Travel

The vote was almost equal - About eight wanted to leave on Saturday and seven on Sunday. So finally we decided to have two batches for the Sarasgad trek. 21st June: Snehith had come down to my place the night before. We’re up by around 5:00am and start dialling numbers on the cell. A few enlightened souls were still asleep.. and they had to be woken up! Pranav’s already awake by the time I call him. Rahul still hangs in heavenly glory till about 6:10 am. About fourteen of Snehith’s friends were supposed to join us . All drop! Akhilesh arrives at the bus stand well before time. At about 06:25 I get a call from Nikunj saying he’d be joining us soon. Vaibhav, Siddharth and Trupti turn up at 06:30. Rahul’s surprising there at the Sivajinagar bus stand right on time! Finally we’re a team of 12 - Pankaj, Prashant Rathore :-) , Falgun , Nikunj, Vaibhav, Trupti, Siddharth, Pranav, Rahul, Snehith and I. Sivanand would be joining us enroute. ...

This week’s been pretty tiring. Moving over from KT phase to Secondary support, solving stuff which seems simple but turns out to be worse than what it shouldn’t be, filling the same old excel sheets multiple times for reasons unknown even to the person who send it, needless formalities and processes just to send a message across to the person at the other side of the globe…Boy, Am I complaining? ...

It’s about six in the morning. Just another drop makes its descent on the already created pool right outside our tent. It’s ben raining cats and dogs ever since we reached the base point and there seems to be no sign of it subsiding. Though it’s been just about four hours that I’ve caught some sleep after having reached the river rafting camp at Kundalika, my brain shows no signs of drowsiness - It’s probably the smell of rain that’s spruced up my spirits but I believe it’s more to do with the sense of a tentative accomplishment of what I’ve been wanting to do for quite some time now. ...

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. ...