The beginning of the adventure:
It was a lovely morning, I had rented out the OG Royal Enfield Classic 500, on the evening of the previous day, for the amazing trip ahead of me,
from Chennai to Tada Falls (Ubbalamadugu Waterfalls).
Me and my friends had assembled on the pre fixed assembly point. As always there is a person in each friend group that has to come late for some whatever reasons.
I was on my bike while others were in a rental car. I was supposed to follow the car since I did not have a phone mount on the bike (it was a rental bike; they usually don’t have one). I followed the car closely till we reached one of our friend’s homes. We had to pick them up from their home. From there on the proper trip began. As before I began following the car.
Getting lost:
In due course, we had reached the highways. Since cars are better off on the highways than bikes, the car had accelerated fast leaving me no clue where to go and where the car had gone. In some instances, I was able to spot the car and follow it.
This went on until arrived at a toll plaza, where the bikes didn’t have to pay any toll (fee) but the cars and any other 4-wheelers did. Since I was on my bike, I had taken the bike lane and was quite ahead of them.
I was also carrying a backpack with me with all the necessary items for the whole day we had in front of us at our destination. I was starting to feel quite heavy. So, after crossing the toll plaza and reaching ahead of the car, I decided to keep my backpack on the fuel tank of the bike in such a way the car would be able to cover the distance and I would be able to ride freely on the grow from that point.
I did that (put the bag on the fuel tank) by looping the shoulder straps on the handle bar in such a way that it causes no difficulty in the turning of the bike or handling. During this period the car had gone past me. I haven’t realized it yet so was moving quite slowly concerning the highway speeds (40kmph compared to 80-100kmph).
Finding ways to keep up:
After traveling for around 5-6 km, I realized that the car I was supposed to follow was nowhere in sight. I had to make many stops to look for directions on the map and then later found a way to view maps on the go.
I found that I kept the chain slider of my backpack at the top position near the bag handle it would be easier to slide my phone in and out for a glance for updates for directions.
I did this for quite some time (60-80kms) but many times I had overrun my turns on the highway and had to make 3 to 4 U-turns to keep up.
After following along the highways for some time it was time to leave the highway and get onto some country roads that were surrounded by beautiful farms and greenery. You could see many distant mountains and hills covered in rocks and bushes.
This being a village road or a bypass had narrow roads and less traffic. This led to confusion in the directions as I could no longer follow a straight path and had to make turns often just by my gut feeling and intuition that the destination was this way.
This eventually led me to go totally off track from my intended direction for the destination.
After following the same single-lane road for quite some time, it came to me that I had gone off trail, I checked my directions and found that I was in the middle of something and had gone into a dilemma, about whether I should go back to the turn that led me here or carry forward with the road that rejoins the intended road that I had to follow.
I made the brave decision to carry forward with the unknown wrong road and let me face the consequences that the road had to offer. The sheer presence of the classic 500 bullets influenced me to make that decision.
Here it comes:
After following the road and making a few turns here and there, I reached a bottleneck the road seemed to have ended but the ground was open wide.
A few persons sitting in the shade of a tree signalled me to come front and carry on. I approached them and found that there was a road in front of me. But there was something else stopping me from going towards that road – a clayey rice field.
It had rained the previous day and had made me think whether I should cancel going by bike and should join the people in the car but luckily the forecast suggested that there would be no rain in the morning hours. That is when had planned the journey to the Tada Falls. We were going to spend a few hours at the mountain and the waterfalls.
Ploughing the fields with Royal Enfield?
I saw that there were some mud tops where people walk so that they don’t disturb the cultivating area of the field. I chose to ride the bike on top of it. I was successful for the most part but after reaching the middle of the field I had to make a 90o right turn.
It was impossible to make the turn with such a heavy bike and to keep on staying on the mud top. Since there was no other option left, I decided to go through the middle of the field. I raised the throttle and went straight into the mud towards the road.
The bike travelled some distance but then came to a stop, as the speed decreased the bike’s rear tire began to sink in the mud. When I tried to move forward by providing more throttle input it just led the tire to slip.
I had to put my legs into the mud which was around my ankle deep. With the bike slipping and me trying to rescue the bike and balance both myself and the bulky bike, the bag decided to fall to the side, deteriorating the situation of the bike.
I cut off the engine, put the backpack back on my back, and got back to it. Now I was more comfortable to manoeuvre the bike out of the muddy field. Don’t worry the worst is about to come. Now I was on a tractor trail by which all the farmers go to and from their houses and their farms.
Due to the rain, the muddy road had potholes with the same mud from the rice field. I had to go slow as the tire was sliding sideways whenever I rode past a pothole or a mud pit on the road.
Where did he come from?
I even encountered some goat’s herds. The herder saw me weird sights as they had never seen a 500cc bullet on the tractor trails, with a big guy, that had a helmet and a bag on his back. It was quite the reaction and a crazy one.
