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नुकतीच डेक्कन हायकर्सच्या गिर्यारोहकान्नी प्रसिद्ध नागफणीच्या सुळकयाला गवसणी घातली. त्यांचे अनुभव त्यांच्याच शब्दात.......
Nagphani (Duke's Nose) Trek
Deccan Hikers has successfully completed Duke's Nose Trek on Saturday 19 Jun. Soon trekkers will share their experiences........
Naagphani (Dukes Nose Trek)
ReplyDelete6 am to 9 pm
19 June 2010
It was a Pre-monsoon trek, An amazing trekk.. not just in terms of the actual day of the trek... but few of the pre and post trek fun tht we had with this trek is something which is unforgettable!! something to be cherished for life long...
Pre trek events were like.. we were in planning and preparation of a 2-day trek in july, and all of a sudden, Amol came up with an idea of a short one-day trek.. we were discussing through email chain (which counted upto 62 chain mails..hehehehehe.. ) on wednesday.. and the date for the one-day trek was announced as the coming saturday!
This was the first trek I guess in the history of deccan hikers, which was decided sooo quickly, and even executed so well, that too by so many participants.. 7 ppl got ready for this trek, within such short notice, and we started off!!
Since it was just a 1 day trek, we all just carried some food stuff, and regular trek things, not much weight, and nothing as “common shared materials”. We had our tickets booked in Indrayani, (6.15 am at thane). Alpana had stayed at my place the previous night, and we reached Thane station at around 6 am. Amruta boarded the train from Dadar, and we all i.e. Amol, Alpana, Tushar, Anand Joshi, Reena and me, from Thane.
We reached Lonavla at around 8.30 am, and had our b/fast. Then we walked towards khandala direction, bargained and got 2 ricks to Khandala. From khandala station, we had to start our trek towards Dukes Nose/ Naagphani. Near khandala station, there was a beautiful Bhairavnath temple, with many other small temples within the premises, which we visited before starting the trek. And then, crossing the tracks, and then towards unused tracks.. and then towards the road going upwards on a small slope, we started our walk/climb ;-)
The road was nice tar road, and since it was towards a slope, and it was not at all raining, but actually very hot… we were sweating and gasping a lot!! And expecting the rains, none of us had got any sunguard/sun glasses etc.. and we all were literally burning in the sun!
Then we reached Tata Power Plant, and mistakenly, went inside it, thinking of it being the correct route. And imdtly 2 security guards came seeing us “intruding” into the power plant, chasing us to stop us. But they soon realized that we had mistakenly got in, and so they showed us the correct path towards dukes nose. The route from here was within jungle, nice climb, all trees around, and really cool. After crossing this patch of jungle, we reached a plain region, somewhat like a plateau, from where, we could see the Dukes nose top. But as usual, in our group we had lots of views about that top being dukes nose top or not.. hehehehe
This was our first halt, and with lots of photography.. we moved ahead. There was a very beautiful lake on the way, where village ladies were washing clothes. Passing thru all this, and lovely nature, we reached the place from where the actual climb to the Dukes nose began. It was small climb, but since there was no rain at all.. we all had got very very exhausted. We took another halt in between, and munched upon some food stuffs like khakra, slice cake, biscuits etc, gotten some energy back, and started again. And within very less time we reached the top!
We took almost 2 and half to 3 hours to cover the entire ascend, including all the expert photography! We were on the top at around 12.30 pm. There is a small shiv temple on the top. We did pooja there, lighted agarbatti (which Amol had brought), and also sang bhajan.. Om jai jagdish hare…
It was sooo divine feeling.. on the top of the hill, with no mess, no crowd and no shor sharaba.. all quiet and calm place, with cool and heavy breeze flowing, and we offering our prayers to the God!! Really divine feeling!
The view from the Dukes nose top is very beautiful. Since there was no rains, there was no fog so we could clearly view the scenery around! There was a sort of mowgli point, where we were sitting for so long time, chatting, capturing pics, and just enjoying the nature.
ReplyDeleteThen, after so long time, we came near the temple, and had our lunch. And when we opened our bags, we found that everyone had brought bread packets with either jam /butter/cheese! Nothing else to eat.. only bread.. hahhahaa … that’s the easiest food that can be arrange in such short notice.. ;-)
After having lunch, we again relaxed at the hill top. It was burning like anything, and we had carried umbrellas to cover our cameras from rains, and used them to protect ourselves from the sun!!! at least we used them.. ;-) Another very unique thing that we did on Dukes nose top was.. playing songs, videos etc. that we had in our mobiles. Everyone of us was playing one or the other nice songs of their liking, and all were enjoying. So much of time we spent on the top.. but didn’t even realize how time passed! No body was willing to come down, everyone was enjoying the peace, the nature, the atmosphere!! Sagle yevdhe ramle hote tikade…this was the best part of Dukes Nose trek!!
At around 3 pm we started to descend, again, playing songs in our mobiles.. and while descend with followed another path, which was over the ridge. This was very nice route, and we enjoyed this descend the most!
Finally reached the base village, and had tea. As soon as we were done with our tea, we got a trax to lonavla station, in which, we were literally pushed in.. as we say in Marathi.. “komble gelelo”, around 14-15 people in that single jeep.. oh God! Only we know how we managed in that jeep!
Reached lonavla station at around 5.30, and checked the train timings, and found out that there was a train at 6 pm. We imdtly took tickets, and got into the train at 6. It was Nagacoil express, coming from Tamil nadu, with all south Indian public, making mess in the train! Eekss.. it was really soo pathetic.. and soo crowded, we didn’t even get place to sit. We climbed in the reservation bogie, and grabbed a door and came standing all the way! But the entire 2 hour journey we didn’t even realize how it was passed, as all the time, we were busy playing antakshari, singing our fav songs, making fun!!
We reached Kalyan at around 8 pm where Amruta boarded off, and thane at around 8.30, where rest of us boarded off. I reached back home at around 9 pm.
And thus ended a very enjoyable, memorable trek of ours.
But yes, all the time, we were praying for rains, there were dark clouds also, but it didn’t rain a single drop. But as soon as we boarded the train in lonavla, it started raining so heavily.. that we couldn’t imagine! Whole day we waited for this rain, and it rained when we already left the place..
ReplyDeleteThe trek was fun, but as I mentioned above, the pre and post trek activities were much more fun.
Post trek, we started chain mails, regarding trek info, in which we started making up stories.. all that didn’t happen.. like it rained heavily, and we saw fog, waterfalls, river, we crossed through boat, and saw fishes.. orange and blue colored, and even rainbow which only anand joshi saw, and a peacock.. which only Alpana saw.. hahahahah.. oh God!!! Such bakwaas we were doing in those email chain.. and everyone was giving their own inputs..and adding to the fun!!
Finally I released my pics, and people could actually see, what all we did, and wht all was true, and what all was “thapa” .. hehehhee.. all Idea from the great Alpana’s mind!!
And then, everybody else also released their pics.. and people added such great comments to the pics, reading those comments was also another fun!!
Funny comments, appreciation, everything was there!!!
Thus, the store of dukes nose came to an end, and we all started planning and preparation for the original july 2nd week trek, which we had started off initially, and executed this very short but extremely sweet and delightful trek in between!!!
THANKS to AMOL and deccan hikers for making this possible, and memorable!!
And special THANKS to Alpana, for the POST-DUKES NOSE Fun, of the “thapa chain mails series”!!!!