My travelogues

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Revisiting Matheran, 15th Apr 2011

Other forts and trekking destinations

Sometimes the most impromptu decisions turn out to be the good ones!! Tired of the failing plans of my RELIABLE friends at office, Thursday night I returned home and asked my folks to pack their bags as we were going to Matheran the next day.

The last time I had visited Matheran was with friends from my previous workplace. The trip was a very memorable one, more in terms of the masti we did than the sight seeing, but revisiting the same places this time, brought back all the memories and the pieces fell in place.

As usual, struggled to get up early in the morning and missed the train to Karjat that we had initially planned to take. Took the next Khopoli train, and managed to get in with my family with the same thoughts 'Saala itna public aata kahan se hai', 'Inko chutti ke din bhi aaram nahi hai', 'Chup chap ghar pe baithke IPL kyon nahi dekhte'.... Obviously 'Itna', 'Inko' includes me, us and the guy next to me had to have the same mentally traumatic questions as I stepped on his foot BY MISTAKE and said SORRY...

Reaching Neral was the easy part. As we stood in line for the toy train, came the shocker!!
"10:30 ka sirf 2 ticket bacha hai, aur 11:40 ka tickets to ye 6 logon me hi khatam ho jaayega. 12:50 ka tickets milega aapko". Which meant, landing in Neral at 9:30, we would need to stand in line till 12:15 to get the tickets and catch the train at 12:50 - way to go man!! phew!! We had the option to catch a cab and rush to Matheran, but with a kid, my nephew in the kitty, refused to turn down the huffing and puffing train.
The toy train is one of the best parts of going to Matheran, so if possible, try not to miss it. We reached Matheran in another 2 hours enjoying every bit of the train ride on the curvy tracks up the mountain. The scenery needless to say, was beautiful all the way. The valley below grew deeper and deeper as the train geared upway. Two halts at tiny stations called 'JUMA PATTI' and "WATER PIPE' brought the localites around selling jambhuls, lime water, cold drinks, bhel etc. The scene was straight from a faraway tale of an Enid Blyton book.

Bhartiya Rail - Toy Train

As we reached Matheran and tried to get out of the station, we were made to pay 25 bucks each for getting out of the station - Local Tax they say...arre idhar tak aaya to station dekhne thodi aaya...ghoomne aaya...so like all good citizens, we paid.

We took a room near the main market and near the Khandala point called 'Laxmi (something)' - okay kind of accomodation. Rested for some time and ventured out. Saw Cecil point (awesome panoramic view), Charlotte Lake, Lords point and Echo point. Sahil and my mom enjoyed on horseback as we tred behind them...

Ghudsavar

Cecil point needs a special mention here as it gives a very beautiful view of the the surrounding mountains, one casting a shadow on the other and relishing views of the valley below.
One can spend some time with kids on the Charlotte lake or spend some romantic moments on its banks if it isn't too crowded.
Didn't find the Lords' point to be that great. The Echo point is better - we reached their during sunset, watching the cliffs getting darker. Our shouts weren't answered though by the invisible sound duplicater...none of our (all present at the echo point) shouts echoed...where's the Matheran complaint register??

Cecil point

Spent the evening at the mall road/market and bought a cap, sword (khilona yaar) and a cane bag. Had dinner and pushed back to the hotel, did some jhoola jhooling in the yard and pushed off to a peaceful sleep.

16th Apr 2011
Next day, got up early as decided and left the hotel at 6:30. Missed the sunrise but spent a great time walking through the jungle and breathing the fresh air. Its a real pleasure to walk through these calm and serene jungles with a cool breeze brushing across, listening to the rustling of the leaves, calling of the birds, and the only other sound you hear are your footsteps....beautiful.
We visited Khandala point, Alexander point and were off to see the Cecil point yet again. One should not miss walking to the Alexander point, its really nice and if you have more time to spend, venture further to the Chowk point and maybe even further to the One tree hill point if your legs or the horses legs (read money in your pocket) allow you.

