Kalsubai .. The Thrilling and Adventurous Trek of the year!!

Trek to Kalsubai ... 19 Dec 2010

This trek started with adventures for me.. Thou being a core member of the deccan-hikers (DH's), I was not at all aware of any such trek being planned!!! Strange but true.. since I myself was out of town for 4 days, and these guys just did plan a trek within those 4 days only. Very very luckily I checked my email on the day when I was back from my outing, and found out a trek has been planned, and that these guys r leaving the same day in the night, by Mahanagari Express at 12.00 in the night from CST. I talked to Alpana, and found out tickets were still available of the train, and I imdtly booked it for myself, then i started preparing for the trek. This was somewhere around 8 pm, and I had to leave home at 9.45 pm, and reach CST. And ... I did it.. hehe.. .YESSS... I, was a TRUE last minute entrant to this trek, who made it to this thrilling trek just in time, otherwise would have regretted for lifetime.. to have missed it...

And so, as I mentioned, my Entry to the trek was quite exciting... But more of the excitement and thrill was yet to come..

I, Reena and Appu were the first to reach CST station, at around 11 pm, and I broke all my records and reached much much before time (which i have never done till date...hehehe), Even before Amol reached CST station.. hehehe.. so I myself pat my back for this, being last minute entrant, I made it to reach first at CST station!

Till then also i didnt knew, who all r going to join for the trek, what is the schedule for the next day, when will we be reaching back to mumbai... nothing known... all puzzle for me. Then came the DH's, one by one.. Amol, Alpana, Ninad.. nah.. Nandi only suites best ;-), and Also, Tushar who somehow made it to reach Thane Station before the Train reached, and could finally become a part of the trek too.. :)

So this way, we were total 7 ppl.. going to Kalsubai Trek... We had planned to Start by Mahanagari Exp, till Igatpuri, then from there, to Baari village (the base village of Kalsubai) by ST and then trek the highest peak of Sahyadri and back home by late evening.

The Train journey was also not less interesting.. hehe.. everybody wanted to take some sleep, but none of us could actually sleep.. we all were chatting, listening to chats, having fun.. but didnt sleep :) thou we had switched off lights, lying on our berths.. Except... Nandi.. who was actually snoring!! which proves he did have his sleep :)

Igatpuri at around 3.15 am, and a wait till 4.30 am and then a quick round of Wada Pav - Chaha, and walk towards Igatpuri Bus stand. This is our routine schedule in this route.. :) same was during Ratangad!!

We got a bus at around 5.15 am, reached Baari in an hour or so.. and at approx 7 am, we started our ascend..

It was a very lovely chilling morning.. freezingly cold, and we were longing for the SurajDevta to wake up!! Morning sun was soo beautiful, its rare.. or actually never in the city that at least I have experienced such lovely morning sun!

With the same old feature, of doing lovely photography.. and this time I too had my Brand New camera.. SX 30 IS .. to be explored for the first time for a Trek!! And I must tell, I enjoyed photography with my New Cam... to the fullest!!

ok, enuf of me.. so we kept on moving up and up and up..

We walked past a small temple, few huts and cattle around, and then climbing high and high.. till we reached an iron "shidi", which was not difficult at all.. very strong and nice one.. not like ratangad of course!!

Then, we walked past a huge tree, and also enjoyed climbing on it and doing nice photography around it.. :) we all experienced our ancestors' fun.. of being on trees.. hehehehee..

Then, we crossed another big Iron ladder, which took us very near to the top.. but by now, we had lost all our energy.. we were extremely hungry, and all battery down! but we quickly had a bread jam slice, and moved ahead, slowly and steadily, and finally made it to the top.. in only 4 hours.. hahaha...

of course, with breaks, and our photography included!!





And truly, Kalsubai ni ghaam kadhla amcha.. it proved to us, ki sahyadri chya sarvat unch shikharavar svaari karna khanyacha kaam nahiye!!

And on reaching the top.. we simply relaxed!! Had our pack lunches, and we actually Slept!!

after some time, we woke up, did some gud photography.. and then started to descend. This was around 1.30 pm. While descending, we just took 2 breaks, one at a tea stall near to the top and another, directly at the base temple. We descended in just 2 hours and 15 mins. and reached the bus stop in Baari village at around 4 pm.

Yahan tak to sab thik thak tha.. only thing was, we all were tired, legs knees paining, hungry and lost all our energy.. bass.. nothing more.. we were all happy to have completed a very nice trek.. but.. but.. but..

Asli mazza toh abhi aana baki tha...

We ordered for Pohe and Chaha, at the Baari bus stand. And also enquired about the bus. 3.30 pm's bus hadnt arrived yet, another was scheduled at 5.30pm, then 8 pm directly.

