Going Crazy with Boulders at Khajaguda

Moving to Hyderabad almost 10 years ago was not my original choice, but a great career opportunity lured me here. The first thing that hit me when I landed in this City of Pearls was that Hyderabad and rocks go hand in hand. I was awe struck by these huge beauties. 

I used to notice these beauties while commuting to work on daily basis, my eyes would always feel the magnetic pull towards these rocks, and slowly and steady I was falling in love with these rocky beauties. Sounds crazy…right, but honestly when you look at these rocks and let your imagination fly, you can visualize various forms of animals or something more creative.  

These boulders and rocks are part of the old city and this place also known as Khojaguda, though I have no clue why, but this place is a paradise for trekkers and rock climbers. Though I love this rocky terrain, but never in my life had I imagined that I will have a lovely encounter with them which was not only fun-filled, but intense activities were involved, such as rock climbing, caving and chimneying.  April 05, 2015 saw me do all these activities with a group of 20+ enthusiastic people.  As per the plan, we all met at the cross roads near Rai Durgam police station bus stop. It was about 6 AM, when we all pooled ourselves into various cars and bikes that were available to reach the Khajaguda village.

Though some of us had already introduced ourselves while waiting for others, but we still had to go through the drill of breaking the ice amongst ourselves.  This ritual was more fun as we had to say “sagadi sagadi sa pa pa”words, and each word was punctuated with one of the exercise step.  Now, now…there was a hitch here, if we forgot the words or uttered wrongly, then we had to redo it again from the start. Before the start of these unique words, we had to introduce ourselves. We had this session and then we all started marching towards the rocky hills.   

Since we did not have any fixed path and it was fairly easy for us to trek. We reached the top and once we assembled together at a particular huge rock.  One of the organizers, showed us how to climb these rocks using the gaps and cracks to reach the top of the rock.  Man!! That guy was amazing on the rock, he reached the top as he was some sort of a reptile. Two of the guys stood near the rock so that they could help the others to identify the gaps, indentation, and cracks. One by one each of us tried and finally we all reached the top of the rock. We cheered and clapped for the members who were little sacred to give it a try. Once we all reached the top, we got the chance to look around, the morning sky, with sun peeping through slightly – had a beautiful look to it.  At that spur of the moment, I felt wish I was a painter who had the capacity to capture to such a beautiful thing on a canvas….well dreams are dreams.

Anyways, now we had to concentrate on climbing down the rocks, which seemed tougher than climbing the rocks, but eventually we all managed to get down. Honestly speaking, I jumped off the last bit which was not very high, as I was not able to find my footings properly.  Once down, we all started exploring the terrain, as some of the team members were trying to scramble down from the top. The organizer ensured that each of the group member was down and then we were asked to assemble so that we could follow his lead through the rocks. Before we started our trek through the rocks, he pointed towards the flag post and informed us that the flag post above those rocks was our destination. We trekked through the rocks and which was quite fun, then we started to trek up the hills. We reached a spot where we saw that it had a huge crack between the rocks. We were told that we all need to leave our bags out and walk through this crack and then pull ourselves up through another small crack which was at the ceiling of the cave. Here again, we had to use our rock climbing technique that we learnt to climb up and then pull ourselves out. 

I could not imagine that I would be able to pull myself through as the crack between the rocks at the ceiling looked too small for me. Here, I should mention that one should not judge the book by its cover.  I was trying to do the same when I looked at the crack. Finally, I reached the top and tried to squeeze myself out, but I could not find the indentation or any crack to hold and pull myself. While trying to look around, I found that the only way to do was somehow get to hold the “V” rock which was acting as lock between the two rocks.  Finally, after lot of twisting I was able to pull myself out. As soon as I came out I gave a pat on my back, thinking…wow!! I could do it, not bad…

Slowly we started moving, we came across chasm of rocks, which we needed to jump from one rock to another. If we missed while jumping across the chasm, then we would get stuck between the rocks. Doing that gave me another high and these are things which we have done as kids, now lay under the layers of dusts of adulthood, norms of society to name a few.  Here, we saw a beautiful outcrop of rocks, which gave an illusion that it is a tortoise made of rock from one angle and from another it looked like a snake head. We all rounded up from the back and climbed up and had a beautiful view of the still sleeping city. Now, was the time for the cameras to go whirling round to take the pictures.   

This group snap of ours was awesome….the backdrop showed the height at which we were sitting and the rocks….

Once we have our fill of Kodak moments, we had to move on as we had to chimneying to do. To reach the location, we had to do the rock climbing, then roll on our stomach as the rocks were lying too low to walk through. The rock was so smooth that it was difficult for us to hold on. One roll had us moving ten rolls as the rock was smooth and one wrong move would have us slipping down.  The rocks were literally sandwiched together and we called these rocks as “Sandwich Rock”. 

I asked these the organizer if these rocks are granite, as they were too smooth. He nodded his head in affirmation. Once back home, I did some more research and found out that these rocks were formed during the earth was being formed some 3000 million years ago.  These beauties which has withstood the natural calamities and disasters is now succumbing to human wants to expanding its horizon. Feels sad, but there are some groups, such as “Save the rock” who have initiated some programs where they educate people and save these beauties. 

Coming to our location of chimneying, one of the girls showed us how to do it. I was thinking, how I am going to pull my weight up like the way she is showing and also, I do not have a great height to boast about… It is going to be a tedious task for me, but the encouraging team and tips and suggestions had me chimneying up the rock and reached the top.  We all encouraged, helped each other to reach the top, or rather the flagpost. Once again, we had a photo session and we spent about 40 minutes there.  Suddenly we realized that the sun was getting too hot to bear and it was indication for us that we should start chimneying down and then trek back to our starting point. Slowly, we all came down and then we gathered and shared our thoughts about the trek.  We all shared our mail ids and ensuring that we will be in touch.  

Slowly, we all trekked down and reached our starting point where we had parked our vehicles.  It was time for us to say bye, but we could not, so we all decided to have thanda thanda lassi and then move on. The discussion of the day's trek, and then there people who were seasoned trekkers, who shared their experiences. Some of us who have traveled to various locations, also shared their knowledge. The time just flew and we did not have much choice left as it was past midday. 

Finally, goodbyes were said with a promise to be in touch...and that one promise we have maintained till date...;-)