Came back to Nani’s place, kept the phone and camera battery to charge, transferred the photos from the drive onto the lappie phaphat packed and left for Dadar. By the time I had dinner and left , it was 20:45(and we were supposed to meet at 21:00).
Went to Santacruz station, picked up a loaf of bread and 3 pairs of socks ,and ran to the train.mustve’ reached Pritam by 21:15.Met up with Antara(she’s from E&A)..my throat was gone and there was no sign of the other 4.So I went in for a cuppa of coffe..the guy misunderstood and ended giving up 2 cups instead of 1..sat opposite a veryy cute baby.
These guys came at about 21:30 and then the 3 guys-Nihar, Pariket and Savio went to take a leak….and they went on for another hour , while Antara,Avani and me were dutifully trying to check out which bus goes to Lonavala. They mustve come at around 22:30, tummies satiated with few pints of alcohol , after which we found a bus to baramati at around 23:00.Got in and caught the whole of the last seat. And started talking about this and that. Antara and Savio were on and on about their respective cameras with Savio teaching Antara a couple of tricks with her cam(both have a Nikon)Nihar was sitting ahead..and conversing with his neighbour , apparently he can strike a conversation with about anyone ,, an admirable quality which we saw more and more on the trip. He would converse in his broken marathi and just strike up a conversation! Anyway , we started talking about Movies, and got stuck up …NONE of us and I repeat NONE of us could remember the name of the black guy in American Gangster(and Philadelphia and bone collector and Courage under fire) we could also not remember the guy in Hotel Rwanda( and Crash)…finally we gave up and I messaged Sk and he promptly replied Denzel Washington and Don CHeadly…hahah so much for being film buffs!! !And then Avani gets stuck up on an actor with a mole near the nose- a white actor….none of can remember ANY Caucasian actor with a mole..not a famous actor at the least!! so we went on and on thinking, she couldn’t even recollect the name of any movie he has acted in…so she called up her friend and he promptly replied Robert De Niro…and then we all were upon her , chiding her, telling her that Robert De Niro has NO mole near his nose!!!! called up Sk and he too confimed Avani’s version!!none of the rest of us still believed it…(anyway fact is that he DOES have a mole, albeit way above, near his eye and not near his nose).Anyway , fact is that we all will always remember Avani and this trip everytime we watch a Robert De Niro movie(which she also sms'ed me right now!!)After all this excitement of discovering how bad we really are with our favorite actors and movies, we all settled down. The bus lights dimmed and I, sitting near the window was watching the sahyadris..it felt so good to be going for a trek after such a longg time,antara and savio went to nap and avani and pariket were listening to some music on his ipod.i went to sleep and would wake up everytime avani guessed a song or strated singing or discussing it:p.One such time, she said “Nirvana” at a time when I was smiling at the awesomely cool a/c like gale that was blowing in my face and I said..yeh this weather sure is Nirvana…Avani and Pariket gave me such blank looks:hehehe..
Reached Lonavala at about 130 am, visited the toilets and most of us had a cup of chai. Then we left to find us some transportation to get to the village where we would start our trek from. We got onto the main road only to find a deserted street with no auto in sight. We went around found some guy in a bike and asked him for directions..he asked us to take the 3rd left from the bust depot. Pariket , with his superb negotiating skills, found a Maruti car willing to take us to the village for some 10 bucks a head. After some going back and forth and trying to guess the exact turn that we needed to take , someone finally told us to take the road just before HDFC bank, which turned out to be the correct road. The road from there to the top is actually a motorable road right upto Rajmachi village. But after a while when the road became a muddy road, the Maruti guy refused to go further ahead and dropped us off. We finally started to walk. It was 2:35 am!
We walked and walked , passed the gate of Captain's resort, passed a lot of thatched huts which reminded me somehow of Kagal, with its cowdung and burning wood smell.We came to a fork where one road led upwards and another straight, we walked stratight then came back and went up and sat for while ,Pariket and Savio went to find out whether it was the correct rd,it was not, so back down again and we continued walking. For some unknown reason ,there was a little water on the roads. It was a nice moonlit night and throughout the trip , we did not feel the need to turn on the headlamps/torchlights. We stopped after about an hour and half and sat to eat bread with Avani’s melted cheese.With some grub in , we recommenced and continued to trudge slowly .I t was an easy path(like I said ,it’s a motorable road )The road went up and down but as never steep. The weather was awesome .At the start of the trip( and as reminded by Sk) , we were expecting a sweaty trip.But it turned out quite otherwise, we were hoping we had expected this earlier and had carried jackets to combat the cold. But then we were keeping a steady pace and were sweating a little bit, so we never felt too cold really. Some of us were tempted to just lie down on the road- the breeze was so amazingly cool.It was like a/c.really amazing. After a 4 hour walk and around 18 kms later , we finally reached Rajmachi village at around 645.
