the travel book.pdf

For that walk with Nature

A personal account of my treks and travels

Srikanth Perinkulam


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Dedicated to Debi;

who breathed his last that fateful day on Mar 14th 09 while descending the Chembra peak. At times you come across people who leave an indelible mark in your life. This book is a revered tribute to

those few hours of bus ride and the friendship that changed his life.


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Acknowledgements

At times, a few things gain importance in proportions that you would just not be able to estimate and control. Thats how probably passion for something drives the nail out of the wall. When I look back now, it all sinks in how much of my personal life Ive lost track, in this desire to explore and learn. Were it not for the support of my family members I simply would not have been in a position to talk of these places today. Dad, Sharath, Aparna, Atchuth and Manni- Despite the fact that none from our family has ever been into traveling, leave alone adventure sports; by letting me pursue my passions without any constraints, you folks have instilled in me tremendous confidence to accept any challenge. What else could I ask for?

For having introduced me to this unending quest, if theres one person whom Id like to unconditionally thank that would be Suma. Shes one vibrant force and I fail to see how much I owe her for having roped me into Club AdVentura knowingly or unknowingly. Vishal Da, Kedar, Shridar, Shashi and Anand theres a lot that Ive learnt from you folks during the couple of treks that Ive been with you; things that I would never forget. A big thank you!

Animesh, Shiva, Gourav, Prasanna, Aishwarya and Jiddu I fall short of words to thank you for the amazing energy you guys get in to the HydVentura club. Dhok, Malik, Rahul, Vaibhav, Ashutosh, Suhas, Bhavana and Trupti I simply would not have been able to explore the Sahyadris without your help. Id always cherish those five months I spent with you folks at Pune. Bani Had it not been for you and the Thunderbolts team, I would never have got back to cycling. A petty thanks would just not suffice!

In the last couple of years my network of friends has so tremendously increased, that at times Ive failed to do justice in honoring the relationship. I would like to take this opportunity to thank each one of those whove made me feel not just another person on this planet.

Last but not the least; Roy, Manas and Rahul Thanks for your inspirational support in getting this out. A few things in life need to phase out and so they will.


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Contents

Preface 6

Parasailing at Hoskote, Bangalore 8

Nagarjunsagar and Ethipothala falls 12

Kalvarhallibetta and Anthargangae 17

Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani 25

The Katraj-Sinhagad Night Trek 30

The Katraj-Sinhagad Night Trek II 34

Kundalika River rafting 38

The Rohida Trek 43

The Sarasgad Trek 47

The Kothaligad Trek 51

The Koraigad Trek 56

The Raigad Trek 61

The Prachandgad [Torna] Trek 66

The Rajmachi Trek 70

The Visapur Lohagad Trek 77

Kondividi Waterfall Rappelling 81

The Raireshwar Trek 84

The Katrabhai Pass trek 88

The Bhimashankar Trek 96

The Ratangad Trek 102

The Wayanad Escapade 105

The Bidar Ride 112

The Enduro3 09 Competition 115


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The Kalsubai Trek 120

Kawal wildlife Sancturary 123

The Jalori Pass Mountain Biking Expedition 128

Appendix 138


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Preface

At Bangalore, sometime during the end of July 2007, I was sifting through a few internal pages in my company's intranet portal. I happened to come across this site that claimed to be a web portal of an adventure group. I registered just for the heck of it in their google groups. As a result, every other week I ended getting a mailer from the group informing about one trek or the other. But then, I never cared. My friends circle was least interested in any outdoor activity. It was just Volleyball, Basketball, TT and Swimming. So be it.

Four months later, soon after I headed back to Hyderabad over just another lousy week; I happened to read a mail from the AdVentura team. It was about a Parasailing event that was being organized in Hoskote. Impulsively, I gave Suma a call and got myself registered. Given the short time span, I couldn't arrange for tickets to Bangalore. As a last resort I went down to the Bus terminus and by sheer luck managed to get a ticket in the APSRTC inter-state transport bus. That weekend changed my perspective towards life. Up there in the air about 450m high, I decided I'd live like I've never lived before. Back on the ground, I promised Suma that Id help her start a club in Hyderabad. Finally on 6th Feb 2008, Hyderabad had its own Adventure club - HydVentura.

Ive mercilessly utilized every available weekend to explore places and I hope I continue to do so as far as possible. I travel because I need to. Ever since my graduation, Ive trained my brain to reject monotony in any form. And travel happened to be one major part of it. As you start venturing out, you realise how much youve missed and that theres a lot more to living life than the regular eight to five job. Travel in a way gives you a different perspective to look at things and believe me, solutions at times too! If theres one reason why Ive transformed from an introvert moron to an extrovert [Still a moron!]- Its travel. You end up meeting so many different people from different places that the diversity at times threatens to take you off your roots. Okay, thats more of an exaggeration - But you get it. The best part is, you get to relate to things much better once youre exposed to a different groups culture and habits. My latest escapade was to the north - Himachal Pradesh. And boy, what a learning it was!

On 27th March 2008, when I was transferred to Pune; I was on cloud nine. Pune as I knew it then was a magnificent young city. Little did I know what was in store for me! Just a week there and I managed to be an integral part of Deccan Highlanders - The unofficial Infy Pune Trekking club. Ever since the monsoon started, almost every other weekend we've been on treks. The headcount never mattered. It could be four, or it could be forty. All that mattered was we stood to the promise of having at least one trek per week. At the end of my stay in Pune, I myself was shocked to see the stats in front of me. Ive never stayed home a single weekend all through my stay there but still, Id not even covered thirty percent of the sight-seeing spots close to the city! If a small city like Pune in the western region of India has so much to offer, I leave it to you to judge what whole lot of things were missing out in ditching our own boat and jumping over to the ship sailing past us.

Its a shame to the third degree that we Indians do not have the interest to explore our own homeland before we proceed to cross the seas during our vacations. Theres so MUCH that theres to see in India, that believe me you wouldnt cover one eighth of it in even a two


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month long vacation. You could have a much more memorable vacation here than shelling out thousands of rupees on a Hawaiian beach or Mauritian visit. Agreed each place has got its own splendour and inviting features, But how sane is it to look for paradise thousands of miles away when you have one right in your backyard? I would primarily attribute the influx of tourists to India to word of mouth than to the publicity campaigns by the government. Weve a long way to go to reach the international standards in tourism and that definitely is a mammoth challenge. Its high time we pull our socks and get things rolling.

This book is a compilation of most of my travels or treks starting from Jan 14th 2008. Id made it a point to keep track of my activity in my personal blog and record those cherished moments as I lived through them. If trekking was an integral part of the weekend so was documenting it in my blog with minute details. Over time looking at the hits the posts receive, Im more than happy for having patiently recorded those.

The other day I had this spine chilling dream of Debi talking about his book. 01:00am that day, I decided I would prepare a compilation of my travel tales and get it printed come what may. Ive been working on this for quite some time now primarily editing the posts on my blog to suit them to be on a print document. Most of the photographs that you see in this book are not taken by me; due credits for these go to my trek pals whod accompanied me during those innumerable outings. Also, the language that you would find in the following pages may not conform to the rules of the English grammar per se. Id prefer to keep it that ways for no apparent reason.

I would consider the purpose of this book to be served if it motivates you to get off your seat and explore the world. In rooms and quorums you learn to earn. But its only on hills and shacks that you learn to live!

Srikanth Perinkulam July 24th 2009

That night when wed met on the Bus, Debi had loosely mentioned that he was working on publishing a book on his travel tales.


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Parasailing at Hoskote, Bangalore

Jan 14th 2008


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January 14th 2008:

There are so many places and occasions where you can sit back, relax and rethink on your strategy and future course in life. But 450m above the ground, where you have no control on yourself and have vested your dear life to the hands of some unknown person is definitely not a place to plan your next move.

Id been to Bangalore yesterday and it turned out to be just for Para-sailing. I left from Hyderabad on Saturday evening at about 3:30 pm and was fortunate enough to get tickets by the state bus service, which by itself was quite surprising given the short notice that I had. Three of my colleagues Shekar, Shilpa and Vairavan were to join me in Bangalore. Next day at about 6:00 am, I reached the Majestic bus stand in Bangalore and from there proceeded to the Infosys Electronics city campus by around 7:30 am. Vairavan had come down from Chennai the previous day and had arranged an accommodation. He, his friend Sharada and I left for silk board by 8:00 am. Sharada had to pick up some stuff from her house so both of them got down midway and promised to get back as early as possible. Id asked Shilpa and Shekar to be there at the Silk board bus stop by 7:30am. Shekar was well before time! You should have seen the reaction on their faces the moment I was there! Not finding the other two added just some more adrenalin in their bodies. Im not to be blamed for that!

