So there I was at the gates today...wow they had changed a lot. Now they have a tiger and lion safari, some wild life museum, and yes above all the Kanheri Caves trek.
Urbanization has hit Mumbai hard; it wouldn't have spared the National park either. On you way into the park as you just cross the main entrance, you can see the neighbouring construction encroaching the National Park. I surely now understand why the poor felines enter into these societies....
Anyways, as you walk from the main gate towards the pickup point of the Lion/Tiger safari, you pass a beautiful stream. God knows the name of this stream, but it is one of the best companions for you since it stays right up to the top of the Kanheri caves; rather starts from there.
As you move further into the National park you come across a dam. Inquisitiveness drew me right to the middle of the dam. With nothing much interesting to be found there, I turned around to find this gentleman staring right into my camera and me. I had a mental block then and I guess he understood that, since he left me to recover from the sudden surge of adrenaline which at other times would have forced me to flee. Anyways...
Trying to refocus, I immediately shifted my attention to the tiny little frog croaking away happily on a nearby rock. I followed it, but just after the first pose, it showed utter lack of interest in me or my photography and hopped away into wilderness.
Helpless, I then thought of sharpening my photography skills even more and so I shifted my attention to some water-droplets neatly arranged on this leaf. I took a couple of photographs and satisfied, I moved on.
Finally, I reached the pick-up point, after a long walk, for the tiger and lion safari. In India, having too many people most of the times has negative effects. This was proved to me very accurately. I had to wait for more than an hour so that the bus would be filled up to its threshold of 15 passengers.
With nothing else to do, I shifted my focus to other things in life; to be specific, I caught a couple making out in one corner of the park, through my telephoto. But then, a bit of social sense made me put only the lichens photograph up here on this blog.....anyways......
As the crowd gathered in the bus, this young couple - no I should say family, sat right in the front of me. The little kid kept eying my lens curiously; as I was drawn towards the thought that I would be in the same position in a couple of years and another guy like me would be clicking me from somewhere. Good the bus started just then to get me back to the real world.
So as we moved further, my excitement about the tiger safari was short-lived. All the tigers were behind fences and they didn't even bother to roar at us. Seemed like they considered us a caged animals....
The Lion safari was quite awesome. Unlike the tiger counterpart, the lions and lionesses were left out in the open here. Her Majesty showed herself, and let out her partner call. That was enough to let out shrieks in the bus; initially, which later died down completely with another roar. The otherwise bustling bus had now become a silent machine as in a war zone, behind the enemy lines.
I was at the last seat when Her Majesty walked right up to the bus. Seemed like she had smelled me and the pounds of fat hanging around my waistline. Finally she decided to give upon me and walked into the jungle.
The safari ended and I managed to gather some good photographs. I walked back to the main gate to catch the bus for the Kanheri Caves. Little did I know that I needed to wait another hour there for the bus. So I decided to walk right up to the Kanheri caves. This turned out to be an even bigger mistake. The walk was around 8kms. Anyways...
I reached the base of Kanheri and the most interesting site was this.
This dude reminded me of a very popular photograph of a squirrel often tagged as "Got Balls"
A little up the slope and I found this fellow. I tried giving him a piece of guava that I was having, but he posed. I moved back wondering if he didn't like the guava or was simply camera shy....
Climbing up the hill, you come across Kanheri Caves. This is a Buddhist cave dating back to 10th century BC. Most of these caves were meant for studying, living and meditation. Interesting to note were that the lower rooms were for lower cadre students while the teachers stayed in the rooms much higher up in the mountain. This is the central prayer hall.
Nearly 51 legible inscriptions and 26 epigraphs are found at Kanheri, which include the inscriptions in Brahmi, Devanagari and 3 Pahlavi and several other epigraphs.
Several such carving adorn the walls of the caves. I kept wondering how these craftsmen climbed so high with all the tools to carve these.
The main prayer hall had these huge pillars, each with special inscriptions. There was a huge Stupa at the center of the room.
There was a group of people who prayed around these Stupas. These Stupas had special cut-outs meant for keeping the lamps.
I loved the whole feel of the place. Seemed like I was teleported to the 10th century itself.
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On the way back, I again committed the same mistake of walking back. However, this time the walk was better; it was down the slope. I often wondered the life of the Buddhist monks; I mean walking up and down the mountain all the time...... anyways..... The view from the top was beautiful....breath taking.....
The way back was very long.....I mean after about 4 hrs of trek up and down a mountain, you wouldn't really want to walk back 8kms. I even thought of sitting down in the middle of the road and plead for lift from the occasional car that passed by. But the slight roars that I heard, kept me on my toes and I kept praying that none of them would want to pay me a visit.
I had a lot of stuff to eat walking back - from malasa cucumbers to sweet guavas and loads of juices. I never expected my way back would be such a fun. My only regret is that I couldn't take a dip in that stream.
Anyways, this is a must place within the limits of Mumbai for a trekker or a photographer. I clicked several other photographs throughout the trip. You can have a look at the rest here http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=80210&id=1311662017
Just like any other trek, there are some ground-rules that need to be followed. Mainly dealing with safety. Food items should not be littered anywhere and avoid carrying strong smells. Whatever said and done, please remember that this is a forest; respect it.
Bye for now....
Aastalavista,
Abhishek
