Saturday, October 24, 2015

Wandering Off Far But Near To The End

I had decided to go to Surgad on whichever holiday came the next. दसरा आला. सुट्टी आली. Sushant agreed to join me.
We started a bit late than was decided. Not because we didn't wake up early but because we are scared of dogs. Yes we are, and I am ashamed of it!
We started at about 5.30 AM. It was dark, roads were empty. I was able to maintain 70kmph speed till I hit Pen highway.
But then the roads were not much in our favor. We made it to the base village, Vaijnath by 8.30. It's a modest village with sweet people
On reaching the village we asked a kid, " bike इथे park केली तर चालेल का?". Some women over heard us, actually misheard us. One of them said, "वरती गाडी न्हाई जात, चालत जावा". Sushant and I gave each other *looks*.
A kid told us to check in at police patil's house, his wife made sweet “गवति चहा” for us. It was good. We felt refreshed
I turned my GPS location tracker on, and started the trek
Besides the police patil's house there was a water tank, where women were filling water. The woman who had taunted us must have told the other women of our misinterpreted ignorance, because all of them were giggling as we went past them.
We just walked on the road in the village thinking that it would lead us to the trail, when we heard more giggling from behind. We looked back. The women were laughing loudly by now."अगदी पोटावर हात ठेऊन हसत होत्या!" They told us to take a left for the fort. We waved thank you. We went ahead through the fields of tall grass. To the right there is a small stream. and a huge well, from where the trail starts.
We were treading slowly, chatting our way up. The trail was well marked with arrows on stones. There were metal plates on trees as well where there are multiple paths.
We reached a plateau. From here we got a nice view of villages and plains below. Everything was light green. Like Sun was slowly converting color of the jungle with yellow, not at once but slowly, like you add chocolate in cake batter and whip it till it is dark brown.
We started again, reached a rock patch. There must have been steps here, which were destroyed by now.
We climbed in between two mountain walls, keeping large wall of Surgad to the left. The view from here was tremendous. It was like sitting on huge swing tied to the sky, from that V shaped cliff we could see nothing but beautiful wilderness.

The destroyed steps became prominent as we reached to the top. There was a moustached Maruti idol here.
We took some rest here, had our lunch.
We started off again after having lunch, We were almost at the top. Keeping Surgad to left there is a trail ahead, which curves to left where there are stone steps carved in stones, which will take you up. This is the edge of the mountain, The landscape below was painted with lakes and streams and villages.

We went up and saw tall dried light brown grass everywhere.
Here there is a very narrow trail covered with trodden long grass. After much hesitation we followed it ahead. There is a huge water pond ahead. The water in this pond seemed potable but was not easily accessible.


Further ahead there was a stone chair, which looked like a throne. This chair caught my eye because of a boat like structure behind it.
Further ahead were a group of water cisterns in the ground.
Water in these cisterns didn't seem potable.

We went till the north of the fort as long as there was a trail. The trail ended with a long stone wall. I climbed the wall and checked out the surrounding. There wasn't a way to go further without making way through the tall grass. We voted against it. I was firm on sticking to the trail. "खाली Stunt मत मार", was what my guru had instructed.
We decided to head back now.
We reached the moustached maruti statue and rested there for a while. Had some snacks.
It was about 11.30AM when we started the descent.
Sun was not much bright, the climate was pleasant. One good thing about this trek is the forest cover. It cools you down by letting only few streaks of sunlight on you.
We reached the open plateau and continued on the trail.

We were walking on the flat land when I realized that this wasn't the way we came up. I asked Sushant if he recollects it. He told me to check the GPS. I told him lets not as we would get used to it and won't be able to do without it in the future. I thought it was safe as we were on a proper trail and as we were descending we would definately get to the village.
The descend got steeper and I felt that we were on right track now. Thing was that we were not. Realizing that we should have reached the village by now I decided to finally check the GPS. We had totally missed a right diversion on the plateau and kept heading on some trail. We were pretty off track. but we were close to the start of the trek point. It seemed like a little hike towards the right and we would reach the base. So we took a waterfall route downwards.

The descend was not much steep but it kept getting narrower. There were thorny trees on the route. As we descended the thorny trees and branches started getting on our way.
We reached a trail  which was not much in use, but it was definitely a trail. I followed it, till we reached a dead end. Dead end as in the bushes and vegetation now got thicker around us and it was difficult to go ahead. I was scratched and pricked with thorns already. We could see a cactus plant compound right before us and just a 5 minute hike along it would have ended our trek. We went through the forest to find an entrance to the cactus compound. We had to stoop to avoid branches and thorns. There were thick spider webs in the way. We saw a huge spider in a web and decided not to follow this wilderness as we didn't know what was lurking under those leaves or behind those branches. Lack of knowledge and experience took its toll on me. I became a bit frustrated. Anxiety took over my sane mind and I started taking things under my control. After discussing with Sushant and checking if there was a trail we decided to head back the way we came till we reach the correct diversion. That it would just be safe rather than risking and wandering in wilderness.
We headed back. I was a bit disappointed in myself. It was taking a toll on me. Not because we were lost, but because I was careless while descending.
I gave my phone with GPS tracker app to Sushant and told him to lead, I knew that I wasn't in mental state to take any decision. He agreed.
Again ascent. I was feeling tired now. Its funny how your mind can make you feel extremely tired, or extremely energetic sometimes. My mind was making me feel tired, although I wasn't.
We met two villagers- a woman and a man who were carrying logs of wood on their heads. They were walking towards us. We asked them how to reach the village. They told us that we were on right track and the village was just further there. We asked if they were going to the same village. They said no. We decided not to head back but stick on the track.
We reached the diversion we had missed. After a while we even reached the well and the water stream to the base of the trek.
I washed myself of thorns and leaves and what not!. I checked the GPS and found out that the place we got stranded was just a little bit away from here. We went to check through the stream if it was accessible. We found out that it was just a few meters away across the plain of a field. We could have found a way as it was compounded by the villagers.
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Were we lost? -  No
Was there a way ? -  May be
Could we have found it? -  May be, if we had look around properly.
Did we do the right thing? Heading back? Yes definitely. Because chances of error here were negligible, while chances of "safely" finding our way through the unknown were not negligible. We do not have much experience.
Maybe next time if I find myself in a similar situation I might do something different. Of Course first of all I will always try not to wander off.


What I learnt from this trek is
Keep a mental note of diversions and trails
No matter what staying calm is must.
Panicking is of no use in situations like these.
Getting lost and wandering off are two different things.
It is OK to wander off. It is NOT OK to panic.


We headed back towards the village. I Kept looking back at the mountain.

As we reached the village, we walked quietly towards my bike. Village seemed to be taking a afternoon nap. Women who made a laughing stock out of us were probably deep asleep after completing their daily tiring chores.