Showing posts with label Rainy Rides. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rainy Rides. Show all posts

Half-day kalti to Pawana Lake

Posted: by Pulsurge in Labels: , , , ,
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Half the fun of the travel is the esthetic of lostness. - Ray Bradbury



A perfect example of a golden opportunity and grabbing it with both hands.

Was down with high fever on Sunday and seeing me still cough in office on Monday, boss granted me a half day leave. Well wasn't at all feeling down or feverish- though my expressions might have been that of a patient, decided to make best use of this half day and rode to Pawana lake- a few kms from Lonavla.

Clicked a very few pics- though not very sharp as clicked from my mobile with the battery dying out.  

The lovely roads of Khandala, I get nostalgic about this place- this was the path I took on my first ride.

Cut between two:

Glimpses of the huge lake

A view such as this could sooth the most confused mind.

Couldn't help stopping every now and then to look back at the serene view left behind.

Was a very short trip, hence nothing much to narrate either- but in the end it was worth the time. Though not much, but a small extended album HERE

Driving/Riding directions: Mumbai-Vashi-Panvel-Khopoli-Khandala-Lonavla. Once you reach Lonavla take right from the main road with the board pointing to Amby Valley. Just keep going and take left from the statue of Shivaji Maharaj. Carry on through the crowded market till you hit a fork- take the right one and keep going till you come across a very narrow road which goes straight and a right turn, take the right and just keep riding till you hit Pawana.

Trek to Mahuli Fort

Posted: by Pulsurge in Labels: , , ,
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Going to the mountains is going home...... George Leigh Mallory

Trackback to those days of childhood when on every Shirdi trip the ST Asiad used to stop at a hotel with a weird shaped but lovely chain of hills in the distance making me wonder if the pinnacles and the shapes of the peaks were natural or man-made- I always thought it was the latter without going into any logic whatsoever. With time and trips I fell in love with these hills- just for the way they were looked. My susu breaks in the backyard of the restaurant always used to end up extended with me staring at the hills into overtime. It’s been 20 years since and it’s recently that I came to know this thing of natural beauty was called Mahuli fort. 
 
A few months back, Glen and I had decided to trek Mahuli - we didn’t even know the name then, it’s only on finalisation that we investigated as to what it’s called. I always kept this trek on buffer as I wanted to ensure that Glen comes along. Unfortunately with his nose flowing like Amazon since the rains arrived and I not ready to miss it this year- I decided to go alone. Asked Revel in case interested and he was on his toes right away. Dhananjay too joined in the list coming to know from Alkesh (my colleague) about the trek- but later dropped out for office commitments. Finalised it for Saturday as we could get a rest & recover day the next. A big thanks to Abhijit Avalaskar and Rohan Rao (had to regret big time of forgetting your advice to carry odomos) for their valuable tips.
Saturday is here and I ditch my super-slippery Woodlands for the newly and freely acquired Liberty Warrior Safety shoes- at least they gave better grip on wet surfaces. Met up with Revel at IRB Toll Naka with a surprise turnout Raj (looks a kid which he isn't). Without much delay we were pleasantly cruising on NH3 towards Aasangaon Railway Station. We crossed over the railway crossing reaching the station only to know that it was Atgaon and not Aasangaon. Someone punch me! I had been through the place so many times- but never bothered to read the name. We head back into right direction this time and pad ourselves up on the way as it started drizzling buckets.
A small breakfast and we land up at the Mahuli temple- parked the bikes, left the helmets at a shop and started the walk towards the pinnacled beauty.
Heard a gush in the bushes and found it was a lovely waterfall. A few clicks and we were on our way again.
Half an hour of walk and the path's a full stop- we try exploring all directions, but cannot find a way round. Thankfully we find a local who points that we took the wrong way, the diversion to the fort was way back. One hour was completely wasted walking for nothing- or at least for the waterfall. Blunder....we didnt follow the arrow marks on the way (my heartiest thanks to the trekkers who take the effort for the markings all the way up).

 The sun came out and it got irritatingly humid- I was still comfortable though sweating like there's no tomorrow. The two Rs (Revel & Raj) finding it too tiring and were taking frequent breaks. There was no breeze either, but the sight of the pinnacles was charging me up- why wouldn't it be, the 20 year old love affair had just been revived.

In between sections were too vertical and squeezing all the calf muscles- my body felt like a furnace and I prayed just for a small drizzle that would cool everything around. Never had my prayers been answered so soon - a short quick shower from the skies charged up the batteries. The R brothers were too slow to keep up- so I used to hurry and wait for them ahead. The ritual carried on till we reached half way and from thereon we three were together. The pinnacles- my love, were forcing us at regular intervals to stop and stare at them.

