To Heaven and Back (Harishchandragad Trek, Feb - 2012)

(P.S.)' - Not all Sahyadri Rangers folk are fukats like me. Office going hard working perpetually busy professionals. So I'm having little trouble getting all the pictures from them. But since its been 4 months now I'l post this anyway. Yes I know its extremely dull, long and boring without pictures but bear with me. Photos shall appear as soon as I get them. And if you didn't crack that already, I used a complement up there as I couldn't really find  the opposite of P.S. #LikeAnEngineer

Ever since I had started trekking, there was one place I always wanted to be. HARSHCHANDRAGAD! When it comes to amazing treks around Maharashtra, nothing comes close to Harishchandragad. As I have said in an earlier post this is a dream trek. Irrespective of the time, season, day you visit, if Konkan Kada doesn't take your breath away, nothing will! Be warned this is going to be a very long post. Even then I'd barely be touching the experiences we've had in these two amazing days. Just Icebergs.

Konkan Kada
(Click to zoom. The white dots on the top are people. Yes its that huge!)

I had just got my Sem 5 result, cleared with a decent score. Just when I was talking to Vishwesh about the result he replied with greetings and a note. "This ones for you. Harishchandragad  on 4th-5th" it said. Sone pe suhaga I thought! Getting the permission from home was easy as they were quite happy about the result. They hardly knew I was giving some important college duties a miss (got into trouble later for doing this) in going for the trek. So there it was, all set, ready for Harishchandra.

Harrishchandragad Trek, 4th - 5th February, 2012 (Kay bhi, tension, nai!):

The troop

I left home at about 11.30pm on Friday, 3rd Feb. We had to take the last Kasara local from Dadar at 12.30pm. It was there that we realised from the intitial 6 members, only 4 had turned up, 2 dropped out last minute. This was a very small group considering we had something as huge as Harishchandragad to cover. It was only Kedar, Sushant, me & Vishwesh for the Sahyadri Rangers this time.

We reached Kasara at 3:15am. About 20 minutes late. We were supposed to take a passenger train from Kasara to Igatpuri. But to our surprise there wasn't a single train until 7 in the morning. Waiting till 7 would have screwed up every bit of planning that we had done. We just had to find a way to get to Igatpuri somehow. Just about then we saw a few brake coaches arrive to which engines were being joined. Inquiring we learnt those coaches were being sent to Igatpuri, but we weren't allowed on that brake train. Knowing that was our only way out, we went all out at the guard to convince him to allow us, no stone unturned. He finally agreed  and we were off.

The brake train

This brake train travelling was one hell of an experience. Just to give you an idea, a brake coach is the last coach you see in old hindi movies, its open, has a balcony sort of thing, that! This was the first (and probably the only) time I was travelling on an open train. I have been through rail tunnels a million times but never did it feel so epic! Seeing the complete tunnel from inside, even the top, noticing the temperature change as soon as the train entered the tunnel, it felt amazing! The chilled air (mid-winter), pitch dark surroundings were making the journey even more enjoyable. We reached Igatpuri by 5.25am and rushed straight to the Bus Stand for an ST bur to Rajur. A cutting chai each and we were on a bus to Pune, that would take us to Rajur.

Insides of a tunnel

The bus took about 2 hours to reach Rajur. Picturesque views of the mighty Bhandardara dam en-route made for an incredible bus journey. After breakfast at Rajur we took a jeep to the base village, Pachnai. On the way we stopped near a river for another experience, a dump in the open, my first, felt weird but relieved :P Sad how millions of Indians have to live this way! We reached Pachnai by about 11.30am where we had our go-to man 'Prakash' waiting for us. The Rangers had met him on a previous trek to Harishchandra. He pitched tents and did related stuff on the top of Harishchandra, we were already good friends with this guy. As long as there was Prakash, in his typical village tone, "kay bhi, tension, nai!!"

We soon refilled our bottles and started our ascent. Thre route from Pachnai is the simplest one. Although there are 7 different routes to reach Harshchandra, we chose Pachnai as it was the least time consuming. We wanted maximum time at the top. We were quite relaxed while climbing, there was no rush. Taking short halts at scenic spots, we reached the top in about an hour. Prakash cought up with us with our tent and mattresses giving us valuable info about different routes and peaks around.

A weird plant and a lizard spotten en-route

We decided to first go to Kedareshwar temple which was in a cave. A shivaling in the middle of icy cold water. We took it as a challenge to complete at least 3 pradakshina of the shivaling. A chill ran down my spine the moment my foot touched the water. The water was outrageosly cold. Some 4-5 degrees it must have been. As I went further in the water I went completely numb. I couldn't even feel any of my body below the waist. They even made a video of everyone's reactions on entering the water :P I quickly took a full dupki, paid my respects to Kedareshwar and was out within 10minutes. Even though the water wasn't that deep, its temperature, the fact that I couldn't swim and the claustrophobic feel of the cave had got the better of me. Vishwesh, Sushant and Kedar however completed the pradakshina and did a small abhishek while I took it all on video. It was here that we met Bhonsale and group.

