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| 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.
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| The Cotton Clouds |
