Hyderabad Rockathon 2015

Last weekend was special, with GHAC's annual flagship event 'Rockathon'. True to its name, this is a fun outdoor event themed on rocks. In its 4th annual edition, this event has become quite popular over the years with kids and nature-outdoor enthusiasts in Hyderabad. Conducted at Ghar-e-Mubarak, close to the Golconda fort, this was co-hosted by the Hyderabad-based 'Society to save rocks', a uniqe organization that does great work in identifying and protecting the rocks by getting them declared as heritage sites.

Having heard quite a bit about this event, this was my first time and I took my family and friends along. With both my kids under-age as per the event guidelines, and with one of them young-enough and pushed around in a pram, we sure turned lots of heads around! It was a packed, fun-filled day with several activities lined up. 

We started with slack-lining, the fine art of balancing yourself and walking on a rope, the only saving grace being that the rope was tied at just 1 foot height. With adults struggling at this, the kids seemed to pick it up and do naturally; perhaps their natural instincts for outdoors are not urbanized fully yet. Rock-stacking involved creating the tallest structure by stacking up small rocks and pebbles. This provided a sneak-peak into the fascinating rock structures one sees in the city and how they could be balancing each other. And yes, our group did win a prize by building one of the tallest ones!

Slack-lining	Trail biking
Rock-stacking	...and a natural stack in formation

The treasure hunt themed around hunting for the right rock formations as given in a picture proved daunting, especially in the hot midday sun. There were several creative activities to the event's credit: rock shotput, trail-biking around the rocky terrain, a quiz to test knowledge on rocks & rock structures, and even a rock selfie contest! There was a lot of demand for zip-lining and rapelling, that was planned well and organized safely in the midst of the adjoining rocky hills. The event was complete with a workshop on snakes awareness, conducted by the popular Hyderabad-based 'Friends of Snakes' society. They demonstrated handling of non-poisonous and poisonous snakes, and provided useful tips and first-aid basics. With kids quickly developing comfort with snakes, they rushed in to touch and handle one of the less aggressive, non-poisonous varieties.

The green, tree snake	An extra-long rat snake

During the event, it was a pleasant surprise to bump into the 13-year old girl who holds world-records for climbing several tall peaks around the world, Jaahnavi. It was fascinating to learn from her father-and-guide on how Jaahnavi Sriperambuduru  started early, has persevered to set records and also about her #Mission7summit, the upcoming mission to climb all highest peaks in the 7 Continents. Wishing her luck, we signed off from the event.

Edit: Corrected typo in Jahnavi's name.