A trek with my office mates... A fun filled plan. A picnic. Is it really worth writing? If it wasn't for some deviation of plans! I wondered what title would justify our experience. Hope my story explains...
Friday office, weekend ahead. V had to plan something interesting. So our office started on a rather different note. The day was spent planning a trek to Ratangad. And also convincing me to join as i had another trek scheduled on sunday with my trek group. Finally v jotted down 9 entries:
Suchendra (Trek lead)
Harsh (PJ lead)
Shri (Tympass lead)
Yash (Tiring lead)
Nishant (Cards lead)
Supriya (Food lead)
Prajakt (Business lead)
Parang (Family planning lead)
Rubens (me... Co trek lead)
And thus we decided to meet up at dadar stn. Catch 11.39 local to kasara.
I came home, shopped little for food and headed to station post dinner. Coincidentally yash was traveling in same train. And there i met my first fortuity! V met at dadar n called up suchendra just to realize that now we have to catch the 12.33 local, communication error and we were left to ourselves to enjoy the boredom! A few more calls confirmed we could include paarang in our circle. He came in another half hour. Yash said "chal Dombivali ja ke tympass karte hain. Dono bhai, harsh shri wahan honge"
12am we got in a local and reached the gaon... Sorry Dombivali. A second misery met us in the train when i called up suchendra to confirm our status. He said "abe train miss ho gayi hamari. Hum taxi se aa rahe hain. Tujhe bola tha ticket nikaal. Uski chakkar main late ho gaya" i was like dude your not suppose to do that to the last local! Don't end the trek even before starting. Thanks for destroying our excitement! We proceeded still hoping they would reach before the last local reaches, which was an impossible task actually!
Dombivali... The brothers came in their usual cool attire n jovial faces, searching for food like hungry canines! We shared a few chip packets and masala peas. Regular calls with suchendra updated us that their taxi was around thane. I asked shri, harsh how much time it wud take them. One said 10min other said 40. We realized we were wrong question to wrong people. The last local would reach by 1.30, we had just 10min!
The atmosphere got heavy. Anger n frustration filled the air. Even the dog on station felt it i guessed as they moved restlessly and tried calming us by their clown acts! We decided we'll still catch the train. Let others come by taxi till kasara if they miss again. A last call from paarang turned the air around... It was a prank! Thy were in the train. God u guys are gonna get a good bashing. V caught the train with revived excitement doubled by our becoming bakra!The rest of train journey was more of an athlete workout and portfolio session with everyone testing their cameras. Kalyan came, supriya was comfortably sitting besides open window enjoying cool breeze and suddenly a ghostly ugly looking man shouted begging for alms. she literally shouted and jumped from the seat. We all turned and went rolling down with laughter. the man came to the door, tried showing his entire dental structure. We photographed him and congratulated him for scaring the lady who scares us all :)
Kasara met us funmates at 2.45am from where we started level 2 of our pre-booked jeep
journey to Shendi village. But not without harsh performing another hilarious act with the localites on station, adoring there sleeping poses! Most of us took the opportunity to meet our subconscious mind. We had boarded at 3.30 and by 5.00 v could feel the cold drizzle on our face on the dark roads of village. we took the opportunity to explore the village around and manage few clicks with the parivar (chai poster!). Early Morning fed us with hot tea and bhajiya. i personally took the responsibility of clicking close shots of it to tease office guys! We were to take boat crossing the Bhandardara lake to the village across but fate had decided to play its part again. The continuous
rains had hindered all water transport and we had to find road transport. A 22km journey around the Bhandardara dam, through the mountains and besides in numerous waterfalls took us to the base village, ratanwadi.The base village has a beautifully carved 14th Century Amruteshwar
temple, built in the Hemadpanthi style. Its about 1000 years old temple of Lord Shiva. We were cautioned of loosing the way up due to dense forest so took a guide from village. The way up was more fascinating than we had ever imagined. A fast exuberant river greeted our start and rest of the way saw us crossing the same river with knee deep heavy current water. 
We were playing snakes n ladder with the river and falls. Till we won our place to a plateau mid way up! Our stomach grinned and we had to explore our bags for our first treat on biscuits and namkeen. All thrilled with the scenery around... no one could have guessed what lied ahead! Me and Harsh managed to surface ahead of all. With supriya deciding to stay behind and delay us! Oh ya she was caring her 20kg bag... No wait... ah it was suchendra carrying it for her. And we were so concerned that we often stopped and shouted to check if all r coming.. "Gende(yash) aa raha hai na!" and he dragged his feet along like a desert lizard, his tongue touching his throat!Some more deep forest led us to level 3... The stairs. Rocks all around deep valley waiting to engulf our last breath and dangling support stair rods. Well it had to climbed... Stair 1, Stair 2. Are we through! The reward is a 80 degree straight hard rock patch, hugged by water falling from above. That was the en
trance to fort - Ganesh Darwaza. Ahead were a few more rock cut stairs which gave us an option of exploring the fort further to left or settle down at the caves to the right. Ah rest it was! We ran to the caves just to see another sweet fortune hugging our tired body. A dirty pathetically left cave. To be or not to be, that is the question. The lady in charge got down to cleaning. Man i realize the importance of woman now! Yash still in his agony fought hard to light a "chulah" well he needed it most with all his shivers shouting some rest. He unfolded a sleeping bag and don't know how but his huge figure found its way inside.
We meanwhile utilized every second to click pics and check out surroundings. The brothers again entertained us with their 'fevicol ka mazboot jorr' act! We Convinced the guide to stay a bit late so i can climb down with him. Yeh i was still fighting my pals to move on to my trek of sunday, even if i had to go down alone. God y u always go against me...Lunch was more than a stomach exercise now, a fight for survival.
