This is not a Snipper but actually a much longer version, but hope you guys would be able to experience the moments during the trek.
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Snip-in:
It’s a youthful dream. It’s also about visiting the most beloved places (by me) in the world, by taking an entirely different route. It’s a testimony of one’s tenacity, endurance and patience. It’s acclaimed as a prelude for the folks wanting to make it big in the Himalayas.
Guys I’m referring to one of the highly respected treks in Sahyadri’s, which is none other than the Katraj-Sinhagadh Trek. Sinhagadh is a place I can vouch for being one of the best places in the world - For it’s majestic and solid looks, the prominent historical importance in terms of Shivaji’s/Maratha Empire, the one fort that I used to see most of the times in younger days when Pune was still only the Manchester of West (And not the Silicon Valley or Detroit of the West – very low population and pollution!), and when the tallest buildings used to be only 3-4 storied, for the first fort I scaled at the age of 9, and the place probably visited most in my younger days- for some other! obvious ;) reasons. Well, even after visiting a few of the countries in the world, I can still fall in love with the fort every time I see / think of it in my mind. So getting an opportunity to scale it one more time and by following a route of historic importance, I was longing to do this trek.
To give the gist about the Trek – It starts at the Katraj tunnel on the old Mumbai-Bangalore highway (NH4), traverses through more than a dozen (15 odd) hills, covering a distance of 18-20 Kilometers usually in 7-8 hours (in the night, not too sure about the daytime! Just can not think of it!).
Thanks to the ‘Wanderers’ – The trekking enthusiast group of Pune and obviously Ajit and Shailesh for making it happen for me/us. I recently scaled ‘Dukes Nose’ with the same group and it was a very nice, professional yet informal experience for me. All the treks ((just a few) we did in the younger years were with the group of friends and now I realized how it’s always better to be doing these adventurous activities with the ‘Pros’ rather than doing with Amateurs.
So we got started from our residences at Chandani Chowk and few of us who are not accustomed to sitting in vehicles lesser than ‘Civics’ have actually reached the Katraj Snake Park (the starting / meeting point) on 6 sitters / 2 wheelers and what not! Myself and Shailesh actually started the trek on the Katraj Bypass, from the ‘Aditya Garden City’. The rickshwalas were scrapping us, as if we are asking them to drop us on Saturn or we are begging for a free ride. We kept on walking and Shailesh even tried some of the ‘girly’ acts of getting a lift, but he was no way close to it (he should rather act on perfecting his acting skills ). We must have covered at least 1+ kms from his residence with 6-7 Kgs on our backs in one of the hottest evenings in May ‘10, which the ‘Al Mighty’ must have watched from somewhere up. So finally a 6 Sitter stopped just before the Warje fly over and we could ‘Embark’ on it (it’s no lesser than a ‘Moon-Raker’/Howercraft). Being a Saturday night (and otherwise also ) it was as crowded as it can be – the driver was in 200% productive mood! There was ‘no room for room’ (Doesn’t it sound like Tata Indicas first tag line? ‘More car /car’ - I don’t know what Tata’s mean by that). The rick driver was obnoxious and was driving the vehicle crazily with his music player sending the sound waves to the Heavens and Hell. Though it appeared to be a Bollywood song, it was completely unheard of by all the passengers and everyone was cursing the driver, without he being caring about it even a bit. Shailesh as usual added a spice which is only missing part to this ride. He was frantically calling another Lead Trekker - Shraddha, anticipating to get out of the 6 Sitter to get a cozier ride in her car(at least a Honda City, if not Civic). Both of them were exchanging information about each others whereabouts on their cell phones (why don’t we still have GPS trackers in our cells yet? L) which is getting lost in the deafening music in the 6 Sitter and equally raucous traffic in which she is driving her vehicle. By Gods grace they were able to locate each other (6 Sitter and her vehicle) on the Katraj Bypass. Shailesh asked me to get down the 6 sitter and I was about to be paying the driver the ‘ransom’ for keeping us hostage for 10 minutes from Warje to new Shindewadi Bypass, but when I tried searching for ‘the car’ which Shailesh believed Shraddha would be driving in, to my surprise she was on an ‘Honda Activa’ and not an ‘Honda City’ J. Consequently we had to embark the same 6 sitter for yet another self-defying or hostage trip, which somehow ended near the Katraj Snake Park in another 15-20 minutes, after which everyone in the vehicle was searching for an ENT specialist.
