Rajgad Trek

I have always been an avid trekker with a whopping 3.6 treks under my belt so far. And with no trek in the last few months, you must have guessed how restless I was to go on one. So me, Ameya, Naval and Tushar decided to go to Rajgad on the weekend of 18th of this month.

We reached Margasani by bus and then walked the 8 kms to Gunjawane. Then we had pohe and tea there at the Suvela Hotel and placed our lunch order. The guys at the hotel bring your lunch up to you on the gad but charge an extra 100 rs for that.

In continuing with our groups tradition of deciding to start a trek at dawn, we managed to start the trek at 1pm in the afternoon. We were off target from the planned time by a paltry 5-6 hours. But I believe, trekking in the afternoon makes the entire experience more simple. You are so tired that you hardly notice the deep crevices, valleys and the difficult climbs that would otherwise have frightened you.

A trekking book had described the climb as "gentle to steep" but looking at the gentle part we had serious doubts about the steep part. We climbed for a while, then there was a sort of small plateau in the middle and from there we could see the steep last climb to the gad.

The weather was quite pleasant with friendly clouds obscuring the sun, greenery all around and birds singing sweet songs. We were climbing at a leisurely pace and hence werent so much tired. I was humming a tune as i was climbing up. Everything seemed to be perfect. And then I had a horrible realization which shocked me to the core ! I was humming a Himesh song !! I quickly looked back to see if the others had heard me doing that - they hadnt. I begged forgiveness from the clouds, the trees and the birds and started humming 'Wugundu Wagabuku', an imaginary African folk song - anything to forget the Himesh song !

We reached the top at 3:30 through the Chor darwaza, had a brief rest and then started the ascent of the Balekilla. This climb was quite interesting with one tough rock patch. However, there are railings present there which can be used for assistance while climbing. An expert climber like me didnt require the railings and I used them for only about 99.99% of that patch. I didnt use it for 0.01% since the railing wasnt present for that part. And it would be nearer the truth if I said that rather than 'using' the railings, I was clinging to them for dear life.

Me and Tushar rushed ahead and sat on the broken Buruj overlooking the Sanjivini Machi. We could see the river delta on the left and valleys and hills all around.

And then came the most thrilling moment of my life. A huge, white cloud started approaching us, accompanied with wind. We could see it floating towards us, obscuring the Machi along the length as it approached us. High winds had started blowing too. And we were sitting there, me and Tushar, on that broken Buruj right at the top. And then everything was blotted out from our view as we could see only white all around us and our hair was being blown around by a gusty wind. This was the moment which I will cherish forever.

Ameya and Naval also approached us and then after 5 minutes we left and descended the Balekilla. Then it was time for some bridge and then lunch/dinner which the guy brought up at around 7:15.

We hadnt planned on staying and had a most memorable stay in the Padmavati temple. We were shivering in between because of the cold and we were sleeping on the cold stone floor. There were other groups sleeping there as well. And as it always happens when N (N>1) people sleep together in a huge room, there was a snoring competition. One guy seemed be to bent on imitating the sounds made by a startled bear while another one seemed to be confused - he was trying to be a mixer, an aeroplane engine and a whistle at the same time. It was as if each group had its official representative for snoring and we had ours in Naval !

We (except Naval who somehow managed to sleep peacefully) had about 1-2 hours of sleep and got up at 5:30 am. We had run out of food and water and decided to only visit the Suvela Machi before descending. We began our descent at 7:30 after seeing the Machi. We only had a bottle of water with us and that water had been filled there from a tank which was clean except for some plastic bags, fish and their young, some weird-looking insects and frogs.

We completed our descent by 8:45 and then had a round of pohe and tea. Then hitched a rickshaw to Margasani, then by jeep to the highway and from there a PMT bus.

We should have reached Swargate by 11:45 (we actually reached at 12:30, and then home by 1:30) but got caught in a traffic jam at Katraj. We hadnt bathed since 1.5 days and were hungry. We were getting restless to get back home. And then, that part of you which wants to complain started to pry my mouth open so that it could get out. But I clamped my mouth firmly shut. Not today. Today, I wont complain about anything - not after that experience on the Buruj and the entire trek. Maybe some other time, but not today.