We reached CST station around 12:15 A.M. and took tickets for last local train to Karjat which was scheduled to leave station at 12:38 A.M. (Fare = Rs. 20/- per person) and as soon as we boarded the train we went for a quick nap as it was a long day ahead of us next morning. The journey from CST to Karjat is around 3 hours and we spent most time sleeping. Generally we tend to move to Karjat bus station but as there are lot of mosquitoes around there, we decided to spend our time at Karjat railway station itself and around 5:00 A.M. we woke up and moved to Karjat bus station, which is just 10 min walk away. Dhak Bahiri is a temple of Bahiri Devi situated inside a cave on top of a mountain near Sandsi village. There is a State transport bus to Sandsi from Karjat at 5:45 A.M. and as is the case most of the times, the bus was right on time at Karjat bus station. The bus ride was around 30 min (Fare = Rs. 10/- per person) and around 6:30 A.M. we were at Sandsi village.

Since we’d been to this place earlier we decided not to take a guide along with us and this was going to prove a wrong choice later on. The path to Dhak Bahiri is not a well defined path and there are several ways diverging from main path which can fool one around a lot. Also due to recent monsoon, large amount of vegetation had sprung up everywhere which made finding markers a lot more difficult job. We decided to take a path along the direction of Bahiri caves which are clearly visible from village and as we progressed along we soon found that we’d lost our way, however after a walk of half an hour we came across a small river. The water was clean and it was time to take off the clothes and go in for a quick bath J We spent around half an hour refreshing ourselves and moved ahead. As we were moving with the river, Nipun proposed that we should move into the jungle and cross it to find the path. The idea seemed appropriate to me and we moved into the jungle. The jungle here is quite dense and is full of thorny trees. Despite being very careful we managed to get few cuts here and there. However after walking for 15-20 minutes we managed to find a path which looked like a path being taken up by human beings and as we followed along the path we found a real refreshing site, “our first marker”. The path to Dhak Bahiri is marked up all along the way to the top with white arrow markers and if one doesn’t find a marker after walking for 15-20 min then it means that he/she has gone off the track. Soon we were at our first hike and despite being not so high; the hike is tough due to pebbles which are spread all across the way which make it all that more difficult to keep a firm grip on the ground. However we finally managed to reach our first rest point, which is small ground on top. We were tired a bit and decided to take a quick nap. As I was about to sleep, Nipun heard some noise and asked me to look back and whoho!!! there were few bulls standing almost 10 meters away staring at us and there way of staring didn’t look friendly at all and we decided to leave the place immediately.

As we kept on hiking up the mountain we finally landed up at another plain field and this was the place from where we got first clear view of the caves. Though these caves look easily accessible from down the village, it is only when one reaches this plain that one can admire the complexity of the climb. The caves are situated on top of a mountain and to reach the caves one has to cross a rock patch almost 1000 ft deep. However right now our present worry was not the complexity of rock patch, but the path that we should follow next, because from this point onwards there was no path which was well defined and we were back to our job of tracking down the path through the jungle. However despite our several attempts we couldn’t succeed and decided to rest for a while. As we were trying to figure out what to do next, I heard some voices coming from behind and to our comfort we found group of 4 trekkers (Ajit, Subhash, Pradip, Pradip (the master)). I must admit that I’ve never been so happy to see some human faces during trekking as I was happy to see these 4 guys. With new level of energy and enthusiasm we started search of our way up and soon we found a way. Now it was an arduous climb up the hill and despite sun shining brightly over the head we managed to reach the top easily. And now the real fun was about to begin. In front of us was the dreaded gully through which we’d to make our way down and right at bottom of the gully there was a drop of around 6-7 feet and at bottom of drop was a path no wider than 1-2 feet and below that path was a sheer drop of 1000 ft. During our last trip to Dhak Bahiri, we lost our bag at this point itself and so we were extra cautious this time. Don’t know why but we managed to reach the path down the gully quite easily. Perhaps it was due to our previous experience with the route. Now it was time to move right and reach the rock patch, on top of which were the Bahiri caves. We rested for few minutes at a small cave before the rock patch and as we were resting we found that another group was already up there trying to reach the caves. We enjoyed watching them trying to figure a way up the rock patch. Nipun was first to cross the patch and I followed him. The rocks were too hot to grab by bare hands and there is not much grip at feet as well so one has to literally pull his/her weight towards the rocks to keep the balance and after 15 minutes of agony we finally managed to reach a point from where we’d to move up the rock. Initially there are few stairs which are carved on the rock however up there was a sight which really blowed away my mind. There was this stem hanging from a rope and we’d to climb up this step using ropes as our sole support and to agony was the fact that branches coming off the stem were just on one side and were no long then one feet long. We rested at middle for a while and in the meantime those 4 trekkers whom we met along the way also arrived. The group ahead of us was planning on halting there during night and hence had few bags with them and they were trying to get those bags up. We spent some time watching them and now it was time for us to move up. Those 4 trekkers went up first and I was last one to move up. As I was wearing jeans and also I am not a very good climbers, after climbing up few steps on the stem I literally got stuck with my left leg carrying whole weight of my body and my right leg up trying to find a place to settle down and then I heard this thug voice and whew !!! the branch on which my left leg was resting tore apart and I was literally hanging in mid air on the rope. One of the guys from up there screamed to me to find a footing on the rocks and I followed his advise and luckily got my right feet on the rock and somehow managed to climb my way up to the cave. It was one of the scariest moments of my life and I owe to Pradip (the master) for his advise else I was doomed that moment. What a relief it was to reach the top, is something which I can’t describe in words and we spent almost 1 hour at top. There is a temple of Bahiri Devi at top and there are 2 water pools. Villagers have also left some utensils up there and one can use them for cooking purpose. The caves are nice but people have left quite a bit of debris up there which shouldn’t be the case. People have even butchered cocks and left their heads up there. After taking some pics it was time to move back and this was going to be more tough then climbing as I’d managed to break a step on the stem and above that my confidence was not at par. However as those 4 trekkers were also about to leave we had a bit of confidence and after some hiccups we both managed to cross the dreaded rock patch. It was now time to say good bye to our fellow companions as they were planning to visit Kondeshwar temple and we’d to move back to Sandsi village and after 2 hours of decent we finally reached Sandsi around 5:45 P.M. There is a state transport bus from Sandsi to Karjat at 6:00 P.M. and we managed to find some time for a cup of tea at village and it was a wonderful sight to see those caves from down the village, sipping hot cup of tea.

Day 1

We started off at around 11:00 A.M. from Haldwani and got a bus to Haridwar (Fare = Rs. 130 per person). It’s a 8 hour bus ride from Haldwani to Haridwar and we managed to pass most time discussing about earlier trips and my mummy’s talks about my marriage . Our bus reached Haridwar around 6:45 P.M. and it was already dark. As we inquired about bus to Rishikesh, we found that it was much easier to get a bus or rickshaw to Rishikesh by standing outside Haridwar bus station. We must’ve waited for half an hour and we found an autorickshaw who happily gave us ride to Rishikesh (Fare = Rs. 25 per person). Finally we managed to reach Rishikesh by 9:00 P.M. and it was time to find a decent and economical hotel. Had I been a lone traveller or with friends, we would’ve opted for any hotel, but with my mother accompanying me things were a bit tough and after some searching, we managed to find a decent hotel named Hotel Akash Ganga near Delhi bus station on Haridwar Rishikesh road. The fare was quite okey at Rs. 400 for a 3 bed room with TV and Water Heater. Having settled in our room it was time to order some food and hit bed as tommorrow was going to be a long day of journey to Gauri Kund.

Day 2

As was expected none of us heard the morning alarm and we woke up around 7:30 A.M. Getting over with our daily chores it was 8:30 A.M. and we rushed to Tehri Garhwal bus station near Laxman Jhula. As expected the buses to Gauri kund had already left and we now had option to move upto Rudraprayag. The buses to Gauri Kund (this is the place from where the 14 Km trek to Kedarnath begins) move out from Rishikesh by 5:30 A.M. with first bus starting as early as 3:30 A.M. However there are plenty of buses to Badrinath. The main reason for difference in frequency of buses being large volume of pilgrims opting for Badrinath as against Kedarnath. The bus journey from Rishikesh to Rudraprayag takes one through Shivpuri (this is place which became famous for rafting in Ganges), Dev Prayag (Bhagirathi meets Alaknanda here and runs down to plains with name Ganga) and Srinagar. It’s a nice journey of around 4 hours costing Rs. 130 per person. As we were about to reach Srinagar the pipe which supplies air pressure to brakes of bus developed a leak and it as scarey ride of 4 Kms before we landed up at Srinagar. The bus manager asked us to shift to another bus and luckily we found another bus waiting and finally we reached Rudraprayag around 3:00 P.M.

It was time to search for a ride to Gauri Kund and I couldn’t see any bus or taxi lined up for Gauri Kund, however there was a bus to Gupt Kashi which is a major station enroute Kedarnath and we boarded that bus. It was a 2.5 hour journey to Gupt Kashi and costed us Rs. 30 per person. Gupt Kashi is a busy place and we were told that we could easily find some vehicle to Gauri Kund and so we did, and finally after a lot of break ups we were finally at Gauri Kund around 6:30 P.M. As we landed at Gauri Kund I felt cool breeze for first time during the entire journey and to our luck we found a room really quickly near bus station. The rooms at Gauri Kund are fairly priced at Rs. 100 to Rs. 200 and ours was a 3 bed room with attached toilet,bathroom and costed us Rs. 150. Having taken food at near by restaurant (you can find plenty of restaurants serving all kind of cuisines at Gauri Kund) it was time to hit bed and soon I was in my fantasy world dreaming of next day trek to Kedarnath.

Day 3

We all woke up early around 6:30 A.M. Mummy and bro went to Gauri Kund for a bath in hot water spring while I packed up all our stuff and made arrangements for the 14 Km trek to Kedarnath, which included purchase of 2 sticks for mummy and bro and some edibles like biscuits etc. Around 8:00 A.M. we started off our trek to Kedarnath. The weather was beautiful with clear blue sky and a pleasent cool breeze blowing across our face. As we walked up, for first time we saw the horse stand at Gauri Kund and the place was full of horse dung which gave me terrible feeling down my stomach but once through it was a nice route which laid ahead of us. Having taken some pics of Gauri Kund we continued our hike up. The route to Kedarnath is extremely beautiful with Mandakini flowing across on right flonked by high hills covered in thick rhoderon forest and as once moves up one can see mighty Himalayas at distance and right below the foot of Meru, Sumeru lies the holy temple of Kedarnath. The view is just too overwhelming. We would have walked for 2 Kms when we saw the snow laden peaks of Kedar range for first time and it looked as if someone had bathed the mountains in silver. One can have real good view of Himalayas all along the route. But it’s not only the Himalayas but lots of waterfalls like Rudrafall, Mahadev fall etc which add to the beauty of the route and despite the straneous climb we managed to reach Rambara which is 7 Kms from Gauri Kund pretty easily. Mummy was a big reason of worry for me but she was doing pretty good and we all were in high spirits. Along the way we also managed to capture some wild life in our camera and surprisingly I found a bird along the way which was not at all camera shy and was even posing in different angles for me

We had short stoppage at Rambara and enjoyed tea with Paranthas and this was a stop worth taking as ascent from Rambara to Kedarnath is much steeper as compared to hike so far and we’d to take several halts as my mummy was not feeling real good. We must’ve walked for 3 Kms when we found a shortcut which would’ve reduced the distance by almost 1 Km and despite relunctance of my mother we decided to take the path and it was a decision worth taking as for one it did reduce the distance and also provided magnificent view of valley. The route took us upto Garudchatti and it’s almost 2 Kms to Kedarnath from this place and this is one of the places where if a person is not mentally strong then he/she can be in a state of mind where you just want to sit down and not move an inch. However as my mother saw the Kedarnath temple at a distance some sort of energy came to her body and despite all the troubles she managed to make it upto Kedarnath. Now we were literally in abode of Gods and one reason why I feel they call it abode of Gods is because of fear of human beings from such tall and seemingly un surmountable mountains. It was an awesome experience being flocked from 3 sides by high Himalayas and as were strolling towards the temple we landed up at a guy who took us to a lodge and we easily got a nice 3 bed room for Rs. 200 near Maharashtra Seva Sadan. It was a nice lodge and to top of our comfort was the fact that the temple was just 5 min. walking from the lodge. My mother and my bro went to see aarti at 6:30 P.M. while I decided to take a nap due to severe headache. There are quite a few restaurants and lodges in Kedarnath but due to the fact that temple was going to close down on 19th, Oct and it was already 14th, most of the people had gone down to their native villages and there was a restaurant named Shankar restaurant which luckily for us was open and had good food. As my mother and bro returned from Aarti at Temple they also brought along food with them and after taking food, it was time to hit bed. The weather was real cold and temperature at 1:00 A.M. was around -2 deg, but the blankets were really warm and we’d a nice cozy sleep.

