the avchitgad misadventure

After 2 earlier failed attempts, we finally planned to set of to Avchitgad on Saturday 24th July. It was a group of 7. Dhruwin was most keen and the first to confirm. There was a small period of time when pratik wasn't sure of joining and I was shuddering at the though of taking my Alto, instead of his Verna. Anyway all that worked out and the 7 member group was locked in by Thursday night.

Avchitgad is a fort in Roha taluka off NH17. It is a simple trek and we planned to climb from Meda village. Having planned the trek earlier, albeit as just an initial plan, and due to a very hectic week in office, I couldn't research much. However, I managed to get the necessary maps to the base village in place. Having heard that this is a simple trek, and having a high energy group, I didn't bother reading up on the trek route etc (assuming others would). Infact, so confident was I of the trek that I even planned a 2nd trek for the day if this one finished on schedule.

By Friday, I had arranged food in the base village (Meda) and we were all set. Or so it seemed. It had poured the previous day and Konkan was in disarray. Kundali river had overflowed and NH17 was shut for 3 hours. The train schedule was in a mess. Dipak pinged me on friday to check if I was taking a train. Anyway, the only effect of the Thursday chaos we saw were some major pot holes on NH17, some really swelled up rivers, heavy rainfall and thankfully, lesser traffic. We started almost on time, despite Prachi's best efforts. Mayank was the only person in the group who hadn't trekked in a while and so it was only his fitness I was worried about.

swelled up river ... anyone??

Adventure began immediately on starting when I realised I had forgotten the maps back home. Since it was a simple route, and we had Pratik's wonderful GPS console, we carried on and found Medha village without to much hassle. We took the Nagothane exit and then the Roha-Murud road. For this we had to cross an old dilapidated single way bridge over a swelling river and I made a mental note to avoid this route on the way back. The Roha-Murud road is a wonderful drive through a ghat we were soon in a mini Malshej with many beautiful small waterfalls around us. Finally we passed a waterfall we couldn't resist and stopped to check it out.

Checking out the fall

In Meda village, we met our hosts the Chandanes, told them to keep food ready by 2 and then parked and set off. We were advised to take a local along but decided otherwise, a decision I cribbed about many times during the day. The thing about trekking with 6 people who know its a pilot is that all are in a high state of excitement. Every local is asked directions and each member individually. Most interesting is Pratik, he is most keen to know how much time will we take to reach and would even ask this question to a tree if he didnt get find any new person to ask every 5 mins (Bart Simpson anyone). Anyway, after one local was piled on 2 times by groups of 3, we set off on what seemed like a narrow jungle path. The summary input was to climb up to the pass and then turn right towards the fort (a nobrainer considering the straight path was a descent into another village). After the initial hiccups, we were on course and soon hit the pass and turned right. We were clearly on the right track and also saw some arrows. By now, it was pouring cats and dogs but that apart, we had no other qualms.
However, soon the problems began. The road kept got flat and kept going on straight and the fort was clearly on our right a bit higher up. It seemed like we were circumnavigating the fort from the outside. We clearly had to turn right somewhere and were getting impatient at not getting a proper route. We decided to turn back and look for a turn, now to our left. Finally we found some weak routes and in our keenness to reach up climb one which looked most promising. After 5 minutes of what Dhruwin describes as "andha dhundi climbing" (climb towards ur destination, irrespective of there being a path) we reached a clearing and finally saw the fort wall. We had reached a dead end. This wall was built to stop much more nimble footed soldiers from scaling the fort. However, me and Dhruwin still tried to climb with without any success. We were now at our wits end. So near and yet so far. We just could not spot the entrance. There was a thought of camping here for a while and then heading back. Even the Dairy Milk Silk (which is generally reserved for atop or post descent) was removed and finished off. I took out my cell from its multi layer rain protection and called Dipak, since he had done the climb one month earlier. However, since I couldn't explain him my location, he couldn't help. Then I called our hosts, and luckily they figured where we are and gave us the correct advise. We had to continue going on the right of the fort and the entrance would come. From our position, we had to walk through thick bushes to reach the path again. We set off fighting through the thorny bushes. I kept to the back of the group, and soon heard a cry up front, "rasta mil gaya, arrow mil gaya." Soon were were at the entrance of the fort. The 1 hour climb had taken us 3.

It took us an hour to explore the massive fort. We found a lot of water tanks, temples, and finally the went to the spot we had lost hopes at. Despite the inclement weather, some pics were taken.

the multicoloured water tanks

the gang atop - no idea whats in store ahead

At about 3 pm, we began descending. Timekeeper Pratik decided that we should be down by 4 pm and no one disagreed. As with the whole trip so far, I sent Dhruwin up front and took the rear. It was going to be a simple descent, we had to just follow the arrows. Or so we thought!!!

Everyone was keen to know where we had lost our way. After all we had encountered arrows enroute and also at the end. Logically we kept descending along the arrow route. For a while we couldn't hit our ascent route. The fleeting though that we might be going the wrong way did occur to me and I also expressed it a couple of time. However, we concluded that we would descend within 50 meters of our starting point. Soon Dipak called to check if all was well. I also got a couple of SMSes. In all this confusion, I kept my cell in the pocket of my wind cheater. By now it was raining real hard (in case of any doubts on how hard, please read the papers of the last 3 days, Konkan is still disrupted and the railway has all but shut down). Mayank was feeling the descent and his knees were in a mess. I was most eager to reach down to end his agony. However, the route was completely different. Finally, we reached a clearing where we could see the hexagonal lake and pointed temple, which we had spotted next to our base village.Only problem was there was also a gushing river next to it. No one remembered the river but again we concluded that it would have sprung up due to all the rain. After all, how many villages have a hexagonal lake and a pointed temple!! Clearly, we had almost reached and the village was just behind the hillock on our left. By now every small altitude change was a big effort for Mayank and for his sake, I was really rooting for the descent to end.

