Matheran in Maharashtra

Matheran a unique hill station in Maharashtra

Matheran is a colonial time small hill station in a quiet corner of Maharashtra. I say unique  because unlike the devastating flood inducing development in Uttarakhand, and most other hill-stations in India, Matheran  has maintained its character of a sleepy town.

All development  is highly regulated, motor vehicles are not allowed and  you need to walk or take a horse cart to move around. Recently GHAC organized a trek to Matheran, which began by some social responsibility by distributing stationary and sports kit at a local school for underprivileged kids.

GHAC Team distributing stationary and sports kit to school kids

GHAC Team at the beginning of Trek in Matheran

For most of the time weather was very nice with light drizzle making the hills lush green and mysterious with the fog.

Rains added to the fun








The Magic of Mist

We  had a great time exploring, hiking and just chilling in Matheran. A Few more treks to Matheran are planned in coming weeks. Please check here to join them.

Slacklining - Balancing for fitness

Slacklinig- From Street Performance to Modern days

I am sure all of you have been to circus or have seen Banjara kids perform on streets of India using tight rope. I always wondered how they are able to do it.  The  higher the rope the faster my heart used to beat. While in Circus there is a safety net to keep the performers safe, there is no such thing for the Banjara kids performing on the streets.

Net or no net, slacklining has been performed in India for ages, but like a lot of ancient Indian art forms it has also lost its relevance in the modern days. But we at GHAC here love to keep on trying new things and some time back we started meetups for Slacklining. Now you may wonder what are we doing in Slacklining. Well a few things to note here:

• The Slacklining used for GHAC events is actually not very high, it is just around 1 ft in air. So that even if somebody falls there is no injury.
• The slacklining may not be very high but you still have to cross it without any support and that forces your instincts to work to balance your body.
• This is where the benefits to your body start coming, as your body and mind are on high alert your ability to focus increases many folds. 
• The adrenaline rush in your blood gives you a  high and you thoroughly enjoy the crossing of the slack line.
• As you try to balance your body various muscles in your body come in action and all energy is used to keep the balance on the slack line.

But more than anything else the whole process is full of  fun and you should listen to the squeaks of joy and laughter coming from the participants. Below are some pictures from the recent event that we held in KBR park. 

Balancing Act

The best part about Slacklining is that you do not need any expensive equipment or training, all you need is a little bit of space and will to have some fun (how tough is that ?). Age is no barrier as long as you do not have any major injuries in your limbs. We regularly have parents enjoying with their kids as family during our Slacklining events.

So what are you waiting for Slacklining is a regular event at GHAC, go ahead and RSVP for the same and have some fun with adrenaline rush.

Increase in GHAC Fee and Addition of Service Tax

As you are aware GHAC charges a nominal 10% Fee for all its events.
This amount goes to pay for salaries of the support staff, rent for
GHAC office, repair and renewal of equipment, purchase of equipment
and other administrative expenses. Over the last two years, the cost
of everything has gone up and we were still charging 10% only. As a
result, we have not been able to buy new equipment or replace our worn
out equipment. We have instead taken loans from senior organizers to
buy and repair equipment. At best, this is a short term measure and we
cannot continue like this.

The GHAC Committee in the meetings held on 12 June and subsequently on
19th June has decided that the GHAC margin will be hiked to 15 % on
all events that will be put up from 1st July 2013. There will be no
change in events that have already been announced and posted.

We also want to communicate that as a registered adventure club we are
now in the service tax bracket. Going forward, all meetups will have a
3.09 % service tax on the total trek amount, per head. This amount
will be paid to
the Department of Customs and Central Excise, Govt of India and will
contribute to the nations growth.

There will be no increase in cost for local events and they will
continue to be Rs 50 inclusive of service tax.

We are committed to promote adventure and will continue to strive to
provide better events and rich experience for all our members.

For questions please reach us on feedback@ghac.in or call on 040-23350008

regards

Diyanat Ali
Founder and Director
Great Hyderabad Adventure Club
www.ghac.in
040-23350008

How To Help Uttarakhand

We are all aware of the massive tragedy that has happened in the hill states of Uttarakhand and Himachal in North India. The floods have devastated whole villages, towns and washed away roads, bridges and all infrastructure is in mayhem. With thousands of pilgrims and locals still being evacuated by our armed forces it is a tragedy for all humanity. While we sure needs to do introspection on our policies towards tourism and construction of dams etc.  in hills, and analyze what caused the floods in Uttarakhand and understand that we are all in some way responsible not only for the floods but also for providing help to the pilgrims and locals alive.

