The Twin Spurs

I woke up with a healthy night's sleep, got ready and loaded my neatly packed backpack on my shoulders. Everybody arrived on time. We took the 5:41 local from Dombivli to Khopoli and alighted at Karjat. 

 

We took 7.45 AM bus going to Mechkarwadi and alighted at Kadav, from where we got share rickshaw going towards Bhivpurigaon. Some old women going to Bhivpurigaon told us that they would drop us at Pali-Potal junction. From this junction a 20 min walk took us to Pali village. This route being very rarely used by trekking community put a lot of curious and amazed stares on us. 

 

We crossed Potal and Pali villages. The view of Sahyadris was breathtaking from here. A very long spur coming from dhak was welcoming in front of us, keeping this spur to right we walked alongside a stream keeping Sahyadris in front of us. We were going to climb on a different spur. It's approach was clearly in front of me. It came running from Saidongar down to South of Pali Village.  While walking on the dirt road, we encountered a couple of locals who were gathering wood. They told us they know no route from Saidongar going towards Kusur, and suggested us to keep walking and ask around in the Thakarvasti ahead. Then a roaring tractor came towards us. The driver stopped his tractor gangsta style and signalled us with his hand, which spoke, “ Are you lost kids?”. He told us to go backwards and walk east alongside the canal coming from Humgaon, and then the route will climb southwards on the spur, as was suggested by Yatin Namjoshi, an experienced mountaineer.

 

So we went alongside the stream to find the route. Now, I had guessed roughly where the path might be, but there were barbed wire fences guarding WhoKnowsWhat from WhoKnowsWho. So we again crossed the canal and went to the other side and upon asking a couple of locals finally found our route. Locals here were very helpful and didn't bombard us with questions like “Why do you want to go there? What will you do there?” They, very politely and very respectfully explained us the way- त्यांतले पाहिले काका म्हणाले ,” तिकडं पुढं मोरी पाशी वाट फिरली बघ वर, तिकडून सरळ जायचं”, आता आम्हाला मोरी म्हणजे काय तेव्हा कळलं नाही. पुढे कॅनल च्या बाजूच्या रस्त्याला अजून एक रस्ता भिडला 90 डिग्री वर. तिकडे डोंगरा कडे जाणारी पुसत शी वाट दिसत तर होती. आम्ही अजून पक्क करण्या साठी पुढे गेलो आणि एक दुसरे काका भेटले, त्यांनी ही अंदाजे तीच वाट खुणावली, “सरळ जा! कुठ पण वाळू नकोस. जा हळू हळू. एक फळा लावलाय बघ पाण्या वर त्या वरून जायचं. फळा तर न्हवता पण त्या ठिकाणी कॅनॉल च्या आतल्या बाजूला खड्डे करून होल्ड्स बनवले होते. आम्ही त्यांच्या आधारे कॅनॉल पार केला. 

 

So we were on the route. After climbing the spur, the ascent became gradual. Most of the route was covered in dry deciduous forest.Violet flowers plants grew abundant besides the trail. Forest Canopy shaded most of the path

 

Soon we reached an opening, where there was a sign painted on a stone. There were two connected arrows and one single arrow.  Besides the connected arrows “Pune" was written and beside the single arrow ,”Karjat”. We pondered on which one of the two arrows going towards Pune to take. I had read that there is a small cave temple on the hill. I assumed the left way would take us towards the temple and the right one directly on route. We had already lost a lot of time in finding the start of the route, so after going leftwards with intention to find the temple, we halted near a dried stream and decided to head back and go on the rightward route, which seemed to be going towards Saidongar, towards the top of the spur. But first! Amol took out an orange out from his backpack. So everyone freed themselves of their heavy backpacks and  without speaking declared a rest time. Tanginess filled my mouth with the silence of surroundings. Far down in the village a tractor roared, but being so far we only heard it whisper.

 

After a brief much needed rest we again headed towards the opening from where after doing couple merry go rounds around the sign rock, we found the prominent trail going towards Saidongar. From here the gradual ascend turned into a steep one and like a magician's signature move the route turned leftwards keeping Saidongar hill to our right hand side. Soon we reached on the top of the plateau and had our lunch under cool shade of a tree. Again Amol to our rescue took out cold buttermilk from a flask. After lunch again silence kicked in, mind stopped wondering and eyes started pondering. Grass on the plateau had turned yellow, wind was creating ripples on the dried and fallen but rooted grass. Bunch of trees stood in patches like tiny islands on grass sea. From here we could see Dhak to our west, with its prominent Kalakarai/bahiri pinnacle. It's massif looked like a cake served on a plate. Deccan Plateau extended one of its many arms to Dhak to make it a part of its own.