Harishchandreshwar Temple

After Kedareshwar we moved to the Harishchandreshwar temple. We decided to have lunch here itself since we were all getting hungry and it would have been too late to reach the Kada (where we were staying the night) and have lunch there. The temple is a beautifully carved masterpiece and has an iconic kalas. Entire temple, surrounding caves and that enclosure is set up on a huge water tank beneath. The kalas oof the temple even has a secret room which can fit about 5 people. It must have been used to hide idols and other precious things during the period of Shivaji. As we were seeing around, Prakash was busy collecting firewood and and setting up a chool to cook I must say maggi never tasted so good this before. Maybe it was the water, maybe the chool, its the mountain Prakash said.

Idols inside the secret room

At about 3.40pm we left the cave after resting there for about 40 minutes. We left for Konkan Kada. This was going to be THE MOMENT. My first date with the Kada. And you can imagine the excitement when you've heard from so many people that your date is an absolute beauty! As we reached near, Vishwesh asked me and Kedar to stop. He wanted on video, our first reactions to the Kada. As the camera got ready, we moved ahead slowly.

There it was, this massive, colossal creation of nature, right in front of me, most of it right below me! Extremely overwhelming! I stood speechless, expressionless, numb in awe of this supernatural creation! As I slept, crawled and leapt over the edge, the traditional position to view the kada, I skipped a beat, lost track of time and reality! You tend to get lost in the depth, beauty and ruthlessness of the grand Konkan Kada. I could, just for a moment, totally understand why someone would want to jump off this place. I never realised it had been almost an hour I had stood admiring the Kada.

Kada on the left & sunset on the right

It was only when Prakash interrupted we moved to the location we had to get our tent pitched. The location seemed perfect. Just a few metres form the Kada. Far enough to be safe, close enough to get a glimpse as and when we pleased. We had asked Prakash to teach us to pitch a tent so we could use it in the future. It wasn't that difficult and in 15-20minutes we were done with it. We now moved to explore the entire expanse of the Kada to the right, right up to the point where nalichi vaat (another ascent route) starts. It was here that we met another group, Mr. Manoj Kalekar and his folks.

Sunset from Konkan Kada

There were some exceptional views of the Kada throughout. We also spotted a few vulture colonies on the crevices on the wall of Kada. Also many beehives. By now we had reached the extreme end of the Kada. Initially we had planned to see the sunset from the place in front of our tent but now decided to stay there itself as it gave great views of both the sunset & the entire Kokan Kada. The fast changing colours seemed magical! Soon after the sunset and a few photos, we started rushing back to the tent before darkness. Enroute we met Bhonsale and group again, learnt that their campsite was quite close to ours.

Our home for the night

By the time we reached the tent it was almost dark. But the moon was bright that night which meant it wasn't going to be pitch black. We gave Prakash sugar, milk powder and coffee packets and asked him to make us all a cup of coffee. Meanwhile we started cutting vegetables for the pulav we were to make for dinner. Soon Prakash returned with coffee for all of us. Its hard to explain how everything tastes so amazing at such a place. Easily one of the best coffees' I've ever had. You need to be at such a place to enjoy coffee. I went up, sat on the Kada and sipped coffee, felt so peaceful! The silence up there was defeaning, wind soothing and the light, just perfect. Did feel like a date :P

We had Prakash light up a chool for us to cook the pulav for dinner. Unknowingly we used up all the rice we had, which was actually meant for 6 people. Problem of plenty. There was so much pulav even if all of us ate to capacity, there would've been a lot left. So we shared some with Bhosale and group before we started. We ate and kept the rest for breakfast next morning. Done with dinner we took a final stroll on the Kada and packed ourselves into the tent for the night.

Dinner prep

I woke up at about 6 next morning. I had slept well except for a few antics I pulled at night :P. Strangely the wind had got to me and I had caught cold in the morning. I am still sniffing as I write this blog. Soon prakash came to light us a shekoti since we were all shivering in the cold. He had slept in another tent nearby. By the time everyone got done with their morning rituals we heated the pulav for breakfast hand had Prakash make us coffee. We had to scrap the plan to go to Taramati peak as we were short on time. We finished breakfast, packed our sacks, bid Prakash a goodbye and started the descent by about 9am. 'Pudhcya veli phone kara dada, Sadhale Ghat ne yeu apan'  he said as we left, mentioning a new route.

We were descending to Khireshwar now, not Pachnai from were we started. The original plan was to reach Khireshwar via Tolar Khind route but on a previous trek we had found this route to be long, boring and monotonous. Hence we decided to try a new 'shorkit' route Prakash told us about. The route went through Balekilla - Junnar Darwaza - Khireshwar. Tolar Khind was bypassed and precious time could be saved. But it was a rarely trodden route and wasn't markde that well. But it saved almost an hour so worth it we thought. The chances of getting lost were more and that, in style, we did :P

Where we wrongly ended up
Should have been on the other side of the nedhe

After walking about 15-20 minutes from Harishchandra Temple we reached the spot where the route from Tolar Khind and Balekilla met. Tolar Kind to the left and Balekilla to the right. There was a limbu sarbat wala here. We asked him about the route as we sipped limbu sarbat (lemonade). He too said the route was not advisable without a guide. Yet we saw a map there and continued on the same trail. Since we had never even read about the trail, we had passed Balekilla without even realising we did. We were a bit lost, trying to find a the nedhe (needle hole in the mountain) using the map we had and we reached a dead end, a deep valley. We could see the nedhe in front of us but couldn't see a way to reach there. It was now about 12pm.