 A small stop again for a quench and some biscuits and a short break again to the duo for a respite to their backs. 
 

Thanks to the people who took the efforts to get the ladder there.
 
A few steps more and we come across a water cistern (not potable though), get rid of our shoes in a hurry and in no time are our feet having a massage- suprisingly it gave the same feeling that a warm massage does. We all jumped up when someone around said he saw a snake inside- though there was nothing as such.
Bidding good-bye to the massage parlour we carried on our way towards the Mahadarwaja- shattered near-almost, but still standing proud.

Surprising you have to come through the fort for the entrance. Walked slowly towards to see the way coming from the side..all I could see was a drop ahead, though couldn’t see clearly- didnt venture far, way slippery to my liking. I guess this would be an abandoned path or too risky rather to come up through.

The caves near the Mahadarwaja could serve well for an overnight halt- but the way picnickers had littered the area, you'd be better staying away from this place- only if the sense of cleanliness and respect for the place came to them.

 
The two carved objects near the entrance, couldn't make out though what they resembled- maybe a sign to keep bad luck at bay.
 Pulled out the travel reference booklet from the bag to check the attractions on the fort, but the book sounded too confusing. Asked a localite group who asked us to follow them on their way to Kalyan Darwaja and with most of the attractions falling on the way. They were too brisk for our pace and we had to run to catch up with them of not being left out in the high bushed path.
Clicked whatever ruins I came across on the way. This might have been an entrance to something.
This was a part of the temple, which I was so eager to see- just slabs of rocks remaining.
 
Saw this lying off the path- confused whether it was an anchor sign, a sword- certainly looks different to the regional architecture of those times.
 
The Sabhagruha (Hall)- the walls seem coated with cement.
 
The lake....calm and to some extent scary.
We reach the end of the plateau with the other guys descending to make their way up to the other. Revel wasn't ready for the climb, Raj couldn’t make it- I was eager but knowing that it would take an hour, abandoned the plan. Was already 5 then.
We started the tiring walk backwards- these people had made us hike for nearly 40 minutes and it had to be repeated all over.
 
We're back from where we started, took a cool face wash and walked around to get a few shots of the hills.
Ventured to the other side of the hill for a shot of me.
 
Started our descend around 6 pm with Revel's knee in bad pain. He was limping on the descends, but bravado took a lot lesser breaks compared to the one he took while going up. Maybe it was the fear of being lost in the dark that was pushing him. Not to mention the safety shoes I was wearing turned out to be painfully uncomfortable with my toes hitting the hard tip on every jerk. The local group who'd gone to Kalyan Darwaja overtook us mid-way. Stopped over at the stream to freshen up (poor Revel fell here again) and walked all the way till the temple. Took one last shot of the beauty in dark...looks so mystic doesn't it?
 

Found new company on the way - see him smiling in the background.... he should be- after all we emptied our packet of biscuits to his treat.
 

Was a lovely trek- felt like I found my missing love after years. But this trek won't subdue the affection I have for these hills- I'll be staring at it the same way I used to 20 years back. 
 
In case anyone planning to trek this wonderful place, it would be my humble request to please exercise cleanliness- you may carry all the waste back to base in your bag. There’s no one to clean up there except the trekkers who are kind enough to do all the cleaning. Let us not pass on this unnecessary responsibility on to them.

Well HERE are some beautiful memories of the trek, hope you find Mahuli as lovely as we did.  On the jolly part- I never looked so horrible as I've looked on this trek...damn I look so scary- like some c-grade south Indian movie villain ;) 

Direction info: Nearest railway station is Aasangaon. If traveling by road from Mumbai, when nearing Aasangaon you find a signboard reading MANAS MANDIR on the left, get off the highway and carry on with the road till it ends near Mahuli Temple. This diversion is approximately 55 kms after IRB Toll Naka. There is a small shop near the temple where you can buy biscuits and stuff. Light breakfast (wada, tea etc) can be availed at a small snack stall at the Mahuli village entrance. Carry sufficient water as there is no source on the way. The cistern at the entrance doesn’t hold potable water. There might be other cisterns too, which I didn’t come across. The lake water too doesn’t hold potable water. The trek is easy, but time consuming. Hence in summers two litres of water dissolved with Glucon-D and Electral (to prevent cramps) is advisable per person.

