The best adventure of my life... so far

Friday 26 February 11.30 pm: after a hectic day in office and having attended 2 parties, I finally reach CST with my 8 kg trekking gear. Here I meet Deepak out assistant leader. We bond instantly. Deepak informs me that the leader Rajesh had to cancel last minute. Thus, he is now the leader and the only experienced trekker in the group. Ofcourse, he has not done one of the 2 treks we are doing. The adventure has indeed begun.

11.40 pm: the adventure continues… mahanagri express arrives at CST station and there is a mini riot. The police is lathi charging to control the crowds trying to get into the general compartment and maintain a queue. I just missed a lathi by a whisker. Seems like the entire eastern UP crowd is going back home to celebrate holi. After thinking of options like ST, bribing cops, canceling trek etc, we finally manage to climb into a jam packed (Virar fast will be put to shame) general compartment but are stuck at the door. With all our luggage and 3 more guys attempting to climb at Kalyan, we decide to risk a penalty and leave the general compartment and climb into the sleeper. Thankfully, not too many people think our way and the doorway in the sleeper is not that crowded.

1 am: 3 guys join us at kalyan. All are quite kicked about the trek. All these guys are in the 22-25 age group and engineers. Spirits are high and we even take on a person smoking, threatening to throw him off the train if he doesn’t stop. I try to catch some sleep but the awkward standing positions don’t help. Of course, there is no place to sit except at the door. Sitting at the door looking outside, I am thinking this is going to be one heck of a jouney when suddenly my thoughts are interrupted by an approaching station. Before we know it Igatpur has arrived.

3 am: We alight at Igatpuri, after yet another verbal duel with the other people at the door. A ticket checker asks for our tickets but doesn’t even consider fining us for the unreserved ride. We have tea and then walk to the Igatpuri bus stand and settle down on the benches there. There are some more trekkers waiting there and a lot of mosquitoes ready to welcome us

4 am: Fighting the mosquitoes and my very loud and talkative friend, I finally manage to catch some sleep. This one hour proved to be very useful.

5 am: The ST arrives and by now there are 3-4 trekking groups assembled. 80% of the bus is trekker. All of us are headed to Shendi near Bhandardhara. The ride is as bad as can get. The road is miserable and the driver seems to be in a real hurry. I am reminded of my ride from Delhi to manali. Out of fear and discomfort most of us can’t sleep at all

6.30 am: We reach Shendi. 3 trekking groups including ours are headed to Rattanwadi and rest move on (probably towards kalsubai). We were hoping to take a boat across the Bhandardhara but we are just too many. Finally we negotiate 2 jeeps. The jeeps are worse than the ST as now we are also inhaling the diesel. Most are nauseated. Finally, I puke out the 2 cups of tea I have had.

7.30 am: We have reached rattan wadi and see the Amruteshwar temple. We have locally made Kandha Poha and at 9 am our group sets off to rattanwadi with a local as a guide.
10 am: The trek up Rattan Ghad has just begun and already 2 guys are struggling. The sun is also taking a toll although most of the route is through forest and shade. By 10.30 am, I have gauged that this is going to be a struggle. I go to the back of the group and start edging the 2 guys. Finally one relents in allowing the guide to carry his luggage. He is really unwell and soon pukes out all he has eaten.

12 noon, we have just reached the Nedhe. The view is brilliant and we can see Khutta, kalsubai, ajoba, kulang, karwali ghat, Sandhan valley and the Baan Pinnacle. Photography is at its peak.
1 pm: After climbing up a brilliant stairway, we have entered the fort. We stop for Lunch. People have not planned well and only 2 out of the 5 are carrying food (while remaining 3 are carrying plates and Bowls and spoons ). We share the meager rations among us and our bemused guide.

2.30 pm: We have our first and only monkey incident of the trek. It’s a minor and no damage done.

3 pm: After seeing the fort, we begin our descent. The descent starts off with 2 precariously wobbly ladders. The stone stairs here have been weathered away with time and so these ladders have been set up. We pick up good speed and manage to complete the descent in 30 minutes.

3.30 pm: We are running 2 hours late now and still have a lot of distance to cover and loads to climb. We decide to push and cut back on the breaks. We need to cross the katrubai pass and reach a village called Kumshet . The journey should take 4 hours at normal speed and there is a grave fear that we might have to trek in the dark.

5.30 pm: we have made good ground but the effort is taking its toll. The last part of the kartubai climb is really tough and the lack of sleep and minimal food is hitting by now. 3 of the group of 5 are struggling real bad. By now, even our guide is trying to help edge us on. We finally hit Katrubai pass at 6 pm and break to celebrate. Our guide leaves us to head back to his village. The journey we did in 9 hours (with 3 hours of breaks) he will be doing in the next 2 hours.

6.30 pm: Again we descend at good speed. Myself and Deepak are ahead and planning on how we will manage the next day at our speeds. I am suggesting to him to alter course but he thinks we should carry on.

