IBM VF ANZ team at Siddarabetta on 20 th Sept 2008
Nice Cloudy breeze with countable number of people around gave me a shock whether we will turn out for trek at the start of the day. Luckily, fair number people arrived and we decided to go in two buses. The buses hit the Tumkur NH around 8 AM. and we had nice breakfast enroute at Kamath hotel.
After all those infantile kind of games and dances in the bus, we reached Siddarabetta base at around 11:30 AM. Sunand (organiser of the event) made briefing about the day's activities and we started the trek around 12:00 p.m lead by two local guides (Ram Murthy). The group was a mixture of people ranging from early 20s to late 40s.
Trek started of with Sun trying to peep through the clouds every now and then. There was lot of greenery around, mostly consisted of bushes and tall grass. Initially we were divided into three groups(called ropes and lead by instructors), but soon the ropes were split and the people formed the groups according to their hiking pace. The trek route gradually broke into boulders and grassy path which made us difficult to follow the path and in fact we often lost the actual route. 
This made the outing more adventurous and at the same time, the distance between the first group and the last group increased. First group reached the Siddarabetta top at around 2:45 p.m. Most of them were exhausted and we had cold water put on our heads which gave us heavenly feel. 
The last group reached around 3:45 p.m. between which only very few people had gone through the exiting cave exploration. There was shortage of torches (as expected) and we restricted the cave exploration to few yards. Everyone was feeling hungry and we got down to the base at 4:30 p.m. 
Nice food was arranged at the Siddarbetta base followed with few team building activities. In spite of exhaustive trek, people regained energy levels quickly and participated in most of the team building games like blind fold, coin counting, disc etc. Almost everyone participated in tug of war event and the finals ended with breaking the rope itself.
We left the Siddarbetta base at 6:30 PM, started of with antakshari(Singing songs) at the bus which gave a pleasant feel to end the day forgetting all the tiredness. Arrived Bangalore at around 9:30 p.m. with the memories of rocky boulders and tall lemon grass bushes.
Comments
Arun
The group was superb, we enjoyed a lot during the team building events and path exploration.
I came across to see the caring and helping nature of persons around me, not only in office but also in outing like the way the one who took the path first instructing the followers how to step and where to step safely. Sometimes when we need to climb big rocks the guy who is infront gave hand to climb the rocks. I feel like it was a very great Team bulinding activity
everything related to trek was good right frm journey to food nd sports.
Nd guys if u wanna win "Tug of war " always hve me in ur team because i am the one who can hlp u break the rope.
Thanks to Santhosh for bringing back the memories of trek through this nice blog.
This was one trip which involved almost all emotions and that too from everyone. It was a splendid experience as everyone seemed to be mesmerized by the greenery which seemed to be extending to infinity. It was a journey full of joy and excitement as it brought us closer to the beauty of the nature.
Thanks a lot for arranging this superb trip & making it a success ! Eagerly awaiting more team outings like these.. :)
It was amazing and full of enthu ..
Thankyou to all who had participate to this event and made it a wonderful one.
This outings was like achieving our goals which was to go right on the top.
People were very supportive and caring.
Thankyou to IBM VF-ANZ, i-quest and participants to make this event as a wornderful one.
Regret missing all that fun. After reading this blog I feel I was virtually present at Siddarabetta. Hope to join the next outing.
I enjoyed every bit of the day,
there was a higher level of participation. lot of team activity, a higher energy level throughout the day.
I personally appreciate the organizing teams efforts in all aspects of the event viz..in organizing travel games, coordinating teams , communicating etc. a true example of the word TEAM itself ( Together Everyone Achieves More)
sunand
iquest
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