The Open Door

Bhoranda dwaar
Dwaar means door.
This is an ancient trade route from Konkan to Desh. adjacent to Nane Ghat. Guru mentioned it to me the last time he met. He had told me to ascend via Bhorandyache daar, stay in Nane Ghat caves and descend via Nane Ghat. So after my knee pain had significantly subsided I decided to take the route. Winter season that too December end,    मस्त trekतो होना ही चाहिये, यही सोचकर हमने अपने साथियों से पुछा। कुछ ने कहा के इस weekend नहीं। कुछ गाव गाये थे तो कुछ का बदन दर्द हो रहा था। इतने में हमारे पुराने मित्र शार्दुल मालवंकर की याद आयी। कहे थे के exams के बाद वो trek करने आ जायेंगे। and there he was on Kalyan Station 1 hour late due to the courtesy of local train लफडा। कोई बात नाही

We took Kalyan -  Ahmednagar bus at about 7.30AM. Conductor didn’t knew where the village Bhorande was, but he agreed to stop the bus where we wanted to get off. The bus swept through the Kalyan Malshej ghat road like a hot wheel toy car. This road is so beautiful that I recalled all my bike rides through here. This was the 5th time I was coming through this road for a trek. Beautifully paved. Well banked at turns, this road makes you wanna keep riding. We alighted at Bhorande village which is about 7 kms from Nane Ghat starting point on Kalyan Ahmednagar Highway and about 11 kms from Tokawade village, where there is a official bus stop. You if you reach Tokawade you can get shared jeeps to and fro from here.

I had read that the trail to Bhorande Cha Daar starts about 200 meters from this Bhorande village junction. So we started walking towards Malshej Ghat in search for the start point. except we were walking in the wrong direction. After walking about a kilometer ahead we realized that there is no trail and we need directions. We decided to go back to Bhorande village and ask someone. We did so. The villager said that the trails starts a couple hundred meters towards the Kalyan side of Bhorande village, and not towards Malshej Ghat. So off we go. We had clocked 4 kms till now. It wasn’t a waste as now we got to see the mesmerizing view of the Sahyadri mountain range from Bhorande village. The only recognized by me was the Bhairavgad and the Nanacha angtha.

So, the Bhorandyache Daar route starts on the highway a few hundred meters towards Kalyan from Bhorande village. It is marked by a tree shaped maharashtra shashan sign post with “भोरांडा द्वार वॉटरफल”. The route started with a concrete trail which ended in about a hundred meters giving way to off beaten dirt and stone trail. A few villagers were chopping and collecting wood here. On telling them that we are going to Ghatghar in desh from here, the villager told us that he is ignorant of  any way from here, the way is through Nane Ghat. I told him that there is a way from here too and that the route is called Bhorandyache daar. He was from Tokawade village so he prefered the Nane ghat route to Ghatghar village.

The trail was not marked, and seemed barely used. so we used to take the most prominent trail where there were diversions. The climate was at its best, the cool breeze was whooshing the ears, दह्याच्या हंड्याला हाथ लावल्या सारखी सगळी झाडं आणि दगडी यांच्या मुळे  गरमी जाणवली नाही. We reached a wide dried stream way and rested for a bit in the cool shade of the mountain. Sun light had not touched us from the start of the trail as the trail was pointing South East.

We started again and soon heard a distant voice from up, someone was coming down the valley. They were two villagers, they expressed their surprise on seeing our group size of two people and as always they asked us why we do this, may be now I have many answers for that question why, but I don’t want to answer. They told us that we have reached the main steep ascend and that we will reach the top in 30 mins. कसलं काय आम्ही आपल चढतोय  30 - 45 मिनिटं पण टॉप काही गवसला नाही. We did lose trail a couple of times but we soon were able to find the right one.

By now we were out of the forest cover and were climbing stones between two stone cliffs closing down on us with every step. Like a double doored opening. The mountain range has really cut itself like a cake slice to pave way and habitat for living organisms. View of Konkan from here was breathtaking. It took away all the tiredness and filled us with excitement and hope. We reached up. I looked back and thanked the sahyadris for opening a Door way, a द्वार to its heart for us the organisms, the foot holders of food chain.