We were having our pohe and chaha, when, at around 4.30 pm, a Bus to Igatpuri arrived. We were not yet finished with our Tea, and were knowing tht another bus is there at 5.30 pm, so we LEFT tht BUS.... aaahh.... BIGGG MISTAKE... all trekkers.. NEVER MAKE THIS MISTAKE... MISS a TEA.. but NEVER MISS AN ST in a small village...

so, as we finished our tea, and kept on waiting for the next bus... which did arrive.. but at arnd 6.30 pm... full packed, and the driver didnt even wait for us to climb in it.. and just left .... OOO NOOOO.... another blunder... we missed another buss...

Now we started getting nervous... bcoz... Reena had to catch a flight next day morning at 7 am, Nandi, tushar and Appu had to report to office the next day.. and we were still.. at the base village... much much far from Igatpuri, to get any transport back home..

So we started waving at every vehicle coming towards us, for lift.... but.. ALL IN VAIN... nobody helped us.. :(

Sometime later, a Trax stopped, and asked us to adjust 6 ppl in 3 ppl's space in back seat, and 7th guy in already packed front seat.. which we again REFUSED... anooooooother BIG blunder....

After that, no Trax, No ST, no private vehicle.. nothing was stopping for us.... O Shit...the clock was ticking.. and time passing.. it was almost 8 pm.. and NO VEHICLE at all!!

Meanwhile..we did so many permutations combinations... like, who all r in major emergency to reach back home at earliest shld board the next vehicle and go ahead.. so tht at least they reach on time.. others can either come later, or even stay back.. Alpana even enquired abt stay facility in Baari.. :)

Finally... A BIG THANK U to a Tempo guy.. who stopped for us.. and we decided whtsoever..we have to get into this Tempo and go... The Tempo guy warned us, tht there's a BUFFALO tied up in the back, make sure whether we cud travel with her.. and we have NO other option left.. than to say YES!!

We just climbed in.. and those 45-50 mins journey was a TRULY Thrilling and full of fun experience.. Firstly, the road was full of so many curvatures.. and the buffalo tied up, with its baby buffalo on her left, so due to curved roads, poor buffalo was getting inclined towards right.. slipping, skidding .. o God... really she was such a nice buffalo.. she didnt kick or disturb us at all... and shared her space with us so generously!! We are really thankful to her!!

And over and above this lovely adventure of travelling with the buffalo... our very own Reena Madam.. started telling story of an adventurous movie about similar group of friends gone for some outing, and caught in some trap.. as they were given some coffee by the man who gave them lift and blah blah blah... O M G... we all were like... no other place Reena found for this story-telling.. :) we were already nervous for being late, plus, tied with a buffalo, and then such dangerous stories.. ufff.... we ourselves know how we were holding ourselves strong...

Woh kehte hain na.. Daarrr ke aage jeeet hai.. hahahaha... and we finally won!! and... moreover... We didnt drink any coffee.. hahahaa !!!

After that thrilling, exciting, adventurous journey.. from Baari till Ghoti Naka, which connected us to the Nashik - Mumbai highway, we pulled up our sacks,paid and thanked the tempo guy, and started waving again, for another vehicle. .to help us reach.. some place..at least Igatpuri.. or Kasara.. or even Mumbai if possible..

After a few misses, we finally succeeding in stopping a Bus, which was headed directly to mumbai, and helped us give a lift directly till mumbai!! O God.. Another BIG thank u to tht bus driver, who helped us by allowing us to sit his driver's cabin till Mumbai.. and drove sooooooo fast, and reached mumbai in just 2 hrs... uff.. unexpectedly, I was back home by 11.30pm, and others, who boarded off the bus at Thane along with me, reached home by 12.30..

Wow... where at some moment we felt.. we will be unable to make it to mumbai on time.. and now.. we were well within time to our home.. with help of generous ppl.. the Tempo wala and the Bus Wala.. Thanks to those guys... really...

And then.. we slept with peace at home... next day morning.. Reena succesfully caught her flight at 7 am, Nandi and Tushar went to office.. Appu missed her office and slept till late afternoon, similar to Alpana, and Amol, And I woke up at 9 am.. for some work!!

And we successfully completed the Trek to highest peak of sahyadri!!...

Kalsubai... a truly Thrilling, Exciting and Adventurous Experience!!

Also a big lesson learning -- WHAT NOT TO DO, IN A TREK!!!!! (hehehe.. synonym of wht not to do in IIT by chetan bhagat)

Siddhagad

This month’s trek’s one common thing was last minute decision to arrange trek.  After 19^th Dec’s Kalsubai trek this was again planned last moment. But both treks were different. One of the major difference was in Kalsubai, Sun keeps on smiling (or rather laughing) on you continuously but for Siddhagad, more than 85% trek is through thick forest. That makes it very pleasant experience (So it is OK if you do not have Cap for this trek). But the same reason makes it tricky because there are lots of chances that you may select wrong “Vaat” in forest.