Junnar Darwaza

It was here that we met the group of Aditya, Sudarshan & others, Trekvede. They, equally lost! Since we were just 4 of us we decided to join them and descend as a big group, it always helps when there are more heads. Just the I found a right turn on the trail that we had missed earlier. Going further on the trail I reached a few steps that took us into a col. I didn't know then but that was the Junnar Darwaza! From Junnar darwaza we had to go down through the col and look for a left turn in between. The rocks in the col were loose which made walking very difficult. We had to test the sturdiness of every rock before we set a foot or a hold on it. Even after much precaution, a huge rock was set loose when Aditya set foot on it and it started rolling down towards Vishwesh and Sudarshan. Aditya frantically started screaming 'wach out' as the rock was rollong down. Fortunately they were alert and escaped, but just! It was a heart in mouth moment. This episode scared everyone hence our speed slowed down further.

Route through the Kalshya col

About an hour of descending through the col we reached a point where we could see a trail going to the left but it didn't seem that used, neither was it marked with an arrow. Thinking that this was the left we had to take we all took to the trail. Soon we realised this was not easy.There was a lot of scree and we were keep on our feet only because of the wild grass that we held with our hands. Hence we decided to stop. Only Vishwesh and Sudarshan went ahead to check if the route was correct. Just then out of nowhere we saw an old local shepherd walking behind us. On inquiring we realised we had taken the wrong turn. But by now Vishwesh and Sudarshan were so far ahead they didn't return our calls. So we had to wait for them to realise by themselves that it wasn't the correct route and then return. Here a lot of our time was wasted, more than what we were going to save.

As we waited for Vishwesh to return it was almost 3pm. We were out of water. The only refreshment we had left was the limbu sarbat we had Prakash make for us with the lemons we had got. By the time Vishwesh and Sudarshan returned Aditya and Gaurav had moved ahead and found the correct left turn. and to our rejoice it was faintly, but marked with an arrow. Soon we were on the right trail, this too had a lot of scree but was manageable.

Tractor to Khubi Phata

After two more hours of walking by about 5pm we reached the base  to see a tractor being loaded with rocks. We were a little ahead of Khireshwar, kind of bypassed it too. But the sight of the tractor after a grueling 8 hour descent sent a wave of excitement through everyone. The tractor meant we didnt have to take the agonizing walk from Khireshwar to Khubi Phata on the Khireshwar dam. Within an hour we reached Khubi Phata on the rocks in the tractor :P After a brief photo session with our new friends, the Trekvede group, we moved to freshen up and eat. Everyone was hungry since we had no food since breakfast in the morning, it was almost 5.30. Trekvede had a few packets of maggi left whcih we asked a local shop owner to cook for us.

Just then we noticed another group loading themselves into a tempo nearby. We learnt the tempo was dropping them to Ulhasnagar. So we all left the maggi and rushed to the tempo since we knew the transport scene from Khubi Phata wasn't that great. Few of them quickly bought a few VPs and bhajjis meanwhile. We were happy that we had easily found transport to some raillway station. Traveling the ghats of Malshej in an open tempo was an amazing experience. Add to that the different views of the sunset as we moved through the Malshej. By 8.15pm we reached Shahad railway station and decided to alight there itself. There we bid adieu to the Trekvede group since they were from Dombivali, promising to meet on some other adventure.

I reached home by 11pm, with more than just fresh air and sweet pain. The number of different experiences I had on this trek cannot be counted.That is what made it a fantastic trek. Undoubtedly the highlight of the trek was the Kokan Kada. This was easily the best trek I had ever been on and I am definitely going again, for Kokan Kada if nothing else!

Why I think IPL wasn't fixed

IPL has just come to an end. An apt end to the 2 month extravaganza I must say, a match worthy of the final. Still what I see around is a sense of dissatisfaction. I ask why? You had so many close matches, a nail biter every night, sheer talent, at times class on display, cheerleaders, bollywood, controversies. What more can you ask for from a tournament that is just about completing 5 years?  ‘Its all fixed’ is the reply, so quick it violates relativity.  I find it hard to understand why. It’s a sport. Its meant to be unpredictable, sometimes predictable. It will have its ups and downs its sport! May be it’s a convenient answer to why the team you support doesn't do well. Or maybe an act of jealousy from the ones who didn't get a piece of the cake. Anyway the only thing I’m sure are being fixed in India are marriages. Here is why.

          The first thing that pops into our head when we hear fixing is money. I’m sure nobody fixes matches for pride, or to save a life or something. Its all for the cash. But when you come to come to think of it, IPL players earn like crazy! They are already playing on astronomical contracts. Add to that the money they earn from sponsorship, advertising and related things that come along with the IPL or team owners. Summed up they are making enormous money. For local players, add to the cash an opportunity to showcase their talent. Would one really risk all of this for a few extra lakhs. I don’t think so. When there is so much at stake no sane person would.

