When we had to drop our Meeshapulimala trekking plan, I was very upset. But as the saying goes,
Sometimes your plans don’t work out because God has better ones
Nagalapuram was unknown to me until Pranay put out the suggestion. Wasting a weekend sleeping will always trigger the end-of-weekend regrets! So, all I wanted to do was to go somewhere.
We started from Urappakam at 5.30 AM. It was a nice ride. At that early in the morning, that wide calm highway was ours. At constant 80 speed Avenger (Our bike) was really calm, letting us enjoy the ride.
Arai is a village in Andhra Pradesh. Nagalapuram waterfalls is located in Arai village, which is few kilometers away from Nagalapuram town. Nagalapuram waterfalls is famous in this area, so you won’t have difficulty finding help to navigate. And as always Google Maps is there for you!
Sun was very harsh at 9 in the morning, and I started thinking about how wonderful Meeshapulimala trekking would have been :D. All those thoughts just vanished as soon as we entered the forest, sun was nowhere to be seen. We were surrounded by a wild calmness. There were big trees, which Goutham claimed to be 100 years old 😄
We reached a lake in the middle of the forest. That was so refreshing. We took a short break freshening up ourselves in the cold water flowing down with a soothing sound. That music had the power to heal the deepest stress in me. We walked through the forest slowly skipping rocks, wiping away bushes, talking and laughing.
We reached a pond in the middle of forest; it was just awesome. We enjoyed the pond a lot. Being with friends in waters is always a nice thing, and nicer if it is in the middle of a forest with waterfalls roaring above you! We enjoyed sliding through the falls into water. No water theme park could give that natural touch.
When we reached the second pool, I decided not to enter it. I looked for a flat rock, and just lied down there. People were screaming and laughing in the water. Birds were chirping and singing sweet wild songs right above me. I could only see branches and leaves. A soft breeze was passing by. It feels nice… All those music around me faded slowly.. lights dimmed.. sounds got farther.. slowly.. silent… peace
That was the most peaceful sleep in my life. Wild sleep!
The third pond was much deeper. I heard somebody nearby saying it was 40 ft deep. I decided not to get into it as I was not so confident about my swimming skills. But I knew I couldn’t wait longer sitting there and watching people enjoying. I was nearly shocked to see a French lady jumping in to the water from a rock very high above(if she missed aim, she could have shattered into pieces!). And I was afraid to jump from the lowest rock even! Shame on me! 😀
One thing that upset me was there were waste (especially plastic) all around. The beauty of these places is destroyed by visitors who throw their wastes all over. I’ll borrow a quote from the film ‘My Name is Khan’.
Is duniya mem sirf do kism ke insan hei. Acha insan jo acha kam karti hei aur bura insan jo bura
(There are only 2 types of people in this world. Good people who do good things and bad people who do bad).
Be one among good people and do good things. We need such calming places to take a break from work, relax our mind, and enjoy. Just remember our children might also need the same. Try not to pollute. While climbing down, we made a decision. On our next trek we’ll carry a sack and try to clean as much as waste as possible. (Yay! we are good people!).
On the way back, God unveiled the last surprise for us. It started raining hard! We entered a super wide highway, with perfectly positioned incandescent streetlights, accompanied by a nice hard rain! Oh, that’s beyond words. Riding in the rain has always been one of my favorites. We were screaming, laughing, and what not! I tried my best to keep eye on the road and concentrate on driving in between those laughers. Coz I never wanted this to be my last trip, coz there is lot more to see before I get to that long peaceful sleep..
PS: I forgot to take my phone, so I couldn’t take any photos. All image credits to Ashish, Pranay and Google 😛
