My First Trek

"When a person really desires something, all the universe conspires to help that person to realize his dream."

I was fond of nature, clicking exceptional photos and going on a trek was always on top of my To Do List. The trekking dream did come to reality on receiving the "AP IT Trek" mail from CommunIT team. It was System's Family's first informal outing. Finally the date of trekking was decided as 22.07.2017 and accordingly the itinerary and guidelines were shared with us. The core team managing all the activities were Chandu (Chandrashekhar Todur), Siddharth Gadekar, Nikhil Deshmukh. We were trekking to Korigad. The number of enthusiastic trekkers (most of us were first timers) reached 50 and thus it was a task to manage a folk of fifty but the core team did an excellent job. A week before the trek went into shopping for sports shoes and windcheater. 

22.07.2017 Morning:

I started from Virar in 04:58am Churchgate train alongwith Lozika Shah. My little backpack consisted of half a litre water bottle, some bread and butter, lot of chocolates, first aid kit, all wrapped in plastic. The lighter, the better since I had to carry it to the top. A private bus was arranged from Mumbai to Korigad. The first pick up point was at Santacruz Station where folks from the Western Railway assembled and the journey started at 06:30am. Two HRs (Avanish Singh and Sanika Bhawalkar) joined us. The second pick up point was our Head Office at Vakola where the CSK folks, few managers, Bhakti Sawarkar and Varsha Agrawal got in. Since the bus driver forgot this pick up point, we ended up completing a circle from University to Vakola Pipelines. Then we proceeded towards Kurla, the third pick up point. Here the boarding lot carried lunch packets. Now the bus drove over flyovers and flyovers and we could see only skyscrapers around. Around 07:30am we crossed the Vashi Bridge. Music and WhatsApping was on in the bus. We picked up Ninad Deshpande from Sanpada. Now the bus had to drove all the way till Chouk to pick up the last lot of trekkers. Now on there were just highways and waterfalls alongside of the roads and tunnels and zig zag elevations. To sync with these moving scenes, the music box played, 

"Dil chahata hai.. Kabhi naa beete chamkile din... 

Jagmagate hai jhilmilaate hai apne raaste 

Ye khushi rahe roshni rahe apne vaaste... O o o o...."

At 09:00am, we halted for an hour at Khalapur Food Plaza for breakfast and then continued our journey to Korigad. But little did we know that nature had already made some other plan for us. Roads to Korigad were blocked. So the experienced trekkers made quick decisions and the bus headed towards it. All of us were handed our lunch packets;  and we got down from the bus. Nikhil Deshmukh announced the plan change. We were trekking to Visapur Fort now. All the safety instructions were announced. The difficulty level was medium and the fort was 1084 meters above sea level.

12 Noon: Ascending to Visapur Fort

We started walking from the bus halt point towards Malavli Railway station. We crossed the railway lines; there were many sellers selling the smart phones mobile cover. Climbing the flyover, we reached the Patan Visapur Road. My shoelaces were troubling a lot. Finally I had to tie them around as anklets. The roads now had shops and small bungalows around. We walked over the knee-length water filled roads and yes it was raining too. We kept walking ahead in small groups; reached the Bhaje village. I remember a stall selling eggs and cucumber. We proceeded further; watching the Bhaje caves and the stairs route. We did not take that route. Now on, the steep road begins and we just kept walking and walking. At the end there was an amazing waterfall but the area was quite crowded. 

We took a right turn from there and again kept walking through the road. Then we climbed for the first time over the rocks. It was not easy but we climbed up taking help of each other. The second climb was a bit more of the first one and we climbed up through the muddy stream and through muddy rocks almost making our clothes and hands muddy! Here's a picture after the second climb:

We walking through the zig zag elevations. As we were moving ahead, we could see a better picture of the surroundings and waterfalls all around the range of the plateau. There were shops alongside the road selling Vada Pav and Bisleri bottles. Few shops serving the hot and masala salted maize and also there was even kanda bhaji. Finally we reached at the Khind Rasta where the road forked into two ways: one led to Lohagad and another to Visapur. Here we could see the peak of the hill:

