Trek to Bhimashankar via Shidi Ghat

Last weekend i.e on 11th and 12th Jun'2011, I had been to Bhimashankar Trek with my very own group - Deccan Hikers.

We started early morning on Satuday 11th Jun'2011. As per our schedule (made by our one and only leader - Amol Chaudhary) we were to board the 1st train to to Karjat. This train reached Thane Station @5.11am. To catch this train in time, I  and Amruta had stayed back @ Vidya's house in Thane. So we 3 gals reached Thane stn right in time by 5.05am or so. As soon as we reached we met Durwas. Vidya and Amruta proceeded to take their ticket while I had railway pass [as my mom is ex w.rly EE, I have train pass, so I was travelling free :) ] They took a return ticket to Karjat. 

Amol, Anand and Tushar arrived at Thane station platform.no 1 in the same train. This train was the one just before the one which we were to catch. Amol didnt know that I was coming to trek. Why? That is a different story. I will include it later. Amol had come from Kurla, Anand from Mulund/Bhandup and Mr.Tushar the great all the way from Andheri. Other DHs were Sonal, Nandi and Rahul. They stay in navi mumbai, so they had changed the plan and decided to meet us directly @ Karjat. [hehehe few days back I had only sowed the seed in Rahul's mind of coming directly to Thane from Belapur. He thought beyond it and decided to come directly to Karjat :P ]

So now we were 10 trekkers ready on our way to Bhimashankar.

1.       Amol (Trek Leader) 
2.       Amruta 
3.       Rahul 
4.       Nandi 
5.       Vidya
 6.       Sonal 
7.       Anand 
8.       Alpana (I was glad that my entry was 8^th as its my lucky number) 
9.       Durwas (A new entrant) 
10.    Tushar (the husharrr the last entry)


So, there came the train. We boarded in. It was empty and ppl (who must be the daily travelers) were lying down completely on the seats like it was a nice soft bed at their home. All of them started staring at us, as if "hey kon aliens chadlet". But we are use to such looks :) We managed to get an empty bay on one side of the compartment.

In the train compartment

Now, the train was moving, this train which started @ 5.11am from Thane was going to reach Neral by 6.30am. So we  had full 1hr 15mins time to spend. In between Vidya and I got our cameras out. Clicked a few pics in the train. And then discussions started on DH Katha, which Amruta had ended skillfully just a day before on Friday. [Now I dont want to get in details of the DH Katha.] I was actually feeling a bit sleepy and was not full of enthu yet. I was also worried about how I was going to manage treking with the bulky SLR bag I had got along with macro filter and telephoto lens in it. Anyways, in the train, as I had not followed on DHKatha, and also many others, Amol, Vidya and Amruta told us about how the story got built, how it was taken left and right at authors discretion and how finally it was brought to an end :) It was nice fun. And after that went along all jokes and PJs by Tushar and others.  


In between we got a call from Rahul and Co. who were following a different route and mode of transport to reach Karjat. We informed them that we have to meet at Neral instead of Karjat now. [yes, because Kasheli, Neral and Karjat form a triangle, with Kasheli at the vertex and Neral and Karjat at this base ends. Ho ki nahi re Amol ? hehehe] Ok, so we told these guys to come to Neral instead of Karjat. And they were like, on our way Karjat comes 1st, so we will get down at Karjat... !!! hahaha that was funny. What logic was that. :) But that's OK. On a trek with Deccan Hikers, every one is allowed to behave and be as stupid as they cannot be elsewhere :) really... I enjoy this type of freedom with DH. Never mind. Amol or Amruta someone who attended their call explained them on the phone and asked them to get down at Karjat by the ST in which they were, and then catch a train and come to Neral. Confusion resolved!
As we were traveling, Amol removed a printout and handed over to Tushar. Oh! was that? A map to the treasure @ Bhimashankar? :) I wish it was. But it was boring ST time table. Then we got to know that Tushar was going to trek up with us, and leave immediately by 4pm ST from Bhimashankar to Pune!!!! Yo Yo Yo!! boss.. Tushar tar kharach hushar nighala. ekdam Trek Veda :) 


Similar was my story, I had to attend a wedding next morning on Sunday. My very close colleague's wedding. So I was not going to come for the trek. But, Bhimashankar was a long awaited trek. That too via SHIDI GHAT!!! I was already feeling severely bad about missing it. But then, suddenly, just a few days before trek, for a change, and for once, Nandi's brain worked out. He called up when he saw my name missing in the trekkers list to ask why I was not there. When I told him the reason, he asked me what time is the wedding, and what time is the reception. And may be it would be possible for me to go for the reception in the evening. O man!!!! Dhantadhannnnnnn...... bajj gayee ghanti!!! khul gayee darwajeeee.... Thank you Nandi!!! (aata written madhe blog var publicly aabhar pradarshan kartey bara ka!!!) I saw the schedule closely, and saw that Amol had mentioned in the schedule that we will be reaching back mumbai by 3.30pm on Sunday. So if that was the schedule, then I could still attend the reception in the evening. Would become hectic for me, but still worth it. So, I immediately called up Amol, and told him the same thing. To add to my relief, Amol said that I could also take a direct ST to Mumbai, after reaching Bhimashankar, and could reach earlier than 3.30pm to Mumbai on Sunday. WOW!!! this was an icing on the Cake.. Superb.. 
But after this also, one obstacle had come up, My mom started feeling ill on Thursday nite, and so I had again canceled my trek plan. I had SMSed Amol and Vidya that night that I wont be coming for the trek. May be its not in my fortune :( But again next morning, she started feeling better, and again I was IN for the trek. Friday morning I informed Vidya but not Amol, that I was coming for the trek, and this is the reason why Amol was surprised when he saw me on Thane Station this morning :)


Aise mera plan bann gaya.. and I was in the train now, on my way to trek Bhimashankar :)
OK now lets end the flash back and come back in the train where the story was...


The train reached Neral on time. And we were now waiting for Rahul, Nandi and Sonal, In the mean time, we clicked few pics and went to search for Loo. When we crossed the railway bridge and went on platform no. 2, beyond which there is a loo, we saw the TOY train for Matheran was standing. I saw it for the 1st time. I waited out and did some blunt clicks there. There when I was busy with my cam, I heard a SHUK SHUK... dekha toh Rahul and Nandi were there. So they had arrived. Cool. Now all the members were here and Deccan Hikers group was ready to begin its further journey to Khandas via Kasheli.

The Toy Train to Matheran

Few of the Deccan Hikers

We walked outside Neral station on its west side (Not the Matheran side, oppo side). There were tum tums and auto ricshaws standing. It was raining nicely. Amol went ahead to check the deals these autowala's offered. And after some time, we managed to get one entire tum tum for us (I dont know how much it costed us. that is Amol's dept) We 10 trekkers, along with our sacks and mats somehow managed to fit into that tum tum. Me and Rahul had to manage on others Laps. I was sitting on Sonal's  and Rahul on Nandi's lap. It was not so comfortable journey of close to 1hr from Neral to Khandas. In between we stopped at Kasheli. There everyone got to relax their jammed legs. At Kasheli we packed some batata wadas, Samosas and Bhajis. Again DHs packed themselves into the tum tum and journey started ahead. From here I choose to sit on Vidya's laps for remaining journey, as I am use to that and she being tall, her legs are long, giving me enuf space to sit :)



 
It was Khandas that was planned to go, but on the way autowala asked, and took us to Kathewadi on Amol's consent. So we reached Kathewadi by 8.00-8.30am. O man.. each one unpacked themselves out of that luxurious tum tum :), and stretched their legs as they were getting out. As we got out to see where we had reached, we saw a small rural village-Kathewadi, just stretching its arms out of the cold dark blanket of clouds, on that wetty early morning. As we turned we saw a temple. As it was raining, we all rushed to the temple shade, leaving Amol alone with that handsome autowala. Everyone is least bothered of any statistics and calculation when Amol is there. Sorry for this Amol... but it just means that we trust you so much :)

 
Under the shade, everyone started their photography, clicking snaps of the village. It was pretty cloudy, and on the side in front of the temple someone spotted a peak. Wow, it was hardly visible in between clouds. After this I noticed that I was a Hanuman Temple in which we were standing. 

Photo Courtesy: Vidya

 So, there we took a break. Everyone was hungry. Amruta and Vids had some oats with Milk when we has started from Vids house early morning. But as I dont like milk and its smell, I did not had it. So considering this I would say I was hungrier :) Someone opened the polythene and trekkers bounced on the wada pav, samosa and bhajjis. Ppl started missing tea. And Amol arranged that too from a villager :)

Padargad view from Kathewadi

In between suddenly the clouds cleared, to give us beautiful view of the peak that we had spotted earlier. Rahul Vidya and I ran for taking photographs. 
So like this we passed (or rather wasted) close to an hour at the base village Kathewadi and began with our trek at around 9.30am.


The route to Shidi Ghat begins via fields of Kathewadi, passing besides a well from where many women were fetching water. It has started raining, and I didnt wanted to risk my SLR. So I had put it inside my backpack, with which my bag had gained more weight :( 

The route to Shidi Ghat

As we were walking, yet to reach any hill ahead, Vidya and Rahul had already started taking breaks for macros on the ways :( I was ahead as I had stuffed my weapon inside my backpack. This time for our surprise, Anand had got cam, and he was waiting and clicking pics :) Sahi... I was like, welcome to the club Anand. It was his fiance Gayatri's cam. [Gayatri is also a Deccan Hiker, but had not come for this trek]

Vidya & Rahul busy clicking

This is what they aimed at

While we were talking of Anand clicking snaps this time, Nandi said that he has got his cam. Cool. I took the chance. I asked him to hand it over to me with legal "PLEASE" :) yes ha I didn't do any dadagiri, and pleaded him officially to give me the cam. Like u know, if we dont use any organ of our body it become useless and stops functioning, similarly I thought, before Nandi's cam stops functioning let me use it in this trek, and give it a chance to perform and breathe the air outside of that camera pouch. So it was like ek teer se do nishane... 1-use of that never used cam 2-my khujli for photography is fullfilled. As Nandi's cam was really small and handy, it easily fitted in the inner pocket of my windcheater. So jab chaha bahar nikala and otherwise ander. 

On the way that peak which we spotted from the Base village Kathewadi was visible everytime. It was introduced to us by Amol as "Padargad". He had mentioned that its not just a peak, it has a proper form and space from other side.On As we trekked higher and higher, we discovered different facets of Padargad. We saw it taking form from a 1D peak to a 2D triangle, to a 3D  cone to a 4D fort :) as we saw it from different angles.

Trekking Full ON

We trekked, we trekked and we trekked... for an hr and more, yet we had not reached the plateau, which was suppose to be the 1st milestone. On  the way Vidya and Rahul exercised their photography, unlike me this time.

At one point we actually went the wrong way. Amol n Durwas went ahead to research, while rest of us waited chit chatting and PJing at one place. At this point we heard a villagers voice. He was saying some thing. we didnt really get the words. So we moved in the direction of the voice, as we were moving close by we heard him say that "Dont go that way, come back". There Amol and Vidya actually were skeptical, if that guy was really helping us or was misguiding us for his fun. But fortunately, it was the earlier case. He was actually helping us, and he called us back to lead us to the right way. He instructed us to move straight in that direction, n not take any turns. He said that the way straight will lead us to the top.  

Point where we lost our way and were waiting

It was raining ok types not much. We were into the Bhimashankar Jungles now. With all types of flies and mosquitoes in air, and different types of crawling insects and crabs on the ground. The way is very stony and less muddy. It looked as if covered with a lovely colourful carpet with green, light green and yellow colors added by shredded leaves, brown color added by the soil and black by the stones. The terrain is very steep. One has to put high steps to climb. We feel the pressure on our thighs. As we folks don't exercise at all, the palpitations became high and I had to take breaks in between at regular intervals. [Yet I had started using the staircase to 6th floor of my office, just 2 weeks prior to this trek as a small exercise to regain my stamina]. 

Photo Courtesy - Vidya

I had heard a lot about this jungle. It being dense and house of many really wild animals. Amol had also instructed the preventive and corrective measures in case we confront any such wild animal. yes the Jungle is very dense. All covered with really old and strong trees. We did see many insects and heard different types of sounds of animals. But those sounds were of Monkeys (wanar) and owls only. Nothing more than that we heard. At one point we also saw one monkey. not the usual brown monkey, this one was white with black face. He had noticed us, and was howling at us. From far away he parallely followed us till one point just before we reached the 1st shidi. Thankfully he didn't gather his other friends to add to our adventure :)

Spot 1st Shidi in center and Nandi in Red on the right

 So then, after that patch, we reached the 1st shidi. Nandi reached there 1st, followed by me, Durwas and Amol. Tushar, Amruta, Rahul and Vidya came slowly clicking snaps as it was not raining at all. We waited near the shidi for them to reach. I think it was a 2hrs trek till the 1st shidi from the base village.

Now begins the real thrill.....
1st shidi is green in color and good proper shidi. I was like, ok.. iss main kya hai.. chadd lenge. I compared it with the shidi at Kalsubaie or Ratangad in my subconscious. Amol was as usual cautious and was instructing to climb only 2 ppl at a time on that shidi. Rahul was like-proper shidi aahe tar mag kashala ghabaraycha. 

1st Shidi

 

The patch to cross after 1st shidi

Me and Amol were the 1st ones to climb over that Shidi (Ladder). After reaching that top when I looked on the other side my eyeballs were close to bulging out of my eyelids :) Dhusssssh.... karun Kalsubaie and Ratangad shidis' vanished from the back of my mind :) The people behind me had not started. They were all in their own world of photography and posing, unknown of the terrain ahead, which me and Amol were seeing in front of us. I was like - "O..... MY..... GOD.....". After we climb the 1st shidi, there is very little space for one person to stand. And immediately a tough stony steep inclined patch is there. It has hardly any good clifs to hold or step on. I was looking at Amol, who was was engrossed in figuring out some cliffs of which we can get grip to cross that patch. Behind me I could hear noise and fun. These ppl were still in their own worlds. TO add to our thrill, it started raining heavily. I shouted at them to keep quite and gave them idea that patch ahead is not easy, so please be calm, so that Amol could concentrate on his task of figuring out the way. I had shouted many times at them, and am also sure, that they wont even remember that I did, because they were totally in their own fun. Amol asked me to stay where I was. By now he has reached at the middle of that stony patch. I looked at Amol's feet and then followed straight down, to see how deep would he or anyone from us fall if they slip from tat point :) I just prayed that all of us cross this patch with no accidents. Amol crossed 3/4th of that patch, and then the last 1/4th was real tricky. At one point actually a thought came to my mind that isske aagae toh nahi ho sakta.... beyond the point where Amol had reached its impossible to go. It was almost done, but this last few steps needed to be really long. When Amol was at this point, I started and reached the middle point, and Vidya climbed up the ladder and stood on that small place where I was standing earlier. I was standing at a point where I had thought of someone falling :) But I was Ok at that point. Standing there, stepping on little cliffs and leaning completely on the stony wall on my stomach, with backpack on the back, and matt tied horizontally on the top of the sack. Soon, Amol succeeded in crossing that last stone. I don't know how he did, as at that point in time I was only concerntrating on holding my position safe on tat midpoint. But I saw that he had crossed, and was asking me to move ahead. So I stepped ahead. I was very cautious. I reached that last point where Amol was stuck. Vidya had not started and was still standing on the same place watching me. Here now again i was stuck, not able to put as long step as Amol had put to cross that patch. Yaha waha I tried to put by feet, but couldn't get the grip anywhere. But karna toh tha. I was only holding the stones there, meaning cliffs (khache) nhavte for a strong grip. Then Amol showed me a good Khacha. I holded there. That small patch was to be taken totally on arms strength, as there was no place to keep ur feet. Its like when ppl must be doing pull ups, all body weight come on arms. Same way. Waise mere arm muscles toh strong hai hi ;) so I was able to successfully cross that patch as well. Now on this side also, there was not much space for more than 3-4 ppl to wait and stand. Also, I could see 2nd ladder on this side. Now I watched Vidya crossing that patch. I was really worried. I wanted each and everyone to cross this patch safely. Any incident would have put a fullstop to my trekking forever... and I didn't wanted that to happen. Standing there, actually I was of litlle help giving instructions to Vidya along with Amol. Vidya also crossed that patch safely. In between standing there, in the back of my mind I went into thoughts of methods of saving some one if he slips from that patch. I knew Amol had long Dori (wire/string). So I was like then we will have to open that Dhori, put it down, till where that person has stuck in trees, then tie it somewere on one of stones etc etc.... O god.. mere dimag toh contingency main lag gaya tha.....anways, that time when I was back to the real world I saw Sonal is now crossing the patch. She was the powerpuff gal. O man... she crossed such that made is look really simple. Like butterfly she put her steps rightly where Amol instructed. And she was also done. Now we were 4 ppl already on this side of the 1st patch. And now it was time for someone to move ahead to make space for others who were coming. So, I started to climb the 2nd shidi. 

View I got after 2nd Shidi

2nd shidi is very small, and najuk [Like it would break anytime]. Its not at all difficult. Simply 1st me, then Vidya, followed by Sonal, Durwas and Amruta climber up 2nd Shidi. But only care to be taken was only 1 at a time, as that shidi is not very strong. Again it was raining heavily, still I took out Nandi's cam managed to click few pics of this tough patch.  After crossing 2nd Shidi, I could see rest of them over 1st shidi, and some crossing the 1st patch and Amol continuing to instruct them. I saw Nandi was standing calm waiting for his turn, even below the 1st shidi. Actually he was the 1st one to reach that 1st shidi, and he must have kept posing to the photographers :)

Left corner Vidya on 2nd Shidi

Now, after crossing the 2nd shidi, Again there was not more space to wait until everyone comes up. So, Sonal and I moved ahead. That patch was also pretty rocky and water streams were flowing over it.  I only touched the rocks over which rain water was flowing so as to get them cleaned. Sonal went up and rested on a rock. I followed her. We could see one cave up there. Sonal was thinking ab yaha se kaha jana hai. I walked a little ahead, and spotted the 3rd shidi to the left of the cave. came back and sat down. Slowly in some time, everyone managed both the 1st and 2nd shidi, and came up where me and sonal were sitting. I clicked one grp at this spot. After some time we started for the 3rd shidi. As usual Amol leaded and was 1st one. Rahul and Nandi took other way, and went up in that cave. They went and stood there, while we followed Amol to climb the 3rd and last shidi.

Views of the 3rd shidi
3rd Shidi is strong in itself, but is only kept leaned on the rocks. O man.... jara sarakli tar -  Haadsaaa Haadsaaa Haadsaaa Haadsaaa ..... heheh. ok...So on this shidi, we went 3 ppl at one time. Climbed up with no issues. Here when you complete the shidi, you land on one rock. From there you have to do more rock climbing and come reach other rocks :) This trek is truely ROCKING in its meaning !!! So, after we crossed the 3rd and last shidi of shidi ghat, There is a there is a series of rock climbing patches. And the worst part was that on this patch, don't know who had shitted on the important khache which could have been otherwise useful to take grips. Hehehee ya really. I really wonder that skillfull man/animal, who could manage to sit and shit so well on that rocky patch :P I remeber at one point, Amol was intructing me to put my feet on one Khacha, which I said that has dirty shit and I will not put my shoes in there :) eeeeeee and Amol said, forget all that, you need to cross the patch. hehehee sheeeee meaning wat, tya var pay deun yeu? Ani majhya adhi Amol and Vidya had gone up, and since this cake is still uncut, means they have gone up w/o stepping on it. So, I aslo managed to cross that patch, w/o using that dirty khaach ;-)  

After crossing that one, while Amol was helping others to come, Rahul, Sonal and I went ahead and found that there was no way. It was a dead end. So again we waited for Amol. After everyone came up, Amol went ahead to figure out the way. There was no way, and we could see that. There were only huge rocks and from no where could we see any way going anywhere. Amol started climbing the rocks. He reached the topmost visible rock on our side.

Embracing Rock

Till that it was fine. But uske aagae kya? Kaha jana hai? Are we on the right path? When these thoughts were hovering over my mind, Amol embraced a rock point that was coming out and went on other side of the rock. Uffff!!!! is that the way???  Aisa jana hai? Kuch bhiiii... but then... there was no other way, and should be correct. Sonal and Rahul followed Amol. Climbing to that point from where we need to embrace the rock was also tricky and not easy. Sonal went the way Amol went, but Rahul found some clifs on other side to reach there. I followed Rahul, as that one seemed better after watching Sonal stuck in between on the 1st path ;-) Rahul and Amol managed to get Sonal out of that patch. After which everyone else followed the way Rahul went, then we crossed that portion by embracing the rock. 


Once that is done, and we were on the other side of the rock from where again started a series of rock climbing patches. Very narrow space to stand, and very difficult rock patch to cross. Again our leader Amol, crossed it 1st, then Sonal and then Vidya. When we were watching these gals climbing up, boys behind me were like come one etna kya time le rahe ho, on which I did say that "Jyachi jalte tyalach kalte" ... and thats the fact. In the mean time I had decided where all I was going to keep my feet and how I will climb that patch. But after I started climbing that rock patch, I realised my planning didn't work. 

The cliffs where I thought I could fix my shoe and arms were not realistic. I didn't wanted to move up on my knees. Slowly taking some time and putting some more thoughts I managed to get the grip and pulled myself up using my arms so that I dont have to bend on my knees. And it wrked. I crossed the patch smoothly and went up. After me was Amruta. She was a little skeptical and fearful. Amol was holding himself in middle so as to instruct ppl after him. Sonal, Vidya and Myself crossed Amol and went ahead to complete the patch. After reaching top, I started clicking pics to get the moment capture. This was the last rocky and rocking patch.....

After this when all of them came up, we took a break. Anand had got Aam panha. We rejoiced and celebrated our success with Aaam Panha. 


After this we were over the 2nd pathar. HUshhhhhhhh yeh... we were like we are done!!! It was already 4+hrs of trekking. As we proceeded ahead on that pathar everyone was asking Amol how much more time !!!! We saw our way heading towards another hill approaching us. WAT!!! Do we have to still climb up this hill???? No No aisa nahi ho sakta.. there should be some other way. Each one was asking every other person - "Hey yeh hill chadna hai kya?" Each one innocently expecting the answer "NO" from someone. :) hehehe but the answer was YES... yes we had to climb up yet another hill. 