Trek to Jivdhan Fort and Naneghat

Posted: by Pulsurge in Labels: , , , , , ,
9

Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing............Helen Keller

With another weekend coming up and Rajmachi ripples having calmed down, rains still around, greenery beckoning and my trek resolution standing strong- was about time to get lost again. This time my trekmeter needle stood still at Jivdhangad (Jivdhangad sounds better than Jivdhan fort- thanks to Vaibhav Gokhale for mentioning this in one of his mails). Sought information from Glen who had already trekked Jivdhangad, valley crossed and rappled down Khada Parshi (wow amazing!). Still in a confusion about Naneghat and Jivdhangad- are they one or different? Heap scrolling of relevant webpages cleared the doubt, took a few printouts and pushed them in my purse. A war cry inside "Jivdhangad mi aaloch!" (Jivdhangad here I come).

Was up early, had a bath (didnt feel like having- had to anyways sweat out later). Thought of having breakfast later on the way, which never happened. Was a terrible ride on the slippery stretch from Mira Road to Thane packed with truckers. Come NH3 and it was a better ride barring the broken and bumpy Kalyan patch. Stopped over to click the beautiful roads towards Murbad.

Stopped over at Murbad to up the ration (biscuits and water). Rolling wheels on the blacktop rolled over a green carpeted landscape...beautiful!

You can trek up Naneghat from this place, but keeping the bike here is not worth the risk.

Climate at Malshej was amazing....clicked a few pics. My HID was doing its job well of alerting the oncoming traffic of my presence...not to mention they were all staring at my lights ;)

Crossed Junnar and took for Ghatghar passing Shivneri fort. Piled up a few memories on the way- the Manikdoh dam, lovely green landscapes, even the bad roads.


46 kms later, am at Ghatghar. On enquiry with a local girl for the way up the fort, I was told that the path is confusing since plants would have grown over the path and going alone is not advisable. She called up her brother Vithal to be my guide. I dumped the unnecessary stuff in their house carrying only the things I would need. In excitement I forgot to eat- was carrying biscuits anyways. Got a lovely place to park my bike.


From two wheels to two legs, very soon we're at the base of the mightly hill blanketed by a thick cloud cover trying to keep suspense of whats to follow.

Earlier it was quite an easy walk, maybe some years back I would have called it a tough one to walk.

Ahead it started getting slippery and uneasy to hold ground. We didnt hurry and carried on steadily.

Not stopping much except for a 2 minute break for a drink and Vithal slipping over the rocks, we were at the stairs in quick time. What an amazing sight it was.. you can only see the stretch of stairs till one point and after that its all fog. Looked like the stairs were the end of this world and heaven started thereon.

Through with the stairs, Vithal showing his fearlessness crawled from the edge to a small opening to get me a snap. The small outlet was a huge cave inside that was used to store ammunition in those historical days. Wow!

Was foggy and in the excitement about this cave, I failed to notice what was ahead. I look up in shock and ask Vithal "What is this?" He grins and says "We have to climb this patch and its easy. Just slip your legs into those slots and dig your fingers into those holes on the sides". Never saw and did anything like this before. A couple of steps up and I felt it was quite easy until you dont lose grip.

The patch was through without much fuss. A bigger shock in the waiting, a 90 degree vertical patch which shook the daylights out of me. I told Vithal to go ahead and I follow. It wasn't easy for him either- could see him stretch to the max to get his feet in the right places. He's up and now its my turn, initially I get through and then I realise I simply cannot stretch my feet into the next slot- nowhere near. The more I tried to stretch, the more my left leg started to lose grip. I realised its not in my ability to stretch so far- I turned my head to look down- would be a 100 feet drop on the rocks, everything went into mute mode- as if the world stood still. Surprisingly the height didnt scare me. The only thought that came to mind was "Deepak you fall and you're gone forever". "Hell! Am not going to fall- no way, whatever it takes", I said to myself. I was all helpless- hanging off the rock thinking what to do. Tried stretching once more- failed again, couldn't even go down. I could hear faintly hear Vithal calling me out- although he was screaming 'come up come up, stretch stretch!' I told him 'shut up and hold on'. It would have been 15 minutes easily with me in the same position not having moved an inch. The place where Vithal was standing was a vertical slope, hence even he couldnt stretch out his hand. Something struck, I told him I'll throw my belt up and you pull me. Hanging off on the grip of the three fingers of my left hand- removed my belt, wrapped up one end of it in my hand and threw it up. Vithal caught the other end and started pulling slowly- was just hoping that the belt doesnt snap or he doesnt lose grip. One, two, three....gave a big leap jerk to my left leg, and somehow managed to reach the edge of the slot with my right leg, pushed it until it was right in there. Got the balance right and reached my hand to the next grip and pulled over in a hurry.....phew! Sat down for 2 mins to come back to my normal self.

Another 5 mins of trek takes us into the fort. A click to celebrate the ocassion....the expression says nothing about what happened below :) Took an hour and 45 mins to reach the fort from base.

