Monsoon Trek Tada

[Senthil Subramaniam Kuppusamy]

25 brave souls back from raining Tada.  Had a nice time in the pool before the rains came and almost washed the tent. The whole place was flooded and the rains made us suffer in the cold,wet and a long night. I know the sick person's night is much longer. But found that a person trying to sleep in the cold,wet weather is much longer than that. Hope this is the same with other souls too.

Anyway back from the Tada trek and please use this mail list for posting photo links and comments.

Thanks,
Senthil.

[alex franklin]

Hi Guys,

Monsoon tada was my first trek wit CTC. A really nice experience. Tnx a lot guys for making me feel at home. this s the link to the pics which i took

http://picasaweb.google.com/alex.franklin.jude/MonsoonTada1415Nov09?authkey=Gv1sRgCOmKovqww5ySiAE&feat=directlink

 

Wit regards,

Alex Franklin Jude

(one of the elephant story guys who disturbed u durin the aweful/awesome night)

[Sreenivas]

Hey all..

 

Eventhough we were not able to use Cameras for most of the time during trek... here are few photos from my cam... comments/suggestions are most welcom!e!!

http://picasaweb.google.co.in/sreenivasulu.varikuti/TadaCTCTrekNov1415#

 

Cheers...

Sreeni.

[Jeyakumar Arokcia]

Thanks to Bala..Senthil..Sujai...And every one in the team to make a "cherished" trek in my life...

 

No words to explain about the chill sweet clear stream and falls …. And excellent locality for doing the silence meditations….

 

Thanks to everyone…See you shortly in our next trek…

 

Regards,

Jeykumar.A

Mob: 98842 35530

[aneesh dath]

Hey all,

Very nice experience for me with CTC. I never forget this MONSOON TADA Trek.
Anyway we missed to take some good snaps coz of the rain.Here are some snaps from my Nikon.

http://picasaweb.google.com/aneeshdath/TADA#


Thanks
Aneesh S Dath

[Raveesh KR]

Fellow Trekkers,

Monsoon Tada was a unique trek, chilling to the bones experience :) Witnessing a stream going mad in front of your eyes was something unforgettable.

Here goes the snaps from my Lumix FZ50K
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/iamrave/CTCMonsoonTada?feat=directlink

Hope to meet you folks again the next trek with CTC.

Thanks
-Rave 


--
Raveesh K.R.
HCL - Cisco ODC
Chennai - 600 026

[Dillibabu Ganesan]

Yes, another unexpected weekend :D

It's been kinda black-thunder initially, water theme park.. but didn't expect the stay too ll be all water... ;)

 

Also thanks fellas for sharing pictures. Aneesh, everyones closeup shots were good to remember faces and map the names :)

 

bye for now,

dillib

On Sun, Nov 15, 2009 at 5:54 PM, Senthil Subramaniam Kuppusamy <ksenth...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Santhosh Janardhanan]

May be much irrelevant when there are photo albums by ppl who completed the trek, here is my collection!

http://picasaweb.google.com/photo.santhosh/TadaObbalamaduguAbortedTrek#

I reached back safely @ forest check post, on saturday evening by around 3:30pm. After hearing the events that happened up in the mountain, I believe, I took a right decision. Because, I donno what happened, suddenly I was feeling very week! (May be because of lack of sleep the night before, or because of the use of pain killers which I continued to use till a week before).

I will make a come back! Hoping support from CTCians in future too!

--
santhosh janardhanan
chennai

"Before you print this mail, think about the environment"

[Bala P]

Hello Trek mates,

We have just witnessed another wounderful trekking experience from TADA. Eventhough we have came across many monsoons, this monsoon will be filled in our soul for years. 

Thanks for making this trekking a momentous one. And a special thanks for organizers for making this event happens.

Personally some people have helped me in holding my belongings. I thank them.

My forehead injury is now OK and i m feeling fine. Thanks again for your kind mails, phone and sms.

I look forward for such events in the future.

Regards,
Balasenthil
9790727297

[Ram]

Guys,

    Here is an account of the events of the day from my perspective.

http://www.photography-travel.com/2009/11/monsoon-trek-tada.html

Also a couple of photos that I had managed to take. This is the first outing with very very less number of photos.

http://picasaweb.google.com/K.Ramasubramaniyan/TadaMonsoonTrek#

--
Ram
http://www.photography-travel.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/abyss3/

[Arulmozhi Arasi]

Hullloooo thr,

 

I didn want to just send a customary 'thank you-had fun' mail to the group...and hence the delay :)

Jus found time to say everything i wanted to say :)

 

So here goes.. for those who hav the time n most importantly the patience :) 

 

A li'l history -

 

I was sooo excited when they posted abt dis trek... any sane person's immediate response would be to register... n of course i did NOT!! for i knw my dad wud not let me go.. u see, he wudn mind me going on a one day trek, but a two day trek was sooo out of question.. (Not anymore:P) After a week long pleading-begging-n-pretending-to-be-a good-girl i did finally somehow manage gettin his permission :) :)

 

... and called up sujai in d last minute n said i do not want to join d trek... no typographical mistake dat... dat is wat i said!!! as i'd developed my own apprehensions by then!! i knw it's crazy..