Day 4

I woke up at 6:30 A.M. today and me and my bro had plans to visit Vasuki taal and Chorbari taal (also known as Gandhi Sarovar lake) today, however as we inquired from locals we were asked to drop the idea of visiting Vasuki taal as the weather was really unpredictable at this time of year and we were not carrying trekking gear with us as well. So with Vasuki taal out of option we decided to march ahead to Chorbari taal while my mother went to temple for conducting a pooja. Their is a well defined path to Chorbari taal and it’s around 3.5 Kms from Kedarnath dham. The weather was again beautiful with bright sun shine and crystal clear views of Himalayas right at an arm distance from us. As we were marching towards Chorbari taal we found a small waterfall on the way and to our surprise the water was frozen at bottom and it was a wonderful site to watch. The trek to Chorbari taal is a nice trek with a bit of ascent to climb up and soon we reached the lake. It was a wonderful site as the lake was partially frozen and we could see Chorbari glacier which was feeding water to this lake. It was pretty windy here and wind was really chilling. We spent around an hour here appreciating the beauty of the place and taking photographs before leaving off to Kedarnath. Surprisingly there was no one except for me and my bro at this place and while sitting on a rock admiring the beauty of the place I had a feeling of tranquility which was really wonderful. I just wanted to sit there for as long as possible but alas every journey has to come to an end and with heavy heart and a resolve to be back and decision to climb one of the mountains in higher Himalayas next year, we came back to Kedarnath. My mother had also returned from her pooja and after taking some food and few more photographs we finally started our journey on our way back. Due to heavy trekking in Maharashtra, I found it quite easy to come down but it was an all together different story for my mother and bro and though they managed to reach Rambara pretty easily but once we moved further down, my mother started complaining of pain in her foot and soon she reached a state where she just couldn’t move ahead an inch and this was perhaps the scariest time of the entire trip as she neither wanted to move down on pony nor was she able to move by herself. However it’s for her strong will that she finally managed to move down slowly and we reached Gauri Kund around 5:30 P.M. I went down to Gauri Kund first to find a room and found a decent room for Rs. 200 and finally we were all well settled in our beds with me and my bro in a terrible condition due to feets which were really in serious pain. My mother had a toe nail which was severally bruised and a swolen ankle while my bro had a swolen foot and a knee cap. However none of us was complaining and we went for a deep sleep after some food.

Day 5

We woke up at 7:00 A.M. and my mother and bro went to Gauri Kund for bath in hot water spring. More then bath, the excellent feeling that one gets my putting one’s feet in the hot spring after a long journey to Kedarnath is something that one can’t explain in words. I packed all the stuff and finally we were at Gauri Kund bus station by 8:30 A.M. We’d to move to Ukhimath from where we wanted to move to Tungnath. However due to heavy rush all the taxi were booked and we too had to book a taxi to Ukhimath (Rs. 1000 from Gauri Kund to Ukhimath). This was a decision which I initially regretted but later on I appreciated it as my mother and bro were not in a condition to travel in crowded taxi and despite twice the cost the journey from Gauri Kund to Ukhimath was a comfortable one. While we were moving down we managed to get a glimpse of Chaukhamba and Kedar range. I had a thought that this was last time that I was seeing these magnificent mountains but I was to be proven wrong later on. We reached Ukhimath around 11:30 A.M. and as I inquired about availability of buses to Chopta I was told that there was no direct bus during the day and only on next day could we get a bus. This meant that we’d need to halt at Ukhimath. Though I hate to stay at a place during a journey but this was a decision worth taken considering the condition of mummy and bro. We found a nice lodge in form of Bagwari Lodge at Ukhimath near Ukhimath bus station. As we were settling down at our lodge we also managed to book a taxi to-and-from Ukhimath to Chopta for Rs. 1200. The lodge was really beautiful and was owned by an aunty who took just Rs. 300 for a room whoes fare was Rs. 500 in actual. Their was even a balcony and we took luxury of spending entire day basking in sun with good view of Himalayas right infront of us. However as day progressed the weather in high Himalayas starting turing bad and by evening it seemed real bad. However we decided to leave it on fate as to what will happen the next day (The weather in high Himalayas is highly unpredictable and in most cases the weather is clear during morning hours and turns bad during later day after 12:00 noon). I got food during the day from Dev Bhoomi Restaurant and it was a good home like food for a reasonable price and during the night also we decided to take food from same restaurant. While going to take food in night, I found that today was Dhanteras and hence the roads were pretty crowded with people busy in purchasing things. I find it really strange as to why people are so concerned about earthly things like home and other stuff and why don’t they instead spend their fortune and time in exploring places and learning new things.

Day 6

I woke up around 5:00 A.M. and we’d to get over with our daily chores quickly as our taxi was scheduled to arrive at 6:00 A.M. As I moved out to balcony for some fresh air I was surprised to see clear weather in higher Himalayas and right ahead of us were some peaks which were glittering like gold as first rays of sun were touching the snow lying on them. It was a mesmerizing view and I managed to take few photographs just in time. It was 6:00 A.M. and there was no sign of our taxi so I called the driver named Manoj and he said he’ll be there in 10 min and we took the oppurtunity to click some more photographs. It was as if no matter how many photographs you take, the thirst won’t quench. Finally our taxi arrived and we paid our good byes to Aunty and left for ride to Chopta.

Ride to Chopta takes one through road to Badrinath and it’s a pictureque route with views unparalleled elsewhere. We could see lots of small grassland which gave way to dense forest at some distance which were further followed by barren rocky mountains which finally turned to higher Himalayas. It was a view which I will never forget in my life and after 1.5 hours we finally reached Chopta. Chopta is also called mini Switzerland of Uttaranchal and it’s not a wrong comparison as the views are simply fantastic. We reached Chopta by 8:00 and my mother and bro decided to stay back while I moved ahead to a trek of 3.5 kms of steep ascent to Tungnath. Tungnath is one of the 5 Kedars along with Kedarnath, Rudranath, Madhmaheshwar and Kalpeshwar. It’s also supposed to be the highest Shiva temple in entire world at an altitude of 12,073 ft.

The trek is not of large distance but the ascent is steep and one gains an altitude of more than 4,000 ft. as one climbs from Chopta to Chandrashila which is 1 Km ahead of Tungnath. The view is just wonderful all along the trek and one can see entire Garhwal range from Gangotri, Yamunotri to Kedar range on right and to Chaukhamba and Neelkanth on further right. The view is made all that much more magnificent by the lush green grasslands or Bugyals as they are locally called. There is a botanical research centre as well near Tungnath temple.

I managed to reach the temple of Tungnath by 9:30 A.M. and after offering prayers at temple it was time to move up to Chandrashila. As against the route to Tungnath which is well paved way the route to Chandrashila is like a route formed by water flowing down the hill in a gully. The ascent is steep and the high altitude can make the climb even more difficult. However within an hour I was just below the summit and as I reached the top the view that welcomed me was more than overwhelming. It was a view which I just explain. One can see entire range of Himalayas from Kumaon region to Garhwal region. There is a temple at top where a board is placed mentioning that height of the top is 13,124 ft and it seemed just great to reach this place. There are several small pile of stones placed on top of the summit which gives this place an all together different look and feel. I spent half an hour there at top admiring the beauty of the place and taking some photographs before moving down. Finally I reached Chopta by 11:20 A.M. only to find my mother waiting worriedly at stairs. I find this habit of parents most discomforting. Any way having completed the journey it was time to say good bye to Chopta and we moved back to Ukhimath.

As we reached Ukhimath, it was 1:30 P.M. and upon inquiring we were told that bus to Rudraprayag was scheduled to arrive at 2:00 P.M. and finally we were on our way back. We reached Rudraprayag around 4:00 P.M. only to find that there was no bus to Rishikesh. However we managed to find a bus to Srinagar and conductor of bus was a fellow whom I will never forget as I’ve never seen a person who is so carefree as him. We reached Srinagar around 6:00 P.M. and the conductor was kind enough to show us the place from where we could get a taxi to Rishikesh. The taxi was waiting there and we immediately booked 4 seats at Rs. 120 per person and we were on our way back to Rishikesh.

Day 7

As it was Deepwali the festival of lights so we couldn’t get any bus to Haldwani and hence we decided to board train to Kathgodam from Haridwar which was scheduled to depart at 12:00 night and hence we’d entire day to explore Rishikesh and Haridwar. After exploring few places Rishikesh we moved to Haridwar and spent entire day at Railway station. Mummy and bro went to Har ki Pauri during evening to see Maha Aarti and it was time to wait for train to arrive and bring the magnificent journey to conclusion.

However as is the case at most times, I’m pretty restless fellow and can’t stand thought of waiting for someone sitting back at home, so I decided to explore Kumaon and this time I’d my newly bought FZ28 to give me a good company (Thanks a lot Nipun for this wonderful gadget !). As I couldn’t go far away so I decided to explore some places nearby home and first place to visit was Saat Taal (Seven Lakes).

Saat Taal is a small tourist destination near BhimTaal in Nainital District of Uttaranchal. Most tourist skip this place due to either lack of information or due to lack of materialistic facilities which are easily available at other tourist spots like Nainital. However in my opinion Saat Taal is one of the best places to relax and be in sync with nature. The name Saat Taal comes from seven lakes (in Hindi, seven is pronounced as Saat and Taal means lake) which are scattered all around this area. Raam and Laxman taal are two major lakes amongst these seven lakes but if one is coming to this place then he/she ought’ to see all the seven lakes. One of the lakes which people generally tend to miss out on is Naldamiyanti lake which is enroute trek route from Bhimtal to Saattal.

Saat Taal is connected by road to Bhimtal but if one wants to truely enjoy the beauty of this place then one should trek to this place from Bhimtaal and this is very easy trek of around 5 Kms and it passes through thick pine forest and small villages enroute. One can view all seven lakes if trek route is taken. One can also catch a taxi from Bhimtal to Saat tal which will cost around Rs. 20/- per person on shared basis. As for accomodation, there is a KMVN and Forest rest house available at Saat taal. However it’s more advisable to stay at Bhimtaal and visit Saat taal either on trek or by vehicle.