At this stage it is more important to get together and help in every possible way to the people stranded and help their friends and families to help find them.

So the first thing we can do is spread information about the relief efforts and refrain from spreading or paying heed to any rumors.

Given below are some useful numbers that you can share on your social networks for people to use them:

Here are helpline nos for relief efforts for Uttarakhand floods

Flood helpline numbers : 0135-2710334 , 0135-2710335 , 0135-2710233.

Nainital & around: 05946-250138.

Uttarkashi: 01374-226126, 226161

Chamoli: 01372-251437

Tehri: 01376-233433

Rudraprayag: 01732-1077

ITBP helpline and control room, Uttrakhand: 011-24362892 and 9968383478

Uttarakhand govt helpline: 0135-2716201, 2710925

Besides spreading information about the help line numbers here is a searchable database that is about the people who were found/rescued by various agencies

Link to the Searchable Database for people found in Uttarakhand

But search is only one part of the equation. The economy and the people of Uttarakhand have suffered heavy losses and need to be built again. You can provide help in both monetary and non-monetary ways to help the people.

Goonj is one such organization that is making efforts to collect materials and money to help the people in Uttarakhand.

You can contribute Clothes, medicine, food, utensils and also money so that it reaches the people who need it today. This is the link of Goonj website to take some action and help in a way only you can.

You can also contribute to the Prime Minister  National Relief fund or to any other organization that you trust and feel will help the people in Uttarakhand.

The important thing is that we all need to contribute in whatever form to help our friends in Uttarakhand.

Treks To Outstation Locations

Traveling and Trekking to Far off Locations 

With the onset of Monsoons we will start planning a lot more outstation treks to places where one needs to travel overnight to reach the starting point.

But outstation travel brings a few of its own challenges. As most of the outstation treks specially to far off places like Maharashtra, Kerala, and Coastal Karnataka requires overnight travel, every body prefers to travel by train. But getting tickets on train is  not easy and a lot of members respond only at last minute. This leads to non availability of tickets in train.

Once the train tickets are not available the organizers try to book the buses, now here also the earlier we book the more economical the tickets we can buy, as at last minute the tickets are either not available or one needs to book the most costly tour operator as the normal seats are all gone. This leads to increase in the cost. Some time people will respond at the last minute, when the tickets for others have already been booked in train, so they try to book tickets in tatkal for the train. But it is sometimes very tough to  get confirmed tickets in taktal. So the best option for a smooth journey is to make the payment as well as your confirmation the very first day the RSVP for an outstation trek opens.

This will have many advantages

• The biggest advantage is the organizers will be able to keep the cost of the trek low, as the train is the cheapest option to travel
• You will arrive at the starting point of trek, fresh as train travel is very comfortable compared to bus or self driving long distance
• This will help the organizer to know how many people are coming well in advance and negotiate better rates with hotel etc. at the trek location if stay in hotel or dormitory is needed.
• An early booking will ensure that all seats are together in same coach leading to more fun in the journey as people can talk, play antrakshi etc.

So in everybody's interest it is a good idea to RSVP as well as make payment the day an outstation trek opens on Ghac meetup site. Also please add the email address of Meetup in your mail box as this will prevent it from going to your spam box.

We would love to hear your inputs on GHAC treks and this blog. Please use this link on GHAC feedback link to give your feedback confidentially.

Happy Trekking and Safe Travels  :)

Chimney Caving and Zig Zag Passages at ZTS Grounds

Practicing for Chimney and Caving in Zig Zag Passages at ZTS Grounds

Caving and chimney requires special skills and agility

• You need to be highly flexible
• Not afraid of dark
• Not scared of insects
• Willing to crawl in little space
• Great team work is needed to coordinate movement in small spaces

One of our groups practiced Caving and Chimney at ZTS grounds recently. They had a lot of fun and went through some pretty steep, and narrow paths. Check the pictures below:

Climbing Narrow Spaces in Rocks

Resting Between Rocks

Rocks and Rock Climbers

The View From Top

Most of Hyderabad area from the top was visible with the waters of a lake nearby shining like a jewel in distance.

Do check  GHAC  meetup site for future events. 

These city based events help you prepare for the longer treks in nature. Remember practice makes a man or woman perfect. 