A hunt for life. Not around the jungle but inside each others bags. And the lady in charge did her job again amazingly well showing us the way to delightful paneer, Dal makhani, Razma. Sweet dishes had rasgulla. Man if that bag has such relieving food. i can carry it all day long! Those were not only mine but every ones thought.
Post lunch we gained enough energy to explore the rest of fort above us. Rains continuously pounding did a commendable job of breaking our determination... but failed. And we understood why we won when we saw the scenic excellence in place. Barah lake was a place u would feel so royal being in, naturally formed pools n waterfalls were amazing.
Shri got this innovative concept of performing a Durga mata puja. Supriya standing right infront in her pink raincoat and we all hiding behind her, just our hands visible. Pinki Mata! There were further green carpets and a hill calling us but most of the group felt too weak to go further. Hence we refrained.Now the time for reality. I had determined i would climb down, the guide also returning with me. If i started by 2pm, i can easily see the base by 4pm. Confirming with the guide that i can avail some form of transport hence. It would still be a pain but my excitement was stronger than my misery. And meanwhile a debate started amongst others whether to stay or go down. The persistent rains made all the available wood wet enough and repeated attempts to convince the guide to get wood from base had failed. Now night stay would have been a matter of life and death in the shivering freezing weather. And without fire our stomachs would have cried no less. To help the decision further few notorious group of guys joined us above. Wisely enough all decided to head back. I already bit frustrated with the entire scenario came a step down towards the stairs, ready to go.
A normal trek. descent excitement and fun, we'll head down and end our dream. Where's the Man vs Wild concept! Think again..."Help! Help anyone there, please help" I saw a girl's head faintly visible in the fog and my senses warned me worse to come. I immediately shouted for suchendra to come and rushed towards her. What v saw beyond changed our perception of a fun filled trek. She nervously popped only these words "A guy with us climbing up fell down, i cannot see him" The adrenalin rushed with double speed as suchendra ran below the first stairs, the guide n me joining. We realized that constant waters had made the same path a waterfall endurance and 'Girish' slipped from the rock patch right below the darwaza, rolled from besides the first stairs. Felt right from its side way down. Totaling a 30feet fall, the guy had lost conscious for those fraction of seconds. He had a long deep cut over his forehead, where one could make out the folds of inner skin and veins. Right eye just missed the attack but eyebrow wasn't spared as it was left dangling by the cut. Right hand and left leg completely malfunctioned. Was a surprise and miracle he made it alive! I ran up and down to get medicine and Getoride energy drink from our group, while suchendra helped tie his wounds. Blood was never so cheap as its flow competed with the rain waters.
A group of 6 enthusiast, Girish, Madhu, Varun, Tarang, Eti and Harshita had come rather in a jovial picnic mood and didn't really understood the graveness of the word 'trek'. Madhu and Eti were too petrified to climb down the rock patch and stairs. Suchendra became the engine and i the guard to instruct there every foot work. Time had become a foe and we had to think fast to get the guys down to base before dark. A few more trekkers, Amit and Omkar, coming up joined us in battle. I had the trekking rope 15meters.
We decided to make a stretcher with logs but they were too weak to hold weight. We broke even the stair iron support to make something worth carrying him. Which did solve the purpose a few feet but finally gave way.The plan was to split the operation. Our group along with Tarang, Eti and Harshita went down to village to get help and Me, Suchendra, Shri, Prajakt stayed with Girish. Varun, Madhu followed along. Convincing the guy finally to utilize his feats, we managed to get him up. Starting our descend at 4pm, we feared the darkness would overtake us.
Madhu tried her best to walk slower than tortoise, counting every single rock on the way back. I and prajakt made sure she failed! We managed half way through to the middle plateau, and met some respite in the form of eager villagers. They took charge and quickly made their own way work to carry Girish. The heavy waters had made the sweet river swell like a mad bee. Luckily they knew a better way down, though we still crossed the waist deep fast moving current once. By 8:30pm we managed few smiles on our faces as the dim lights of village houses surfaced.In another hour we washed his wounds, called for doctor and his friends arranged for them to head back to nashik for emergency treatment. Much relieved and thankful, the group bid us goodbye. I thanked God for placing us at the right time with right minds to help save a life. We then retired to a helpful villagers hut, where we all could change to dry clothes and ate Pitla Bhakri made by them. Much relieved we engaged in days review, some card games and fun talks. God, i believe had placed cute baby Goat and chicken in the hut to remove our minds from the tragic incidents. But i guess they took their jobs too seriously as thy clammed over us in night sleep. may be to check if our bones our still in place!
The battle was yet half won. Transport from the town was a pain for aliens. A single ST bus started at 7am. which that blessed morning decided to ditch us by leaving at 6:30. I seemed to be the only one wide awake, so took charge of the situation.
Prajakt gathered courage to surface and bear the chilling wind outside. We had to go far on the main road to connect to mobile network. A few calls and 30mins of rains wetting our bodies saw us finalizing a jeep back to Kasara station. I was still in hopes of meeting my group for second trek. But the moutnains around had made the network too feeble to connect across. Thus i traced my steps back home, sad i couldnt go to another exciting trek but happy i could be the reason a man is alive today!Nature never failed to surprise us. The return journey saw yet another heavenly treat, A reverse waterfall. Where water did fell from high rocky mountains but the reverse winds made it fly up again. We relaxed on our 1.5 hour journey back and Supriya again gained some blessings by opening few munchings. The next story to be explored is of the magic bagpack of supriya. The more we ate out of it, the more heavy it got!
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