Monday, September 11, 2006

Nature-Thy name reflect beauty-5

It was a warm Saturday morning. The sun seemed to be very enthusiastic and shone brightly. Being a week-end, the roads were relatively silent, with sprinkles of people here and there. We, a group of eight took to the roads to reach Anthergange near Kolar. The agenda of the day was cave exploration. We started off with rock climbing. Huge boulders lay around as we trekked up, puffing and panting and at the same time enjoying the journey upwards. The sky seemed so near the peak as we climbed through bushes, stones, rocks and stairs. As we continued to ascend, the sun’s enthusiasm seemed to turn to fury thinking that we were conquering his territory. And as we stopped, fresh breeze rubbed across our cheeks, happy at the prospect that we were no longer intruding into nature’s arena.
As we trudged along hoping to reach the cave we were supposed to explore, we came across beautiful view points from where we could see the city below. Yes, we were on top of the world, joy seeping through us as we spotted pockets of water, greenery, roads at a distance.
It was almost around noon time when we were announced that we had reached the cave.
As we peered into the hollow, we saw what looked like a steep entrance to the cave where we had to literally slide sideways to get into it. This was just the beginning of a series of adventures that we undertook into the cave.
The darkness seemed soothing to the eye after the stark contrast of the brightness outside. The stones reverberated with chillness that seemed breathtakingly refreshing. As we slowly felt our way through, we reached another hollow where we had to jump from one rock to another skillfully to avoid the gaping crater-like pit that seemed to beckon from below.
We climbed, held onto boulders for support; our legs hanging in the air, desperate to win over the gravitational force, exerting to climb onto the next rock that seemed far away from a hand’s reach.
At one point in time, during our course of exploration, we came across two rocks, gazing each other, one horizontal and one vertical with little space that would allow just a weasel to squeeze through. And we were told to slide through that gap!!
You can see the picture here.
It was a heart pounding experience, thrill seeping through the spine, beads of sweat rolling down in anticipation and yet excitement screaming aloud.
Have explored for over an hour, we were hungry for good food. It was a delight to see good food waiting for us.
Post lunch it was rapelling time. We again climbed on huge rocks to reach the top in order to perform this sport. It was fun, scary at the same time while standing at the edge of the rock that seemed like a cliff, and realize that one had to slide down through a rope. On the whole, it was a wonderful experience, embodied with lots of varied emotions, layered with tonnes of excitement.