Potpourri!

I just have to tell you one thing before I start... U got to see it to believe! My friends had given me the sweet responsibility of penning down our terrific outing at Tada falls (locally known as Ubbalamadugu or Kaamba falls) and so I oblige!

Any outing requires a plan... ours was no exception! So Vadi and Blade sweated hard on gathering all the information about the place from the geography to the transportation. After sufficient ground work we invited almost everyone we knew but many refrained feeling the place wasn't safe enough. Contradictory to the popular belief we found the place absolutely safe and on Sundays you can find a lot of people camping here!

So now we move on to the execution... We decided to make use of public transport and Bus was the obvious choice since the place is not connected by rail or air! So 5 of us (Blade, Vadi, Jai, Suhag and Me) decided to meet at cmbt on sunday morning (3-8-2008) and take a bus!



So this is the bus which had transported us to Varadhapalayam, a small town from which you have to travel again to reach the falls! It was one of those few days when i got up early and we had the bus moving by 7.15 am!






And after 30 km or so our bus halted at an eatery. So we had our nature calls answered in a field and were roaming in its vast expanse... and suddenly the noise of a train... kept my camera ready and then clicked... the next part is funny... there were two ladies staring at me when I was snapping and I thought they were seeing a digicam for the first time... but when I started walkin back to the bus one of the ladies asked
me "don u see trains in chennai!" My friends had a good laugh
at this! My friend Suhag insisted that we finish our breakfast there but none obliged!



Into the bus after the break and it was chatting all the way till our destination.. So we were dropped at Varadapalayam at around 9.30am and we had only one thing on mind... breakfast! So we loitered the entire town to find all the eateries were already closed! One man told us the reason behind this... frequent brawls, courtesy drunkards! But we somehow managed to find a place which served only idlis... I really was unaware wat the side dish was, but they called it sambar... but then your taste buds don't matter when your stomach is crying!



Next is our road trip from the main town to the check-post of the falls. The popular mode is the "share-auto" since no buses are available! There was one hyper auto-driver with whom we bargained (usual routine), and from a 100 we were able to reduce it to a 60. He even stayed with us while we were eating to make sure we didn't take any other auto!





Soon we were on road to eden! Its a 7km drive from the town to the check-post! An empty road and fresh air... a rarity in a busy city like chennai! The auto wala gave us 1 valuable tip... hide ur cams to escape paying a fee... and we loyally followed his advice! The original trekking started from the check-post. Vehicles are allowed until a certain distance beyond the post but we decided to walk and there started our adventure.


After this I'm going to let the pictures do all the talking!!! I see your sigh of relief!













These 2 pics here require special mention! I'm mot aware of the lady's name but prefer to call her 'Oracle' because she warned us of a floating dead body, which we didn't find. All of us were in splits when she inflicted a nasty 'A' joke on Jai when he said he found it difficult to walk! The second pic to the right has another story to tell. Jai signaled something to me when we passed this parking space. I thought he wanted me to snap, and I took one wondering why this guy wanted a snap of this not so prominent place. Then came a person running towards me asking me to shell out 50 bucks, for carrying a camera! Jai had actually signaled me to hide the cam! How late I realized!


The first sight of water..! Actually we had a long length to cover after this!













From rocky to muddy to thorny to gravel... Every stretch was interesting... We endured all of them!











Mamma Mia! I had never seen anything like this before (even in movies)! Again I got only one thing to say... U got to see it to believe! From the texture of the water to the mammoth rocks surrounding it, the sight was breathtaking!





We were doing what we were supposed to do! Blade and Vadi all smiles in the first pic! The other 3 (Suhag, Me and Jai) seen chilling out in cold waters in the second pic!




Our photo sessions continued on our trek downstream as well!


Vadi wanted this pic to be called as the "cave-man pic"! Hes obsessed with stone age I suppose! And not to forget the modeling session with blade... We took about 5-6 snaps at the same place before he was finally satisfied with the pic thats displayed!

























Still reading the post?? You got to be nuts... Thought you had already started for the falls!
Bon Voyage!