If the river seemed like a small impediment initially, it turned into a major pain later. Our route directly ended into the river and there was nowhere else to go. At this point, there was a sinking feeling that we are lost and the arrows had been a fraud. Thankfully, we could see some villagers about a km away and so this seemed to be the logical route. However, try convincing your mind to cross a raging river when there is no visible path ahead.Here I took the lead and as all were looking, just started walking in. Soon wise sense prevailed and we formed a human chain and crossed. Clearly the river was not deep, but the force of the water was sufficient to drag us downstream.

A big sense of relief hit us after crossing the river as we again saw the arrows. This was clearly the route and we were not very far now. More importantly, it was flat walking from here on and we just had to round the hillock on our left. At 4.15 pm we were almost there. As always, we piled on the first villager we saw and asked directions (just to confirm). However, the lady seemed stunned and told us the village was very far back and to our right. She looked drunk and so we decided to go ahead and ask more people. All seemed to say the same. We concluded that all were drunk! None of us could believe that the village could be at the back and to the right. However, 20 different people cannot give wrong directions. Gradually it emerged that we were about 5-7 kms from Meda. Roha was 3 kms from our location. Some good villagers advised us to walk towards Roha and take a vehicle to Meda. I detected a few of them smirking when we asked directions. But I still couldnt reconcile to the fact that we were this lost. How could we be. By now, I was very pissed. I was clearly responsible for this trek and because of my lack of homework and alertness, we were in trouble. Thats not all, my cell was conked off due to the rain. We couldnt contact our hosts since only I had the number. There was no transportation options visible for miles. Abhishek was hit by a bout of sinus, Prachi was tired. Mayank's knees were a mess. There was no option but to reach Meda and fetch our cars. Also the poor hosts had prepared fod for 7 hungry trekkers. That had to be done justice to. Pratik who had been struggling all through the descent, suddenly became the cheerleader of the group. He pumped us all and decided that himself, dhruwin and I would run (yes run) ahead toward Roha and try and get some transport back, while the rest 4 walked behind. We ran for about a km, again much the amusement of the villagers. Pratik kept stopping at intervals to do his 'how far is it' routine. Finally after some running, brisk walking, give up walking and plenty of timekeeping, we reached Roha. We would have walked about 30 minutes to reach Roha. The trailing group was about a km behind us. Once again it hit me that they only have my number and my cell has conked. My sparking brilliance had overshadowed all proceedings. So I waited at the intersection while Pratik and Dhruwin went ahead to fetch an auto or 2. By the time the trailing group caught up, we had found 2 autos.

All lingering doubts I had on our location were settled. As confirmed later, we had descended on the wrong side of the pass. We were thus in a village on the other side of the fort. We were miserably lost and 7 kms from Meda. I got into my apologetic mode but was quite surprised to see all folks extremely happy. The adventure of getting lost, crossing the river and finding out way had been much more fun than a simple descent. Finally at 5.30 pm we reached Meda and rushed to eat without even changing. The wonderful lady (Mrs Chandane) showed us some sympathy and again reminded us that we had not heeded her advise of taking a local.  There is something about Prachi and village ladies. All of them start wanting to adopt her, teach her marathi and make her an ideal home maker. In the last trek, she had made Bhakri with the village lady. Here to she was in the kitchen discussing cost of living etc with her. Abhishek was clearly interested in the food alone.
 
Food time

I have always been biased towards village food, but that this food was phenomenal was a consensus. Dhruwin who is a vetran of 48 treks was most impressed. He has never eaten in the village. People had cribbed to me initially for arranging veg food, but I believe that was one (rare) wise decision I had made for the day. We had vatana sabzi, tandul roti, gehu roti, varan bhaat, salad and papad. The first time village eaters like Dhruwin and Mayank were stunned to contentment. The rest were just blissfully happy.

After the wonderful meal, we changed into dry clothes, had chai, thanked and paid our hosts profusely (as kudva said, screw the market) and set off. Driving was again a problem. Noone wanted Pratik to drive, as usual. Mayank gave up. Abhishek was looking dead (Sinus and then the subsequent medication). But he bravely decided to drive and I took the other car. All wet shoes n socks were packed into the boot and both car boots would have been smelling for days. While we avoided the rickety bridge on the way back, the pot holes on NH17 were tougher to miss. Night driving on this road after an exhausting trek is no walk in the park. But we managed. I gave up at Panvel and Pratik finally got to drive his car. On the way back, again we messed up as noone still had each others no. Inter car commmunication was a problem. Dhruwin kept us entertained by telling us more stories of his getting lost on treks. Finally it dawned to me that he was the reason and nothing else! We got home by 10 pm. It was an adventure I would not forget for a while. This blog will serve as a reminder when we converted a simple short trek into something memorable, albeit unintentionally.

Learnings for the day
1. Use your brains and do not keep your cell in your pocket during rains.
2. Most villages have a hexagonal lake and pointed temple
3. Dhruwin loves loosing the way, dont keep him in the front
4. Do not hoard on the groups mobile nos, share.
5. Even if its a simple trek, do your homework and stay alert.
6. If you take a right while going up, you must turn left when going down
6. Getting lost is awesome fun.