 

A villager, who was resident of Pali-Potal was coming towards us from Kusur direction, he was going to descend the way we came. It amazes me how these people carry almost nothing, when we are loaded with water and buttermilk and oranges and BreadJam AndWhatNot. Anyways our lifestyle cannot be matched with theirs. These ghats are their playgrounds, these skies their umbrella. He gave us inputs for our next milestone, Waghoba temple on Kusur Plateau. He pointed at a long tower on a mountain and told us to follow the tower. Now!!. I had not expected that next milestone would be at such a height. “तू contour नाही देखा ना!”, गुरू चे शब्द  मनात वाजले. We had already climbed 600mts. Two amongst us were newbies. It was already 3 PM. Taking that into consideration, we decided to go to the village and camp there for the day and go up to Kusur plateau the next day.  

 

After a short nap, we started walking. Soon human intervention was visible on that beautiful plain grass plateau. A huge ass Bungalow was in sight. Same as the mansion in GTA Vice City game. जागो जागी तारी च्या fences बघून तार बोचल्या सारखी झाली. 

 

Soon we reached Mornarewadi village and arranged for dinner with यारणक family. Hospitality in the ghats always amaze me. We kept our backpacks in their house and went out to get a glimpse of the sunset. 

 

On reaching the edge of the plateau, we spread out on the edge. More than 500 meter deep Dhak wall was in front of us. Rajmachi peaks were faintly visible in the haze, behind Manjarsumbha. We started walking back towards the village when a cherry like sun was alighted exactly on top of cake like Dhak Mountain. 

 

When we reached back to the village we went to the school and sat in its verandah, there was Bhairavnath temple right in front of the school. We came to a decision to camp in the temple itself if our host permits, which he did later. गप्पा मारता मारता अंधारलं आणि येरणक काका आम्हाला बोलवायला आले. आम्ही त्यांच्या बरोबर घरात गेलो. Dinner was ready when we went back. The yellow color of potato and daal, was traced on my fingertips. We thanked and paid Yernak kaka for their hospitality and came to the temple. Mobile phone, power bank, ला connect करून मस्तं सगळे झोपले. मंदिरात उजेड होता. गावात solar street lights होत्या. मंदिर तासं मोठ्ठं. भैरवनाथ च्या मूर्ती च्या एका बाजूला Giant भांडी होती, आणि दुसऱ्या बाजूला एक Giant Dhol होता. तसेच, वर माळ्यावर अजून Giant वाद्य होत, ती वाद्य एकत्र वाजली तर खाली कोकणात सुद्धा ऐकू येतील का? या मोठ्या टोपात किती किलो भात शिजत असेल? असा प्रश्ण-उत्तरांचा खेळ खेळत कधी झोपलो समझले नाही. 

 

In the morning, we all freshened up and had hot tea with Yernak family. After filling water bottles we were again on trail. We still had a 300 meter ascent to reach Dhakoba temple. There is a trail from behind the temple which goes to a small hamlet of Kusur wadi. From there we hit the main trail going towards Kusur Plateau. Morning air was fresh, and breeze was cool. अश्या वेळी चढंही जाणवत नाही. Here we went a bit off trail. हो नाय हो नाय करत cattle trail पकडूनच, धनगरवाडी चा tower बघत जायचं असं ठरलं. असा रास्ता चुकल्या वर group मध्ये सय्यम आणि ताळमेळ असणं महत्त्वाचं! आमच्या 4 जणांचं tuning बऱ्या पैकी जमल्यानेच आम्ही परत न चुकता, जबतक Tower नजर मे है, ताबतक चलेंगे! असा निश्चय करून परिसराचा भान ठेवून tower पाशी पोहोचलो.

 

There is a Thakar wasti near the tower. Dogs barked their welcome and villagers offered us water. From here a trail goes directly towards Waghoba temple, our next milestone. As soon as we left the hamlet, we were on an open plateau, a vast plain with dried grass till the horizon. In 20 minutes we reached Waghoba temple. Inside there was a stone with a tiger carved on it. “We should have camped here for the night, was the first thought that came to my mind. The night sky would have looked tremendous from here. “मनाच्या checklist मध्ये जागा tick marked!” We had a heavy breakfast of BreadAndJamAndCrunchyThings and once again pulled our sacks on our backs and got ready for the huge descend. Time now was about 11.30A.M.

 

Seriously now! Descending about 900 meters in one go, it's a lots of muscle work. Moreover post my long knee pain NoAscendOnlyDescend treks, this was my first descent to Konkan from Sahyadri.