Shekar, Shilpa and I left for KR Puram by the 500D bus service and reached the Cable bridge bus stop in about half an hour. This is just a few stops after Marathalli. It was already quarter past nine and both of us were desperately looking for a restaurant to grab a bite before we left for Hoskote where the Para sailing was to take place. All we could find was a guy selling hot idlis on a push cart. Each got a plate and gobbled all that we could. I bet even a three star hotel cant beat that taste!

None of us really knew how to get to Hoskote, so we placed a call to Anand who was handling the event that day and got the requisite directions. We had to board a 317 bus from the KR Puram cable bridge bus stand and get down at a bus stop


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called Koti. This place is about 12kms from KR Puram and you get to find quite a few buses on this route. The most prominent landmark (at least all of what I noticed) of this place is a BP Petrol bunk and a Punjabi shack dhabha on either side of the road. We thought it would be wise to wait for Vairavan and Sharada and then move together.

They did end up coming in about twenty minutes and all five of us started walking to the main parasailing area. You need to walk over a short bridge, take the immediate left and keep walking in the direction where you get to see Para sails in the air - These are the directions that were given to us by Anand. Hell! I dont blame him. That was the best he could provide. Topographically, locating our destination was pretty interesting. The river bed was almost dry and we had beautiful black and white buffaloes to guide us all through the path. We finally reached a place where the path ceased to take us any further. Fortunately this is where we caught a glimpse of one of the Para-sails in the air and in a matter of about ten minutes we reached the place where the remaining folks from AdVentura were seated.

We had to fill declaration forms before we could get the gear on us and shoot up in the air. Well, thats just a formality that comes with any adventure activity. Shilpa was the first to get hooked with the sail. Shed done it before so she was pretty cool with that. Next, was my turn! Im not particularly afraid of heights, but then butterflies somehow manage to create a flutter once a while. Given the expertise of the team that was conducting the event, there was nothing to be afraid of; but then emotions are something that is not under your control!

Anyways, this is how it works. You are given a proper gear to hook yourself up with the para-sail. A long strong chord is tethered to the sail to which you are hooked and the other end is jacked on to a car. Once youre all set, the guy accelerates forward and youre up in the air even before you realise whats happening!

The real fun is in living every moment of your flight. Keep your eyes wide open, stare into the sky, look at people down there , shout even if you are not scared or the best thing to do would


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be to fancy having to jump from that height if nothing else scares you! The initial tug that you get when the vehicle accelerates is just fabulous. The very feeling of helplessness and total sense of your surroundings at a height of about 400m is something which just cannot be explained. You need to experience it! Once in air, its not much of a scare. So as I told you, the best thing to do would be to visualize the chord to suddenly break loose. The rest is your imagination! Vairavan, Shekar and Sharada soon were done with. It was real fun to watch Sharada. Poor female, real light that she was had lots of trouble trying to come down. Heavy gusts of wind added to her misery. She was defying gravity in the real sense!

The journey back home to Hyderabad was as a fitting end to this happening weekend. Subash, a school pal of mine, managed to get a ticket booked for me. It happened to be one right in the front. Watching the driver zip on the roads at high speeds, skillfully maneuvering through the night traffic was just great. It kept me awake for the most part of the journey. Ive traveled quite a few times by bus but was always seated somewhere at the last.

All in all, it was a fabulous weekend. Thanks to Adventura, Anand and Suma in particular for organizing the whole event. Ive now got one thing off my virtual checklist. Got to try river rafting next!


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Nagarjunsagar and Ethipothala falls

Feb 23rd 2008


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February 23rd, 2008

My cell rings at about 5:00am. As Im already awake by then, I recognize the person at the other end to be Gaurav Saxena. Just a wakeup call he says. Gauravs been one of the most active members of Hydventura and today morning hes taken the responsibility of spoiling everyones sleep just to see to it that things go as planned. A few minutes later I get a call from him informing that he just had a bad fall and would not be able to join us for the trip. A pity that that he couldnt join us! The previous day wed planned to start off from the Infy campus by around 5:45 am. Nayan and Gaurav had arranged the Swaraj Mazda and Venkatesh happily donned the responsibility of being the treasurer for the trip. The group had decided on the route that the vehicle would take to pick up people as close as possible to their residence. As planned, everyone was ready at their respective pick up point more or less on time. We reach the city limits at about 7:15 am and from there start the three and a half hour journey to Nagarjunsagar. Wed arranged for a quick breakfast right in the bus to avoid getting delayed any further. Gaurav and Co. had made arrangements for Bread-Butter-Jam, Frootie packs and Water. Id got chips packed from Hot Chips. We also had Haldirams namkeen and biscuits doing rounds. Having spiked our energy levels we decided to have a brief introduction. We were 15 of us (Gaurav having dropped), and not many of us knew each other prior to this. It was quite surprising to know we had an amateur photographer (Gourav Bhaduri), Ace adventurers (Abhishek Tiwari, Aishwarya) et al in our group. The only outfoscion in our first Hydventura trip was Chaithanya - Sushyamalas brother. As with any group outing we decide to play Dumb charades. Sandeep Sarda made the whole activity lot peppier with his gyan and out of the box thinking. By the time wed reached Sagar, it was almost 10:45 am. We decide to visit NagarjunaKonda [An island on which is built a museum primarily showcasing excavated remains of Buddhist civilization] before lunch. The next launch ferry was at around 11:15am.


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The ferry was a Diesel boat capable of holding about 300 people. The close to 45 minutes ride and the beating sun did go a long way in helping the vendors sell cool drinks and other snacks. The ride was more or less monotonous and at times it was frustrating to move at that slow a speed. Yashawant and Nayan had a different experience though. They had kids whod come for an excursion teaching them Telugu! Reshma was no less in getting gyan from kids on the other side.

We reach the island by around 12:30pm thanks to the delayed start of the ferry. Being given 1hr to get back to the launch, we started walking towards the Museum. The stupas and the Altars were pretty impressive. Id been to the Museum a few years back so it wasnt really that enthralling to me. But it is a must watch, for first timers. It gives you a brief glimpse on life in the early ages.

Done with this we move over to the strategically placed canteen. From here you get to see the vastly spaced out reservoir totally devoid of any urban representations. The blue waters, seemingly flowing onwards to meet the blue hued sky and the rocky lands at a distance is a sight you need to see with your own eyes to admire. Truly breathtaking! With a brief photo session here by our ace photographer, we hunch back to the launch point. Again 45 minute ride on the reservoir waters and were back to the main banks. About 2:30 pm now, all we needed was some food. We walk towards the closest hotel and order Thalis for everyone. Im still not sure what to give credit to - the relishing meal or the gnarling rats in our stomachs. But whatever be the case, we did have one good sumptuous meal!

Its about 4:00 pm now and we decide to move over to Ethipothalla falls. The 12kms drive takes us about twenty minutes to get there. I was initially very keen on visiting this place but only the moment I was there did it loom on me that Id actually been to this place before. The water then in the falls was pretty murky and the whole experience was pretty bad. But believe me, this time it was far better. The flow was pretty good and the waters much cleaner. Varun, Sandeep, Abhishek Ramakant and Abhishek Tiwari had brought their shorts and hence moved over closer to the falls. The stones


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were pretty slippery but why fear when we had an 80 year young lady to help us cross it! Most of us finally made it close to the falls when Suyshamala slipped over the algae and got her dead cells on one of her toes chipped out. It wasnt a big hurt but then she couldnt continue standing in the waters, so she had to get back to the other side. Just a few moments after we finish cleansing her wound, Aishwarya took the next seat. Thanks to the old woman who stepped on her feet while she was getting back to the safer side. Venki got so tempted by the crabs there that he asked the woman if she could catch some for him. How good would it have been had the woman accepted!

This falls is truly a must see if youve come to Nagarjunsagar. But wait! Theres more to Ethipothalla than just the falls. Theres a very small temple right beside the kutcha path to the falls. Next time youre there be sure to catch a glimpse of goat and bird legs hanging by the tree branch at about your shoulders height. Divine Sacrifice huh? All of us finally get back to the vehicle with two hopping females giving company to the ever present monkeys there.

About seven kilometers from there we find a clinic and get Sushyamalas wounds dressed. From here we move over to the broken bridge of Nagarjunsagar. But the moment were there, we realise theyd blocked entrance to the bridge and we couldnt move any further. Fortunately we found something else much more interesting. There was a temple right beside it and the path down the temple was really inviting. It was a rocky terrain and finally when we managed to reach the bank, it just loomed on us what good a decision wed taken to come down there! Venki, Sandeep, Varun, Gourav Nayan and Yashwant tried their hands on Stone throwing while Vairav, Chaithu, Aishwarya, Reshma and I venture into the slippery knee deep water flow. Slippery it pretty much but not really dangerous. Chaithanya and I venture almost half past the river flow. The sheer force with which the waters gush across you sort of revitalizes your fatigued body. Vishesh soon joined us along with the other folks. Spent quite some time here and finally left for the city at about 6:45pm.


