Kothligrah trek

Hi friends,

Back after 9 months (last trek was in December). 

This was a easier one. We decided to go only because we wanted to go somewhere. Since some member of the team were not present taking anything challenging was tough.  So we settled for Kothligarh. Well it was on the 21st October I had said Raghu n Ravinder that no matter what we are going for a trek this week end. But it was only on Friday we started the integrities. How many, who all, where and how. Raghu called me in the morning and said “bhai tu plan bana le”. I said cant happen that way. But he said he was busy so I had no other option but to do the needful. Finally at 7 pm we had 3 confirmation me, raghu and ravi. We needed at least 1 more to start. I spoke to raghu he said go ahead he will find people who would be willing to come. So I finally start my goggling. I finally shortlisted 2 place. 1 of them was kothligarh and other was kaman durg. I forwarded the link to raghu who spoke to one of his friend ( he is someone who organize trek in sayadari region) and finalized Kothligarh. He said there are 7 people ( which i did not believe.) He said there are 2 girls from 1st year he did not tell me their name. He asked me not to tell this to ravi. We dicided to meet at 6 am at vile Parle station.  I messaged Ravi to be there. Ragu mailed all of us the things to carry. At 6 I reached Vile Parle Station. Ravi came after 5 min. Shilpa (from 1st year) came at 6:10. I had not meet her before so did not knew that she was going with us. Ravi knew her as she was in place com. She asked ravi where was he going and on that ravi said that he was going on trek with her. I bought 5 tickets for karjat. 

 

Raghu and Sid came at 6:15 and then we moved to the platform and boarded the train to dadar. Raghu mean while called Sonal and asked her to be at Dadar for 7 :03 train.  Sonal said she would be late so we should buy the ticket. So I bought 1 more ticket from Dadar to Karjat. Sonal finally made it on time. 

The Mumbai local as usual was punctual but over crowded. Sid used me as an object to push his way in (quite common for sid).  We somehow made our way in. As we approached Kalyan we got 6 seats. We reached Karjat at 9:15. After few photo shoots we made our way into the town where the bus stop was. We bought some bottle of water and some chips for the trek. We bought some vada pav for the breakfast. Ravi bought some banana. All of us asked every other person how to reach Ambiwalli. We inquired some Auto driver they said they would charge some 400 bucks. One said 300 but negotiated for 250 but he did not agree. The bus was due ine next 10 min (9:45). The bus took us to Kasheli. From there we took an auto to ambiwali.  The auto charged us rs 80 for 6 people. ( we did not wanted any more people in the auto other than in front so he said he will charge 80). The road was very rough. We finally reached Ambiwali. There was 2 other group  who had come for trekking. Just at the place where the Auto left us there was a restaurant.  Raghu said lets pack poha but we said we have enough Vada pav and we will be back by 3 or 4 and then we will have lunch. So we left for the trek. Our next target was to reach Peth the base village. The way to Peth was little boring. @ hours walk on the road took lot out of us. The rocks were laid on the rock in un even manner. The sun glared directly at our faces.  We finally reached Peth after many small break. Rested for some time and refilled the bottles with water. The trek was interesting. Had good time as the path was well covered with tress. We reached the top (there was still 10 min trek to go) . the top look interesting. There was a temple well maintained and clean. The place ( the concrete part) look clean all around. There was dark and silence all around inside. we rested for an hour. Then we proceeded to the top it was little dangerous. I was at the front and i heard someone from the back saying " i am not going".   But finally all of us made it to the top. The descend was easy though we lost our track in last 10 min stretch but we were able to see the hut at Peth so somehow we made it to the village. After filling some water we proceeded for Ambiwali. The way was easy down but the rock were hurting our  leg. We reached Ambiwali at 5:40. The last direct  bus from Ambiwali to Karjat was at 5:30 we were lucky that the bus was late and we just made it. Finally some of us (atleast me) had a few naps on the return journey to Karjat. When we reached Karjat we found that the train is in next 5 min. We rushed to the station but the train had just left. The next train was at 7:40. After much deliberation we left the station to have our dinner. When we returned we saw the train standing. We got seats comfortably. When we reached Dadar it was 9:15.

The train to Vile Parle was over crowded. We boarded the 3^rd train. We asked Shilpa to get into ladies compartment. We reached Vile parle at 10:15 that made sure Shilpa had enough time to reach hostel on time. The trek was good.