           That said, do you really think one could buy out players like Sachin, Sehwag, Gambhir, Kallis, Steyn, Malinga. No way! These and more are the most respected people in cricket. They earn the respect because of their passion, dedication towards the game. You seriously cannot expect them to be sold. And they usually are the game-changers.

Also fixing a match wouldn't really be as simple as we make it sound. There would be a lot of technicalities involved in fixing a match. Its not like a movie or a novel, no takes or retakes. Lets say you somehow buy two players. What can you possibly do of the rest? Even if you have 5 still half a team is trying hard to win. It wouldn't work that way.  I mean for a batsman to get out caught and make it look like it wasn't deliberate is a huge ask.  That would require some extreme level of skill, not humanly possible.  

Also I hear people coming to this conclusion stating that almost all matches are so close. Now that’s ridiculous! Whatever the resources it would be impossible to fix a close match. If matches were fixed they would probably be dull one sided encounters with the other side throwing away the game like anything. Not thrilling low scoring games or nail biting high scoring ones. That requires talent, not cash. Only a fool would say that a match was fixed because he saw Ab De Villiers score 47 off 17, or Dwayne Smith’s 14 off the last 3 balls, or Gayle’s 128. That is sheer talent & skill at display. What I’m saying is claiming that IPL-5 was fixed because it had the maximum number of close matches is crazy. In fact that would be a reason to be sure of this IPL not being fixed.

While that was my take on fixing, I think we need to stop being such cynics. I mean yes we have had videos of spot fixing and all and that sure needs to be dealt with. But that was at a much lower tournament not IPL.  And just I said there is a lot at stake to do that in IPL. Also its sport. Shit happens. Doesn't always mean its fixed, that’s the nature of the game.

P.S. : All thoughts mine. Neither me nor this post is fixed! I’m sure you must have come to that conclusion by now!

Caption pictures

First attempt at making caption pictures. Could hardly stop myself from making a few of these :P

AwesoMahuli Rerun (Kille Mahuli Trek - Dec 2011)

Ever since I have been telling my college mates about my trekking experiences they have been saying we should go for one ourselves. We had even planned well for a trek in September 2011. But it didn't happen, people backed out last minute, other stuff went wrong, just like it always does with our group. We had just got done with our Sem 5 exams on Friday, 23rd December, 2011. Next day on a lazy Saturday afternoon I got a text from Chirag. He wanted to trek on Sunday. I agreed, inside I knew the plan would eventually get cancelled. In fact I hadn't even packed my stuff till 10pm that night. As it turned out this one worked, we trekked to Mahuli.

Trek to Mahuli, 25th December, 2011:

Mahuli Range as viewed from base village

This was the first time I was actually planning a trek and going without the Rangers. On all previous occasions I would simply be following instructions. I got up at 4.40am on the Christmas morning and left home by 5am. We were supposed to take the 6.28am local from Dadar to Asangaon. The attendees for our 1st trek together were Amey, Ashay, Chirag, Nilesh, Me, Parag & Vallabh. Amey, Ashay & Chirag were on their very 1st trek. I was to meet Chirag and Amey in the 5.47am train from Andheri to Dadar in time & that we did. But the customary screw up this time was Vallabh. He not only missed the 6.28am train but also had Chirag and Amey travel ticket-less as he was supposed to get them. To top that we realised no one had brought a camera. So we were left with Amey's phone, NO DIGICAM!

Newly built welcome sign

We reached Asangaon at 8.15am but had to wait another half an hour until 8.45am for Vallabh to turn up. That meant we missed the 8.30am ST Bus from Asangaon to Mahuli Mandir, the base village for this trek which is about 6-7km from Asangaon. After having a few VPs each for breakfast we decided to start walking towards Mahuli, since there wasn't any bus until 10am. hardly few minutes into the walk we could see the beautiful Mahuli range right in front of us, tall and mighty. We could clearly see the pinnacles resembling Navra(groom), Navri(bride) & Bhatji(minister) and also Bhandargad and Palasgad on either sides of Mahuli. Luckily half way into the walk we found a tum-tum that was ready to drop us up to Mahuli Village.

We started the ascent by 10.15am after confirming the directions and the trail from a villager. At the village we also saw a few kids practicing karate. Later I learned they were on a camp organised by close friends of my fellow Sahyadri Rangers member, Vishwesh. Unlike my last time at Mahuli which was in the monsoon, this time there were no clouds and the sun was scorching. Hardly half an hour into the trek we had a few of them gasping for breath. Amey was panting like a dog and Ashay was sleeping on the ground every 5 minutes. About an hour into the trek and Chirag started feeling nauseous. After a little rest we continued with Parag holding two bags, his and Chirag's. The stamina he has is amazing, impossible for someone like me to do it. 