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The return journey was pretty funny and interesting. We decided to play Truth or Dare to while away time. The peppy questions being put forth and the more so the answers made things all the more interesting. Chaitu with his cat walk, Gourav becoming a goat, Yashwant farting like an elephant and I enacting a cabiree were a few of the dare events. Thanks to Nayan, Vairav and Reshma took revenge on each other with their mock proposals. All in all it was a wonderful time! We then stop over at a roadside restaurant at Ibrahimpatnam and have a decent dinner. Its almost 11:30 by the time we reached the city.


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Kalvarhallibetta and Anthargangae

March 15th 2008


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March 15th, 2008 At the end of the day, when I hit the bed, theres one thing I always try answering - What is it that Ive done different that day? Ive never had satisfying answers most of the time. But this 15th night when I managed to catch a quick nap on the floor of a mazda, that question never popped. Quite an irony, considering that the whole day by itself was so very eventful! It all started with, Suma asking me to get the HydVentura folks meet people from AdVentura , sometime when shed come down to Hyderabad on official work. That day during lunch we laid down action points and as days passed, things slowly got hard lined and a trip to Kolar was planned for the second weekend of March. The initial count was just 9 and right when we were thinking of canceling the outing, people slowly started piping in. Surprisingly, the response soared so fast that we had to freeze registrations for the trip by 10th evening. The final count was twenty one - seven girls and fourteen guys! On 14th evening, we met at the Gachibowli Y Junction and boarded the semi sleeper to Bangalore. Out of the 21, five of us (Nayan, Reshma, Aishwarya, Gaurav and I) had been together for HydVenturas first outing to Nagarjunsagar and Ethipothala. To break the ice we had a brief introduction of each of us and to make things interesting Srikanth AKA Jiddu suggested we add a tagline to our description. Fortunately the crowd was a bindaas cult! To while away time we had various activities like Dumb C and Anthakshari. At around 9:00pm we stopped at a dhabha for dinner. Most of us hit our seats by 10:00pm but nothing to beat the spirits of Jiddu, Vikranth, Aishwarya and Animesh! They kept singing till 11:30 at night sitting on the bus floor at the rear end.

Parasailing , Rock Climbing and Cave Explorations Hoskote, AntharGangae (Kolar) 15th Morning at around 5:30 pm I lose my sleep. I wake Gourav Baduri and Shiva up and then decide to wake up the remaining eighteen folks. Baduri does what hes best at, Hops around in a


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jiffy and even before the bus traverses another 100 yards everyones up! Did I mention, the three of us occupied the first row of seats and hence had a wonderful sleep all through the journey. Literally swearing on us they soon get back to their spoiled slumber and even before theyre able to catch a good nap, by 7:30 we reach AnandRao Circle. This is where we were supposed to meet Sashi, from AdVentura. We freshen up at the Yatri nivas in the Majestic bus station and leave for Hoskote in a Mazda. By around 11:00 am we reach Hoskote where we meet the rest of the AdVentura team! Suma and Vishal da along with the AdVentura team give us all a huge hearty welcome and with a brief introduction we have a wonderful breakfast of idli, upma and sw eets and bananas! The team from AdVentura had reached Hoskote way before us, so theyd started the parasailing activity. It was almost 12:30 by the time they completed their flights. Meanwhile, Suma, Vishal, Sashi, Kedar and a few other folks shared with us their experiences from their previous outings. It was about 4:30pm that the Hyd team finished their para-sailing. For most of them, this was the very first time they were flying. So they did have a wonderful time! Mudit, Ankur and Manish were really ecstatic after their flight. Last time Id been for para-sailing I regretted not having taken a camera along with me up there in the air. I sorted it out this time!

AdVentura folks had already left to Kolar for rock climbing and rappelling. So by the time we reached there, we had ample time to move around and finish our part of the activities. Rappelling was much easier and seemed pretty simple. Im not sure if it was the height that made us feel that way or that we had higher expectations. For a few, climbing the rock to get to the peak for rappelling down seemed more challenging. Neha felt otherwise though! Shed accepted she had a phobia of heights but proved herself wrong by finally rappelling down with a bit of coaxing! Jiddu on the other hand, took the tether guy for a ride by rappelling with his back on the rocks, rather than his firm feet!


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We had a very late lunch after this and then moved over to explore the rocky terrains around the place. Shashi took us out to a couple of interesting rock formations. It was real fun hopping from one place to another maneuvering through the volcanic formations! Snehith, Nayan and Shashi had a tough time trying to get hold of peoples feet and grooving them in the right spot for a safe descent form a steep rock. It was already 7:00pm by then and Suma had made a call for all of us to return to a central meeting point for us to further decide on the course of action. By the time we reached the meeting spot, Ruchi, Meera and couple of others were cutting Watermelons for us. It was a feast for everyone having walked and climbed a bit on slippery terrains. Finally when most of us made it to the spot Suma and Vishal da suggested we explore the caves around the place and then get back to the same spot by 9:00 pm the latest. Having got consent from each and every team member, we were divided into four teams - Each having one leader, one sweep and six other members.

The leader had to keep a watchful eye on the surroundings and guide his team; the sweeper had to see to it that his team members were together and that the team following him wasnt too far from his team. Every ten minutes the leader of each team had to whistle once and shout out the team name in succession. A dual whistle would mean that the team wants some rest and a successive three pronged whistle would mean danger lurking and a state of high alert. White Snakes, Black Hawks, Sholay and Ghost Riders were the names each team decided to have. Besides this we had Suma, Vishal, Sashi and a couple of other Adventura members patrolling across each of the teams to ensure that everything was fine. All through the trek, our main guides where Munni Raj and Girish - two village kids! I being the lead of White snakes - the first team, by default became the victim of their non stop chatter. Munni Raj would never move forward without the consent of his teacher (read Suma) and always kept his 10th class friend (read me) at an ears distance with his chitter chatter.


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We walked through a couple of barren lands whistling and shouting back instructions, before we reached the rocks where we could start our cave explorations. To start off, the rocks looked pretty simple to squeeze across. But with passing time, we soon understood were being taken for a ride by nature! Wriggling and Squeezing soon became the order of the night! At a certain spot the crevices between the rocks became so narrow that, it became quite difficult for a few people to get across. Aishwarya got stuck in between and it took almost an hour of coerced efforts by Jiddu and a couple of others to get her out.

It was already 10:00 by then and we had not yet covered one fourth of the planned exploration. Shashi, Vishal and Suma took stock of the situation and soon decided to cut short the whole exploration with the groups consent. Shashi and I moved a bit forward to judge the path and were thankful enough to find a path very soon. We waited for a few more minutes for the remaining teams to arrive at a common spot and then started moving towards the base spot finding our way. The way back was just a routine walk back but the whole episode of wriggling, long jumping, and navigating through the rocks with Bottles and torches in our hand, in a deserted land is just something unforgettable!

Back at the Anthargange base, we had two options - To camp there and move towards Kalvarhalli betta the next day morning or move right away to Kalvarhallibetta base and start trekking up the hill so as to watch sunrise early in the morning at the peak. The whole group was ready for the latter option. Suma had warned us that it had rained heavily the previous day and the rocks would be slippery,. Nevertheless it was safe to trek upwards and we could always decide to camp at the base till the next day morning if at all the rocks were that slippery. In another ten minutes we jumped into the Qualis and Mazda and drove to the Kalvarhalli betta base. We reached the base at about 00:30 in the morning.


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The Kalvarhallibettta trek Once we reached the base, we had no reasons to deny our bellies the long needed nourishment. Vishal had brought a stove and quite a few Heat-to-eat dishes. Had a sumptuous dinner and then decide to start trekking to the peak. Meera, Kedar and Martina decided to stay back and get a good sleep. The rest of us regrouped into teams and started the trek guided by Vishal, Suma, Supradeep and Shashi. Trekking was something that I perceived as a walk across a barren terrain with lots of trees and shrubs. Till yesterday, I never related it to climbing rocks and marshy lands atop a hill. As the altitude increased, the trailing teams soon lost track of the frontal teams. Being the first team again, we had the privilege to halt and wait for other teams to pitch in.

Trekking at nights on a hilly terrain comes with its own advantages. One being that altitude is never a hindrance. All you need to do is watch your step and stay concentrated. The darkness of the night keeps fear of height at bay! The Kalvarhallibetta trek has taught me to love myself better! At one point of time, Shashi, Irfan, Ruchi and a few others moved from the teams behind and formed a new team - Team 0. We, the white snakes were to trail them. But it so happened somewhere close to the peak that I lost track of their path. Idiotically sensing the path myself I led a couple of others on a path which I realised later, that I shouldnt have. Id diverted to a very small extent away from the path. But then that could have costed us our lives. Prasanna who was trailing behind decided to stay put at his position. The rock was pretty slippery and with moss all around, getting a hold was very difficult. Even before I realised my mistake I lose hold on my grip and start skidding down the mossy rock. Fortunately I could get hold of some sturdy grass and gained back control. All I did then was to stay put at that spot till someone came across me along the right path. A few minutes later Suma fortunately came across and led us in the right path. I realised the seriousness of the situation only during the trek downhill. Had I not caught hold of the shrubs at the right moment, things would have been totally different today!