When we reached back to the Thakarvasti, An old man and two women with milk, buttermilk and more were closing their doors to leave for Kusur Village. We joined them and they showed us the right way. While going down, the lady slipped on a stone and tumbled. She was not injured. One of my mates helped her with her bag and went down with them. When we reached Kusur Wadi my friend was sitting in front of a house. There the old man offered us water and tea. He insisted us on coming back and stay with him the next time we go there. तिकडे अजून लोक जमा झाले. कुठून आलात? कुणीकडं झोपलात? अशे प्रश्ण झाले. कुसुर घाटाने जाणार असे ऐकताच एक काकू म्हणाल्या, “एकटेच? म्हाहित हाय का? लई  वाटा फुटल्यात बघा!” त्या वर एक काका म्हणाले,”आग!, तुला म्हाहिती हाय त्यापेक्षा त्यांना हाय म्हायती, नकाशा हाय त्यांच्या काढं!”. आता नकाशा आहे तर खरं पण जो पर्यंत पुरते हरवून lost नाही होत तो पर्यंत तो बघायचा नाही असा माझा हल्ली हट्ट असतो. 

 

After bidding goodbyes to the family we started walking towards Kusur Village. Time was about 11.30.AM. I had read that there are two routes one which goes through the col which is in front of main Kusur Village, and another through the spur which is northwest of the village. Both these routes meet on the lower plateau. The route from the col is of a milder and easier descent.  We decided to go by the spur route. Again a 10 min walk took us on the edge of Kusur Ghat. From here to the east there was long pipeline of Tata Hydro Electronic Power plant coming down the mountain, to West there was Dhak. We could see Potal-Pali, Bhivpurigaon, Humgaon, Vaijanath clearly deep in Konkan.

Soon after we started lunch break horn from Tata Power echoed in the valley, the route near the top is steep and on a scree. The scree was full of overgrown grass. Now roots of this grass are not on the trail but besides it, and the wind and weather causes the grass to fall over the trail, making it slippery to stand straight. So we literally went on our bums and slid our way down . There was a makeshift wooden ladder at a difficult rock patch. We climbed down the ladder and went ahead. The whole route is steep, but “bum walking” was over. Soon we reached a lower plateau where I saw a open space to my right hand side. So I decided to go there and have a look at the power plant across the valley. Sometimes you find somethings with coincidence. hadn't I had gone there I wouldn't have come across the five water tanks of Kusur ghat. Now!, I had read that there were five but we saw only four. Later I read that the fifth one is somewhere in the jungle. 

 

When we reached Bhivpuri village, it was late afternoon, The village seemed to be taking afternoon nap, some people were talking lazily under a banyan tree. Now we headed to our last milestone, an ancient Octagonal lake in the village,which was now renovated with modern architecture, after resting here for a while we walked to the road junction which connects Bhivpuri village and Tata Power Company. Here we found a tumtum rickshaw which took us to Karjat, away from the twin Spurs of SaiDongar and Kusur Ghat

 

It amazes me how a shy guy like me goes on these adventures, stays and lives in unknown villages, talk to complete strangers to arrange for food and shelter, but when I really think of it, it's not just me, its the humble people living in these remote places, kind and polite and caring. It’s their welcoming nature that makes me look beyond a curtain and let me have a conversation. I would have never seen this side of mine if it wasn’t for my newly acquired love of wandering and exploring these remote and unknown places.

 

In The Fog, With Clouds Behind

The Trail Of Light

After calling up my trek mates and public for a ढासू Friday Night to Sunday trek for their availability, everybody’s status turned out to be “may be”. I was in a full too mood for a trek this weekend. I just had to go. So I made a backup plan, that if no one showed up on Saturday, I would anyways go for a small hike in Palghar range, solo. I studied  the maps and all, for the same in advance, along with maps and route for the ढासू Friday Night to Sunday trek. The ढासू trek was ढासू in a way that it was more physically demanding than all my treks till now. So anyways this ढासू plan was cancelled as all of my trekmates were busy this weekend. So I decided to go ahead with my on my own, not so ढासू but still a doable, alone, one day plan. गुरू ला फोन करून प्लॅन कळवळा. तर त्याने दुसराच प्लॅन दिला. डेक्कन पठाराची चढाई आणि ती पण सोलो, मनात धम धम धम धम झालं. So on guru’s inputs, I again changed my solo not so ढासू plan into solo ढासू plan.

The plan was already there in mind, I had already hiked in the area , I knew the start of the trek. So not much was to be studied this time. I took 5.41 AM Khopoli train from dombivli, landscape from the grilled window of the train was covered with fog, The mountains i usually see in this train journey were all hidden somewhere. Platforms of stations en-route were full of daily commuters who travel to Mumbai everyday, to earn bread and butter. I was going away from them all. Just yesterday I was the person on the platform, waiting for a train to take me to Mumbai. Today, it was different, it was a journey, not a commute.

