Last week, while I was strolling down the company premises, I saw a few people cleaning the windows of the towers where my office was put up. They were in the hanging to a couple of ropes which hung from the top of the tower. This job was dangerous, and so interesting. Back in the office, I searched for someone who could help me try something similar. I also discussed the same with my relative who was working in the same company about this. Soon Kiran came up with the details of a person called Gurudutt who was organising such events at a place called Ramanagara. Ramanagara was about 50 kms south west of Bangalore. This is the place where the famous "Sholay" film was shot. We contacted the Mr Gurudutt and asked for details. He gave a good picture of what we can expect from them, and a rough schedule of the activities we might do there. They had activities like Rapelling (climbing down a big rock/mountain), jummaring (climbing up), Kayaking, Boating and Trekking.
The package seemed to be good, and we started planning for this. We talked to a few friends who might be interested in such activities and got a wonderful team of 8 to go and rock the rocks. We decided to try this over the weekend. Saturday seemed to be a good choice for everyone.
We were supposed to reach Ramnagara by 8 AM. So we had to start off by 6:30 AM from our places. Kiran Killimangalam, Ravi Mannanikkad (my younger
brother in law) and Anand Moothedam reached my place on Friday. Manu Mohandas, his wife Parvathy, his friend Ajishad and another common friend of ours, Mr Mithun Padinjareppad agreed to join us at our place by 6:30 AM. Kiran and Ravi went to a nearby Reliance Mart and bought a few B-Natural juice packs that were sold at a discount. They also bought a few snacks and a whole bunch of Munch (chocolate bars) for instant energy.
All of us got ready and started off from my place by 7:00 AM in two cars - Manu's and mine. We reached Bidadi where Gurudatt was waiting for us.
He had arranged the breakfast at a hotel there. We were served Thattu Iddali, Parippu vada, and Uzhunnu vada. The food was delicious.
A few other teams for whom Guru was the organizer also reached there and had breakfast with us. Guru was expecting somewhere around 60 people to be coming that day itself. We reached the happening place by 8:30 AM. The place was full of big rocks. It seemed that they had a reservoir which had plenty of water for water sports. The whole area was a public area, which was leased out to private people to be developed for such activities. We saw that lots of plants were being planted all over, thus giving the whole place a touch of greenery.
The first activity for us was jummaring. There was a long rope hanging down from a branch of a tree. There was an ascender (a mechanical device which can be slid along the rope to help us ascend) attached to the rope. We were all new to this activity. The instructor gave very clear instructions on what to do. Even though initially it seemed a bit tough, we were all able to reach the branch.
This was a real test of how good we can manage our body. The slim guys who seemed to lack health were the ones who could do this fastest. The ones who had lots of muscle built up were finding it difficult to lift themselves up. We all finished jummaring by 11.
We then headed to the river crossing activity. Here a rope was tied across a river.. err... a small stream. The ropes were tied to two trees. One end of the rope was at an elevation compared to the other one. We were supposed to hang on to the rope and then pull ourselves to the other end.
All of us successfully completed atleast a trip from one end of the rope to the other. Some even reached back to the starting point after reaching the other end of the rope! Oohh.. the arms were aching, rather numb, because of the pressure we exerted on them. But this was a very interesting activity.
The next event was the one everyone was looking forward to. Rappelling. We were told that we will be rappelling down about 70 feet. Now, probably seeing the energy levels we had, the organizer increased it to 135 feet. This was more than the height of a 10 storied building!!! I was really excited, so were all of us!
We were taken in a boat, across the reservoir, to the place where a couple of ropes were hung down from an enormous rock. We had to climb up the rock and then with the help of the ropes rappel down. There were a few people who were doing this activity, so we went under another rock, and waited for our turn. The sun was burning on us, and we had lost considerable water from our body. Guru had provided us with some instant glucose juices before we started off on the boat. We also almost finished the juice packs we had.
While waiting, we enjoyed the natural beauty of the small lake infront of us, with mountains filled with large rocks. We started singing some old classic film songs until we were called to get ready for rappelling.
I was the first one to "dress up" with a helmet, the harness and the rappelling devices. Kiran also got a set of the "dressing material" by the time I finished. We climbed up the rock, which was slippery. The legs and arms had this funny feeling which we get when slip. Somehow we reached the apex of the rock. There were 2 people who was handling the ropes. They will have one rope that will be tied to our harness. This will save us from falling even if we lose grip to the rope that we handle. I was the first one to go down.
At the cliff, I looked down to get a glimpse of one of the most beautiful sights I will not forget. People below were seen as ants. I started my descent. People who had already done the rappelling, with whom we had made friends guided me. Finally in about 10 minutes, I reached the bottom of the rock. Man.. This was an experience I will not forget. Soon all of us reached the base. It was 2:30 by then.
We all started having the feel of hunger, which was until then, masked by excitement. We drove to Kamath to have our lunch. Guru had arranged the lunch for us there. the food was very good. After lunch we all came back to the base. It was 3:30 by then. The items that were pending were Kayaking, Archery and Trekking.
We all went for Kayaking first and by 4:30 we were all out of water. I was rowing the Kayak for the first time. It was very light and was very easy to row it (except that it soon paining in my legs as I did not know how exactly to place them :) ).
Trekking was planned for 3 hours. We were to trek to the peak of a mountain, see the sunset from there, and return back. Most of us were not in a mood to exert more. So we dropped the plan, and tried our luck with archery.
By 5, we told Guru our desire to leave the place. He asked for feedback and there was no second opinion to the fact that Guru had given us a wonderful opportunity to enjoy. All the organizers, and the people involved were making sure that we were comfortable. We had a chat with them, and understood that Guru and team were all "just passed out" engineering graduates from reputed engineering colleges. They started this endeavor when they were doing their second year of engineering. We were given custom certificates which said that we have successfully completed the activities.
By 8 we reached back home. All of us were tired, and we had a quick dinner and we all selpt like logs!
This was one of the most enjoyable Saturdays I ever had in my life. I thank Guru and his team for the great effort they put for preserving nature, and giving us an opportunity to enjoy nature as it is. I also thank my team members for such a great day together.
So long....