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The trek uphill took us almost two hours to complete. We reached the peak at about 5:15am. Most of us tried catching some sleep but the frost and the chilled atmosphere made things only worse. All we did was to listen to the soothing guitar strokes by someone whod come up there well before us. People from other groups soon joined us at the peak. By around 6:15am at the break of dawn all our eyes popped to the east, eagerly waiting for the Sun to rise. But as luck would have it turned out to be a cloudy morning and getting a glimpse of Sunrise at that height on cloudy morning was something that nature would just not sell! Nevertheless, the frost, mist and the very altitude of the peak made the view breathtaking. Water dripping on your body, head and chilling wind sizzling across you at that altitude is probably one of those several ways by which you are reminded of your helplessness and stature, however high your position in social life is! Till today I was under the impression pictures speak better than words, Pictures bring out the thick and thin of an event. But today Ive realised theres something else that pictures just cannot replicate, something that they would fail to evoke that the human eye captures in a jiffy.

At 7:30am we started our trek downhill. Downhill trekking was much more difficult than uphill! Thanks to the daylight, consistently reminding you that one wrong step would mean you wouldnt be where you are now. Aching knees made things worse! Not even quarter way through downhill, I hear a sound of a female singing in pristine glory - rumbling rock on the way, give way. No second guesses - Suma! Later when I meet her about half an hour later at the base she tells me shes created a record for herself- down the hill running in fifteen minutes! Suma, Snehith, Ram, Ruchi, Sashi, Irfan and I reach the base well before others. Down at the base when I look at the height wed covered, it makes me wonder how we tend to limit our own capabilities by the sheer first hand vision of a problem. Im pretty sure, had we seen the height of the peak at night we would have taken longer than the two hours!


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We reach the base location by 8:00am and fresh up at the close by ashram. Its almost 9:30 by the time everyone gets down and refreshes. We then have a sumptuous breakfast which Vishal, Ruchi, Jiddu and a couple of others have prepared and plan to leave for Bangalore.

The Nandi hills plan is dropped as not many people are interested in visiting it. We Hydventura folks bid adieu to the Adventura team at around 10:15 am and leave for Bangalore city. Snehith, Surabhi, Shuvam and a couple of others leave by a qualis. The rest of us leave with us in a mazda. Kedar joins us in the mazda and is back to form in a few minutes snapping shots of people sleeping. Due to time constraints, Animesh suggests we change the plan and decide to take the Hebbal route to Bangalore. Vinayak and Rashmi get down at Mekhri Circle. Aishwarya and Neha leave for their relatives place at Malleshwaram. The rest of us hop into a Pizza hut and have a long deserved pizza! We reach the Yeswantpur station by around 3:00 pm and there begins our one hour wait for the train back to Hyd. Aishwarya, Neha, Nayan, Surabhi soon join us at around 3:30pm. Reshma, Jiddu and I manage to get some tight sleep moments after we board the train. At around 7:00pm Devyani, Surabhi and Pooja join us for dinner. We chat for sometime and as they continue playing Cards I hit the berth by 9:30pm.

17th March

Morning at around 4:45 am the train chugs into the Kacheguda station. This is when Devyani realises shes lost her w710i and we get to know that Prasanna had lost his digicam the previous night. Real sad the two day eventful journey had to end at this note!


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Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani

April 07th 2008


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Im woken up by a jerk as the Travera winds its way up the circuitous roads. The moment I open my eyes all I see is stratified rocks, like those of the Grand Canyon. Well, Ive not really been to Colorado as such but then some things just get etched in your mind the moment you have a look at it and subtle things such as this remind you of the greater vacuum you need to fill. Probably its not too long before I trek the Grand Canyon! Last weekend was one hell of a weekend! In fact this was my first ever outing after having reached Pune. I initially planned to go for river rafting at a place close by but then backed off because of the cost involved and besides, I had no company! Just before my glorious weekend plan loomed to doom Ayush pitched in saying he was game for any outing. All it requires is two to start something. Both of us decided to explore some good place in Pune irrespective of anyone else joining us. We in fact wanted to do a totally unplanned trip. But it so happened that soon Nimish, Aditya and Namrata chipped in and we were compelled to have an arranged tourist types trip - Something which we wanted to avoid for no practical reason. But later we realized, this was one good decision we made! 6th April - Sunday Ayush and I spoke to a travels guy close to Aundh and finalized on a Travera. We could accommodate three more people in it but then no one else was even ready to join us. Lazy bums! We finalized the trip for 3 grand given that he shows us places in and around Panchgani and Mahabaleshwar and asked him to pick us up at 5:30 in the morning the next day.

7th April - Monday This jerk with a tuft turns up at 6:45 and gives the same excuse flat tire! Wonder why it happens all the time. I was reminded of the Sangamam trip in Bangalore when the driver turned up three hours late. Anyway Adi, Ayush and I got into the cab at Aundh and directed him to Jagtap diary where we had to pick


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Namrata. Nimish was staying at his sisters place (believe somewhere close to Shivapura) so he punched in a while later. It was about 9:00am by the time we reached a roadside restaurant Joshi Wadewala. Had a sumptuous breakfast here (Wada pav and Missal Pav is what they call standard BF items here!). This is just a few minutes after crossing the New Katraj tunnel and is a well known stop point for frequent wayfarers on the Pune Satara route (NH4). We take a right somewhere after we cross Shirwal and from there starts the winding routes to Panchgani. Moments before we reach Parsi Point, we notice a group of trekkers scaling up the hill to our right. They must have had a ball of a time scaling up the peak all night! We reach Panchgani by around 9:45 am. Parsi Point is the first alight point for visit ors to Panchgani. Its nothing more than a small park with kids play equipment. The view point from here overlooks the Krishna valley and waters of the Dhom Dam. We idled some time on the only 13yrs and below slides and soon left for Mahabaleshwar.

Our guide cum Driver suggested we first finish spots in Mahabaleshwar and then get back to Panchgani on our return journey. Mahabaleshwar is about 15kms from Panchgani and is known for the various Viewpoints which give a birds eye view of the valleys, besides the Panchganga Mandir. We cross the Mapro gardens in Panchgani and reach the first set of viewpoints. There are about seven to eight points that are described at the entrance. As you walk through the hill down the path a couple of points turn out at the corners. You end up watching quite a few scenic spots but the crowd at the place happens to nullify the actual effect. Nature is best enjoyed when alone. More so on high peaks such as this! The Kates point again gives you a spectacular view of the Krishna Valley from a different angle. The Elphinston point a few paces ahead gives a spectacular view of the Koyna and Sahyadri valleys. Down south to this point is the Hunters point which gives a splendid view of the Koyna Valley. Move down a bit more and you come across something called the Arthurs seat. This is the place that clearly demarcates the Konkan and


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Deccan territories in Mahabaleshwar by the barren deep Savitri valley to the left and a shallow valley to the right. To the left on Arthurs seat you have a series of steps that lead you to Tiger springs. This is where the River Savitri is supposed to emerge. We spend some time around these points and then move over to Monkey point and Savitri point. Savitri point is one beautiful place to be. In fact I found this to be quite appealing very little open space, not much crowd and then the DEEP valleys were just inches from where we stood. A few minutes later we realized this to be a wonderful echo point. You get a resound of your voice after about five seconds!

We leave for the Mahabaleshwar town and then visit the Panchganga mandir. This place has it in the Hindu mythology that the five rivers Krishna, Venna, Gayatri, Savitri and Koyna show their appearance in the form of five close springs and make their presence here. Water from this place falls into a decently big cistern sorta built enclosure and is considered to be pretty holy. All that mattered to me though was that the water was pretty tasty and really cold. Besides we also had a couple of women get into the water and start wailing the moment their feet touched the water. Superstitions abundant, but I would still love to know the funda behind their impromptu wailing. We then had a sumptuous lunch at a restaurant in the town and then got back to the cab. The driver then drove us to the Venna lake where boating is pretty famous. We opted for the Rowing boat. None of us knew rowing so we took a guide along with us! It was mighty fun rowing the boat for about half an hour. Just beside the Venna lake is a vast barren land where Horse riding is allowed. This is something tha t you simply should not miss! Ayush and I had infact started racing after five rounds! It was like we were perfect Jockeys. The horses here were well maintained and mighty well trained. All we had to do was to keep our ass on the Horse while it madly ran across the land and keep thumping it to keep the momentum.