I reached Karjat and walked to Shri Ram Pul, from where share rickshaws are available to go to the base village, Gaurkamat/Vadap. When I reached there i came to know that Rickshaw will only leave when all the seats are filled with passengers. I was the only one who was going to Gaurkamat, so I crossed Shri Ram Pul on foot and started walking on road to Gaurkamat, hooping to get a lift or find another rickshaw or transport to the village. Soon I hopped into a rickshaw going to Vengaon. Half the distance to Vadap was now covered. So I walked for about 3 kms. and reached the base village, Vadap.

While walking towards Vadap, south end of Bhivgad is seen on Right hand side. This end, along with Dhak’s massive landmass forms a col allowing one to go either to Dhak or to Bhivgad. My destination was Dhak. So from Vadap, I turned towards this col. Now one reason I don't go out there alone is dogs, yes dogs!. I am scared of them. Their barks and growls fill me with terror, and that is exactly what they do when they encounter an outsider entering their area, in my case, the village. I somehow manage to stay calm when sI have company, but today I was alone, and I had to go. Thankfully, dogs in Vadap didn't seem to mind me, soon I was on the trail.

Ascend starts as soon as village is left behind. I reached the col soon. From here I wasn't even able to see the village properly because of fog. Keeping village to my back, way to Bhivgad was on my left hand side while Dhak was on my right hand side. I took latter and soon was on the long trunk which climbs on Dhak Plateau. Soon after ascending a patch of forest over a serpentine trail I reached a opening, a lower plateau. Grass here was reaching my knee. The trail went from near a small hut. Now yes! Here I heard it. Bhow Bhow! Loud and clear. Two dogs came out of the hut aggressively. A farmer came out of the hut, saw me, and calmed down the dogs. I started walking.

After gaining some more height I looked behind, and what I saw was speechless! Thick clouds were behind, at my height in patches, surrounding the ranges around. Their colour was bright white. They were cotton floating in air.

After ascending a series of few more rock patches and forest patches I reached a wide open ground. Surrounded with knee length grass, I realised that I have crossed the crestline. That was supposed to be my destination. I had seen on Google maps that there was a temple near this trail somewhere, so I decided go ahead and check out. Soon after clearing one more forest patch, I saw the temple on my left side. I went there crossing several crabs and their burrows.

The temple was well built and renovated. There was a tin shed in the verandah. Door to go in the temple was locked, so I sat in the verandah. I was looking at a huge Plateau ahead of me, with a forest at the horizon. I sat there quietly, listened to crabs making their tok tok sounds. There was no one. There was a small village nearby, but it was not visible.

After exploring a bit around I started my descent back. I met a old man who was going to Dhak village. “ एकटाच का?” , “कधी आलास” , अशी चौकशी झाली. He gave me his name and told me to visit his house next time I come there.ते “शावकाश जा’, म्हणाले आणि मी निघालो. After walking a while I sat on a rock and had my lunch.

To my relief the dogs on the lower plateau did not bark this time, or maybe they were not there, I don't know!. I just walked through that patch without stopping. Soon it started raining. The rain grew stronger when I reached the col between Bhivgad and Dhak. I was completely drenched when I reached Vadap village, where too many dogs who didn't notice me in the morning, welcomed me with their loud barks. I reached the main road and waited in verandah of a shop for a shared rickshaw to Karjat, which came after a long wait. 

The Cotton Clouds

 

A LETTER FROM A GREAT NATURE LOVER

Hello everyone,
I write this letter with deep love towards what I feel is nature. I love nature, and to be in nature. And if one loves nature, one has to love the rains, wow wonderful wonderful the nature is in rains. Monsoons as they call it here. If you ask me I don't know why the fuck they are called so, they just come in June and go in September, after which there is winter, I love winter but only for my dry Formal shirt, unstained by summer sweat. Else I don't care for heat when I am indoors, I have an air conditioner or fan for cooling my sweaty ass off. In winter I love to wear hoods, just for the fun of it.
And yes, being a nature lover, ofcourse I love love photography, wow. My 10 Mega pixel camera takes great selfies, my twitched lips and amazing pouts with some crazy effects to hide my pimples make me look as if I have just been born and bathed in milk.
And yes, what good are selfies without WhatsApp status messages, they are made for nature bugs like us, speaking of bugs I hate those bugs when they sit on the side of my nose in nature, they tickled me and left a sense of wetness where they had just been. That is why I started shouting my ass off with my friends who clearly outnumbered them, and posed for selfies when in nature. And yes of course I played rock music on my JBL portable speakers, cos too, I Love music!!. Also it was motivating.
I actually don't remember where I went this saturday. They took me in an awesome bus where we played antakshari. That was the best part of my nature trip. We even had bottled water. And yes, I didn't throw the bottles in the nature, I threw them at a place where they were piled up, while some people had thrown them everywhere in the nature, how could they? Ignorant assholes!
And wow everything was so green. I would like to recommend my 540 friends on Facebook to go there and feel the green.
In winter I love nature as well, it's so cool in Matheran and Mahabaleshwar, but I also love Christmas and New year, oh my! Daru Daru Daru and red santa caps in office. Oh my oh my oh my! How wonderfully I love winter! I could go on and on and on about my love for nature and it's so cool that I never get tired of talking about what I love, and posting those cool quotes with green backgrounds.
After winter I hate the way the nature treats me. It's so sweaty and sunny. I have seen how nature looks in summer while traveling in train, so dry and brown. Not beautiful at all. The sun makes my eyes pop out when I look outside. Nature is at it's best in rains. There shouldn't be a summer season at all.