 

........ and i called him up again after some time n said if i'd stil be welcome to join.. the nerve, i say... I am really surprised he didn yell at my face! I enquired if someone'd backed out in d last minute, cud i take his place...? Wonder how he controlled his temperament.. all he said was, jus be thr by central station's saravana bavan at the said time...

 

 

AND I WAS!!!

 

((a little lesson here: dnt wait til d last minute... it'l be gone; u'l definitely not be proud of wat u did; not all ppl wil be as accomodating as sujai!))

 

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In the Central Station the next day -

 

You knw wat great thing happened in the station...?? Nothing!!!

Everybody came.. assembled.. got into d train... train moved.. had breakfast.. n disembarked at tada station..

So... Moving on...

 

_________________________________________________________

 

Somewhere en route -

 

WAT?? Did i miss something?

 

hahah.. yup.. o'course i did it on purpose :).. As the train moved, dis kid who was sittin by the train's foot board developed convulsions :( (i knw.. sad story)... He was a'ight in a while :) .. Concerned CTCians gathered around n decided to... i dont know..!! or rather i did not know thn.. knew only after bala n a couple more CTCians got down wid the kid in the next station to seek help (am still wondering if it was premeditated..)... and karthik who was supposed to pull the chain.. proclaimed vociferously dat those chains do NOT work in suburban trains...

 

so.. THE TRAIN MOVED!! Nobody in our group had super human powers so we cud do nothing abt it :(

 

was worried abt em.. but everybody kept sayin.. bala wud knw wat to do.. not to fret n all.. They (we learned later) took auto - bus - n auto n reached tada.. Even before we did!!!

 

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In Tada -

 

I did go on the Save Tada trek and i was totally familiar wid d place..

 

HAAH!! I wish i cud say dat.. Honestly, the place looked so different..

 

reason 1: it was predominantly clean

reason 2: it was a totally different trail! :)

 

The climb uphill was not very difficult.. lol (i can actually hear u all sayin: "YEAH, RIGHT!")

 

It was not very tough to keep moving as the sweepers kept tellin: 10 minutes to reach the top from the time we began till it was really ten minutes to reach the top :)

 

ANd also... they promised a great view.. which sure was :)

and a fort... which for the love of GOd was nothing but a wall shaped rock!!!! I forbid everyone from callin it a fort again :) Lol

 

We halted, had lunch... i read 1 and 3 quarter pages in my book before kannan n karthik scared me outta my wits from behind.. i knw i was composed n all but i was scared nonetheless... there u go :).. happy now?

 

We continued walkin.. climbing... hopping.. crawling.. (one mode of locomotion will just not do here!!)

 

_________________________________________________________

 

TA-DA (to be read as an expression :) - The fall!! -

 

Close to abt sunset we reached the fall. It was soo beautiful, welcoming n resplendent in its motion. Everyone kicked off their shoes n took their plunges, dives or just careful-getting-into's. I merely waited...! (i knw...something's seriously wrong wid me)

 

After a while.. after takin in through my eyes the magnificient beauty of the place...
i jumped into the deep pool.. o'course holding d mat as i was not feeling particularly suicidal :)

I wudn have clutched dat mat if i'd known the kind of nite i was in for :)

 

I stretched myself, played by myself... all in the shallow branches of the stream o'course :)... in some places i appreciate no company :)

 

Everyone was having a great time as instructed by our group's official caretaker...Wonder how did i miss mentioning his name till now..
Introducing, ladies n gentlemen... Malapati Rajasekar!!! Hmmmnn... Thr's dat smile he brings on everyone's face who knows him :)

 

Yeah.. Well.. It gradually got dark... which is wat usually happens after sunset... n a few were still in the stream!! Crazy!! i tel u.. Is dat not dangerous? wat r these ppl thinkin?? So whn bala called from the bright yellow tent they had pitched already by the stream (beautiful sight in the twilight) i got out of the water with a heavy heart....

 

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Inside the tent -

 

It was a cozy little tent - while it lasted!!!

 

Not more than 5 or 10 min after everyone got out the water n squeezed into d tent...