It was 5:30 pm already. So we decided to start moving towards Panchgani. As we were falling short of time we had to forego


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visiting Table land, lingamalla falls and Tapola Lake (The mini Kashmir in the west). On our way back we dropped by Mapro gardens. Mahabaleshwar is famous for Strawberries. And this is one place where you get damn cheap strawberry Jams, squashes and fruits as such. They also had a Bungy jumping type event organized wherein you are tethered in between two poles with elastic ropes and a person controls your elevation and descent. The base is a very elastic mat and is about 60m dia. With Pneumatic control you are jettisoned up into air and the elasticity of the ropes controls your ascent and descent! Jumping up and down in the air to a height of about 60 feet by pneumatic and elastic control is one hell of an experience! We finally moved over to the last destination where Parasailing and Paragliding is supposed to take place. Unfortunately a mishap had occurred just before we arrived there and the event had to be closed. The open land, the meek drizzle of the rain and the deep valley a few steps away made the ambience even more spectacular! Spent about half an hour there and finally left back to Pune. We reached the city outskirts by around 8:15pm where Ayush and Nimish got down. Adi and I got back to Aundh at around 8:45 pm after dropping Namrata at her house.

All in all it was one memorable trip. The place gets even more inviting during early monsoon. Probably well be revisiting it sometime again and this time we know what to plan for!


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The Katraj-Sinhagad Night Trek

April 19th 2008


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04:30 Hrs in the morning and weve still got about four more hills to cross to complete the trek. The destination in the form of an indicator tower seemed to be farther, the closer we approach it.

Damn! It was a pathetic mistake; To underestimate the trek, to decide to trek off season and more so to drag people whove hesitated to walk even a couple of kilometers during normal days! The Katraj - Sinhgad trek is supposed to be a cakewalk. At least, thats the impression Id got when I first heard about it from a few people whod been there already. I always do some ground work before going for a trek to any place. I didnt care to do it this time for no apparent reason. How I wish I did!

April 19th:

Adi was really particular that we have a fast lunch here at MacD. Ayush joins us after his regular TIME class. The temperatures soaring and the brief respite that we have here is real morale booster. Post the light snack Ayush and I decide to move over to Orange province at Jagtap Diary where the rest of the gang stays. Adi decides to get back home and catch a good sleep. He had to. Tonight would be his first ever trek.

The moment we reach the place, I slowly bring in the trek idea for which Id sent in a mail a few days earlier. Finally after an hours coaxing all but Sarfaraz take the bait . The Girl factor did the trick! Anmol decides to join us after his classes at 20:30 hrs. Moments before we leave for Aundh to reach the common meeting point, a small issue arises in Orange Province and most of them are compelled to stay back. Animesh, Tiwari and Kamran drop their plans. Anmol quite oblivious of whats cooking back here is fortunately still hooked with the trek. Finally its just the four of us - Adi, Ayush, Anmol and me.

Ayush and I reach Breman circle at about 20:10hrs and get some Burgers and light snacks parceled. Adi and Anmol soon catch up with us at about 20:45hrs. We had to reach the Gharware College at Deccan. This was about 6kms from Aundh and with the traffic we manage to reach at about 21:20 hrs. A whole twenty minutes late! Varun, one of the organizers directs us to the place where the rest of the team was waiting for us. Boy, you should have seen the expression of our faces when we realized we were to travel in an open truck to reach the Base start point -Old Katraj tunnel. Not that weve not traveled in trucks before during our engineering,


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but we were frankly expecting a decent Bus! Anyway , all of us - about 30 folks jump into the truck and manage to reach the base by around 22:30 hrs. The group majorly comprised of Engineering students, about seven kids, a couple and about five girls.

Just as in any trek, at the base we were divided into a couple of groups and each group was given a trek lead. The directions were pretty simple. Take a left a bit ahead , walk along the path then walk around the Transmission tower ( Or whatever that was! ) and then just keep walking further till you find a Tower with the red light blinking. Well thats the tower at Sinhgad. For about half a kilometer we didnt find sight of the red light and finally when we did, we realised what was ahead - About eight huge hills to traverse!!

The first hill was the best. The climate was pretty cool and the chilled wind blowing through the face was pretty much invigorating. But then trekking is not just about enjoying nature as if you have all the time in the world. Its more about reaching the destination in the pre-set time.

April - 20th

We kept moving ahead and soon it was time to get down the hill. Phew that was steep. Real steep! We moved hesitatingly downwards and this by itself took us about half an hour. At the base, we had Suhas to remind us that we had only seven more hills to cover! We moved, ran, rested, hiked, howled, teased around and finally reached the place where we decided to break. A soup was on the way-Taste mattered the least. Half an hour of break after covering about three hills and most of the folks were already down. Im sure Adi was pledging to screw me royally once we were back home. All I could read from his mind was that Hell seemed quite close atop that hill!

We leave from that place at about 04:30 hrs and someone again reminded just five more hills to traverse to reach the destination. The hill after that was done quickly and then started the real fun. Energy levels were real down and we didnt even have water. Steep down slopes strewn with pebbles made things all the more difficult. Adi couldnt get down the slope anymore. His phobia of heights loomed in again. He literally started scraping his ass on the slopes. His weight made things worse. The pace was miserably slow. We were the last few in the group, somewhere mid way in the trek and there was no turning back. There was no one to blame but


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me! I shouldnt have got them to the trek in the first place. In fact at times I was wondering if theyll even make it to the destination in one piece! Boy, Adi was miserably down.

We saw the sunrise in one of the intermediate hills and kept inching towards the final hill. Adi soon had company. Hemant just couldnt move his legs. All our massages and motivations were just not working. At about 08:00 hrs we had a glimpse of the road. As Anmol rightly put it - the road to Salvation! Just two more hills to go and that meant two more miserably painful downhill traversal for Adi. The Sun was adding fuel to fire! Hemant fell flat at the last hill. He had no energy to move further. Varun and Ankul managed to arrange some water. Sanjay gave him a proper massage and suggested we keep moving. They stayed back for a few more minutes. The moment we reached atop the last hill, I was more than elated! Theyd made it! All were in one piece but for bruises here and there.

At the destination there were a couple of folks supplying water. I instantly gulped about two liters of water. Water never tasted that sweet till date! We had some Poha and jumped into the truck. The way back was another pain. Hot sun was looming over our heads and we had literally no energy even to talk. Reached Aundh at around 11:30 hrs. Gulped four glasses of lemon juice, about two liters of water, four oranges and two apples. Had a well deserved bath and hit the bed only to get up after a solid seven hour sleep!

What was supposed to be a Moonlight trek turned out to be a nightmare with the Sun high above us .The Katraj - Sinhgad trek is something that Id never forget and Im sure neither Anmol nor Adi would even venture for another trek with me!


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The Katraj-Sinhagad Night Trek

May 17th 2008


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It all started with a mail from Shiva asking me if it would be a good idea to plan a trip to Mahabaleshwar sometime during the coming weekend. The Hydventura team had not been for any treks for more than a fortnight now. The anxiety was quite understandable! But then a trip to Mahabaleshwar during this hot summer would do no good. Instead I suggested they come down for the Katraj - Sinhagad trek that I was planning to do the coming weekend.

A flutter of mails and calls, a week of pooling in and pooling out and all was set. The HydVentura team was all set at a head count of 18 despite a Statutory warning e-mail from Adi (Youll know who Adi is, had you read my post on my first trek to Sinhagad ). Two days before The Hydventura team arrived I enquired with Dhok, Abhijeet and Rahul (The Deccan highlanders Anchors) if anyone from DH would be interested in joining us. Friday evening, Abhijeet says he had a volatile head count of 20 from the DH team. Boy, this is gonna be real fun!

17th Morning, Saturday.

I barely manage to open my eyes and have a look at my watch. Damn! It was 07:45 hrs already. Two days back, I arranged for a Tempo Traveller for the Hydventura team. The driver was to pick me up from my house at Aundh at 8:00 hrs. Right at 08:05 hrs I get a missed call from the Driver. I get ready in haste, pack my bag and make sure I have at least 2L of water in my bag. Well, you learn from mistakesJust one month back on the slopes of the sahayadris we were stalking like dogs for water. Every drop of water was like elixir then!

We make it to the station by 08:45 hrs and I while away my time till the Mumbai Express crawls into the station. The team had finally landed in Pune! Gourav, Reshma, Aishwarya, Kirthi, Jemshed, Animesh, Yeshwanth and Venki had been for a few treks along with me. The new faces were Siddharth, Ranjan and Trishna. We moved over to Infy Phase I where they refreshed and had a decent breakfast. Munni and Deepika joined us there. Prasanna was to join us directly at the trek base point - Old Katraj tunnel. It was already 12:30 hrs by the time everyone was ready.

