Prabalgad Trek 070930

Saturday 29th September, I felt a strong urge to go for a trek, wasn’t sure how many will come on a short notice.

Then I realized why it had to be a group for trek, if I ever wanted anything, I with my strong desire and commitment to acquire had accomplished it alone too. Trek was no different after all. No doubt group is fun to be with and is equally important and helpful. And no it was not to prove a point, It was the passion and burning desire to trek, and my love for the mountains that finally overcame all the fear and resistance for the trek and I decided to go all alone, I strongly felt that I can do it, whether any ones there or not.

Here determined to go solo trek, I decided on Prabalgad, not that it was easy, but very near to Mumbai off Panvel, as I wanted to reach back early.

I left early in the morning and left for Borivali ST Bus depot at 4:50 am. I enquired about Panvel bus and there was a bus at 5:00 am, which went to Pune, passing via Panvel bus depot. I boarded it and reached Panvel at 6:25 am. Here I enquired about bus to Thakurwadi. There was bus that went to Thakurwadi at 7:00 after which there was one at 10:30, I didn’t want to miss on this one at 7:00, I reached Thakurwadi at 7:25 am.

Without wasting much time I started my climb, I had enquired that there was an adivasi ( tribal ) hamlet on the first plateau at approx. 1000 ft, you have to pass through here and then ascend further up to reach the Fort.

There was a defined road, the story goes like the British wanted to develop Prabalgad around the line of Matheran, but due to shortage of water at the top dropped the idea, but there was a tar road that was built long long ago, which had be reduced to loose rock and pebbles and landslides had change the demography of the road, but u can still make out that there was a road here long ago. I did follow this road and at some places you need to take the path through the dense vegetation made by the adivasi traveling to and fro from the hamlet and base village.

Taking small breaks in between reached the first plateau, here I crossed the village and moved further getting lost twice on the way, didn’t waste much time any way, I hired the services of a local guy to show me the way. These guy was really helpful and with his slippers really managed to climb like a pro. It was zigzag path through the dense vegetation and with the rock and boulders on the way. The climb was very step, exhausting me on many occasions and I had to take break in between. Here I would like to add a note of caution that you have to very careful about where you are stepping, the rocks and even the huge boulders are prone to land slide as I happen to get the first hand experience on them, one of boulder on which I sat for relaxing gave way and slid down, I manage to get off it in time, here I put some rocks beneath the huge boulder to support it so that it might not go further down and disturb the way below where I was supposed to go down back.

Finally reached the top at approx. 2320 ft, here we met an old adivasi man who was catching crabs in a really innovative way, he fixed dead crab meat on the stick end and lured other crab to come out of the borough trying to eat it, as soon as the crab came out the adivasi would grab the crab by pressing the back of the crab and then holding it carefully and then breaking the clutches and then put him in his bag.

We went further ahead to explore the fort, but to my dismay and the whole gad was covered with dense vegetation and grass or small plant reaching to my neck, could not make much of the place, where we were or what was the fort like. Prabalgad fort is very huge, to be covered in short time, and time was also running out as I had to catch the 1:30 pm bus back to Panvel or if I missed it I will have to wait up to 4:00 pm, so decided to come back down.

On my way down I took rest at one of the small stream to get fresh, here I saw a glimpse of a mongoose below me, it was searching for food when, maybe he noticed our presence and quickly disappeared behind the rocks. Having had some snack and getting fresh with the cold water from the small stream was very refreshing and here there was cold wind blowing. It was very pleasing and I did wanted to wait for some more time.

Anyhow we reached the first plateau, here we enquired if we could get some tea but were disappointed and we carried further down. Our way down was very tiring as I was very much exhausted I had covered the whole trek without much breaks, so went slowly taking much needed occasional breaks in between. While coming down my adivasi guide pointed something on the tree branch ahead and stood still, it took me few second to realize that he was pointing to a snake on the tree, it was a shiny bottle green coloured small, maybe 3 ft long snake and its head and say 1/3 body was hanging out facing toward us, maybe trying to feel our vibrations. As the saying goes “ discretion is the better part of valour”, we moved to the corner of the path and moved slowly not to disturb the snake. Finally reached the base village, but it was 2:30 by then and I had to wait for the 4:00 pm bus, here I went into the Zoia spa and resort (Formerly Appolo Nusi Wellness Retreat) at the base village, here I had a mango juice as I didn’t feel like eating anything and got fresh.

When I reached back to the base village at Wadorli, attendants at the resort, were like you are alone for the trek, every one was surprised and maybe didn’t want to believe that one person went alone for the trek, the second question was have you done Prabalgad earlier, I don’t know, my reply in negation shocked or surprised these people.

Yet people need to understand it’s the determination of one person that move the mountain, you will call be unreasonable, but there is assaying “A reasonable person adapts according to the world while the unreasonable person adapts the world according to himself, and the progress of the world depends on the unreasonable person”.

I went and waited at the road to see if I could get some lift to the highway, lucky me I got a maruti alto and this guy dropped me to the highway where I caught a six seater to Panvel bus depot, from Panvel I caught back a bus to Borivali and finally reached home by 6:30 Pm.

Overall expenditure inclusive of food : Rs. 300/-

Saputara Bike Ride 070922

Not really driven a bike since ages, to put the fact clearly don’t know even how to ride one, really confused about the gears. How do I go for a bike ride adventure to saputara ( 600 + km round way ) ?