I started my journey from Haldwani around 12:00 noon and the bus ride was pretty good and economical (Rs. 25/-) to Bhimtal. I reached Bhimtal around 1:00 P.M. and after having a cup of tea and couple of Samosas it was time to hit road again. The trek route to Saat tal starts from Bhimtal itself and can be found very easily by inquiring from locals. The initial section of the route passes through markets of Bhimtal and hence it’s very easy to find someone who’ll explain entire route. After walking for about 40 min. I reached Naldamiyanti Taal. It’s one of the seven lakes of Saat Taal and has religious significance as it considered to be a center of power. After clicking some photographs it was time to move on and as I walked for another 10 min, I reached an area where the motor road to Saat taal meets the trek route. Now either one can move along the motor road which will take around 4 Kms to reach Saat Taal or one can take a trek route on left which will cover the distance to Saat Taal in just 1.5 kms. As obvious I choose the latter route and this route took me through a thick pine forest and along the way there is an Ashram and one can even find some wildlife. Within 30 min I was able to reach Saat Taal and this is a magnificant place with not too much crowd and no hustle bustle of vehicles. There are few shops around and one can enjoy cup of coffee/tea with hot Samosas and other fast foods. The view is something which one can admire for hours and hours and though I didn’t enjoyed a boat ride but one can also enjoy it and even Kayaking. Having spent around 2-3 hours at Saat taal and having taken a lots of photographs, it was time to move back and luckily I found a guy who was moving back to Bhimtal and he happily gave me a ride to Bhimtal. Tommorrow I’d be moving to Ranikhet and will be posting details of that trip later, till then Chao and keep trekking

We’d no plans till Friday evening to visit Indore on Friday night itself and here we were on verge of starting our next trip. We both took off to my house at Bandra and Safeer also accompanied us. It was real nice of Safeer to be with us, as he was the person who finally managed to find a place at my apartment where we could surf Internet to find some sort of  bus or train to Indore. Time was passing by quickly and as we were inquiring from some travel agents we came to know that all the buses had left for Indore and last train was also on verge of leaving. As none of us wanted to stay back, we decided to break up our journey and we decided to visit Ratlam via Golden Temple Express which was scheduled to leave at 9:25 P.M. from Mumbai Central. It was 8:00 P.M. and both me and Nipun rushed out of our house. A quick ride in taxi and by 8:40 P.M. we were at Mumbai Central station. As we were about to enter the station I saw some shops of travel agents and decided to inquire about some bus service. As expected there was no bus service at that time to Indore but one guy told us that we could move to Shirpur and Indore was just 4 hrs. away from there. None of us had heard the name of that place before but we decided to take our chances and bought tickets for Non A/C Sleeper coach. The fare was Rs. 495/- per person and later on we found that this was a bit high and we could’ve bargained for a less fare but whatever the journey had started now and it was a great start as our bus driver decided to give us comfort of a A/C ride though we’d Non A/C tickets

As bus crossed Thane we landed up at a Dhaba and after a quick munch it was time to hit bed. I must admit that sleeping in a bus with windows open is the best thing that one can have. I slept all night long and when my eyes opened we’d reached Dhule district of Maharashtra. Shirpur wasn’t far from this place and we decided to have few snaps. Along the way we saw Tapti river and by 7:00 A.M. we were at Shirpur. As against my imagination  this was a fairly decent place and bus station was also quite big. Shirpur is a Taluka place in Dhule district and is right at Maharashtra – Madhya Pradesh border. As we inquired about the State Transport (ST) bus we found that bus was supposed to come at 8:15 A.M., so it was time for some tea and quick refreshments.

The ST bus to Indore arrived right on time at 8:15 A.M. and we managed to find Window seats as well. The fare from Shirpur to Indore is around Rs. 125 /- and it takes around 4 hrs to reach from Shirpur to Indore. Though the distance is not much (around 180 kms) but the time is spend mostly in ascending up the hills along the way. We saw that another 4 lane high way was being constructed and it seems to me that after this construction the time taken to travel this distance would reduce considerably.

The journey from Shirpur to Indore was okey though it was really hot and we managed to reach Indore by 2:30 P.M. The bus stopped at Sarvate bus station and now it was time to find a hotel. We wanted to spend as less money as possible and we went around inquiring in some hotels and soon found New Standard Lodge, which is a hotel above Gurukripa Restaurant. The room was well priced at Rs. 235 /- and even had luxury of TV. We decided to take a quick shower and ordered a cup of tea as well. As we took first sip of tea we were amazed to see the quality of the tea and the price tag associated with it. The tea was just superb, with just as sweet as it should be and the milk used to prepare the tea was also just wonderful. It was so wonderful that we couldn’t resist ordering for second cup. Having done with tea it was time to xplore Indore. As we asked at hotel reception we were told name of few places like Rajwada, Kaanch ka mandir and Lal Bagh.

Xploring Indore (Day 1)

We started of our Indore exploration by visiting Rajwada. Rajwada is the historical palace of the Holkars. It was built about two centuries ago and is located near the Chhatris in the main square. It is a seven storied structure, which serves as the living example of the grandeur of the Holkars. Rajwada stands in the centre of the city. The new palace is on the northern side, while the old palace stands in the old part of the town. The old palace is a multi-storied building which also serves as a gateway of the Rajwada. It stands amongst the crowded streets of the Kajuri Bazar and faces the main square of the city.

The palace was once the centre of all the trading activities in the city. It is a blend of Maratha, Mughal and French style of architecture. The entrance of the palace has a lofty archway with a giant wooden door which is covered with iron studs. The gopura-like monument is made up of wood and stone. It has a number of balconies windows and corridors. The entrance leads to a huge courtyard, which is surrounded by galleried rooms and the arcaded Ganesha hall, which was once the venue of all state and religious functions. This hall is now used for art exhibitions and classical music concerts.

Rajwada has been burnt three times in history. The last fire broke out in 1984 and caused the maximum destruction. The lower three floors are made up of stone, while the top floors are made of wood. This made it very vulnerable to destruction by fire. Now, only the front part of the original structure remains. The palace has recently been renovated, which has managed to bring back the old glory to some extent. In the rear part of the palace, a beautiful garden has been created. It contains fountains, an artificial waterfall and some magnificent pieces of 11th century sculpture.

We spent almost 2-3 hours at Rajwada, taking photographs and trying to learn about it’s history from some of the instructions written on sign boards and also inquiring from the guards. It was almost 7:00 P.M. when we moved out of Rajwada and as it was too late so we decided to drop idea of visiting other places during the day. As we were deciding to return back to our hotel, Nipun suggested that we walk all the way back instead of taking an auto rickshaw. The suggestion seemed okey and we both walked back amidst crowded market place of Indore. As we were walking we noticed that Indore is a place where a lot of distributors and dealers operate from and this is true for every commodity that one can think of. And I guess this is prime reason for Indore being called commercial capital of Madhya Pradesh. After walking for about 30 min we finally reached our hotel. It was time to order food and as was the case with tea, the food was also simply fantabulous and real cheap. It was so cheap that we even managed to order dessert for both of us

Xploring Indore (Day 2)

Today we’d decided to visit Omkareshwar. It’s a Hindu temple about 81 Kms away from Indore. The bus service is readily available from Indore and one can catch a bus from Sarvate bus station. The bus fare is Rs. 50/- and it takes around 2:30 hrs to reach Omkareshwar. It is one of the 12 revered Jyotirlingas and is located on an island called Mandhata. The island is formed on confluence of Narmada and Kaveri river and the name of the place is Omkareshwar cauz’ it’s believed that the shape of the island is like shape of word “Om” in Hindi.

We reached Omkareshwar around 12:00 noon and after walking some distance we managed to reach the temple. As we were deciding if we should take a bath we found that the confluence (called Sangam in Hindi) of Narmada and Kaveri was not too far away and it was considered that Parikrama of the island was one of the things that, if done before the visit to temple, makes the visit all much more fruitful. So we both decided to first visit Sangam and in this course of journey half of our Praikrama was completed. The path laid down for this journey has Geeta shlokas embedded on stones all along the way. We reached Sangam after 30 min of walking and taking a dip in the cool water in such scrotching heat was just wonderful. We got rid of our sins or not is something which is debatable but we sure got rid of scrotching heat that had really put us into a misreable condition. I simply didn’t want to come out of water but had to, due to lack of time. The rest of journey was now even more tough as the bath had opened up all the pores in our skin and sweat was dripping out like anything. As we were walking we soon decided that we needed a break and there we found a hut with an old Sadhu lying down reading something. We inquired if we could’ve a cup of tea and he nodded positively. Coool, the guy was having tea and puffs as well. We asked him to prepare 2 cups of tea and ordered some puffs. As he was preparing tea, he started a discussion about science and I was surprised for once to see a fellow of his age and looks talking about science. As discussion progressed he showed us couple of letters that he’d written to Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh and some heads of Universities in Madhya Pradesh, seeking miniscule funding of around Rs. 50,000 for building a pump which would pump out water without consumption of fossil fuel or electricity. The guy could’ve been a fake but I don’t know why I believed him and I hope that he soon gets some kind of funding for his project. We thanked him and took a photograph for which he instantly agreed and it was time to complete rest of the Parikrama.

As we were reaching other end of the island, we found some real nice places along the way like Chand Suraj Dwar, Dharamraj Dwar etc. We were wondering why so many dwars were there along the way (Dwar is a Gate). And soon we found the answer to this question at a place whos beauty was unparalleled. This place was BarahDwari Siddheswar temple. It’s called BarahDwari because there are 12 gates (Barah means 12 in Hindi and Dwar means Gate) through which one could enter this temple. All the gates that we’d seen so far were part of these 12 gates. The architecture of the temple was superb and it’s believed that the temple is of days of Mahabharat. Narmada flowing in near vicinity adds to the nostalgia and we spent nearly 1 hour just admiring the beauty of the place. The temple is now under Archeological Survey of India and is being renovated at some places as well.

As we moved ahead we soon began to see Omkareshwar town in near distance. There is a rope bridge as well there to reach from one bank of Narmada with Omkareshwar temple to other bank with Mamleshwar temple. We quickly descended to Omkareshwar temple and visited the place before leaving from last bus to Indore at 6:00 P.M.

Day 3:

Today was the day I’d been waiting for since a long long time. I was about to jump off a plane at a height of around 20,000 ft. I decided to call the event host, Pradeep but what the hell, I was told that there would be no jumps today as Govt. of India had issued a notification disallowing all private planes to take off from Indian soil due to some kind of terror threat report. This was a real shocker for me, but I didn’t want to spoil my mood for the trip and we decided to explore Indore a bit more before moving to Ujjain. We visited Lal Bagh (also called Bunkingham Palace of India), Maa Annapurna Temple, Bada Ganpati Temple and at the end we reached Kaanch ka Mandir. Kaanch ka Mandir is a place which I’d recommend everyone. This is a Jain temple built by Seth Hukumchand and every thing inside the temple is built out of glass (Kaanch means Glass). The only sad thing is that photography is not allowed. After having spent quite some time at Kaanch ka Mandir we walked towards Krishnapur Ki Chaatriyan. This monument is again a wonderful peace of architecture and is presently being maintained by Archeological Survey of India, but the condition of this monument is not very good and people litter around everywhere and we even found goats roaming around in the corridors. Hope things will improve for the place in future.

As we reached hotel, it was already 2:00 P.M., so we ordered food and decided to take a quick nap before starting off our journey to Ujjain.

To Ujjain

We left our hotel around 3:00 P.M. and took a bus to Ujjain from Sarvate bus station. Buses to Ujjain are easily available and the frequency of buses is also very good, with buses available every 10 min.

We took a place on a bus and fare was Rs. 35/- per person for a 50 km journey which took us nearly 1.5 hrs due to bad roads and frequent stoppages. However we reached Ujjain around 4:45 P.M. and as usual our first objective was to find a nice, cheap, decent place to dump ourselves. Hotel Ajay near railway station on Mali baazar road is a nice place and we found a room for Rs. 250/- again with a TV

The waiter was a real nice person and he told us about every place worth visiting in and around Ujjain.

We took a bath and it was time to explore Ujjain. As it was late around 6:45 P.M. so we decided to abandon the idea of visiting temples like Mahakaleshwar and instead decided to explore Ujjain city. Ujjain is a small town and like Indore it’s busteling with noise of scooties and auto rickshaw etc. As we were strolling in the streats we found a place where an event was going to be organized and upon inquiry we found that a garba dance event was scheduled late at night. It was already 9:00 P.M. so we decided to have food and we found a decent restaurant named Hotel Sudama which was decent and at same time not very expensive. Food was nice and we decided to move to garba dance. By the time we reached the place, the event had started and we could see lots of girls and boys dancing on bollywood beats. It was a wonderful scene and I managed to catch a small video clip of the event.

Xploring Ujjain (Day 4)

Today we’d earlier decided to visit Mahakaleshwar temple in morning around 2:00 A.M. to see Bhasm Aarti which is considered to be the mega event. However inspite of all the alarms we both just couldn’t wake up and kept on sleeping till 8:00 A.M. Anyhow we decided to pay a visit to Mahakaleshwar Temple. This is an ancient temple with beautiful carvings done on stone. As camera is not allowed inside temple, we could not take many photographs of the temple. However one uncle who belonged to Mandir Samiti allowed us to take photographs from a distance and we thanked him for this gesture and moved on to Ramghat. Ramghat is on banks of Shipra river and this ghat has been formed by stagnating the flow of Shipra river. As we were returning from Ramghat we decided to hire a local autorickshaw for returning to hotel. The auto rickshaw here in Ujjain are a bit different and we found that they are dead cheap too. It must have been atleast 25 min of ride and the fare that we’d to give was just Rs. 3/-. It was just wonderful and now we’d to decide where to move next. We’d two options, one being Bhrithari Caves and other Iskcon temple. We opted for Bhrithari Caves and this proved to be a decision worth taken. An autorickshaw ride from Ujjain Junction to Bhrithari Caves takes around 30 min. and the driver settled for Rs. 150/- for to-and-fro journey.