At 13:00hrs we moved over towards Bunshi Dam. Not that we expected to see much water, It was only accommodated to keep us busy. We reached the Dam at around 14:20 hrs and idled some time there. As we had nothing much to do we just


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sat by the lake and under the trees. The water was murky by the banks and the only thing appeasing was that the water was cold. At 15:30 hrs we started moving towards the vehicle when we spotted a guy selling lemon juice and Kala kutta. ( Colored Katta is basically Frothed, Shaped and packed ice dipped in colored syrup / sherbath) .Knowingly or unknowingly we spent almost three fourth of an hour here and spent about 250 Rs. Just for the Mineral water Iced cream and the lemon juice! It was worth every rupee. Reshma and Ranjan had their slurps from literally every Colored katta that came from the vendors hands. I bet, He must have closed the shop and gone home after all the profit that we gave him!

It was high time, we moved over to Katraj. Besides we hadnt yet had Lunch! At about 17:00 hrs we had our lunch at a roadside dhabha and moved towards Old Katraj. A small accident on the Satara highway caused us to be delayed by a few more minutes. It was almost 18:30 hours by the time we reached the Katraj Muncipal Bus stand. Prasanna, Vishnu, Hari and Pavan joined us there. Gourav and I went on a shopping spree for Chocolates and Biscuits while Animesh and Venki ran about for water bottles. It was a literal shop loot in both the shops. All in all we bought about sixty Five-stars, sixty dairy milks, forty Good-day biscuits and about sixty five Mineral water bottles. All set, we reached the base trek point at around 19:30 hrs. The DH team had just arrived there a few minutes earlier. Abhijeet was still put up at the city outskirts as he couldnt find proper transport. He turned up too a few minutes later on a tractor!

After a quick distribution of chocolates and Water, the 36 strong team split into six teams. Suhas and I were the only two people in the team who had been to this trek recently. So the onus of guiding the whole team on the right path was on us. Moving a bit ahead we realized this modus operandi would simply not work. So once we reached a tableland, we regrouped ourselves into four teams. Each team would have a lead and a sweep. Abhijeet opted to be the sweep of the last team so as to keep a tab on the movement. We had quite a few newbies in this trek and no compromise on safety could be made. I was the lead of the first team and Suhas the sweep of the first team. Abhishek, Nitin, Gourav, Animesh and Zohar took up respective responsibilities of lead and sweep for different teams. Though being a huge team, after a reordering of people, we noticed the team picking up speed. The first hill was definitely a solid motivation to the team. (That was after they got down from it!) . I wouldnt comment on the trek path


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now because Ive already covered that in my previous post. In fact this was a bit more challenging to me as I had seven 1litre water bottles in my backpack! Reshma couldnt continue with the 2l in her bag post the first hill. So we shifted them into my bag on condition that shed carry the Emptied bottles. Surprisingly, wed covered about seven hills before midnight and the spirits were still high. But for Trishna who had cramps developing on her legs not many had their energies low. But later in the morning it so happened that Trishna was in the leading team!

18th May, Sunday

I thankfully had not much problem recollecting the trek route from my past experience. Being in the first team is always advantageous. You have the discretionary power to set the teams speed and at the same time you get to rest more frequently than the other teams.

I missed the track twice during the trek. First time fortunately a Hanuman temple indicated we were in the wrong path. I rightly remember not coming across any temple during my previous trek. Deepika, Meenu and Ranjan helped me track back to the right path. All in all we could have saved about an hours time had I led them in the right direction. Nevertheless, this only added some more thrill to the trek! The second time i missed the track was at the fag end. But then a few other folks were pretty quick in tracing back to the right path.

We reached the last hill at about 06:30 hours. All we did once we reached the final hillock was to rest on the Gravel. One view of the sunrise on this peak is enough to rejuvenate you. The soaring sound of the chilled wind, Dew settling on those lucky few shrubs and the rays of the sun slicing through the clouds - Can anything match that feeling? We stayed on the peak for a few more minutes and started moving down the last hill to reach the Sinhagad fort base by 19:30 hrs. Not many of the team members were interested in climbing up the fort. So based on group decision the plan was dropped. Balaji, the TT driver picked us up at around 09:00 hrs and we managed to reach Infy at around 11:00hrs. I got dropped back at Aundh and the Hydventura team left for Hyderabad at around 14:00hrs after refreshing in the Infy Campus. It was one wholesome experience to trek with such a big enthusiastic group. This time surprisingly we didnt use much water. In fact my bag still had three full water bottles!


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Kundalika River rafting

Jun 14th 2008


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Its about six in the morning. Just another drop makes its descent on the already created pool right outside our tent. Its been raining cats and dogs ever since we reached the base point and there seems to be no sign of it subsiding. Though its been just about four hours that Ive caught some sleep after having reached the river rafting camp at Kundalika, my brain shows no signs of drowsiness - Its probably the smell of rain thats spruced up my spirits but I believe its more to do with the sense of a tentative accomplishment of what Ive been wanting to do for quite some time now.

About eighteen of us had blocked our slots for the June 14th river rafting batch at Kundalika almost two weeks back. Monsoon had just set in here at Pune and this was one of the best times to give this a shot.

13th June, Friday

I manage to complete my work by 9:00pm and rush to board the 9:15pm service to Shivaji Nagar. This was where we were supposed to board the bus arranged by the organizers of this event. I reach well before time and am actually surprised to find quite a few people already waiting there for some time now! Soon Rahul chips in. In the team of 18 or so, he was the only one Id met before. Remaining folks pitch in soon and to add spice to the event, we also have about fifteen foreigners joining us. For apparent reasons the bus leaves the spot at about 23:15hrs, Four other folks join us enroute and we finally manage to reach Pune outskirts by about 00:15hrs.

14th June, Saturday

Things get peppy in the bus, thanks to an Anthakshari between the other half of the team - a couple of L&T folks and their foreigner counterparts and us. Soon most of us give in (Or should I say, the other half gave up!). Agreed my prowess over Hindi songs is pathetic, but then who cares; I was a part of the winning team! At about 02:00hrs we reach the camp base. One step into the area reminds me of the backwaters in Kerala. The location had been perfectly selected with scores of coconut trees spread out over a vast area of land.

Arun Sir (The co-facilitator for the event) had already propped up all the tents by the time we reached. So all that we had to do was to divide ourselves into groups of six and hit the beds (Read plain ground with plastic mounted sheets). Rahul, Jagdeesh, Sunil, Murali, KP and I pitch into one of the tents.


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Rahul had fortunately got his sleeping bag and one of us (not me obviously!) had brought a thick mattress. All set, we hit the bed in a few moments. I was at the receiving end a few times at night, thanks to Rahul and Murali using their damned wonderful feet! Nevertheless, compromises had to be made when youre camping in a tent and its raining outside! The teams from Mumbai arrive at about 04:30 am.

At about 06:00hrs, Im up and to take revenge for the nights trouble, I wake everybody up. They do abuse me mentally for spoiling their sleep and finally we come to terms. We walk over to a mini dike that was regulating water to the river body, pull out some water to wash our faces and start speculating if this was going to be the spot where the river rafting was to start. Soon we get back to the camp and join few folks whod just started playing volleyball. The rain made things only more interesting and the game went on till about 08:30hrs.

Tea and Poha was provided as breakfast and then started the set of events for the day. Burma bridge to start off was a cake walk. All that was to be done was to climb a tree and walk on a Coconut coired rope tethered at a height of about 10 feet with support provided by two other tethered coirs on either side. Then was the Parallel rope, wherein one has to walk on a single tethered coired rope with just another coir rope for support at a height of about six feet off the ground. The best event was the Pampered pole wherein one has to climb up an elastic ladder and then bank on to the bark of a tree at a height of about thirty feet. From you had to jump and get hold of a horizontal pole at a distance of about five feet . Safety wasnt an issue - the person is holstered to proper gear; Its the height that mattered!

Not many were able to finish these events as we had to start preparing for the rafting. At about 09:30hrs. A brief introduction of the organizing team was done and detailed instructions on what was to be and not to be done while rafting, navigating and possibly drowning was covered. Each raft would have eight folks each with life jackets, helmets and oars and a navigator. Just before the raft was put in water, the Navigators for each raft held a detailed session on the instruction code et al.

Rahul, Murali, Monica, KP, Sunil, two other folks and I pitched in into one of the rafts. Robin, a veteran Nepali Raftsman was our Navigator. Moments after the briefing, the actual rafting was started and even before we could realise the rapids


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started. Robin was pretty stern when it came to navigating. He would literally tap on the persons helmet who was faltering.

The whole rafting distance is about 10kms with about 3kms of swimmable expanse. There were about six specific points wherein the rapids were real good. Robin did mention names for the rapids, but then when youre amidst such painfully exemplary surroundings, who would even want to give effort to remembering the names? No words can describe the experience that we had in that two hours stint! The pouring rains, the marauding rapids and the panoramic beauty of nature through the Kundalilka river was simply exhilarating! The swimming phase was just as great! Swimming along the flowing currents is something that Ive never done till this day and today Ive realised how difficult swimming in a river is! Rahul too had his day staying afloat in the life support jacket all the way through. Robin did his best in making the rafting experience worth remembering - Be it in toppling Monica off the Raft in the swimming section or navigating us through the rapids explaining each part of it vividly. One of the rafts toppled over somewhere mid the swimming section and soon the whole expanse had people floating in their life jackets. I seriously have doubts if this was done by the navigator in reason to make the experience more interesting!