Trek was scheduled to start from Kalyan at 7.00 am with onwards journey through public transport. But Nilesh had some work at his village which was nearby to our base village. So he decided to get his car to travel till base village. Nilesh, Sanket, me and Pramod reached at Kalyan on time but Vishal (Nilesh’s friend) reached 2 hours late (BIG SIN in treking). So we utilized that time by helping ourselves with Bhaji Pav and Tea in nice cool, foggy morning. Surprisingly we had fog till 10 am.

         We started trek from Narivali (base village) at around 11.00 am. Path is through nice forest. View of Gorakhgad and Macchindra gad at one side , Siddhagad on other and Bhimashankar mountain in between makes it very beautiful landscape.  

After leaving Narivali, we crossed small river and after some walk reached “Siddhagad Pada”. This is the village from where gradual climb starts. (Narivali to Siddhagad Pada is straight walk).

As we started our climb Nilesh started guzzling lots of liquid (water, energy drink etc.). So we realized that this heavy vehicle will have less mileageJ. But he, along with whole group, keep climbing steadily with few breaks. Vishal periodically keep asking same question “yeh rasta to sahi hai na?” till we reached Kalyan.( yeh, he even asked same question to Nilesh in car when we were coming back) .

Sanket was wearing t-shirt with hood and his fav. goggle and looking like Phantom (Name courtesy : Pramod).

Almost midway we crossed stream (where we had mini break for snacks) and after around 3 hours (after starting from base) we reached a “Darwaja.” After this darwaja there is temple and further a small village “Siddhagav” This whole village is situated on Siddhagad forts "Machi". Not only people stay at such height but electricity is also available in this village.

Climb after this village (towards Balekilla) is bit steep (after darwaja, no need to go till village, one vaat starts climbing before that).  After another hour (from darwaja) we reached at Cave . From cave one can see Gorakhgad, temple on top of it, Bhimshankar and tip of Bhimshankar temple.

We quickly finished (in 10-15 min.) our lunch in cave and then started our upward journey towards top of Balekilla. Many group finish trek at this point. Climb beyond this point is very very steep and one has to be very careful. Also on top nothing much to see except few remnants.

Before we could reach top, we realized that it was already 4 pm and in order to reach base before dark then we had to start our journey back. Also climb was getting steeper and riskier which means that it would have taken much more time to reach top and come back even though it was very very near. So we decided to start descend. We reached back to caves at 4.20 pm and started descend with very very few halts. Nature of slopes was reducing our speed.

With all efforts we managed to reach “Siddhagadpada” before it got total dark but after that we have to put our torch lights on. Path till Narivali even though on plane, it was through forest which made looking for “Vaat” in darkness bit tough. Some how we reached Narivali around 7.30 pm (couple of times with the help of some villager in total darkness).

After that we simply had to sit in car with Nilesh driving. We took a couple of halt, once at Nilesh’s uncle’s house having nice hot tea and another at Murbad for having snacks break. We reached at Kalyan at around 9.00 pm and then dispersed for our homes.

It was another nice enjoyable trek.

