Trekking Moments.....: Trek from Samrad -Sandhan valley-Karoli Ghat-Ratan...

Trekking Moments.....: Trek from Samrad -Sandhan valley-Karoli Ghat-Ratan...: The world was preparing for the Doomsday 2012 and here I was thinking what I should I be doing if  I survived this holocaust to liv...

Trek from Samrad -Sandhan valley-Karoli Ghat-Ratangad-Ratanwadi

The world was preparing for the Doomsday 2012 and here I was thinking what I should I be doing if  I survived this holocaust to live another day. The Doomsday passed away without ruffling any feathers and I said Buddy it’s time to celebrate As my bro once said to me “Tere ko to bas bahana chahiye , Pahado per jane ke liye” and I have realized one thing that what you think on your mind screen Toh puri qaynat lag jati hai aapke us khwaab ko pura karne ke liye aur mere sath bhi kuch aisa hi hua.

View from Karoli Ghat

I got this call from nowhere(sadhana I mean) as to can I join her for the trek to Sandhan Valley. For me it was like Christmas cake delivered to me in advance and to make this event more merrier.. Santa Claus added few more goodies in form of additional trek from Sandhan Valley to Karoli Ghat, Samrad Village to Ratangad via Trimbak Darwaja. I simply could exhalt and say Wow !!!

Trimbak Darwaja of Ratangad Fort

21^st Friday,2012

Someone has very rightly said that there can always be a Slip between a cup and the lip.This idiom almost came true on Friday night. I was informed that we were to catch 11.04pm Kasara Local and being a stickler for punctuality I was at the Dadar Staion at 10.35pm. Sunil and me kept waiting for eternity and yet there was no sign of Kasara Local. In the meanwhile I get a call from Sadhana who is waiting at Ghatkoper “Sir in which compartment are you” I said "Arre what compartment, I am at the station itself, Ghadi toh aayi hi nahi abhi taj “ she replied “sir baki sab to train me hai” now I panicked , laga ho gaya mera kaam tamam, Gayi bhais pani me I soon realized the blunder that I did, Actually no one told me it was a fast local and here like a stupid person I was waiting on Slow Platform. Dil se awaaz aayi Beta Dimag ki Bhati jala, warna Sandhan Valley Trek ka khawab, Khawab hi rah jayega.

Beta Dimag ki Bhati jala, warna gaya Sandhan Valley Trek 

My trek mate Sunil and I decided that we will take the train to Ghatkoper and meet up Sadhana and Rohan there, Embarrassed I called up Sadhana and told her I am joining them at Ghatkoper( as they gave the train a miss because of our blunder) and from there we will go to Kalyan and take outstation train to Kasara.

 Bas ab kya tha  only fulltoo action for me.... Bhag bhag DK Bose.. Jumped into the Thane local, lept out of train at Ghatkoper station,made a dash to overbridge and took the first local to Kalyan Phew !!!

Kalyan Station:

The struggle continues for us (All thanks to me !!!) to understand which train will go to Kasara. Anyways we were informed that Amritsar train will go towards Kasara. The Action continued for us , The Amritsar train arrived and we were suppose to get into a general compartment. Ab Mumbai ki local ki aadat thi,Therefore we survived another doomsday and got into the train, Inside the compartment the view was no view Kuch dikta hi nahi tha,Public bhar bhar ke thi, lagta tha Mumbai khali ho rahi hai. Mai toh kisi circus artiste se kaam nahi lag raha tha what with one hand holding the bag, balancing my whole body weight like ballad dancer on one leg because Doosri tang kaha rakhu kuch samaj me hi nahi aa raha tha. Baba Ramdev must have felt proud of me if he saw me in this yoga posture. "Ab compartment ke andar toh aa gaye the, but bahar nikal payenge ya nahi,pata nahi Lekin Sandhan Valley toh paka jana hai, jaha itna manage kiya thoda aur karlenge." So like a true Gladiator Sunil,me,Rohan,Sadhana were swishing our swords(I mean our bags) we cut across the crowd and jumped on to the platformand I let out a grasp of air and exclaimed “Phew” Made It !!