Bhrithari caves are located outside Ujjain city on banks of Shipra river.  There are two caves in here. The caves have Bhrithari and Neelkantheshwar (Shiva) temple inside them.

It was afternoon when we finally reached back hotel and now we’d to think of moving back to Mumbai. As we inquired at Ujjain we found that though the travel agents were ready to book the tickets but we’d to catch the bus from Indore and above that they were charging around Rs. 100/- for commission. So decision was simple and we decided to move back to Indore. Upon reaching Indore, first thing that we did was have a Puri Bhaaji plate for lunch and I must admit that Indore has been one of the best places I’ve ever been to, as far as food and hospitality is concerned. We took our tickets back to Mumbai costing around Rs. 400/- per person and we could’ve even negotiated on this price (remember we’d travelled to Shirpur from Mumbai for Rs. 495/-). The bus started late but finally we were on our way back to Mumbai with sweet memories of Indore and Ujjain.

After office, we decided to view Love Aaj kal which was not that a great movie, but I loved character named Harlim Kaur. All the way during the movie, Nipun and Amol kept on passing taunts at me about my age (which is just 29) and despite being a so so movie, all such comments helped in keeping the atmosphere nice and bubbly. As usual after movie, we rushed back to office to catch our stuff and decided to have dinner at a near by Dhaaba. Nipun managed to stuff his stomach with almost 5 paranthas and a butter roti and as we moved to my home, he was already complaining of feeling sleepy.

Santosh had just managed to reach Bandra and there was no sign of our leader aka Saurabh. As I inquired, Nipun told me that he had gone for dinner to one his friend’s house and would be late. Time was passing by and we’d to catch last local train to Karjat from CST station at 12:38 A.M. As clock struck 11:00 P.M. my worries started and we decided to call up Saurabh. First he didn’t pick up the phone and second time he told us that he’d be coming back in 10 min. We immediately knew that he was having drinks with his friends however he managed to return back by 11:30 P.M.

We took a taxi and moved towards CST station. As none of us had paid a visit to newly built Bandra-Worli sealink so we decided to go to CST through it. Taxi and cars are charged at Rs. 50 for passing through this bridge which is built over the sea. The structure is just magnificant and we all enjoyed the 20 min ride over the sea on this bridge. However as were passing through the bridge we all felt that it would’ve been a lot better if we could also see through the side walls and have a glimpse at the sea below us and also have a look at the city. Maybe it’s not considered a good security practice but it would’ve been a great journey if that was so.

We reached CST station by 12:15 A.M. and had a quick bite of Omlette-Pao and coffee. Santosh went to collect tickets (Rs. 18/- per person for second class) and soon we were riding in train to Karjat. The train was almost empty after Kalyan station and we decided to stretch our legs and took a quick nap. As we reached Karjat by 3:20 A.M. we found out that there was plenty of rush at the station, with many groups coming to explore Sahayadri’s. Santosh managed to find a vacant spot and immediately went to sleep and it really took us a lot of effort to persuade him to get up and move to Karjat bus station. Karjat bus station too was filled with many groups and we found it real hard to find a place to settle down. However within half an hour many groups had left the place as they’d moved ahead to their respective destinations. We inquired about the timing of bus to Kondana village and we were told that there is no bus to Kondana but we could get a bus to Khandpe village and Kondana was just few kms away. As the bus was scheduled for 5:45 A.M. we decided to take a quick nap. Post monsoon period is perhaps the most disgusting period to spend time at bus stations due to bugs and mosquitoes everywhere. We just couldn’t get a good sleep as they kept on biting us everywhere. Luckily for us there was a house nearby and owner of that house offered us Poha and Tea.

To Kondana Village

The bus was right on time and it was bus to Sandsi village which would drop us at Khandpe. Ticket was worth Rs. 8/- per person and the bus driver was an expert in driving in that area. He managed to cover the entire journey within no time and by 6:15 A.M. we were at Khandpe village. I slept for almost the entire part of bus ride to Khandpe and I must admit that it feels just heavenly to sleep in bus with cool breeze flowing across the face.
Khandpe is a small village and it’s just wonderful to see the beauty of this place in monsoon with lush green fields stretching to bases of mountains and water streams flowing across them. The journey to Kondana village was an easy stroll and we even managed to find a river flowing besides us. I wanted to take a bath in it but finally decided to let go of the idea. As we were strolling in Kondana village Nipun reminded us that we’d not purchased any edible stuff and we were not sure if something would be available atop Rajmachi. As there were no Departmental stores around, we finally landed up at a house which had a board at it’s entrance stating “Jevan upalabdh aahe” or something like that. Jevan in Marathi refers to food and as we inquired we were welcomed by aunty who cooked us Onion Poha and real tasty cup of Chai (Tea). While relaxing at the house I felt like being back to villages in Uttaranchal. There was no sound of hustle bustle of city life and all we could hear was sound of river flowing infront of us and chirping of birds. Aunty even had hens and soon we were surrounded by a hen who was accompanied by chickens. As we tried to feed the chickens with peanuts that were served to us in Poha, we found that chickens don’t have beaks which are strong enough to break apart the peanuts and it was only when hen struck the peanut and broke it apart, did they fest upon it. It was just wonderful to witness such a small but beautiful incident. After refreshments it was time to move ahead. Though I didn’t want to move as the atmosphere at Aunty’s house was too good to let go off, but it was already 8:00 A.M. and we’d to move a looong distance.

To Kondana Caves

As we passed Kondana village, we soon reached a point where the path diverged into two. A group ahead of us followed a path, but as we were deciding upon which path to choose, we saw that an uncle who was running a tea stall signal to us. As we reached the tea stall, uncle told us that the right path was up the hill and not the path that the other group had followed. It was really nice of him and after inquiring about the entire path, we started our ascent. The ascent to Kondana and Rajmachi is not easy and monsoon makes it lot more difficult as the paths are slippery and muddy. The ascent is still okey but descent on such slopes is lot more difficult. As we were passing every hike, my fears of climbing down were increasing bit by bit. It was only until we reached a small waterfall. This was kind of place that we all were looking after. Immediately everyone was in bathroom attire and we’d a great time bathing and posing at this waterfall. Santosh was our favourite model at this waterfall and we almost spent half n hour there. In the meantime we found another group of some guys and gals pass by and it was nice to see some human souls in this vicinity. After nice bath we moved forward and soon we were at Kondana caves. And once you see this place, the only word that comes out is “Awesome!”. I mean we are deep inside jungle with no human populatation near by and here it is a cave which has been beautifully decorated and along the sides of the caves architectural structures have been laid down. And to add to the beauty is the fact that there is waterfall which just comes down infront of the caves and give it an all together different look. We also the group who had passed us at waterfall at this place and we all (except maybe Santu) were pretty happy and excited to see some females getting drenched in the waterfall After spending some time at the caves and shooting some photographs we decided to move ahead.

Hike to Rajmachi

As we were moving ahead, soon we reached a place where we were not able to find out the path ahead. Now we’d read in some blogs earlier about how people can easily get lost in Jungles in Sahayadri’s and there was this post about one guy who went missing for 52 days in Ulhaas Valley and he was finally found in a very terrible situation. The memories of these incidents were good enough to bring down a tickle of fear and once you get into grip of it, the journey ahead becomes lot more difficult. However luckily for us, a group of 3 guys and 2 gals came right behind us and they decided to just climb up the hill. Though it seemed like a bad idea but we too decided to follow them. And once we had reached a certain height, Saurabh looked around and was able to trace down a path which looked like going up to Rajmachi. The only problem now was that this path was some distance below us and we’d not climbed up a regular path, so coming down was going to be all that much more difficult. Anyhow, we decided to take our chances and slowly slowly started to descent. We reached a point where there was a water stream flowing over a rock patch. Nipun was already standing there and I was last one behind. As I put my feet on the rock and decided to move ahead, Bang ! I was down and while going down I managed to pull Nipun along with me as well. Though none of us got hurt but it really scared us a bit. However soon we reached the path and started to follow it. And very soon we reached a place where the group whom we’d left at Kondana caves was also resting. There was a shop there as well where a kid was selling sweet corn. We decided to have a bit of corn and also inquired about the path ahead. From now on it was a steep climb up to the top and I don’t know why but this time I didn’t feel exhaustion creeping in. The only problem that I was worried about was, “How am I going to come down?” The ascent was pretty steep and slippery, muddy soil was making the job all that much more difficult. As we were climbing up the hill we reached a place which looked very much different from all other places that we’d looked upon so far during course of the journey. This place had a vast patch of mountain covered in thick deep green grass and as wind was blowing, the grass was giving an impression of waves forming over it. It was just so beautiful and dangerous at the same time, as these grasses could be hiding some of the most dangerous creatures like snakes, crabs, etc. We even managed to find a large crab who was quite camera shy at base of a foot step. Soon we reached a spot which was like a meadow and we found 2 groups who had moved ahead of us, resting over there. It was already 12:00 and one of the groups was already rethinking about moving ahead. However we had absolutely no doubts in our heads and we decided to carry on with our journey. After resting for few minutes we moved ahead. The journey ahead was same old story with a steep hike on muddy and slippery soil. Any how we managed to reach the top by 1:00 P.M. There was a tea shop right at the entrance and we took luxury of replenishing our tired body with some hot tea, Parle G biscuits and Chikki. Just sitting there on a rock looking down into the valley, with cool breeze flowing across the face, is a feeling which I can’t describe in words. Now we could see Rajmachi fort just ahead of us. However to reach there we would have to walk a bit quicker to reach Rajmachi village and from there it was going to be another climb till we reach the fort. So we started to walk quickly towards the direction as told to us by uncle owning the tea shop. Soon we managed to reach Rajmachi village. The village is a small village like any other village in Maharashtra, but I don’t know why but I kind of loved the atmosphere here more then anywhere else. The village was filled with many trekking groups and some of them had even come from Lonavala [There is another route which is a motor road to Lonavala (distance = 20kms)]. We inquired about the route to fort and also asked a local resident about availability of food. Food and shelter is easily available and some of the local people even allow trekkers to share their home. With assurance about easy availability of food, we decided to visit the fort first and moved ahead. We must have walked for few min. when we found the school which has been setup by some trekkers. This was perhaps one of the best things that I’ve heard of. I don’t know why we haven’t ever done such a thing, but surely we’ll think of doing such a social work in near future. The journey to fort is again a hike and soon we reached the point where the routes to two forts diverge. We decided to have a look at Sri Vardhan fort and went along in it’s direction. All along our walk we were able to see some trekkers coming down from top and by way of their walking we easily guessed that the path wasn’t as easy as it looked. As we came close to fort, we found the reasons too. There was a small patch where one had to pass a rock and down below was the deep cliff. The worst part was that rock had become slippery due to continuous rainfalls. Santosh and me went off first but as Nipun was crossing the patch, he slipped. For once we all were shocked, Nipun was terrified as well, but after a while things normalized and we all finally made it to the top.

At Sri Vardhan Fort

The fort is not in a very good shape and most of the structures have fallen off due to rains and other natural factors. However this doesn’t downsize the architectural capabilities of people of the era in which it was built. I mean who would believe a building of today to withstand all forces of nature and still remain intact for periods as long as 300-400 years. The entrance to the fort is magnificent and one can only admire the hugeness of the fort once one reaches here. The fort is quite large and one needs quite some time to travel to every section of the fort. There is even a water reservoir which is filled up during rains and I think that people in those days used to use this water for rest of the year. After crossing the reservoir, we first decided to get to Burj (the place where flag is hosted). It is the highest point of the fort and one can see beautiful Sahayadri’s all around. As we were climbing up to Burj we saw a huge waterfall down in front on a mountain and the view was just mesmerizing. We spent some time on Burj, taking photographs, Santu found all this nonsensical and decided to take a nap instead. We must have spent 20 min at Burj when another group with some females came up. Immediately both the females were chosen as peers by everyone . It was now time to leave the Burj and descend to another spot from where we could get nice view of the waterfall. As we moved to the spot, we were welcomed by a huge patch of mountain, covered in green grass. The grass was forming patterns of waves as winding was gushing across. All this was too good and we even managed to shoot a video. Soon we reached the spot and wowwwwwww!!! the scene that we saw was just phenomenol. It was perhaps one of the biggest waterfalls, I’ve seen in Sahayadri hills and as wind was blowing, the water was spreading across like fumes and was giving the entire surroundings a magical look. We just sat there enjoying the view for next 45 min. before the group with females came to the spot. It was time to leave as we also had to get back for lunch before descending down.

