Here is another blogpost about my Harishchandragad trek via nali chi vaat. I've kept a different idea of writing this blog post, its more of the thoughts zooming out as I jot down the trek. This writeup moves in and out of present and past tense.

This post is somewhere between the normal blog and far away 140 chars tweet.

Fri, January 8, 2010

* Karjat train for kalyan, sandwiches Mallik brought
* reached Kalyan about 9.00pm
* bus for Nagar , dropped us at Khubi phata instead of Savarne as both the conductor and the aspirants dozed off!
* took 2 trucks back to savarne, my truck driver advised to stay near the police chowki and be aware of the villagers at savarne
* almost 12.30 when we reached @ savarne, Mallik, Rajo and Vj followed after 10 mins
* decide to sleep near the police chowki, in our sleeping bags, till the alarm rang at 4.45

Ruturaj's Album

Monsoons had just arrived and we couldn't resist the first one of the wet season, Siddhagad. Located near Murbad, between Gorakhgad and Bhimashankar, it was a good outing for us, Vj, Mallik, R.A. Jo B.A, Sneha, Swati and Kudrat. We could've hiked the final Balekilla, but as we were on a tight one-day schedule, we had to reach up to the cave atop the Siddhagad machi and return back.

Travelling Directions

• Get a train for Kalyan Railway Station (Central Railway)
• A ST bus to Murbad
• Another ST bus to Narivali
• A walk starts which converts to a trek soon - towards Siddhagad

Approximate time of Trek: 6-7 hrs (including the return to the base village)

Almost 7 months later, I've finally managed to write about my Dodital trek and the trip to the Uttaranchal. What you will find is more of an aggregation of the daily jottings about the journey. Its arranged as book with every day as a chapter, Here you go
Dodital Trek

Kalavantin Durg, the small steep hill adjoining to Prabalgad was our motto of the day, Dec 6, 2008.

With Mallik, his cousin, Raksha, Vj, Rajo, Janki and Neeraj adventured the steep, kindof scary trek.

View the Gallery

Travelling Directions

• Get to Panvel, Bus or Train (Central Harbour)
• From Panvel ST Bus Depot, take a bus for Thakurwadi, and get @ the last stop, the base village

Approximate time of Trek: 4-5 hrs (including the return to the base village)
Difficulty: easy to medium, if you are not scared of heights.

Satara is a place of plains showered with small hills all around. At times these hills are in a queue, gives an impression of being placed manually.

Vairatgad

Vairatgad Fort (Wai T; 17° 50' N, 73° 50' E; RS. Wathar, 21 m;) in Wai 3,939 feet above sea level, lies nine miles north-east of Medha and six miles south-east of Wai. The base village is Vyajvadi.

Day 7, 14 Jun 08

Bebra Ghat

My stomach is grumbling, I feel bad, need to go to the loo, I wake up, Its dark, everybody is sleeping. Probably its still night. I need to go. The loo I remember is not in the room, I need to get down walk and there is something built over there. I don't have time to find a torch, I wake up Vj and aks for a torch. I get down the stairs, and walk towards the toilet scared of leeches jumping on my foot. Its liquid ! I return back and get into the bag, its around 2.00am. I've added myself to upset stomach list with Mallik and Vj.

Day 6, 13 Jun 08

Dodital

6.00 am, Rajo's alarm is sickening. We get up and find a place for a food-dump. The guard again points that do not do it near the stream that feeds the pool. We find some good place, after that, I was feeling a lot better. Others too finish off, and start doing the 'packing' business. With a big backpack and loads of things to carry, the whole packing takes around 5 minutes or more. Viki as usual was up and running, around 8.00 we have our breakfast of Rice and Dal, Viki encourages us to push in as much as we can, as there is a lot to climb and so lot of energy to be consumed. Vijay is feeling nauseatic and drinks two glasses of Salt water, but that doesn't help him vomit. The strange feeling continues to spoil his morning.

Day 5, 12 Jun 08

Off from Manjhi

7.00 am,
After a treacherous and strenuous trek last day, its going to be a relatively easy walk to Dodital from Manjhi. We don't get up before 7.00 and slowly gather courage to repack our sacks and muster enough strength to load it on our backs. Even the night's sleep is not without effort. Every move that I made in the sleeping bag made me pant for breath! Thats how I got through the night. Viki had made Aloo paratha and we had those and left around 11.15. The trek was more of a walk on a slope, sometimes ascending and othertimes just flat. At times when we crossed two mountains, the slope divided towards the base, and we were just happy enough for the descend as we were for more climb. Along the route Viki kept informing us about the various trees, mosses and how even the mosses are loaded full in trucks and sold off. We came across 2-3 bridges on streams which were in construction phase. Viki knew some of the labourers. The streams in Himalayas are endless. In Western India people are desparate for waterfalls and streams in the mountains, over here, its just another natural feature.

Day 4, 11 Jun 08

Bebra Ghat

3.00am, Its been raining hard since last night's dinner. I hear Vj's voice, he seems to be screaming.. somthing.. 'paani', I give it a deaf ear. But soon Vj's panic in voice was echoed by that of Mallik. This time I heard them carefully. Vj and Mallik's tent was water-logged. Small water puddles. Mallik is agitated as their Sleeping bags are all wet, so no sound, comfy sleep. Vj calls for Amye, to check if their tent is filled with water. I'm still too sleepy to get off my bum and check our tent. Vj finally calls for me and Rajo, only then did we get up and checked our tents. Our sleeping bags too are wet on the edges where the rain cover was not adequate enough. Vj and Mallik are on an overdrive to flush of their tents from water. It all continues till 4.00am, when things finally settle down a little, so does the rain. Vj and Mallik try to get a nap after a horrific start only to the 2^nd day of the trek.

Day 3, 10 Jun 08

Uttarkashi

The 5.00am alarm didn't really start the morning for us. After some discussions we had to cancel the Bhagirathi dip, there was news that a dentist had flowed away in the river's rage. And we had to meet Himalayan Sherpa to finalize our start for the trek after organising for all the ration and other equipment. It was going to be the last clean toilet/bathroom till the trek ended, so after a cleanup around 10.00am we headed out with our bags with its full weight towards the main town of Uttarkashi about a kilometer away.

The office was a small 2 room place. When we entered we saw Mr. Himalayan Sherpa with another Nepali in the room, which was filled with sacks. He introduced us to 'Viki', Vikram Singh, who was gonna be our guide. We all sat and discussed about the trek, the ration, the porters, everything. He had a list of ration ready for us. A kerosene pump was to be repaired, but the kerosene was ready. With the ration, the complete load including utensils and ration would be around 60kg. So he advised us for 3 porters. He advised that if we could manage to stack everything and leave by 1.00pm it'd be good or else he suggested we start the next day. But we determined to start our epic trek. We headed out with the porters to collect the ration. Mallik and Rajo collected the Grocery, while me and Vj got the vegetables in place. In an hour or so we were back in the office with everything on the list in our bags. We head out to see NIM (Nehru Institute of Mountaineering). NIM was just close by but on the hill. We decided that we'll take a shortcut, a small climb on the hill avoiding the curving roads. The climb showed us what we were into. Within no time all of us were panting. Porters who were leading us to NIM joked on our state.