 

Would like to thank Shilpa, Sonal and Sid to make it possible else we would have to cancel the plan. The next blog hopefully will be little sooner.

ADVENTURE TO KOHOJ

Hi Friends I am back. But this time I will not do any bakwas.

This is the about the trekking to Kohoj from 22nd to 23rd December 2007. We were a group of 6 people from my class. Bimlesh, Ravinder,Raghu, Sandeep, Swaroop and me. We meet at Virle Parle station at 7:45 to go to Dadar and from Dadar to Kalyan. We were late by about 30 minutes from our planned timing. We had our breakfast and then from Kalyan we took a bus to Waghota. We were supposed to go to Vada and from there take a bus to Waghota. But the bus we boarded was also going to Waghota so we got down at a place called Kinjar which was 2km from Waghota to have our lunch (Waghota is a village and you will not get food there.) After that we enquired from the localities about the way they said its better to take a guide. One of the person at the dhaba wanted to be the guide but we were not in the mood to hire any. We wanted to explore the place on our own. So Ravinder said “Tell us the way but we have been here before :) (this was the dialogue of the trip).” So we decided to move ahead. We asked the Auto to take us to Waghota for which he asked Rs 50 instead of Rs 30 ( Rs 5 X 6). So we decided to walk as it was only 2 km. Since it was very hot so after walking for 20 min we were little exhausted and started cursing Ravinder. We didn’t know the way so we had no idea where we were heading. We asked for lift to all the passing vehicles. Finally we were lucky ( rather unlucky) to get the lift from a truck. We saw Waghota passby but as we couldn’t see any one so we thought to keep moving. We got down about a 500 mts from Waghota and kept moving further away. We finally reached Center Point Dhaba where we asked for the way. They said the way is not clearly made so take a guide which we will get at the tea center about 200 mts from the place. So we kept moving and reached the Tea stall. The stall owner had gone to deliver the tea and his wife was there taking care of the shop. We decided to wait for him.Finally he arrived and after little persuasion he agreed to come with us but only for a little distance from where he would explain the way and we agreed.

So our real journey began at 4 pm. He said that we could reach the top by around 6:30 and they can stay there at night. He explained us the way. (He didn’t charge us anything and also insisted that we meet him and go next day when plan to return). He told us to take the “Gadi wala Rasta” (The way through which they use to take the cart. We were lucky to find it. But then it all happened. After following the track for around 30 min we lost the track. We could not see the path any further. So we took our own decision and started moving toward the peak. We kept ascending for around an hour and half to an inclination of more than 70°. Ravinder was against it but since other 5 were for it (think-tank) so he had to follow Bimlesh was ahead of us as we thought if Bimlesh could go ahead we all will be. So we decided to let Bimlesh move ahead and the rest follow. Bimlesh kept moving and we followed. After around an Hour and half we were moving toward more steeper climb Raghu asked Bimlesh to leave his luggage and go ahead. If he found the way we will move ahead. After 20 min when Bimlesh didn’t responded to our call We asked each other if anyone had network on his cell. Thanks to Idea we were able to call Bimlesh. He said that there is no point climbing up. We should descend. We were struck at a point where climbing up was difficult and descending seemed tougher and it was also getting darker. Meanwhile Swaroop tried calling anyone whom he could reach so as to inform that in case needed send a rescue team. Finally we decided to send Sandy to help Bimu to come down. We all waited there holding the ground on all fours. We learnt a lot of management lesson during these crucial time (team building, leadership skill, motivating other, decision making, group dynamic and many more. The entire HR classes were done in practical here). The problem was it was getting darker. Finally when Sandy and Bimlesh were audible we started descending. We crawled down and in next 45 min we reached a flat land. We could now rest for some time. Swaroop called up Ankit to tell that we were ok. Now we had to find our way out of the jungle. The moon was bright this atleast provided us some relief. But we were out of water so going out of jungle was a must.

We had lost the way which we took to reach to this place. So we decided to move toward the slope. We could hear the vehicle on the highway so now our goal was to move toward it The more we moved toward the slope more we moved toward the denser part of the forest. Finally we say a small lane we didn’t knew where it led us but we still took it. After following the path for two and half hour we were out. There was relief on everyone’s face. But we didn’t know which way to take on the highway.

