Ride Story: Tada falls

3 day long weekend and we have another write-up here. Don’t worry I will keep it short this time. I was clear that I wanted to do a day-ride this time meant I wanted to be back by 5-6pm at my home. This meant that the ride has to be around 100-200km one way but there are not many places around Chennai apart from regular Mahabs and Pondi which I have done several times. However asked some friends around and they suggested Venkatagiri falls, Tada falls etc. I looked up both and finalized Tada falls which is 115km one way from my home. Also did some research and came to know that it has a bit of off-roading and a lot of trekking inside the jungle. Sounds exciting to me! So the route map:

And you see the dotted line there? This means only trekking:

Now I have ridden on this road before so route planning wasn’t a big task. I just wanted to start early and be back early and take rest. But I had no idea of the fun which was in store this time for me. So I started at 7am from my home and doing moderate speeds of 90-100kmph I reached 23km from my destination which was at about 08:25am and I was very hungry by this time and stopped for breakfast. Felt better after satisfying my stomach and I was back on the bike again. This road offered the views of clear blue sky ­­and greenery around.

Following the straight roads after taking a left from the main highway, few kilometers from the TADA falls parking spot the roads will end and the off-roading will start.

It’s not very tough but just kaccha road. Here first stop is for getting the entry ticket which is Rs. 25, they will charge Rs. 50 for a camera but they didn’t understand my action cam and I didn’t have to pay for it.

So the gates were opened and  off-roading started. I always enjoy riding off-road , fun!

More off-roading for 3km and you reach the parking spot and no car or motorcycle can go further. There is a small shop here where you can get tea and stuff. Also remember that this is your last stop to stock water, biscuits and such items because inside you will not get any. DO NOT GO INSIDE WITHOUT CARRYING WATER.

There are lot of monkeys around so be careful of your food and stuff.

As soon as you enter the place you witness this:

And after coming down the bridge, you are given the option of two paths (Sorry I don't have a pic to explain this). One which goes to your left and another towards right. If you choose to walk on the trail on your right, it’s tough but relatively easy. Lots of ups and downs, rocks etc. But if you choose to walk on the trail on your left, you are sure to have a good time and here you can experience proper ‘trekking’ inside a jungle. Lots of rocks, you will walk around/inside the water and this makes the experience the real deal. I chose the left trail.

The natural water is so clear that you do not get it see every day and suddenly realize that you are away from the noisy chaos that city life is. Once inside it’s just you and the sound of birds you get to hear. There are lot of butterflies inside and they will love to fly with you as you walk.

The trek towards the main falls can be divided into ..say 6-7 stages. If you choose the left trail near the stream of water as I did, you will realize that as you progress and walk/climb, the flow of water increases slightly. The trek consists of climbing and crossing several rocks, stream of water, you have to make your way between the trees and plants and be careful here some thorns might rub your skin off so make sure you are covered completely. At some points you will see that you cannot move ahead near the stream of water, here you have to climb your way towards the land if you wish you can come back to the stream of water. I was enjoying the sound of water flowing and it kept me going. The water was so clear.more pics:

 Someone felt the need of changing into new clothes in the mid of the jungle:

After trekking for sometime, you will reach a point where you have no option but to walk along the main trail. Walk on this for sometime again and reach the rocks and the waters. One thing is clear(apart from the water, as you are moving ahead, the curiosity and the excitement to reach to the main source of water also keeps increasing.

It’s just a challenging trek ahead keep going ahead you will not regret till you reach the end. More pics during the trek:

After a tiring walk and trek, I reached the final point. Once you reach here you realize that it was totally worth it. Because I had started to this place early , there was no one, absolutely no one around here and it’s just you and the nature. I decided to take a dip!

The view when you lie down in water and look up. The feeling here cannot be explained in words...this is pure and untouched nature.

The water is cold and there are lot of fishes inside the water but they will not harm you. However be careful of slippery surfaces on the rocks otherwise you can easily fall and break your head lol.

Now if you are expecting a huge water fall here, I would say you will be disappointed. There is just moderate amount of water flowing which the locals started calling as falls. Also this time when I went the water falls magnitude was reduced as told by someone. Personally for me, the whole experience of trekking inside the jungle and climbing up the tough terrain to reach all the way to up this point was what counted. I will never forget this experience.

By the time I finished relaxing in the water, people had started coming in, I asked someone to click a picture of me. Notice the huge rocks!

As I walked back I chose the main trail on the land side which is comparatively flat and easy. This because now I had experienced the trek in the jungle and had to reach back to the bike little faster. 

As promised, I am keeping this travelogue short. This time I realized that the trekking part was more fun than the riding part and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I have lot of footage from the action cam which needs sorting and stuff so I will try to add a video to this post later, till then please manage with the pics!