Rasaalgad
9th july to 11th july 2010.
Right from June 1st week or so, when monsoon hadn’t even hit the city, we, the enthu Deccan Hikers started planning for the monsoon trek!! So impatient we got, n so desparate, that we already did a small 1-day trek in june (Dukes Nose), to get a feel of the pre-monsoon trek, and keep the enthu alive!!!
And as soon as Dukes Nose trek was over, no body was even bothered of our regular Trek photography competition and all, everybody just set up in preparations for the next, long time back planned July 2nd Week Trek… J)
The chain mails reached a century count.. yesss.. we actually had a 100 emails in the chain with subject “what about July 2nd week trek” !!!! This is not an exaggeration.. but a FACT… how enthu, and despo everyone of the deccan hikers were, for this July 2nd week trek!!!
After lot of discussions on lot of places, our Leader .. Amol Chaudhary.. settled down with “Rasaalgad”, a fort in Konkan region.
Some info about Rasaalgad:
It is a Fort in Ratnagiri, Konkan region. The nearest village is Khed, which is reachable by bus or train from Mumbai (We chose ST while going). Khed is around 200 kms from Mumbai, takes around 5 hours to reach by ST (we started from Mumbai central at 11.45 pm ST, and reached Khed at around 5.15 am). Further from Khed, need to reach a small village called “Nimni”. But buses are not very frequent there, so we rather chose to reach an intermediate spot called “niwachi wadi” by ST, and the 4 kms to “Nimni” we chose to walk!
From Nimni, again, a small walk on a properly constructed tar road, and then a walk on the “kachhi paayvaat” leads to another small village “Rasaalwadi”, which seems to be the actual Base village for Rasaalgad. This entire walk, from Niwachi wadi till Rasaalwadi, took us around 3 hours (though its not that long and hectic, but we had great photographers in our group with all sorts of cameras, from simple point and shoot, to basic SLRs to Medium level SLRs… and everybody doing their best with their cam’s all the way!!)
From here, Rasaalgad top is just another half an hour climb. (again, we took more than 1 and half hours or so, to cover this distance, for the same reason as above. So the entire ascend we took around 4 and half hours.)
Its around 1770 feet above the sea level. It’s a very simple trek, even for first timers, very easy, and no chance of missing the route or anything like that, since the route is very obvious, and roads very nicely constructed.
And the best season to visit, according to me, is obviously the Monsoon!!! It was raining sooo heavily there on the hill top!! And all over there was foggy, lovely atmosphere, with greenery all around! Not only the hill top, but also the entire route from Khed to Niwachi wadi in bus, and from Niwachi wadi to Nimni and futher to the Rasaalgad top, entire route was soo amazing, such a greenery filled, lively environment!! Konkan is in its best in the monsoons!!!!
As obvious from above, Rasaalgad is a very beautiful place to visit, very calm and quiet, into the nature’s lap. Very few people know about this place I guess, hence there are hardly any trekking groups visiting here. Probably that’s the reason, is so clean, calm and close to the nature, without any mess!
Though not very popular, but it has a great historical background. Its more than 2000 years old fort, under the rule of More of Javli, and then conquered by Shivaji Maharaj, later on by Peshwas, and finally lost to the British. (I read all this on the internet ;-))
On Rasaalgad, there are lots of site seeings and old remnants to see..like there are 2 main darwaaza, huge entrances to the fort. Very beautiful, and still intact! A small Hanuman temple just before the 2nd darwaza. Then, Zolai Devi temple on the top, and a deep maal in front of it. The temple is very big, beautiful, and very nicely maintained. With proper puja and prayers offered daily, as there was a diya lighted up when we reached there. And its so big that around 20-25 people can manage to stay in it very comfortably. Again, another small Ganpati mandir beside this temple. Also, lot of canons (tof), around 16 as I heard, nice fortification which is still intact, Bale killa’s (citadel) left over walls, lot of potable water ponds, few waterfalls (thou very small ones).. and very lovely atmosphere!Also, from Rasaalgad, we can see Sumargad and Mahipatgad forts.
Oohhh… lot of gyan about the place!!
Now, lets get back to how we did the trek!!
The entire description of how, what and when we did… is already very nicely and in detail explained by our newly appointed co-leader of the Deccan Hikers!!! Check out the link if you haven’t yet visited!!!
Besides this, I cant think of anything else that we did on the trek..
And yess the highlights of the trek were…
Amol loosing his first and verrry old mobile phone in kurla, just in front of his home ;-)
The bus accident, which was very skillfully controlled by the ST driver, and BIG THANK YOU to GOD, for not making it anything severe (thou truly said by Alpana, we all were really scared of!! )
Pics of each and every “themb” (drop) that we clicked on the way.. and then, the non-photographers getting soooo bored of our photography that they started thinking of tricks to stop our photography… like dropping all the water droplets from the leafs on the way.. (hehehe.. just an exaggeration, but the boys actually said this to us.. hehehhehe ), and praying tht our batteries exhaust hehehe.. lot many things.. ;-)
Loooot of humor on the way.. in the bus, and also on the Rasaalgad top.. which made the entire Trek sooo fun filled, enjoyable and memorable to all of us.. THANKS to EVERYONE for this.
The games, the songs, the photography with the Umbrella, with the stone dropping in the lake and clicking pics of the splash…oo.. that was really funny!!!
The verrrrrry tasty Rice mix prepared by Amol’s mom, the maggi and tea (tea was really tasty.. ;-), appreciating my own efforts.. hhehehe)…
While descending, Chasing each other, finding shortcuts, and chota shortcuts, (which were really amazing routes and we enjoyed these routes the most!!), running and reaching the niwachi wadi bus stop just in time, and asking the driver to hold the bus till others in the grp reach!!
Girpade family’s members - starting twice with Alpana slipping down, and once Sonal, the first time trekker, and a big fall she made on the tar road, hurt herself a lot, and even her pant tore off.. but still didn’t stop, and reached running to niwachi wadi quite on time to catch the bus!!.. Hatts off! Wht at spirit!! She’s a real trekker!! Also THANKS to kedar, tushar, etc etc, who really helped her and managed to reach on time. Everyone’s efforts from the beginning made us do the near to impossible task, and bcoz of this, we reached back home by afternoon only, instead of by train we wud have reached by 10 in the night!
I can keep on writing.. so many things.. so many memories.. so much of fun!!!
THANKS A TON to our Group Leader AMOL for arranging yet another awesome trek for us!!
THANKS a LOT DECCAN HIKERS for making it possible to have such memorable treks!!!

When is the next trek????????? ;-)

Rasaalgad! - 9th July Night to 11th July 2o10 evening.