We heard 'Water is getting in'... I thought, 'Should be the rain...'

Somebody said 'Everybody get up!!' I thought, ''Oh... they want us to readjust'

Someone then screamed ''The fall is overflowing'!!!!!!!!!!

When i got out the tent n saw wat i saw... i cudn believe my eyes...the beautiful n resplendent fall had turned DEVISHLY MAD!!!

I saw a flash flood right in front of my eyes!!! (i, in all honesty, did not even KNOW d word flash flood thn!)

It looked evil, scary n OMINOUS!! Definitely, better than before!!! ..

However we had no time to lose... (hahaah!! a line frm hollywood :)

 

Frantically everybody took everythin they cud grab... n climbed uphill to pitch the tent in a safer place..

We went up a few metres, spread d mats n tarpaulin sheet n got in between them!!! wid our bags, shoes n everythin... :)

Sreeni was sittin right next to me screaming (screaming? hmmm..not very sure.. but definitely asking :) ) if someone had picked up his black backpack which had an SLR camera!!! after d pandemonium rested.. ppl heard him n gave him his bag n d camera... I'v never seen a face so happy n reassured of divine grace :)

Everyone was tired... so we all slept and woke up the next morning, began our descend n reached d city (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
How simbill dis whole thing sounds.. n therefore it most definitely cud not possibly be the case! :)

_________________________________________________________

Inside the tent - in a different place -

Not everyone had space under d tarpaulin, me included... or shd i be saying, me excluded..? lol :)

So i decided to finish readin dat book i'd been tryin to for a long time.. perched myself in a comfortable boulder, switched on d small readin light i carried, covered myself wid d 10 ruba rain coat n began reading (did i say it was rainin non stop?!)..

Somebody noticed i was missing.. which was perfect timing cos i was beginning to worry of 2 things:

1. my light was drawing all sorts of exotic insects
2. the scary thought of spending close to 10 hrs like dat!!!!!

It stopped raining for a while..! and Bala decided we shd be moving to a flat terrain n organise ourselves better so everyone wil find some space under the tarpaulin... not everyone was up for it :(

Someone gave a brilliant idea.. let's take a call, maybe a show of hands? (dat was me!!) immediately two hands shot up (one was mine n d other was a person's sitting next to me whom i nudged to raise.. he put his hand up n later asked me why!!!) a few others too did... n we quickly moved before it began to rain...

Dis time we found a flat terrain which Lavanya had already suggested! we laid all the mats closely, left bags, shoes n other belongings outside, tarpaulin sheet was stretched to its limits... n everyone had no option but to get in as it had begun raining AGAIN!!!

Slowly everyone began to turn in... I was totally not for it... but wat choice did i have :( ??

Did i say everyone turned in... No!! Not everyone did!! Thr was dis little group which started crackin elephant n ant jokes... and went on... and on.. AND ON!!!! all d way into d nite!!!!!
_________________________________________________________

The nite trek!! -

We soon discovered dat not everyone can sleep inside the tarpaulin!!! dis was despite d fact dat 6 ppl had already stayed behind whr we had pitched our tent first.. (no.. actually... spread dat tarpaulin.. after the flash flood incident)..

It stopped raining!!! The stars had come out!!! I wanted to go check out the place in the nite.. also the guys who had no tarpaulin... Bala said, let's go!!! and WE DID!!

Sujai was packed with layers of plastic covers like... like u wudn believe :) John was jus too tired to even move n Karthik was lying awake.. So we took Karthik along (n John's torch too) n went to d fall to check d water's flow!!! It, to our amazement, had receded drastically.

We found many things dat ppl had lost. (Honestly, only 2! Karthik's slipper n a zandu balm... whomever's d owner plz claim it frm Karthik :)

Since it'd stopped raining i decided to change into something dry when we got back to d tent... As soon as i changed, it o'course rained!!! The Divine will thought it unfair dat i was dry while everyone was still wet frm d rain...

Btw, 'the elephant story guys' were still crackin jokes as they had no place in d tent to stretch.. I heard d next morning they NEVER stopped!!!!

When we were wondering whr we'd find a place to turn in.. Karthik being as generous as he is made the biggest mishtake (he musta' regretted all through the nite!!) He asked bala n i to come n sleep wid him as he had n xtra mat.. He gave me his sleeping bag (quite a gesture..danks man :)) n shared space in bala's sleeping bag...

I'd fallen sometime back in d dark bumping both my knees into a solid rock (appreciate ur concern.... notta worry... rock's jus fine :)

So.. no tent above our head, roosting on a slight slope, not very far frm d pool, thru d torrential rain n lightning.. we bravely SLEPT.. my bruised knees burning.. :(

The time was, when we'd settled, was long before midnight!!!!! Knew i was in for a l-o-n-g nite..........