I checked the maps and directions telling me that this was the correct path and if I followed it for 2-3 km, I would reach my intended road that had headed straight for the destination. As per directions I followed the road and saw on the maps that there was a left turn to be made When I reached the turn, I saw that there was a bridge but the bridge had collapsed and had fallen in on itself.
Now I had an even bigger decision to make: go back where you had come from or somehow get to the other side of the bridge. I being the crazy with a 500-cc bullet and had no choice decided to ride through the 1ft deep water stream.
It seemed obvious to ride through the stream as some tractors also had gone the same way. I could tell this by seeing the tire marks on the mud and the patterns on the streambed.
Time for a quick wash:
The stream bed was full of rocks. As I lowered the bike into the stream with extreme focus and precision, the rocks made it more difficult with every inch. I was hanging there with the bike to control with weird leg placement due to the rocks.
When I was at the last portion of the descent, I had stepped up onto the footpegs gave the throttle a decent raise, and waded through the water. Coming up the rocks was easy, the bike felt like it was made to do this and the 500cc engine was really handy. I felt victory in such a way that I could have never felt before.
Now I was back onto the muddy track but due to no proper marking on the road or should I say field, I had lost track again. I took a minute to calibrate my position and analyse where I was and where I had to go.
Is it a well, a lake, or a pond?
As I moved on, I saw another water stream this was looking more dangerous as I could not see the bottom of it. There could be anything, a well, a pothole, a SINKHOLE, or some dangerous snake or even crocodile. I was really scared to go through this water.
On the other side of the water, there were houses and a man was drying clothes on a string. I saw him and started to call him, signalling if I could make it through the water. The man replied by waving in a positive manner that I could come.
I gathered up all of my willpower and all the craziness I had till that point and made my way across the water. This time I was more wet since the distance was long and the water was a little bit deeper.
Reunion of the two:
After reaching the other side of the water I saw a REAL materialistic road after a long time. Man, that felt good. My love for roads had grown so much over me that wanting to reach a distant visible road made me drive into the front yard of a house. I had to stop due to the undulated terrain.
I asked the local boys playing there where is the main road and how could I reach it. They gave me the directions too and I followed it along. After a while of crazy off-roading and water sports, I had successfully reached the main road.
Now according to Google Maps, I was back on track that I had previously gone off. During my off-roading, the other people in the car had taken a break and even had breakfast on the way. I could only imagine breakfast after what I had gone through. One of the factors that held me through that crazy detour was my height (long legs) and experience of riding a bike (over 7 years).
Are we there yet?
Now I found myself with a little bit of traffic that was composed of other bikers and cars that had planned to go to Tada Falls. I can say this because there was no other place or area that you could go or the road would lead to. This road leading to Tada Falls was also undulated with potholes but was very good in comparison with what I had experienced previously (light off-roading trail vs Tractor mania).
After some time, I reached the main entrance of the Tada Falls where security checks for any suspicious material that could harm the tourist spot. I found the car that I had to follow and the friends within it. I saw one of my friends getting out of the car for parking and the checking I mentioned before. We shared what had happened on either side of the party and carried on with the yet-to-travel 5 km uphill.
During this time the car was ahead of me but because of the terrain, the car was slowing me down. So, for the second time, I overtook the car and drove towards the parking. On the way, I saw great views of the mountains and the riverbed that came from the waterfalls.
You could only see the algae on the mountains that had formed due to the mist rising from the waterfalls and not the waterfall itself. It created a sense of mystery and a curiosity to follow that would lead us to the waterfall.
Beauty and the parking:
After a while, I had to wait for my friends to arrive as I had come far ahead of them and had to stop and absorb the beauty pouring out of the surroundings. When the car came and we followed the road, we reached the parking spot for the cars, which was not very far from the place I had stopped by. Figuring out where the bike parking was, the watchman told me to go ahead. When I went ahead for 50-60 meters, I found the bike parking.
Now for the hardest part. The rental bike didn’t have a handle lock. But I didn’t come unprepared, I had asked one of my friends to give me a steel chain in case I had to lock it down to something. I locked the bike and assembled with my friends and we all started to walk up the trail.
The walk to the waterfalls:
As we started to walk towards the waterfalls, we would see small streams of water flowing down frequently. There was a part where a big stream of water was modified into a small rock dam with enough water for swimming, around 6 ft. It was tempting to jump in there but we were focused on reaching the rock pool of the waterfalls.
We would walk for 30 minutes and reach a bottleneck where the side trail where we were walking alongside the stream had just disappeared, forcing us to walk on the big, slippery boulders in the river bed.
Most of them were dry but the part where we were walking was wet as the water was also flowing near it. The surface looked not so suspicious but many people had slipped into the water trying to walk on it, one of us had become part of these people.
Acupuncture?
After doing some man vs wild the path became harder to walk. We had roots, pebbles, sharp rock edges, and slippery boulders all over the place. We walked for some time but due to the terrain, I suggested everyone walk barefoot as it would help (our shoes were soaked because of the slippery boulder).
But I was wrong, now and then one of us would step onto something sharp and pointy and would scream. Soon we all had to put back our shoes and continue. Making it hard and slow but comfortable.
