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.

You Endure

Sometimes having good willpower and good resources is not enough.

You need patience.

Sometimes you are stopped by something not in your control.

Sometimes you need to stop to respect something not in your control.

You need patience.

You have tested yourself you think

You have got a direction now.

You have got great guidance till now and will be getting it henceforth.

But you can't go, for something not in your control is stopping you.

You need patience.

Sometimes you think you are nothing, Sometimes you think you have been a wannabe all your life and when now when you have finally found something you had a fall.

Not a bad one. But bad enough to stop you.

You keep thinking what made you fall. You try to remember that missed step, that wrong foot. You don't crib over what you did, but you are only trying to point it out so you don't repeat it again.

Then you see many things, many mistakes. Many wrong steps.

Then you try to learn.

It takes time.

You need patience.

You try to correct yourself, you try to correct your form. You try not to do the mistakes again.

Step by step, watching every step. hopping over, crouching under. Still you bang your head , still you slip and go behind a few steps more.

You need patience.

You don't know if you have made any progress, You don't know if you have improved. You don't know where you are. But now you know where you want to go.

You don't know if you will go, you don't know if you will reach. But still you want to. Still you want to do it properly. Still you want to do it nicely

You want to be your best. You want to do your best.

You need patience

Endurance(Definition)  -  noun

the ability to endure an unpleasant or difficult process or situation without giving way.

But alive in her own

I sat on that bench
In front of that house
I love the evenings out doors
When the home eats me
And the walls crush me.
Then i heard it. The numerous booms and bams
Then I saw there cloud of smoke Puffed into air
There was a lady behind me
In the house.
She was having a video conference with her son in some far away Country.
She heard the booms and bams too.
Then she came out with the tablet phone in her hand to show her son, the smoke, the bangs and booms had made.
And went in when it's trace was still there in the air, away from her son's senses. But alive in her own.

Welcome to exploring!!!

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.

Knots are many Ends are none

Everything is silent
Everything is numb

Things are clearer.

The graph has a slope and a rise
And is now on a hump

Lump in the throat is sticky,
The gulp is painful and slow

Investments are done
Money has been paid
Saving is still none.

Go there and come back
Never stay
Never overdo your welcome
Guests we are
Guests we go

Things are many
Interests are none
Interests instead have made their run

Facts are here
Tied on strings
Knots are many
Ends are none

Sound of a knock
Sound of a call
In the ear
One of body one of mind
Hears the one.

Flow was there
Vessel was empty
To fill it there was no one

The Wall On The Ghaat

They say that after burning wood in holi the summer heat and the sun starts burning you. That made me think, is that why they burn lots of wood in holi? Is it supposed to be a revenge party? "You're going to burn me for couple of months now, so I will burn you before that so that we are equal, then we are also gonna throw away lots and lots of water on each other, till we are out of water."

I don't know, like I don't know about a lot of things, but yes I did experience a lot of heat on my last hike, just 3 days after holi and less leaves to shade myself, and less water to quench my thirst.

On guru’s instructions I decided to visit Thanale caves in Thanale village near Pali then continue on to Waghjai ghaat to TailBaila village in Lonavala, hike up to col between two walls of TailBaila, stay in the village and get down to Bahirampada village near Pali via Savashni Ghaat. Akash decided to join me.

We took first local train to Khopoli. Then a bus to Pali, then another bus to Thanale. It was about 10.30 AM when we reached Thanale. Sun was already shining bright. The trail to Thanale caves starts from the south of the village and enters east, as had been shown on the Google Maps. But we started from the center itself and headed east towards Sahyadris, as instructed by the villagers. Soon we lost our way. On realizing that, we started taking turns towards the main trail. After about half an hour of struggle we found the main trail.

We could see Thanale caves by now. They were on the opposite side of the valley at about 200 meters. First a walk keeping caves on left hand side then a turn across the ridge made us cross a dried stream. There are two ways from here, route towards left and North will take us to Waghjai ghaat, while route climbing upwards will take us to the caves.

We took the cave route and reached the caves in about half an hour. Most of the outer part of the caves is destroyed with time. Huge boulders have separated from the cliffs and have fallen down. There are carvings and stupas in the cave. Destruction due to time and environment was not enough, so some smart humans of this century have painted their beautiful and meaningful names on stupas and walls of the caves. Their efforts must be admired and honored.

We left the caves at about 12.30P.M. and came back the stream from where Waghjai route bifurcates. Keeping caves to our right we started walking on the plateau. There is a spur to the right which we had to climb to get to TailBaila village. This spur is the Waghjai ghaat. I found a prominent trail going towards the right and on the spur. We climbed on the top of this South east placed spur and started walking towards the ghaat.

