Just be positive - i learnt from this trek

Tripoto
5th Aug 2016
Day 1

5th August was the day when Rain was so continuous in Mumbai that even most of the Offices announced and asked it's employees to leave early from office to avoid any risk. So everyone got home early. And here at other point we were planning to go to harishchandra gadd the same day. Everyone was confused whether we should continue with the plan or postpone, few people also cancelled.

Finally a count of 25 people decided to go ahead with the plan, so all of us gathered at Thane station at 10 as earlier decided. Now comes one more problem, the bus we booked has still not reached and no one is clear where the bus has reached......

At 11.30 finally transport consultant says "bus kurla me kharaab ho gayi h, isliye driver ne ek mechanic ko uthaya h and garage me repair karva ra hai"

At 12.30 transport wala said " bus vikroli pochi"

1.15 transport wala said " bus abhi bhi kurla me hi hai"

On other side we all were confused about bus location and had no other option than waiting at Thane platform. Some more time passed then we also see offed last train going to karjat then slowly everyone started getting tired toh bas ab platform pe soneki bhi kasar puri ho gayi, hum turn by turn katte pe so gaye......

At 1.45 transport wala said finally bus has reached thane.......toh driver ko call kiya toh pata chala police ne pakda bus and he is not letting them go........ Toh 2 guys from the group took rickshaw and directly went to all nearby police Chowki.......... par no sign of any driver or bus....... Then finally came to know bus had mistakenly gone in thane west and it was caught their as driver had entered a one way lane. Then after paying fine and talking to police guys, finally bus and driver ko release kiya.

At other end we all started thinking both these guys ran away as they are neither picking our calls neither giving any status about bus or any further plans. We 3 girls could not wait anymore at platform so we came and started waiting at empty street and started looking at every vehicle head light rays hoping to be our bus. But then ek gaadi aayi and full chikkal uda di humpe so gussa hoke we decided to return to platform again.

At 2.30 we started discussing chal yaar aakhri train dekh liya ab pehli train leke ghar Jana padega lagta hai and finally the phone rang with some good news among all these problems. A guy came and said bus is coming take all luggage and move towards road,but we all looked at each other and told we are not moving until we see actual bus standing on that road. So bichara akela gaya khudka bag leke baahar. After 10 mins we couldn't believe bus actually arrived, so we all ran out with our luggage as if it was a miracle and would disappear if we don't run and catch it.

At 3 AM our journey started towards Harishchandra gadh. Everyone sleeping in bus tired of waiting, rain and so many problems we faced but still passed through them all.

Day 2

Sun started shinning through windows it was I guess 7.30 and we were around 30-40 km away from base village. View outside window was pretty refreshing with green trees everywhere sun shinning above them, cool breeze and slightly rainy just like perfect village sceneries.Now our night driver started feeling sleepy so he switched with alternate driver.He took drivers seat and he suddenly picked up speed on zig zag ways of mountain which was no less than any roller coaster ride. This sudden twist and turns of bus wokeup everyone in the bus and we started to notice beautiful view from the window. After some time we could see number of beautiful waterfall on mountains surrounding us, hiding behind foggy climate.We were so happy now to see all these and starting feeling it was worth all that wait at platform coz if we would have come as per plan then we would have reached here when it was dark and missed witnessing such beautiful view.

Isliye bade bujurg kehte hai humesha Jo hota hai achhe k liye hi hota hai.This quote fits here so perfectly.

We were just admiring scenery around suddenly there was a small section of Kaccha road ahead and our bus was stuck their and couldn't cross it. Now the situation included a small road, muddy road, raining , edgy turn on mountain ..........it was scary to look outside window and see such depth but still driver decided to take reverse and go ahead with some speed. Everyone sitting behind driver decided to standup for 2 reasons

1.To balance bus weight on safer side

2.If anything went wrong then run out quicker.

But luckily driver was skilled enough and we sailed through this problem too.

Finally at 9 AM we reached at the base via pachnai village. Subah subah baarish me garma garam chai is just an awesome start of the day. We all had hot tea and quickly were ready to start the trek.

Slow rain and cool breeze increased everyones excitement to finally kick start trek. And we started walking upwards, following expert trekkers directions. Walking on rocks , greenery everywhere, showering rain, carrying luggage on our back and after almost an hour of all these we could finally view village from besides our way in between fog.

Some more walk and here comes our 1st waterfall, everyone went to enjoy shower of waterfall.

Then again we walked some more and here comes a bigger waterfall. Again all of us stopped below the waterfall and enjoyed it's shower, few were not even willing to leave this waterfall now.But they were dragged out of the waterfall and again we continued now we could see a water flowing river , so we were advised to go cross it holding each other's hands , here few villagers also helped.Thank fully water level was not too high, thus we quickly crossed and moved ahead.