On the trail with pinnacles in the background

As we continued I was enjoyinng the dead silence in the jungle and an infrequent call of a bird neardy. You can never experience such silence in the city. The sun was getting higher and Amey & Ashay had started cribbing about their Woodland's not providing enough grip. Typical! They kept asking me "aur kitna hai?" and my standard reply was "thoda hi hai 30-40mins :P". Nilesh and Vallabh were busy clicking photos of each other while Chirag and Parag were moving ahead quietly. It was now Ashay whose health deteriorated. While at the same time Amey's pant and my bag gave way giving me a double facepalm moment. He didn't have another pant so there were a few embarrassing moments while passing other groups throught the trek. I was starting to get worried because we had taken about 90 minutes and weren't even halfway up. I quickly emptied my bag, removed the heavy stuff from my bag and had Chirag hold it. I took Chirag's bag while Parag held his as well as Ashay's. 

Ghodyachi maan

En-route we met a group of helpful people who had stayed up there for the night. They were from the BMC and were seasoned trekkers so they asked us to be careful in the exposed section of the trail. As we moved on we reached the spot they call the ghodyachi maan for it resembles a horse's neck when looked upon from above.We could clearly see the pinnacles on Bhandrgad from here. Its this patch from the ghodyachi maan to the ladder that is a little exposed. That meant the first timers had started to freak out a little, especially Amey. Yet in good spirit we crossed this as well as the ladder to reach the top Mahuli. 

A little distance on the trail from the ladder we found a water tank. The water was unbelievably cold. It wasn't clean enough to drink but the feeling of splashing icy cold natural mountain water on your face after a tiring climb cannot be expressed in words. You have to experience it to feel it! Everyone had a smile on thier face. The area at the top of Mahuli is a little confusing. But we had no problem reaching the Devdi since I had been there before and knew around. Devdi is a spot that has a small shivaling a fresh water spring that fills a tank, 4 small caves and a kamaan which are ruins of the fort. 

Chirag on the exposed trail

It had taken us a marathon 3hours 45minutes, about an hour more than what it took for me last time with the Rangers. This was mainly because of the frequent halts we were taking, almost every 10minutes After brief sight seeing we literally crashed into an unoccupied cave and got our food boxes out. Trust me, I have never seen so much food on a trek Eggs, 2 packets of bread, jam, cream, patties, pulav, tomato omelette, chakli biscuits, puri, bhaaji & enough rotis for the entire village  It was one hell of a feast. Finally we celebrated our 1st trek together with a glass of, well... orange juice! Since it was getting late, about 3pm I quickly refilled everyone's bottle from the spring and rushed them to start moving quickly.

In hardly any time we reached the ladder. From my previous experience, I knew the part of the trail from the ladder to ghodyachi maan is going to be a little scary for the very first timers. Chirag did well, he sat through the ladder and used the 'keep calm, carry on' funda well ahead. Ashay though initially scared, got a grip of himself and went through the section easily. But Amey, he totally freaked out. So much that Parag literally had to hold his hand get him down for about half an hour. But later, as he started  getting a hang of it, he walked confidently enough. Got to give it to him. Ever since he said he was coming to the trek I was really concerned about him able to do it. It takes balls to overcome your fears and weaknesses and that he definitely did!

Board at the top near Devdi

The rest of us didn't have much of a problem except for the cramps I was catching constantly right from the beginning of the descent. That was mainly because I hadn't been drinking enough water during the ascent. As we were nearing the base the temperatures had dropped and chill in the forests felt magical! We reached the base by about 5.30pm. We walked ahead to to the Bus stand only to know that the next & last bus was at 7pm. So we decided to walk to Asangaon but again luckily, we found a van guy who was ready to drop us. On reaching Asangaon we had tea & biscuits and went straight for the train home.

Cave atop Mahuli

I reached home at 9.40pm. I was very happy. Unlike last time the exposed section of Mahuli hadn't scared me the slightest bit. Its amazing how drastically different the Sahyadris are in each season. It felt like a completely different place from what I had seen in the monsoons. Also the company I had this time made sure it was going to be amesomahuli. I'd certainly like to trek more with these guys in the future.

Signing off now and wishing you'll a Happy & Prosperous New Year!

P.S.: Apologies for the substandard pictures. We had no digicam on us as I have mentioned earlier.

Kohoj Trek

Ah yes. I do know I'v been coming up with some crazy titles, but hell!

To start with this was supposed to be a perfect week. 2 back to back long weekends. And great trekking plans for each of them. Monday, 15th August 2011,  Independence Day, and we were up for a trek to Kohoj, near Palghar. And the week was supposed to end with a HARISHCHANDRAGAD trek. I was totally psyched about Harishchandra. To give some more background, it is one of the best, a dream trek in Maharashtra.  To top that up, one of my college mates had been there just a few weeks back. All the pictures and stories about the place meant I had gone all crazy, just couldn't wait for Saturday. I had even decided to give some important college duties a skip (worth the risk, I thought). More on this later.