Kasara 2.15am: 

Once we reached Kasara Station rest of the gang i.e Anthony sir,Shashi,srikantji, and Karan joined us and from there we moved on to catch jeep which was to take us to Samrad village.The 2 hour jeep journey from Kasara station had its own share of discomforts. As I was sitting at the window seat so never slept Kyo ki nazar hati toh Durgatna ghati, the context here is with reference to these local jeeps whose doors are very unreliable,  there is always a fear of them opening up and you ending up on the roadside ditch or even the valley. Bhai log agli bhaar jeep me bhaito tho iska Dhayan rakna , mere personal experience se bol raha hoon”.

Samrad Village at 6.30 am

22^nd Dec 2012:Samrad Village

It was 04.15 am when we reached the village, It was pitch darkness when we touched down at Samrad Village and the moment we stepped out of the jeep the chill in the air made us shiver to no end. Here we were met by a local guide who was waiting for us like Ramsey Brother’s Horror Movie style with a lantern (Chinese wala re, don’t get excited) in his hand and some dirty muffler wrapped around his face.He took us to his house where in a jiffy everyone spread their sheets,newspaper,sleeping bag etc and manage to catch a wink for an hour.

Sadhana and Anthony sir checking ropes

5.30 am: We woked up ,quickly had our tea and started preparing for the trek. Sadhana and Anthony sir checked out the ropes, meanwhile we shifted our bags removing all unnecessary things. We were told not to carry much water as lots of water sources are there along the valley.

6.30 am: We were on the trail. Sandhan Valley trail opens up from a large field and at 360 degree view one can see mighty Alang, Kulang,Madan,Kalsubai, Ajoba,Khuta and Ratangad.

On the trail with the panoramic view of mountain range

After walking for around 20 minutes we entered  bushes

 and suddenly you are drawn into a mouth of a valley 

and next moment one find himself staring at a rock valley.A gigantic black stone wall of mountain. 

Valley of Shadow

One look and you wonder at the creation of nature. It is nothing but a water carved valley of around 150-200 feet deep. The width between the mountain keeps varying at some point it is very narrow say 3-4 feet and at some place it is wide

 eerie darkness

The best part was that one can actually feel that he is in valley of shadow especially with the eerie darkness enveloping the entire surrounding with just a gleam of sunlight like a swish of a sword cutting across this darkness . 

Upon entering the valley we moved on jumping from one stone to another because the entire valley is in a way for waterfall.Stones and Rocks littered everywhere.

1st patch of Water pool

Walking little ahead we came across a small rock patch near the 1st water pool,which can be easily crossed, In some blogs that I had referred to mentioned that water levels here could be between 2 to 3 feets in oct/nov month. Luckily for us we didn't have to negotiate deep water here.Bas pant upar chada liya aur nikal liye.

Light from the top of the Valley

If one looks upward one can see narrow daylight opening.The endless narrow valley has its own enigmatic feeling. After covering few distance we came across the second pool of water

Second Pool 

Water at this pool was deep say upto than 4.5 feet, Luckily for me i was saved another discomfort because I was prepared to encounter this  deep water here (thanks to some reading on net about this trek)  My second set of clothing came handy here.In one minute trek suit was down and shorts up.Now the big moment was coming up for me, i.e the walk through this chilled water, 7.30 am in the mornings and in half Chadi, & baniyaan I was ready to take a dip, full fatti padi thi,

Watch shashi holding his bag and you will understand the depth

and shashi is little taller than me

 I saw Sadhna, going into the water and when the water came upto her neck level  I had a shiver running down my spine, I have this phobia of deep water, (thanks to 26^th July Mumbai floods). Next was my turn, now to handle myself along with my bag was a tougher task for me Saala ek to height chota hai apna, upar se bag dala hai peeche, gila toh hoga hi na..ab bag sir per rakhu ki apne aap ko sambhalu the choice was very difficult.

Thanda thanda pani !!!

