A Walk In The Clouds

Pune is the hub for jaunts. Be it trek to fort,outing at hill station or adventures like river rafting, waterfall rapling, everything is nearby. And thanks to “5 days working” concept, I get complete 2 days to explore the nature around.

Now, this time it was “software professionals of Tech Mahindra” who planned a weekend outing. The discussions and arguments went on for almost a month just to finalize a place. At last me and my (colleagues would be too formal) friends decided to go to Matheran – The famous Hill Station of Maharashtra.

I wasn’t much enthu about this trip at first. In the monsoons and especially at such spots I prefer taking a walk rather than going by a car or bike. I doubted that anyone amongst the group would be ready to do so. However, as I haven’t been to Matheran before, I decided to go.

It was Saturday morning. We were total 14 people. Many of us were from Pune,others came from Mumbai and The One for whom this trip was planned came from Noida. We were very happy to see each other after a pretty long time.

We took Sinhagad Express and reached karjat around 8:30am. Then, took local train and reached Neral in 15 minutes. By this time everyone was starving. So we had a breakfast. Vada-pav and mast chay! ;)

oh! I forgot to tell you the moment we stepped out of train at Neral, it was raining cats and dogs.

It was a drive of ½ an hour from Neral to Matheran. The drive was through winding roads amidst the green blanket covered mountains. Still cherish the memory of going through the ghat. A view from cab window.

We reached atop and bought local raincoats and plastic hats cuz our windcheaters already proved useless. Everybody looked very funny in that outfit.

I must tell you hats were the best option to avoid rains.

We bought entry tickets and started to trek.Yes, I was wrong when I thought that nobody would be there to walk with me. Usually, people take train to reach Matheran from the point where we started. Since it was monsoon, the TOY train( what it is called) was not available and we were left with no option than to walk. There was one more option, horse ride!! As it is, we could sense the aroma from horse wherever we went and it was enough to offend our olfactory organs. So , walk was preferrable ;)

After respective posting at Tech Mahindra, this was the first time we all met. It was not just the 2-3 hours meet at any restraunt but we had a complete day. Here, we were allowed to yell,sing, dance and do all the masti we want. The trek seems never hectic if you have the company like I had ;) On top of this, we were blessed with the awesome weather and scenic beauty. The landscapes were a real visual treat!

It was as good as a Jungle trek with all the woods, fog and dark till we reach Market place.

Then, I realised that it is a typical hill station with hotels,gaming shops and had a proper market.

Matheran was more about strolling,enjoying the walk, the nature, the chilling rain, the green grass, watching people lost in the fog, hear the beautiful singing birds and enjoying the scenes around. It was not like trek to a fort where you have a destination to reach and so it was fun!

It was just a one day trip and so we could cover many points. I would say it was more than enough. All we could see at each point was just three colors white, brown and green. White of clouds, brown of lands and green of trees. Every spot we went we couldn’t have seen the beauty of valleys because the hide-seek of rain and cloud was still on!

Still we got the feel of being on height at Louisa Point. The scenes were fantastic as we saw water drop down thousands of feet below us into the fog.

The next halt, Echo Point was again engulfed in fog and there was no chance we could experience echo. So, we made us happy with a few clicks only ;)

Now came the best part of trip. I did valley crossing. It was actualy a pseudo valley :P The valley was not much deep but it was enough to give a feel of thrill! Valley croosing was the activity where participant has to crawl on a tight rope that is tied on to the two sides and at a certain height. Safety gear like harnesses and carabiners are used. Maza aa gaya!!

A so called valley ;)

It was 2pm now and we were hungry like wolves. We started our journey back. We took a halt for lunch.The chilling rain made everybody to shiver and it was getting impossible to sit in drenched clothes.It was better to change clothes.To the surprise, even the extra pair of clothes everybody had brought was wet and now there was no option but to sit in soaked clothes.

On the way back it was more of a peace walk.Everybody was in trans, wondering about a wonderful day spent together. The nature, the company, the fun had destressed us. We were all glad to get such a nice break from routine life of “TECH MAHINDRA” (wanted to use many words instead of ROUTINE :p)

We again took a cab and reached neral around 5pm. This was our last common stop. Vowing to make such trips together again soon, we parted to our own home sweet home!!! J

A Trek To Remember

It has really been a long since I have jotted down any of my experiences. Yesterday, I got an opportunity to experience something that was worth noting down.

It was 4am, SUNDAY morning and 4 alarms started ringing. Me, Mukta, Sonal and Prachi had planned to go for a trek to Duke's nose and so we all got up without snoozing alarms. It was raining heavily outside and one of us (not so enthu about trek) thought we better stay at home only. As it is, trek would be most probably canceled due to rains. However, somehow we managed to convince her and reached Shivajinagar station around 5:15 am. We were going with “Yuvashakti”- a trek group in Pune. All Yuvas were there by 6am. I could feel the excitement and enthusiasm in all the youngsters present there.