We saw many small pools where people would be bathing and playing. In one of the pools, some men were drunk and laughing but throwing water-filled plastic bags at each other.
It’s swimming time:
We were all focused on reaching the much bigger pool that we all had seen in the images on the internet. After walking for some more reached a point where big boulders seemed to have fallen into a stream blocking the climb to the top. Only the people with proper climbing gear and a daredevil mindset could and would go up there.
We decided to swim in the pool near the big boulders. The water was crystal clear and even some fish were in it. We would swim there for another hour or so before deciding to go back to the rock dam to swim a bit more in it.
We sat in the sun and did some swimming; I was the one who was most excited about swimming and had filled my heart by swimming a lot. Others had to ask me to get out of the water as we had to eat and get back to the roads.
Back to the roads:
We walked back to the parking and got ready for the long journey ahead. Once again, I had to follow the car. For the off-roads of the waterfall, I stayed ahead and then followed the car from then on.
I had tired myself from the crazy swimming. The small country road had so many speed bumps. But there were many long stretches without them where I would top out my speeds on the bike. It was the braking that troubled me from the bike. A 500cc engine, a curb weight of almost 200 kg and rider weight of around 85, and having only drum brakes was a bit less than enough for good braking performance.
Every once in a while, I had to come side of another vehicle as I could not stop the bike from ramming into the front vehicle. It was dangerous. Thus, I decided to maintain my braking distance at all times from all the vehicles.
A True Cruiser,Classic 500:
Classic 500 being the mile muncher helped me ride all the distance with the least resistance and trouble. The bike was good at high speeds too. Before renting the bike, I had to go through a lot of videos where they mentioned that the classic 500 vibrates a lot and makes the ride uncomfortable.
I only found vibrations at a specific range of engine rpm. According to my guess at that specific rpm range the engine would shake the bike at its natural frequency, making it uncomfortable and hard for the rider. At the high end of the rpm range the bike doesn’t shake much only the engine rumble is felt and the bullet being a bullet, doesn’t make it uncomfortable.
Most of my riding was done on highways so it was not an issue, instead the ride was quite enjoyable.
Getting lost again:
On the way back home, we encountered the toll plaza and the others in the car decided to take a right U-turn towards a hotel for lunch. As always, I had no idea about this as I had to go through the bike lane. I was cruising casually when I realized that the car hadn’t returned as the driver of the car would come behind me and give me a sign by honking 2 times. When I checked my phone, I saw 4 missed calls from my friends.
I called them back to discover that they had taken a detour from the highway to have lunch. There was a problem with the network or the phone, I couldn’t understand the hotel’s name my friend was saying. It took me almost 5 minutes to realize that the hotel was “Star Biryani”. I now know where to go, put the directions on Google Maps, and start following them. I only looked at the maps when I was stationary and placed the phone back into my bag on the fuel tank.
It took me 3 km to realize that I had gone the wrong way again. When I checked the maps for confirmation, it said 6kms to the destination instead of 3 which showed earlier. I went back the way I came from, around 6 km and the restaurant were on a service road. Which made it even harder to locate on the go. After 20 mins of getting lost, I finally reached the restaurant with my friends waiting for me.
Post-lunch drama:
After lunch, it started raining heavily making me stop in the rain. The others had left in the car, where I had to wait for the rain to stop. I put on my raincoat and went on ride when the rain stopped. While riding you could see as you entered Chennai the metropolis characteristics started appearing, urban buildings could be seen, and the traffic density had risen decently.
There was a big circle around which we had to turn. Again, due to the absence of a phone mount, I overshot my turn and went in the wrong direction. I realized it soon enough to turn around, it was the traffic that made it time-consuming. I had to go through the middle of a bus depot and below a flyover to rejoin. That’s when I saw a huge, dark rain cloud coming right up on me.
Soon enough it started pouring, at least I was prepared for it mentally.
The route was clear from there but I had to stop once every while below a bridge to check if I was on the right track. The torrential downpour only made it difficult along with evening traffic.
Somehow, I had managed to get home, in one piece. After traveling for so long and getting lost again and again. Whoosh, we did it!!!
Finale:
After reaching home, and leaving the backpack, I headed straight for the rental outlet to drop the bike. After reaching there I had to call the person to pick up the bike, as it was Sunday and the shop was closed. The guy came and calculated all the stuff and the total distance travelled by me was 262 km.
We had planned that the journey would be only around 200 km as cla is 90 km from my place (180-200 km). But I had managed to get lost so many times to add 60 kms to the total count. After hearing the number, I was like DAMMN! I rode a classic 500 for 250+ km in one day.
PS: The trip was amazing but left me tired from swimming and continuous riding on the bike. During the last parts of the ride, my lower back and the tail bone had started to be painful and become uncomfortable.
For the reader:
I am so glad you could make it to the bottom of the story and get to know each and everything that happened and took place along the way with me. I appreciate that you could spend time reading about my trip. I appreciate it a lot.
Thank you.