Return to Karjat

The descend was an easy one and we reached Rajmachi village in 20 min. As we inquired about lunch, we were invited by a local to his house and we were served with Wheat chapati, rice, dal and lobia (I don’t know what do they call it in English). The food was nice and was served in typical marathi fashion. As we finished the lunch, it was 3:30 P.M. and we decided to leave immediately. I am always afraid of descending down steep slopes and as this was time of monsoon and rocks are slippery so things seemed pretty hard.

However we managed to get down pretty comfortably except for a place where I managed to hurt my knee by scratching it against a rock. By 5:00 P.M. we were down at Kondana village and it was time to search for an auto rickshaw and ride back to Karjat. The auto rickshaw is not easily accessible and one has to wait for some time. Also the rickshaw aren’t available at Kondana village itself, instead one has to walk some distance towards Khandpe village. As one crosses the bridge near Kondana village, we found a rickshaw. He too Rs. 150/- for ride to Karjat and it was a nice end to a yet another wonderful trip to Sahayadri’s.

Start of Journey:

As Nipun and Saurabh had not brought their stuff to office, so they decided to move to their home in Mira Road and come back to my place at night. We’d many options to go to Lonavala. Their is a train at 5:40 A.M., or we could even move by bus at night. Looking up at Website of Maharashtra State Transport Corp., we found that a bus leaves to Lonvala from Dadar at 1:40 A.M. and we decided to catch this bus. As Nipun and Saurabh moved back to Mira Road after office, me, Safeer and Amol decided to enjoy high tide at Juhu beach. But to our disappointment tide had retraced and instead we went on to watch a truely pathetic movie “Luck”. As we returned back, it was 10:00 P.M. and we ordered dinner and once dinner was over I found that I was feeling sleepy, rice and butter milk were doing their job pretty well. Nipun and Saurabh also called up and told that they too had a royal dinner and were feeling sleepy. But we’d to do this trek and after some pushing by our leader, aka Saurabh, we decided to go ahead with the plan. Nipun and Saurabh arrived around 12:00 midnight at my place and after having a cup of tea, thanks to Safeer, we decided to move out. A quick ride to Dadar in taxi and we were at bus station where a bus to Pune was already awaiting us. After purchasing tickets (even if one has to drop down at Lonavala, the fare is charged for Pune, i.e. Rs. 135), we decided to board the bus and take a quick nap. The bus to Pune was going via Express Highway and driver told us that he’ll drop us at Kamath Hotel on Express Highway and we could get an autorickshaw easily there. As bus moved on, it was time to go for a quick sleep.

At Lonavala

Around 3:30 A.M. the bus driver stopped the bus at express highway and told us that this was the place where we’d to leave. As we stepped out of bus, we were given a great welcome by the chilling winds. It was pinch dark and we couldn’t see any human soul in near vicinity. Nipun said that we should cross express highway and we were about to do so, when Saurabh complained that it won’t be a great idea, as we were on top of a flyover and after crossing the roads, we’d be no where. Moreover crossing Express Highway is in itself, not a great idea. So it was time to move around and see where we could go. Soon we found a diversion which would take us down to another road. As we were moving down, rain too started to come down and when rains come down here, they come down real heavily. Saurabh and Nipun had brought Wind Cheaters but I was not and soon I found myself in a misreable situation, where I was completely drenched in water standing all out in open, in night with chilling winds flowing. However for some reasons or other, my condition was comparetevly better than Nipun who was shivering like anything. After walking for few minutes, we reached Old Pune highway and we were not sure where to move exactly. One of the indicators was showing route to Pune and other to Mumbai, but there was no sign of way to Lonavala (and this was because we were infact in Lonavala. It’s only that we realized this fact much later). Rain had now begun to come down heavily and we decided to take a shelter. However being a highway we couldn’t see any shops or houses on road side. So as most poor people in India do, we decided to take shelter under a flyover. There were some shops built underneath and few benches. Though the benches were completely wet and on any other normal day, we’d never sit on ‘em, but today we were ready for anything and we found a small space outside a shop and soon me and Nipun went out for sleep. Don’t know if it was fatigue or what, but even in such chilling, wet conditions we managed to take a quick nap. Saurabh however was awake for entire period and was wandering here and there. One thing, which such walking do is, make a person’s bowel move and as I woke up and inquired Nipun about Saurabh, he indicated that Saurabh had gone for loo. What the F***K ? He managed to empty his bowels right there behind some benches ! Soon first few rays of Sun piereced the darkness and we got a nice look at place where we’d spent the night. We decided to walk in the direction of Mumbai and it was a correct decision as one of the passerby told us that Lonavala Station was just few minutes ahead. I don’t know, if it’s people who are at fault or it’s us, who’s pace is too slow, but never ever in my life, have I been able to reach a place in time as told by passerby. Few minutes of journey to Lonavala Station as told to us, took us almost half an hour, but we finally managed to reach station by 6:30 A.M. Local train to Pune was scheduled to leave at 7:20 A.M. and soon we were travelling to Malavali (Malavali is first station after Lonvala towards Pune at a distance of 9 Kms, the fare is Rs. 4/- per person for second class).

At Malavali

We reached Malavali around 7:45 A.M. Nipun and Saurabh quickly changed their dress and came down to trekking gears. We’d a quick photo session at Malavali station and it was time to kick start our trek. However first we’d to pack some stuff for lunch and we decided to buy some Vada Pao and Parle G biscuits. Trek to Lohgarh actually starts from Bhaje village and one can move to Bhaje either via private vehicle or autorickshaw. But we decided to move on foot and weather was also on our side. We crossed an overbridge over Pune Express Highway and seriously this highway is one of the few things in India which have been built keeping at least 10 years of future in sight. Soon we reached Bhaje village. This is a small village and in month of monsoon, plenty shops surface up, as many people come down to this place for a nice weekend hangout. Start of trek Trek to Lohgarh is farely easy as compared to other treks I’ve done in Sahayadri’s, but beauty of the place is really something worth watching. There are two forts, one is Visapur Fort and other is Lohgarh. Apart from this there are Kali caves which attract people to this place. But the best part is the waterfalls which are simply mesmerizing. As we crossed Bhaje village, we soon found first waterfall. This was a big one as compared to one which we’d seen between Malavani and Bhaje. We took few photographs there and moved ahead. The route to Lohgarh is pretty well laid upon and we even found few brave souls trying to take their Bikes up the hill. However for trekkers the best way is to take shortcut routes. At every bend one can find a rough path leading up and one can take these paths to climb quickly. However during monsoon these paths are a bit slippery and one must be always careful. After around half an hour of climb we reached a place where we could see a small grass land and beyond the grass land was a view which was really soothing to eyes. There were four or five waterfalls coming down the mountain on top of which was Lohgarh fort. The fort was completely hidden in thick blanket of clouds and the view was simply nostalgic. We took some photographs there and carried on with the journey. As we reached mid way, rain began to come down really heavily. We managed to find a tea shop there and had a warm cup of tea. Hot cup of tea is something which revitalizes the energy levels within. While tea was being prepared, we managed to spend some time taking photographs on a lush green land. The greenry here was something I’ve never seen in my life. And with a small drain flowing besides it, it was one of the most scenic points. We spend sometime over there and me and Saurabh even found sometime to bring kid inside us out and soon we were playing inside that small drain, trying to drench each other Having a cup of tea and relaxed for a while we moved ahead and soon reached a place where the path to Lohgarh and Visagarh diverts. There was a huge waterfall coming down from Visapur fort and heavy winds were trying to take down coming water with ‘em and we spent about 15 min over there, appreciating the beauty of the place.

At Lohgarh Fort

Soon we reached the stairs which would take us atop Lohgarh fort. I am still surprised by the quality of the buildings of those period. I mean, look at the buildings which are built today with state of art technology at our hands and considering this, it seems that though we’ve made advancements in technological front, but we’ve also lost something along the way. And that thing to me is appreciation for quality and finesse. Lohgarh is an example of architectural beauty. The way it has been designed is something which really makes a person think out about the level of commitment and effort that must have gone to built such a huge structure. And considering the fact that these structures were made at time when there was no good means of transportation, makes the task even more commendable. As we were climbing up the fort stair case, we found a cave which was not in a position to be explored, as water had logged inside it. Along mid way we found a place from where one could get a good glimpse at Pavana dam, we spent some time over there but as it was raining heavily we decided to first explore the fort. Upon reaching the top, at first I was disappointed as everything was covered under a thick cloud of fog. First of all we went to Buruj (that’s the place where flag is hosted), next we visited a shrine of some holy saint and as we were moving ahead, Saurabh decided to take a different route. “Abe Nipun, Mayank …. Kahan ho tum log…. Idhar aao be ….”, we heard screams of Saurabh and we knew that he’d found something really exciting. As we walked along the path taken by him, we reached a flat green land which was water logged and winds were flowing ferociously over there. We kept on walking in direction from where we had heard screams of Saurabh and as we reached end of green land, the view simply stunned us. It was a dead end and right infront of us was a huge cliff down which was flowing a huge water fall. The winds were flowing so heavily over here that the entire water started to flow in reverse direction, i.e. towards the sky and it gave a phenomenol look to the entire view. Everyone was really excited and we spent nearly one hour over there. The winds were really strong and we were finding it real hard to keep our feet intact. Considering the fact that we were standing right at edge of cliff, the winds were making this job even more tougher and to add to this was the fact, that the water flowing upwards was hitting us like sharpnels. But it was an experience of a life time and we thoughrougly enjoyed the entire scene. I found my spot on top of a rock and I was simply mesmerized by the sheer power of wind blowing right across my face. We spent quite some time over there. However as we were leaving the place, we began to feel cold and soon we were shivering like anything. Now this was not a good sign as we also wanted to explore Visapur fort. However considering the conditions we decided to abandon the idea and after exploring the Lohgarh fort completely, we decided to move back. While coming down the fort, we managed to find space at place, from where the view of Pavana dam was visible. This was a marvelous view and I really enjoyed the scenery of this place. We spent around 1 hour, just sitting at the place and appreciating the beauty of the place. We could see village down somewhere and farmers sowing rice, far away we could see Pavana dam in all it’s glory and surrounding the area were lush green Sahayadri hills. This view was something which I’ll never forget in my lifetime. As we came down, everyone was feeling hungry, so we had a couple of sweet corns and a hot cup of masala chai and within next one hour we were back at Malavani railway station. However as train to Lonavala was scheduled to arrive at 5:00 P.M. and we’d have to wait for 2 hours, so we decided to take an autorickshaw instead. The auto ride cost us Rs. 180/- and we managed to reach Lonavala by 3:45 P.M. Our train to Mumbai was scheduled for 4:40 P.M. (Pune-Dadar Express) and this was a nice end to yet another excellent trip in Sahayadri’s.