Update (5th Feb): Here is the video! 

Anyways when I reached back to the bike it I decided to have a tea. While sitting amongst monkeys I relaxed for sometime and started riding back at 12:30 and reached home by 2:15pm. Some pics while riding back:

This place is a trekking paradise and if you love trekking you should definitely visit this place. I can’t deny that the sound of water is still ringing in my head :) 

Once in a while, go to some place which makes you feel one with the nature.

Keep Riding.

KTM 390 Track Day

KTM 390 Track Day- February 2^nd 2014

KTM organized its first ever track day exclusively for Duke 390 customers at MMSC race track and I was a part of it. Customers were informed through Facebook and emails 10 days before the event and were given basic description and requirements to participate in the event. It was mandatory for the riders to have full riding gear. There was no registration fee charged and the participation was completely free of cost for the customers.

On the day of the event, riders started assembling at the venue at the reporting time of 7:00 AM and registration started at around 07:30. Registrations included the following:

• Signing the indemnity bond
• Rider numbers were allocated and corresponding stickers (2no.s) were issued to the riders
• Riding gear (gloves/knee pad) was allocated to riders on first come first serve basis

There were about 80 riders from Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kochi, Coimbatore apart from Chennai. The registrations process took around 45 minutes after which the riders were asked to fix the stickers on their bikes, one on the headlight and one on the rear number plate. Then there was a basic check-up of the bikes and minor adjustments were made on all the bikes such as chain slack adjustment, chain lubrication, tyre pressure check and each bike was signed ‘OK’. Then the riders were asked to enter the pits where breakfast was served to the riders.

All the participants were divided into 3 groups according to their rider numbers. KTM had tied up with Apex Racing academy for the training requirements of the riders. A small briefing was made by the KTM employee who charted out the flow of the event throughout the day. Safety and discipline instructions were given by Apex and MMSC track officials such as importance of flag signals, avoiding overtaking etc.

The day started with Group 1 going on the track for 40 mins for a free-ride session, this was without any training or classroom sessions. The track officials were careful enough to send the riders on track with sufficient gap in between them so as to avoid cluttering on the track. After this the Group 1 riders were taken to the classroom session by Apex officials and Group 2 went for the free-ride session on the track. In the first classroom session, riders were explained about the importance of correct racing line, and they were asked to practise the 4thgear-no brakes drill on the track in the next riding session. Meanwhile Group 2 and Group 3 continued with their free ride and classroom sessions, one after the other respectively.

After the second session on the track, riders were again taken to the classroom and were explained about cornering techniques, out-in-out line on the corners and riders were no longer restricted to riding in 4^th gear. After this the riders went on the track again for about 30 minutes. This was around 1:30pm after which lunch was served.

After the lunch Group 1 riders were taken for the classroom session and this was the last classroom session. This time the importance of vision and  ‘where to look’ was explained to the riders and how to tackle individual and particular corners was discussed. It was fairly interactive session and riders were encouraged to ask questions. We were not asked to lean much by changing the body position at the corners because according to Apex guys, the tyre profile of KTM 390 allows the rider to lean sitting in the centre of the seat and tucking in the legs to the fuel tank.

There was a tea break at around 3-3:15pm.

All the bikes were fitted with transponders to record the lap timing throughout the riding sessions on the track. The classroom and riding sessions for all the groups were over by 4:30pm. After which there was a small closing presentation/briefing by the KTM employee explaining about the purpose of organizing the event and another VP from Bajaj-Marketing also addressed the crowd. Top 3 riders in terms of lap timing were mentioned and the event witnessed no fall/accident throughout the day.

After about a week KTM shared the link on their Facebook page for the riders to track their individual time sheet and observe the improvement in lap timing over the day.

Overall the event was organized very well and there was no confusion ever on what’s going to happen next. Bajaj employee mentioned that they will keep organizing such events in future also. It was a great experience. 

Original Memes & Jokes- Part 2

Earlier post on original memes had gone way too long so here is the second part for it.

Some Success Kid memes:

Yo hipster snake:

This is how you make a science joke even better, who says science nerds are not funny??:

How I feel one day without internet:

Because using % symbol while typing is too mainstream

Facebook faggots

 So got a call from Spicejet ke mausaji

Whenever I think about my ex: 

Special skills spotted on LinkedIn:

This guy was on fire!!

I trolled Myntra.com :

Just the first tweet and he likes to play twitter contests already:

We had a nice time together:

This is how media confuses us!

A meme on riding:

How I feel when she says " I like you only as a friend"

Steps to break up :

 Funny sms I got:

Coincidentally this ad was posted from Gurgaon, horrible people!

F1 trolled India:

On that note: 

I believe I can fly:

NatGeo you ass:

And the guy thought, shayad 4 din baad ladki pat jaye?: