26th Aug 2012
Ok... finally I m sitting on my computer to write this blog documenting my experience of a ...... ( o man ... I m not getting one good word to convey the exact feeling)....
let it be.. I will not give it a word.. let me share the whole day with you and you give it a word :)
So, yesterday at 5.15-5.30 am Amol n Varsha reached my home. Mom had prepared tea. We had some tea and khari and started at around 5.45am or so... for the day taking the name of 'Ganpati Bappa'. 3 of us in my Ritz set for a one day trek to Tikona.
So, our next immediate stop was at Belapur, after picking Durwas from Vashi. We reached Belapur at around 6.15am may be. There we were suppose to meet Kedar and "Ninad" (its not natural for me to write this name, hence double quotes). Anyways. So these 2 heros came in late in Kedar's car - Punto. Ninad placed his new car - swift, in show case at his home.
So, we started may be at around 7am I guess from Belapur.
Amol, Durwas n Varsha with me in my Ritz.
And Kedar n Nandi in Punto.
Like this 2 cars started for the day heading towards
TIKONA.
Let me give u some brief about Tikona: [not that I knew this. But now after coming back from the trek I read about it. So let me share it]
Tikona falls in Pune district in Maval region. This Amol had told me. Its near the Pavana dam. It seems its
3500ft high. It gets it name because its shape is of a pyramid (triangle). Also I just read online that its also called as "Vitandgad".
ok enuf abt the fort.
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| Tikona |
So, after taking the Mumbai-Pune express way, we took the Lonavala exit. [remember not the Lonaval/Khandala exit :) ] In Lonavala at the MannShakti kendra we had our breakfast. Suprisingly I ate the most of all. I dont know was my appetite more or rest of them ate less. I ate pohe + 4 thalpiths :) I was full enuf and all set to drive ahead.
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| Outside the Mann Shakti Kendra |
From Lonavala we were on the old mumbai pune road. After driving for another 20mins or so on that road, we took a right turn into a village. From there driving within villages on the narrow tar roads surrounded by greenary & farms on both sides. We were just going on and on, and slowly I realized that I was losing the interest. Driving was becoming boring. Finally I asked Amol... "Amolllll kadhi yenar aahe. Me bore jhaley aata. Kiti vel aapan fakt challoy challoy plain rastyavar". And as usual Amol replied like he replies while trekking - "Aga aala aata, thoda vel ajun" :) I got the message. And we continued.
Finally I think at around 9.15/9.30am we reached the Tikona base village. It was a total 3hrs drive from my home to Tikona base village.
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| Bhairavnath Temple at the base of Tikona n Fort seen hidden in clouds behind on the right | Temple from inside |
At the base of Tikona in Tikonawadi/peth, we parked our cars near a temple. Its Lord Bhairavnath's temple. There we saw in a tempo traveller one grp had already come. It was a big group. They were standing near one house and guess their leader was briefing them.
From there we saw the Fort. It was too small trek. Kedar and Nandi were like "aray ha tar amcha insult aahe. aamhi etke lahan trek nahi karat" :) And Bingo! Amol ne takli googly ... he said - "Dont worry ha karun aaplyala samorcha Tung pan karaycha aahe" hehehehehe Kedar and Nandi were clean bold.Hey aikun tar Varsha, Kedar and Nandi were totally against it. Nandi was now like..."aray nahi nahi... me gharun ekach trek karaycha asa mentally prepare karun aaloy.". Whatever. Amol said that Tunga is a small trek. 45mins madhe houn jaato.
Yes.. actually, earlier plan was to use public transport. So Amol had planned only for Tikona. Later when I asked Kedar if he will come as it was an easy trek, that time he said that if its so close near Lonavala, then why dont we go by cars. I was IN for it. So I informed Amol and Amol was also fine. But this gave him a chance/advantage to increase the scope. He called me up and told that since we will be saving time on travel, we will do Tung also. That time I was also against. I said - "No. Now requirements are frozen. ANy changes should be handled in next release :) " But after all he is a BA and me being a QA, had to listen to the BA and accomodate the changes. :)
Puddle walk pics
Ok now back to Tikona wadi. We began walking towards Tikona. The way from the Temple to the base of the hill was a PUDDLE walk. Simply PUDDLY.... Soon we reached the base, clicked some pics and started the trek.
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| Left:Trek Begins and Right:No Non-veg board |
Trek was nice, green, sweet and simple.Trek route on the hill is well defined and obvious. The scenic views treats you as you gain the height. You get the panoramic view of the Pavna dam and near by villages of Maval. On the way greenary, plants, insects and flowers of diff kind on either sides of the path keeps you entertained tempting you to click :)
Once you reach the Ridge of the Tikona, you get the view of both sides of the hill.
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| View on other side of Tikona |
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| Same side view more towards left |
And its AMAZING and mesmerizing. Actually u know I forgot the mention earlier, the wind. The air. The atmosphere was cool and cold, the wind was superb right from the base village.
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| The Fort side ridge towards |
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| The Opposite side Ridge |
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| Hanuman |
OK. Back on the hill. So, once you reach this 1st milestone that is the mountain ridge, then for quite some time its the walk over the ridge, and the u start seeing the fortification and carved steps. Soon on the way there is a Gate, and some more easy steps and then 2nd gate and then Hanuman sculpture to welcome you.
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| Gate 1 |
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| The Caves and Water tank |
There one group was resting listening to a bad bhashan given by one old man in their group.
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| The Board marking the Shivaji Trail |
After u pass the Hanuman point, u reach the caves and water tank, where we found one sage doing his prayers. We attempted to go inside the caves, where we saw 2-3 rooms had God idols, but the sage scolded Amol for his shoes, and then we simply backed out.
After this begins the so called "Shivaji Trail".
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| Chakki |
As u moved ahead you find historic Chakki of strange types. It seems they used it for chuna only.
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| 1st set of steep steps |
Immediately ahead of this chakki is the main attraction of the trek. Ruined steps which take you to the Main entrance of the Fort. These set of steps are steep enuf. The only part in the trek which is not a cake walk though not very difficult either.
After we cross this steps, we enter another gate which will the gate, and immediately there is a water tank on the right. The water there was surely potable and clear. We didnt taste though.
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| 2nd set of steep steps to main gate |
Then again another set of steps, nice ones adventurous which take u to say may be the Main gate. As this gate was Big enuf.
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| Main Gate |
A finally u reach the top of the fort.
The top of the fort is not toooo small, but yes small area with one water tank on the top, and a temple of Lord Shiva. And ofcourse the Orange flag.
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| Panaroma of one side of the Fort |
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| Last steps entrance to Fort |
AND! Scenic views all around is just a treat. Breadthing that fresh cold air. Feeling those clouds. O man... no words.
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| View of Pawna Dam from Tikona |
Not too much to explore. We sat at one point where we got the awesome view of Pavna dam and could have seen Tung fort if not the clouds.
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| Hog Hog n Hog |
We had enuf to eat and we soon started hogging.
I explored the panaroma mode of my S3, and it truely surprised me. It helped me capture the view to the extend more than what fitted our human eyes angle of view :)
On the top again began the useless arguements on whether to trek Tung or not. Useless because whatever rest of us may say, it doesnt withstand against or break or deviate Amol's mind :)
We waited there and absorbed the views in our memory. Swallowed the fresh cold winds and started our descend. Within no time we were down, soon doing the puddle walk back to the Temple where our cars were parked. Again started the arguements on going to Tunga.
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| Grp Pic @ Tikona [L-R]: Amol, Varsha, Ninad, Durwas, Kedar n Me |
It was around 1.30pm, some had the view of going to Lonavala at mushi dam and spending rest of the time, while Amol was sure abt going to Tung. Durwas had no views. Nandi surely didnt wanted to trek Tung, he decided to sit at the base there. Surprisingly Kedar was very much interested. Durwas was quite. And I had no views. I only knew was that I m tired and had no interest in driving more immediately. I wanted to rest. I had slept at 2am previous night (why? dont ask me. Majhi charbi. Tasa pan trek chya adlya ratri jaganyacha aapla itihas/parampara aahe. Ti me kashi modu :) ) 4.30am I woke up, so with 2.5hrs of sleep, and 3+hrs of driving and 2hrs of Tikona ascend and 1hr descend, I was quite drained. Driving jivavar aalela. Hence I was in doubt if I wud do Tung. Amol offered me to drive. I gave him the keys and took the cleaners seat.
TUNG
We started at around 2pm from Tikona village. When I gave Amol the car to drive till Tung, I put ON the sensors that I have put around my car. Kasa aahe na, aapli gaadi chalavnyat aapan pataiet asto, dusri konti navin gaadi cha andaz yayla thoda vel lagto. Tyat Petrol ani diesel cha pickup cha farak padtoch. When we started Varsha said gaani laav na. But I didnt. majha laksha Amol chya driving kade hota :) I bugged him a lot by giving intructions. Slowly after some time I understood that I need not worry. He grasped the judgements very soon. Soon I put on the songs and relaxed. In some time I also OFF the car sensors. :) And then I got back into my normal mode enjoying the songs. Then I realized my own condition. I was toooooooooooo hungry. I was drained. I was feeling sleeepy, and majhi Amol kade kurkur suru jhali.
The way from Tikona to Tung has very steep, narrow hairpin bends that too bad unconstructed roads. Ritz was fine as its ground clearance is good enuf. But Kedar's Punto had bad hits.
On the way it was 3pm and we had not yet reached Tung's base. Ahead of us was Kedar and Nandi in punto. They had lost the mind, and came to saying - aray ab kab pahuchenge and kab wapas aayenge!!!!
That shook even my and Varsha's mind. But nothing shook Amol. We continued our way.
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| At the base of Tung fort |
Soon we reached Tung's base. There was a proper parking place and many ppl had come there for treking. There was a old man to look after the parked vehicles there. At that place also was a under construction Temple. So we asked this old man how much time it takes, he said they take 20mins, so ppl like us woud take 45mins. Oh.. that was less. And dont know how, but after reaching there I was full refreshed. I eat glucose buscuits and gained the energy. And was all set for another trek. On the contarary, Varsha was still pestimistic. she didnt wanted to come. But as rest of the grp was all set to go, she had no choice but to join the grp and trek up :)
Here we start our 2nd trek of the day.
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| Begining of Tung ascend |
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| One of the steep trails in Tung ascend |
Though Tung is as higher as Tikona of around 3500ft, its not as easy as Tikona. Tung is also called as 'Kathingad' (Kathin = Difficult). As the name says, the ascend is not easy. Its quite steep and straight up. U literary climb up against the gravity at close to 90degrees at most of the points. Varsha had totally given up. She was waiting at every point and trying to shake someone atleast who will wait there with her. But that never happened. Amol/Kedar/Nandi on the reverse did a great job in convincing her at every point and bringing her up. I was also very exhausted. Full of sweat. I kept my mouth closed as usual while trekking even when Nandi was trying to tease. He took advantage and full TOND SUKH at that time, but I continued to save my energy by keeping my mouth shut.
At one stage, there are SIMPLY AWESOME steps. Just efforts and time wasool steps. These steps are total 90degrees :) maza aagaya.
As it was steep, we gained the height very fast.
On the way there are temples at intervals. You get the view of Pavna dam from the other side. We couldnt see the Tikona due to the clouds.
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| 1st Gate of Tung |
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| Ascend after 1st gate |
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| 2nd Gate |
After reaching the 1st gate there is little more steeper ascend and there is 2nd Gate soon.
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| The Ridge walk |
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| Inside the temple on ridge |
After second gate for a little while there is a straight walk on the ridge. On this ridge before next ascend begins is a temple again. This time with Ganapti Idol and Shivaji Maharaja's pic.
Here when the last stage ascend was to begin, Varsha again gave up. She said she will sit there and rest of us can go. She was requesting us to leave her there, or Nandi to wait with her. But nothing happened. We again pushed her to take up the last stage. And that was really the last stage of the trek :)
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| Last stage of trek | TOP:The Temple on one side | TOP:The Flag on other side |
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| The Small Top of Tung |
After that ascend we finally reached the ToP.
The top is very small. THere is just small ruined temple and a flag. BUT!!! what mattered is the FEELING. We did 2nd trek of our day. As soon as we reached up, Rains stared pouring heavily. We waited there on the top for 30mins I guess. As its a small place almost equivalent to a PEAK, one gets a nice 360degree view of the surrounding. by standing in just one place.
Amol patted the backs of Varsha Kedar and Nandi. I asked what about us. We also did it. But we (Durwas n myself) got the 'M' rating :( Meeting the expectations ;-) in Amol's view.
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| Killing Views from Tung |
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| Victory! Tung in behind |
So we clicked some pics and Panaromas and started our descend again. While returning Varsha was fully charged. We descended in 30mins. While descending Rains didnt stop.
We were fully drenched. But I was fine. My car seats were plastic covered ;-) Nandi and Kedar changed their wet clothes. While others sat wet in my car.
Down then I was fine. Dont know what magic these treks play on us. They charge us back. I was all set to drive again.
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| Entering the FOG den |
I think we started our journey back at 5.30pm. It was dusk. And I was totaily unaware as to what I was gaming for, when I took up the driving. After a few meters of drive, started the fog. O MAN! I had no clue of it. Ahead of me was Kedar's car. We put ON the parking lights and I followed his car. O M G!!!! The road was awesomely beautiful, full with fog. nothing was visible. On one side I was getting mesmerized with its beauty, on the other side was realizing the challenge in driving. We stopped at a place to take a few pics. The road was narrow and at many points we had vehicles coming from opposite direction. At one point, when the car from oppo direction was passing, Amol told me that the gal on the back seat of car in the oppo direction was looking at me with a big shock. I could totally empathize her. I was in her place few months back. When I use to look at Vidya with the same feeling :) and wonder when will I drive at her level. Aso!
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| Thats what I missed while driving in Fog :) |
From there Lonavala was close by. and we soon entered the Lonavala region of Tiger hills. The road was well constructed now, and good enuf for 2 cars to pass. I was simply following Kedar's car. Then at Tiger hills we stopped to eat CORN PAKODA. But it was going to take time. So we started again with hungry stomach and thought we will eat something inside Lonavala. there the Ghat was to start from Tiger hills to down in Lonavala. Nandi stopped, and came back asking if I wanted him to drive, and if I was comfortable enuf to drive, and my answer was obiviously YES. Would I let this chance go? No ways.
Driving in fog, that too in a ghat is quite an experience. But was not too challenging though when u have a car ahead of you and u need to only follow it. So its fine and doable.
The only thing that I felt I missed is that what Nandi was doing... when I saw him sitting on the car window.... :)
We successfully crossed the foggy ghat and came down to a bridge over a damn in Lonavala. Then there was a FAATAK - railway crossing. It was going to open only after 10mins. So we had to stop there. But, it was a total SLOPE. So I had held my car on Brakes. That time I learnt from Kedar how I can stop my car on a slope without the need holding the brakes. [Turn off the car, put hand brakes, put the car in gear. Thats it. Putting the gear is the KEY].
Uske aage, we were in dilemma whether to have snax or direct dinner. I was of the opinion to have nonveg dinner. So around 7pm we were at the Lonavala exit, when we decided to do Dinner at Belapur. And there started our return journey. Actually I was in little doubt abt night driving.
Lonavalche ghat utarun, we joined the express way and soon it started raining. Raining? raining is a small word. It was pouring like a waterfall. It felt like I'm driving under a waterfall. fastest speed of wiper also didnt help. It was sunday night and there was decent traffic moving towards Mumbai. that was the MOST challenging part for me. I could only see the blinking parking lights of the vehicles and nothing else. I mean it nothing else. Learnt that every car that time was following a discipline. No one was attempting to overtake. It was good that we were on the express way, where atleast no cars were to come from the opposite direction. So only thing I had to manage was to drive safe and enter in a dialog with the traffic on the express way.
Yes... on express ways/highways when u start driving, u are actually entering into a dialog with the rest of the vehicles. And u reach safely n successfully to ur destination when there is a assertive dialog between all the vehicles that are running along with you on the road. Even if any one vehicle breaks the dialog or denies to enter into the dialog, it can be hazardous. One needs to understand the sign language and cooperate. And its awesome.
So, at that point when it was pouring, I learnt and established the dialog well. At one point one car misbehaved. Though I gave the right indicator and wanted to change the lane, it didnt allow me, and I had to control at that point. Anyways.
When I was seeing thru the windscreen, It was horrible. I couldnt believe that rains can be so bad. I love rains. But at that point, I wanted it to stop or atleast slow down.
I dont know abt the feeling of the back seaters (Varsha and Durwas). But I know Amol sitting on the cleaners seat was with me concentrating on the driving and traffic. The music was full on. But I wasnt listening to it. ok... so finally after driving for half an hr in that kind of rains, clouds cleared as we approached Mumbai. It was better then.
We reached Mumbai exit of expressway at kalamboli at 7.53pm I remember. But from there to reach Belapur it took us 30mins. There was full on traffic. so from 8.30-10pm we had nice dinner is a hotel called 'Nimantran' Lovely non veg. We played a slide show of the pics I clicked on my s3.
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| Most satisfying n deserving DINNER! |
After Dinner I was totally fatigue. Didnt wanted to drive home.
Started from Belapur at around 10pm. Once I started driving I was fine again. Dropped Durvas at Vashi Station where he has parked his Bike. Dropped Varsha and Amol at Govandi from where they took Auto. And finally reached home at around 11pm I guess.
I had got to explore my driving capacity. I had actually did a stress testing of my physical health.
- 2.5hrs of sleep.
- Total to n fro driving of abt 250kms i.e. say 6hrs
- driving in ghats, driving in heavy rains
- around 5hrs of trekking
- 2 forts covered - Tikona & Tung
- Lovely pics clicked using s3
- Rewarding panaromic views from the Forts
O man.. this day was a PACKAGE! what else shud I ask for.
I was very very over whelmed with the whole day's experiences. I was again n again Thanking Amol for arranging it. I am very satisfied and happy. Loved it!.
Thanks Amol once again.
Btw... so is there one single word that can convey it all ? :)
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| FYI: Tikona in far left and Tung in the right. Pawna Dam in middle. And I am on Lohgad :) taking this pic on immediate next weekend. Peak Rewarding!!! |