Right from the time of deciding when and where to go for a trek to the time when deciding goto Herne or catch ST at the khed st depot :P every moment with deccan Hikers is full of fun, masti and enjoyment.This is for the 1st time that I am writing on the blog. but will not be the last time for sure :D
Once the trek date and place was fixed, as always Amol released the schedule and list of things to carry.
After a series of additions and cancellations, we were finally 13ppl all set for the trek.
After that as always I did last moment preps i.e. packing my sack right in the morning of the day when we had to leave i.e. 9thJul10. At that time I realized that the Toop (vessel) that I to carry for the trek was tooo big and heavy. Sakal Sakal me Amol la call kela and tyala tension dila. but lagechach punha call karun sangitla ki 2kgs sathi nahi tar 1.3/4 kg cha bhaat tya toopat hoil... asha hush and hash madhe finally me don toop ghetle. We were going by ST to Khed. ST was going to start from Mumbai Central ST depot at 11.45pm. The boarding sequence was
Mumbai Central: 11.45pm > Amruta, Sonal, Pravin, DS, Saroja
Kurla: 12.30pm > Amol Vidya Myself
CBD Belapur: 1am > Rahul Kedar Ninad Raju Tushar
This time the ppl who gave TAAG ain veli were:AbhijeetReenaSwatiAnandThey together are going sponsor next trek for us. :P
ok so back to my track.
Vidya came to my house that day. When we left from my house, we clled up Amol. Amol was having lots of samaan as this time he got all the eating and cooking materials o this own, and later he was going to distribute.So we decided to pick him on our way to Kurla ST depot. Whn we left from my house Vidya gave him a call. he started and we met him at right time at the kurla bridge. When we reached ST depot, bus had left from Mum.Cntrl (Amruta called up Vidya and informed her). As I was paying the fare to Ghone kaka (our autowala. he was from my colony itself), Amol realized that he hda misplaced his cell. It ought to be the time when Viyda had called him, that he lost his cell :D hahahha Sorry Amol, my all sympathy with you. but ya he has dropped his cell at that time only. He went back with Ghone kaka to check that same place but no use. So, like this our trek began with the lose of Amol's juna purana mobile. Good start na :D
Soon, the ST entered the Kurla depot. Like Amol, Vidya and I didnt check the ST board and jumped in just becoz we saw Amruta at the window. (So we trust Amruta that she must have boarded the right ST :D )
ST was not that full. We boarded the st, kept our sacks on the upper racks. And the ST started. As I got in I greeted Saroja. DS ka wife. Saroja had came to mumbai just a few days back from Latur, and had never done treking. As DS was cancelling his trek because of Saroja, so I asked him to get her as well. :) Saroja DS and Pravin were sitting on one seat. I thought she will ware the pants, but she had worn punjabi :( then I saw Sonal Bachav sitting besides Amruta. O! she is Sonal Bachav I had imagined some other gal only...ok anyways. While I called up Kedar to inform that we have stared from kurla and Amol was busy with his own luggage, Vidya madam went to Amruta and Sonal's seat to exercise her tounge :D hahahhaa aray I mean to have a little chat.. which didnt end even after the ST we left the mumbai limits :Pas the ST was reaching CBD, Amruta received a call frm Rahul that kedar was late and had not reached the ST stop yet. I called up Kedar immediately. And as per him he was already there. I informed the same to Rahul. I am sure that Kedar was Late and he has just made it on time. Lazy fellow :D (no no ha he is a good guy with gr8 will power)
ok So st reached CBD and all these tapori guys got in with lots of shore sharaba. Like they are getting into a ST for the 1st time. It was past midnight, dark in the ST, but our grp was fully awake and active. Rahul had got his tripod and ppl were making fun of it. Anyways. Our journey in the ST was of 5hrs. ST was to reach Khed by 5am. It was st 2am that we realized tath it was too late and we shud have a nap. So we all went to sleep. I was in good sleep. pushing my body below the seat, trying to get some home like comfort on the kadak lal daba ka seat, that suddenly I heard a big bang and we all moved left and right. I opened my eyes, there was panic in the ST. I saw that the ST was out of control of the driver. I was scared. Passengers stared shouting. I could see that driver had lost his grip and ST was going like the essel world dashing car. Main socha, chalo apni aakhri ghadi aagayi. Jo etne treks main kabhi hua nahi aaj ho raha hai. Bhagwan se kuch maang lete hai :D hahahahno jokes but seriously that time saglyachi hawa tight jhaleli. But THANK GOD. Suddnly the ST driver got his control back over the steering wheel. and the ST was stopped on the road.
Tab samjha ki one tree had fallen right in the mid of the road. Which was not visible clearly in the night. To escape from it driver took sudden right and it was almost a mishap.THANKS GOD. TUjhe shatsha aabhar.
So from there again, our journey started, and I prayed to god that ajun pudhe kahi viparit nako ghadu deet and let our trek go smooth.
Post that, Amol started telling some fuunny incidents to make Vidya and me laugh and relax. Thanks Amol :)
Again for some time we took and nap, and it was 5.15am that the st reached Khed.
All of us got down. Some of us emptied our bladder :D, I gave Rahul and Nandi their matts. O ya and Tushar had got that huge colorful umbrella on my demand. Thanks Tushar :D
From KHed we took another ST to "XXXX" village :) sorry I forgot the name. On the way in the ST we did lots of fun, jokes and humour. As usual Raju, Kedar, Tushar have a gr8 sense of homor.Nandi lacks in that aspect a bit :P hehehhehe
Rahulchi and majhi photogrpahy suru jhali. I realized that I had got Nikon p80, but its batter I left at home :(kokanatun gaadi jaat hoti. sagli kade hirve gaar, bhatachi shet, dhaag, dongar.. O man.. it was just heavenly...
Amol ticket kade paryant pudhe basla hota, toh nemka eka malwani kakani chya tavadit sapadla.Tat man I dont know what he was talking to Amol, but it was malwani bhasha, and giving gyaan to Amol.

