Here I am hitting the dirt trek with another first to my list of modest achievements. Yes Friends !! I am talking of my first night trek- Trek to Rajmachi from Lonawala
It all happened because one of my very good friend Suresh who wanted to go for trekking but he had a condition that he doesn’t want to do one day trek as he felt it becomes very hectic to wake up early in the morning and come back late at night and then go to office next morning. Due to this condition apply situation I decided we will do this Lonawala-Rajmachi-Karjat trek.
With all the excitement which is very usual in my case when the moment someone pronounce the word trek .
Both of us geared up ,packed all the stuff needed for the trek we dashed off to CST station.
Time was 1.30 pm when we reached CST station and we were suppose to board 2.30 pm Sinhgad Express. We were dismayed to see serpentine line at the ticket counter, but we survived the scare and managed to get the Lonawala tickets well in time but the catch here was that either we make a dash to catch the train so as to get the place to sit or we could eat our lunch and board the train just few minutes before the departure
however in the latter case the chances to sit would definitely vanish. Both of us opted for the former option and jumped into the train. Despite sacrificing our lunch we were frustrated to see that the train was almost full but somehow after doing seat hunting we found a place to sit. In the meanwhile our organizer Jagdish had also joined us. So the pack of wolves were off to hunting I mean pack of trekkers were off to trekking.. Enroute other co trekker kept joining us. The train was becoming crowded as hell with not a microinch of space to stand. The train went rumbling thru the tunnels after tunnels and finally we reached Lonawala at 5.34 pm
Our Arrival Time at Lonawala Station |
Jaise ki har ek trek me hota hai…
Koi na koi late Zaroor hota hai….
and this trek was no exception we waited out for the latecomers passing our time by clicking photos
.
Early Birds |
After the impromptu photo session and the delayed arrival of the late comers we boarded autorickshaw to Tungarali Village. In fading light we collected ourselves and had an introduction round minus the instruction round(Perhaps Jagdish thought we all are quite intelligent and don’t need any instructions..Lolz)
We started our trek from Tungarili Village and after walking for hardly 5-7 minutes we reached at Tungarali Dam where again there was a small bout of Photo session.
Small Bout of photo session at Tungarali Dam |
We continued our trek…. from here the city of Lonawala was looking very beautiful. It was now quite dark and we all had to use the torch lights for finding our way.We kept on walking for about one hour but soon realised that somewhere down the line we have lost our way. Everyone collapsed on the road waiting for Jagdish to come or direct us to the correct trail. So this lot of intelligent trekker came out with varied solutions to make Jagdish know our location. Someone suggested that we call out aloud, then some one suggested that we light the torch towards the sky, mobile network was unreachable and so was now Jagdish for us. Luckily for us a biker from village passed us and he informed us that we have missed the turn behind so off we all retreated grumbling that 1 hour is lost and that much more to walk now. Amidst all this commotion also no one forgot to take pictures.“Koi apne chere per Torch mar ke Bhoot ke effect ki picture nikal raha hai toh koi shadow pictures nikal raha hai” Innovation in photography was at its best height..
Lost!!! but hungry (me) and tired (Suresh) (note the sweat on his shirt) |
Pooja and Nikhil wandering Now what next !!!! |
So we retraced our trek and came to the proper trail . From here onwards our Agni pariksha started because we were walking in pitch darkness, village road uneven and occasional streams crossing our trail. Most of us were now getting tired the speed of most of trekker were dropping. Suresh slowly lost the speed and was now trailing the group. I too was feeling quiet dehydrated. It was here I got into a conversation with Nikhil and Pooja. Nikhil is an avid biker who loves biking along coastal region while pooja like my friend was a first timer trekker..
Walking for almost 2hrs now nearly everyone looked like victim of fatigue , I could see people cracking due to tiredness and most of us had only one common question for our organizer…How far to go now????
At this point I want to bring to notice of the future trekker that the Trek schedule will say the trek is easy to medium level but I would say that first timer should not do this trek only because of endurance factor. I agree that the difficulty level is not much but overall it does test the endurance level to the hilt.. After walking for almost 5 and half hour we reached Rajmachi village at around 11.30 pm.
For almost everyone of us the sight of village was like oasis in the middle of desert. we felt that we have reached paradise not because of village sight but more due to our tiredness.We hardly had any energy to eat our dinner but seeing the unlimited puran poli everyone got into the business of dinner.
Puran poli Dinner Special |
Dinner…. Village istyle !!! |
Members of Chhan Chaan trek |
PLEASE CLICK THE LINK GIVEN BELOW FOR RAJMACHI TREK PHOTOS
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