Checked out from the hotel at 9:30 am, had some breakfast and walked back to the station. The same story was about to repeat...we would only manage to get the train at 4:30 pm, so we decided instead to walk till Dasturi via the tracks (30-40 mins) and then catch a taxi to Neral, missing the toy train ride this time.

As I stepped into my home, I realised that for 2 whole days, I had not had a single thought about my work, office and all the little unwanted thoughts you burden yourself with all the time...maybe thats the magic of a getaway....reminds me of a Bryan Adams song...here's a part of it....C ya!!!!

I got my motor runnin' fingers drummin'

I never planned to stay

getaway ya know it's now or never

getaway nobody lives forever

we're only waitin' just to make you getaway

- Bryan Adams

Do's....

Plan early and book early for the toy train and see that your travel to Neral and the toy train timing to Matheran fall in sync.
Book your accomodation in advance if possible. However, you won't find all the available accomodations on websites, only the costly ones are listed. If you are looking out for cheaper accomodation, try the ones near the station which are offered by the localites...though it would be a bit far from the market and other points.
Walk...enjoy the pleasures of nature with your own legs.
Ride a horse....this is one of the places where you'll really enjoy it.
Do visit the Alexander and Cecil points
Things you will generally find in the market - Caps, Hats, lots of Chappals, bags, leather items

Dont's.....

Don't leave a part of you in the forests....don't litter
Don't venture in your best attires, they are gonna turn red...Matheran is full of red mud
Don't have eatables in your hands when there are monkeys around...they might just give you the shock of your lives
Don't expect things to cost the same as they do in the city...

Neral - Matheran toy train time table

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Tornagad beckons !!!

The Wanderers
• Soumen Da
• Nikhil Bhau
• Nagesh Batata
• Yashwant Yo
• Chida Chal na
• Pravin Charsi
• Jitesh Gujju
• Kaushal Major
• Shibu loan waala
• Nitin cameraman
• Vineet trekker
• Sonal – Sonal ladke ka naam hai

'Batate ukadli ka' - ye bol bolke Nagesh ko Yashwant aur maine poora 2 week pakaya...there was more to come. The new innovation about this trip was cooking.The Wanderers were on a Khichdi expedition to Torna. Nagesh had just come from Somalia, so pohe, chai, maggi, khichdi, sandwich, tandoori, ukadleli batati, farsaan, maybe eggs too was on his menu...phew!!

He was toooo excited about the khichdi and he had discussed the khichdi menu with everyone possible, almost everyday; to the extent that our office users and maybe the watchmen too had become aware that we were cooking up something. He had thought about all aspects of the mighty potato; its size, weight, look and feel, diameter, circumfurence etc. etc. but when he was given the actual list of ingredients by me, he conveniently omitted, forgot, had a memory loss, or just became stupid and the bloody *ucker forgot important items on the list. He never forgot the POTATOES though.

'Batate ukadli ka Nagesh'

Then came the 2nd most important decision of our lives - choosing our vaahan. Here also Nagesh participated and his views were changing every day, then every hour - bloody unreliable gaay. Yashwant kept saying...'kashaala tya Nagyacha aiktoys, topya lavto to'.

After verbally bashing him, initially we were going by bus, then train seemed more convenient, then bus again, then came the question of catching it from Parel or Thane?? Aaaaaah!!! Aadhe idhar jaao, aadhe udhar jaao, baaki ke g***d marao!! Finally, Thane - the city of lakes was considered as the meeting spot to catch our Asiad bus. Meet at 11:00, if possible catch bus at 11:30 or then last bus at 12:30. Everyone came by 11:45 and after getting introduced to the new fellas, when the bus finally arrived, the 12 wanderers swarmed it like an army of bees. The bus conductor neither gave us any concession, nor gave a half ticket for Chida. Everybody wanted to sleep but only few of us dozed. Chida slept with Nikhil as his bed, hope he didn't wet the sheets. Half the way, he was sitting like a hen ready to drop a egg, coz he was feeling cold.