Amol la pratyek ST madhe kuni na kuni sapadtach :D hahahha Amhi matra mage khup masti karun hasat hoto.Somehow Amol managed to escape from that kaka's tawadi and came back to join us.
Amhi eka gaavi "XXXX" utarlo and tithe Aanganwadi hoti. Tithe amhi shida watapla suruvat keli. Amol stared dividing all the eatables and cooking material.

After that we started our trek.
While treking up, we were only waking on the tar road.

It was also sunny .. no signs of rain :( ghama chya dhara vahat hotya. angatun wafa nighu lagya. As always, viyda rahul and I were last, as we were busy with our photography.
Me finaly thamble and majha sunguard lavla. Duke nose madhe aadhich haathanchi vaat lagli hoti.. fulto kaale padla hote. Aray and kay popat..amhi sunguard lavlya barober paus suru jhala... aaadhi mahti asta tar gharunach laun nighale aste :D hehehehe
So though we wre only walking on the tar road, road was beautiful. surrounded by green fields and farms. Villagers with bullock carts farming, women washing cloths, school boys passing by etc etc.. over all the path was entertaining and not boring.
soon we reached Nimni.

We entered the village.

All of us wanted tea. We approached a house for tea. He said no. Pravin and Amol said something and managed to pursuade the man to give us tea. Yeeee and we got to drink garam garam tea.


After having tea, we took a path which was cross country shortcut. We were bored of the tar road and wanted some raaan wata....Majhi tar toh paryant hava tight jhaleli. Thakle hote me. I know majha stamina kaami jhala aahe. I need to do yoga regurlarly.
Majhi and Amol chi photo graphy chalu hoti.

After treking 10mins on this path, were wre back on the tar road.
But now closer to our destination.From here we could see the rasaalgad hill, its main stone darwaza.

By now we had split into 2 parts. The ones without came were leading :D and rest were behind coming slowly, clicking snaps.
The tar road ended at one place and from here we had a proper raatwat passing thru the hills.

It was beautiful path. thought not difficult one, but nice one.
Atmosphere was nice, waat was passing thru dongarwata, there were little streams in between.
And soon we were on the fort. Up there on the hill was rasaalwadi.

A small village with 7-8 huts.
Bakhi sagle jaun main darwaja chya var basle hote, waiting for us to take their snaps.

