Saturday, March 29, 2014
It had
been a long time that I had been for a trek. My busy work schedule was keeping
me away from outings. I made up my mind that this week I will go for a trek
come what may. I asked Nimish and Darshan to which they readily agreed.
Where
should we go, was the question, I had in my mind. As it had been a long time
since we have been on an outing. When I has been on a family outing , we
visited Bhandardara. Nearby to it , is the Kalsubai peak. The highest peak of
Maharashtra. From the road we could see a minute orange colored structure atop
it. The temple of Kalsubai.
Kalsubai
peak flashed in my mind and so I informed Nimish and. Darshan about it. They too were on visiting it. How to go about it was the question that was lingering on my mind. So I gathered directions to it on google and so
set out that night to explore it.
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| View of Bari Village |
Finally
we managed to board the compartment in the record breaking three minute time.
Eeeeehaaaa. The unreserved compartment was packed with people. I guess the the
compartment was packed with double the capacity. We managed to get a place to
stand near the loo. :( some place is better than no place. Now we had to stick
to this position till we reached Igatpuri station. The train was supposed to arrive at 1:30
am. We were hoping, there should no be commuters at Kalyan and Kasara. Else
travelling would be a major pain.
The train
reached Kalyan and then Kasara. The train was flooded with eatable vendors but
no commuters , which was a good sign for us. Finally the train reached Igatpuri
station at the decided time.
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| Another view of Bari Village |
Now how
do we kill time till 5 am. As the first bus to take us to the base village of
Kalsubai departs from the ST bus stand which is around 20 minutes away from the station. Walking
offcourse. That is the only mode of travel in the morning.
We killed
time by chatting about our jobs and how we enjoyed our previous trips and plan
the trips to come. Now it was getting colder and we were beginning to feel
it. Luckily we had windcheaters to save us from the cold and also rains incase.
As we
were approaching the bus stop, we could hear "dhup dhup dhup" sound. Soon the sound was growing
louder and louder. We were eager to find out where the sound is coming from in the
dead of the night. We saw a
troop of Boy Scouts marching towards us. The leader kept yelling Ek Do Ek and
the troop followed him. The banging of shoes on the ground and the heavy
panting of the troops was sound to our ears.
 |
| Greenery all around |
Finally
we reached the bus stop . We inquired at the ticket counter , we were informed
that the first bus is at 5 am in the morning. The bus stop was also the halting
point for some of the troops of the Boy Scouts. I guess only a few made it for
the early morning run, the others were fast asleep here.
As it was
approaching 5 am, the crowd started gathering at the stop and finally the
sleeping troops,had no other option but to wake up.
As this
was the start point of the bus. The bus arrived at the depot at 5:10 am. We boarded the bus to Pune which passes from
Bhandardara. We immediately boarded the bus, only to find out that it was just us in it. The bus
was painted last night as we could smell it. Now we were worried, hoping the
seats were not wet with paint else our ass would be painted too.
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| One of the houses in Bari |
Finally
the bus took off. As the bus gained speed it grew chilly. Though the windows
were closed but we were still feeling cold. Finally the wake of dawn. We could
see the water bodies and hill ranges all around as we were travelling, the view
was amazing. Sadly I couldn't take any photos as it was freezing and my
hands refused to come out of my pockets.
Finally
the bus conductor alighted us at the base village of Kalsubai Fort. I don't recollect how much we paid for the
tickets. But I guess it was around Rs. 45 each.
There was no one there.
Just the three of us. Finally we saw a man running towards us. We were shocked
to see that, he had come to receive us. Wow. He came to inquire if we would be
interested in having breakfast. To which he readily agreed.
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| Breakfast time at Bari Village |
The village was indeed
beautiful. The fields were green. In fact I could see all possible shades of
green there. In between the greenery I could see a cluster of village houses.
They were covered with early morning due or fog, which made the sight even more
beautiful.
As the time was around
6:45 am now. As we headed to his house we saw the women busy drawing water from
the well. Children preparing to go to school. I was I fact happy to see the
children going to school.
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| View from uphill |
We finally reached his
house. This house was very old. As per him it was built by his great
grandfather. The carvings made on the wood was beautiful. He also had a shelter
outside his house for cattle. He was a farmer by profession, side by side he
also catered to the breakfast needs of Trekkers.
In a couple of minutes
he bought us breakfast in the form of poha and tea. Both were amazing. We
enjoyed every grain of it. Cost wise it was a bit expensive, but for that kind
of quality and quantity, we didn't mind paying him Rs. 200 collectively.
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| One of the metal ladders on the way up the peak |
He informed us that
there is a bus to Igatpuri railway station at 3:30 pm. We decided to board this
bus on our return journey.
At 7:30 am we
kickstarted our trek. Crossed ankle length water from a waterfall , muddy and
slippery roads to reach the trekking trail. As we kept climbing higher the view
kept getting better. The hills were covered in fog so we could hardly see how
tall they were.
The trail was slippery
and mucky as it had rained the night before. But as there were sudden rain
showers it was quite pleasant. We saw crops being grown on the plateau as
we were climbing uphill. The entire sight was beautiful.
 |
| Kalsubai Temple |
We finally reached the
metal ladder. We thought we had reached the top. Now we were searching for the
temple when the fog around us cleared and we noticed that we still have a long
way to go. We met a farmer on the way,when we inquired with him, as to how long
it would take, he told us that we had covered just 25% of the journey.
We were fooled by the fog a couple of times till we reached the top.
After crossing three
metal ladders we had finally reached the temple, the Kalsubai temple. Services
are held here. We had our snacks here. The weather was so cold that I was
literally shivering here in the wind cheater. The fog was so thick that we
could hardly see around us. For a moment we thought as if we were walking in
the clouds. The same feeling I had got on my trip to Lohgad in the
winters. It took us 4 hours to reach the top.
We were hoping that the
sun comes out and shines on us so that the fog disappears and it gets a bit
warmer. But our prayers were not answered and the weather remained unchanged.
 |
| Flowers all around us |
Finally at 12 noon we
decided to head back to the base village.
The last metal ladder
which we climbed was really steep. At a 80 degree angle. I was not getting the
confidence to get down. So I asked one of the locals to watch over me wholi I
was getting down. Once I made it to the bottom of it I got the confidence to
get down from the other metal ladders.
The valley was
blossoming with flowers. Blue colored flowers which made it even more
beautiful.
We started to descend
and gained speed on the muddy and slippery trail and in a matter of 2 1/2 hours
we were at the base village. That was fast. Surprisingly none of us slipped
while descending.
 |
| Three of us atop the Jeep |
We immediately headed
off to the bus stop hoping to get a ride to Igatpuri railway station. The time
was now 3 pm. In a distance I could see a ST bus approaching the bus stop. I
only hoped that, it was not the bus we needed to board. Sheer bad luck, that
was the bus.
We inquired when the
next bus would be, as there were many who couldn't board the bus. They told us,
that it is at 4:30 pm.
We didn't want yo wait
for 1 1/2 hours and so wre on the watch for an empty jeep, that could reach us
to Igatpuri. But all the jeeps that passed by were packed.
Finally our prayers were
answered. A jeep came by heading to Kasara at 3:45 pm. Though the jeep was
packed, there was place on the carrier. Yes you heard it right. We travelled to
Kasara on the carrier. The journey was fun. It was chilly and as the jeep
gathered speed it gre more chilly. Though we were wearing wind cheater we were
still feeling cold.
Finally at 4:45 he
dropped us to Kasara station. We immediately ran to book tickets. We not only
got the tickets but all managed to board to CST bound fast train.
All that I can say is,
this journey was fun :)
