Harishchandragad 2009... Best Trek ever

Harishchandragad Via sadhle ghat trek
Its not the destination but the journey that makes all the difference. You know your destination but the path you take towards it is what is life all about. So for me after having trekked to Harishchandragad 3 times before, the 4th time novelty was not as much, if not for the new route that was decided upon.

After having to forego Nalichi vaat due to unavoidable circumstances, we decided upon the next best route i.e. Sadhle Ghat. Excitement was high to trek through a lesser known route which was also considered to be a tough one. Preparations were on full swing for me as I dint want to regret later at not having carried a certain important thing. Checking and double checking the check list. “Little did I know that all these preparations were not for me.”

Then on the day of the departure, a few glitches were trying to disrupt the plan. The oil worker’s strike meant that Mumbai was totally out of fuel and so was most of the country. I was frantically making calls to know about the oil status. We had even charted out an alternate plan of going to Matheran by train if at all the petrol run vehicles came to a total standstill. Then Raj messaged me about the confirmation from the bus. All of us were running a little late due to the unavailability of autos and taxis so the 11pm deadline had gotten stretched to 12am.

We then started towards Savarne village. But my tube light glowed a little late when I remembered that there was a motorable road that goes upto Belpada our base village. I had seen it in wikimapia when I was surveying the area for routes. The bus was then instructed to go towards Belpada. Everyone was sleeping due to the lateness of the hour and I was enduring a bus journey from hell. And then guess what the diesel of the bus got over and it was running on reserve fuel and we still didn’t know how far off from the village we were. The bus had come fueled for only a one way journey. “Smart Guy”, I thought. Everyone was relieved when the bus made it to Belpada and all I could think about was how is the bus going to make its journey back. On asking the driver he said that he would buy kerosene from the village and take the bus back to the nearest petrol pump. “Wow I didn’t know vehicles could run on kerosene. The only uses of kerosene known to me are in those lanterns and for bride burnings for dowry, which I get to read about every other day in the news papers. Well anyway good for the bus”

Well there was a different kind of battle I was fighting. My stomach was threatening to throw out everything in it but my tonsils and tongue refused to let anything get out. I was so queasy and nauseas that I needed some sleep desperately. Few of us slept in the verandah of someone’s house and the rest slept in the bus. In the morning at 6am we had tea and then left on the road towards Kelewadi.

Kelewadi is about a 1/2hr walk away on the route towards Sadhle Ghat. At Kelewadi we rested for a while, asked for directions and then started off again. From here we decide to follow the river as It would take us directly to Sadhle Ghat. Even here our pace was slow as everyone was busy clicking pics. As we approached the base of the mountain, the river forked. We decided to take the right fork. Still ahead we found a proper pathway leading somewhere and decided to follow it. A little ahead the pathway also forked. Sanjayji, Raghu and Pravin wanted to take the right fork whereas the rest of us wanted to take the left one as it was running around the mountain towards Sadhle. These three took the right fork to go and check where it lead and were dead sure this was the right route.

Meanwhile a villager had arrived on the route that the rest of us were on and confirmed that we were on the right route. But Sanjayji and Raghu were adamant of following their path so this is where we parted ways. And also this is where my hardships too started, coz Raghu had my bag and he was gone with all my belongings. All I had left with me were the clothes I was wearing, a small hand towel, my fone and camera and the group’s money.

We started moving ahead first in full swing and then rather slowly and the path was getting steeper by the minute. The route was scenic which prompted us to go even slower clicking pics along the way. Here group got divided into smaller portions with Maulik, Dhaval, Thakur, Bhavin, and Uday up front. Next came me, janaki, Praful, Amar and Nikhil and the rest i.e Vidya, Sai, Rags, Raj, Raksha, Kern and Glen far behind. Maulik and group were way ahead and resting just at the base of the “V”. As Janaki and me approached we found a fork in the path ahead. The left looked like leading upto a steel wall and the right leading somewhere. We decided to take the right one and also decided to make a direction arrow for those who were following us. So we made an arrow on a piece of paper and set it in place with the help of small stones. Another 1/2hrs climb got us to a place where the Maulik gang was sitting. As we slowly went to that place we saw a lot of monkeys running around on the rock wall. Maybe they were feeling threatened by the presence of the new monkeys (us) in the vicinity, because a few moments later we found them chucking huge stones at us from a height of approx 50ft, one of which had closely missed maulik. We decided to flee asap. We were no match to our forefathers who have the ability to run on walls.
The rocky “V” looked much easier upclose than how it looked from the base of the mountains – intimidating. This climb was the most interesting part of the entire trek and gave us lots of opportunities to explore. Maulik as usual was monkeying around again clicking pics and getting himself clicked. The rocks here were pretty loose and most of the time we got showered by small stones and pebbles, set loose by the person ahead of us. “hmmm.. A rocky bath… dats interesting”

As we got out to the other side of the ghat, we entered a forest cover and immediately afterwards into a plain field with dry grass and a few bushes. We took shelter at base of the bushes to save ourselves from the sweltering sun and waited for the others to arrive. We were in no mood to eat anything oily due to the heat and I was longing for the pears that I had so carefully packed into my backpack. Then Praful offered us apples which were most welcome. A little while later Janaki and Praful went back to see if the others had come coz this place was a little confusing.

