Trek @ Ananthagiri Hills...

This was one plan that we failed to get about doing the first time round that it was cooked up...but then on Sat(11/11/06), as I was passing time in the office in de night around 11 PM, I got a call from Anish and he talks abt going to Ananthagiri Hills for a trek...I told him, "Manager, its way past 11...how many of us wud be redy to leave ?", but he was like "Wot the hell.....its not time for bed yet....call up and pool people for it man....."....so i go abt calling ppl....well atleast those who i was sure would be game for the trek......and finally there are around 8 ppl...."Pretty Good", I thought.......well...yeah....8 was a pretty gud number......given the facts that it was totally at short notice....and that we had to start really early in the morning.....errr......atleast that was wot we had planned for.....

But I was pretty excited, coz I can ride my bike for a long distance @ the speed that I want...

So finally.....the 8 ppl - Anish, Anant, Naseer, Santosh, Pankaj, Shishir, Jay and ofcourse me - decide to head out into the hills for a trek there the next day.......we decide to meet on the Towlichowki - Mehndipatnam (forgive me if i have got the spelling wrong) highway on the road that detours towards the hills...



Here is where we met.

Well, personally, i never thought we would actually wake up in the morning on a Sunday and actually head out into the hills......but as i have always believed.......minute amounts of planning actually paves way for more execution....atleast....this is wot i have been noticing for things as these......So all of us get outta bed very early in the morning and as was planned meet at the designated location and there we were.......

So,as was planned(but a lil late), we set out on our journey towards the hills at around 8 am.......

We had to cover a distance of around 80 odd kms to make it to the top of the hills....and we had couple of stops in between like Chevalla and Vikrabad......and since Anish had already been on the route just a week back to test his 350D SLR, we knew where we were going.....At roughly around 55kms from our starting point we decided to take a break from a continuous hit on the roads and decided to get some blood circulation into out rears.....



We stopped @ this place. Believe me, I have to wait for 20 mins for the others to come, coz i maintained the speed of just 100+ kmph. I just believed that 100+ kmph speed is possible by me.

After a short break of around 5 mins, we head out again.......to conquer the reamining 20kms.......We stop at Vikrabad for breakfast and then within 10 minutes we are on top of the hills.....yeah.......we were there......well... almost there....

And as soon as we went down the slope that you see in the snap above, we were finally at our destination.....there was a stretch of flat grassy land where we stopped beyond which there was a vast expanse of hilly terrain that was inexplicably mesmerizing in its own beautiful way....

Well......thats just abt how we got there...yeah...yeah...i know...nothing specially intriguing or exciting that's happened till now...patience....patience....its all on its way...
So after abt couple of minutes of contemplating what our next course of action should be, we decided that the first thing we ought to be doing was to hide our vehicles some wer cos the last time Anish was there, his bike was under the scrutiny of cops while he was happily trekking.....and so after looking about for a perfect place to hide our vehicles so that they wouldnt be visible to any one passing by on the road, we decided on a small flat stretch of land behind an elavated area.......and yeah...that was our parking lot for the day.....



Here is where we parked our bikes and started our trekking.



Posing for the photograph along with my new GF :)

So, after we had all the bikes parked in our "parking lot" safely hidden from visibility, we decide to start on our trek.......we decided to go all the way to the top of the hills and go as far as possible.....or atleast till we were all exhausted and left with no more energy to go on any further....it was around 10 am by the time we were all ready to start the trek and then before starting off, it was decided that we would continue on our trek till noon.....we would go as far as it would take us till noon....and then return to base.......and so, having decided on this, the trek finally begins......

After a while of being on the move, Anish suddenly remembers that hez left his bike keys on his bike and he decides to go back and fetch them......phew....Thank God for having let him think about his bike keys at the rite time.....cos I was already all exhausted by then and my head was spinning......ALREADY.....it was as if a thousand kilogram weighing boulder was kept rite on my head and i was asked to carry it all the way to the top without being given any other choice......and so we stop there for a while and wait for Anish to get back to where the bikes where parked and fetch his keys........and when we looked back at where the bikes were parked, we realized that our so-called safe parking late was not so safe after all....there were these two beings carefully scrutinizing our vehicles......



