Trek to Tada falls... (Operation Southern Spice started!)

It's been 3 (3 and a half to be exact) months I said my farewell to my friends in Delhi and the Himalayas. 3 months of no trekking, no rafting, no long/short trips or even sightseeing! Went home a couple of times as its just an over night's journey. Life was getting monotonous for me and to make things worse Varun and Radhika went to valley of flowers for 1 week and Ashutosh was happily planning team outings in Alcatel!!! Enough is enough. I have to plan something soon or I will go mad.

I asked Kishore whether he is ready to come with me for some trekking somewhere around chennai. He said "Ok!" That was enough. We decided the place - TADA falls (95 km from chennai in Andra Pradesh) Once that was done, we sent a mail to everyone in my office asking if anyone is interested? The initial response was 10 which came down to 5 (but that was known already). 3 more joined us making the total strength as 8.
So there we were 8 of us :

Kishore
Kaviarasan aka Kavi
Ramesh
Vijaykumar aka Vijay
Santhosh - IBM
Hari - CTS
Uday - student
and me

We had booked a Mahindra Xylo for 3500/- and started early around 7 AM on the Saturday 28-Aug-2010. We took the NH5 and since there was not much traffic, reached TADA before 7:45 AM. We had our breakfast there and continued to the village called Varadaiyapalem. From there we took a diversion to TADA Falls' entrance point (the forest check post). I had read somewhere that the trek to the falls was some 7 km. Luckily the road (or rather the path) was OK so our driver took us till the last point from where there was no other option but to walk. The falls from there was a good 3 km walk I guess. Anyways it was an easy to moderate walk for the first 2 km and then a bit tough for the last 1 km mainly because you have to climb over the steep rocks or slide down grabbing on to a branch and your dear life!!

Anyways we did it all and reached the falls in 2 and half hrs with 2 or 3 pit stops to enjoy the beauty and to take a dip in the pools on the way!

After spending 2 hrs there swimming, diving and taking pictures we rested for a while and had our lunch of bread and omelette and the soft drinks. Again we swam in the crystal clear water for some more time and then decided to return as we had to take bath in the water falls which we saw while come up.

During our swimming and diving session, Vijay dropped Kavi's goggles in the pool and I decided to try my luck going deep and searching for it. I tried twice without any luck and the others told me to forget it as it was not valuable. I decided to try one more time and as I went down I realized that my watch strap got loose and it went to the bottom!!! I tried to grab it but failed and I had to come to the surface as my lungs were screaming for oxygen. I cursed myself for not being careful and was really sorry for losing that watch. I had already lost one watch in the Ganges while doing the cliff jump but that was different! This one was very special to me as it was my farewell gift from Varun!

I didn't want to leave without it so I went back in again and again many times. Finally luck favored me and I felt something that was not rock or stones. I grabbed it and came to the surface and realized that it was my dearest WATCH!!! Now I didn't want to lose it again so I gave it to Kishore and went back searching for the goggles. Vijay gave me a demo dive where he had dived earlier and I dived after him. This time I came with the goggles!

We packed our things and started our return at 2:30 pm. As it was a bit difficult at some places I packed my camera and was walking carefully. Unfortunately at one place I lot balance and I fell into the water with both my backpack and my camera bag. My first concern was to save my camera bag but by the time I came up, the bag was full of water and the camera (Guys... are you hearing this...??? My camera got wet!) Immediately I removed it from the bag and took of the battery. I removed the lens and wiped it dry. I cursed myself for not being careful once again and with the help of Kishore and Santhosh, dried the camera and lens and packed it again. My mobile then I remembered about the mobile and my wallet. They were also completely wet and the mobile was not working. I prayed God to save my SLR and take my mobile instead! ;-)

Anyways that was the end of my shooting and the rest of the journey Kishore and Kavi were clicking the snaps. Soon Kishore also fell into the water with his camera. ;-(

By 5:00 we reached our starting point our car and we changed our clothes. On the way we, stopped for an evening 'lunch' at a roadside Dhaba and had roti and egg curry! We reached Chennai at 7:00 and said farewell and I left with kishore to my home totally tired and sleepy!

As soon as I reached my room I took a bath, once again took out my camera and wiped it dry and kept it in a safe place to dry for some days. I will not be using it for some days (Anyways my next trip will be only after 2 weeks!)

Finally when I hit the bed I was totally drained but was very happy about the weekend! This was my first weekend that I enjoyed a lot after coming to Chennai. I must thank ChennaiTrekkers club for their site which gave us all the info for this trek and I have already joined the group. Looking forward for my next trip which might be soon! (Hopefully with my maamas in Bglore & Hydrabad!)