As I was considering my first hike to Rayakottai, Excitement and apprehensions were on the forefront of my mind. I got a very close friend to come along which worked out to be a great idea.
Confusion, commotion and a sense of urgency filled the railway station at around 6:40 am. We were literally rushing assuming we missed the train. I made a panic call to the organizer, hoping they hadn't left already. Only to realize that the train was going to leave at 7:15. We got in close to 7 and met one of the hikers and slowly met few others too, there never seemed to be a dull moment as we exchanged customary hi, hello's and got to know part of the group. It took around 3 hours to reach our destination - Rayakottai. Which is a small town close to Hosur and is famous for one of Tipu Sultan's forts. We got down and got together with a formal introduction of our fellow hikers after which we set out on our hike.
Around 10 am we started hiking up the hill, being my first time I did not find it too easy but at the same time it wasn't very difficult either. I quite enjoyed the whole experience. We stopped at different points to take pictures and were engulfed with the breathtaking views around. Climbing the beautiful hill was an unique experience which had many narrow pathways to get through, some of them were steep and difficult but I always had somebody to give me a hand. I really loved the fact how experienced hikers were looking out for us beginners and guiding us throughout. It took us close to two hours to reach the summit of the hill where we took more pictures and the group got together for some Antakshari, which was a lot of fun. Then we took a few more group pictures and started climbing down the hill. At this point we were really hungry, the climb down wasn't difficult at all, quite easy compared to the climb up.
It was close to 2pm when we reached down and set out looking for a place to eat. After a simple lunch we made our way to the station and spent some more time exchanging different humorous stories about each other. Around 4:30 pm we got into a very crowded train where all of us were standing. There was a slight change with our travel plans but we reached home safe around 9:30 pm.
This has been an amazing experience for me, not only did I get rid of all my apprehensions but I got to meet some amazing people too. Thanks to the organizers Santosh and Amitesh for organizing these events regularly, you guys are truly doing an amazing job. Thanks to the sweeper, Raunak for guiding us throughout and generally helping us with everything, the photographers for the amazing pictures and to the rest of the crew for making this a unforgettable experience.
Written by: Priyanka Dutta
Event date: 14th June, 2015
Place: Rayakottai, Tamil Nadu
No. of hikers: 22 (12 M, 10 F)
Event Organizer: Santosh Kumar Gupta
Photos of the event: Rayakottai Fort Day Hiking: 14 June, 2015
Photo Courtesy: Sagar, Ahmed, Santosh
0 comments:
Post a Comment