Trek to Kohoj, 15th August, 2011 :

I got up at 4, left home by 4.30 since I had an half hour to walk to Andheri station from where we were to take the 1st fast train to Virar which departed 5.04am from Dadar. It was a small group for Sahyadri Rangers this time. Just the 4 of us Maulik, Me, Vaibhav & Vishwesh, in alphabetical order. :P

View from Vaghote (Base Village)

The train was a little late and reached Virar at 6.15, we knew the connecting shuttle was also at 6.15. So we got off the train and started running with the crowd to take the shuttle, we just ran, no idea where we were heading. We did get the 6.15 shuttle and reached Palghar in about 40 minutes. From there an ST Bus to Mastan Naka (Near Manor) and a 6-seater tum tum(packed with a dozen of people) from there to Vaghote. We had Bhaji-Pav enroute at Mastan naka(big mistake, avoid). Vaghote is the base village, on the Manor-Wada road, hardly noticeable except for a few heavy construction vehicles parked in the village. Kohoj would be to your right throught the ride from Manor to Vaghote. Although what was visible right in front us wasn't Kohoj. Kohoj was behind this hill which we had to go around.

Shelta Lake & the small dam

After some directions from locals we started moving at about 9.30am. Within 5 minutes we realized the trail was full of marshy soil and with every step our feet were going deeper into the soil. The trail initially passes through paddy fields. We then passed a small pond on our right. A little later we had to take a sharp right turn that would took us into thick bushes. There are ample arrows thought the route. There is a small hut on the opposite side of this turn which can be used as a landmark. After walking a while, still on plain land we reached a big heart shaped lake, called Shelta Lake by the locals. It is used for irrigation as well as fish culture we learnt from them.

A colourful spider

Once we passed the lake,there was a small dam we had to cross. The actual ascent begun here. We had to first go around this hill and the trail went on Kohoj. What looked like a simple straightforward climb up a small fort was turning out to be quite tasking. It was about now that the Bhaji Pav started taking its toll on Vishwesh. He was struggling with severe acidity, as we weren't even half way up. He still decided to go on with it. The route now was geting quite steep. Constant sound of waterfalls, birds, butterflies all around were soothing. Crabs were here a plenty, all kinds of them, brown, black, white. There are many waterfalls enroute where we refilled our bottles. The forest is considerably dense throught until the top is reached. 

By about 12 we reached a large plateau on the top. It has a small temple(1/3), few tanks with not so potable water and a small lake as well. The wind here felt amazing. The grass felt like a velvet bed sheet spread all over. Slight drizzle, gusty winds & dense clouds meant perfect weather. Was not helping photography though, nothing could be seen beyond the clouds. The only spoiler here was the marshy soil again. From this plateau it is a steep & slightly exposed yet simple climb up to the infamous pinnacle that looks like a king seated on a throne or as Vaibhav pointed out, a scare crow! Once the fort entrance is passed we reached another set of cave like tanks filled with water, again not potable. A little distance from this these tanks is another small temple(2/3), this time of Lord Hanuman.

Temples atop Kohoj

By about 12.35pm we reached the absolute top, a small ridge between the man-like pinnacle on the right and another one on the left. Took us close to 3hrs to reach here from base. The wind here was so gusty, at a point we had to kneel down so that we don't get thrown off the hill. Since it had stopped raining we sat down there to eat first, explore later. As I started to take my first bite of the sheera I had got that day, I realized most of it had got blown right off my spoon by the wind. Amazing! Totally worth all the pains taken to reach there I thought at that moment. Breathtaking views of the plains on one side and an opaque white screen of clouds on the other. Breathtaking! This is what we trek for. 

As we explored, towards the right behind the man-like pinnacle there is a way to reach the third and final temple on the fort. It was a Ganpati Temple there. By then the other side had cleared up and we could see the heart shaped lake as well as the Manor-Wada road from the top. We could also see the back side of the hill/rock visible from Vaghote.

Man-like pinnacle from 2 different angles

By 1.30pm we started the descent. It was now that the slippery loose rocks, lack of grips to hold and slippery mud  was making it difficult. Unlike other treks, a speedy descent was impossible here. It was turning out to be a little frustrating. By about 3.50pm we reached the heart shaped lake where we decided to rest in a small shade. By now Me and Maulik had registered a fall each, he got a little bruised & I was doing just fine with a few soiled clothes. A few villagers we met there gave valuable info about Kohoj. We gave them banana chips. :P

Tanks at Kohoj

As we continued we got lost in the fields which wasted some time but eventually we found our way. This walk  on plain marshy soil is the single most irritating part of the trek. We then took an ST from Vaghote to Manor, and another from Manor to Palghar, standing all the way. Reaching Palghar at about 7pm we had sandwiches while waiting for the 7.25pm shuttle. Again no seats, 40 more minutes of pain. 

We at the top :)

Moments of the day were the wind at the top and a crazy baby crying in the tum tum(that got us ROFLing). With fresh air in my breath and sweet pain in my feet, I was back home by 9.40pm. This trek was different, it was frustrating, yet so fulfilling. This is the thing about Sahyadris. They never run out of variety. Every experience is different.So until next time, Ciao! :)

AwesoMahuli (Kille Mahuli trek)

If trekking gives you pleasure, a monsoon trek would give you orgasms. That's exactly how awesome this trek was. To start with, the plan was to go to Tandulwadi, Saphale which changed last minute to Mahuli.  The attendees with Sahyadri Rangers this time were Akshay, Anoop,Mangesh, Me, Maulik, Shailesh, Vaibhav and Vishwesh.