Nihar was amazed that we all seriously weren’t carrying brushes, nor felt the need to want to brush. Shaking his head in disbelief, he finished his prized ablution while Pariket and Savio instantly fell asleep on the 1st flat, manmade construction they saw in the village.We ordered for tea and milk and sat outside a shop.An old woman came and asked us whether we wanted some water or tea and then asked us whether we wanted to sleep for sometime. Savio woke up after sometime. Nihar was playing with the village dogs, shaking his head at how badly treated they were and offering them Avani’s marie biscuits. Nihar and Savio ordered for some egg bhurji. Savio was insisting that he slept for only 15 mins while actually he was snoring for over 30 mins. While we all were feasting, Pariket woke up after an hour’s slumber wondering how the rest of us were surviving without any sleep. All well fed and (some) well rested, we again debated on the route o Karjat(we were comin down via the karjat route). Avani pointed out to a route from front of the shop where we had tea and was seconded by an old woman standing at the door. So we started our way back down at around 845.We walked down breezy , grassy routes.The blowing grass gave the effect of a blanket being jhatkaoed.It was beautiful!! We continued to trudge down for around 45 mins when Avani suddenly stopped and exclaimed that we were back on he Lonavla route.Everyone else said no- as we had not noticed any deviations on the route the night before…it was im[possible , we couldn’t have had made that error.Pariket went a had to chck and discovered a wall which we had seen the previous night.We indeed were back on the way to lonavla.This fact was confirmed some people we met.Apparently this was the same spot where Avani had done a route error ;last year. Rajmachi definitely has something against Avani. Anyway we debated whether we should move on to lonavla or go back to the village and go to Karjat. Back t o the village would be an hour and from there to karjat would be around 2 hours, while on this path , we had a 3 hours, non-canopy,hott journey ahead of us! The decision was made and we started disbelievingly trudging our way back to the village. 2 hours of the cool weather was lost because of this mistake!!!!!
Anyway , we went past the "jangal mein mangal" room and past those grassy slopes and when were just , behind the village,we asked a village boy who was passing by what the route to karjat as he just looked to his left and pointed to a stone with a white marking showing the route!!!we couldn’t believe that THIS is what we had mossed, such a clearcut marked path!!!So began our journey back to civilization.This wasn’t a simple stroll.This way down was a slope down, with most parts requiring bending down,and holding onto the rocks to o a step down.Our legs were screwed!!Thighs, knees all gone..and then came the sun in full glory,our water resources were down!!and the sun had no mercy, nor did the hill.In hindsight, it was no t at all a diffucult route.The path is well marked and doesn’t require any sort of dangerous acts.But because of the steeper slope, it took a toll on most peoples thighs..to try not to fall head first, we hd to be very careful.I slipped and fell , while trying to change my cam batteries and ended up being the last one . after an hour and half with only one stop (in the 1st half hour for eating and drinking),we did not stop at all.My legs were gone and I was afraid that stopping and sitting down would make me not want to get up again.. captain avani kept edging us bit by bit. Nihar did not complain one bit. He just maintained an even pace. But such was the hurry to get back down , that nobody but me stopped to take pics of that amazing place. I too did not end up taking too many , lest I fall way too behind! We passed a stream where Pariket and Savio replenished water supplies to some extent. We continued trudging down. We could hear the train and that mirage of a sound would lift our spirits,..just 15 minutes further(probably)..We finally came to a place where the road started becoming more of a plain and finaly we were convinced that we weren’t far away now. Hurrah!!! 10 more minutes!!! Then we asked a couple who passed us how much further and they said “30 mins”!!!
They were right.We reached the village and lost Savio at around 1230 pm.We filled ourselves with Fanta and Thumbs up.(yeah me too..i've gad soft drinks after god knows how many years..but they did not have water or milk).Feeling better , and with no sign of Savio , we refused to an offer to give us a ride to Karjat for 200 bucks!!!a 15 minute walk down and the same ride was 10 bucks a head(60 total).We started walking when a villager called out to us and told us that a friend of ours was waiting with a rickshaw!!! Savio to the rescue!!!!! We haggled with the guy and got the fare down to 20 bucks a head(120 total).The train to home was at 13:15.But there was no way we could make it! Nihr tried his hand at the rickshaw for sometime.We reached the station at around the same time. The train was gone and we had an hour to kill before the next one at 14:00.So we had glasses and glasses of the refresing nimbu paani (lemonade).I and avani filled our bottles with it to sip slowly on our way home. Some ate vada pav , some drank lassi. All plans of the guys filling themselves with beer had one kaput. Getting a shower and a bed was the priority!! We boarded the crowed train and settled ourselves on the floor of the bogey. Antara got a seat and was immediately snoozing, even before the train started! Uncomfortable that we were, Savio and Nihar too went for a normal seat once they found one. Avani said she preferred to stand inside the compartment rather than at the door where there would be a whole crowd of people coming in. It was the central railway after all!!The crowd came and how!!!I thought there would be a stampede or something. I and Pariket stood up and continued talking and he tried protecting me from the "vile men looking for a good massage". Anyway I got this bright idea of getting off at Kurla instead of going through the craziness of going to dadar and catching a train to Santacruz. Sk called during the journey down and was amazed that we were so tired. It was Brijesh’s treat too that night (oh no!! i was already pooped).Reached Nani’s home at around 1515.had a bath a quick lunch and dodging mau’s questons, took my aching body straight to bed!!
An amazing trip really. I think besides a picturesque place in the Sahyadris, what is of essence in a trek , is good company. The whole trip was a whole lot of fun. Avani was amazing. She’d just start singing relevant songs, just like that. Her energy was uncomparable. She was simply a lot of fun! She and Savio kept pulling each other’s legs so much! Savio did the entire trek in slippers. Nihar , Pariket and Antara we awesome company too. Everyone kept the mood light and conversations going. I realized just how much I moved and missed nature and also the known fact of how unfit I was. Being unfit just compounds a lot of discomfort on such trips. So hopefully same time next year, same/similar trip, lighter me and no ache complaints!!!!!