<><><><><><> <><>majha speed khupach slow jhala hota. In the end I was left with kedar, raju, tushar, nandi and rahul. Bakhi sagle pudhe nighun gele hote. Ghaamaane waat lagli hoti. varun I was tried of picking my bag. We all rested at one place in side the fort only, just a few mins away from main destination. There I took out my handly foldable fan. Jisse dekh ke sab hairan reh gayee.. ha ha ha ha...All of them were pleading me... main bhi bahut diladar hu, I gave all of them one one chance to benefit from my fan. EVEN NANDI... <><><><><><> <><><><><><> <><><><><><> <><> see I am so dildar...from there to main temple tushar carried my bag. Thanks Tushar :D SO now on the top. the view was classic. I didnt take pics thinking will come back here and take it later on. BIG MISTAKE. will never think like this again. It was a proper hut. in good condition.There was tulsi and that pillar of diyas in its aangan. Nice place. Inside was a devghar. 3 god idols were there. properly worshiped and diya was also lit. <><><><><><><><> There is a pond behind the hut. It was potable water. Saglya mulanchi wicket down hoti. Ekmekanchya angar padun jhople hote. Toh paryant Amol was intructing Amruta abt how many LITRES of water he requires :) O one thing to mention. In his hut at rasaalgad, there are utensils already for the use of the trekers :D nice naMy toop were not used. We used the utensils there. fukat main maine wajan carry kiya :( So for lunch Amol had got some mixture prepared by him Mom. He asked me to open it. O MAN.... Yummmyyyy was a aroma.... kay delicious hota te... vasavarunach kalat hota. Amol and Vidya chya arguements madhe bakhi salge matra kevilvanya avasthet jevanachi vaat baghat hote. hehehehhe ek tasa nantar bhat jhala. Me devalachi Ghanta vajavli. Sagle uthle and patka jevayla taat gheun ready. Jevant - Bhat with Amol's mom's mixture of spices + loncha + khakra... Amazzzzingggly delicous. THANKS AMOL Jevun parat sagle padle. baher chanach paus padat hota. Toh paryant aatli photography karat hoto amhi. Rahul ne tyacha tripod kadla. mast paiki slow shutter speed madhe tyane andharatlya devancha photo kadla.Toh jhoplela astana me tyacha tripod vaparun ghetla :D hehehe tyal hi khup chalala... bara mag amhi sagle baher firayla nighalo to explore the fort. tevha khup maja aali. Rahul ne tyache macro filters je baher kadlet, tevha susat sutla hota toh phot kadat. ekso ek pics ghetla tyane. I will also soon buy those filter, as they are cheap and give good results. While exploring the fort, khup comedy kelya, khup haslo, khup photo kadle.Chatri gheun udya marun pan khup pics kadle... hya veli sarwat comedy hota te mhanje panyat dagat takun tyacha photo kadnyacha khel hehehheeh it was funny :) then, paus punha suru jhala. salge aata palale. tevha kuthe nivant milala. And me chatri gheun baher padle photo kadayla. tevha majhya barober hoti Saroja. O man.. u wont belve it ti mala dakhavat hoti, hyacha kad tyacha kad, asa kad tasa kad. @ DS... tila ek camera gheun de... tila chan aawad aahe :)So then chaha chi vel jhali. Me aata gele. chaha tayar hota. Me cha gheun baher aale, as paus thamblela. Majhya pathopat salge baher aale. Amhi sagle masta garam garam chaha gheet bahet kattaya var baslo, samor suryast hoot hota, dukha daat hou lagla hota, vatavaranat gaarwa vadhat hota....it was pefect time to sip hot tea. @Vidya - the tea was amazing.... When I went out I was intructed not to take the cam. But soon rahul came out with his cam. I wanted someone to go and bring my cam. and Surprizingly ..... my "BEST FRIEND" NANDI got it for me... SO nice of ur Nandi... maine toh tujhe pehchana hi nahi... tu taoh heera hai re heera.. aaje se tera naam heera ( hahahhahaha)So heera also got my chappals ha... :D he exceed my expectations this time :D After that Amol vidya Amruta, everyone got their cams. We all started our photography again. That time when I finished my photography, sat besides on the fence, listening to songs.O man... it was the best time for me. I love to spend time like this. I wish I had a permanat house on a hill top like this. Later we played Dumb sharades with dumb guys. Gals Vs Boys. That was real fun. Etka haslo amhi... khup comedy jhali. aata kon jinkla hyachya shi kaay karaychay? Khelalo and maja keli hey mahatavacha :D mag ratra jhali.. surya mavalla. jevanchi tayari karayla amhi aata gelo. ratri maggi cha plan hota. Audit madhe kalala ki 2 maggi packets missing aahet. tyacha investigation suru jhala and mag lakshat aala ki te Saroja chya bagat aahet :D Maggi hoyee paryant parat sagli ek mekanchya angavar padun jhoplet... ratri 9pm nantar amhi jevanala suruvt keli.. jevan hoyee paryant I think 10.30 jhale astil. Jevan jhalyavar, bhandi dhunyacha session was too good. Unfortunatly majhya cam chi battery down hoti. So I used Vidya's cam to click those moments. Pravin and DS ne hya veli jhup madat keli.Kedar nusta khaun jhopa kadat hota. And nandi ne torch dharayla madat keli :D heheheheh toh tevdhach karu shakto. Ok mag sagla avaraun jhalyavar... antrun takaychi and kon kuthe kasa jhopnar hyachi arrangement suru jhali. Ratri sagle padlyavarp pan me vidya chya cam madhun photo kadla aahe. :( kash majha cam chalu asta. I was really tired and wanted to sleep finally. But some idiots like Kedar and