I gave up the idea of carrying the bag on my head and called out to Karan who being a taller guy among us ,He took my bag and I managed to cross this pool with goosebumps all over my body due to excessive chilled naturally refrigerated water.Ab yeh aur bat hai ki I still managed to give pose for photograph. 

One pose for this waterpool
( See karan behind me going back into the water to take Shashi bag)

 The march through the valley continued with lots of rocky section,We kept moving in & out of narrow rocks,

Large rocky section

 Passing through these rocky patches we had an unfortunate event when Anthony Sir, slipped and had a fall which resulted in a cut just above his forehead, I must say he bravely said that he want to carry on, because actually those cuts required stitches, somehow he bandaged his wound, hoping the blood to stop flowing and kept moving forward 

Wounded Anthony sir been taken care 

and now a new obstacle, 50 feet Rapelling to reach next level.  The whole experience of this trek was nothing short of a Video game, where the difficulty level keeps going up a you reach next level and the game becomes more tougher.

50 feet rappelling

50 feet rappelling

50 feet Rock patch

We were well prepared, Sadhana and other team members made a joint effort and soon we successfully negotiated this 50 feet rock patch.

After the rapelling we had a short break for our breakfast. Ab itni mehnat ki hai to rest toh banta hai na bhai. The pleasure of trekking is such that you can have Kanda poha in one hand and dangle your legs over some cliff or rock.

What a place to have your breakfast !!!

The splendors of mother nature surrounding you.... it simply can overwhelm anyone. .Kyo sahi bola na , ki koi shaque !!! 

Treacherous rocky path

The trek kept moving forward negotiating more and more treacherous rocky path and

 ultimately reached second rock patch where again rappelling is to be done. This patch was of 14-15 feet , 

Getting down the 2nd Rock Patch

the only catch was the overhang at the end which leads you to a kind of blind spot...Yeh samaj me hi nahi aata ki pair kidhar rakhoo and you end up with jumping into water pool below this rock patch. Mera toh camera hi idhar pani me gir gay tha... 

Arre pair kider rakhoo kuch dikhta hi nahi yehan se !!

Walking further for more than 40 minutes we ultimately reached the Water pond.  Where we all rested for a while, had a photo session, filled up water bottle from the pond, and prepared now for the arduous climb to Samrud Village from Karoli Ghat.

Near the base water pond

The climb from Karoli Ghat was becoming more and more tedious for us because now  we were out of the valley, the sun was heating us hard, and further the  decent part was over, and the climbing part was on. 

Climbing the Karoli Ghat

 The rest breaks became more frequent, but like brave soldiers we kept moving on.

Anthony sir and me

The climb took more than the normal time for us as 2 member shashi & shrikant were not feeling well.  Anthony sir with his head injury was moving forward bravely.

As the climb was getting on everyone's nerve we all took rest, and planned as to what we will have for dinner, Dinner ke naam sunkar sab motivate ho gaye, and unanimously decided that kisi na kisi Murgi ko shahid hoana padega, for dinner, so chicken with rice was the menu for the dinner time.  Shashi & me being veggie lovers, were given respite by Anthony Sir, Who said he will prepare fried rice, it is a different story how fried rice got converted in Veg Biryani, as they say too many cooks spoil the broth. Anyways Sab ko dinner ke, chicken ke kwaab dikakar we pulled off this climb and reached the top plateau of Samrud Village.

Getting refreshed at the Plateau

Bodies were almost on the verge of been termed an dead bodies by this time, luckily for us we found a small pond of collected rain water on the plateau where everyone had little bit of shower, splash etc.  and suddenly we felt rejuvenated. It took us hardly 10 minutes  from here to the Village at our local guide's home.

The dinner was superb, I felt sorry for the two hens who were now residing in the stomach of my co-trekker, and by 10 pm it was good night sleep time as we have to move to Ratangad next day.

Tomorrow will be another day and another trek and of course another blog. Till then wait for the next part of this blog. 

Thank you all

Trek to Ulhas valley

Another sunday was approaching and my desperation for the trek was gaining momentum and upon that this awesome delayed monsoon was making it mandatory for me to be among the nature,luckily I had an invitation to go to Harishchandra gad.A dream trek for any trekker but it was my bad luck that instead of being in the mountains I was sitting in a courtroom attending the judicial proceedings(my occupational commitment).