Done with few clicks, we started walking on the wet muddy road at 02:00pm. It was long road having the fort lined to its one side. We could see small streams flowing through the whole range of the plateau. Walking through the muddy road; the shoes were going into the soil. So better walk on the water lining which flowed through the center. But we have to be careful putting each step forward. Done with the muddy road, we have to climb rocks through the jungle. Having done practice twice just an hour ago, we all could climb quickly even though the difficulty was more than the previous two climbs. The last climb was the waterfall! I saw the waterfalls on TV and in real during my visit to hometown. And now I was going to climb one! It was so exciting. Though the water was in force, I saw many others climbing it. So even I started. It was a task climbing through the boulders, cutting through the water and putting my steps ahead. The newbie Sagar Talati did help me at some difficult steps. Finally I completed the waterfall, what a proud moment it was for my heart! Then we had to climb little more and we reached the top at 03:00pm.

Top of Visapur Fort

What an awesome view to see from the top with rains and fog and lot of blowing air around us. The rain drops showering on us felt like needles piercing on the skin. We had lunch; thepla with garlic chutney, a slice of cake and kachori. It was difficult to eat due to the airy atmosphere. But we somehow managed. We walked through the plateau for around 15 minutes; all the while we were shivering due to cold. The wind was almost pushing us while we were roaming around.

Descending from Visapur Fort

After having an eyeful view from the top and clicking pics, we started to descend at 04:00pm. Now first was the waterfall. I was in last group. As I was coming down jumping from one rock to another, I could feel my legs dragging me downwards and if I stop then I will definitely fall since the body was giving a forward push. I guess many others would also be feeling the same. I could finish with the waterfall much easily. But then others in my group were still on the way and here I felt like lost for there were two ways ahead of me. I saw a pink raincoat far in the jungle, it was Varsha Agrawal. I just walked briskly through the route for I wanted to join that group now. Finally we descended through the rocks and reached the wet muddy road. I do not know why I was not exhausted and I wanted to finish as early as possible. I reached the forked road and met Jagruti Singavi and Chandu there. Then it was just the tar road going zig zag through the elevations and green scenic to watch around. 

I somehow manage to catch up with Sindhu and group. We had maize party on the way. We had to just keep walking and walking. We reached the crowded waterfall area at 06:00pm. The atmosphere was same throughout the trek. There was fog and rain and misty climate. The clouds were grey not dark. The sun just glanced once through the clouds and kept hiding for rest of the day. We walked through the Bhaje caves and village and the flyover to the Malavli railway crossing. Now again we had to walk the road till the bus halt point. We were in the first 20 to reach there before 07:00pm. The rest 30 were on the way.

The Halting Point

The bus would arrive only when all have reached the halting point. So we had nothing to do now but chit-chat, bear with the mosquito bites and even dogs. All tips and tricks were tried to make the driver come to the location but all in vain. It started growing dark now. The only street light on the road was blinking for sometime and then it was steady. All were tired and just wanted to board the bus. Other buses arrived and took there lot and departed. At last the remaining 30 joined us and finally our bus arrived. We got into it just like the way we catch a train as if you won't get a seat if you don't jump first. 

22.07.2017 Night:

We started our return journey at 08:00pm. Everyone was tired still enthusiastic. Few songs were composed on the way. The departure was LIFO (Last In First Out). We reached at Chouk at 09:00pm and dropped the first lot. Then we drove all the way to Sanpada to drop the next set of trekkers. Thanks to the Mumbai traffic to have mercy on us and didn't eat up our time. The third point was Kurla. Many got down wishing bye and thanking all for a well spent amazing day. Then we drove straight to the Mumbai University Road, dropped the CSK gang and few managers and drove straight to the Final Destination: Santacruz Station. We all took our respective trains. The 11:10pm Virar Fast made us run like mad from Platform 3 to Platform 6 at Andheri. Three of us: I, Lozika and Abhishek Nagrale reached Virar at 12:15am. Finally I reached home at 12:30am and my legs were paining now. As said by the experienced trekkers, we got to know the exact pain the next day morning. But the night sleep was awesome. 

The whole Saturday spent in the vicinity of nature, trying out new things altogether gave us a different experience. And here I got a chance to blog on it! Co-trekkers do share in your experience of the day and also readers do share in your trek experience in the comments. Hope for more such treks to be arranged and more such adventures to go into my diary!