7.15 pm: We have managed to reach the village before it is really dark. Kumshet is a small village with barly 20 houses and no electricity. We stop at the village mandir. The locals are falling over to assist us. One guy arranges for the food. We freshen up at the village tap. I have never been so thankful for soap in my entire life. We witness a very beautiful aarti with various bhajans and dances. We also witness a couple of holi bonfires (they do it 2 days in there villages)

8.30 pm: The remaining 3 members of our group decide that they are not up for it. They decide to head back in the morning and make arrangements. I too am unsure of my ability to continue but really want to continue. The continuity of the trek depends on my decision as Deepak has decided to continue if even one person carries on. I decide to sleep on the decision. After all, the body is expected to show greater signs of fatigue after it cools down.

9 pm: I have one of the best meals of my life. It is just potato bhaji, slightly hard rotis, coarse rice and bland daal; but the body has seldom ever craved food this much.

9.30 pm: we head off to sleep inside the mandir. It is expected to get real cold in the night and I am really grateful for my sleeping bag. Moreover, there is not a single mosquito in the mandir. Deepak says it is because of the dried dung plastering that is done outside. God bless the cows and their dung.

7 am: We all wake up from a deeply refreshing sleep. Surprisingly, I feel fine and decide to continue onwards. However, I insist we change our plans in such a way that we reach Mumbai by day end. We decide to skip one fort enroute and the plan to camp up at Harishchandra ghad. More importantly, the trek is on!

9 am: After having kanhda pohas again for breakfast, we bid farewell to Kumshet and our 3 friends and me and Deepak set off towards Harishchandra ghad. Deepak has climbed Rattan ghad 2 times before. However, he has not done this part of the trek. The walk begins. We keep checking course with every local we meet. There is a fear of losing way and hence time which is at a premium. We also hear vastly differing estimates of the time it will take us, from 1 hour to 4 hours and everything in between.

12.15 pm: Civilisation at last. After walking for 3 hours, we reach pachnai village. This village has electricity connection but power is expected only at 6 pm. There is a tar road and we see some vehicles too. We look for a shop just to have a cold drink and break the monotony. We have to settle for cold water from a well (which I draw out) and then some limbu pani

12.45: The trek up Harishchandra ghad being. From being the person pushing the 5 member group, I am now the bottleneck of this 2 member group. Deepak is gently edging me on. We have a tight timeline. We have also decided to skip lunch at Panchnai in order to make time

2 pm: We reach atop Harishchandra ghad. The climb was quite simple and I am quite surprised as I had heard it’s quite a handful. The place is packed with trekking groups. There are atleast 8 and more are coming in. All the caves are occupied. Cooking is heavily under progress. The only 2 stalls in the place are packed with trekkers who are not cooking. We check out the temple, order out food and head off to konkan kada.

2.45 pm: Konkan Kada is a very humbling experience. It is massive. One could just sit there for hours. I hear that the sunset is breath taking from here, but we don’t have the time to find out

3.15 pm: Scrumptious meal of Zunkha Bhakar. My lifeling endeavor of eating this is finally complete.

3.45 pm: After looking for options and discussing with some really helpful and experienced trekkers, we decide that the best option is to descend to Khireshwar village. This will however take 3 hours by average estimate. Again, there is a fear of descend on this tough route in the dark. This pressure works and we make very quick ground. We keep meeting trekking troupes going up. It is going to be one packed Poornima night atop!

5 pm: We stop for Limbu paani and gauge that we are halfway down. The progress is very heartening. Now the tough part of the descent starts. Also I begin to struggle. The frequency of the breaks goes up. I am walking on reserve and have a minor headache. Now I can understand how my friends were feeling on the Katrubai climb.

6.10 pm: We have made it to Khireshwar. The descent was completed in less than 2.5 hours. This place has paved roads. I have chai at a hotel and feel better. We are told that the ST left at 6 pm. Now, it is a 6 km walk to the highway. Since we are only two, hiring a drop is not an option. We begin walking. Luckily, we meet a group of 6 looking for a ride to the highway. We hire the only vehicle of the village (as boasted by the owner). This is the end of the walking.

8 pm: We reach the highway. The other group is headed for pune. We bid farewell and look to hitch a ride to Kalyan. We are taken in by a greedy tempo guy. He has fit 5 people in the place meant to seat 3. I am completely on the driver’s seat sitting between him and the gear box. We go through the Malshej Ghat. I always wanted to drive a big vehicle in a ghat. This is the next best thing, as uncomfortable as it may be. We also see a lot of holi bonfires up in the mountains. It is looking very pretty like Christmas lights put up in the mountains. I also realize that all the improvement in my Marathi speaking (I managed to have long conversations with the locals without anyone breaking into laughter) was shot lived and I am again speaking horrendous Marathi. I switch to Hindi and for a while the mind is still confused on which language to speak in.

9 pm: The stuffing is getting too much. The tempo guy keeps insisting that it is not his fault and we are fat. Strange considering that I am 61 kgs and Deepak is 58kgs. Finally he relents and drops us off at a stopping point into a truck. Suddenly, we have tons of legroom. This is my first truck ride, one more off the list of things to do before you die.

11 pm: The trucker drops us at Thane. We take an auto to the station. The adventure has ended. This has to be the best adventure of my life... so far