Phew.....just cows......Anish goes back to fetch the keys......in the meantime, the rest of us take a break and did some photography....from where we stood this was what it looked like all around.....

As soon as Anish return with the keys....we move on.....going up and down the hills.....taking in the cool breeze of fresh oxygenated air as much as possible......at least that would compensate for all the polluted Oxygen that was being inhaled back in the city......we continue our trek and after some time we reach a valley....a rocky valley......a river used to flow there....but now its all dried up for us to happily walk on the rocks without the risk of slipping......

After couple of rounds of posing in front of the camera, we decide to move further on....cos we had to cover as much distance as possible till noon.....that was wot we had planned on initially...

There we went.....braving all kinds of obstacles......braving all kinds of wierd falls cos of the loose pebbles on our way......braving all the highs and the downs.....and finally we were there right on top......and what a view from the top....MIND BLOWING........we decided to take a break for a few minutes......by then it was almost close to noon.....and we knew we had covered enought distance to write up a blog atleast.......



@ one A river must have been flowing here.

We were already pertty far from wer we had parked our bikes.......we knew so cos, from wer we stood, our bikes now looked like tiny specks........and we knew that we had to start on our return trek or else it would be really difficult to get back.....but then somebody spotted this.....

And right there, we decided to make it till the waterbody that we had seen....to hell with the return trek....we'll go on till the waters and explore wot it was all about.......we had to go down the hill to make it till the waterbody that we had seen.....and so we started off again thinking that the trek downhill would be a lot easier and less tiring.......little did we realize or think about how we would have to return......

After about 30 minutes of being on the move again, we finally reached the waterbody.......and we had company there.......birds...dunno wot kind of them.....but lots of them trying to take a dip in the waters and cool themselves off from the blazing heat.......and just as they were doing it in peace, we got there and scared them off........all of them at once took off from the water and began hovering above the water hoping that this bunch of intruders would leave them in peace and let them go about their noon time dip in the cool waters......but we never allowed them to return......we waited right there without making the slightest noise hoping that they would return so that we could capture them on camera......but they never returned....somehow our presence was intimidating them....NO WONDERS AT THAT...
And so after waiting for quite a bit, we realized that there was no point waiting for the birds to return and decided to return to our bikes after taking this shot of the day.....

Finally we set off on our return trek back to our bikes........and this time round we decide to take anouther route back.....so that when we were finally back at base, we would have actually completed one full circle around the hills.......

At one point on our return trek, we had to go down a slope into a valley and then climb back up the hill along a route densely covered with vegetation.....but there was another pretty easier route without the ups and downs and without the valley....so we had to make a decision......"Do we take the easier route or brave the tougher one".......Finally, after couple of rounds of arguing for and against the two plans, we decide on doing it the tougher way....all good things come for a price after all.....
We make it down the slope into the valley.........and believe me....it was a dangerous slope......one wrong step......you would have reached the valley pretty quickly.......but with bruises and wounds all over you........so we make it down the slope, cross over the valley where once a river must have been flowing and then make it up the slope on the other side through the dense vegetation......now....dis was the diffcult part....we had to make it through all the thorny bushes and shrubs.......and with the varying pace of the trekkers.....we had no other choice but to find and make our own way through the dense bushes.......
And guess wot......Anant found a tribal rite in the bushes......

err......dat was no tribal.....DATS ME!!!!!!!Gawd....with those blood-shot eyes and the sun-tanned face i really looked like a tribal....if it werent for the jeans and the sweater, i wud have easily passed off for one.........lol
And so, after all the panting and all the huffing and puffing, we finally got back to base........back to wer our bikes wer parked.....and boy oh boy....were we just pleased to see our bikes from so near........

After resting for a while and discussing about all that we had just done, about how no one else would have dared to do it and this and that, we decided to move on and get back to Hyderabad.........it was already close to 3 pm by the time we started off on our return journey........we stopped at Vikarabad again to get some water go down our parched throats and after doing this we started off to cover the return distance..........and on the way back, we stopped at all the cotton, sunflower and marigold fields that we had seen in the morning.....

And thus, after an eventful trek and after all the posing in front of the cameras in the fields, we decided to call it a day.....and pushed off to cover the remaining kilometers back to the city......All in all, an awesome trip to the hills and an even better trek there......!!!!!!!!