All of us were now on the field and the discussions led towards which route to take next. We were on top of the mountain already and Konkad kada was a few hills to our right. Only issue, we did not know the route and the villager who was accompanying us was in no mood to go dat way and also sdviced us against it. The next options was to get down of the mountain again at pachnai which would take an hour and then again climb up to Harishchandragad which would take around 2hr. Still a long way to go and it was already 12:15pm, better get going. By 1pm everyone was at the Pachnai village except for Kern, Raksha and Glen. We had some snacks to replenish our energy stores taking care not to eat too much. We waited here till about 1:50pm and then decided to move ahead slowly.

We were under the impression that Kern and group were coming up rather slowly, and hence it did not occur to us to go back and check, as the road was pretty straight. But after I had a talk with Raksha later on, she told me that they had gotten lost in the field itself, unable to find their way to the motor able road that we had taken. They were lost for a good 1/2hr before they found their way back. After trekking for almost 6hrs how, all of us were exhausted and we still had about 2hrs more of trekking left before we reached the top. So we set off slowing. The sun was burning on the back of our necks and it was pretty tiring to trek in this hot weather. People took lot more rest at this stretch.

At 4pm we finally reached the top and it was a relief to finally rest. Janaki and I set off to look for the cave in which we had stayed the last time. It was empty as we had expected so took it up. All of us then gathered at the dhaba to finally have a good meal. Zhunka bhakar. It was heavenly. At 5pm we set off again towards konkan kada. This was again a 1/2hr trek. Kern, raksha and glen finally reached the top around 5ish. On the way to konkan kada I met Hemant Pawar and we talked all the way to our destination. The konkan kada as always was magnificient. We walked to the opposite end to view it upfront. The sun was already setting and the weather was getting cooler and there was still no sign of Sanjayji, raghu and pravin. As we sat there in awe of the grandness of the kada we paid witness to another beautiful phenomenon – the sun setting in the west and the huge full moon rising from the east in the horizon. It was just spectacular.

At around 7ish we decided to head back to the dabha for a cup of steaming hot tea and later our dinner. On the way back everyone was scavenging for wood for the bonfire after dinner. As it got darker the moon shone even more brightly flooding us with its light. So bright was the moon light that we did not require torches for our trek back. Everything looked eerie and yet strangely beautiful. I kept scanning the horizon from time to time for any sign of our lost guys. I had thought they would have made it to the top by now. We reached the dhaba and sat down for tea. My feet were terribly aching and I thought of giving them some cold water therapy. So Sai, Uday and Me went down to the water cave to sit there for a while. Uday and me sat with our feet dipped in the water and chatting with Sai who was sitting outside on a rock. We were playing with our torches and watching the dancing reflections from the water on the cave wall. We tried to capture it in our camera but in vain. “Sometimes the simplest of things are just so beautiful”

After dinner, which was delicious and hot bhakri bhaji and dal rice, we headed back to our cave. It was really really cold now and I was totally unprotected towards the cold. Raj had lent me one of his full sleeve t-shirt. We walked back to our cave at peace with the world, due to the delicious dinner. Once inside the cave, all each one could think about was sleep. Everyone spread out their sleeping bags and I borrowed from everyone everybit of spare clothing that they had. Praful lent me a really warm sweatshirt which I was really thankful for. Janaki shared her sleeping bag wid me. We spread everyone’s towels on the ground and used her sleeping as a blanket. I must say it was pretty warm. In all the commotion trying to find a sleeping place, Maulik was trying to clear out an area for him and bhavin as they too didn’t have sleeping bags, as they had not planned to stay back the night. When he kicked aside a rock to make some place, a baby krait sprang from behind it. I must say it was as startled on seeing us as we were on seeing it. We shooed it out of the cave as killing it was totally out of question. As it left the cave everyone settled back again as though nothing had happened at all. As Sai had later told me over the phone, no one was bothered that the mother of the baby krait could have been lingering nearby.

