Thada

A sudden plan and an enthusiasm to trek made us plan to visit Thada. April 15th it was and 3 boys and 3 girls made a team overnight and planned to start at 5AM. I was ready by 4.45AM fully packed and waiting near my security block for my classmate to pick me up for the trek. He was there after half an hour and when we were going to college (less than 1 km away from the security block), the bike stopped. We had to push tp bike till college as there was no petrol in it. It was really cold morning, slightly drizzling and we were walking on a lonely road in our tracks. It was an awesome experience.

We reached college fully ready for the trek. Other two girls were already in the hostel who stayed in there the previous noght so that they could make it on time to the trek. They came down within half an hour. Then the wait started. We waited waited and waited till 9AM for the 2 other boys. The 3rd one was yet to arrive. When we called him, he asked us to pick him up at his place which was on the way to Thada. We had 1 car and 1 bike. I was in the bike till we reached that guy's house. Thanks to the metro project and the new bridges constructed, we got lost a million times before we reached Anna nagar and at last we picked him up and started our journey to Thada. I moved in the car as it was much more comfortable along with the other girls.

We felt extremely hungry and we stopped halfway near a hut. We had idlies and dosas. One Idly costed Rs.2 and one dosa costed Rs.6. We are for around Rs.30. Then we started to our destination yet again. One of the girls whose long time dream was to ride on a bike (backseat obviously) came in the bike for rest of the journey which was a extremely stony one way path. The travel lasted for 3 hours and we reached the place. We started to walk with our backpacks. We first saw a small bridge and little water and many people sitting around a big tree and chatting. We continued walking and saw vacant land with a hillock to our right. The path was muddy. It was sunny, extremely hot and we couldn't see any location which looked suitable for trekking. 2 of my group started climbing the hillock saying that there would be no trekking route or location so why waste our time, we would climb the hillock for the sake of trekking. We did that for some time but got really bored. We wanted to know is that all in there and where is the falls located. So we kept walking.

We ended up in a place where a small river like water stream was flowing. We got down inside that and got ourselves completely wet. The water was so clear that the ground was clearly seen. But only when we got in, we could feel the depth of it. Our bags got wet and the only entertainment for the guys (cigarette) got wet. The stones under water were extremely slippery so we came out and continued walking.

We saw a shop and she said that the real trekking area is yet to come. We got some eatables from her and paid her and started our never ending journey. She was right. We saw rocks and it was surely an awesome experience. We climbed using our hands, legs, friends help and also trees and ropes' help. One of the guys who was really slow and was moaning to walk all the time showed great enthusiam once we reached the rocks and jumped/ crossed it in jet speed. We reached the main water area from where we needed to swim to see the falls which was very close to it.

As I was extremely good in swimming :p :p I stayed on the rock and denied to even touch the ice cold water with my legs. But thanks to my darling friends who literally carried me half way inside the water and made me stand on a bark of wood. I couldn't get down from it as the wood was insie the water and it was extremely deep on either sides of it. The whole Chennai could have heared my screams. Then I was carried back and was allowed to sit on the rocks. Guys went swimming till the falls and the other gals were playing inside the water in the shallower side (left of the bark of wood which they called as shallow but was equally deep according to me). 

It was close to 4PM and many guys came with bottles and bottles of well you guess what and we got terrified and started back. I am too good in falling down. Extremely good would be the better word because I do it almost every single day be it a perfectly smooth/ slippery/ flat path or a ruggard one. But this factor helped me. I kept sliding (actually falling) really fast from every rock that I almost made it near the start along with another guy at the blink of the eye. Then we had to wait for the others who climbed down every rock carefully.

Once we reched the start of the rocks, we saw that lady and suddenly remembered that we paid but forgot to take the eatables with us. When we asked her she said "you must have eaten it and now you are lying to me and trying to cheat me" and that sure did what it has to with my temper. With my whole group looking silently at me and begging me to stop fighting, I yelled at her, took the eatable and said "if you want money ask me I'll give but never cheat" and came off. Everyone (especially the guys) who had always seen me as a soft, quiet, playful girl were shocked and spoke nothing for a long time.

We reached the car, the guys started their journey on the rugged one way route and we came back home with one of the cherished experience.