We reached the top. We had our lunch under shade of a tree and started walking towards a water body which we could see before us. A short hike further took us to the paved vehicle road which comes from junnar to Nane Ghat. Road to a beautiful location means vehicles to a beautiful location means people to a beautiful location means plastic to a beautiful location. This wasn’t my first hike to Nane Ghat but last time I was here it was scorching october sun burning everything, it kept the vehicles with their people with their plastic away. This time it was 26th December, हमारे बचों का christmas vacation, people’s reason to get out in their vehicles with their plastic. The problem is not them bringing the pastic, the problem is leaving it there. As I had predicted I saw lots of cars parked where the road came to an end. As we went towards the caves the silence was slowly being engulfed by giggling and पोरांचा चिवचिवाट आणि त्या पोरांच्या चिवंचिवाटात, “ए तिकडे नको जाउ”, “त्याला हाथ नाको लाउस”,”बेटा go carefully OK?”, “don't put your hands in that water बेटा “, म्हणत त्याच पाण्या च्या टाक्यात दगडी टाकत होते.

असो, I will try not to talk about buffons this time, let them do their buffongiri. So The Nane Ghat Caves. Carved more than Two  Thousand years ago these caves and potable water tanks look like black crayon sketched over dark grey paper. We went into the largest cave of all. The cave where the history to the सातवाहन काळ  is inscribed on the walls, the caves which gave rest to many traders  and villagers and trekkers/hikers like us even till date.

I spread my make shift flex banner mattress on the floor in the cave and we relieved ourselves of our sacks. Outside we could see slope of the mountain going deep in konkan. A guy from archeology department came in and asked us if we were there for stay. He told us not to have alcohol or set campfire in cave as it damages the inscriptions on the walls. We agreed. He also gave us a heads up on a group of 30 rappelers who were gonna stay the night in the cave. झाली ना रात्री ची पण चक्की, च्यामारी 30 लोक, हि कुत्री भुंकून रात्र जागावणार.

After a family entered the cave with mattresses and रझाईs and चटाईs. WTF!, I said to myself. It was a family of about 12 people. Kids and elders and ladies and old people. They stormed in the cave spread their mattresses and sat in circles. I will not mention their चपड चपड, as it was sound of utensils being wash for me. They also bought large water vessel, lots of food and utensils to eat the food. OK they just came to have food in the cave. Point नही समझा अबतक मुझे. There was a kind of digged hole in one end of the cave. They started washing their hands over there. बस आता मला राग आला. They were gonna eat and go, leave the place, but we were going to stay there, many people are going to stay there for fuck's sake. I asked one of the family members not to do that. He agreed and instructed his family not to do it. Still some buffoons washed their hands anyways. Fuckity Fuck.

While this family was at it, another family was outside the cave with their mattresses and food and water. They waited for the first family to be done, like they wait outside the hotels for a table on weekends. साला डोम्बिवली च गोविंदाश्रम बनवल त्या लेणीं च . We went outside, but kept our things in. After a while we came in and we saw that one of the kids was running around the cave beating the walls and ground with Shardul's jungle treasure, the wooden walking sticks. Shardul became furious and started running behind the kid and got his treasure back from them.

The rappelers came in after a while, equipped with huge backpacks, sleeping mats, propper head lamps, they seemed professionals. They were from Pune a group of mixed aged, men and women and guys and girls. They had trekked hadsar fort and came there by bus. They were gonna stay the night and head for jivdhan fort the next day.

As soon as they came in, a few of them started preparing food on their stove while others went out to see the sunset. We also decided to go see the sunset. A short hike took us to the highest point of nanacha angtha. Towards north and west there was huge konkan below and towards south and east there was huge vast sahyadri Mountain range. I could recognize Jivdhan fort to the south, with it's Vandarlingi pinnacle, Gorakhgad and Machindragad, far far towards west in Konkan region and Ahupe ghat right behind it, rest all was unknown to me then. The sun was red orange by now. Going down slowly, disappearing right in the middle of the sky, till it was gone, leaving streak of red behind it.

