The Ride And The Trek
The bike ride to Tada clearly exceeded my expectations. I had fantasic fun and had my fill of the wild. Here’s reconting our experience.
Most of the people getting together for this ride were new to each other. I realised that the only connect between the folks was me. As the guy who organised this trip, I had to be the first at the venue. I landed up Anna Nagar ‘Roundtana’ at 5:15 waiting for the rest of the gang to arrive. Much to my surprise, everyone landed up on time. The only guys who delayed were the Enfield people. But that’s ok. Nobody complained. We had the full day ahead of us.
Solomon and Shriram from Royal Enfield showed us the formation of bikes using these stones.
When the Thunderbirds were lined up, they truly looked awesome. I had a feeling I was part of a ‘Hells Angels’ group. When all of us started our bikes, the simultaenous thundering of the bikes was fanstatic on the ears. It set my adrenalin flowing.
Solomon, our guide and expert rider for the trip, imposed a speed limit of 60Kmph. He would travel ahead and all of us were to follow him. Having a powerful vehicle and a superb stretch of highway was too good a tempation…. yet, we had to forecefully contain our speed. Later, we found a temporary way out. We would slow down our bikes letting others go ahead and then go full trottle to catch up.
We got off the highway and took the road through villages to go towards the mountains.
The final stretch of road uphill proved far too adventurous and challenging than I had anticipated. There were stretches of sand duned and pebbled roads that really tested the Thunderbirds and our riding abilities to the limit. The picture above doesn’t really tell you the true story.
We then reached a point we could no longer ride. We had to stop our vehicles after crossing a small stream. A Koravar family and a watchman lives here who take care of your vehicles. Not really so. I lost my brand new helmet. They just stay at the place where you park your vehicles. That’s it.
We then continued the ascent through foot.
We crossed though some breathtakingly clear stream. We had to trek uphill through the river. We stopped at a few places, undressed and wallowed in the cool waters.
The water was so clear that you could clearly see the stones and the fishes swimming in the stream. When we ran out of drinking water that we got from home, we turned to mother nature to quench our thrist. The water was sweet and anytime better than the bottled mineral water. You, however have to be the first in the morning to hit the trek to taste the clear water. While returning back, I noticed a few arseholes who were soaping themselves in the stream!
The combination of rocky cliffs and thick trees were phenomenal. It’s these huge mango trees that stunned us. Some of them could easily be a century old judging by these monstrous sizes.
As we neared the waterfall, the rocks got bigger and the climb more arduous. All we could say was, ‘bring it on’. The more difficult it became, the more determined we were to go further.
This is the final destination that we were aiming at. A deep stream sandwiched between two huge cliffs. In the picture above, you won’t see the waterfall. That’s because one has to swim through the water and take a left and continue swimming for another 100 feet to reach the waterfall. This place is pretty deep and can be indimidating for first timers. With heart in my mouth, I took the plunge and managed to reach the waterfall. A fantastic experience.
We returned back to city before dark. Thankfully, there was no speed restriction this time. Each of us were like leashed dogs let loose, clipping at full throttle. The white Omni that you see at the background is the ambulance that Royal Enfield organized.
At past sunset, we returned the bikes at the Royal Enfield Showroom. After signing in the customary feedback forms, we bid adieu. It was an extremely tiring day, our body weary from the arduous journey and the trek. I slept the whole of the next day.