It was about 1.30PM and we had already finished most of the water we had. We were totally exhausted, we had already hiked about 4 hours and there was no shade at all. My body was spurting water and salt from all the pores available. My lungs were pumping air like hand pump. When I tried to take shade from a tree trunk it felt as if I was a भोपळा and the trunk was a दुधी भोपळा.

We kept walking and ascending and the route started to turn leftwards when I noticed a house like structure, a bit towards right. Waghjai temple!! I exclaimed and we ran into it, in the shade we just threw our bags and took in the coolness of the temple floor. There are a few stone idols here and a pillar in the middle. Behind the temple there was a dried up waterfall.

After resting for a while we started again. Soon we were standing on the Deccan plateau. A mango tree and it's cool shade welcomed us. Behind this tree we saw it, the huge magnificent walls of TailBaila, these walls kept changing their shapes with our every step. So frequently that at one point it looked like a Cannon gun.

As we were walking towards TailBaila village we heard drums in distance, which started sounding louder and louder with our every step. Villagers were celebrating Shivaji Jayanti. After asking around for a bit we reached the house of Mene family where we were going to have our dinner and stay. We had दोन दोन तांब्या पाणी , relieved ourselves of our bags and started walking towards TailBaila.

Already exhausted and tired, legs started shouting their existence. In a while we found ourselves under north edge of the wall, and yes the views, the scenes, the height, everything seemed under me. My legs rejoiced and joined in the spectacle. They found it wrong to complain at that place.

When we reached the col, we found a group of climbers climbing the wall. One of them lectured us on haphazards of trekking in small group of two. In the col there is a cave in which there is a water cistern. The water in it was so cold that it hammered my teeth and send a shrill down my spine.

I sat on a rock and took a look around. Memoires were refreshed with a breeze, the windy night on Sudhagad, the rainy bike ride to Ghanagad, the unexplored but welcoming Saltar, all spread across the landscape. Konkan had hid itself in white light. The sun vanished in a while, before it reached the horizon. We vanished ourselves from the place.

The rest of the evening was spent in talks with Mene आजोबा. त्यांची एक line आठवते, आज शिवजयंती, शिवाजी एकच आला, आणि गेला. आता त्याच्या सारखा आहे का कोण, येणार पण नाही. आज्जींनी जेवण बनवलं होतं. डाळ, भात, भाकरी, ढोबळी मिरची आणि बटाट्याची spicy भाजी. पोट भर जेवलो. थोडं फिरलो आणि तैलबैला च्या मेणेंच्या घरात बैलांच्या घंटीच्या ding dong मध्ये केव्हा झोप लागली, समजलच नाही.

Next day arrived with cool breeze….. थडथड फडफड, it rocked the house. I laid with my senses open till the morning light, lighted the door. We had tea and packed our bags for our descend to konkan. मेणें आज्जी म्हणाल्या सवाष्णी आत्ता वापरण्यात नाही, वाघजाई ने जा. आजोबा म्हणाले, न्हाई वाट हाई चांगली अजून. मी तुम्हाला सुरवातीला सोडून येतो. We bid our good bye to the family and left the place, आजोबा पुढे, आम्ही मागे, धपाक धपाक चालत सुटलो. Savashni Ghaat starts from the plateau at about 8 O clock from TailBaila facing north. A few meters down from start of the ghaat there are seven stone steps carved in the rock, which gives it another name: सात पयर्यांची वाट. Sudhagad from here looks like a friendly neighbor and Sarasgad in distance looks like an inverted conical aluminum bucket

आजोबांना good bye Karun आम्ही सुटलो. Trail wasn't much in use. The gathered dried leaves and overgrown vegetation on the steep slope made the descent slow. Straight down we saw our destination, Bahirampada village, to its left and further ahead was Dhondse village and a kilometer ahead was Vaitaagwadi, Nadsur. We kept taking leftward trails and soon reached on a plateau. We went leftwards and got on to our final descent to Bahirampada.

We had missed our Bus to Pali from the village, so we had to walk all the way to Nadsur village which was about 2 kms from Bahirampada, from where we got a टमटम to Pali. From the टमटम , I saw TailBaila rock wall on the ghaat. It was becoming smaller and was going further, on the other side I could see Sarasgad in Pali, which was getting larger and was coming closer.

                       

Duke's Nose - आंबेनळी - सावरदांड - Chaavani

गुरु शी phone वरून बोलून route नीट समजून घेतला होता. Kurwande, Duke's Nose, Umberkhind route नही पकड़ना है, Ambenali village, दोन घर, blue roof, अरे smoke आहे तो roof नाही, jungle patch, compound, relative north आणि actual north, tower at two O clock Tower तक नहीं जाना है. अस wikimapia.org वर trace करत करत map, डोक्यात घुसवलेला होता. तसच Anil आणी Shriganesh ला घेऊन "route" वर निघालो. We caught my favourite Indrayani Express to go to Lonavala.

