For the past 2 years I have been addicted to a very healthy habit of trekking. Don’t know how I did get attracted to it nor who or what forced me to do it. But now when I look back I remember the first trek that simply and still is the best trek I have done ever. I think this will be my first really serious blog about travel but that doesn’t matter does it? It still is a travel blog.
I had taken up engineering diploma after my 10th standard examinations, thus getting myself surrounded into a pile of 30-40 inches thick textbooks. My college was more like a 9 to 5 job. Literally. All my school friends, if there were any, had taken up 11th with no other aim than to see who has the lowest college attendance. Hence forgotten to world, lived mihir, totally unknown to the fact that many other beautiful things were there to see.
Every new years till then was more like a hazy morning to me. Each year was the same, and even though each year we did something different, I could not remember what exactly I did. That year, a friend who runs and ran a trekking business asked me wether I would like to join them for what they called “New Year’s Trek”. The simple idea being the fact that leaving behind all the silly fried and ever present wafers, you reach up to the second highest fort in maharashtra and see rise of the new year, in clear skies and way above the world. Technically 1870m above sea level.
Thus after long deliberation, and convincing my parents of the fact that I was totally fit to do that trek, I left my mothers clouded eyes, which kept repeating, “How shall we celebrate the new years without you”… that’s the best moral boost you could ever get while leaving for a journey. Since I was on my first trek I was under the vague and beautiful impression that at the mountaintop/ forttop, I could call my parents on their mobile and wish them (remember the fact that, I was still wayyy to young to have a mobile.)
So we met and the trek, which was supposed to be comfortable with a very big private bus, turned out to be very sweaty due to the totally overfull State Transport Bus. Not only did we have to make up for being late, but the hunger had to be controlled by eating fruits and seeing to it that we did not make juices out of them and made the jhabbas of the villagers taste them…
Showing posts with label Walking Maharashtras Forts.... Show all posts
Showing posts with label Walking Maharashtras Forts.... Show all posts
Friday, January 05, 2007
Long Leap Towards...Trekking...(Part 2...)
We were to do the highest peak in maharashtra first (nice start to a trekking carrier, right??? ) and hence we got down to the very small village of “Bari”, where they had a orange coloured archway , that welcomed trekkers to the peak. Another bad news hit us that one of the tents that we were to be used got left behind in the bus. Now, after traveling for 4-5 hrs and taking accepting everything we were ready to ascend that peak. With a walk that began at 2 pm, we were expected to reach the top at 6pm. And to my great surprise we did, with enough time to look back at how overrated climb to the summit was. Anything, anybody else says is totally NA for me, cause I had done the highest peak with enough time to see the sunset and that also on my first ever trek.
The way back was a bit more fun, with only some torches all we were depending upon was a few beams of light to get us back down. I had a torch, I had carried everything (Don’t laugh, but even a toothbrush and a paste…), and I had the opportunity to play a small cricket match while getting down. It was really fun, getting down with the person with the torch getting down, then showing the torch to others to get them down. After passing the baton of light Atleast a 100 times around and after a couple of hours we reached the village, where we were to stay for the night. Reheating the parathas on a vessel and a portable gas which took a hell lot of a time, we had our first hot meal, and knowing that we had cleared the first hurdle, we went to sleep with the hope of a nice beautiful sunrise that will bring a new light to our day that was really tiring.