Yours lovingly,
Great lover of nature.
[ Pout selfie with my mom on mother's day]
( Because I love nature )

The Queen of the Journey

It started raining heavily. We had not seen much of rain the whole day, although the sound of rain falling on the ghats was always there with us. The climb was easy and peaceful because of soothing cool climate and breeze. Sitting there at twilight, in the verandah, I looked outside at the S.T. bus that was parked in front, she was getting soaked by the rainwater gushing over her windows, making her seats look ghastly. She was the Queen of the Journey. She is the only one who comes there at night, stays in that nature’s bliss of a village near the end of the mighty Deccan Plateau. Saying her Goodbye and requesting her to wait for us for the next day to take us to the The Big City, we went to sleep. 

 

In the morning her Driver ignited her engine. Humm humm hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm……. He warmed it up for the ride ahead. The sun was not up when she carried us away from  the village. The road in the nature’s bliss, wound up from between the mountains to reach a tragedy called “Lavasa”, where nature is cut into numerous slices from a huge piece of cake. It seemed to me like more of a “Station” and less of “Hill” 

Anyways this Queen of my journey broke down on the path 10 kms away from the Station on the Hills. The driver walked up the road to find network for their phone, to call for help. There is no other mode of commercial  transport on this part of road upto Panshet. The conductor gave me a piece of Ticket Report from his Ticket Printer  and suggested us to go to Lavasa to find another ST to Pune in case we get a lift to Lavasa City. The conductor went to check out the driver while I waited for someone who would take us there. I didn’t wish to go. I hoped that I would not find any transport, and stay with the Queen of the Journey to see what happens to her next. Then the conductor came and said that the Depo is sending one backup S.T. They both were going to stay in the near by village, with the broken down bus until breakdown vehicle or their mechanic arrives. He said that it might take the whole day. He also said how once one of the buses and its conductor were both stranded in one of the other villages on the edge of the plateau because of a landslide. He said that they can’t leave the vehicle until solution arrives. 

The backup ST arrived in about one hour. We hopped in it and the ride started and soon we were dropped into the Big City.

Now as I write this the hummmm hummmm sound of the Queen of the Journey still vibrates in my ear. As I close my eyes, I see her standing there in twilight in the remote village in midst of the nature’s bliss, which had been void of electricity for last 15 days, where talk with my fellow travellers had coloured in one corner of the verandah while our Host spoke to his neighbors about progress of work in their farmlands in the other corner. I hope that she has been repaired by now, for her next journey to some other remote place, where there is no one but her.

Kondhane - Rajmachi - Valvande - Kondeshwar - Jambhivli

Past week went with scanning wikimapia, reading Anand palande, hunting down and bookmarking and blacklisting blogs. On wikimapia while observing kusur plateau route, for finding Kusur village, my eye fell upon the ridge joining dhak to Deccan plateau, on moving a bit south I saw the edge of Deccan plateau overseeing Manjar Sumbha, dhak and Sandshi jungle below. “कसला view असेल!, असा विचार आला आणि नजर कामशेत जवळच्या जामभिवली कढे गेली” . Wikimapia was showing some trail connecting that edge with jambhivali village in the east. On further observing a bit southwest the same trail was connecting valvande village which is on northern bank of shirota lake. “ लगेच tube पेटली.” I remember that while coming to rajmachi from lonavala the dirt road divides in two, one goes to rajmachi, other to valvande village near shirota lake. मग काय! पटकन आनंद पाळंदेंच डोंगरयात्रा open करून route असल्याची खात्री करून घेतली. गुरू ला phone लावला. “मस्त ट्रेक” असल्याचा thumbs up मिळाला आणि अजून मस्त करण्या साठी inputs मिळाले.

Partner for this trek was Rajesh. बर्याच weekends पासून होय नाय होय नाय करत राजेश ह्या weekend आला होता. He met me at dombivli and we hopped into 5.44AM Khopoli local from Dombivli.

We took a auto rickshaw from karjat station to kondhane village. From the Rick I took a good look at mesmerising dhak, manjar sumbha, and entire songiri range.

