‘Life Begins at the end of your comfort zone‘. This is the quote that inspired me a lot and which I took a printout of it and pasted it on the wall of my bedroom which I used to see regularly. But I never got a chance to move out of that comfort zone because of my comfortable job and decent salary. I always used to have dreams about travelling, adventures, meeting new people,learning new things but I never tried it.
As Paulo Coelho said “And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”,and that day arrived.
Wild Card Entry: I was never supposed to travel this trip. Actually one of my friend booked this trip for him after talking to the Organizer from BCF. But due to some unavoidable reasons my friend was not able to attend and asked me to go as a replacement for him. Initially I hesitated to go because I don’t know where I am going, where I am going to stay, I don’t know how things gonna happen and I said no to him. But somewhere the passion inside me for travelling compelled me to go, So finally after thinking a lot I conveyed my final decision saying that I will replace him for the trip. So I was ready for the trip without even knowing anything about the place . I never knew then, that this one decision will have a huge impact on me in coming days.
Day 1:
I went to the railway station and met the Organizer of the trip and then met all the other members of trip and boarded train to Karjat. Had an Introduction with team members followed by chit chats. But still it was very strange for me to join the trip with some set of strangers whom I never met. I thought to myself, first step to step out of my comfort zone.
Day 2:
Gained Confidence: By the time I woke up, we were in Pune. Its almost 9 am. And understood that its like 2 more hours journey from Pune to Karjat. That 2 hours journey was breathtaking. The train journey was in monsoon (Sep - first week) and as the train passing through long tunnels and it was something I never experienced. This is the time I got confidence that my trip is going to be awesome. So eventually we got fresh up in the train and had some breakfast.
Reached Karjat: By 11 am we reached Karjat and from there we took train to Bhivpuri Place. As the waterfall rappelling is the next day, we had ample time. So we had our lunch and done trekking also. We went to nearest waterfall and had fun till the evening.Usually the itinerary will be fixed when we travel through travel groups with some changes based on situations. So as per the Itinerary, we have to reach the waterfall rappelling spot by evening and pitch the tents and camp that night in Jungle.
Twist in the story: We were back to Bhivpuri railway station and from there we have to reach the waterfall before 5 pm. But one of the girl from the trip, suggested not to camp and we shall go to Mumbai. So as everyone was ready for this crazy thing, we decided to go to Mumbai instead of staying in Bhivpuri. We spoke to rk and as the group was small unexpectedly everyone said okay. So we made it a City Freak event for that half day!
Mumbai: So we started to Mumbai and this unexpected journey was the most memorable journey happened for me. Usually the local trains from Pune to Mumbai will be fully crowded,but as we travelled in the evening and night the trains were empty. We went to Juhu beach and sat there and had our conversations, took pics and enjoyed the silence of sea and delighted by the sounds of Waves. As it was Ganesh Immersion time,the staff at the beach told us to vacate. So we roamed the streets of Mumbai in autos and tasted the road side food.I thought everyone had to experience that night life as there is some magic in it.
One thing I learnt that day was, there is so much life going on, when we were asleep. And that whole night we didn’t sleep and finally back to Bhivpuri railway station 6am in the morning.
Day 2:
When we reached station, we got freshened up in the railway station, we ate in the railway station, we did everything as it is like our STAY for the trip but without paying any money.(out of comfort zone things )
Finally we had breakfast and moved towards rappelling point,it’s a 2 hour trek from the station and we reached to the water fall rappelling point.As there was some time left for rappelling, we swam in the near by pools. Especially I swam a lot because I felt the water was so pure, fresh, sweet and chilling.Later as the instructor of the rapalleing explained the precautions to be taken. I was ready with rappelling gear and waiting for my turn. My heart beat raised as the time arrived. Initially I was afraid a bit but I gathered my confidence with the thought in my mind “LIFE BEGINS AT THE END OF COMFORT ZONE”.
That 10 minutes was pure bliss, first 2 minutes were bit uncomfortable but once I got used to it, it became bit easy. You can easily walk on a horizontal line, but imagine walking on a waterfall as water is continuously falling on your eyes and you can’t see anything to adjust your position of legs.Sometimes you get hit to the fall. But everything will be paid off when you reach down the waterfall. I shouted with joy once I reached down the fall. I am sure it was so loud. I am just short of words to express my feelings. Its like I achieved something great and want to share with all my friends asap. I think you can only experience such things by doing yourself!
And then comes Zip line,which I done it easily with the confidence of waterfall rappelling and again we swam in the pools till others completed with rappelling.
Thriller: So we were done with the rappelling and zipline. Till that point of time everything was good and awesome. But as some quote says adventure begins where our planning ends. As per the plan we should reach Karjat by 2 pm. Reason for that was our train was scheduled at 2:20 pm but we were still stuck near waterfalls till 12.30 pm. Our plan was to go to Bhivpuri and board the train to Karjat as our train is from Karjat. Some of our team members along with rk got into the local train from Bhivpuri to Karjat immediately they reached Bhivpuri station. We missed that local train by fraction of seconds (hardly 15 seconds). You know how it feels when part of your team boarded and we missed the train within fraction of seconds. We 3 got stuck and there was no another train from Bhivpuri to Karjat. So rk suggested us to take a local auto directly to Karjat. We got into an auto and we troubled the driver and insisted him to drive fast with a doubt in the mind that whether we will make it or not. As we also know our Indian railways always waits for passengers,the train didn’t come to the station. So we peacefully had our lunch (now you know how late the train was) and boarded the train.
I had a feeling that I met these guys long time ago. As we were close, the return journey was filled with even more fun. We became close friends in those two days of the trip. And this trip will be very close to my heart.
That 2 days had impact for 2 weeks with the thought of travelling again. In the end it’s not the Wealth, it’s not the position, it’s not the fame but It’s the moments you cherished will be remembered.
