Conquering Sinhgad - Part 1...

Date : 16-Jun-2006
Time : 8:30 p.m.
Location : Sinhgad, at the base.

(Note: For once, my blog does not carry only the photographs clicked by me. I am grateful to all the friends who shared their pictures with me to publish on the blog. I was physically and mentally exhausted to have clicked any!)

After enjoying the bhuttas and the sunset at Khadakwasla, we started off for the main destination, Sinhgad. High spirits [not high 'on' spirits :)] marked the moment when we reached the base. With due permissions, we parked our vehicles at the hotel backside and proceeded to order our dinner. Well, you can barely call it a dinner! We had poha (for the veggies) and omlette-pav for the non-veggies.

(The group before we started the trek.)

After a hearty 'dinner' and a round of snaps, we started off for the actual climb at 9:15 p.m. The crowd was in a fun mode, joking and laughing out loud, somewhat unmindful of the sleepy village through which we were passing.

Somewhere along this road a dog joined us. It reminded me of the dog that was our 'guide' on the trek to Bhimashankar. But this one was different as we gathered later in the night...

Within an hour we had complete grasped the magnitude of this trek. (Or atleast we thought we had grasped...). Visibility was like daaye-haath-ko-nahi-maloom-baaya-hatah-kahan-hai! Though we pulled out the torches we had but decided to use it sparingly (keeping in mind the distance we had to cover). Cellphone screen illumination provided the additional lighting.

As we started climbing higher, we could see glow worms all around us on the trees, in the bushes and in the valley. The city lights started to show up in the distance, providing a magnificent sight.

We continued our trek, interspersed with brief breaks. Suddenly, the trail started getting narrower and narrower, until it became no more than 1 feet wide, and the rocky steps gave way to soft (from rains)and muddy surface. Some voices suggested that we may have lost our way, another said "I dont remember coming this way when I trekked here last time", third said "The road is going upwards, must be a more adventurous route to Sinhgad". Adventurous, ehh?

(The trail we had chosen to walk upon.)

After trekking for some distance (I frankly dont remeber how long), the leading folks said "There is a dead-end. But a rocky path takes us up.". "Lets take it" was the call. And off we start on a rock climbing 'mission', which soon became, from easy, to difficult. And from difficult to treacherous. It did not take long for us to realise that we are climbing up a dry waterfall! Few of us (from the lead pack) were helping us out to climb the rocks.

After 1 hour of climb, we reached a point, where there was nowhere to go. We were facing a cliff, which cannot be climbed. No where else to go, we all waited there, catching our breath and contemplating our plan of action. At that moment, a cell phone ringed!!! "Hello? Yes! Estimates will be sent... Documents... Blah Blah...". One of us had got a call from US!!! Of all the times, now!!! Man, we are struck up in a forsaken place with no where to go, and there is this call from US. It took our really cool-headed project manager to handle the call.

(Where is he trying to climb?)

(We could not see the path we climbed!)

(Catching our breaths.)

After all this, we decided to trace our path back. The climb was long and tough. The descent was short but tougher!!! All the efforts spent during climbing ensured that the rocks were loose and ready to move as soon as we step over them. Cautiously, we descended. Rather over-descended. We soon found ourselves in a valley. The more enthusiatic of us scouted around for the path, until they found it. (God bless them). And off we started on that pagdandi.

(While we were waiting in the valley.)

The return was not so bad after all, we knew what was in store. We reached the starting of this trail. There we observed another path going up in the opposite direction. Again a scout mission was dispatched, and this time too they came back with news of some hut and a rocky path going up. We followed them until we came to a big open hut. By this time the moon also had risen up over the mountains. In the moonlight, we could see a path going up. That was it!!! There it was... Our destination lay at the end of that path. A 15 minutes rest was taken and snacks were consumed. It was 2:00 am in the morning.

Soon after we started off on our actual trek. Our diversion had been bit costly, and at the end of it, we were left with no water and with a bundle of shaken nerves. The final journey will be covered in the final part of this blog!!!