When I discussed this with Janaki later on, we both agreed on the fact that we found the snake event quite normal. It actually did not cross our minds that the mother krait would have been nearby. We just lit a candle on the door step and dropped dead off to sleep. “Everyone was just so dead tired that I guess they would have even let the poor krait sleep in the same cave”

Next day morning, janaki woke me up at 7:30am saying we have to leave at 8:30am as the last bus from Pachnai to Kalyan leaves at 11am. I had doubts about this. As far as I knew, there was no direct bus from Pachnai to Kalyan. We had to changes buses somewhere and it would take longer from here. I confirmed about the buses and then I decided that we should take the Khireshwar route to go down. This gave us options to explore a third route and also the motivation to go and have a dip in the dam below. So now since we had some time to spare, we decided to have a luxury breakfast. Out came all the cup noodles, the Maggie noodles, ready to eat MTR rice, biscuits etc. Janaki and we were handling the kitchen here. Boiling water for all the cup noodles and then also cooking the Maggie and simultaneously also eating the MTR stuff passed around by Raj. I was surprised to see that all the cup noodle and the Maggie got over. So much so that Sai and Rags were actually fighting over the leftovers stuff to the bottom of the pan. “Bukkad” I had called them. Raksha, Kern and Glen meanwhile had talked to some guys to show them around Konkan Kada as they had missed out on it last evening. They said that they would go back to Mumbai with those guys and that we should move ahead without them.

As Raksha, Kern and Glen left us; we then packed up and posed for some groups pics. Maulik and Nikhil were missing here too as they had gone to see taramati. I was still scanning the horizon for any sign of the lost 3. After a few pics we started off towards Khireshwar at 11am, crossing the 7 hills with me and Janaki at the front. “Walking up front is best. You don’t have many worries at this position. Once you start lagging is when you start worrying about how to catch up.” It was fun listening to others cribbing “How much more do we have to climb? I thought we were going down and we have been doing a lot of climbing” or “Are you sure we are going down?” or “Please tell us how many more hills to go.” And me and Janaki would point to a distant mountain ahead and proclaim that we had to reach there. At this many would announce that they would rather stay back and start a new life on the mountains as a lemon aid seller. After about 1.5hrs trek we reach the spot from where we had to go down a steep rock patch and then into the jungles to reach Tolar Khind. This rock patch has always been an interesting route to maneuver. It excites you by showing you the sheer drop. Right after we crossed the rock patch, Maulik and Nikhil caught up with us. From here the path is pure trekking through the jungle. The tree cover was most welcome after 2hrs in the sun. We still heard a lot of “are we there yet?” I’m surprised, the 10hr trek the day before never once got me a “are we there yet?” but this 4hrs trek down was showering me with it.

We finally reached the bottom at around 1:30pm. We just dumped our bags at a dhaba and raced off towards the dam. After 2 days of no bath and in my case, 2 days to being in same clothes, we all wanted to just jump right in. But the dam bed was really rocky and all our feet were in a fragile condition from the 14hrs of total trekking. The funniest part was, no matter how deep anyone went, the water reached only waist level for all (chest level for vidya n me). After an hour in water, we all walked back to the dhaba in wet clothes. As we changed and put our respective clothes to dry and were waiting around for our bus to come and pick us up, we saw “The Lost 3” approaching us. Oh! Lord never been so happy to seem someone as I was then to see them ok. I was happy to see them and yet angry at them for having separated from the group. They had taken on another adventure al together and all of us were interested to know what had happened to them. When their story was out and o was finally at peace, we decided to play dumb charades until our lunch was ready. This was another memorable part where each one gave a spectacular performance. Rags acting to “Abhigyanth Shakuntala”, Sai to “The incredibles” and Raj to “ Zack and Miri try to make a porno” were some of the memorable ones. We continued to play after lunch until our bus arrived.

The bus arrived at 5pm and everyone was all ready to leave. The still waters of the dam and the mountain and clouds reflected in it provided some breathtaking pics. The journey back to Kalyan took about 3.5hs. Every one got down at Kalyan except for Raj, Thakur, Uday n me. We rode the bus till Vashi. I reached back home at 10pm.

To be truthful, this has been my best trek yet. I have always loved Harishchandragad. I had started off with this place as my first trek. This trip with morons was satisfying on many levels. We had covered a total of 29kms with a total trekking time of 14hrs in 2 days. We had managed to find the correct route towards Sadhle Ghat without hiring a guide. We had covered 3 different routes to Harishchandragad in just 2 days. And the best part was everyone got along so well with each other, helping out each other and understanding each other. And to think of, out the 20 people that had attended the trip, I knew just 6-7 of them. All the rest, I was meeting for the first time. And personally for me, I learnt that I can survive without my backpack for 2 days without much fuss. Everyone helped me out and I was truly thankful for that. I had Sai’s hat, Praful’s sweat shirt and Janaki’s sleeping bag. And I feel especially proud that I was the lone organizer and leader on this particular trip and it was a huge success. Janaki helped out with the decision making and it was like 2 females leading a group of 20 which consisted of 16males. As I said….. THE BEST TREK TILL NOW