pain from the body. Relief…

Playing in the cool water, Day 1

Then after a couple of hours or so, the trekkers were out of the water. It was tea time… We all had our coffee mugs with us… and we had tea with pakodas and biscuits. Then, in the evening, when the sun was about to set, we all had formal introductions. A few classic and new songs rang through the forest. The animals knew that there was a new group of beasts in the jungle… and it was not to be messed with…

Around dinner time, Mr Balu and the locals lit a camp fire for us. There was enough wood to ensure the fire would keep burning for the entire night, if we keep feeding the fire. Then we all had a heavy dinner. As usual, all our lunches and dinners from here on consisted of Rice, Rassam, Samber, Pickle and a bit of sweet, usually Tirupati temple’s prasad laddoo.

Having fun near the Camp Fire, Day 1

Getting drinking water was big trouble. The locals boiled water in a large container, but it was insufficient for all 25 people and their bottles. And you couldn’t like the taste of hot, boiled water. But we managed. Water is the most important thing during treks… There was no fresh water stream that would give us any confidence of purity. So we decided to rely upon boiled water for our needs.

Then at around 10 pm at night, Mr Ali and 15 other trekkers (including me) decided to trek the mountain near the camp. It was a huge mountain and could have easily taken us 4+ hours for a round-about trip. We all readied our torches and set forth to conquer that mountain. But after walking a few hundred meters, locals came to us and warned us not to go ahead at that time. We found that animals are very active at night, and the dense mountain was full of dangerous bears, wild dogs and panthers, as well as snakes. So, trekking at night was a very bad idea.

We dropped the idea and returned to base. After that, a few trekkers went to sleep in the tent, while the rest of us put our sleeping bags around the camp fire and enjoyed the night. We could see the locals hurrying into the forest to scare off wild animals. We did the rest of the scaring with our laughter, games and songs. A few singers were awake until 4 am in the morning… That was my first experience at open-air sleeping… near a camp fire… in a freaking jungle…