The next morning passed of, like a express train running out of control. Nothing made sense, waking up, walking to find a good shelter for removing waste from your body, going back, making tea, putting your sleeping bag, back in the bag, and then finally knowing that we had a nice steep 5 hr climb up to what was supposedly a site in heaven. I was not in that big a hurry to take my place in heaven, but then it didn’t mind to get Atleast a taste of it. So with all our luggage (you wont call my bag a sack, cause it was a schoolbag, with my sleeping bag secured to the top of the bag with nylon ropes.) I knew I was prepared for what was not needed. Unnecessary necessary things, that would trouble me all the way up, even if not all but Atleast half way. 1 and the only thing I am and was afraid of and am, is my small mouth who thinks it is a 24hr medical shop, always ready to supply what people demanded. So our walk started and even though I would, call it tiring, it was nevertheless entertaining. I got my first ever lesson on butterflies (the small but colourful insects.) I never understand why they are called so, yeah I know any living being with 6 legs is called a insect, but its not fair. We should call the teddies. Not only that, but I also survived to play the second innings of the match we played yesterday. The leaders had all the elements you ever required, poetic, singers, comedians, strict, entertaining, and more than anything else human. I mean , after trekking with so many groups, I have had many experiences, 1 being where I was told, not to take a picture of a butterfly, because I was a participant. So after being accompanied by the leaders to the camp, I was really tired, we entered to what they called heaven. And believe me, it was really more like being in clouds than in heaven. Very Cold… you know… but it was beautiful. And I still think it is The Perfect campsite. A small stream flows on the left, supplying you nice clean water. Good jungle cover, for putting up a good campsite. A nice big fall down, making sure you don’t sleep walk. Having reached the midway point, we were to camp there, and I was introduced to how to put up a tent. It was fun. The pegs, the rain cover, the hood and I didn’t know the names…but whatever they were, it was good putting them together. After making thousands of permutable combinations, we finally put up a tent that was allowed to have only 6 people in its stomach, but we had already lost a tent and hence, we had to do a bit of adjusting. Hence all the odd 35 people had to accommodate, 2 people more in each tent. Later we learnt that the 12 leaders , slept in a tent of 6. I don’t remember the night much, but it was quite warm. I don’t know what caused that, but it was warm.
The way back was a bit more fun, with only some torches all we were depending upon was a few beams of light to get us back down. I had a torch, I had carried everything (Don’t laugh, but even a toothbrush and a paste…), and I had the opportunity to play a small cricket match while getting down. It was really fun, getting down with the person with the torch getting down, then showing the torch to others to get them down. After passing the baton of light Atleast a 100 times around and after a couple of hours we reached the village, where we were to stay for the night. Reheating the parathas on a vessel and a portable gas which took a hell lot of a time, we had our first hot meal, and knowing that we had cleared the first hurdle, we went to sleep with the hope of a nice beautiful sunrise that will bring a new light to our day that was really tiring.
The next morning passed of, like a express train running out of control. Nothing made sense, waking up, walking to find a good shelter for removing waste from your body, going back, making tea, putting your sleeping bag, back in the bag, and then finally knowing that we had a nice steep 5 hr climb up to what was supposedly a site in heaven. I was not in that big a hurry to take my place in heaven, but then it didn’t mind to get Atleast a taste of it. So with all our luggage (you wont call my bag a sack, cause it was a schoolbag, with my sleeping bag secured to the top of the bag with nylon ropes.) I knew I was prepared for what was not needed. Unnecessary necessary things, that would trouble me all the way up, even if not all but Atleast half way. 1 and the only thing I am and was afraid of and am, is my small mouth who thinks it is a 24hr medical shop, always ready to supply what people demanded. So our walk started and even though I would, call it tiring, it was nevertheless entertaining. I got my first ever lesson on butterflies (the small but colourful insects.) I never understand why they are called so, yeah I know any living being with 6 legs is called a insect, but its not fair. We should call the teddies. Not only that, but I also survived to play the second innings of the match we played yesterday. The leaders had all the elements you ever required, poetic, singers, comedians, strict, entertaining, and more than anything else human. I mean , after trekking with so many groups, I have had many experiences, 1 being where I was told, not to take a picture of a butterfly, because I was a participant. So after being accompanied by the leaders to the camp, I was really tired, we entered to what they called heaven. And believe me, it was really more like being in clouds than in heaven. Very Cold… you know… but it was beautiful. And I still think it is The Perfect campsite. A small stream flows on the left, supplying you nice clean water. Good jungle cover, for putting up a good campsite. A nice big fall down, making sure you don’t sleep walk. Having reached the midway point, we were to camp there, and I was introduced to how to put up a tent. It was fun. The pegs, the rain cover, the hood and I didn’t know the names…but whatever they were, it was good putting them together. After making thousands of permutable combinations, we finally put up a tent that was allowed to have only 6 people in its stomach, but we had already lost a tent and hence, we had to do a bit of adjusting. Hence all the odd 35 people had to accommodate, 2 people more in each tent. Later we learnt that the 12 leaders , slept in a tent of 6. I don’t remember the night much, but it was quite warm. I don’t know what caused that, but it was warm.