Rahul torch marun jhopaylach deeet nhavte.. they wanted to play something and I was totally not interestted :D Halu halu sagle zhople. Sakali 5am la uthun, 6.30am la nighaycha hota. me kadhi jhople te kalalach nahi mala. barober sakali mala jaag aali. Vidya pan jaagich hoti. thandi vajat hoti. tevdhya alarm vajal kunacha tari. I thought it was 5am. But Amol uthala and said 5.30 jhalet. saglyanna jaag ali hoti. But kuni antrun sodyala tayar nhavta. Me uthle, mag vidya. amhi baher gelo. Fresh houn yee paryant sagle uthle hote. except Kedar and Rahul. Tyanna mag halavun amhi uthavla. Amhala nighayla usheerach jhalela. Utharna majha ek tooop kuni tari uchalnar asa me Amol la sangitla hota. So I asked Amol to appoint someone. Nemaka tyane Nandi cha naav ghetla. Bichara Nandi :)Pan changla aahe. He choose to exchange sacks. So did we. We also exchanged roles. Tyachi kacharyachi thaili me ghetli. Nightana ek group photo kadla amhi, rahul cha tripod use karun. It was 7.30am when we actually started our descend. Utartanan mala aatavla .. ki aray me tar ekadche pics kadlech nhavte, chadtana, as I had kept it for later :( but aata majhi battrich down hoti.... I couldnt take anymore pics. Kedar as usual utarna halu halu utarat hota, as it was damn slippery. While descend we again got split into 2 grps. As I had no cam, I was very quick this time, right in the front. fatafat utarat astana mala pravin ne idea dili, ki mobile cha cam vaparaychi... O MAN... how cud I forget that I have my my n73. me lagech kadla majha mobile and suru jhale. But tyachi pan battery down honychya linivar hoti. fatafat cross country marat this time amhi ek mekanna chase karat hoto. Amhala 9am chi ST pakadychi hoti. aaadhi Amol vidya and grp saral rastyane jaat hote. Nandi showed us one short cut. But the funniest scene was when he went in left of the mandir and rest of us to right of the mandir... I got the right path :Dlambun nandi la devalachi pradakshina marun ektach popat houn parat yetana baghtana me and kedar poot dharun haslo.. heheh O man I still remember Nandi's face. Shetatun cross country marlya var hya lokkanni je chidva chidvi keli... ti competition la suruvatach jhali... Amol took it seriously... and man... kadhich kuthun tyane kay cross country marli .. ki toh khupach pudhe pochun gela yaar... POPAT jhala amcha :( mag amhi dambri ratrya varun palat sutlo......rasta la utaran hoti... steeep.. tya varun palat astan speeed apoaap vadhal.. break lavna mushil hota ... me swatahla savarte ki tevadhya maghun DHUP karun awaj aala... mage valun pahila tar Sonal madam rastya var kosalya hotya... baapre.. kay padli ti...I heard that he has water bottle open in one hand, cam and bottle's top in another and she was running. she cudnt control her speed and he fell off... tichi pan tgudgya kadun full fatli yaar.. rakt vahu lagla.. Kedar and Tushar supported her. While Nandi Raju and I proceeded. Amchya pudhe hote Saroja DS and Pravin. and Tyachya khupach pudhe disenase hote Amol Vidya and Amruta. and madhe kuthe tari cam gheun haravlela Rahul. Ekda ghadyala kade laksha gela tar it was 5 less for 9. Me mhatla nahi milnar aata ST.kade base amhi 9.08 paryant pochlo tar Amol aavaj deet hota ki ST yetey... baapre... amhi ST la yetana pahila. But Kedar Tushar and Sonal wree far far behind. Kunacha mobile madhe netwrk nhavta. Amol ne ST thambavnyacha vichar kela. I was sure it wil not. But the driver did. Driver ne ST thambavli, and toh khali utarun amhcya ubha rahila...tevdhya palat tushar pudhe aala, tyala baghu haay se vatale. dhapa takat magun sonal and kedar pan aale and finally we all boarded the ST. THANK U VERY MUCH to the ST wala driver and conductor. Bus madhe Sonal la Vidya ne first aid kela. Amhi I think 9.30am paryant Khed la pochlo. Tithe ke hotel madhe nastya var aakra man kela... mast pooot bharun khalla and nighalo. Train amchi 3pm chi hoti. and it was only 10.30am now. We had lot of time in hand and we were decding wat to do with it. Few were suggesting to visit Herne, while Raju Kedar and Nandi were leaving for mumbai in ST. As Raju wanted to goto delhi in the night. Actually it was the best. ST nighnar hoti. Kedar Raju and Nandi went and sat inside the ST. Baher rest of us were deciding whether we shud also join them. because 4hrs was a lot of time. and etkya velat amhi kuthchya kuthe pochu rather than waiting here on St stand. Finally we made up our minds. Train booking waste and we got into the ST. Yeee finally we all were togetger again. ST started at some 10.45am and we reached Panvel by 3.45pm.On the way we again played, laughed and had fun. Vatet ek accident pan jhalela hota. tithe amhala 15mins thambava lagla. tevadhach. Amhi bus madhe masti karat hoto. toh paryant Amol hisob karat hota. Total pratyeki kharcha 620 jhala. Amruta and Sonal got down at Panvel. Then Amol, I,Kedar Raju Rahul and Nandi got down at CBD. Tithe Amol and I took train and I reached home by 5pm. Husshsshhh... here ends the trek. And today its Monday. 1st day of the weeek. I at home. having ample time and nothing to do. Trek la jatana, ST madhe ratri jo apghat honay pasun vachala tevha me devala bolale hote, ki pls trek changla hou deet, I want to reach home safe and see my self writing this exp of trek. So here is this write up from me. Enjoy!!!! :D