July | 2011 | The AvvEntura Chronicles

Plan for Day 2 had been churned out. Everybody was sure that they’d experience some more awe-inspiring stuff as they had done the previous night.

7am was the reporting time. They had planned to take us to ‘Ramadevana Betta’ a small trek from the base camp. Would serve as a ‘morning walk’ or ‘warm-up’ for the later stuff. Wake-up-freshen up-start walking was the call from Mr. Umashankar last night.

The freshness in the air kissed our faces. Sweet smell from the flora and the earth tantalized our olfactory neurons. Heavy rains on the previous day had caressed the lifesystem around us. Now, that lifesystem was beaming with happiness and we felt that happiness embracing us.

Taste the freshness!

‘Ramadevana Betta’ is a shrine. But, as far as my observation goes, a shrine in the midst of the nature is precisely located at a place that is filled with serenity. Good example: ‘Kalish-Manasarovar’. Though not a religious person, I strongly believe that there is an aura in such a place which would mesmerise you!

We had reached the base of the stairs to the temple. Mr. Umashankar started a game for climbing stairs in different styles. Running, hopping, jogging through. Condition: You should not miss any of the steps! Though they are around 500-700 steps, we had paced through it in minutes!

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The above pic's courtesy this guy!

Nothing special about the temple at the top, but the location, as I had expected, swept me off my feet! A cliff there was such a scenic place that I couldn’t just get the entire view photographed into a single shot, no matter how much one tried! Decided that I’d rather take contiguous shots and mix them up! In a nutshell: the cliff gave you a true bird’s eye view of all the hills in Ramanagara. And who can forget that fantastic group pic that we took!

"Cliffy"!

Aforementioned!

We wandered off the tracks to do some bird-watching. Long Build Vultures are native to that place and due to the gruesome human activity in that area, their numbers have dwindled…

Back to the base camp, a blast of surprise had hit everyone! Only a few among us knew that it was Vasanth’s birthday; but nobody, not even Vasanth had expected this. They beckoned us to the mess, placed a cake on the table, called on Vasanth. The cake read ‘Happy Birthday Vasanth’.

Vasanth was ecstatic, surprised, dumb-stuck: you could’ve used any number of adjectives, but you’d fall short in describing Vasanth for sure! Traditionally or so to speak stereotypically, one generally blows off the candles on the birthday cake. But then, there was a twist here. Vasanth was lighting diyas here! Hmmm… * this goes to the record book, might just try it somewhere *

Birthday Boy!

The classic “Happy Birthday to you” went off; cheers, laughter filled the mess. All this in an institute which is in middle of nowhere on Bangalore-Mysore highway!

Breakfast and then rappelling! Actually we had seen the location while we were hiking to ‘Ramadevana Betta’. Location: A solid rock having a vertical face had been chosen. Two parallel ‘static’ ropes had been dropped down from the top. Enough of the details! Lemme write some real stuff.

Real adventure sets adrenaline pumping through you veins. This surely was not for the faint-hearted! Absolute zero vertigo is a must! Though the height from which we’re rappelling was a child’s play for a pro. But, we were rappelling-virgins! So, any assumptions can be dangerous!

After instructions from Mr. Umashankar and Shanthi Devi Rani which had to strictly followed, guys and girls started rappelling and apparently they found it dead easy! But, was not the case with everyone in our group…

Geared up!

Monsoon winds at full force on our faces, the first few steps downwards were the hardest as one needed to gain the momentum downwards. The instructions at the top of the rock were really helpful in getting us going. Heartful thanks goes to them! After that initial inertia, one could hop-skip-jump. I guess you could have done any maneuvers while on the path down. Secured with two ropes and 3-4 guys minding the ropes at the top, there was a zero probability of anything going wrong! But in real rappelling, you have only one rope and no one to mind it on the top! All in all, it was more fun in rappelling than there was bone-chilling adventure…

Magnificient view of a Rappeller's behind!

Tent pitching competition was next, divided into groups, AvvEnturites started building using the instructions which were given the previous day. More fun than work! Thank you Ms. Yashashwini for being a mere spectator in our group! Packed with fun, this activity brought a fitting end to our action-packed, exiciting, eternally memorable camp. (Adjectives fail once again. ‘FAIL!’)

All tent-ed up!

A brilliant, dedicated group of instructors headed by Mr. Umashankar had shown us the paradise right in the backyard of Bangalore in these two days! Many-fold thanks to them! Their dedication towards adventure is impeccable! Rock Climbing Institute will keep calling out for adventurers to explore the diversity of Ramnagara forest and the instructors will always be there to guide them through the paradise.