An Adventure at Ramanagara, 13th June 2012!

Ramanagara known as Closepet, after Sir Barry Close (1756–1813) had retained in geology is a municipal council in Karnataka, approximately 50 km southwest of Bangalore.

Ramanagara hills have been the earliest rock climbing locations in South India. Climbers have been undertaking technical climbing since 1960s onwards. The region has several tall granitic hills that are famous for many short rock climbs; typically 1 to 2 pitches in length. Grades vary from 5.8 American to 5.11 American.

Ramanagara Granite Hills Photographed by Vikram Roy © Copyright 13 June 2012

Ramanagara is also famous for some of the world’s oldest granite outcrops. The hill Ramadevarabetta, along with Savandurga was one of the shooting locations for David Lean’s film A Passage to India (1984), based on a novel by E. M. Forster.  Small door like grottoes were made in the rock to resemble caves. It was also in this region that the path-breaking Hindi movie, Sholay (1975), was shot.

Ramanagara has a rich heritage of silk production and it has Asia’s second largest cocoon market. Natural greenery, airy climate, livestock farms, shepherds, flocks of sheep, sheep dogs, small huts, animal farms, vast empty lands, long horizon line, remind me of amity of man and nature.

“A sheepherder” Photographed by Vikram Roy © Copyright 13 June 2012

First of all I would like to thank Swati, the brilliant lady who had planned this adventure! Quest Adventures Group -Bangalore, and all of their smart boys; without their valuable instructions  and safety belts we had to go and comeback.

There were several activities for one-day. The interesting part was the guide, Aryan, he had kept the day schedule in suspense. We were at the smoke, guessing what the next?

After morning tea and breakfast we started our journey with little cheer-up exercise. Countdown started at 8 and divided into half; 8-4-2-1 and the fun began until the end of the day! We were 20 and had only 20 litters of drinking water for the day, when it was a big challenge to save the water. Interestingly all of the members at least carried the water bottles for the day than participating all of the activities.

The first treasure hunting game started with climbing and we climbed up and up, about 30ft! The place we stopped at the top end of the hill for “Rappelling”. We put the helmets, safety gloves, belts to rappel down the rocks. The gloves are most important to save the hands from the injuries. The instructors advised us to keep the body in a 70 degree angle with the rocks for the best rappel experience! I was so thrilled!

“Rappelling” Photographed by Lekshmi and Neeraj © Copyright 13 June 2012

The second activity was called “Zipline Traversing” or “Flying Fox”! It was damn easy to have fun. We were divided into two teams to tie a heavy rope from one tree to another, as tight as possible! The distance was approximately 150 meters. There is an imaginary river in between two trees and our only hope to traverse through the rope and to cross 20 people within 30 mins before the tide comes and the other bank will get flooded. We were able to cross the river by the touch of the magic wand of Moses.

“Chimney Climbing” Photographed by Lekshmi © Copyright 13 June 2012

The third and the get-up-and-go was needed at “Chimney Climbing”! If a person stuck between the two walls, then it was little painful to climb up to the top. At the middle my thighs were start trembling and got a free pain at the back. Once I had finished, it was a challenge to do it twice! As I was fascinated to feel free my concentration is on climbing and climbing; step up and step back and no rubbish thoughts!

Photographed by Lekshmi, Vikram Roy, Mourice Vincent © Copyright 13 June 2012

At the mean time when we had completed our three major activities and we went for Kayaking, Swimming, Archery and other team activities. Around 4:30 PM a heavy rain came and sweet smell of melted red soil added an ecstasy. Everyone ran towards the base camp.

“Hello Nature!” Photographed by Lekshmi © Copyright 13 June 2012

We had a plan to trek together to the sunset point but the rain! We made camp fire, played jumaring, channel crossing, and raft building. Took a little rest inside the tent, drunk black coffee, was feeling tired. Time had come to bid farewell to nature, to Ramanagara! Around 6:30 PM we finally depart for Bangalore, city-life, crowd, noise, traffic signals, and pollution!

With love, hugs and kisses!

Vikram