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????????? ;-)
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
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.
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.
And soon we were on the fort. Up there on the hill was rasaalwadi.
A small village with 7-8 huts.
Rasalgad Trek
Rasalgad Trek
I wish to thank everyone who was part of a Rasalgad trek for making this trek so much enjoyable, fun filled trek. An excellent team with stream of abundant energy which made lively interactions, every second fun filled and yet when time demanded risen to occasion with consistent efforts.
Whether its Alpana and Rahul’s all “hatke” photo experiments or Alpana, Amruta,Vidya, Sonal, Saroja’s help with food preparation or DS and Pravin’s volunteering for somewhat boring but necessary works or Vidya’s delightful food or fun part with Tushar’s comments stream or Ninad, Raju, Kedar’s hilarious evening chatter, I want to thank everyone for this. No, this is not Trek description, which may come later from everyone (any one can put it on our blog by clicking on “comments” below) and I would encourage everyone to do so, but this is just a “Thank you” note for all these. On top of that, two things need special mention, First is, Whole team’s efforts to reach to “Niwachi Wadi’ even when we started behind schedule and still completed on time. Second is Sonal’s efforts despite her injury (and Kedar, Tushar’s (sorry if I missed anyone here) help to her ) in reaching “Niwachi Wadi”. It was her first trek but didn’t felt like it in this and even during trek. All these things made this trek huge success (with rain god smiling at appropriate time and in required measure).
So Thanks, Guys, once again ! :-)
Whether its Alpana and Rahul’s all “hatke” photo experiments or Alpana, Amruta,Vidya, Sonal, Saroja’s help with food preparation or DS and Pravin’s volunteering for somewhat boring but necessary works or Vidya’s delightful food or fun part with Tushar’s comments stream or Ninad, Raju, Kedar’s hilarious evening chatter, I want to thank everyone for this. No, this is not Trek description, which may come later from everyone (any one can put it on our blog by clicking on “comments” below) and I would encourage everyone to do so, but this is just a “Thank you” note for all these. On top of that, two things need special mention, First is, Whole team’s efforts to reach to “Niwachi Wadi’ even when we started behind schedule and still completed on time. Second is Sonal’s efforts despite her injury (and Kedar, Tushar’s (sorry if I missed anyone here) help to her ) in reaching “Niwachi Wadi”. It was her first trek but didn’t felt like it in this and even during trek. All these things made this trek huge success (with rain god smiling at appropriate time and in required measure).
So Thanks, Guys, once again ! :-)
- Amol
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