When we started the walk from kondhane village, I heard it . गड गड धधाम ! The clouds started beating their drums. Then we heard it. Sound of rain somewhere far up. Rain in may, that too on a Trek. That too on kondhane route, that too a crowd less rainy day on a weekend on kondhane route! What else can you ask for. Although I am always prepared for rain, even on weekends, Rajesh wasn't! त्याने पटकन एका D-mart च्या छोट्या पिशवीत भला मोठा blanket कोंबला आणि 2.5 litre च्या दोन thumbs up च्या बाटल्या आणि तीं पिशवी हापिस bag मध्ये कोंबली. लेण्यां मध्ये ह्याची Repacking करू, असा करार झाला. आणि तसच केल, बाहेर पाऊस कोसळत होता, आणि आम्ही कोंढण्या च्या cave मध्ये समान काढून बसलो, repacking करायला, समोर डोंगर रांगेच्या मध्येच एक train ठाकूरवाडी halt ला थांबली होती. After Rajesh explored the caves, we were ready to go.

The rain was gone by the time we reached the lower plateau. The long trains climbing up through thakurwadi across the ulhas river were signalling with loud horn. I found the trail coming up from Mundhewadi village which could bypass the caves if taken. वाट मस्त मळलेली दिसली. मनाच्या checklist मध्ये लगेच add झाली.

We reached the rajmachi plateau pretty quickly and there they were the black ripe करवंद on thorny bushes . We started eating them until we could and went to the village.

We didn't wait much in the village and headed straight towards the godaneshwar temple and rested there for a while, soon realizing that it was impossible to rest the feet, whose mind wants to explore more! We walked towards south of the plateau on the edge.

Eyes could see as far as khandala, as well as the mighty ulhas valley thinking of which I still get goosebumps. It always takes me to that day when we were in it jumping from one rock to land on another.

We again came back to the temple and filled our bottles  from the well, near it. It was time to leave rajmachi. We had enough time on our hands but rajmachi was a milestone of the trek, not the destination. Now we had to make our way to valvande. Then soon keeping one foot in front of another we started walking on the dirt road which takes us to lonavala. On the way Rajesh was adamant on getting one कच्चा आंबा down from the tree. After clearing the ground of the stones he managed to get two. First time in my life I ate a whole कैरी.

After a short distance the road started turning towards right. There is a bridge right at the turn, making way over a huge water stream which was dried in this month of may. ओढा पाहताच पोटात कुरकुर ऐकू आली. लगेच खाली उतरलो आणि मस्त bread, jam, अंडी असा lunch केला. plastic आणि इयर garbage went in our bags. I took a short nap at that place and started walking आरामसे after that. Now here is the catch. Immediately, after the turn, valvand village lies on the left side on the mountain range. While the dirt road goes a few kilometres ahead and take a sharp diversion left to reach that place, I knew that there was going to be a trail that cuts through the mountain on the left taking one directly on the road. A काका coming towards us with his cattle confirmed my अंदाझा and showed me the trail. Thanking him we started climbing. After about odd 100 metres up we were on the dirt road to valvand village. This small and village which lies on North of Shirota lake is surprisingly humble, despite its proximity to Rajmachi, where tourists flock on the weekends, it has a small closed school and a couple of temples behind 2 huge plastic water tanks, where I had planned to sleep at night.

We made dinner arrangements at Tukaram Umbre’s house and kids in the village invited us to play “किर्केट”. Cricket मध्ये bat, ball, runs, stump, जवळ जवळ एवढ्याच गोष्टींचं knowledge असलेला मी, मला चक्क captain बनवत होती ती भोळी पोरं. Ball समोर आल्यावर माझ reflex पळून जायचं , त्याला dodge करायचं. त्याला पकडायचा भानगडीत न पडणारा मी, आणि मलाच wicket keeper बनवलं गेलं.

After किरकेत we tried getting some mangoes off a tree with a kid, but we failed. Then I met an आजोबा who I knew was from Rajmachi village, he had come to stay there with his cattle as  there was better hay and ample of water for the cattle. त्यांच्या गुरांकढे नजर गेली. जिथे त्यांना बांधल होते तिथे जमिनीवर सुक्या गवताला व शेणाला आग लावून धूर केला होता. “भारी डास चावत्यात”, अस explanation आजोबांनी दिलं.

रात्री जेवणाचं invitation आलं आणि आम्ही लगेच उठलो. For dinner there was भाकरी, डाळ, बटाट्या ची भाजी, कांदे, after eating till our bellies were full, we we went outside, where it was lightening a bit in the sky. Seeing that, काकू suggested us to sleep in the verandah, instead of school. उंबरे काका ही, ”पाणी आलं की दार वाजवा”, म्हणून गेले.

