Wednesday 7 November 2012

PRABALGAD TREK


 3rd November' 2012

Our engineering viva's and practical exams just got over,  so we decided to do masti on sunday. We had many options like watching cricket live match between England XI and India A at D.Y.Patil stadium, going to mall , marine drive etc. BUT we chose Trekking. It was 8 pm on saturday, I called  nitesh and we decided to go to PRABALGAD. Now we called our friends to inform about our plan and as expected Pratik and Akshat's reply was like this "arrey venue gaya bhad mein, bas nikal padte hai trek ke liye, sadd raha hun ghar baithe". then few more people joined in- vikrant, aditi, sweta and vidya. 

4th November' 2012 

As per our plan , we had to catch 6.24am local from thane station to reach panvel. All had reached in time except for me, I had run very fast to catch that train. but we just missed our train. BHAILOG BOLETO AB TOH EK GANTA LATE HONEWALA HAI. So we took  6.45am local to Nerul Station and decided to catch connecting local to Panvel. Pratik was to catch local from chembur but his train was late... and we finally jumped into that local as pratik signalled us from door. 






We reached Panvel station at 8am. Then after half and hour timepass, pet-pooja; we decided to hire a tumtum. We reached base village Thakurwadi. HERE OUR TREK BEGINS.                                      
View of prabalgad fort from base village THAKURWADI

The climb is quiet gentle in the first hour of the trek. The climate was hot and dry as we sweated right from the start. U should do this trek on rainy season and winter season only.


scorching heat



We had completed almost one and a half hour trek when we all reached a plateau.This plateau is called PRABALMACHI. At this point one has a option to go to Kalavantin Durg or Prabal gad Fort. So we took a break for half an hour and had refreshments. 
                                   Nitesh and Sweta                                        Vidya          

We all resumed our ascent . There are 2 ways to reach prabalgad fort- one via kalvantin durg route( SHORTCUT ROUTE) and another one - walking sideways to the mountain and then steep climb through NALLI ( LONGER ROUTE). This being our pilot trek, we weren't aware of either route. (HAHAHA) We asked few villagers and started taking longer route. LUCKILY some villager spotted us and he told us that NALLICHI ROUTE had gone behind. He sumhow guided us to Nallichi route. And from there , our real trek began.                   I and akshat took the initiative of leading the group whereas pratik and nitesh decided to trail. Its difficult to spot the entrance to Nallichi route as the forest is dense and dry grass covering the entire trail ( thanks to that villager who helped us out) . We started our steep climb through Nallichi vaat. we took about one and half hour to complete this nallichi vaat. 


nallichi vaat


After this patch, there was horizontal walk for about half an hour which was quite easy but there are so many branches, thorns, spiders blocking ur path. BUT only one thing in our mind was running


                 roke tujhko aandhiyan, ya zameen ya aasmaan,             

                        payega jo lakshya tera                                        

               lakshya toh har haal mein paana hai                            







branches, thorns obstructing our way

And finally after 4 hours of  hardwork and patience, HUMNE HAMARI MANZIL PAA LI. We reached to the top of PRABALGAD FORT where one can get clear view of KALVANTIN DURG AND OTHER MOUNTAINS. 

mission accomplished

Ajj mein upar, aasman niche, ajj mein aage, zamana hai piche.!!






hum saath aath hai..!! 


                                                      






  









up row ( L-R)- munni badnaam, kamdev baba, chikni chameli
bottom row( L-R)- singham , ra-1 , don , chulbul pandey




kalvantin durg


steps of kalvantin durg

After our ritual of photosession, we decided to have lunch as if we were hungry from ages. KASAM SE PET MEIN CHUHE CRICKET KA MATCH KHEL RAHE THE. We found a place under the tree's shadow and started our attack.


         AARAM HARAM HAI LEKIN HUM HARAMI HAI        





It was 3.15pm and we decided to descend  as we had to reach our base village THAKURWADI before sunset. When we reached Nallichi vaat, most of us found very difficult to descend as rocks we not stable. Minor injuries took place but Pratik and Nitesh really took care of our trekmates. So we were descending with slow pace as time didnt matter . People trailing behind lost their way as I and akshat  had moved far ahead. Suddenly akshat went to rescue them and brought them back to right track.
BELIEVE ME GUYZ , TRAIL IS NOT CLEARLY VISIBLE AND U MAY LOSE UR WAY.

Then at 5.30 we reached PRABAL MACHI to have refreshments. We took help of some villager and he made arrangements of rickshaw as the tum-tum wala we hired didnt came back to pick us. We then started to descend very fast as sun was already set and darkness took over. With the help of few torches, we finally made our way to base village Thakurwadi where rickshawala was w8ing for us. W e all guyz managed to pack ourselves in a single auto ( capacity was only 3) . He left us at highway and from there we boarded a bus to panvel station.

Honestly speaking we missed aashish uncle, anusha , om prakash uncle, sachin and many more punter log of WEEKEND WANDERERS. Kudos to all of us - pratik, nitesh , akshat, sweta, vidya, vikrant, aditi and me. We got to learn many things such as TEAMWORK, TAKING CARE AND SAFETY of other trekmates, LEADERSHIP( in case of me and akshat), TRAILERSHIP (in case of pratik & nitesh :p:p ), SUPPORTING EACH OTHER, MOTIVATING EVERY TREKKER, KEEPING PATIENCE and most important FORGETTING ALL THE PAIN AND ENJOYING EACH AND EVERY MOMENT WITH TREKKERS. For me it was one of the best treks of my life .