Long Leap towards...Trekking... (Part 3...)
This was the new years day, the 31st and the leaders had big plans for that day. Hence we all packed up early and left for the final climb, which would take us to the fort. This was a comparatively easy comparing to what had been 2 tiring days. The final part consisted, stairs cut in rock. And even though it does sound easy. Its gets on your nerves. There is a drop of nearly 4000 ft just two feet away from you. Nice way to enter the new year right. So helping each other, and making sure, we were enjoying ourselves we made up to the fort in less than 4 hrs. I was already charged up when the leader said to me that “ your training starts from today”. He guessed I was a big hot trekking prospect. God bless him, but we reached the top to see the beautiful mountainscapes in our state.
One of the leaders guided us through the fort giving us a lot of insight on the forts history, its relation to other forts etc. We were to live in caves that must be dating back to who knows what century.
“Listen to me, sit alone in the wind for a minute or two, stare in the horizon, and you WILL feel nostalgic. Never ever had I felt that way. I was 15, soon to be 16, but never had I felt so out of the world. Forget the fact, that I was happy, or tired, or enjoying, I was just enthralled to the fact, for the past 2 days I was living in a world that had lost existence, if though if it existed. Then and there that I decided that I was going to be a part of that very group and be a trekker.“
Getting back to the group, the leaders were busy preparing to what I considered a 5star meal. Tomato soup, fried rice, barbeque, and then chocolate pudding. That time, I thought, the leaders were mad to carry all this, tiring themselves and then serving others. Now, when I am a leader and when I cook and serve participants , and see a small smile on their face and a comment (any comment), you feel your are something and somebody. After eating a lot, we gathered around the campfire, to wish each other a happy new year. Ofcourse there was no range to mobiles, so we were oblivious to the world. Its fun, its fun entering the new year. Nobody’s clock is perfect. Each person is living in his or her own time and hence when his or her clock goes off, all the other wish him. So fun, we celebrated 35 new years in a night. Nobody cared, what next your would bring, nor which packet of wafers his friend would be having. Nothing, just staring into the fire and seeing the would of the past year, burning away, and giving rise to the light of a New year….
One of the leaders guided us through the fort giving us a lot of insight on the forts history, its relation to other forts etc. We were to live in caves that must be dating back to who knows what century.
“Listen to me, sit alone in the wind for a minute or two, stare in the horizon, and you WILL feel nostalgic. Never ever had I felt that way. I was 15, soon to be 16, but never had I felt so out of the world. Forget the fact, that I was happy, or tired, or enjoying, I was just enthralled to the fact, for the past 2 days I was living in a world that had lost existence, if though if it existed. Then and there that I decided that I was going to be a part of that very group and be a trekker.“
Getting back to the group, the leaders were busy preparing to what I considered a 5star meal. Tomato soup, fried rice, barbeque, and then chocolate pudding. That time, I thought, the leaders were mad to carry all this, tiring themselves and then serving others. Now, when I am a leader and when I cook and serve participants , and see a small smile on their face and a comment (any comment), you feel your are something and somebody. After eating a lot, we gathered around the campfire, to wish each other a happy new year. Ofcourse there was no range to mobiles, so we were oblivious to the world. Its fun, its fun entering the new year. Nobody’s clock is perfect. Each person is living in his or her own time and hence when his or her clock goes off, all the other wish him. So fun, we celebrated 35 new years in a night. Nobody cared, what next your would bring, nor which packet of wafers his friend would be having. Nothing, just staring into the fire and seeing the would of the past year, burning away, and giving rise to the light of a New year….
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