We took 6:30 am train and reached Khandala around 8:30am. The moment we stepped out of the train, it was already showering. People were helping themselves with umbrellas, windcheatres, raincoats, caps etc. But by the time we reached under roof on station, almost everybody was soaked. Then, with some instructions from trek leaders and a nominal breakfast we headed towards Duke’s Nose. It was really a beautiful morning….very refreshing!!

The rain took a break for some time and so we started with a photo session. It is one of the main reasons for me to go for such treks. After all it is the only way to capture moments :P Rainy season is best for sightseeing. We just couldn’t stop clicking. We had reached a place where we were surrounded by mountains and it was greenery everywhere. We could see a mountain peak at one moment and the second moment it was lost in clouds. It was so foggy that after some time we couldn’t even see a person at 2m distance. We were very happy and felt proud of ourselves that we made a right decision to come here ;)

We walked some more distance and then we could hear gargling of waterfall. The sight of waterfall made everybody to go “yippee, oh wow, sahii” :D Trek leaders were as enthusiastic as participants and made everybody to get under waterfall. That was an awesome experience!! It reminded me of all the rainy songs in the bollywood :D

And now, it had started raining really heavy. All so called water resistant apparels proved useless. We were in the middle of woods, drenched due to downpour but still energetic. Every step we took made us to unfold new face of nature. We were amazed by its beauty.

It was very slippery and we had to put every step with caution. We had reached a point where we had to climb a peak. We were climbing it and there was a sudden torrential rain. It was as if we were getting beaten by the rain. We were at such a height that loosing balance for a moment would have leaded us to lose ourselves forever. It was too difficult patch to climb. Even in such position we couldn’t afford to miss to see the scenery. The beauty of nature or I would say “rudra avatar” of nature was breathtaking. It was like we are watching Mani Ratnam’s movie. And I must say Mani Ratnam is missing a lot of locations ;)

Fighting with rains we somehow crossed that patch and now there was something more thrilling in store, we were “LOST”. There was a gap between us and other members. It was quite dark amidst woods and we even couldn’t see the sky. There was no chance to know which direction to go. We were 8-10 members left behind. Me and sonal were at front the “so called Trekkers”. We followed the way through which water was flowing down. This was a true Trekking Moment. We were kind of scared, had no idea of where we are going and still had the spirit to find a way. J

By God’s grace we were on right track and after 10-15 minutes leaders came searching us. We finally reached a safe destination.

We continued progressing in the rains which was getting very irritated. We reached our “Lakshya”around 12pm J still there was no sign of “noon”. We couldn’t see any view from such a great height as everything was covered with clouds; it was all smoky, foggy! All we could see was a temple of Shiva .We were supposed to have lunch at this point but heavy wind was blowing along with rains and we couldn’t even open our lunch boxes. I would have flown off due to such wind if I was a little thinner :p. After sometime, we had our soaked lunch and headed towards base. We took off from Khandala and descended in Lonavla. Trek wasn’t over yet, we had to travel or to be precise WALK a long distance to reach to station. But this was a simple road and it was just drizzling so we were chill!

We enjoyed this route. We chitchatted, sung songs, pulled each other’s leg, and again had photo session. We were feeling very cold. Also, we were hungry by now so had tea and bread-omelet at a thela on the way. We reached station by 4pm. The train was at 5:30pm. Now we were eager to go home as we were completely wet and each limb was aching.

We reached home by 7:30pm. THIS WAS IT!!

This trek made me realize my limits. It made me test my will power as well as stamina. Most of the people enjoy going alone or with their friends for treks. I prefer going with a big group where I get to meet variety of people. Many of which are amateur, some are professionals and some are like me, just nature lovers ;)

It is a great feeling to walk with a stranger… give a hand of help…. Take a hand and climb….. Share a same goal of reaching the zenith!

I am really looking forward to have such experiences in my life. Wish me luck for that!!! J

Good Morning!!!!!

25th jan....Monday..7:30 a.m....Misty morning....Road gng towards karve statue..... sweepers clean roads and make that typical (ghiss hiss) sound..... A little cute boy, must be in 3rd/4th standard waits for school bus, so excited to go to school after a weekend... Some distance further, a little girl with chubby chicks sits in her mother's lap and still feels sleepy....
Aajji-ajoba buying flowers for pooja while returning from a morning walk... Uncle waving his hand to a friend while watering plants.. A melodious song is sung by a lady(mst be riyaaz)....
And here I am at a chay tapari enjoying first tea of the day and observing all these things arnd me... Mornings are beautiful..aren't they??? :)