On the way we saw Dehu cha Ganpati. As usual Chida came up with a unique question, Ganpati idhar hi rehta hai kya? Nikhil said - nahi raat ko ghoomne jaata hai. We reached Swargate at 5 a.m. and our jubilance (sarcasm, guys) knew no bounds to hear that the 1st bus to Velhe was cancelled.

'Batate ukadli ka Nagesh'.

Left with no option, we caught a bus to Cheladi as the Sun God started showering his divine rays. On the way, we were mesmerized by a blanket of orange flowers all along the highway. It was truly beautiful; natures' blanket always is...there was more to come. From Cheladi, we cramped ourselves into a Trax, Sumo, whatever and in INR 20 each, our driver Manya snaked us to the base village Velhe where we had our breakfast of Misal paav and chai.

'Batate ukadli ka Nagesh'.

Ahead, the mighty Tornagad beckoned us and like adazzled child we got lured to its call. We started our trek at 08:45 a.m., only to realise that 2 of our guys were missing. While we were looking for them and shouting Yo Yo (Yashwants identity call), Pravin and Yashwant were being chased by an angry bull cause they were answering natures call in his territory...how dare they!! After their narrow escape, we started our ascent in the scorching sun. We had just covered some distance when we were called back by Nitin and Vineet and asked to wait. Sonal needed some rest as he was feeling giddy and needed Hamdard ka tonic Cinkara. We all felt exhausted in the initial lap itself. The entire climb was completely uphill with very few plains. Half way up, we could see the railings and knew that these were the rock patches and the real adventure was still to come. Below on the right hand side, we could see the Gunjawane dam (i suppose). After some rest, we walked though narrow paths with dense vegetation on both sides. It felt like walking in a sugarcane field, though I'v never walked in one before. Chida did some drill exercises on the way. The scene and the feeling as usual was beautiful. Charon taraf pahad hi pahad, clean crisp air, no pollution, no vehicles, no crowd. We were completely dehydrated and our stock of water was soon diminishing. Paani...Paani...Paani...abe dhakkan aage dekh waterfall hai. Tornagad quenched us by providing us this water body. It wasn't a Niagra falls exactly, the shower being very limited, but the water was very very very sweet. No matter how much you drank, it was not enough.

'Batate ukadli ka Nagesh'

We wet ourselves, filled our bottles and while Major did his extra bit of stunt as usual by climbing to the source of the fall, Vineet gave a demo of this unique water pain reliever course:
Pre-requisite: Slog in the sun, walk walk till you drop, become completely exhausted.
Process: Talk a bottle of water, pull your shirt up from the back and pour the water on your scorching back and let the pain ease out.
Vineet and Nitin did it and looked at ease, so we believe them :) Then came the rock patches. Not very difficult, yet need to be very carefull. One mistake and I don't need to tell you what can happen. One crossed, then the next, and the next...phew...aur kitna!! Then came the rocky stairs which were more damaging to our legs. Finally came Bini darwaza, and a little ahead passing through a tank (taake), we climbed to Mengai Devi temple. It was a neat little temple which can easily accomodate around 20 people. This was the destined place for our night halt. We paid homage to the Devi and thanked her for keeping us safe, booked our space by keeping our luggage, rested for a while and then ventured out to take a bath. To find the taake where we were going to bathe was an expedition in itself. We first went through a wrong route and then when we finally located the pond, didn't know how to reach it coz their was no visible pathway. Finally, trying through 2 different routes, we made our own pathway and reached the pond. Sonal saw a snake in the pond but that didn't deter us from bathing there as the water was cold and we were too tired reaching to it...Aaya hu to naha ke hi jaoonga. We got down to our basics and one by one drenched ourselves in the cold water...real fun...Nagesh was shivering and was about to fall in the pond while pouring water on himself.