I kept looking at the sky, moonlight had lit the border of the dark clouds with white light. Cool breeze was kissing my cheeks and tickling my nose. I connected my phone to my power bank and went to sleep. I woke up when it was still dark, Rajesh was deep asleep, I got up quietly and went out in the dark for a walk, “कोंबडं घशातून ओरडत होतं”, बाकी गुडूप शांतता होती.”.

I woke Rajesh up and packed our bags, paid उंबरे काका, for the dinner, bid adieu to Rajmachi चे आजोबा and left the village. The trail to Kondeshwar starts from East of valvand and soon divides into two. The one going sharply towards right was more prominent and had saffron markings on them. Stereotypical thinking of linking saffron with temples, led us on that trail, after walking a bit I realised that we were walking southwards on the bank of Shirota lake, hence keeping the mountain range to our left, while we wanted to climb on the mountain range towards North, keeping it to our right. On realising that we are on wrong path, we turned back to the village. A काकू from the village confirmed that I had taken a wrong route and showed me the right path.

Soon we were climbing up alongside a dried up, walled water channel. We walked on the wall for a while till it ended near a waterfall, which i guessed might be feeding the channel in rains. Then a fairly beaten trail took us upwards, and we entered a dense jungle, green and silent. The magnificence of the jungle was only felt when we climbed up and looked at it down from a height. No trace of ground was seen through the dense trees, बघून पुर्ण टरकली! अश्या उन्हात असा हिरवा प्रकार अजून तरी कधी माझ्या नजरेत आला नव्हता. निसर्गाच्या त्या ever shocking nature che धडे मिळाले.

Eyes could see Shrivardhan fort, to it's right the mighty Manjar Sumbha, which looked like a resting wild cat, and to it's right the big massif of Dhak mountain, connected to Deccan plateau by a dark green forested ridge. That's the view I came for. It was much much wilder and much much huge and much much exhilarating than I had imagined. After properly capturing that view in my mind we started walking towards north, keeping valley to left, soon the mountain wall on the right got shorter until it disappeared turning the way southwards. From here keeping wall to the right we started descending. Now we could see the Kondeshwar temple down in the valley, our next milestone.  वाटेवर एक मेलेला विंचू दिसला, मेलेला असून सुद्धा त्याच्या डंख आक्रमक होता, पाहून पुन्हा टरकली. Ants were feasting on that dead ferocious scorpion. After traversing the mountain for a while we started descending, after crossing a dried but huge water stream,  we reached the temple. First the plan was to sleep here the previous night, but unavailability of water had made me drop the plan. What an area! surrounded by hills and dhak mountain showing itself from between two. It would have been an awesome place to spend a night.

From here a dirt road took us to Jambhavali, it was 10.10 AM, we had missed the 10.00AM bus, दुकानावरच्या काकांशी गप्पा मारून आणि biscuit खाऊन आम्ही चालतच निघालो. इथून कामशेत 20 KM आहे, we got lift after walking for about 2 kms, then soon we were at kamshet station. आणि हो, कामशेत स्टेशन जवळ एक भारी मिसळ पाव locate केला आहे!

The Ladders, The Sun, The Forest, The Hills

As usual the morning began with an harsh alarm. The unusual was that I woke up immediately without snoozing or waiting for the next one to go off. After packing the eggs, 4 litre water, in already packed backpack I ran off to catch 5.55 AM Khopoli local from Dombivli station.

As decided Sagar was waiting for me in first bogie. 

 

Reaching Karjat  at 6.55 AM. We took a Mheskarwadi S.T bus to Kashele village. From there after negotiating and renegotiating we took a shared tumtum to jamrung.

The air was humid, summer sun was already hot when we started walking from Jamrung to Kamathpada village. Jamrung pinnacle came into view like a bursting soda bottle.

From kamathpada, there are two routes going towards start Khetoba ghat on the lower plateau. One is from the north of the lower plateau, called the Shidi Ghat, other from the south called the Vajantri Ghat. 

 

As guided, I started walking towards the pinnacle to take the Shidi Ghat route. By the time I reached the route which goes towards left of the pinnacle, when keeping it on our right hand side, I realised that I had to keep my pace slow and steady considering the weight on my back and the summer sun.

After some distance and leaving pinnacle way behind, the route enters the Sahyadris keeping the lower plateau wall adjacent to our right. Then starts the ladders and snakes game. 

 

There were monkeys who teased us by climbing the rock face in 2 mins with their climbing ability, and after climbing the first ladder we realised that this is not just snakes and ladders but this is monkeys and ladders, it was a route made on almost straight rock face. Wherever there was absolutely no moderate way to climb there were ladders, and where there weren't ladders, there was a scramble on all the four limbs. One of the ladders although strategically placed, almost looked like a child’s drawing. 

