My Life.....: December 2008

It was a 3 day weekend for Feroz, Rohit, Vijay and Me, and we were so happy. The first thing that came to our mind was "lets go treking". The next question was "where?". The last time we had been to Harishchandragad, we could not see anything from Konkan Kada due to all the fog. So this time we decided Konkan Kada and as it was November, we were pretty sure that there will not be any fog and the view will be clear. We bought Fireworks and all the usual Treking Gear. There was one more addition to our group as Rohit's brother Tinku also joined us.

We were ready by 3am and started off at 4:30am. We drove towards Nasik and from Narayangaon (80Kms from Pune), we took a left drove towards Junnar (20Kms from Narayangaon) and then to Khireshwar (base village). Khireshwar is about 30Kms from Junnar. We missed the diversion to Khireshwar and went to Mudd, a beautiful village and clicked some photos. The Ghats were awesome with very good roads. Finally we found Khireshwar and the road was horrible. The last 5.5Kms was so bad that it took around 50 minutes to drive.

It was already around 1:00pm we had some snacks at Khireshwar and hired 2 Guides as Rohit had hurt his leg very badly and we needed help with the bags. The route from Khireshwar is 18Kms through Tolarkhind. We had to move slowly as Rohit was limping all the way. We reached Tolarkhind by 3:00pm and then climbed the rock patch. This rock patch is a bit risky during rainy season. Once we were up the rock patch, it was greenery all over and there were flowers all around. We reached the cave around 6:00pm and put up our tent. We lit crackers and had fun. All the five of us squeezed into the tent for the night. It was raining and it was very windy all through the night. We were all tired and slept at 10:00pm and woke up at 8:00am next morning. We had planned to trek to Konkan Kada at night and then see sunrise, but it was not possible due to the heavy rain and fog. It was very foggy even at 10:oo in the morning. We treked to Konkan Kada and i just donot have words to explain what the view was like. This cannot be captured on film or tape. This is a 1800m concave cliff. We can see Belpada village from here. You need to be there to understand what i am trying to explain. We spent about an hour here and then started off to our tent. After we packed all our things, we started treking down at around 1:00pm. Rohit was a bit hesitant about taking this route due to the rock patch and the distance. He wanted to go to Pachnai (this is a easier route down - 1:30hrs) and the rest of us to Khireshwar and then drive to Pachnai to pick him. His leg was very bad and he was limping. The rest of us did not want to split the group and tried conviencing him to come to Khireshwar. Finally we borrowed pain killers from another group and gave Rohit. That really made a lot of difference to Rohit and all of us. This was a lesson for us "Always carry Pain Killers during Treks". We treked down and reached Khireshwar by 7:00pm and drove back. We had dinner at a Dhabha and reached Pune by 12:30am. This was the end of another memorable trip. Not everything was perfect and as planned, but still WE DID IT !!!