Cleanup Activity At Khajaguda Hyderabad by GHAC Volunteers

Celebrating World Environment Day- The GHAC Way

5th June is world environment day, world over people try to do some thing or other for mother earth. A lot of these activities are not sustained and end up more as media hype or photo opportunities. Not with GHAC, on this world environment day a group of GHAC volunteers visited the hilly area of Khajaguda in Hyderabad and decided to take things in their own hands.

Khajaguda is close to the Hitech city in Hyderabad and  popular among active Hyderabadis for hiking and rock climbing activities. Unfortunately the area is also very littered with plastic bags, bottles and other non biodegradable items.

So this environment day GHAC volunteers aggregated in large numbers at Khajaguda to clean the area. 

They came armed with gloves, bags to collect garbage and of-course with cameras to click pictures and  spread the message. 

Both Young and Old GHAC Volunteers Came to clean Khajaguda

Garbage Collected From Khajaguda

Cleaning Khajaguda 

Breakfast after cleaning Khajaguda

The volunteers collected many bags of plastic bottles, polythene, chocolate wrappers, chips packs etc. Every body was very hungry after the activity and stopped by for some yummy breakfast close by.

GHAC regularly conducts cleanup drives in and around Hyderabad to make our city better. Click here to know more about GHAC and its activities.

About Author: Prasad Np is a GHAC volunteer and heads GHAC Nature, he writes family travel blog from India-desi Traveler

GHAC Outdoor Leadership Workshop

GHAC Outdoor Leadership Workshop

While outdoors are fun, you are also with nature, that can be unpredictable and one needs to be prepared all the times. A lot of preparation needs to go to go out in wild to take full advantage of the bounty of nature, unlike in Bollywood movies like Yeh Jawani Hai Diwani where you just show up without any preparation.

Participants Arriving for GHAC Outdoor Workshop

All GHAC trek leaders are trained in both theory and practical aspects of outdoors so that all treks are safe, nature friendly and no negative impact is left on mother nature.

As part of preparing GHAC trek leaders for future leadership roles, a 2 day residential workshop was organized in outskirts of Hyderabad in pristine surroundings to impart various outdoor skills like

• Using a compass
• Map reading
• Finding direction and your location in  the outdoors
• Creating a shelter in outdoors
• Making a fire using minimum resources and without damaging nature
• How to choose a campsite
• How to pitch tent 
• Survival Skills
• How to find and use water in jungle
• Ropes and knots

Tents were pitched for night

From GHAC leadership team Keku talked about how to prepare and survive outdoors in nature, Diyanat conducted workshops and activities on leadership and Manish from accounts team talked about how to manage the financial aspect of  a trek.

Manish Giving Presentation on Financial aspects of a trek

Group Photo of GHAC Leadership Workshop

The workshop was not just work we  had lots of fun too!

The workshop concluded with the participants receiving their certificates and GHAC caps.

GHAC conducts these workshops every few months and if you are interested please get in touch with GHAC though our website.

Organic Food Workshop By GHAC Nature

Grow your own organic food in your own home

GHAC Nature has started a new initiative to encourage Hyderabadis to grow organic food in their own homes in limited space like balcony or terrace.

The first workshop was organized today at GHAC office in Banjara  Hills. Arun Raj who is a key memeber of GHAC core team and Mr. Venugopal Reddy an avid Gardner and nature lover gave a demo and  explained to the participants

• Types of Soils
• Preparing compost
• Difference between vermicompost and normal compost
• Type of plants that do well in pots
• Plants to grow in Hyderabad
• How to take care of pests and disease using organic, nature friendly means

Mr. Venugopal explaining about pots and plants

Participants to the Grow Organic Food Workshop

Arun Raj Talking to Participants

The participants actively asked a lot of questions and are all very keen to start their own gardens. Keep watching this space for  updates. 

GHAC Feedback System is Launched

Dear GHACians,

In a continuous effort to improve the adventure activities at GHAC, we bring to you a Feedback System comprising various modes.  If you don’t like something about us, tell us.  And, if we are doing well, let us know.

We would like to hear from you. Please feel free to share your experiences during a meetup and suggestions for improvement, if any, through the following appropriate channels. 

1. Suggestions & Ideas

If you have suggestions & ideas and wish to engage the GHAC community in a discussion, please do so at

http://meetup.ghac.in/messages/boards/forum/1132684

We would appreciate your effort in keeping the forum clean and relevant to adventure.