We waited at the Snake Park entrance for 30-45 minutes for everyone to gather, had splurged on chat items, juices n what not at the local tapris. Well it was a good turn-out of around 47 folks of different shapes, sizes, age, motives, cultures, professions and walks of life J. The youngest I’d say is a 15 years old girl and the otherwise youngest I’d say, was her father who must be around late 40’s. Majority of the folks are from Software / IT industry, followed by a group of Doctors as a profession. Surprisingly (well should it be or not so?) the 40-45% of the crowd was of a ‘Fair gender’. There were 4 Sumos arranged to take us to the Katraj Tunnel. Again thanks to Ajit for his ever enthusiastic ownership and passion towards managing the trek – unfortunately the PMT Bus service was recently defunct, and he quickly arranged for the vehicles and made it sure that things are proceeding as planned and people are comfortably/timely reaching the start point of the trek- Katraj tunnel. It was 9.45 PM in the Mirchi clockJ. We got down on the other side of the tunnel and the first thing we could see was the very Bright and almost a Full Moon peeping out of the trees and shining in midst of clear skies. We were rest assured that at least the trek won’t be boring and would be a nice walk watching the nightly trail of the moon in the skies. We started the first climb - a short one, which takes us above the tunnel for the first quick halt at the Waghjai temple. We had a quick introduction and ‘Dos and Donts’ round at this point. It had a very nice view of the Pune city. In fact we got to know that the view is going to be there with us for next 8 hours while overlooking the Pune city from South-Easterly direction. We were told by Ajit about the 18 KM, 15 hills, around 9 hour journey. And also a warning of taking a U-Turn for those who won’t be able to make it, because of the fact that there is no EXIT in between and one has to cover the same distance to go forward OR backward to reach a tar road / any sort of habitat. Fortunately no one backed-off, as I heard of people in the past actually getting back to the Katraj Tunnel to take a ride (Toyotas, Truck, Tempo, Tanga, whichever mode of travel) and head back to their cozy homes instead of sweating it out for 9 hours.
The actual trek started from the Waghjai temple at @10.15 PM. All 47 were enough enthusiastic and determinant to move forward towards the Fort. The first 2 hills at the Katraj tunnel (Gokul and Vrindavan) out of 15 are the toughest ones is what was informed to us. However, what I realized was there were a couple in between and another couple towards the end of it are equally tough (making it 5-6 toughest hills) and steep having deep valleys to descend and ascend. The walk was nice in the moonlight and starry sky above, and an equally nice starry (lightning / Fireworks) view of Pune city below through-out the trek. We walked for almost 3.5 hrs with a few small breaks, consuming water very carefully even if most of us were carrying 3-4 liters of water, as there’s absolutely no habitat / shops within reach. There were 2 small trekker groups, took-over us in between. Both the groups were not having any presence of females / kids and thus were pretty quickly disappeared towards the valleys leading to the fort (No pun intended!). Around 1.15AM we stopped for Dinner/Breakfast ;).(I remembered the breakfast menu in most of the diners in the US starts at 12 midnight ;). I noticed that when we visited the Denny’s first time in Pasadena(CA) on Colorado Blvd late in the night, and when I had a big sumptuous omelet with potato fries, which was good enough to skip the next 2 meals.). Me and Parth had ‘Batatyachi bhaji and poli’, Shailesh had the ‘Pithale’, Sharddha had the omelet Sandwich, and couple other folks had readymade Shrikhand and Namkeen (being bachelors obviously) on the breakfast table (?). We had one of the most versatile menus followed by Chikki, Cream biscuits and Shrikhand as the desserts. Some of us were actually created their virtual bed besides the virtual breakfast table and almost on the verge of sleeping. But we were just half-way through. The TV towers on the fort are blinking making us realize that it’s a still a distant dream, if we become sluggish on the move. Ajit did the trick, he made movements in the group, altered the Leads from front to back and vice versa.