It was still dark as sun had not risen past the mountains but as visibility improved to a decent level we started marching towards the mountain. We were accompanied by two dogs whom we even gave names, Julie and Kapish We passed through the fields at Sandsi village and it really makes me wonder why in the hell there is no provision of alternative water supply in this region. The fields were dead dry and one can easily see massive cracks in the soil. I really feel for the farmer community living in such hardships and still trying to find means to grow crops for people like us. After we’d crossed the fields we found ourselves at bank of a dry river. A villager earlier had told us to follow the river and not cross it. We tried very hard to follow his advise and started following river up towards the hill. We halted in between at a place where there was some water, to get through with daily chores. It was really nice to be in nature’s abode and it really feels strange and nice at times to me to be in such remoteness. As we moved along the jungle became more dense by every step and there was a point beyond which we couldn’t find the path ahead. Boy, we are lost !!! And to add to the thrill were sounds coming from hill above us, which were initially reported by some of us as to be being made by some bear but in reality they were some monkeys howling The dogs too were looking skeptical and we finally decided to return back. As we were moving back Santosh found another path and dogs too looked much more at ease on that path and we decided to stick to it, and voila within few min. we were on right track which was also marked by some white arrows on rocks. Within few minutes the hike also began and I must admit it was not an easy one and reminded me of hike I made during my treks in Uttaranchal (especially Loharkhet to Dhakuri during my visit to Pindari). After hiking for about 2 hrs we finally landed at a place where there was a plain surface and we decided to have our breakfast there. It was strange to see the dogs not taking any food (God knows why in the hell they accompanied us !). We found few guys from some nearby village wandering there and they told us that they were in search of some bird prey. This reminded me of my childhood days when once I went for hunting in Himalayas with my Grandpa (I really miss those good old days and dearly wish them to come back). Those guys told us that it was just 45 min walk from that point to Bahiri caves and this brought in a new wave of enthusiasm in our life. However this enthusiasm was to last for a very short time period as we again lost our way during the trek and landed up at another big field near by the point where we had our breakfast. Some asshole had even placed a railway ticket from Lonawala to Pune along that path as a marker. This was really irritating as we were unable to find our way out. So again with no other option we’d to back trek and Vaidy who was in front was lucky enough to find the way out to right trek. The journey ahead to top from this point onwards was filled with fun and we passed through some dense jungles and a point where we had to hike up on a rock which was inclined at almost 65-70 degree angle. Vishal was dead tired by then and so were we all. Finally we managed to reach the place they call Naali (It’s a narrow passage between two hills). Nipun as he always is was over enthusiastic and was running all over the places to get caught on camera. Rest of us were a bit tired and I was really beginning to worry about how will we cross this passage with our luggage on our back. However in God’s name we all marched ahead and what the hell it was a dead end after this passage. I mean all I could see was a feet long path down and we’d to move down by almost 2-3 feet from top to that place. Even if we were to come down, I could see that there was no way we could climb back. But as has always been the case with guys, we couldn’t accept this fact and decided to move ahead. Nipun was first one to go down. We decided to give our rucksacks to him so that we could move down without any luggage on our backs and suddenly I heard from Santosh that one of the bags has toppled down the hill. What the hell !!!! And to add to agony it was my bag which had moved down. We all were in deep trouble now, as all the food for night was in that bag and I was in much big trouble as my cellphone and wallet were also in that very bag. Anyhow we all finally came down and took our luggage to a place which we considered safest. Nipun decided to go down and have a look (It was really brave of him to do so). Meanwhile Vaidy moved ahead and decided to see if he could find some helping hand. Nipun wasn’t able to move much deep down the hill and it was very wise of him too. Suddenly we found few guys coming down from Bahiri caves towards us. These guys were trekkers from Pune and they were also carrying ropes with them. They agreed to help us out but even they could not move down very deep due to geography of the hill. While 2 of the guys from Pune were down, one of other guys from their group asked us, if we had ever come before to this place. And when we told him that this was our first trek ever in such remote areas in Sahayadris, he posed a real surprised look on his face. When we asked for the reason, he told us something, which made all of us look dumb silly and stupid and also brave at same time. He told us that this was one of the toughest treks in Sahayadris and almost 100 people had lost their life during the trek. This brought shiver down spine of some of our group members but real trouble right now was to find the bag. With failure of the trekkers from Pune, now our only help rested on some villager from Sandsi village. And luckly for us, one group from Mumbai had also come up to Bahiri and they were accompanied by a local villager from Sandsi. One guy from Pune agreed to help us out and he went to Bahiri caves and talked to the villager. Now all we had to do was to sit in chilling heat and wait for villager to come down. When he finally met us, he agreed to help us out but now we had a situation as we couldn’t complete our trek, cauz we had to show the group which had come with villager the path down to Sandsi. Anyhow we decided to go ahead with it and moved back. Travelling back was even tougher then climbing up as, sand on the hills is really slippry and one has to be really cautious while moving down. Anyhow after a long and tireing journey down we finally managed to meet the local villager and I was glad to find my wallet back. Sadly my cellphone was lost but I belive everything happens for a good cause and we are going out to complete this Mission to reach caves of Dhak Bahiri again in coming holiday.

Our final target

Kickstarting Journey

Gareeb Rath was our train and I still wonder why give such a name to a wonderful train. Sounds like Slum Dog Millionaire ! Anyways the journey from Mumbai to Delhi in this train was wonderful. We had our seats in AC 3 tier and we spent most of our time watching movies on my newly bought HCL Netbook (Thanks to Nipun and Amol for financial support). We reached Delhi next day around 10:30 A.M. During morning hours one of my friend told me that weather in higher Himalayas wasn’t good and temperatures in Joshimath was hovering around 1-2 deg. It’s okies with me but considering Santosh I had to plan accordingly and thus I decided to replan our trip. Earlier our plan was to visit Kuari Pass/Curzon Trek but now I decided that we should go to Pindari Glacier instead. Santosh too agreed to my view and we decided to check in at a hotel in Delhi before leaving for Bageshwar by bus in evening.

At Delhi

Paharganj near New Delhi railway station is Mecca of hotels. Everywhere you see, you can only find hotels and more hotels. We got a nice room at Luv Kush Hotel at Arkashan road and it was relatively cheap at Rs. 350/- for a normal double bed room. We spent entire day watching TV and sleeping. Finally around 3:45 p.m. we decided to check out and took a rickshaw to Anand Vihar ISBT (Inter State Bus Terminus). Our bus was scheduled to leave at 5:15 p.m. and we got nice comfortable seats as well.

To Bageshwar

Haldwani is my native place in Uttaranchal and it comes en-route to Bageshwar, so as I told my parents that I was visiting Pindari, they wanted to meet me as badly as I did. Our bus reached Haldwani around 12:30 p.m. and I found my Mummy and Papa waiting for us at Bus Station. Mummy had also brought some snacks for us and it was really nice to meet ‘em after such a long time. After spending around 20 min. with them our bus started it’s journey again. Haldwani is known as Gateway of Kumaon and hills start immediately after we cross the city. I felt asleep after some time and finally woke up when our bus reached out skirts of Almora. For no reason understandable to me, bus stopped 5 kms before Almora at some tea shop and we all waited there for around 1 hour before starting  our journey again.

We reached Almora around 5:30 A.M. It was early hours and visibility wasn’t that good. I decided to go out for pee and asked one of the locals for whereabouts of toilet. His reply was “Do it anywhere na ?”. So I found a place where there was no one around and there was a cliff around 100 ft below. After I had completed my chores, I strecthed my arms and what the hell, out of no where my hand brushed the pocket of my lower and all I could see was my wallet going down the cliff. It was a tense situation as I am not very good with low sun light due to problems with my eye. Also our bus walah was honking his horn. I had to do something immediately as all my cash and IDs where in the wallet. I rushed down the cliff and started collecting whatever I could. I managed to find my ID card and some cash and rushed back. Only later did I realized that I had lost my debit card, key of my room and Rs. 400/- worth of cash. Anyways I didn’t want to spoil mood of our trip so I refrained from telling Santosh about the incident.

As bus moved on we soon entered the hills of Kausani. Kausani is a famous hill station in Uttaranchal and is best known for it’s magnificant sunset views and views of Himalayas. We could see Trishul and some other Himalayan peaks from our bus and Santosh was extremely excited to see the view. We soon crossed Baijnath temples and Garud. These places are very different from hills as these places are huge valleys with fertile land and hence crop cultivation is major activity. One can get a good view of Himalayas beyond the surrounding hills.

It was 10:30 in morning when we reached Bageshwar. Though we’d earlier planned to directly move to Song from Bageshwar but after an exhausting trip we were not in mood to travel for another 2 hours. So we finally checked in a hotel named Siddharth. The hotel is near Bageshwar bus station and is very much affordable with double bed room costing just Rs. 250/- (and it has a TV too ) After getting over with our daily chores we decided to relax and it was only at 12:30 p.m. that I was able to wake up. It was time to explore the Bageshwar town.

Exploring Bageshwar

Bageshwar is a small district town of Uttarakhand and is famous for Bagnath temple. Being a valley it’s pretty hot at this place. Bageshwar also has a Sangam where Gomti and Saryu rivers meet. As we were all excited for trekking, so we decided to move to Neeleshwar temple. This temple is located attop one of the hills and it took us around half an hour to reach the top. The view from top of the hill is really nice and one can see the beautiful valley of Bageshwar. Although we managed to reach the top easily but it was a nice short exercise as well, before starting off the trekking to Pindari Glacier. Having spent couple of hours up there and taking some photographs, we decided to come down. It was time for lunch and we had a real good one at Jaydeep Hotel & Restaurant near Bageshwar bus station. The food there is nice and affordable. After a long journey from Delhi and a nice hike to Neeleshwar, it was time to hit bed.

I woke up around 5:30 P.M. and Santosh was already awake, watching cricket match on TV (He is a true cricket fan and hates to miss any of the games). After having a cup of tea and a plate of Samosas, it was time to explore other side of Bageshwar. We crossed the Gomti bridge and wandered around in the market place for some time. Ohhhh I think we also had to buy a pair of raincoats. We managed to find a pair of ‘em at main Bageshwar market at a good price of Rs. 300/- each (only later did we realized that we’d been fooled, as those raincoats didn’t last for even 1 hour and were torn apart completely.) With our stuff in place and after having a good meal, it was time to hit bed again.

To Song

One has to move early from Bageshwar, if one needs to catch bus to Song. Song is the last village on motor road enroute Pindari Glacier. However we couldn’t wake up early (this habit is going to cost me dear, someday), and we’d to take a taxi to Bharadi. Shared taxi are easily available from near Saryu bridge and they charged Rs. 30/- per person for ride to Bharadi. From Bharadi we’d to catch another taxi and this one costs Rs. 20/- per person. So after a nice 1 hour ride in taxi, we finally managed to reach Song. Now it was time for real thing and we started off our trek to Loharkhet (by the way, one can also manage to take a rough road to Loharkhet in taxi). Loharkhet is a small village, enroute Pindari Glacier. As for accomodation there are plenty of options. One can take a room in PWD rest house or dormetries are available at KMVN (Kumaon Manadal Vikas Nigam) rest houses also called TRC, or there is even a newly built Forest rest house. The accomodation is available at Rs. 80 – Rs. 100/- per bed. The caretakers of the rest houses also cook food and serve tea. The main course amounts to Rs. 40/- per person, while breakfast costs Rs. 25/- and tea is available for Rs. 5/- per cup. After a nice walk for about 2 hours, we managed to reach KMVN rest house. But we were told that another group from Indian Navy, which was scheduled to arrive later in day, had already booked the entire resthouse and this left us with option to take room in Forest resthouse. This newly built resthouse is pretty nice and comforting. The caretaker of the resthouse also served us with nice warm cup of tea and cooked us Dal and Rice for lunch. We took luxury of taking chairs out in sun and spent couple of hours enjoying the scenery, while sitting in cozy sun shine. It’s one of the most wonderful things one can do in his/her life. Around 3:00 P.M. we found a tourist from Germany coming back from Dhakuri. She was a beautiful girl who had just returned from Dhakuri. Her friends’ had moved ahead to Pindari while she decided to return back. As she had taken a mule for ride, it was time for her to pay back the fare and suddenly she found herself in a troubled state, as the guide seemed to have made some mistake in calculation of fares and now they both were arguing about the amount. Finally after some time, I couldn’t take it any more and we made a settlement between them. She was pretty happy about the settlement, but alas our resthouse caretaker didn’t want her to stay at the rest house for night and she had to go down to PWD guest house to spend the night.