Then again continued with lots of beautiful scenery, selfies, picture clicking, walking, waterfall ,etc. Around 12.30 we reached at our destination cave which a good 3 BHK cave of the fort. At the entrance room a village family had set up their kitchen to cook and stay then we moved to next room which was all dark inside even at noon so had to carry torch always,in the lights of torch I could see a nice big room everyone settled here and keeping their bags. Now moving ahead I could see 3 small rooms attached as if these were small bed room at ancient times.

Then a few of us decided to hv breakfast of kanda poha and others decided to go ahead to shiv ling. So people started walking towards temple, then took blessings of ganpati bappa and moved ahead to shiv ling.

As soon as all reached we could see a view of shiv ling at center with 4 pillars surrounding it, and water everywhere.

Then few wanted to jump in the water and touch the pillars but at some distance we could see a black line, now we were not sure such black line is just a piece of wood or some snack. No one was ready to jump in and check what it is, then suddenly one person acted strong and jumped in this motivated few more and they too jumped in and went ahead to chk that black line, it was just a wooden stick. Now everyone jumped in the water and took blessings of shiv and touched all 4 broken pillars

1 pillar is broken from top

A pillar is broken from middle

A pillar is broken from bottom

Only 4th pillar is standing tall and unbroken

After clicking lots of pictures we decided to return to caves as now everyone was hungry.

As soon as we reached caves everyone changed clothes and then sat down to have garma garam bhakri , batata bhaaji, papad , daal and rice. After such yummy food we decided to take some rest and sleep for some time and depending on weather decide further plans in the evening.But in the evening due to heavy rain and risky weather we decided to stay back at caves and enjoy the stay with no mobile network, no facilities except food, just people around and phone batteries dying.

So started group conversation with an introduction and any trekking experience by every individual.Most were new to trekking so hardly could share any experience, so regular trekkers shared their experiences of various places like trek in deserts, leh ladhak trip, trek in north, sarpaas , etc etc.

This surely inspired the beginners to continue and explore more. When we were done with all the story telling and listening, Then we had dinner and started we playing games like housie , Mafia etc till 2 at night then slowly slowly everyone started moving to their sleeping mats and few dozed off. But then one person said let's tell horror stories and whoever was not sleeping gathered together and we sat in a circle. Then suddenly a guy said it's said that 3AM is the time when evil is strongest. One look at watch and what a coincidence it was exact 3 AM. We still continued all stories of all bhoot , chudail , chetkin , chakva , etc etc almost at 4.30 we ran out of all horror stories we knew, thus decided let's sleep as next day we need to cover few points and also return.Then suddenly a villager came with torch and all of us were literally staring him as if he is just some bhoot, but fortunately for him or us that I donno but he was a human.

Day 3

Day started with everyone packing their stuff and shouting at each other and searching stuffs " arey tune mera torch dekha kya, arey mere kapde sukhe kya etc etc"

It was already 8 in the morning now as per plan we were going to go to konkan kada a huge cliff which gives a spectacular view of konkan from the top. So we all quickly got ready and started walking towards konkan kada. After around an hour we reached the cliff but due to heavy climate no view was visible we could only see fog everywhere.

But it was worth going coz we got Vodafone network in this area almost after 2 days everyone informed their fAmily that we have all reached properly and will return by the end of the day.

This area was so windy that whatever we threw down from the cliff , it came back so we started throw wooden sticks , leaves and click pictures and selfies

After enjoying the spot it was time to return back to caves so we started walking again. Reached caves collected our bags and started journey downwards now, after a good walk comes 1st big waterfall on our way, so again we enjoyed it then next came a pond.Now kept all our bags aside and jumped into the pond, splashed lots of water on each other, took a dip in the cold water , swimming in it, clicked lots of pictures. Finally time to come out of water and again start walking, so back on track of walking , on the way there were again lots of water falls, sceneries view everywhere so that makes everyone click more pictures by default. But we reached base village but saw few farmers working in their farm so few of us ran that side and went in to the farm and helped farmers in their work which I guess made them also happy to get free workers.

Then we moved back to base village where our bus was parked, changed clothes and started the journey towards end of trip.

While returning everyone were more excited and enthusiastic as now everyone knew each other in better way so we again played lots of games like antakshari, rapid fire , dumb shadaash and finally Mafia.

Driver announced we reached back in Mumbai, this made us sad but we also were happy to meet so many new friends on friendship day. Wished each other happy friendship day and promised to continue trekking and be in contact.

Photo of Just be positive - i learnt from this trek by Rooh Ru k
Photo of Just be positive - i learnt from this trek by Rooh Ru k
Photo of Just be positive - i learnt from this trek by Rooh Ru k
Photo of Just be positive - i learnt from this trek by Rooh Ru k
Photo of Just be positive - i learnt from this trek by Rooh Ru k
Photo of Just be positive - i learnt from this trek by Rooh Ru k
Photo of Just be positive - i learnt from this trek by Rooh Ru k
Photo of Just be positive - i learnt from this trek by Rooh Ru k