En route after Karjat and before Khandala, Ulhas valley towards left gave me flashbacks of my New Year trek-Stones, river and Indian Bisons , All piled up on each other. It was about 8.30AM when we started walking from Lonavala towards our base village Kurwande. It was a pleasant walk.

Trail to Duke's nose is quite simple. Sun was bright but, air was cool. We reached top to find a group of rapplers rappling down the Duke's nose. गर्दी मुळे तिकडे जास्त थांबलो नाही आणि पलिकडची टेकड़ी गाठली. We sat on the cliff adjacent to Duke's nose for a while. Duke's nose rock face went straight down into the valley. Rajmachi, Mumbai-Pune Expressway, Train tracks speeding on mountains and disappearing into trees and mountain like thread stiching on a cloth were the magnificient views we were blessed with here.

अजुन भरपूर चालायचय अस म्हणत आम्ही निघालो. Route to Ambenali village starts from North Of Kurvande village alongside Compound of INS Shivaji. Keeping the compound wall to our left and beautiful valley to our right we descended on a plateau from where UmberKhind route breaks down into the valley. Leaving that route to our right we continued southwards on the plateau. We reached AmbeNali village, where there is a potable water source and a couple of houses. डोसक्यात घुसलेला map लक्ष्यात घेऊन, I recalled that I was not supposed to take the prominent trail that goes eastwards into the jungle but the less prominent one that goes westwards towards electric towers.

We entered a small forest patch, This patch cooled our sun heated bodies and minds, but for a while. Soon we were on a plateau bright and yellow with sun. Further ahead there is again a forest cover with few cow sheds and houses. From here to the northwest at the end of the plateau, lies Savardand Ghaat which descends into Chavani village in Konkan. The trail starts just before reaching a tower on the edge of the plateau.

Descent Down was steep and the trail was full of dried leaves and dirt. घसरत घसरत खाली उतरु लागलो लै मजा आली, मला पण आणि माझ्या knees ला पण. A straight trail took us to Chavani village across a river stream. Roads on Chavani village were full with cattle, lots and lots of cows and bulls on the streets हम्मा हम्माing at us. We started our long walk towards Khopoli-Pali Highway.

Enroute, just after the village there is a temple on the other side of the river bed. Here the river bed seems to have teared itself to form a pool of clear still water. After a long walk we reached the Umberkhind Monument where we rested for a while. Soon a group of Men and Women came there in a car. One of the uncle carried a Watermelon on his head. They asked us how we came and appreciated our efforts. They had just hiked Mrugagad. They were on their way to Chavani village. They offered us mouthful slices of नमक लगाया हुआ watermelon and bid us a good bye.  कलिंगड़ खाऊन आम्ही जे काही refresh झालो ते सरळ बैला सरखे चालत सूटलो.

It was about 3.45PM when we heard a car coming behind us, it was the same group. They asked us to hop in. From here life was fast forwarded for next 45 Minutes. Train to CST from Khopoli was at 4.28PM and the next one was at 6.02P.M. Unless one loves to wait on a platform for full 1 and a half hour, 6.02PM train was not an option. They dropped us at Mumbai Expressway faata and we hopped in a 6 seater tumtum which was already filled with 12 people. त्याच्या मांडी वर bag, तिच्या मांडीवर तो अश्या अवस्थेत खोपोली शिळफाटा गाठला. From Khopoli Shilphaata we took another rickshaw to Khopoli Station. Rickshaw वाले काका म्हणाले पळा पळा, and we started running. Train was on the station. Ticket vendor was on the platform besides ticket vending machine. दोन Dombivli एक Vikhroli द्या. गाडी चा हॉर्न वाजला. पोम्मम्मम्म!!  Dombivli आल  Vikhroli येत नाही आहे. Touch screen वर काकान्नी 10 वेळा thumb मारला तेव्हा कुठे मशीन च्या काखेत टिकिट आल. ट्रेन सुटली, काकांना 100 ची नोट दिली आम्ही ट्रेन मधे, काका प्लेटफॉरम वर पळत पळत एक एक करून 10 च्या तीन आणि 5 चा कॉइन आम्हाला देऊ लागले. Tape recorder चे pause button दाबल्या वर जस loud music थांबत तसं सगळं जग थांबलं होतं. Journey ला pause लागला होता, आता Play button पुन्हा काय play करतं, बघुया!