On this pathar, while starting to climb up this hopefully last hill, we saw another group coming from the left from somewhere. We got to know later that they had come up from Ganesh Ghat and then lost their way, and now they had finally found the right way as they coincided with us at this point. This pathar was the point of junction of ways coming from Shidi Ghat and Ganesh Ghat. Amol had decided that our descend will be from Ganesh Ghat. [I really wonder how would it be descending over those rocky and touch patches that we just triumphed from Shidi Ghat].


So, we all had surrendered the hope and thought and curiosity of when will we be reaching and asking the question again. With this we all put our steps ahead over that hill and continued to ascend over it. Still Someone asked Amol that it will be more than an hour now. Amol said - No No it will be over in some time. Amol was only trying to give us some hope and keep us motivated, but I guess all of us had left it already on Pathaar 2 :-)


Again chading chading and chading... bass chadte ja rahe hai... and then suddenly, there was along patch of straight long patch passing thru the dense jungle. All of us speeded on that part. I was like, wat kind of patch is this? Its wasting our time. We need to complete this ascend ASAP, we had already lost our patience and this parallel straight patch is not taking us up. that was patch was atleast for 30mins. And soon steep ascend started. 
So actually this parallel straight walk took us on the other side of this hill, and from there when we trekked up over a little we came out of the jungle, where sky was there above us [because until then it was only trees above us, sky was not visible]. From here we saw a hill in front of us, at almost the same height where we were. On which we saw signs of civilization like some constructions  and huts. Bingo! there is it... we could see the Bhimashankar Hill finally.... there we have to go... though it was just in front of our eyes, the route was not that direct.


After treking for another 30mins or so, we finally made it to our destination - "BHIMASHANKAR" This last patch was actually no big deal, but because we were already drained, we were very slow. We meaning - Amruta, Vidya and myself. And for us, Rahul kept himself behind us always. While we last comers arrived, Amol had triggered a question - "Why do you trek?" question was interesting. But we decided to take it up later in the nite. But as Tushar wont be there in the nite with us, we got his answer then and there. [I don't want to disclose his ans now here.]


It was actually 2.30pm when we reached the top of Bhimashankar. We had treked for total 6hrs begining from 9.30am in the morning. We all were immediately thinking of Tushar. He had to catch 4pm bus to go back to Pune. From where he had to take another bus to Jalgaon. I rested in peace on the ground, when all others were standing and discussing what to do next. They decided to take Shiv Mandir darshan 1st, then Lunch and then room. Accordingly we proceeded ahead.


As we moved ahead, we saw a small white temple we were like... yeh temple hai? na na.. it was just another temple. As we were moving towards main Bhimashankar Temple, my memory stated retrieving data. I remembered that I have been here long long ago when I was in college with my family. Yaad aaya. 


Bhimashankar is one of the 12 Jyotirlingas of Lord Shiva. Its a Holy place for all Hindus. To reach the temple one has to descend many stony steps. On the way there are many shops on both sides. The temple is made up of large black stones. There are nice carvings of stones forming edges and borders. The Temple kalash is made up of gold and there is a glidable metal flag with it, which swings in the direction of air. This complete place located on the top of a mountain @ 3250ft was dipped completely in fog and rainy clouds. We could hardly see till a few feet ahead and it was continuously pouring. 

We all had sacks on our back, drenched from top to bottom and inside out. As usual, rest of the visitors there were staring at us. One of them even asked Ninad [pls note I addressed him with his name here :)], if we came trekking and hows and whats about it. We reached the temple and decided that one of them will stay back with the bags and go later for the darshan. 

Stadium Type Structure

At the Mandir there is a stadium like construction on the right. We went there. Put down our bags, oops let me call it sacks, else its insult of our backpacks :). Shoulders were aching like evil. Dried our selves a bit and started for the Darshan. It was already 3.15 and Tushar had to catch 4pm bus. We got divided into 2 batches. Nandi, Amol, Vidya, Tushar and Durwas went ahead for darshan and myself, Rahul, Anand and Amruta stayed back with the sacks.In the mean time I decided to take out my SLR finally. So that now it could breathe some fresh air outside my backpack. 


