To the top of Tada falls..

Cruising at the Tada highway back to home, I gladly recollect the events of the day..memories that would be etched on my mind forever. I was waiting so badly and impatiently to go on a trek that as soon as I received the trek invite, I registered for it without even thinking about the difficulty level. I even forgot the fact that I almost had a zero trekking history with CTC(my only trek in CTC was a kid's trek :D ).     The day arrived and we started our journey after signing the disclaimers. I had a great time in the car with Mahesh, Ganesh, Arun(Arun......Prasad-that's how he introduced himself) and Sathish.  En route, we stopped at a dhaba and had some really yummy food. Soon, we reached our base camp and had a good intro session. Then, we went to sleep(aka talking). Somehow we managed to get some sleep but were soon awaken by Mahesh who screamed at the top of his voice! The next day morning, after completing all our morning duties and distributing the food and common gears, we started our trek. We reached a small stream where we had our breakfast. The real trek started after this. We were mostly climbing rocks and boulders after our breakfast. We reached a spot where we had to climb yet another boulder. I was midway through it when we all had to stop as there was no place on the top. I was standing in the same place for the next 10 minutes or so and I couldn't resist my temptation of looking down. Shhh..I must confess that it was a really bad decision. I soon got scared and my heart was beating as fast as it could. Somehow, I crossed it...Peace! We continued climbing boulders and though I was able to climb well, I was getting a strange sense of fear. I finally managed to overcome it and pushed myself as hard as possible. Now, we were trekking through a deep jungle with plenty of loose rocks. We reached a pool where we all had great fun. Later, Prem took us to another pool where we had to dive from a great height. It looked awesome, sounded super cool but we decided not to go for it as the climb back up looked tough. Prem doubled up as a cook and made some really tasty Aval in different flavours. He even prepared payasam with the same for dessert. We all fought for it like getting prasadham in a temple :D. Soon, we resumed the trek and Prem took us to a viewpoint from where we could see the tada falls. Awesome it was!!! We then continued to trek across 4 hills to reach the ruins of an old British fort. This part was full of loose rocks and was also covered by overgrown grass. The grass hid the ground from our visibility and this made it tough to know where we were placing our feet. To make it worse, the grass would get entangled in our shoes and trip us down. Soon, it became funny and I began to enjoy it! Now, thorns entered the game and gave us some nice treats :) By this time, I felt itchy in my hands thanks to all the rubbing, scratching and pricking done to me by the vegetation. We then made it to a jeep trail which brought us down to the base of the hills. Some of us decided to go with Prem to take a bath in the temple pool but broken liquor bottles made me disappointed :( So, I satisfied myself with a face wash and wetting my legs till the knees. On the way back to the car parking, we saw a scorpion too! We had our dinner in the same dhaba while going back home...that dhaba surely deserves an award for its yummy dishes! We settled the accounts and made our way back home.   I am really grateful to all my co-trekkers for making this a memorable experience. The organiser Prem Kumar is a true inspiration! His speed, dedication and his fine knowledge of the terrain is unparalleled for sure! Jagdish and Mahesh also helped us a lot in the trek. And then, there was Rahul, who trekked barefooted all the way!!! Hats-off bro!! Thanks a lot guys, really enjoyed it. You guys really are 'The Emperors'!