So we started on the remainder of the journey. Everyone now has begun with the count-downJ of the hills. And we were getting to know the exciting stories about the trek while marching ahead. The trek which we completed in close to 8.5-9 hrs, the trekkers during Enduro event have completed in 3.5 hrs. Also some of the folks do make it as a round-trip: Katraj-Sinhagadh-Katraj – Hats-off to them (18 odd hours of strenuous ascends and descends). A couple of guys, for them it was 35th time on the same trek. That actually made us being strong and focused to complete the trek an keep up with the pace. And what actually helped in the last couple of hours was the songs – Shailesh’s cell was on and it was playing Soft Western Pop /Rock. It was a divine experience while walking on the plateaus/ crossing the valleys looking over the Khadakwasla backwaters from a distance, and listening to the Bryan Adams / George Benson / Celine Dionne / Backstreet Boys, and other chart toppers of ‘80’s and 90’s and NOW’ (felt like listening to 104.3…or some other radio station and being in LA). Fully energized listening to the songs, I started walking a lot faster in a group of 3 of us. Shailesh was way behind and so is his cell, it’s absolutely silent where there is a deep bushy valley on one right and a rocky hill on the left, we heard an unfamiliar sound of an animal roaring. All 3 of us were stranded for a moment and then walked passed that region even faster. Once we felt out of danger, we tried identifying the animal based on the sound, which we couldn’t. But it was a real scary experience which we’ll remember for a long time.
Slowly, steadily and tiredly! we have come to the last pit stop from where the steel angles of the TV tower on the Sinhagadh fort have started becoming visible-well you can actually count those from here–some 2-3 KMs of ariel distance. It’s the ‘Lone Tree’ point which is the on a hill before the last valley in the trek. People have actually thrown them on the terrain to give a soothing feeling to their thighs, knees, ankles and feet and wishing it to be the actual final destination, unfortunately which was not the case. It was 5.15 in the morning and started dawning at this juncture while we were on the ‘Loan Tree’ point. We took a break for 15-20 minutes, to have everyone regroup before we start descending the last and deepest of valleys. In another 45 minutes we reached our final destination of the trek which is the Kondhanpur road junction on the Sinhagadh Ghat road. Unfortuantely there was a group of 5-6 people who had become very tired and walking at a very slow pace was behind by almost an 1-1.5 hrs. Ajit was making sure that they are able to make that final league with a full determination. Well for rest of us, 3 ‘Jeeps’ were waiting at the junction, which dropped us to the Sinhagadh base village of ‘Atkarwadi’. Everyone jumped on to the Pohe, biscuits and tea like have not seen those for ages J at one of the ‘Tapris’. We got onto the PMT bus at 8.30 AM, and reached Warje in 40 minutes. Again none of the ricks were willing to come to the ‘Aditya Garden City’ which must be 1.5KMs from there, and were asking for double the fare. Shailesh was bravely? thinking of walking the distance in broad Sunlight. But I was not J. Incidentally a 6 sitter came for the rescue, being early morning the driver was not running on any ‘steroids’ (music) to keep him alive (And everyone else dead). I reached home at around 10.00 while 1 liter of water is still unused (out of 4) in the sack.
Snip-Out:
Some distant and personal views which may or may not be correct - I was hopeful to reduce at least 1 Kg of weight because of the 8-9 hour trek. But Shailesh and Shraddha were telling me that after last couple of treks their body weight actually increased, to which I was not very convinced. But when I checked mine after coming back, I realized the same thing, the body weight was increased by around 1-1.5 Kgs. It must be because of the high calorie food which is eaten while walking J. It has an impact on the biological clock as well as me being very particular about following certain daily routine. Also the number of descends in the summer become very dangerous because of the loose gravel and one can hurt their legs. The last thing is about the fatigue – The legs were aching for almost next 6 days and I couldn’t get up early in the morning the whole of next week, missing my morning exercise completely. So net-net from fitness standpoint I’m not too sure how these treks would help, if someone is NOT doing those regularly.
Snip-O-Meter:
Thus I was able to pay the tribute to Sinhagadh and Maratha Empire one more time and in fact in a real ‘big and long way’. Like said earlier, this is a ‘must-have’ trek for everyone who wants to take an ‘Endurance Test’. It’s quite strenuous, not good for elderly because it puts a lot of pressure on the knees. It gives an opportunity to look at the Pune city, and Sinhagadh from a different angle-and it can specially be a delight during full-moon nights. It also gives everyone an immense confidence to scale bigger mountains not only in Sahyadri’s but elsewhere including at higher altitudes and varied terrains. Importantly it will always be very close to our hearts as we scaled it on 29th May, the same day when Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the pinnacle of world-‘Mount Everest’ for the first time in the history. That made it more than an achievement for all of us.