At about 12:30hrs we managed to reach the end of the white water rafting stretch. Post all the packing of the rafts to the TumTums and Sumos we were asked to walk for about a kilometer to get to the spot where a bus would pick us up. The moment we reached there, we found Aditya serving hot soup and Poha to everyone. We helped ourselves with one more serving and hunched into the bus.

A couple of L&T folks, foreigners, Rahul, Kajal and I got on to the ceiling of the bus. Initially the driver didnt want us to sit atop but then later we (read someone) managed to persuade him and there we were! It was an absolutely wonderful experience sitting atop the bus on the way back to the base camp. The speed of the bus and the torrential rain brought about the experience of a thousand ants biting us all over! On second thoughts I feel this experience was much better than that during the River rafting.

We reached the Base camp at around 14:30hrs. There was a brief rain dance for a few moments and then people who had not completed the Burma Bridge, Pampered pole and Parallel ropes got back to it. After a quick lunch and again some


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Pampered poles, we started packing up and left for Pune at about 17:00hrs.The scenery on the way back was just fabulous! The streaks of cascading white water falls on the towering mountains, the clouds apparently cutting across them, the splintering rain and the chilly climate made a stupendous panoramic view! Nothing to beat Mother Natures recipes.

We reached Pune at around 19:00hrs with stinking pants and bags. At least that was the case with me. One of THE best weekends ever spent in Pune till date in my brief six month stint here. But wait, this weekends not yet done! Theres a trek to Rohida planned tomorrow. All depends on how fit Im at 04:45 am


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The Rohida Trek

Jun 15th 2008


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This weeks been pretty tiring. Moving over from KT phase to Secondary support, solving stuff which seems simple but turns out to be worse than what it shouldnt be, filling the same old excel sheets multiple times for reasons unknown even to the person who send it, needless formalities and processes just to send a message across to the person at the other side of the globe. Boy, Am I complaining?

Believe me; Ive never worked this hard in the past few months! All this, just to make sure my work life doesnt spoil my weekend. The Kundalika river rafting was planned for Sunday and the DH team had planned a series of treks starting this week. Id decided that Im not going to miss even a single trek. In fact, thats one of the main reasons why I got myself transferred to Pune on a short term basis for!

15th June, Saturday

01:20hrs: I hit the bed after finishing some personal work. The days been real long and eventful and a proper sleep is all I need. Rafting in the Kundalika River has sapped most of my energy out. The sound of water gushing through gorges and sound of rain drops spluttering all about is all that I hear and in moments Im totally blacked out.

05:00 hrs: The Continental music hoots from my mobile to remind me its time I get up. My backs aching real badly and arms arent any good either. Yesterdays 10kms of Oaring is slowly taking its toll. I set the alarm to snooze and get back to sleep. Fortunately, I realize the pain is only going to get worse if I rest longer. I jump out of the bed and rush to the restroom.

We had to reach Swargate by 06:30, the latest. Ashutosh, Hitanshu my roommate and Akhilesh - a friend of his would be joining me from Aundh. Vaibhav, Siddharth, and Rahul Nair, were to join us at Swargate. I call up Rahul and Ashutosh to wake them up. Rahul wasnt really sure if hed join us. Ashutosh said hed be meeting us at Breman circle. We leave for Swargate by around 5:50 and reach right on time to board a State Transport bus to Bhor. Bhor is about 65 kms from Swargate, so that effectively translates to about an hour and a halfs travel. The ST bus picks the Kolhapur route to NH17 through the old Katraj tunnel and after a kings ride we reach Bhor at about 08:30 hrs.

With not much scope for a proper breakfast, we hit on a VadaPav stall. A kid about seven years old was running the


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shop. The way he was handling his customers was an intriguing sight. Something Im sure he would beat most of us at! Had hot tea and Vadapavs and also got some packed.

For the base point, we had to reach Bajarwadi, a village about 9kms from Bhor. Vaibhav and Siddharth spoke to a few localites and arranged for a Jeep. We reached Bajarwadi at about 08:45hrs and started the trek at about 09:00hrs. The destination was visible right from the base and it looked pretty easy a trek. The weather got better the higher we climbed. Intermittent showers and heavy winds were consistent company all through the trek. Its surprising how Nature keeps ridiculing you every time you think youve achieved something, always warning you to stay within your limits and not crossing that dividing line!

By 10:00hrs we reached the fort entrance. The fort has three consecutive entry doors and right at the entrance was a board put up by the Govt. explaining clearly in Marathi, the history of the fort. Vaibhav translates each word of it and then with that gyan we keep moving across the forts various points. Plausibly, the fort was built by Adil shah, then moved over to the hands of Shivaji and finally came under the control of the ruler of Bhor. I believe, Aurangazeb too was involved in control flow somewhere in between. This is the first time ever that Ive spent so much time understanding a forts history , walking across all the Burjs and exploring each part of it.

We finally decided to stop over at one of the Burj for a quick snack. Just moments after we finished munching, the drizzle started all over again. At about 12:30 hrs we decide to start our descent and get back to Pune. The descent was much easier. At one point, we noticed that with some miniscule element of risk we could find our way to a waterfall. Ashutosh, Akhilesh and I decided to take it up and we did finally reach the cascade. The towering fall was all we needed to remove any body pains! Having had a wonderful massage from the falls, we moved towards the base where Vaibhav, Siddharth

and Hitanshu were waiting for us. While we were basking in the waterfall, the other three folks were whiling away time near the Bajarwadi temple watching the village folks playing cricket. Later we got to know that Vaibhav and Siddharth had come almost half way up again searching for us!

At about 14:00hrs we got to get into a jeep back to Bhor. At Bhor we had another round of Vadapav (and not to forget the Spiced up Channa Mix) and got back to the ST stop to board a


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bus back to Swargate. Thankfully we didnt have to wait for long. At about 16:40hrs we reached Swargate and from there boarded a bus to Parihar Chowk. Ashutosh would be in a better position to explain how we boarded the bus!

The week was tiring, the weekend even more! But I believe that is what keeps you on your toes and when you hit the bed, pains and aches apart; you know youve done at least something worthwhile in life!


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The Sarasgad Trek

Jun 21st 2008


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This week we seem to have got an enormous response for the weekend trek. So we decided to send out a mail to check which day would be the most suitable. The vote result was unbiased towards any particular day - About eight wanted to leave on Saturday and seven on Sunday. So finally we decide to have two batches for the Sarasgad trek.

21st June, Saturday

Snehith had come down to my place the night before. Were up by around 5:00am and start dialing numbers on the cell. A few enlightened souls who were still asleep had to be woken up! Pranavs already awake by the time I call him. Rahul still hangs in heavenly glory till about 6:10 am. About fourteen of Snehiths friends were supposed to join us. All drop! Akhilesh arrives at the bus stand well before time. At about 06:25 I get a call from Nikunj saying hed be joining us soon. Vaibhav, Siddharth and Trupti turn up at 06:30. Despite getting up late, Rahuls surprisingly there at the Sivajinagar bus stand right on time! Finally were a team of 12 - Pankaj, Prashant Rathore , Falgun, Nikunj, Vaibhav, Trupti, Siddharth, Pranav, Rahul, Snehith and I. Sivanand would be joining us en-route.

We initially had plans to take a bus to Khopoli first and then another to Pali. Vaibhav enquires with the transport officials and finds out that weve got a direct bus to Pali at 07:00am. The first half an hour, more or less everyone keeps to himself. Nevertheless a few minutes later most of us get to the rear of the bus and slowly start conversing. Probably its been just about ten minutes and wham...Someone (read Nikunj) clears his throat and starts singing. Prashant falls in line soon. Melody turns to Rhapsody with most of us trying to pitch in whatever we know. People start staring at us but who cares!

In about three hours, 10:20 hrs, the driver kicks us out of the bus. Wed reached Pali! Pali situated in the Sudhagad Taluk of the Raigad district is famous for Ballaleshvar - one of the Ashtavinayaks. A brief darshan at the temple followed by a quick breakfast and were all set for the trek. Localites guide us to the trek base point. From the base point, the trek looks pretty simple-Just one hillock to cover. This looked just similar to the Rohida fort but for the steep incline at the end. At approx. 11:30 hrs we start the trek. Unfortunately, this time climate isnt as conducive as it was during the Rohida trek. Air currents were sporadic and humidity was high. We reach a plateau and decide to rest for a while. Pranav on the other hand decides to stay right there instead of moving ahead. We


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were only four of us trailing behind in the group - Pranav, Rahul, Nikunkj and I - the rest had already reached a higher plateau. Amidst all this, Nikunj direly needed a band to pony his hair. All we had was a datacable!