Guiding Sagar on the scramble, and the four ladders we reached the lower plateau. When I finally reached an open ground, I saw the Sahyadri rock wall raising in the sky about 300 and more meters high. On this wall like Mario flag steps Khetoba ghat climbs adjacent to the wall towards north, giving ground to tall trees and forest on the steps. 

 

We entered the dense forest towards the edge of the wall and kept the wall towards left. After about 2 hours in sun from the start of our hike, we were finally in cool and dark shade. After a while the route started turning left and  the rockface came to our right hand side, towards start of Khetoba ghat. The ascent left me panting and breathing heavily. Having a couple of oranges made us feel like Mario with a mushroom. Taking short bursts of rests and water, we reached the mountaintop at about 12.45 PM. There is a small temple on the edge of the mountain here, in the temple, an unsculpted stone god named Khetoba, hence the ghat is called Khetoba ghat. There is no tree for about a hundred metres from here. 

 

After getting an idea from where we came, and where we need to go we decided to have lunch in forest cover patch of our route to Bhimashankar.. Keeping in mind strict instructions of not resting too much and of not getting lost we had lunch quickly and started walking soon. After crossing the short forest patch, which is actually a hill, we came across Lonavala Bhimashankar pathway which has stones laid across on both the sides. 

 

We took left here and started walking towards Bhimashankar. Here I felt the weight of my backpack and loosened the shoulder straps to put weight on the waist strap and started walking.

I had in my mind that the ascent part of the route had now ended and now there is just a long walk over the plateau to Bhimashankar, but Sahyadris like always, surprised me with quite the opposite. It was not just a walk but a hike along forest covered hills and barren- exposed to sun land.

 

After walking for about what felt like hour and a half we reached a place where the stone bordered pathway had abruptly come to an end near a small water pond. It seemed like truck or some vehicle had come upto the pond for some reason, the pond was bordered with stones. A small path was going north in the forest and was not looking like a beaten path. Other path went towards west near the mountain edge which didn't seem to be proper path either. I looked behind towards southeast to find a stone temple like thing with a metal board in front of it. On going there it turned out to be Kamladevi Maata temple, which was actually one of the milestones enroute. A sone unsculpted goddess resides in the stone temple. We again found the stone bordered pathway right in front of this temple door and started walking on it. 

 

Again a series of forest covered hills and barren lands. A ravine to our right and across it a dirt road running towards Bhimashankar, which I later found out was a road connecting neighbouring villages. Later the route joins for a while with this road and separate again a bit towards left and finally enters the dense Bhimashankar jungle. We came across the route to gupt-bhimashankar on our left and decided to explore it next time, considering time as well as our tiredness. From here the route has a mild ascend and we started spotting villagers who had come to collect wood, about half an hour later we saw the Mahadev temple right in front of us, suddenly after the end of the forest. 

 

Tourists, and Street vendors looked at us as if we were zombies. The trek had ended, but was not complete. This different experience of walking on the plateau had surprised me, the forest covered hills and short ascends and descends and the walk in the sun was what I saw when I later closed my eyes at night in that Dharamshala near the mahadev temple. Again I knew that the 7 hours of this trek were what I was going to see for years to come

 

एश-टी चा पायलट, आणि त्याचा cockpit

बाई मास्तरांना म्हणाल्या, ड्रायव्हर काकांना एश-टी हळू हकायला request  करा की.

मास्तर म्हणाले ते काय ऐकणार नाहीत, 100 च्या speed  वर उडवतील. तुम्हीच बोला.

बाई काही तरी त्यांना कुजबुजल्या, ड्रायव्हर  ने होकार दिला. बाई खुश झाल्या.

lights बंद झाल्या.

रात्री चे 9 वाजले असतील

माझा डोळा लागला.

मग अचानक ड्रायव्हर ने आपली केबिन light लावली.

भांगड कळली नाही

मग दिसलं. ड्रायव्हर त्याच्या शेजारच्या गडीं ने तंभाखु मळून दिला.

ड्रायव्हर ने डाव्या हाथाचा कोपरा ठेवला steering वर आणि उजव्या हाथाने angle  बनवून तंभाखु  टाकला तोंडात.

मग काय आई शप्पथ!

कसल 100kmph नि कसलं 120. गाडी च cockpit झालं, आणि त्याचा  pilot.

माळशेज घाटातना गाडी जी उडविली, थेट मुरबाड डेपोत पोहोचली. 

ज्यो side देत न्हवता त्याच्या कानाचा भोंग्या ने भुगा केला. 

Ashok Leyland  ची ती एश टी आणि त्यात हा पायलट. 

जेवढा वेळ सकाळी खांडस हुन भीमाशंकर - शिडी घाटाने कसरत करून चढायला लागला, त्याहुन अर्ध्या वेळात ह्या pilot ने रात्री आळेफाटा ते कल्याण डेपो मध्ये गाडी उडविली होती.