We had a company outing today - a half-a-day (we wanted to make it back in time for the sake of those who wanted to vote or had other commitments for the evening) trip to and trek up to Savanadurga, which must be around 60-odd kms from Bengaluru (basically a half-an-hour drive into the forests around Ramanagaram, which is around 50 kms from Bengaluru). There were 20 of us and we'd never had an outdoorsy outing of this nature before. This trumps lousy dinners at multi-star hotels. Any day. Here's to more company outings like this!
Savanadurga is apparently one of the world's largest monolithic rocks and is supposed to be at least a billion years old. I just wonder how big it must have been originally, before the erosion that these billion-odd years must've caused. It's quite windy (pleasant drafts and gusts - not gale-force stuff) because it's the highest rock in the area and there are hardly any obstructions around it.
This was one of the guide dogs that accompanied us on our climb up (and down) Savanadurga. He took a dip and sip on the way down as it was past noon and getting warm now and there was still quite some way to go.
The way these dogs work is very interesting. There are a few in the village at the foot of the rock and they just hang around there, waiting for trekkers. When they see a group of people they automatically latch on to the group and guide them along. There's a little bit of competition between the dogs here as they run up to the group to be the first (or second) guide dog for the group. I didn't see more than 2 dogs per group. I don't know if that's the case always. As I said, there's only competition, not fighting. And the losing dog(s) just tend(s) to whine/whimper a little bit in sadness/dejection (think "Oh no! I've missed my chance of a free meal on the way/at the top."). There's no (dog-)fighting at all. Very healthy stuff!
Even when coming down the rock they are constantly on the lookout for groups climbing up, and can shift teams if they think the other team has more to offer in terms of food and affection.
We fed "our" dogs at the top. They wouldn't have peanut candy and bananas, but they happily lapped up all the biscuits and plum cake that we offered them. It's not just humans that love junk food!
2 comments:
Too cute! Did you feed him any fee?
How did he agree to become your guide?
Gliff, I've updated the text description in the post. You should find the answers to your questions in the updated text now.
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