2. Report a problem or a negative experience

Email details to feedback@ghac.in for any of the following:

Report behavior that is not in accordance with the club guidelines (by members or organizers). To acquaint yourself with the guidelines, visit http://meetup.ghac.in/pages/Club_Guidelines/

To know the status of a refund (in case you have not received a satisfactory response from the organizer) Anything else that you would like to bring to the notice of the GHAC Feedback Team

Our Resolution Team will try to respond to you within 48 hours and resolve the issue at the earliest.

3. Anonymous Feedback   

If you want to share your opinion anonymously, post it at http://www.whatiswrongwith.me/ghac

You are always welcome to visit us from 0930 to 1830 hours, Monday through Saturday at

Great Hyderabad Adventure Club
8-2-350/B/B, A.K. Enclave,
Lane adjacent to Pizza Corner,
Road No. 3, Banjara Hills,
Hyderabad 500 034
Ph: 040-2335 0008

Stay updated

Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ghac.in to receive the latest updates

you can access this information online at www.ghac.in/feedback.html

Let’s make things better, together!

Regards,
GHAC Feedback Team

Mysterious Island : The Mystery Unleashes

A team of 20 passionate Trekkers, a herd of fun lovers indeed, started their journey to experience the rarest of the rare, the exquisite Mysterious Island. Lone amidst water, this island is located right in the center of the NagarjunaSagar Reservoir, Nalagonda, Andhra Pradesh.

True to the title, the entire trek was infused with mystery. Filled with excitement, each juncture was bringing a surprise on this trip.

From KambalPalli village, the group started moving towards the Island. First exciting occurrence was climbing the initial hill that would give us a scenic view of the Island. The sun was shining bright, an unbroken stream descending on us as we continuously ascended up the hill. As we reached the hilltop, all of us were wilting due to the blistering heat. Most of the trekkers started cursing the organizer and also themselves for joining the trek. 

After a 15 minutes halt, we started walking again. This time all of us were prepared for the next surprise or adventure. We kept walking for almost 3 kilometers and were day dreaming about the destination which was some distance away. Some of them got dehydrated in the radiant heat. But then- we reached the next point and stopped abruptly, the fascinating first view of the Island greeted us. We couldn’t bring ourselves to tear our eyes off it.

A hill in the middle of the oceanic water, surrounded by numerous hills, the white colored temples on both the edges of the hilltop, greenery around the shore, the herd of sheep, goats and cows eating the grass simply reminded us of the romantic movies that were seen during the college days. Each of us started humming romantic songs and smiles were all around. It was fun watching each other. The Island seemed a perfect honeymoon spot. We could romance with the nature and the photographers perfectly captured the melodrama happening around in their clicks.

Soon we started descending the next hill to reach the Island. It was around 2 kilometers stretch and it took almost an hour and half to reach the shore. Relaxing under the rock shade, we all were admiring the nature and building the rapport with the other trekkers. A few started walking on the river bank and the rest started following. We had a competition of pelting stones in to the water and this time no one could win the title, as we had to soon get on to the boat.

We boarded the boat. As it started moving towards the Island, we were delighted by the beauty of the nature. Away from the urban routine, this experience made each of us think of settling ourselves on the serene Island. After 20 minutes of boat journey, we reached the Island. This Island is called as Yeleshwargattu, popularly known as Mysterious Island. We got off the boat and soon scattered around the island for our respective cooking tasks. A few went to collect the fire wood, few were busy cutting vegetables, others got the water from the reservoir, while the rest were busy clicking pictures and describing the crocodile stories to scare the crowd.

Soon the Sun started disappearing below the horizon and we continued cooking. The best delicacies were prepared on the fire wood. Few trekkers were flashing the torch light for quick preparation. The dinner was ready with Biryani in the Hyderabadi pulav style, Chicken Masala, and the tomato curry to go with it.It was a special meal or the hunger must have been the best sauce for the night.  

After such a delectable dinner, all we could think of was warm sleep in the cold windy breeze. But of course, the trek had its own surprises. We had to stake our lives and start climbing up the hill on the island. Every step reminded us of our favorite God. The dense and the dark atmosphere, the blowing breeze, the sound of the bees and the dead leaves literally reminded us of those haunted stories heard in our retrospect.