If its Sunday you will find me here 

Kya kare kabhi kabhi kam bi to karna padta hai...waise hi sab logo ne mujhe puch puch ke badnaam kar diya hai...yaar tum to hamesha trek per hote ho kaam per nahi jate kya...well this explanation is for them and agar phir bi koi shaaq hai to bol deta hu...Bhai mujhe maf karo...me toh sirf Sunday ko trek per jata hu , jab aap log maje se sunday ki neend nikal rahe hote hai toh mai 3.30am uthkar trek per jane ki tyari kar raha hota hoon. 

Anyways lets move forward from here as now I had to compromise on a day trek so this invitation to join Ulhas Valley came as a whiff of  fresh air for me and I  jumped the band wagon and was on my way to Ulhas valley.

The program was such that we were all suppose to meet at Dadar at 5.30 am. I called up Subhashji and Sanjeev ensuring that everyone of us is on time and we all reached Dadar at 5.20am .Walking out of the station at such wee hours has its own share of activities with newspaper vendors unloading the newspaper to be sorted, vegetable sellers arranging their wares etc...really mumbai never sleep. after walking a little distance we reached Visava hotel where we saw a motley of few teenagers with bags behind their back   I jokingly commented subha subha jute pahan kar ,piche bag dhalkar aise khali sadak per koi trekker ke sivaye doosra nahi ho sakta ,lagta hai apne log hai . and I was right !! .

our organiser..trek suru hone se pehle hi iske kapad uttar diye

As Our trekking group Trek O Phy had arranged for a pick up vehicle so all of us moved towards the bus but as few of the people have not reached so we had a delayed start.Our bus left Dadar at 6.30 am and we were now on the way to Lonawala. As I had slept very late at night so I thought I will catch my cat nap till we reach Dadar but hardly my eyes were closed when I was woken up by Rugved with a steaming hot Poha. How I wished ki yeh scene ko thoda aage fast forward kar do yaaro...mere ko thoda sone do... per breakfast time hai toh hai ...so I had my breakfast of Poha.

Lovely ghats !!

Our bus kept moving through the lovely ghat sections and just when we were approaching the Lonawala intersection we could see a lovely waterfall in the distance we were informed that is the place where we have to go...Bas aur kya excitement begins...

we got down here(outside Kamat resturant)

Our bus stopped just outside the Kamat hotel under the expressway.Everyone quickly got down, here few people had come from Pune they too joined us.




 and we all started moving back from where our bus had come and took the first right turn which took us to the compound of St Mary's church

Ground outside St Mary Church

where we had a brief Introduction and instruction round.

Introduction Round

Finishing with the intro round all of us started moving to Shooting Point from where we have to take a right turn.But seeing such a lovely valley in front we all first went to have a glimpse of the lovely Ulhas valley.

Photo session ki inning 

 and then followed first photo session...Photo session ki inning shuru hi sehwag style hui..instead of sixers idhar photo pe photo ke shot liye ja rahe the,Ab mere se bhi nahi raha gaya akhir me insaan hu na ...so kuch pose maine bi mar liye auro ke sath Ab hona kya tha  Amol sir and Gaurav has to literally drag people out from here..I was wondering Bhai abhi to poster dekh kar yeh haal hai...picture dekhne ke baad kya hoga 

Lovely view of Valley..ab koi aage kaise baade !!

In any other trek the process is clear that one has to reach the base village and start ascending,reach the Top and then descend   but this trek was unique because here as we were going into the valley so first we had to descend and then ascend to come to the top from where we actually started our trek.I have given below a diagrammatic explanation (please excuse my amateur attempt as I am not good at drawing) of the route taken by us after doing our intro round outside the St Mary Church ground via shooting point to our mini nalachi vat should I say.

Diagram depiction of route 

From the diagram given above you can see how we moved from the Intro round site to shooting point and then into that slit in the mountain.