To Dhakuri

Trekking from Loharkhet to Dhakuri is a climb of around 9 kms and one can see ample natural sceneries all along the way. We started off early around 7:00 A.M.. The caretaker of our resthouse cooked us paranthas and omlette and a hot cup of tea. Initially the trek seemed easy, with a nice path to tread along. However very soon we found our first ascent and it was a real nice one. At this point we also met some of the group members of Indian Navy. The group was a mix of children, young and old members and it was fun to join them. I love the people from Indian Armed Forces as these guys really live their life royally and they are some of the few fortunate Indians who get a chance to explore different parts of this wonderful country. After few photograph session it was time to move ahead. The hike to Dhakuri can be done in 3-4 hours but we took ample breaks in between. At one point we reached a place where there was a grassland like meadow and we decided to relax a while and it was wonderful to stretch legs and lie down in grass under warm cozy sun shine. Santosh took this oppurtunity to take a quick nap and I found this a nice oppurtunity to shoot his video. On the way we also found grave of a German named Peter Kost and it was a very different kind of feeling, standing at his grave and enjoying the marvelous beauty of nature thrown all around us by God. After few more kilometers of trekking we finally reached Chaupta Mai Top. It’s from here that we saw the first view of magnificiant Himalayan peaks, standing right ahead of us. There is a small temple here and one can even walk to Chaupta Lake. However we decided to decend to Dhakuri (which was still 1 km away). At Dhakuri we were greeted by care taker of KMVN rest house and care taker of PWD resthouse. After having a cup of tea and hot maggi it was time to find a place to rest. As the navy group was also planning to stay up here so there was no room available in either KMVN rest house or PWD resthouse. But luckily for us, the care taker of PWD rest house agreed to provide us with a tent and it was perhaps one of the best accomodations we could’ve asked for. This oppurtunity allowed us to learn technique of putting up a tent. He also provided us with sleeping bags and some warm mattresses. It was 3:30 P.M. and I decided to take a quick nap. As if things had to go worse, suddenly it started raining and it rains heavily in these high mountain regions. I was afraid that tent might leak, but it didn’t and passed the test. I finally woke up around 5:30 P.M., only to find that Santosh had gone and he had zipped closed the tent from outside. I urgently wanted to go for pee and I had to literally shout my lungs out to allow him to hear my voice. Finally he came back and I came to know that he was with Navy guys, playing housie (He still has a kid inside him, which comes out @ such occassions). He also came to know of a family who was also from Hyderabad ( Ohhh I forgot to mention that Santosh belongs to Hyderabad and I belong to Haldwani. It was Santosh’s first trip to Uttarakhand and his first trip to higher Himalayas). We had a cup of tea and sky had cleared by this time. Soon it got dark and we decided to have our dinner and go to sleep early. The caretaker of PWD guest house cooked us delicious Egg curry and Chapatis. He also offerred us a sip of liquor which some tourist had left. However God knows why ? but we just didn’t feel like drinking at that point of time. As we were coming from kitchen back to our tent, we saw perhaps one of the most memorable incidence of the entire trek. The snow laden peaks of Himalayas were shining in bright moonlight and stars above the peaks were giving enitre view a heavenly touch. Alas our camera didn’t had the configuration to capture that moment, but I know that I won’t be able to forget that site ever.

To Khati after a horrible night

The tent was cozy and comfortable but around 2:30 A.M. I woke up to sound of some animal walking near our tent. Leopards are easily found in Himalayas and bare thought of that brought shivers down my spine. Very soon, I heard some dogs barking wildly. This added to the growing fear and atop of all this it started to drizzle as well. Now the animal, who so ever that was, was sniffing outside our tent and I pushed Santosh and he started shouting and screaming. I just don’t know why he did that, but it seemingly scared the shitt out of that animal and we managed to get asleep at 4:00 A.M.

It was cloudy in morning and pretty cold as well. We took a quick munch of omlette and paranthas with hot cup of tea and started off our journey to Khati. However as soon as we left Dhakuri, it started to pour down again, and this time, rains were accompanied by hails. It was time to take our raincoats out. We were looking like two aliens in those raincoats. But who cares ! Lower of Santosh was a bit tight for him and very soon I head a chirrrrrrrr…. sound and he had managed to get a hole in his trouser Luckily it had stopped drizzling now and we were descending pretty easily to Khati. Trek from Dhakuri to Khati is excellent with very few hikes and most of the time, it’s either descent or a straight forward path. Very soon we had covered around 3 Kms and we landed at a place which I just can’t describe in words. There was color scattered all around. You could see almost any God damn color you could think of. We spent around half an hour enjoying the beauty of the place and moved ahead. The village between Khati and Dhakuri has school and even a health care center. And as I learnt from one of the kids, the place has even electricity. This was a pleasent surprise as most of the places in such interior areas don’t have luxury of enjoying power of elecricity. After about 45 min. we finally reached a place from where we could see Khati village. It was only 9:00 A.M. and we were feeling pretty fresh as well, so we decided to not stop at Khati village and instead move ahead to Dwali. After having a nice breakfast at Khati, it was time to hike again. The KMVN rest house at Khati is around a km away from main village and is being looked after by Harak Singh. After crossing the KMVN rest house, we decided to take a small break and we stopped at a place where a massive land slide had taken place. Some local ladies were kind enough to show us the path to cross that rift.

To Dwali

Khati is last village enroute Pindari and once we crossed that, we were in a region which is only inhibited by wild animals, trekkers and care takers of KMVN and PWD rest houses at Dwali and Phurkia. The beauty of the region is unparalleled with view of high mountain peaks laden with fresh snow, Pindari river flowing besides and large pine, oak and many different trees. Whenever we both were not talking to each other, all we could hear was sound of running water and chirping of birds. This is one of the most peaceful environment I’ve been to in my life so far.

After crossing the land slide there is a descent of around 2.5 kms and we felt really nice enjoying the nice stroll. The weather was also kind on us and it was nice, warm and cozy. Very soon we reached the foothill of the mountain and we were on banks of Pindar river. The water was as fresh as it could be and I couldn’t resist going closer to river and taking a bath. However as soon as I took a gulp of it in my hands I immediately dropped the idea, as it was freezing cool. I didn’t want to show my lack of enthusiasm to Santu and told him that bathing would be  a waste of time so we should carry on with trekking After walking further up the bank for few kms we reached a place where some locals had put up there huts. These people generally come up to this place during trekking season and serve the fellow trekkers with tea, breakfast and other stuff. We met an uncle there who served us with hot cup of tea and Parle G biscuits. Upon inquiring about further distance to Dwali, he told us to walk easily and as per his estimate we should be able to reach Dwali by 3:00 p.m. At this place there is a bridge atop Pindar river and it’s all hike beyond this point. We found this hike to be a tough one as this was like a never ending route up the hill. After an hour or so of hiking we met two German trekkers who were descending back to Khati and the girl told us that Dwali wasn’t far. This brought a new hope in our tiring souls and we continued to move further up. On the way Santu discovered a grass which we call Bicchu Ghaas and he even gave it a name “Shock Grass”. After having some pics of the grass we moved ahead. We could see waterfalls, magnificiant scenery and soon the rest house at Dwali were also visible. This was an awesome view. To right of rest house was way to Kafni glacier and to left was way to Pinadri glacier. The hills near the rest house were laden with fresh snow and entire view was just magnificant. We were greeted by caretaker of KMVN rest house at Dwali and were offered a warm cup of tea. After checking into one of the rooms, it was time to hit bed. However I wanted to see some scenery and I came out of the room and so did Santu. However we must’ve been out for about 5 min and Santu started shivering, shouting and he rushed back to room. Apparently he felt cold after his sweat dried up inside his body warmer and this was pretty chilling. I woke up around 7:00 p.m. It was already dark outside and Santu was no where in sight either. I managed to find the emergency light and went outside. It was really cold outside and I found it real hard to move up to the kitchen. Santu was there enjoying the warm environment in the kitchen and we soon had an awesome dinner. The dinner comprised of a dry cuisine made out of that “Shock Grass” and Egg curry. The food tasted like heaven and I managed to have 5 Chapatis instead of regular 3. During the discussion with caretaker of the rest house, we came to know that it’s only possible to get a good glimpse of Pindari glacier, if we can reach zero point by 10:00 A.M. Now Phurkia was around 5 kms and Zero point is 7 kms further ahead. This meant that we’d to move out of Dwali pretty early if we wanted to make it to zero point, the next day.

To Phurkia

I woke up around 6:00 A.M. which is pretty early by my standards. After having a cup of tea and getting over with my daily chores, we decided to leave for Phurkia. As we’d plenty of time with us remaining so we decided to drop idea of moving to zero point the same day and instead reduced our target to Phurkia. We were also accompanied by a dog. The care taker told us that this dog accompanies almost every trekking group and we found him to be a nice company. The trek from Dwali to Phurkia is not of great distance but it’s quite torcherous due to hike and altitude. The surroundings are also pretty different in this region. The mountains which were pretty curved at top earlier are replaced by some sharp edged peaks which have almost no vegetation atop. Right ahead of us were the huge Nandakot and Nanda Devi peaks and there was no sign of any civilized life. Santosh had earlier also told me about his problems with high altitudes but I thought that this wasn’t that high and I was to be proven wrong as very soon we found that Santosh was finding it hard to breathe and there was no sign of the hike becoming easier. After walking for about 1.5 hrs we reached a place which was like a small grassland and we decided to take our breakfast. This was the worst breakfast I had in entire trip, as our caretaker at Dwali had not packed any thing except Paranthas for breakfast. We took some paranthas with water and gave rest to our dog who delightfully ate every bit of it. As we were getting through with our breakfast, I managed to glance over to high mountains ahead of us and the scene out there was not delightful at all anymore. Dark clouds had started to loom high above in the sky and I felt a bit frightened for the first time in entire trek. I’ve heard of real bad weather and even witnessed it in higher Himalayas and with Santosh around I didn’t want to take any chances. So it was time to pack stuff and start moving quickly. Santosh was now even more tired and was finding it real hard to keepup the pace. To add to his agony, he managed to twist his ankle as well. However despite this pitfalls he managed to move forward and this was a kind of inspiring to me as well. As we moved ahead, we soon reached a place, which I think was most beautiful all along the trek. This place had Buransh flowers spread all over the place and the red flowers were giving an illusion of red carpet laid over the trek. I also managed to have a look at a wild peacock here and it was more beautiful then I’d imagined. Up few more kms and we saw first sign of snow. A fresh avalanche of snow had come down the hills and was in our way. This view made Santosh smile for first time, during entire day’s trek. We played for a while in the snow and decided to move ahead as weather was not looking good at all. Phew !! after few more kms now we’d reached Phurkia. The care taker of the KMVN resthouse welcomed us and offered us a cup of warm tea. Upon talks over cup of tea, he told us that he was living with one more fellow at this place. He also told us that he was expecting Navy group that same day. Now this was a shock for us as there was no other mode of accomodation here and it was pretty cold as well to sleep out in the tents. We asked him to provide us with a room and in case Navy group did came up, we’d abondon the room and will share bed in kitchen. As time passed by Santosh’s condition started deterorating and very soon I found out that he was shiviring wildely inside two warm blankets. As I inquired if he was ok, he told me that he wasn’t feeling too good and wanted to move back. I didn’t expect this from him, but I guess every human being has a limit and it was his limit. So we said good bye to each other and I promised him to meet next day at Dwali. Now with me only left in Phurkia, I decided to spend rest of time with caretaker of rest house, in his kitchen. We had few puffs of cigaratte and beedi along with hot cup of tea and it must have been 4:00 p.m. when it started to drizzle and soon after this drizzling turned to hail and by 5:00 p.m. it started to snow fall. I must admit that this was the best snow fall I’ve ever seen in my entire life. Soon the guys from Navy group also showed up and it was time for tea/coffee/snacks. We all cramped up inside the small kitchen and it was a wonderful atmosphere. We talked about different trekking experiences and our life and soon it was dark. Snowfall had stopped now and I wanted to find a place to put my stuff and stretch my legs. The caretaker of rest house understood my situation and he asked me to takeup a bed at a small room in PWD guest house. For once I was delighted at his proposal, but as soon as I saw the room, all my delight evaporated. This was a dark room, with all glasses shattered up. It took me 45 min to fix the windows with polythene sheets and to add to disappointment, I found that even bed was broken. However as I had to spend just one night, I didn’t complain and took sleeping bag and decided to go for sleep.

It’s all black & white

As I woke up to first ray of light, I thought of moving out but before that I wanted to get over with my daily chores. As I entered the toilet for loo, I found out that water was completely frozen. It took me half an hour to warm the water to an extent, so that it can flow. And lemme tell ya, that it was one of the worst experiences in my life. I thought that it must have been really cold during night and it’s pretty normal at such high altitudes. However as soon as I came outside, I was surprised to see, every thing covered with thick white sheet of snow. Snowfall continued throughout the night and it was even falling down right now. The temperature was around 0.7 degrees and winds were chilling cold. As I inquired from the caretaker about journey ahead, he advised me not to move ahead, as weather could get worse. It was a shocker to me, as I really wanted to see Pindari Glacier and didn’t want to go back empty handed. However as weather was showing no signs of improving, I’d no option left, but to return. I took a hot cup of coffee and some biscuits and decided to move back. My dog also accompanied me and it was because of him that I was able to find way amidst all snow covered path. Last night had witnessed heavy snow fall as the snow along the way was almost knee deep at some places. After about 1.5 hrs of struggle I finally managed to reach Dwali, where Santosh was waiting for me. He was looking much better now and we decided to leave immediately for Khati. I had a cup of tea at Dwali and it was time to say goodbye to Dwali. To everyone’s surprise snowfall was even occurring at Dwali and we found it all along the way upto Dhakuri. However the photographs and the view that we saw all along the way was mesmerizing and those sceneries are going to be with us for ever. Though we were not able to make up to Pindari Glacier but I am sure that trip was worthwhile for both of us and we are coming back to Uttarakhand soon for yet another trek !