No choices left I decided to learn bike riding, with only three days to go, I knew that since the roads are bad the max. speed will be 60 –70 km/hr. so with the speed factor out, I only needed to concentrate on gear control and ride @ 60 km/hr and. Well three days were more than enough; I could now even participate in formula 1 race ( Joking at least not with the splendor bike, I borrowed from my relative, and yes splendor did make the whole journey, though I did miss out on speed and power ) and special thanks /appriciation for my wife vinni for putting her trust in my bike riding skill and offering her gracious presence as my pillion rider

Finally the day arrived and as decided we left early morning at @ 3:30 and reached borivali station. Here we put all our bags in the qualis that we had hired. (Taking qualis with us proved to be a wise decision after all, we had taken it initially so that those who did not have bike will be able to come on it and later swap with the pillion rider and enjoy the bike ride and also to dump our baggage’s. Quails really proved handy when one bike had a freak mishap and also when we had two bike tires flat late night on the highway while returning.)

From borivali we went to our final pick up point at teen hath naka, thane gradually picking people on our way and also joined by other bikes in between. Here the whole group was waiting and we had a 15 min briefing by ajay, he asked that every bike head light and the left indicator should be on irrespective of light condition, we commenced our bike ride by the auspicious coconut breaking ceremony . We were all together 13 bikes and 1 qualis in all.

Thus began the great moronz adventure to saputara on bike. We took the route viz. Mumbai - Thane – Igatpuri - Nasik – Vani – Saputara – Wagaai – Dharampur – Vapi – Manor – Borivali, with a night halt at Saputara.

Vinni also took opportunities in riding the bike while I become her pillion. We reached nasik with minor hiccups en route with Janki and her rider with minor injury and few getting left behind and some getting far ahead, some taking different road and few lost.

Here we decided to end the pandemonium and numbered the bikes and asked every bike to follow in sequence, that did help a lot and we were riding in formation, it was a sight to see, with our head lights and left indicator on with one bike after another altogether 13 bikes.

Finally we reached Saputara. We did have occasional rains in between but it didn’t dampen our spirits, as a matter of fact we wanted rain so desperately, it really cooled the weather.

At Saputara we had booked a bungalow managed by Gujarat state tourism department, we had all our lunch, dinner and breakfast included in the package.

The bungalows had a commanding view of the valley below. If ever visiting Saputara please do make a point to stay at one of these bungalows near the valley point.

We also had Australian and India T20 semi final Match on that very day, no points for guessing who won, and we cheered every moment of the match.

Early next morning we went to the top of the valley pt. where we did some photo shoots of the group. After having our breakfast we went to the lake where we were given complimentary pass for boating. We left for Mumbai from here without wasting much time, as we wanted to go to Gira falls on the way.

Asbsolutly amazing falls to see we did not go near the falls though we managed to find a small reservoir where we had fun. We didn’t have much time as we had to reach Mumbai early and we left Gira falls highly charged up.

The roads after this were excellent and few of us touched 110 km/hr before we reached Vapi, and had our late lunch or early dinner, you can call whatever you want.

From here the roads looked very tempting, but make no mistake, looks can be deceptive, so were the roads and there were these dangerous pot holes, few of our bikes did manage to land on these pothole at 80 + speed and had to pay with flat tires, lucky for us we averted any serious incidents.

After this we did drive slowly and reached Vasai on NH-8, from here it was an ordeal, we were so near yet so far from Mumbai, it was very late and we had to move at snails pace and zig zag our way through the serpentine queue of trailers and trucks. Finally after our 2 hr ride from Vasai we reached Mumbai, with lot of memories to cherish for eternity.. For eternity??? ( I don’t think so , I am up and rocking for a different adventure altogether )

Gorakhgad Trek 070804

To start off with a caution : rahul arranges these nights treks so that you don’t know where u r climbing or what u r climbing. Is these the best thing about night treks, well u get to know the next morning when u get the shock of ur life, u don’t have any choice except coming down the way u cant even imagine. ( still wondering was there any way ???? )
( these caution is for the faint hearted & not so adventurous and definitely not for the moronz )

Actually was planning to drop off the last minute, but called up rahul and he told me that even if there are few people we will go ahead with the trek, that inspired me and I was up and ready for the trek. Eventually every one thought the same way and we were 25 moronz in all.

We all meet up at Kalyan ST depot at 7:00 pm, as usual there were few late comers so we decided to split the group into half, the first half leaving early and making arrangements for our next travel to daheri village from Murbad. I was in the other half waiting for the late comers.

eventually we reached Deheri village at the base of gorakhgad, the night was beautiful and we started to trek without wasting much time. we reached the first rock patch say in around 2 hrs time. it was pitch dark except our flashlight we couldn't see much around. the night was windy and chilly with occasion rain, but not enough to dampen our spirit. we climbed the first rock path and landed ourselves at the gate of the fort. the second rock patch was right at the corner, we moved further up and reached the cave at the top. here we stayed for the night. we had a good time here had few grubs and played antakshari. i never knew when i dozed off .

got up early the next morning , maybe slept for 2-3 hr max. had our tea and breakfast. i had hurt my knee cap and it pained badly. i wanted to go to the pinnacle but decided to stay back also it was raining heavily and my shoes did not have the grip on the wet rock.

we waited for the rest of the group to come back and had our lunch and descended back to the base camp. Over all best rock patch , excellent trek, had a great time and mother nature at her best. Did not feel like leaving the top ( what ever reason ) .

Well this trek got not only to see the best of venky’s monkeying at the edges and the trees but his guiding abilities, a promising career to lead the trek in future. ( all the best )

Well rahul should add in his instructions “ things to carry for the trek ” - ear plugs
for members coming for the night trek , if at all you want to sleep , we have moronz who can sing day/ night or join them if you don’t have one (no other choice here )

We did miss the pole dance though.

Highlights of the trek : seeta & geeta , clifford’s (not so ) expert comments, friendship day flowers , monkey strategy ( not venkat this time ) and can any one forget the woodlands