Wonderful Weekday Trek with CTC

Its time to write about my weekday Trekking experience with Chennai Trekking Club. I went to Weekday trekking for 4 times. The trekking experience was improving every time. And the last trek(15-MAR-2016) was awesome. It as all started from Feb where i got a mail for the Weekday trek registration from Vanathi(She is the Weekday trek Organiser) stating Tuesday evening we will reach the Trekking place make a camp in the night and we prepare our dinner and in morning we have the trekking and it will by Morn 8 AM and the Trekking Location is near VIT University, Chennai. I like this deal because noway its gonna affect my work time. So i registered for the Weekday event.

Food Menu on March 15th Trek

Peter's post before the Weekday trek

    I am gonna write about the Fourth Weekday trek. I was registered as a Volunteer for Cooking from the Second trek. Me , Abdul and other volunteers used to discuss and finalize the dinner. This time I suggested for Fish or prawn curry and Rasam with White rice. In the before treks we never made any curry with white rice. Every time we made vegetable rice or Biriyani. When i suggested these dish everyone accepted the menu and Abdul made the Even better with the Chicken, Fish and mushroom barbecue.

    So the next step to prepare for the trek. We started purchasing the ingredients for the Dinner. We splitted the work among the volunteers and everything was set and we went to the campsite. Peter made a hype for the first time comers by posting the menu in Facebook. Everyone came with the expectation. The camp started as old treks. We started preparing the dinner. Volunteers started chopping the vegetables and Me started Preparing the Fish Curry and Rasam. Abdul and Anbarasan took care of Rice and Barbecue. When the preparation is almost over a guy named Gindal started playing Guitar with some Hindi songs and English songs as he do know Tamil. It was amazing. No one expected this. Because we never had a instrumental play in before camps. Also he played well. Few people started singing with him and the place was so amazing. We are sitting near a Mountain with cool breeze, Fire for warm, Music and dance and with the lovely people. What else we need to be happy. Its one of the memorable moment for many people in the camp.

Camp Site shooted by Jaya Kishore 

Camp Site

Once we prepared dinner we started serving. Everyone enjoyed the food as it was came good. To our Surprise nothing was left. In every camp some small amount of curry will be left. But this time everything was over. After the dinner we started the barbecue and the music continues with dance. As many people were enjoying with the Music, they didn't come for barbecue( that's good for the barbecue lovers). We started with the Mushroom, then chicken and finished with Fish. The Night camp was satisfied in all the way, Good food, Music, dance and good ambiance by staying in nature. It was really a break from the City Corporate life.

   

     And in the morning we started little late by 6 AM for the trek. Peter took us to a new trek place and we started walking. The new place was amazing and little difficult for the first time trekkers. Somehow everyone managed to reach the top to visit the city from the hilltop. We spend some time in the top and returned back.

Group Photo at the Hill Top - Photo By Jay

Group Photo - 2

 The Overall experience was wonderful. It not about trekking. The night camp and trekking gives us the opportunity to meet new people and make some friends from different places. We all have friends from our college or the work place with same industry. Here we can meet people working in different domain, entrepreneurs, working in different Industry. Its moreover bonding people from different background. We come as strangers and leave as friends. This is what happens every time with the Chennai Trekking Club Camps. Happy to be the part of Wonderful team.

        Here is the Video Uploaded by Peter in You Tube

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Jay Photos:

www.facebook.com/jaye.vigneshwar/media_set?set=a.10205146799424418.1073741915.1677701023&type=3

Jaya Kishore Photos:

https://www.facebook.com/PeterVanGeit/media_set?set=a.10208011717793428.1073742113.1312929832&type=3

Chennai Trekking Club Adayar River Bank Cleanup - An Initiative to make Chennai City Clean

Its been a long gap to my blog. Last time i was posted was in 2012. CTC inspired me to write a post to my blog. This post is for the Chennai Trekking Club Adayar River Bank Cleanup Phase-14.

I was part of Chennai Trekking Club for a long time(almost 4 years). First time I got to know about Chennai Trekking Club via my college friend Yashwanth for Chennai Coastal Cleanup. After that I got to know about their Trekking, Running and Cycling events and participated in the events in 2012. After i joined M.E in part time i didnt find time to participate the events conducted by CTC. I used to participate only in the Coastal Cleanup. So it was a long Gap for 3 years. After i finished my Degree, I got time and started participating in Swimming , Sapling Plantation and Weekday Treks.

No one forget the Rain which was poured out in Chennai in last year. CTC has did a massive job during the flood by rescuing and providing shelter and food to the affected people. I Joined them in the camp in tambaram for seggregating the goods.

I also joined with my cousin Dr,Bijivin to provide the medical needs and went to villivakkam area and got Infected for 3 days. So i stopped going to the flood affected area because i was afraid that i will get sick again. CTC started the Cleanup activities in and around Chennai with the ambition to clean the city. I wannted to go to the cleanup activity but afraid of infection and didint register for the event eventhough they conduct the clenup activity twice in a week. When i see the photos of the cleanup and how they cleaned the dirty place, i felt ashamed of myself that i am giving blame excuse by myself not to attend the cleanup activity. So i decided to attend the upcoming cleanup activity.

I have registered for the Adayar River Bank cleanup Phase-14. Today (02-MAR-2016) morning i kept alarm at 5AM and Woke up at that time at started from Ambattur to Kotturpuram. When i reached the Meeting point, i saw few faces used to see in Swimming . We started from the place at 6AM and reached the adayar river bank. The gloves and the bags were distributed to everyone and we started cleaning the place. Everyone stared collecting the garbage in the bags provided. Some people have finished their night shift and joined the cleanup. Most of the Younsters came for the activity was engineers, doctors and corporate employees.

When i started cleaning all i found was Plastic carry bags and Biscuit covers. Most of the dumps were plastics and few clothes. Me and another one friend found a water tunnel was blocked as there is no place for the water to go. So we started digging the place and all we found is Carry bags and plastic covers. They blocked the way for the water flow and it smell was too bad. At that point i understood the impact of using the plastic carry bags. Then we digged and took all the garbage's outside and made way for the water flow. In the mean time, Others too filled their bags with garbage's and the time was 7:30. It was the leaving time. I got a satisfaction that at least we cleared a block in the tunnel and made way for the water flow.

Volunteers with Peter Van Geit and Ahamed Hanifa

When taking to another one person who is a regular volunteer for the cleanup activity said that before they start the cleanup activity, The localities used the river bank for their nature calls. Once CTC started cleaning the place they realized that is wrong and its their responsibility to keep the bank clean. So stopped using that place for their nature calls. I wondered how CTC changing people life style by taking an initiative like this. I felt proud to be part of Chennai Trekking Club. A Big Change in the Society happens with the small step and CTC has taken that small step and it started growing.