Well monsoon should’ve started off by now, but alas it didn’t and we were not sure if we should move out for trekking in scrotching heat in Maharashtra or not. But Nipun is a kind of guy who gets easily frustrated if someone tries to screw up the plans made by him and I’m a kind who just wants to wander around while Saurabh is one who always fingers Nipun So after a small chat on Thursday we decided that we’ve to do a trek this weekend, even if it doesn’t rain. And mind you the temperatures here in Mumbai and surrounding regions can soar up to 40 degrees and the place where we wanted to go was about a 4 hr hike up the mountain hill in Sahayadri region.

To Karjat:

On Friday, I took leave from office as I had to consult a doctor about my running problem with high blood pressure and I SMSed Nipun to come down to my place after office and we packed our stuff and started off for our journey by catching a taxi to CST station. The last train to Karjat starts at around 12:38 A.M. and we managed to catch it easily. Journey from CST to Karjat is around 3 hrs (distance=100 Kms and train fare is Rs. 18 for IInd class). We reached Karjat around 3:30 A.M. and decided to take a nap before moving on to Karjat bus station from where we’d to take a bus ride to Khandas village. However Saurabh spotted a guy with an aunty who were forced down from local train by some cops and he has an uncanny habit of just poking his nose in such matters and we spent 1 hr trying to figure out what was going on between that guy and aunty. Needless to say what was in our mind but whatever it was, they were left out by cops and they took a local to CST around 4:30 A.M. Anyways we took a short nap and managed to stretch our legs. I wasn’t sure about the distance from Karjat Railway station to Karjat Bus Station so around 5:30 A.M. I woke Nipun up (Saurabh was awake already) and asked ‘em to pack up the stuff and move to bus station. Alas my notion was wrong and bus station was just 10 min. away. As we inquired the official at duty over there, he told us that there wasn’t any bus to Khandas but we could take bus till Kashede and we’ll have to manage on our own from there. As the bus to Kashede was at 6:45 A.M. so we’d another 1 hour to sleep. One thing I really love about Maharashtra State Transport is the availability and punctuality of their buses. The bus to Murbar was available at stand at 6:30 A.M. and this bus would take us to Kashede village.

We reached Kashede in 40 min. and had a plate of Bhaji and cup of special Chai. After we inquired some locals, we found a guy who agreed to give us a ride in his taxi to Khandas for Rs. 100.

At Khandas:

It was a nice ride to Khandas and we were treated by some awfully loud songs being played in taxi Khandas is a small village at base of Bheemashankar. The weather was nice in morning and we could see clouds at top of mountains ahead of us. This gave a nice feeling as I just hate to hike in scrotching heat, under the sun. After walking for around 2.5 kms their is a bridge and road split up at this juncture. To right is road to Bheemashankar via Ganpati Ghat and to left is road to Bheemashankar via Seedhi Ghat. The former is considered an easier way and hence we chose the latter path. We also filled up a bottle of water from a pond under the bridge for our daily chores (However I never knew that I’d need to drink that water later on….). Bheemashankar is one of 12 Jyotirlingas in India and I expected to see a decent path up the hill but don’t know why, there is no path markers along the way. And to add to pain was the fact that neither of us knew Marathi language pretty well. So after we enquired some locals about path to Seedhi Ghat, we were told to take path beside Bavadi (Bavadi means well in Marathi and we thought of it to be something else however later on we came to know from some guys that it was well. Thanks to those guys for saving our energy, else we would’ve kept on walking along the road to reach some village 5 Kms away!). After taking the path, we soon reached the jungle. This was time for Nipun to go for his daily chore and we decided to take a small break to change our clothes and come to trekking gear. As we started off again, I heard a Grrrrrr kind of noise. Wait, didn’t we read in some blog earlier that there are tigers in this jungle ! And here is another Grrrrr….. This time everyone heard it and Nipun asked us to backtrack and take some local villager as our guide. However I was adment to do this trek on our own and Saurabh also finally agreed. So we ignored the noise and decided to march ahead. Now we could see a rough path ahead of us and this gave us a moral booster. However it wasn’t to stay with us for long and soon we were stuck up at a dry river bed inside the jungle. Luckily we heard sound of some men and women passing at some distance and I asked Nipun to look around (Nipun is fastest among us in hills). Soon I heard Nipun shouting for us to come back and we managed to find a family who was also ascending to Bheemashankar and this was a third route (apart from Seedhi Ghat and Ganpati Ghat) which they were following. After having lost our way twice, we decided to stick with route they were following and we marched ahead.

Climb to Bheemashankar:

Climb to Bheemashankar is pretty demanding on legs and soon we were tired of hiking up the hill. The uneven path formed by gushing water down the hills in monsoon made the task even more difficult. To add to our agony, the clouds which were looking pretty dense in morning just evaporated into thin air and we were now climbing up the hill in tortureous heat, under the sun. These are the kind of treks which makes one feel the importance of things like shade of trees and invaluable properties of water. We’d carried 6 water bottles with us and it seemed that they would be plenty but we were so wrong. Our bodies were sweating like anything and very soon we found that we’d just 1 bottle of water left with us and we were somewhere mid-way. However this place was coool and we decided to take some rest. It was a meadow kind of area with flat land scape and ahead of us was the massive hill, atop of which, somewhere was Bheemashankar. We took out utensils from our rucksack and it was time to have meal. We cooked maggie and seriously this was real fun as I’d not cooked in a jungle since my school days, when we used to go to jungle camps on a regular basis.

What the hell ! No way can we climb atop this mountain man ….

Having taken a nice meal, we decided to march ahead. But soon the energy went away as the mountain ahead seemed too huge to climb in a day. How could those villagers tell us that it’s surmountable in 2.5 hrs ? And now the jungle was also clearing away and we were reaching a path which was on edge of moutain. This was the worst part of trek as just to our left was a steep fall down to valley below and the path was not more than a foot wide at some places. However as if this wasn’t the worst scenario, we soon encountered a place where we’d to cut our way across few rocks and this was scareist part of the entire journey. It seemed at times to me that my feet were not in sync and it is really tiring to create a way across the hills when you are in doubt. Anyhow we managed to move ahead but this entire passage left us really tired and thirsty. And this was time we realized that we were pretty screwed up, as we’d just 1 litre of water with us. Anyhow as there was no other option, we decided to share the water among us and had a gulp of it to quench our thirst. Suddenly we found few people coming down the hill and upon inquiring we were told that Bheemashankar was just an hour ahead. This news brought in new ray of hope and energy to our tired and exhausted body and soul and we started to march ahead.

Never Eat Anything & Everything in Jungle

As we were climbing up we eventually lost our energy after reaching a point from where we could see the village at Bheemashankar. This was a crucial period for us as we didn’t want to waste our time relaxing and wanted to reach Bheemashankar at the earliest but our bodies were too tired. Suddenly I saw few fruits scattered all over the place. They were bitten by some birds or monkeys. I thought, if birds can have ‘em then sure we too can. Fruits are also a good supplement for water. I bit one of the fruit and tried to smell it. Coool the smell is pretty nice. As I licked the juice coming out of the cut, it tasted sweet. Great so we can have it ! I plucked off some of those fruits from the trees and we just went bizark after we had a big bite of it. It was pretty awful and tasted really bitter. This taught us a lesson that never eat anything inside jungle, unless you are sure about it. This bitter taste added to our agony, as we’d no water left with us to get that taste off our taste buds and this was time when Nipun reminded me of the water he had carried from the pond. It was a green liquid and we didn’t knew what the hell was it all containing. But I didn’t care at that point and had a mouthful of it. It was kinda sweet and smell of detergents was all I could make of. However it did helped me get relief from the heat and prespiration.

At Bheemashankar

We finally reached the top and village at Bheemashankar was in our sight. As we were entering the village, we saw some sign boards indicating, Nagfani Point, Hanuman Talav, Bombay Point etc. We decided to have a look at them, but first thing in top of priority list was getting water and having some food. We found a real nice Chai shop and the guy served us with Missal Pao + Mirinda + Tea and really really really nice and cool jug of WATER. Water never tasted so nice as it then. There was ample rush at the village as people from Pune and Mumbai were flocking to the shrine in their cars and buses. We inquired about accomodation and we were told that it’ll be easily available. So we decided to explore the place.

Nagfani Point

This was perhaps the most exciting portion of our trek. Nagfani is a place, few kms away from Bheemashankar shrine and is a must visit place for every trekker. The route till Hanuman Talav is a dusty rough road track. Couldn’t believe that even autorickshaws ply on those roads. Though locals speak of the Talav (aka pond) as a big one but it’s a small pond and a baba has setup a temple over there. You can find ample monkeys around this place. The trek to Nagfani moves straight ahead across the temple and one has to literally make his/her way up the massive rock which is seriously not recommended during monsoons. However once a person reaches the top, the view is mesmerizing. One can see the entire route we followed to reach up here. Down there thousands of feet below is Khandas village and it was just wonderful to sit, relax and enjoy the view from up here. There is even a bench made up of stones up there. We took some photographs up there, relaxed for a while and enjoyed the view, before marching back to Bheemashankar village.

Room & Food !

Next big job ahead of us was to figure out a place to spend our night. Luckily we found a decent room with 3 beds for Rs. 300/- and after having a refreshing bath, it was time to hit bed. I woke up at around 10:00 P.M. and both Nipun and Saurabh were asleep. I was feeling really hungry and I woke up Nipun, who after much hesitation agreed to accompany me. Saurabh just couldn’t get out the bed. The food was just awesome. Don’t know if it was the gravy of Mutter Paneer or if it was my hunger which made the seemingly simple food soooooooooo delicious. But after having a good food, it was time to hit bed and call off the day.

At Bheemashankar Temple

Bheemashankar shrine is located few kms away from main village and we moved to the temple, early in morning to avoid rush of people. The temple is situated in middle of Jungle and is surrounded by village. The queue wasn’t big enough and we easily managed to get a glimpse of the Shiva Linga. There was a family inside which I presume had given good sum of money to Priests, as they were only allowing ‘em to touch the deity. Anyways after offerings it was time to move back. But hey we do needed some photographs and Saurabh climbed up a nearby staircase to take some photographs. Suddenly out of no where we saw a girl, she was beautiful and Saurabh took a pic of her too ! Later on we found that she was Bua of few kids and we made Nipun the Fufa of ‘em ….. Hi hi hi hi hi hI (Yeah we are just like that ! ).

Return

After having some bhajia and cup of tea, it was time to say goodbye to Bheemashankar. We were not in mood to follow the same old path, so we took another route. This route goes to village called NandGaon and it seemed like a good decision to follow this route. Well atleast initially. The route which was climbing down easily earlier soon turned out to be a pretty hectic decent. To make the matters worse, I was unable to synchronize my movement down the hill and very soon I twisted my right ankle. Now having an injured right leg and a week left leg, rest of the journey was always going to be hard. However thanks to Saurabh and Nipun for bearing with me and we managed to get down the hill, slowly and steadily. Once at the base, looking at top of the mountain from where we decended from was a magnificant view. However we just couldn’t enjoy the view for long, cauz’ once again we had lost our way and around 12:30 P.M. the sun was shining right above our heads. We finally managed to reach a hut, but it was deserted and we’d to rely on our instincts and we decided to take a deserted path, right ahead of us. After walking for few kms. we finally managed to reach motor road and there we were guided by one of the locals. He was really kind enough to show us the way upto autorickshaw station. Now the time was for some party and we celebrated it with coool Sprite and mouthful of Anjir’s.

Thanks to Nipun and Saurabh for accompanying me on this wonderful excursion.