Mano Dharti Fhati..aur hum sab andhar

Now here a very interesting thing happened as we were walking some one asked from  where will be starting the trek,Pat came the reply 'woh samne jo jhadi dikti hai na usme se neeche jana hai " and then I heard a loud cry from some female member behind me "are you kidding...chal kuch bi bolti hai, woh to nalli hai " and I thought "Bingo!!!, of course woh nalli hi thi aur hum ko wahan se hi uttarna ha hai lady" 

Well one look at this start point of the trek reminded me a lot of the Amar chitra katha comic, read by me in my childhood where the earth split opens into two and Lord Rama's wife Sita walks into the earth. "Hum logo ke sath bi kuch aisa scene tha" only difference was we were suppose to come up again.

Descend is full of rocky section

Making our way through the bushes we started to descend through this waterfall route. The descend is full of rocky section and one can see the steep slope of rocks, as it was raining getting the grip on the rocks were getting tricky. One has be be very careful so as to avoid from slipping,getting down was indeed becoming a task specially when few of the group member is having a tough time negotiating the the steep slope it leads to all others stopping behind that person aur pata chala ki subah station per ticket ki line toh nahi mili per yahan uttarne ke liye line zaroor lag gayi.

Lo ji uttarne ke liye line zaroor lag gayi !!

Ab ek musibat khatam nahi hui ki saamne doosri pehle se se tyar thi, But for few trekkers its a delight that we encounter such rock patch and agar usme rappelling kar ke uttarne ka maaja mile toh we say...Pura paisa wasool !!!

Yes atlast we came across a rocky patch where getting down without rope was not possible.I loved this part with one hand holding the rope and our feets finding the holdings in the rock to balance our body and above that the waterfall water hitting you...
Wow!! What a feeling.!!.. Dil bole OLE OLE ...

Paisa Wasool !!

This whole rocky section seemed to be endless but Maaza bi to endless tha.we kept walking until we reached a small area where this small waterfall was there so I stole an opportunity to have a Nano photo-break.

Nano Break

Here I wanted to add a small incident took place. When I was posing for a click someone mistimed his footing and a loose rock came tumbling down kissed the ankle of Sanjeev who was clicking my picture and next to Sanjeev at that very moment Subhashji had bent down to pick up something from the ground when this same rock brushed his cheeks..Phew !! that was really close because had that rock not kissed Sanjeev's ankle it would have definitely stuck Subhashji on his face. We were all shaken for a moment but moved on from there.

Walking further the descend was getting more trickery. I too had my fair share of slip and fall.Perhaps that is the reason I think Munmun Meenakshi named her photo album of this trek as Gharsar patti Trek..LOLZ. but all this was a fun and before we knew Gaurav declared that we have reached our Water fall.

The Water Fall

The Word waterfall was was like a magic potion for everyone  because it just lit up the faces of participants they just dumped their bags and jumped into the refreshing natural massage machine.

Everyone had a whale of time at the waterfall splashing water on each other,getting clicked, standing on each other's foot without realising ki neeche patthar nahi pair hai ... Bas ek hi dhun thi PHOTO !!!PHOTO!!!.

But in the end we all enjoyed.. woh ab kisse ke pair par khade ho kar tha ...ya phir kisi ke khande par... KI Farak Phanda ...kyo sahi kha na dosto !!!

Once the waterfall fun was over everyone had lunch and now back to the same treacherous climb.Few girls were finding the climb difficult but then there is always trekker funda of Sathi hath badana where everyone takes care of each other and we all emerge winner.

It was 4.15pm and half of the trekker have reached the base while the other half struggled to reach the base and made it by 5.30pm.

We had our evening refreshment and were ready to board the bus back to mumbai.What fun and craziness happened in the bus while returning may take one more blog from me because  Ghana ga ga kar Gale ki wat laga li....per ghane hai ki katam hi nahi hote...

I am giving below the beautiful video shot by my friend Sanjeev Tankariya which captures the entire journey and the mood of the trek.

All in all another Sunday well spent (Dosto please note it was sunday... baad me bologe kaam kab karta hai...

Thanks to all !!!