We carried on our way to the granaries. Never came across so strong winds in my life- have a look at Vithal's pic trying to balance himself against the wind.
Reached the granary and was amazed the way this structure was built thousands of feet up. Contrasting to the outside, it was absolutely dry and warm inside and there were just chambers after chambers. Torch was helpful, but didnt venture too far inside- the bats circling over my head didnt like the intrusion.

Came out and was another shaky and windy walk till the Goddess Jivabai temple, unfortunately which was damaged by the Moghuls. Khada Parsi was on the way to the descend, to my regret couldn't spot anything due to fog.

Water cisterns along the way.

Crawled out of the Kalyan Darwaza.

Vithal spoke about a difficult stretch of descend lying ahead. I wished it wasnt as worse as the earlier and fortunately it wasnt.

My shoes were making matters worse and removed and threw them below in disgust and started bare feet. Pressed my hands on one side of the wall and legs on the other and slowly crawled down. Asked Vithal if anything more is left- as usual with his grin he said NO. There were stairs ahead, but they looked scary, but at least some ground to hold to. I found it to be too slippery and sat down dragging myself step by step. 

Wasnt easy mind you, coz some sections of the steps were too narrow and slippery.

But finally we're through with the slippery part of the stretch. Thanked god to have seen me through with the tougher sections- kissed the mountain and said you're something :) The relieved feeling in mind gave way to hunger- then I realised that I hadnt eaten anything. Pulled out the biscuits and we sat down to eat. Took rest for some time, trying to recollect what all we trekked through. Started off again.

Was already 7 by the time we reached the base of the fort and started walking towards Naneghat which was 4 kms away. Caught a few crabs on the way ;)
Was pretty dark by now and I decided to stay back. Roamed around for some time at Naneghat and started walking towards the village which was again 3-4 kms away. My torch was throwing light like an HID. A couple of snakes hiding in the bushes, for fun we started walking towards one of them- seemed the snake wasnt interested in a hello and disappeared in his burrow ;)
Reached the village changed up to the clothes offered by Vithal's dad. A trouser that was too small for me without a zip and the t-shirt double my size. They complemented each other well- the t-shirt hid the zipper portion ;) Called up mom conveying that I wont be coming tonight. Dinner was being readied- sat down for some much required food. I dont remember how many bhaakris I had, but there was a heap and I finished half of it. The "thecha" (made of chilly, garlic and onions) was amazing. A small portion of varan-bhaat (dal-rice) concluded my royal dinner.

Sleep started getting into the eyes and was cut-off from this world within moments.

Early morning Vithal and myself went to Naneghat again to click some pics. 

Surprising in the early days people had to pay money to pass after climbing up nearly 2000 feet.

Large cave for people for camping- unfortunately in enjoyment they lose their sense of cleanliness.

The container used to collect tax for using this route. I wasn't an exception- I dropped in my share of tax, a 5 rupee coin :)

Came across these two cute little kids on the way, couldnt help clicking them.

Vithal went on his job, till the time I got ready.

Started for home with Vithal- had to drop him at Junnar. Enjoyed the cruise through the village roads encountering a Dhaman (rat-snake) on the way crossing the road and seconds away from being crushed under my wheels- his agility saved him though. Mid-way realised that I left my cell phone behind. Rode back again and took a short cut to Junnar, which was half the distance but double the torture. Came across lovely scenery and Shivneri fort along the way.

23 kms and an hour later, reached Junnar. Paid him 300 bucks for his services (not much of an amount, he almost saved my life). 

Carried on, stopping and clicking wherever I felt like- it was my world all the way.


Stopped over at a tea stall near Ganeshkhind ghat. Fresh batata-wadas, hot gingered tea, GNR playing on my N95 and the lovely scenery made the breakfast even more tasty.

Reached Malshej where the fog had grown more dense. Lovely waterfalls and hills in the distance.

Dropped in at Parimal's place on the way, showed him the pics and moments later was in the comfort of my very own HOME SWEET HOME.

Was an amazing trek and I succeeded in killing the fear within me- the fear of heights living inside me for years has now transformed into love...damn! I want to go sky-jumping ;) I recollect the Mountain Dew TVC "Dar ke aage jeet hai". Well how true that is! Jivdhangad is thrilling, but best to be avoided in rains- specially from the village side, if still you have the keeda to do it in monsoons, dont forget to at least carry a strong rope and a torch and most important better gripping shoes will help.

My route: Mira Road-Thane-Kalyan-Murbad-Malshej-Junnar-Ghatghar-Jivdhan and back: 425 kms.

The album of the trek HERE