Enduringly, we all culminated over the hill. Closing our eyes and the torch lights as per the organizer’s instructions, we lay down on the floor. As we opened our eyes and gazed at the sky, the common feeling among us was Wowwww…..! The sky exploded with a million stars. Few of them spotted the shooting stars and we were rejoicing the diorama of the sky. 

Few trekkers who were feeling sick, turned active, few fell asleep soon and a few were still hanging around capturing the pictures. As per the instructions we were not supposed to move left, right, front or back. We were supposed to sleep in the given place.

Out of the blue, when everyone was deep in sleep, something poked the organizer’s head. He ignored it expecting it to be some sharp edge of the bag. Soon we discovered that a beautiful golden-ish black Centipede has bit him. It was stuck to the bag like a key chain and was all set to attack the next person. After a little research on Google, we found out that it was not fatal. After the incident, sleep simply fled from our eyes and somehow we managed to spend the night. 

The Sun was rising up the horizon. The view around was exemplifying. We were on the top of the Island, with two temples on both the edges. We were stand right between the temples and all we could see around was water. The sun rays in the water, the hills all around mesmerized us. Amazing pictures were captured by the photographers. Despite having the better subject around, they were too generous to click our pictures too.

Before long we started descending from the Island. Tapping our feet in the water for a while, we boarded the boat again and this time the ride was around one hour through the valleys and the landscapes, we reached the other end of the shore. It was time for us to test our endurance level, as the heat in the sky and the hill at the shore reminded us of all the Glucon-D ads. Soon we ascended the hill and trekked and scrambled for 6 Kms reaching the KambalPalli Village. 

Another surprise was waiting at the village. The world best Rice and Charu (Rasam) was prepared by one of the sweet ladies in the village. All of us couldn’t resist eating lunch twice. We started moving towards the bus stop and soon took a bus.

It was the hardest moment for all, as we had to reluctantly say good bye to each other. It was the best ever experience of life and had set new standards for our future choice of treks. This trek was a blend of every single thing a trekker expects including trekking, scrambling, boating, cooking, eating, climbing, and photography among the others.

Awaiting more such mind blowing experiences. :):)

Reducing Emails on GHAC list.

Dear Members

We are working to reduce the number of  emails sent on the ghac list. Hence forth we will not be sending any last minute slots available emails and will be posting all reminders and slot availability on the facebook group  www.facebook.com/groups/ghacevents . Please join this group if you want to keep updated on the events and slot availability.

You may still receive some emails that are sent as meetup announcements or reminders. You can however adjust your email and notification settings to receive a single email once per day.  Please sign in to your meetup account and access the  settings under Profile > Email & Notifications or access the url at http://meetup.ghac.in/settings/

To keep yourself updated on the regular events please like our facebook page at www.facebook.com/ghac.in or subscribe to our twitter handle on twitter.com/hydadventure

You can also access our events calender on www.ghac.in

To add our events calender on  to your google calender sign into your gmail account and  access the url at
https://www.google.com/calendar/render?cid=v3lhcd0l67k4n1qjmu63meupl3o382rg%40import.calendar.google.com


regards

Diyanat Ali
Founder, GHAC
09885039230

Rock Climbing: Indifferent yet Compassionate

Before dawn, the sound of the alarm clock and the cold wind fluttering throughout, has awakened me from the sleep. The ripple of excitement within to experience the unpredictable was strong.

Before long I reached the meeting point. Looking at the dedicated volunteers helping the participants was great. With the transport provided by the organization the Participants and the Volunteers reached Shamirpet, Hyderabad.

The Sun was rising up the horizon and the enthusiasm among volunteers to watch the first ever Hyderabad ROCK CLIMBING CHAMPIONSHIP 2012 was exhilarating. For some of the volunteers the day began with Photography, as the sky was tinted red, and it compelled the volunteers to capture the panorama.

Soon the volunteers were briefed about their tasks for the day. They started putting up tents, arranging breakfast, carrying crash pads among others.

A set of 15 route Judges were assigned the boulders for judging the climbers. They were briefed about the judgment criteria for the climbers.

Breakfast was served and everyone there had their share of idlies and wadas.

With great spirit, the participants across the nation had come to participate in the championship. The siren was blown and the participants started their move towards the boulders.

A set of 15 boulders were finalized with diverse degree of difficulty for the climbers. At first, it seemed to be an act of impossibility for the new comers. But as the participants started climbing the rocks, it was fascinating to watch the sense of ease towards the rocks.


