He he... was just trying to be a bit insightful. Anyways, my last team of Aurangabad had almost done nothing for several weekends together. So we finally decided that we go on a trek this weekend, though we knew that one of us had to go for an official trip abroad. So this time we asked some more of the folks. My last trip's photographs had created quite a stir among the otherwise boring folk, who just believed to come and go to office on weekdays and sleep on weekends.
So this time, we pooled in more people; 6 of us - 4 guys and two girls. How I roped in the girls this time, its for them to write and already one of them has written about it; http://aditionly.blogspot.com/2010/12/lights-silence-camerassss-action.html
So there we were at Thane station at 5 in the morning, shivering with my old team-mate searching for something to eat and drink. Anyways we boarded the train from Thane and the girls had already boarded from Dadar much earlier. Finally we got down after about an hour and half at Karjat. It was a sleepy place with sleepy people and only people awake at 7 in the morning were the auto-rickshaw fellows and this guy wading through the cold river.
Base camp for Rajmachi was Kondive village located about 14 kms from Karjat. A simple breakfast of poha and tea was all that was necessary to get us back on track for the next 4-5 hrs journey.
The village was a perfect location for the photographers and we could have spent the whole day there itself... but then we had to reach Rajmachi.
Well about Rajmachi - 3000 ft above MSL, medium difficulty climb and book says 3hrs climb-time (bullshit). But if are packed up well for 2 days or so, you will be taking much longer and if you are a first timer then even much more.
So, we begin marching for towards our target and the only guides to the place were some arrows marked by some perhaps very good people and some locals who knew nothing but Marathi.
After some posing and some photography we kept marching ahead towards our pit-stop of Kondana caves.
Kondana caves had the beauty of their own. Dating back to 6th century, I always kept wondering (one)why the hell these Buddhist guys build the caves and monasteries this high, and (second) how did they keep climbing every time they wanted to pray...
Anyways, we kept climbing further, lefts and rights going up, guided further by the arrows. I took a wrong path ones and got entangled in a spider web... for the first time I felt how the poor fly must have felt...
With every passing hour the climb became steeper and much more difficult... at some point it seemed like we were lost, just when a local arrived and we tried following him. He just disappeared at the next turn...seemed more of a ghost to me...
At a flat piece of land I gave a signal to all to sit down for some snacks; whatever was left the ants feasted on them...
Tired as we were, we three photographers kept nudging ahead... partly because of the distinct flora and fauna around us; majorly because of the spirits that these two girls had...hats off to you both...
After a grueling 5hrs of climb with our unnecessarily heavy bags, shouts from one my fellow trekkers gave us a sigh of relief...the village was in sight!!!
The village was small, 15huts maybe... simple people, no electricity and very simple food, which we devoured down in matter of minutes...
Our place for the night was a simple "pukka" home.... the sun was about to set and we had little time left to capture the surrounds in the golden light of the sun
Night started to fall and our caretaker brought in the evening snacks of tea and onion bhajiya and also fire-wood for a bonfire...
The cold night and the tired bodies slowly dragged our conversations towards weird topics ranging from the IT industry to ghosts and spirits...the spirits in Rajmachi were interested too... notice that white dot in the black region above the girl in the centre....
The next day was superb.... I had planned it the last night itself and I wanted to climb the smaller of the two forts Manoranjan. I even started on foot at 5.30 in the morning towards; pitch black and I got totally lost in the jungle and so I gave up....
By the time everyone got up (9 am) i was thoroughly bored. But then it was sometimes gr8 to be alone, and in the lap of nature...
So finally we set out after a simple breakfast towards the higher of the two forts Srivardhan...
Difficult as it seemed, but it took just about 30 mins to reach the top...
The pit stop in between was modern day temple decorated with ancient architecture to add to the beauty
The view from the top was gr8... we could count almost all the houses in our village...
The way downward was as awesome as going up... it seemed like we were moving in through dense foliage...
After reaching down we sat down for a simple lunch and started on our way back. This time we took the longer route to Lonavala, about 20kms from our minuscule village... we had read that sumos and other strong off road vehicles could make it through that path..... we preferred it on foot....
One of my fellow campers had already developed cramps; rather had got a pulled hamstring... she had already quit the Srivardhan trail before.... but she happily agreed to this walk.... hats off to her
13kms down and totally devoid of any energy that was left in us... we were resting near a bridge and still deciding the right way to go.... when I suddenly heard an unusual sound... no it wasn't a sumo or for that matter any other car... it was a TRUCK!!!!
One shout and we were abode the truck... it dropped us at Lonavala... this was really an icing on the gr8 trekking cake that we had all this while... for the last 2 days....
At this point I would like to invite more people before I take a break from the treks for sometime with my good old fellow campers.... I have a visit to Sindhudurg left for the new years weekend....and i guess one or two more to some other places that we had planned including Gir sanctuary.... anyone interested may want to call up and join in.... I am sure you would enjoy....leaving for now....
Aastalavista....
Abhi
Well writtem dude..short yet descriptive...kudos to you..
ReplyDeleteI would like to take this opportunity to thank you for all the support and companionship that you have shown along with the other members of the group. It has been a gr8 xperience xploring the mother nature with fellows like you...will always cherish these moments life long..