Mahuli Range

The trek started on the morning of Tuesday, 28th June, 2011. We took the 6.29am local at Dadar to Asangaon from where the base village Mahuli was 6-8km. We could leave Asangaon station only at 8.45 inspite of reachin at 8.20 since a few members had missed the local train and had taken the next one. This meant we missed the 8.30 ST Bus from Asangaon to Mahuli and had to wait till 10 for the next one.

Truck Ride

Cursing Mangesh for turning up late, a little disappointed we had a few VPs each (Get used to me calling Vada Pav's that by now) for breakfast waiting for a bus. Just about then we saw a truck approaching and out of sheer mischief we all tried to stop the truck, waving at him and ask for a lift, half expecting them to even agree. Turns out he was more than willing to give us a lift and that gave a perfect adventurous start to the trek, a never before experience, travelling in a truck. the truck ride gave breathtaking views of the cloud-clad Mahuli Range, the highlight of which were the pinnacles resembling a navri(bride), navra(groom) and a bhadji(minister). This was enough to pump everyone up and get them all excited and in a jolly mood for the trek. The sunshine and rain were taking turns to make the weather even more blissful. We reached the base village of Mahuli by about 10.15am and started the trek by 10.30 after referring a map at temple in the village. The route up to the fort starts from there.There is 10-15 minutes of paved road until you reach a small river which you are to cross from where the actual ascent begins.

It was here that we realised the amount of garbage, plastic, beer bottles, broken glass left all over the place by so called nature lovers was mind boggling. It is disgraceful that people who come here to experience nature at its best litter the place in such a manner and threaten wildlife as well as flora in doing that. It is my humble request that whenever you visit any nature sensitive place, take utmost care to not damage the ecosystems there. As far as possible avoid carrying plastic. And take back all the garbage to dispose it off at the village. And if you see anyone littering please go and talk to them and dissuade them from doing so. Unless we do this, all the natural treasure we have is set to be destroyed. 

A Beautiful Rock Structure

The climb was quite steep but relatively easy. The only challenge here are the mosquitoes and flies. They are everywhere in plenty and wreck havoc . You just cannot stop moving here or else you get stung. Full pants and full sleeves is absolutely necessery for this trek. There are only 2-3 spots that need a little care. It took us about 2 hours to reach a spot called Ghodyachi maan (Horse's neck). From here the wind picks up and flies  are lesser. From this spot for a little distance the trail is narrow with a fall into a valley on both sides. After moving ahead and looking back at the Horse's neck, you realise it actually looks like a Horse's neck from up above. From here the trail goes up steeply and reaches tiny plateau that offers a fantastic view of the village below, the river and surroundings. A little above this plateau is the only ladder on the Mahuli Fort. The ladder appears to be hanging dangerously on just one bolt but is indeed steady enough. That ladder would take you to the top of the Range where surprisingly the fort isn't located.

The wind by now felt awesome. Cold and speedy..! There was small water tank there. It was here that we met a group of dickheads who were from the same college (juniors) as most of the Sahyadri Rangers' members and the Rangers seemed to hate them with a vengeance. From the top it is a descent of about 50feet on extremely slippery mud that would lead you to the fort. We reached here by about 2.15pm. Took us about 3 hrs for the ascent from the base. You first see a Shivling (Temple of Lord Shiva). A level below the temple is the fort entrance. It has a 2-3 caves and another water tank here. Can house about 10 people in the dry season. Again this was littered relentlessly by brainless people.

Shivling, Ancient Carvings, Entrance and caves in the background at the Mahuli Fort

Throughout the ascent we saw flora and fauna in its full glory in the monsoons. We got some amazing pictures of butterfly larvae that are spotted in the breeding season of butterflies. There were also many different species of snails around. The one constant thing throughout the trek was a beautiful call of a bird we were neither able to spot, nor identify. There were also a lot of sunbirds around. Vishwesh had collected a few seeds back home to plant in the forest, but forgot to get them. :P So we went ahead collecting a few seeds from the base and planted them in the forests above. Do our bit against Global warming.

Top Of Mahuli

The descent was double as exciting as the ascent. So much so, we didn't even feel the mosquitoes that had tortured us on the way up. A few people had already started challenging each other for a race to descent first.  While the rest started running like crazy, Akash, Me, Shailesh & Vishwesh were at the back end when we we walked into a dense cloud on the top after climbing up from the fort. It was heavenly to say the least. We continued. While I was shit scared at a few rock patches that had deadly views of the valleys, the runners seemed to have no problem at all. Maybe due to my relative inexperience I took about 2hrs to descent while the ones that had started running like there's no end smash-thrashed our old record and completed the descent in an eye popping 55minutes. :O

Dense clouds at the top

The 2 hours on the way down also included some time of cleaning up near the river. There was so much plastic, glass bottles that we decided to clean it up as much as we could. We ended up filling the only 2 bag that we had with garbage and took it down to the village to dispose. Still the place looked hardly cleaner but we had to move on since it was getting late to take the last 7pm bus to asangaon. By 6 we reached the base village and dived straight into the small dam there on a river to cleanse and relax. Just then it started raining heavily and it all felt perfect.

