It all started with a mail from Shiva asking me if it would be a good idea to plan a trip to Mahabaleshwar sometime during the coming weekend. The Hydventura team had not been for any treks for more than a fortnight now! The anxiety was quite understandable! But then a trip to Mahabaleshwar during this hot summer would do no good. Instead I suggested they come down for the Katraj - Sinhagad trek that I was planning to do the coming weekend. ...
04:30 Hrs in the morning and we’ve still got about four more hills to cross to complete the trek. The destination in the form of an Indicator tower seemed to be farther , the closer we approach it. Damn! It was a pathetic mistake; To underestimate the trek, to decide to trek off season and more so to drag people who’ve hesitated to walk even a couple of kilometers during normal days! The Katraj - Sinhgad trek is supposed to be a cakewalk. At least, That’s the impression I’d got when I first heard about it from a few people who’d been there already. I always do some ground work before going for a trek to any place. I didn’t care to do it this time for no apparent reason! How I wish I did! ...
I’m woken up by a jerk as the Travera winds its way up the circuitous roads. The moment I open my eyes all I see is stratified rocks, like those of the Grand Canyon. Well, I’ve not really been to Colorado as such but then some things just get etched in your mind the moment you have a look at it and subtle things such as this remind you of the greater vacuum you need to fill! Probably it’s not too long before I trek the Grand Canyon! :-) ...
This is a chronicle of a two day eventful and highly physically exhaustive outing undergone by a sleep deprived moron. And there goes another bang on the keyboard as he types this post from a remote desktop. The reader is suggested to have a couple of caffeinated drinks on his/her desk to avoid the same. Statutory Warning: Caffeine is bad for health! :-) At the end of the day, when I hit the bed, there’s one thing I always try answering. What is it that I’ve done different that day? I’ve never had satisfying answers most of the time. But this 15th night when I managed to catch a quick nap on the floor of a mazda, that question never popped! The whole day by itself was so very eventful; it’s an irony that question never popped! ...
I’m off to B’lore this weekend on a fast paced adventure trip :D . This is going to be HydVentura’s second outing, majorly organised by AdVentura folks in collab. with a few other professional groups in Bang. So it’s gonna be mighty interesting :-)! Twenty one of us from the Hyd DC would be reaching Bangalore tomorrow morning, where we’d meet up with ppl from Mysore and Bangalore and move to Hoskote for a Parasailing stint. Once that’s done, we’d drive down to Anthargange for cave exploration, Rock climbing , Rappelling and brief treks en-route. In the evening we’d move over to Kalvarhallibetta base for a night camp :-) ! Sunday morning - 1:00am to 4:00am we’d trek up the hill to catch a glimpse of Sunrise at the and then we’d get back to the base and move to Nandi Hills as the final destination before we board the train back to Hyd from Yeshwanthpur. All of this in just two days :-)! ...
My cell rings at about 5:00am . As I’m already awake by then, I recognize the person at the other end to be Gaurav Saxena. Just a wake up call he says! Gaurav’s been one of the most active members of Hydventura and today morning he’s taken the responsibility of spoiling everyone’s sleep just to see to it that things go as planned :-) ! A few minutes later I get a call from him informing that he just had a bad fall and would not be able to join us for the trip. A pity that that he couldn’t join us! ...
A day to remember! We officially launched the Hyderabad Adventure Group - Hydventura today in the Infy Campus :) . This is something that was ‘In the pipeline’ ;) for quite some time and now after some dilly dallying the group is finally out! We’re 70 + now and will soon have our first outing sometime Feb-end or early march. We’re planning to expand once we get a foothold in organising outdoor events. ...
If you’ve always been wondering that there’s something that you’ve not done for the past few years but just aren’t able to figure out what it is, probably I may be able to help you out! ;-) Pack your bags and get your gear. It’s high time you moved from the cozy environs of your home! Ditch that LCD monitor for a couple of days and you’ll soon be in better state of affairs! ...
There are so many places and occasions where you can sit back, relax and rethink on your strategy and future course in life. I wonder why it’s always the other way round for me. Above 450m from the ground, where you have no control on yourself and have vested your dear life to the hands of some unknown person is definitely not a place to plan you next move! I’d been to Bangalore yesterday and it turned out to be just for Para-sailing! :-) I left from Hyderabad on Saturday evening at about 3:30 pm. I was fortunate enough to get tickets by the state bus service, which by itself was quite surprising given the short notice that I had. Sheku, Shilpa and Vairav were to join me in Bangalore. Reached B’lore on sunday morning by about 6:00 am and made it to the Infy Ecity campus by around 7:30 am. Vairavan had come down from Chennai the previous day and could arrange some accommodation. He, his friend Sharada and myself left for silk board by 8:00 am. Sharada had to pick up some stuff from her house so both of them got down midway and promised to get back ASAP. I’d asked Shilpa and Sheku to be there at the Silk board bus stop by 7:30. Poor sheku was well before time :-) ! You should have seen the reaction on their faces the moment I was there! Not finding the other two added just some more adrenalin in their bodies :-) . I’m not to be blamed for that ;-) !! ...
There’s this wonderful group called Adventura for adventure freaks that operates from Bangalore. So if you are into trekking and stuff and stay somewhere near bangalore it’s high time you enroll yourself in this group. They arrange treks in and around Bangalore almost every weekend. Even if you haven’t really been on a trek and are pretty much a novice, you can still enroll yourself. Each trek outing is classified as Beginners, Intermediate and the like and I believe they’ve got gears for beginners too. ...