                   
 

 

The zeal and love for such an indifferent sport made everyone’s blood run cold. Passion, Zeal, thrill, excitement, anxiety were not the words. All that was seen there was love and fascination for the rock that hooked the participants to the rocks.

50 passionate climbers across the nation participated. 12 belonged to Hyderabad and rest were from Delhi, Bengaluru, Pune and Kolkatta among others.

It more or less seemed like they were super humans and had their innate talent and techniques on the rocks.

The first round began at 8 am and ended by noon.  

The lunch time arrived and this gave an opportunity to talk to people from different parts of the nation. A special tadkedaar Hyderabaadi Biryani was served to everyone. After eating one of the delicacies of Hyderabad, everyone proceeded towards the bouldering terrain. The winners of juniors girls and boys and senior women were announced.

 

There were 6 remarkable finalists in the senior men category. The task was to complete four boulders with less number of attempts. The duration for the completion of each rock was 4 minutes. The difficulty level was very high and the finalists were not allowed to see other finalist’s climbing.

                      

As the final round began, the audience was over flown with enthusiasm and went yelling, blowing, whistling, and clapping to encourage the finalists. The encouragement was of a different level as we could hear people cheer in different languages.

Soon the winner was declared and with a heavy heart we had to say good bye to everyone.

 

This spectacular event served as an inspiration as most of us wouldn’t even had known the definition of Rock Climbing.

May Hyderabad experience more such amazing events and produce the best climbers from the city.

Cheers,
Tejasvini

HCC - A Great Success.

Hyderabad Climbing Championship held on 23rd Dec at Shamirpet was a huge success with very good feedback received both from the climbers and the officials. I congratulate Ranga Vutukuru, Co-Organiser, GHAC for taking  the lead in hosting the competition and all the efforts put in to successfully conduct it. I thank all the Team Leads and the volunteers of GHAC for owning up their allotted tasks and completing them to perfection. I thank all the officials of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation for  providing the necessary support and encouragenment.

At the competition I had met the best of climbers and the IMF officials and the result is renewed vigor, energy and a clear sense of direction on how to proceed further.

Despite the various efforts from many quarters, Climbing is still in a very nascent stage in Hyderabad and this years competition has opened many opportunities and avenues for climbers in Hyderabad and is a result of the persistent effort and hard-work put in by Ranga and other climbers to promote the sport since past few years.

Hyderabad has the best granite boulders and I can envision the city to soon turn out as climbing destination of preference apart from Hampi and Badami. To achieve this we need more local climbing infra support and local climbers practicing and taking part in various local and national climbing competitions all round the year.

GHAC Hyderabad Climbers at http://climb.ghac.in is dedicated to the cause of promoting the culture of climbing and creating climbers to achieve a vision of making Hyderabad a climbing destination for everyone.

So get started and get climbing

regards

Diyanat Ali
Founder, GHAC.

GHAC - A Beautiful Idea

At GHAC the outdoor activities are always finding ways to involve everyone from the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad to participate.  From families to kids, youngsters and working professionals and not to forget the young at heart – we have something for everyone. The outdoor activities are meant to engage, educate and entertain all ages of different fitness levels.

Today, as we reached a major milestone of reaching 10,000 member mark on GHAC meetup.  I am happy and excited with this landmark achievement and it's so much fun to look back at the journey that created GHAC.  It was on the 27th May 2008 when I decided to put the idea of an adventure club online on meetup.com to find friends to accompany me to Annapurna Base Camp, Nepal in June 2008. 

Putting up GHAC on meetup was just not enough as it involved a lot of selling and pursuing to get people join it and I had spent quite a time promoting it online and in person and among my friends.

It took almost one year of promotion, and then we had the first online 100 members. Then, I decided to do another trip to Everest Base Camp in June 2009.  To prepare our fitness for the EBC we started doing many local events and the first one was to Ananthagiri hills Vikarabad. Then we did couple of more local events at various places in the city including Maulali, Ammuguda, Durgam Cheruvu, Shamirpet, Bhongir Fort, Narsapur Forest and more members started joining us.

First GHAC Ananthagiri Hike http://meetup.ghac.in/events/9929882/

First GHAC Maulali Hike - April 2009  http://meetup.ghac.in/events/10150398/



First Hike at Ammuguda - April 2009

Snapshot of ghac meetup site Dec 2009

I needed more helping hands and started speaking to members to assist me in running the club. In September 2009, I formed a Executive Committee with my learnings from Toastmasters. We had the first meeting on 06 Sep 2009 at Hotel Kshetra http://meetup.ghac.in/events/11236619/

Once the committee was formed, we met regularly to discuss and brainstorm on taking the club to the next level. We also continued hosting more events including doing more outstation events.