In a little while Aarti started. Amruta and I decided to go ahead and attend the aarti. This is a fun part. We entered the temple from a side which took us direct into the temple courtyard. Aarti was going on and all the queues were on stand by. We saw our ppl standing in queue and we both were nicely in the temple courtyard attending the aarti :) Beyond this, after the aarti ended, the pujari came out with the aarti flame, standing just outside the main gabhara entrance. Other ppl who were standing with us, rushed for the aarti, and so did we. After taking aarti we saw were rushing inside the temple for darshan. It was trespassing. But I felt like doing it. I called Amruta and asked her to follow me. She doubted first but I said let it be just come. We smoothly went inside the gabhara for darshan and no one shouted or fought. One person who had allowed us inside the temple for aarti did notice us trespassing, but he also didnt utter a word :) that was cool. Our darshan was done. But still we had the feeling of guilt for trespassing, and also I had to take thali and prasad home. So I decided to go again with Anand and Rahul in queue. Also u know what.. I had SLR camera around my neck, with it I went inside. No one stopped me even with it. I was really shocked. But then, it was our fortune I would say. Our other ppl were still in queue awaiting for darshan. In the mean time, I moved around and clicked pics. Then I saw even Rahul is out with cam, so I thought Anand must be alone with the sacks so I went upstairs. I told him that I will be coming back again in the queue. He was fine then, because he thought that it was he alone now to take darshan, as Rahul was not interested in Darshan. Then I thought Anand can go ahead and stand in the queue, so that Amruta and me would join him once the 1st batch is back to look after the sacks. So, Anand and Rahul went ahead and stood in the queue. Soon in sometime, Tushar came up. It was 3.45pm and he has to take the bus @ 4pm. He asked us to move ahead with darshan. We went ahead. This time in proper queue with Thali and prasad we complete the darshan. 


When we returned back it was past 4pm. Tushar was nowhere. I asked Amol what did he do. Got to know that he somehow he managed to change his clothes and ran for the bus. They gave him all that eatables that we had with us, as he was going to miss the lunch. Later we came to know that Tushar managed to catch the bus as it was a little late, and then took another bus from Pune and reached Jalgaon safely to attend someone's engagement. 


So now, darshan was done, and we started hearing the bells from our tummy. Before that we had to see for shelter. We literary spent more than an hour behind searching rooms to spend one night. All the rates were high. They were saying Rs.800-1500. Finally at around 5.45pm we decided to cease with our search and fill our stomach. At 6pm in the evening we were having our lunch. In one of the hotels there we all had THALI except for Vidya who ordered Chole and Roti. Lovely satisfying food when appetite is at its height. 


Weather outside was awesome. It never stopped pouring. Cold winds,rains and white clouds filled the space. We settled down on Rs900 for a room which is just behind the stadium like construction to the right of the main temple. It was nice big room with good toilets and bathroom. The owner family stayed upstairs. We managed to negotiate for 5 blankets and 2 big mats with her. She was a tough women. 


All of us changed to dry clothes and got a litter warmer. Relaxing with talks and discussions begun the post ascend session. Dinner was not in our agenda. So we ordered tea from the owner from upstairs and munched on whatever snacks items we had late in the evening. We put songs on our mobile and spend our time. Soon we came to Amol's question - "Why do you trek?" Each one of us had our own reasons and ways to look at trekking and justify our madness. One by one all 9 of us answered this question. Then the topic went on Shivaji Maharaj. Amol started and we all went in listening mode. Soon one by one wickets were down, and ppl started falling asleep. 1st wicket was Anand. He even started snoring badly in different patterns, 


Now, at the back of my mind started emerging thoughts of my return journey. I had the news from Amol that my ST was at 7am next morning, reaching Mumbai at 1.30pm. I was pretty disappointed. I had expected an ST earlier to reach Mumbai such tat I get to attend the morning wedding as well. But reaching at 1.30pm after a long journey of 6hrs in ST alone, could allow me to attend only the reception in the evening :( I was feeling sad for missing Ranjit's morning wedding ceremony. Talks began on this topic. Nandi, Rahul, Vidya and Amol started working out their brain. After a loooooooongggg discussion, Rahul and Vidya convinced me to trek down instead of going via ST. Anyways I was going to miss the morning wedding via ST, and trek down would complete and reach base by 12.30pm. After that taking 2-3hrs of further travel, I could reach home(Govandi) by 3.30pm. I could still attend the evening reception all the way in Borivli, then why not complete the trek? The thought was correct and convincing, and in my favour of completing the trek :) So I agreed, though Nandi and Amol still said that I must go by ST. Anyways, I decided to trek down. I was SOOOO Happyyyy. Nahi Nahi mhanta me trek la aale, mag return trek miss karnar hote, te pan aata kartey... WOW, I will not me missing Ganesh Ghat. Yu Huuuuu..... [But I hope we meet our estimated schedule]

Later Sonal, Amruta, Nandi and Rahul fell asleep. When Amruta was attempting to sleep, suddenly she woke up with dusting something over her head. She felt as if something crawled, but there was nothing. So again she lied down. I was sitting next to her. and Amol stood up to change his lens, when he saw and shouted - "Khekda! Khekda!" I jumped from my place, so did Amruta and the rest. 
All those who were asleep stoop up at once except for Anand :) he was busy driving his road roller with his nose :P. With all that hush and bush... Nandi picked that crab in his hand and thew it out of the window. O man... from where did he come. He was one of those types we saw while ascending up in the jungles. So our guess is that, he must have entered someone's mat or sack and made his way till here :) After this Khekda episode again everyone fell asleep.