We climbed down, went near the caves and I climbed a smaller cave opposite to the larger one. And sat in silence. Looking at the टीमटीमणारे lights in konkan region. Lights of cars on Kalyan-Ahmednagar road were playing hide and seek in the jungle. We sat there for a while and went in the cave. The cave sounded like School recess. चपड़.चपड़ चपड़ चपड़. I had left all hopes of having a peaceful evening. We couldn't even leave the caves as we wanted our space to sleep. It was dark outside anyways. We spread our mattresses and dozed off for a while.

When I woke up it was 8 PM. We had our dinner. Shardul's mother had blessed us with theplas. I had the theplas. After a while I came to know that one more group of about 20 people was going to come. Fuckity Double Titty Fuck.

We went out for a short walk and whooooosssshhhhhhhhh came the wind on our face. It dried my lips and watered my eyes. We went on the plateau. Torch was not needed as there was bright beautiful Moonlight outside. Nothing mattered then, in that moonlight I saw everything. Saw everything that I had and saw everything that I didn't. Its not only what you see that matters, it’s also what you don't see that does. The thought still lingers my mind as I write this.

We went to sleep in the चिव चीवाट. If sleep intensity could be measured I was 3 fourth asleep, when the group of 20 people came in at about 3 AM and the चिव चीवाट turned into तांडव. It was a huge family, they had trekked the nane ghat route in the night. Now they were cooking dinner. Camping ethics and silence ki marriage ढोल ho gayi thi. Tried to sleep amidst the तांडव, but I couldn't, Shardul was snoring stones. Some of the rappelers were snoring hail stones.

Unable to sleep I stood up, wrapped myself in shawl and headed outside. Whooosssshhh, the wind was still there and my shawl started फदफडing in air. Moon was brighter now. Konkan was lit with moonlight in shades of grey and black. अंदर cave से लडकिया चिड़ा रही थी, “कौन है भूत बाहर?”, “भुत आल बघा”  etc. etc. I wasn’t minding them I sat on the stairs and stared at the sky. Spotted jupiter, the brightest shining object in the sky via Phone Sky location Application

It was 4 AM. One thing about being on the mountain is that it will never tell you to leave, it will never ask you to go. You go yourself understanding your own place and limits. These limits told me to sleep for now, told me that I was tired. I agreed. Even the तांडव group was asleep by now. I went inside and slept.

We woke up at 6 A.M. and went to see the sunrise on Nanacha angtha. Wind was gushing towards the angtha like streaks of winds were racing and jumping off the cliff. Few people were already there on the cliff waiting for the sun to rise. Wind was trying to dry my eyes, but they were continuously producing tears in protest and my nose joined in too. Through these tears I saw the sun rising. To a little left of Jivdhan it pushed itself up.

We sat there in peace till it was completely up and then we headed for the caves. We found a few water cisterns on our way down. I had missed spotting these cisterns on my previous visits.

We went to the caves, had our breakfast, packed our bags, chatted for a few seconds with the तांडव मंडळी, waved good bye to the चिव चीवाट मंडळी and started our descent from Nane Ghat. The trail is of stone, wide, continuously steep, winding the valley like a thread pulled and released from both the ends. There was cool shade of the mountain on the trail.

I wished that the trail would never end and I would keep walking endlessly but alas! it turned left after 2 and a half hour and vehicle sounds were audible. We reached the Nane Ghat trekking point on Kalyan - Ahmednagar highway and relieved ourselves of our sacks, ate bananas and started off towards vaishakhare village to find transport to Kalyan. We reached Vaishakhare village in about 30 mins. Got a shared vehicle to Tokawade village and hoped into a Kalyan bus. The conductor warned us that there are no seats and said “standing standing”, we agreed. The bus swept on the road while  the conductor shut the bus door close.