After walking for 20 min we reached Waghota. We couldn’t see any one. Light in one house lit on hearing the bark of dog but as we approached it went off. So we decided to go into the village and ask for help. Few villager were sitting outside a house and chatting. We asked them for water. They offered us water and said that we sleep in the village itself but we wanted to have a campfire lit. So we made excuse. They then said that we can spend the night in the farm which we agreed. We filled in water and Bimlesh bought cold drink for us. Two villagers showed us the way. We thanked them and all of us put the mat and rested. We cheered for life and then we enjoyed. We slept at 1am. I got up at 7 but all were tired so we slept again. But the Farm owner had come by then so we got up. We freshened up. Sandy and Swaroop went to Kinjar to get Vada pav for breakfast and lunch. After having lunch Ravinder and I went to the village to return the empty cold drink bottle and get some water and also the guide (Sachin). Sachin was a local boy studing in class XI.

Then we begin our journey. The start looked easy but as we proceeded it got tougher. There was a beautiful lake at the starting. The water was cool and sooting. After 5 min rest we proceeded. At a point it became so tough that after every 10 min climb we took a rest for 5 min. This was because Raghu, Bimlesh and I were not well. After a point it became so tough that we had to leave our luggage behind the rock. We tied a handkerchief to locate the point on return journey. And we proceeded. We were at the flat land at 2 pm. But still the fort was around half an hour away. There was supposed to be water for washing but when we looked at it we thought it is better to keep moving. We reached to the second landing which we thought to be the top but no it was place where the drinking water was available. The water was cool. When Sachin told us that we need to go ahead we thought its impossible. We could not see the way but he said that it is easy. Some of us didn’t believe him. But in next 5 min he was on the top. Seeing him he were encouraged and finally decided to go ahead. The path was very narrow. Once I saw down I thought better don’t go. There was place to keep only 1 foot at a time so a slight miss and you are gone. But all were proceeding so I told myself just look ahead and move. Reaching to top was reaching the heaven. The beautiful sight of the valley, cool breeze, the stone structure at the top. It was all a marvelous beauty to watch.

The stone structure was amazing. After spending around half an hour we decided to descend. The descend was tougher because willingly or unwilling we had to look down. We crawled down and reached the place where the water was available. We had our lunch and after 20 min we proceeded our descend. On the next flat land which was as big as a cricket ground we explored a bit and saw the nearby valley from the top. It took us around an hour and half to reach then came down to the lake and freshened up there. The water was a relief after the trek. We thanked our guide Sachin for being patient as well as encouraging throughout the tour. Then we took a truck which dropped us till the Mumbai Ahmadabad highway. We had our dinner in a hotel there and then boarded the asked the truck which was going to Mumbai to drop us till Vile Parle. At 11 pm we were in Vile Parle.

This trek will be memorable to all 6 of us for the fun we had, for the lesson we learnt and for the courage we gained. We all are looking for another such adventure soon.

Please click on the link below to see the collection of photos of this trek.

http://picasaweb.google.com/meet.sumitjj/Kohoj

FINALLY I BEGIN

Hi friends before I say anything let me give credits to my roomies (Sidharth n Mahadevan) for indirectly inspiring me to do this (both of them are active blogger). I dont know what value addition will this blog give to me but this will definitely prove my friend(my sister n colleague) wrong that I now look only for the value addition in anything I do ( even the friendship I maintain). I know she is wrong bt is difficult to fight with her as she indirectly prove herself correct. I dont fight with frnds( only with 2 of them) as this doesn’t come naturally to me. This is where I always loose n they dictate terms.
Now I dont really know whether I m happy in Mumbai or not. I got lot of new frnds (whether close or far they are really important to me), a new life away from home, independence to live life according to my wishes. It is supposed to be step in the “suppose to be a successful career” with big fat pay package n providing exposure in the finance in the financial hub. Doing night out at my wish. Sleep when n where I wish (in class or hostel) n wake when I wish. Going out with frnds n bahiya for dinner/ lunch. Back to the student life.
Bt at same time I miss “my life” (My friends), the luxury of getting the thigh prepared (foods, cloths ironed n washed, and so on), my parents, the responsibility that I some time enjoyed, gossip, the love that I found, and many more.
Its very difficult to justify any of the decision as there is no value addition in that now . The more I try more I justify my friend that I have started looking for only value addition. People back home says that I have changed for better but I m still to realize it. More on the argument about the value addition in the coming blogs.
Thanx for reading all this bakwas n hope u will continue to read n eagerly wait for the next.