'Batate ukadli ka Nagesh'

It was really refreshing!! Going back to the temple, Vineet and Nitin got down to our lunch (Maggi) preparation while some dozed off, and others smoked and chatted. The Maggi was made really well and we hungry souls feasted on it. While we were having food, Chida got up in a drunken state and maybe forgot where he was and was saying...'Jaaneka hai'...i guess you know where..
After a small nap, Majors adrenaline started pumping and we all ventured towards Zhunzhar machi. On seeing the small iron ladder going down, we could guess that this was not going to be easy and we had heard and read that there were dangerous rock patches on the way. Standing on the ladder is like floating in the air as you can see the valley vertically down below you. Pravin, Jitesh and Chida decided to stay back and the others went ahead. The rock patches on the way are really frightening as you can see the entire valley below you while you are getting down. You cannot afford to make a mistake, but the experience is really thrilling. Once down the rock patches, we went to the summit of Zhunzhar machi, its chor vaats and also saw a nest with 4 eggs in it. Don't know whose eggs they were, reptiles' or birds'. Another photo session and we were on our way back to the rock patches, climbing it this time....huhuhu...vichaar karoonach lagte.

Next destination was Budhla machi but since it was getting dark, we decided against it, but Major being our Shahenshah with rope and all on his shoulders, akele hi nikal pada...

andheri raaton me...sunsaan machi par...
julm mitaane ko...ek shahenshah nikalta hai....
usse log Majorwa kehte hain...

After going for a distance, his analytical evaluation was that we should not go ahead as it was getting dark and the road ahead had rock patches and was dangerous....abe humne kuch alag bola tha kya?? Koi isse samjhao...

The sky was on fire, and the reddish orange tint was simply amazing. A canvas of colors was being painted by the great artist, The Almighty which had yellow, pink and blue in the form of flowers, green dominated the mountains and a fiery vermillion sky. Couldn't have been better. Thank you Lord for showing these spectacles which we never observe in the city. Last time we has seen a rainbow on Tikona, this time the sunset was really amazing. We got some fantastic photos of the sunset. Nitin captured the sunset brilliantly and one of the photos he clicked is now my desktop wallpaper. Kudos Nitin!!

'Batate ukadli ka Nagesh'.

We returned to the temple, it was already dark by then and got down to the most awaited activity...khichdi!! There was not enough water, so Yashwant, Chida, Pravin and I went with our torches to get it from the taake behind the temple as it seemed to be the only potable source. Pravin fell, Yashwant slipped, followed by Chida and me. The preparation of the Khichdi actually turned out to be a rigorous event as our estimations went wrong. For 12 people, the amount of daal and rice we had brought was much more than required. On top it, Nagesh's potatoes added to it and the thing was going out of control. We then decided, we need to chuck some of it and prepare the remaining bit. However, it finally turned out to be okay according to some, good according to some and mast according to others. The khichdi plan was ultimately a success and we feasted on it. Everybody was tired and it was cold outside, so we let our shekoti plan be a plan only and got into our sleeping bags, mats and put ourselves to sleep. There was complete darkness in the temple, you couldn't even see your hand.

Day 2, we got up early, prepared chai and got down Tornagad in about 1 1/2 hours after carefully dealing with the rock patches. We also got a ST bus from Velhe to Swargate immediately. In the bus, Chida couldn't stop his kidaas and was assaulted by almost everyone and was almost gang banged. The bus driver was finding it difficult to drive with all the noise we were making. Then somebody suddenly remembered it was my Birthday and everybody wished me. Let me not talk about the rest of the journey as it was a disaster and I spent my entire birthday tanning myself in the hot Pune sun and watching the Pune bus-stops and railway stations. Anyway, Yashwant and Sonal left by Shivneri, Nagesh, Vineet, Nitin, Shibu and Major left by train and the less lucky guys viz. Pravin, Jitesh, Chida, Nikhil and me finally caught a bus at 6 pm. My nice nice nice friends bought some pastries for me and celebrated my birthday at the Food Mall as we were ogling at the pretty Puneri girls. Finally Neeta helped us reach home by around 11...arre Neeta Volvo re...

Reached home, had a much needed bath, cut the Black Forest cake my family had brought alongwith Sahil, my nephew, ate food and was dead on bed.
Another adventurous weekend came to an end. Till next time, adieu!! There is more to come....watch this space...

Nagesh batate??….jaoon de…