There were many enthusiastic members ready to take up organizer leadership roles and it was time to train them in the various aspects of safely organsing adventure events. We came up with the Outdoor leadership workshop and the first one was conducted at Shamirpet under a tree and among the rocks  http://meetup.ghac.in/events/14120339/

As I write about the wonderful journey,  I feel nostalgic and I am very sure some of you who were there with me from the start will feel the same. After the first two years, the membership doubled every year and it won't be long before we reach out to over 1,00,000 members soon and fulfill our vision to make Hyderabad the most active city of the world.

GHAC is a beautiful idea that has changed my life and the lives of many others who believed in the idea and supported it all along. I had the tremendous support from my family and friends without which I would not have spent time and energy with GHAC.  It makes me happy to hear from many members that they choose to move to work in Hyderabad because GHAC was there for the weekends. GHAC has definitely raised the quality of life and made Hyderabad a better place to live in.

On this occasion of reaching 10,000 members I congratulate all the GHAC Leaders who are the ones responsible for the club growth and the members who believed and supported us along.  It's time now to reach out to other cities and do the GHAC Magic there as well and rest of India.

I am working on starting an India wide adventure organization "Great India Adventure Club - GIAC" which will have different chapters in various cities all over India. Passionate people who want to be part of GIAC and want to start an adventure club in their city can contact me.


Regards


Diyanat Ali
Founder, GHAC

09885039230
 

Exploring the Wilderness of Ashwarao Palli

The dawn was flooded with laziness. Here begins the conflict between body that insisted to sleep more and passion that craved for adventure. This made me reach the MGBS (Meeting Point) at 6 AM. With a group of 7, we boarded the bus towards AshwaraoPalli, the magnificent location for scrambling situated near Warangal district of Andhra Pradesh.

All the trek mates were charged up and excited to experience another adventure with fun. There were 2 first timers who were mentally rehearsed to encounter any kind of thrill. The others were proficient and were set to explore the uniqueness of the location.
 

Before long we reached Ashwaraopalli. A lady living in a hut served us hot tea. She insisted that we buy food in order to earn some extra money. With the instructions of the ‘Boss’ (Organizer), we already packed our lunch at the meeting point. We began the exploration by moving towards the hill. As we proceeded, we could see a snake crossing the road, which made most of us run towards it, but to our disappointment it disappeared out of our sight. After walking a kilometer, we had a warm up session as our organizer mentally prepared us to face the wild.

Soon we started climbing the hill through erratic passages encountering the rare trees, insects and rocks. We progressed towards the Rocky terrain and began scrambling. After a non-stop half an hour walk, we had to boulder a patch that looked scary at first instance, but with the encouraging companions around, it was a cake walk. To everyone’s surprise, this journey soon turned into a foodie’s trek. A trek mate got a watermelon to start with. All of us fetched our stomach with what we thought was the best Watermelon in the whole world. Photographers began clicking the pictures and then we moved towards a patch where we could see langoors clinging to the trees. This scared us as we were carrying bags with plenty of food.

There we began ascending again and this time it was crossing the steeps. Getting down the steep was alarming as there was a thin line between life and injury. Soon we reached a rock above the cave. All we could see there were bats flying around. The Bats seemed aggressive as an eagle was hunting for a bat. We were petrified by the scenario as it was a complete Bat circuit with a dingy smell circumventing the caves. One of the trek mates got excited to click the image of the scenic view but soon, the hue & cry inside the caves made us move to some other patch.

Coming back to the previous patch, we explored a cave inside the rock and started some Chimney techniques to climb up and down. While others were enjoying the food, the organizer and some over enthusiastic trekkers started exploring the cave and trying different ways to come out of it. Post this exciting activity, we had our lunch that included Fruits, Dilkush, and Dilpasand among other delicacies.

Out of the blue, the organizer decided to make the trek more challenging and made us do some back breaking scrambling that took the life out of us. Another adventure was experiencing the blasting quarry. We were all prepared to experience the manmade disaster by hiding ourselves from the quarry employees.

Finally we had to cross a terrifying steep and proceed towards a blooming photo session with proficient photographers around. Before long it was time to board bus and we said 'au revoir to the group.