In couple of moments we catch-up with the remaining folks. All that was left to reach to the peak now was to climb up the vertical hillock. A flight of gigantic steps manually carved out of the rocks led us up to the top. The climb would have been scary had it rained! Once we reach the top by the stairs we realised, there was a little more to climb. This secton was a bit technical - A few hairpin turns, slippery rock surfaces and loose gravel. In about 10minutes we reach the actual top. A small Nag temple stands isolated at a corner. We rest a while here by the side of the hillock which had relatively better air flow and then decide to start our downward trek. Pranav had already reached the base temple by this time.

The way down was a cakewalk. All you needed was impulsive feet, a bit of concentration, and control on your senses to zip down the hillock. Rain would definitely have added a silver line! By around 03:00pm we get back to the same old hotel where we had breakfast and have a decent lunch. The direct bus back to Pune was supposed to come at around 04:30pm. We reach the Pali bus stand by around 04:00pm and while away time unfortunately, were not the only ones waiting for the bus. The moment the bus turns into the bus stand, theres a mad rush to catch a seat. Rahul manages to get a seat. Pankaj and Shivanand wisely jump into the drivers cabin and base themselves properly there. The rest of us stand! The prospects of getting a seat after Khopoli were also pretty bleak, so we decided to switch buses there.

We reach the Khopoli bus stand by around 05:45 pm. As we stand and decide on what to do next, a set of kids barely three years old starts begging for money and as Trupti pointed, all they knew to speak was Paisa Paisa. Probably that is all that they were taught! Their behaviour indeed showed they were mentally sick and it was high time they received attention. All of this in a small town like Pali; imagine the plight of several other unlucky kids spread out all across the country. India is a developing Country - What part of it is developing is the question!

At about 6:15pm we pick a bus to Lonavala and reach by about 7:00pm. At Lonavala we board the train at about 07:20pm and were back to form again - All of us squat on the floor and


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while away time by cracking highly intellectual PJs almost all the way back to Shivaji Nagar. That one hour of chitter chatter indeed brought about a feeling that weve known each other for quite some time! We reach Pune at around 08:15pm and decide to have dinner and then part.

A classic outing, subjective climate and on top of it all - a wonderful group. Indeed a trek to remember!


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The Kothaligad (Peth) Trek

Jun 27th 2008


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June 27th, Saturday

Im quite surprised! I seem to be the last person to wake up this time. Ideally Suhas was to drop by my house at around 3:30 am after his night shift. When my alarm hoots at 4:45 am, I sense the first drop out for the trek. I anxiously dial his number only to hear that hed be reaching my house in a few minutes. The routine starts again. The next person on the roll was Rahul- someone well known in our group to doze in mighty glory when his presence is really required. Quite surprisingly, today he picks the call right at the first ring and he pretty much sounded alert enough. So i move on to the next person - Amrita. The call goes on but no one picks. A few minutes later she calls back telling me that even she was very much awake. Ashutosh too was almost set and hed be reaching Parihar chowk in a couple of minutes. Wed to reach Shivaji Nagar Station by around 6:00 am to board the train to Karjat.

At about 05:35am Ashutosh, Suhas, and I meet Amrita at Parihar Chowk and we pick a rick. to Kadki stn. Suhas suggested that would be closer and that the Sinhagad express would stop there as well. We happen to reach well before time. The train would tentatively reach Kadki at about 06:20am. Rahul and a couple of folks would be boarding the train at Shivaji Nagar and a few others would be joining en route. Later as Bhavana boards the train we get wind of an interesting episode. Pragya Joshi had overslept and Abhijeet too had to miss the train - For ten minutes Abhijeets been at the door of Pragyas house trying to wake her up while Bhavana was seated in a rick below. One of the tickets was on Bhavanas name, so she had to make it to the station at any cost. And she did, as Rahul describes later - The Jab we met style!

This time the final count was 13 - Rahul, Bhavana, Kajal, Abhilasha, Trupti, Suhas, Amrita, Ashutosh, Uwaraj, Swarnika, Abhijeet, Pragya, and I. At about 08:15am we reach Karjat. The latest update of Abhijeet and Pragya was from Amrita - Theyd boarded a ST and would be reaching a BIT late. We decide to move further and wait at Ambivali for the two. To reach the trek base one needs to reach Ambivalli and from there walk some distance to the Peth Village.

Start of the trek

A five minute walk to the Karjat bus stand and we get to know


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that the next service to Ambivalli would be at 08:30am. The following service would be at 09:45am. But again you would have to get down at Kasheli and get hold of a TumTum to reach Ambivilli. We get some VadaPavs packed and simultaneously inform the details of the bus timings to Abhijeet. In about an hour we happen to reach Ambivalli. The best identification mark for this stop is a small school to the left side, right at the starting of the Ambivalli village. A cement path to the right takes you to the Peth village.

A few other groups had also arrived by then and were sort of relaxing at the tea shop. The latest status quo from Abhijeet was that theyd got down at Khopoli and had picked another service to Ambivalli. A few minutes later we get a call from him telling us that theyd just got down at Ambivalli village and were standing right in front of a school - the irony being that, we were standing in front of a school too but we couldnt trace them out. A deeper analysis by Rahul reveals that from Khopoli theyd actually caught a bus to Amboli village and not Ambivalli village. How better can things get?

We decide to move on, reach Peth village and wait for them. Ideally the walk is about an hours quick sprint. In our case though, we took a sweet two hours to reach the village - thanks to the stopover at one of the viewpoints and the quick pace of most of us. Nevertheless, it was a beautiful start; what with us trying out all possible short cuts, avoiding the regular route. Also we had a heavy downpour for a few minutes as we reached the village - a much deserved respite post the humid weather.

First sighting of the fort

Once you cover about half of the distance from the Ambivalli village you get to see the Kothaligad fort from the breath taking view spot. You need to take an escalated embankment path to the left, a couple of minutes after you start from the Ambivalli village. Once here, its only about following the well laid kutcha path and reaching the Peth village. Oh and If youre looking for a couple of short cuts - theyre plenty. Its all up to you to use your brains and instincts to concoct a path from the wilderness!

Somewhere when we were still on our way to Peth, my cell manages to catch the signal and a message is delivered - Abhikeet and Pragya are on their way to Mumbai. Getting to Ambivalli from Amboli was something that they decided


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against. Quite reasonable a decision!

We reach the Peth village base at about 12:30pm. Theres a small hotel types place here wherein you can have a brief stopover for a light snack or tea. Uwaraj and Swarnika catch up with us here at this spot. We get to know that theyd not taken the left and instead moved further into the village right at the beginning! Each of us have a shot of hot diluted masala tea and start moving towards the Kothaligad fort. Our pace was pretty fast from here - probably the masala tea did the trick on the drenched nuts! The villagers directed us at a certain point and from there the trek up was all a quickly guessed out route. We did have a loyal dog to guide us to a certain distance but soon even he ditched us once another doggie wagged her tail!

Half way through the way up the hillock and half the fuses are out. This was Amritas first ever trek and she was already cursing all of us mentally for having moved up with that pace. Abhilasha and Swarnika were more or less in the same thought process probably. They definitely did test our motivation skills at one point of time! Finally we made it to a plateau and now all that was left was to climb up the final part of the fort. This did look a bit steep. Suhas, Uwaraj and Ashutosh tried exploring the possibilities on one side and Rahul and I on the other side. There was no way up! Damn and the way down for us were far worse. We somehow managed to get back to the plateau and rested there for a while. Intermittent showers and the haily winds kept the spirits up though. We started our down trek in about fifteen minutes and by around 3:00pm we reached the Village.

And we thought we were there!

From there, as we turned back and looked at the height wed covered and the spot that wed got stuck up, a major disappointment loomed on our faces. Wed not even reached the base of the Kothaligad fort. All that wed covered was the base foundation of the fort. The chap from the hotel then told us that wed chosen the wrong path at a spot - Instead of taking a left we morons had moved rightwards. This is when Uwaraj, Swarnika and Ashutosh suggested we give the trek another shot. We quickly had a poll on whod like to move up again and after having got a 50:50 status decided to split. Rahul would accompany Bhavna, Kajal, Abjilasha,Trupti and Amrita back to Karjat and Suhas, Ashutosh,Uwaraj, Swarnika and I would give the Kothaligad another shot again. The only dicey thing was that well have to make it QUICK! If we had to


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target boarding the 6:30 train at Karjat, wed have to scoop all our energy and move fast, real fast. The return bus to Karjat from Ambivalli would leave at 5:30pm. We hit up on reaching the peak in 1 hour. Swarnika led the group all the way to the top! This time we took the left turn at the right spot and we had two kids and our ever faithful dog to show us the path. The way up w

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Documents

raireshwar trek

rajmachi trek

bhimashankar trek

ratangad trek

rohida trek

sarasgad trek

kothaligad trek

koraigad trek