Funniest part of the day was when our umbrellas were blown away into the river and all chased like crazy to get them back. ;)

By 10.30pm I was back home, again with sweet pain in my feet and fresh monsoon air in my breath. All in all a perfect trek, and a wonderful experience. Way to Go Sahyadri Rangers.

My First Trek - Siddhagad

,I have always liked walking. Long walks within the city, just exploring. But trekking as I found out was a completely different experience. Its more about working together and making it to the top. It was something I wanted to try since a while now. So as soon as my cousin Vish asked whether I would like to join his troupe "The Sahyadri Rangers" for a  trek to Siddhagad in the Malshej Region of the Sahyadris I took no time to reply in the affirmative.

Siddhagad panorama.

The trek was scheduled on 20th March, 2011. The day the country celebrated Holi, of which I was not very fond of, blame the colours. We had to catch the first train to Kalyan from Dadar. This we failed to do as we missed the train that could get us to Dadar on time from Vile Parle, where me and Vish stayed that night at a fellow trekker Sus's place. So we caught up with 7 other guys, Mand, Maul, Ram, Vai, Ami, Mang, Tush at various stations while on the 2nd train. Sorry if I forgot any names here. :P

Midland Walkie Talkie

By about 7.30 we were at Murbad, waiting for the ST Bus to Narivali, the base village to Siddhagad. The ST bus ride from Kalyan to Murbad felt amazing with the cold breeze blowing across our faces, and a picturesque sunrise pleasing our eyes once in a while from behind the hills. And with a Schumacheresque driver we had nothing more to ask for. By 8.45 we reached the base village Narivali and found our way through the village. Now could easily spot the W formation of Siddhagad. To the left were Gorakhgad and Machindragad. Somebody had brought a walkie talkie which I suppose the Rangers were using for the first time. No one then knew that would turn out to be a life saver later.

About half an hour into the trek. We had separated into 2 groups. One of them were moving slowly taking pictures and exploring. We had been moving faster, led by a half-drunk Mand who seemed confident about the route we had taken. That was a concern since we had reached many junctions where two roads met. Hardly 40 minutes into the trek we reached a dried up river, and yes, we were lost. What more, we connected with the other group behind only to realize they had taken a different route. That meant trouble since all experienced guys were on the other group and most of us were first timers. I vowed never to trust a drunk man in my life again. All confused we just sat shouting "Ayo ayo ayo" for the other group to track us down.

It took another hour of going upstream on the river to meet the other group. The river had got narrower and the forest denser. Enough to be sure we were all lost now. Since there was no other option we kept moving, wading through bushes, grass, thorns, hoping to find a Payvat (trail) somewhere. This was the toughest part of the trek, it was very difficult making way through the dry soil, loose rocks and dense vegetation and I just couldn't stop slipping and falling every two minutes. After another hour or so we saw hut at a distance. Rejoice..!!

The hut enroute

An old shepherd there showed us the way that led to the top of Siddhagad. In all new spirit we started moving confident of making it to the top soon. Albeit, that wasn't the end of adventure for us. There were two trails meeting all over the place. There were so many wrong trails to take, the right one seemed invisible. After hours of ending up on dead ends, trying 'the other route' and 'lets try this ones' all but Vish and Maul sat disappointed. We all head back to the hut and tried to take an altogether different trail. In a few minutes of walking I realized it was only me and Vish. The others had taken some other trail, yet again..!!

Cave with fresh water

Alas, this time I was on the correct trail. That meant the rest of the guys had to track us through the walkie and "ayo ayo's" , making way through another patch of thick vegetation, thorny bushes and loose rocks. Half way through this trail, half of us were too tired and decided to return and rest at the hut. While six of us continued. Suddenly we had gained a lot of height in not much time. At a point we reached a small disguised cave that had a freshwater spring. Refreshing ourselves and filling our bottles we continued.

Ami, with 2 other guys rested there for a while, while me Vish and Mang continued on the same trail. Eventually to reach a the Pravesh Dwara (Main entrance) to the Siddhagad fort. After a brief rest & photo time we moved on, now to reach an Orange walled Temple. The Temple had a Verandah where few members of another group were resting. We asked the about the way up the fort only to realize that we were far from the top. It would take at least 2 more hours to reach the top. And that the terrain was tough with scree and steep slopes. It was already past 2.30pm and we had to return the same day, so that was it. We met the end of our trek halfway. A semi-successful trek. We were happy to eventually find the way to the top but disappointed that we couldn't make it all the way.

After a brief period of rest, snacks and snaps we started the descent, Rested at the hut for some time and made our way back to Narivali. En route we discovered Siddhagadwadi, the village we were supposed to go through while ascending, which we never found. And we also found the spot where we took one wrong turn, near a bridge on the river. By 10.30pm I was back home, with sweet pain in my feet and a fresh air in my breath.

Everyone staring at a Chameleon.

Moment of the day was when Vish leaped like a frog, trying to catch a Chameleon and epically failed. :P

Although not successful, the trek was a great experience for me. And I'd like to see more of Sahyadris in the future. गिर्यारोहण रोक्क्स..!! :-)