Next morning, we all woke up by 6am and started our descend by 7.30am instead of 6.30am as planned prior night. I was behind everyone, to gear up and get ready as I had to attend the reception in the evening. We clicked some good bye snaps with the temple and started our Descend. We reached the ground, from where we had ascended, but couldn't figure out the actual way down because it was completely foggy and nothing was visible. Taking advantage of the fog, we could only see ppl playing khokho :) We wasted our 45mins there, untill then Rahul and Vidya enjoyed their photography. I had no mood of photography, my mind was totally occupied with thoughts of being able to attend the reception in the evening. Soon Amol and Durwas came back with a good news of having found the way down, and we started descend at 8.15am.

Return Journey

Actually the journey down was beautiful. As we started early it was fully foggy and cold. But I was only physically there. My mind was in Mumbai and was awaiting this descend to get over. Only satisfaction was that I did not miss Ganesh Ghat and completed the trek. In between at one patch I did got my camera out and clicked few pics of the valley, but then soon stuffed it inside again as it started drizzling. At one patch, we saw the terrain was fully covered with White Lillies. We spend lot of time here. I clicked a few flop pics there. I realized that photography needs involvement of Mind and Heart as well along with Body. And my Mind and heart were not trekking, only my body was... 

Watching Shidi Ghat in front

When we reach the last pathar via Ganesh Ghat, we saw Shidi Ghat in front of us. We started spotting the Shidi and Rahul succeeded in it. Using Vidya's cam with 35x zoom, he spotted the 3rd shidi. Everyon was excited and couldnt believe that we ascended that way. There we again spent a lot of time.  
I tracked that we were behind schedule and reached Ganesh Mandir of Ganesh Ghat at 12.30pm. When actually we were suppose to be down at this time. I got serious. Now the question was whether I will be able to make to the reception even???? From Ganesh Mandir I put 5th gear and didn't stop for anyone. So that at least rest of them follow the suit. From there remaining distance we covered in unbelievably 20mins. Within 20mins we were down on the road.Ganesh Ghat is not as tough as Shidi ghat, but its not easy as well. The terrain again is steep and inclined. Anways, after reaching the base we walked more than 1.5kms, still didnt reach Khandas village. My BP was getting higher. Kya main time pe ghar pe pahunch paungi? Kya main wedding reception attend kar paungi??? Kya Ranjit mujhe zinda chodega??? So many questions .....

While on this long walk, Rahul came up with a really good idea. He said we could call Kedar to Karjat in his car  (Belapur to Karjat was reachable and not long distance), and then they could drop me to my house in Govandi. Otherwise public transport would take more time and make it difficult for me to attend the reception. Idea was mindblowing, but network coverage in our cells was zero. Soon we reached Khandas, and there a villager escorted us to his house from where he said he will give us car till Karjat. But everyone settled in his courtyard and to my suprise and agony THEY ORDERED TEA! Anyways it was already late and I stayed calm. From that villager's house we tried calling Kedar. We made 2 calls and they went flop. Finally 3rd call was successful and we managed to pass the message to Kedar. Thankfully Kedar wasn't busy and agreed to come to Karjat. I was so glad. 


To cut the story short from here,  we took a tum tum for Rs400 from Khandas to Neral, then train from Neral to karjat. Karjat where Kedar, Raju, Raju's wife and son and Kiran had come with 2 cars. THANK YOU SO MUCH KEDAR!!! [well I know he didn't know the story behind all this, he so innocently came without asking any further questions] So Kedar and Kiran came in Rahul's car and Raju and his family in Kedar's car. After this, we who completed the trek (Rahul, Nandi, Sonal and myself) took Rahul's car and proceeded ahead to Mumbai, while Kedar, Kiran, Raju n family went ahead to Matheran. Others viz. Amruta, Amol, Vidya, Anand and Durwas went via train from Karjat. Rahul drived well, and dropped me in an hour to Govandi at my residence. I reached home at 5.30pm. Immediately I took bath, got ready and by 6.45pm I was out on my way to Borivli for Ranjit's reception. Finally I made it. I reached the hall at 8.30pm. I had gone directly by auto. Getting auto was also not easy. I changed 2 autos to reach there. When I entered the hall I saw Ranjit on stage and he also saw me from there. I saw the smile on his face, which in turn cleared all the backlog in my mind and I was feeling lighter now. SOLACE this is!!!


Like this I completed the trek and made to the reception as well. Memorable experience.