Everything was on time. There was no waiting. The wait was over and we were on route. Morning was just showing itself. It was going to teach me, show me what I am, tell me what I waited for. Clouds and fog surrounded the ranges, en route. White on dark green was the color. We the only people to get down from the train at Palasdari, started walking on the tracks to find a trail just before the first tunnel.
The trail entered a dense jungle. We walked through a water stream gushing down the slope. Thick vegetation gave us horse blinder view of the route ahead. On reaching a plateau we found a rock bed, large enough to rest all our bodies at once. Here on my back i looked up in the sky. . Grey darkness laid above me, which blinded my eyesight to make way for sound of chirping birds and distant sound of axe on wood, both of which were constantly drained by railway engines whooshing on their way.
How pleasant it was to watch and hear the roar of engines and tracks from up there, like a thousand drums beating together to create a rhythm syncing at every tunnel mouth, to present in tune frequencies. I Had not realized then but by that time my sense of direction and navigation was somewhere in that fog and clouds.
Now when I think about it, it was pretty simple. I just had to walk in straight direction. But the numerous cattle trails deceived me( Or I just got deceived ), taking me from the straight poorly beaten path on to much clearer but not going to the top path. We went towards left, came back then right, again came back then went back up from between. This was followed a couple of times hence. Till we reached the col which leads to the top.
Still I had not realized to which extent my navigation and sense of direction had wandered. On the north west edge I stooped down to see grey nothingness. Fog had completely blocked the view. We were on some floating basalt. Then far away down I could see a long train coming in. It’s trail well marked and defined. It came closer as it went from north-west to south-east curving the entire range from south. That’s where we wanted to go. To meet the start of the ridge which takes the railway lines over it towards the Deccan Plateau. Now it seems like I had found my direction.
We got down the col to south of the plateau, to find a trail over the edge of the mountain which with a slight decline moving alongside its stretch to the east. Here Mountain on our left and valley on our right with a narrow path, just to place one foot at a time, I found my right leg going in the valley at times. I decided the trail was too treacherous to carry on, it was getting narrower and less beaten with every step. Here we decided to get back to the col and look out for a better path.
From the north of the col I descended a few meters to find the slippery trail to end with vegetation and steeper descends. I headed back towards the col. Here Akash decided to climb the spur on the eastern side and check out if there was a way from up there. Finding a not so steep but slope with a slight decline, with lots of place to place our feet, Akash called us up.
We found a open space to have our lunch. Silence and openness of the space made me realize how alone we were up there. Western ghats emerging towards the East couldn't fit into our narrow eye sight. From end to end on the horizon, the ranges were scattered. I knew Rajmachi was there somewhere, scattered in the fog. With bellies satisfied with food and spirits filled with hope, we made a trail through the un-trailed grass.
Carefully placing our feet, looking out for resident reptiles we reached the edge of the spur. With a trail visible about a fifteen feet below. While descending this patch we were blessed by insects who still give me a itch.
After a long rest we trailed again ahead. Wait! Not so ahead. We lost track once again. Exploring a bit more the correct path was found which calmed the newbies nerves to some extent.
Going further southeast we reached a long plateau. Railway tracks and tunnels were in the view now. Somewhere alongside those tracks was our next milestone, Jamrung cabin. Here in this plateau, short grass was carpeted over a huge rock bed. It was green with tiny yellow spots of flowers. Sky above the Sahyadris was violet & red, dark at places where the light could not reach the sky through the clouds.
After losing the way one more time we found our milestone. Some people were waiting besides the tracks near the cabin to go to Pune. We headed towards our last milestone. Beed village was about a hundred metres down the ridge, towards north. Green was it's color with streams rushing through its chest. The way was well beaten but I was not. We took a transport to reach the tracks, which I realised were always with us through the hike.