So we slept... we really did... frm d day's weariness i reckon...

I woke up like every 3 and a half minutes to see if it was suddenly magically dawn.... And it WAS!!! the 77th time i peeked out!! (i always knew 77 was my lucky no. :) lol) Dawn came at its own sweet time :)

_________________________________________________________

The walk back -

Never in my life i'd been sooo happy to greet d sun.. the rain had stopped... i changed again... n after a while it rained again :) :) (my face did not hav dis smile thn.. it's all funny in hindsight though)

Some ppl went to d pool to take a dip.. i'd already had my bath so i saw no reason.. my longest bath.. lasted for only 10 or 12 hrs!!!!!!!!

We'd brought maggi, stove n everything... but didn want to risk d rain... So jus made some water warm for Mahima, whose fortitude despite sickness was jus awesome :) GOod job girl!!!

We took group foto (now whr's dat??) n quickly began walking down..

Everyone was kept on his/her toes by d sweepers: Vel, Sujai n Senthil n d group was once again adeptly led by Bala..

In no time we reached the moutain's foot (it actually took some 360 minutes!!) Point to be kindly noted n acknowledged by rock bala n alex :)

We never stopped... sorry i'd coined it wrong... we were never allowed to stop!!! Sujai kept shouting "MOVE IT!! MOVE IT!!" top of his voice.. His frequency was awesome.. He shouted 'MOVE IT, PPL!!' like everytime he breathed in or something!! MAn!! sometimes it still rings in my ears causin me to jump outta bed whn am deep in sleep..  :)

I requested Vel, Senthil n Sujai to let me sweep the last 20 or so minutes... n they graciously let me :) thankoooo... i let u all walk n gambolled all my way down d jeep trail :)

Sujai found a strategic time, whn only 4 or 5 of us were around.. opened his bag n took out Aashirvaad's Venn pongal.. tasted sooo good :) :)

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In the auto -

We cramped ourselves (6 of us) in one auto.. Ours was understandably the last auto to start n reach d station :)

We were so famished, we finished a maggi 4 in 1 pack in minutes!! I tried it too... was not bad... whn u r dat hungry u can eat a live cockroach and love the after taste!!!
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Train journey -

I never let go of the chance to stand by bus' or train's foot board!!! i hardly get d chance...so was makin full use of it!!! despite concerned ppl's concerns :)

JOhn was tellin me during d train journey dat we'd taken his torch when we went on the nite stroll n never gave it back and so whn a cricket got into his sleeping bag d previous nite.. thr was nothing he cud do... but accept its company for d whole nite!!! :)

Reached home late in the afternoon... n everyone promptly expressed their surprise to see me in one piece!!

_________________________________________________________

At home -

I learned my already overly anxious mother got in touch with her spiritual side during my absence!! She confessed she'd never prayed like she did the previous nite all her life!!! knew must hav driven my family crazy.. Apparently they heard thunder n all.. thankfully we didn.. in tada..

Hmmmnnn.... am tired now... as i was whn i came back frm d trek... writing dis made me relive the whole trip!!


So.. guess i'l jus stop now... but can't help wondering: wud it have rained soooo bad if it was not called the "monsoon" trek???

I promised somebody something... So before i forget.. KArthik... Karthik Yadhav.. Nallavan, Vallavan, Naalum therindhavan.. Ippadi ellam ena solla sonnavan :)
LOl :) :)



A'ight ppl........ if i'd forgot to mention any act of kindness or overlooked any interesting event (seriously doubt dat) fault's entirely mine :)

Thanks all... for being a part of d trek n playing ur part so well... no one cud've done it any better :)

Okies... everyone.. Be good!! Remember.... Police's thr!!!! (sorry... an inside joke.. only the elephant story guys wud get it i guess:)





Adios!
Arulmozhi

[Rajesh]

Hello CTC'ians

I think i am not too late to share my experience. When comparing to
other guys who stayed for two days mine is not that exciting..
but we(myself and prem) too had a very thrilling experience climbing
those slippery rocks along the stream to reach a mini falls,
losing our food to monkeys, driving my apache amidst the heavy rain
from TADA to Chennai... and so on.

Here i share my link to view the photos i take.. You can see more of
the rain than us..!

http://picasaweb.google.co.in/rcrajasekar/Thada14Nov09#

Thanks,
Rajasekar

On Nov 15, 5:24 pm, Senthil Subramaniam Kuppusamy
<ksenthilsu...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 25 brave souls back from raining Tada.  Had a nice time in the pool Abefore