Rajmachi Trek.

It's late, i know, but never had time to write a blog on my first ever monsoon trek. Been either busy or lazy or blank! Now, i guess it's come back.

The place i walked all along in the rain in the company of few people was rajmachi in maharashtra.
Rajmachi is a village which is around 2 hrs by train from pune. It's a place lot of trekkers visit during the monsoon season. Let me use 'I' instead of 'we' wherever applicable. Why? i'm a narcissist and because it's MY blog.

I started from hyderabad sometime in the evening. I missed the actual boarding point and had to catch an auto to go to another point and that cost me 50 bucks. So much for my punctuality! I almost missed the second boarding point. The place the second boarding point was in, was a new place to me and i had to be in conversation on phone with the travel agency guy to help me find the place. I just made it! or so i was told, because the bus left after 10 mins! Few more people from the group jumped into the bus. All in all, i think there were 16 people on board. The bus was heading to pune.

It was 4 in the morning when 'I' reached pune. People got down and walked towards railway station. Arrghh! i had an incomplete sleep in the bus, then standing on a deserted road and then had to walk. The best part among the three affairs was the deserted road. For some reason, i don't know why, i just love a deserted/empty/temporarily uninhabited road in the night. In this case, it was early morning. The walk! yes it took around 20 mins. i don't even remember! Reached the station and 'I' was waiting for the train to rajmachi. The worst part, waiting for another hour!!!!!!! By jupiter, there should be rain and guess what......there was rain! 'I' had a cup of tea and was talking to others. During the conversation with the group, i was told there will be no phone recharge point at rajmachi and hence I should get my phone recharged. Few of us got along and went looking for a point and we found one. There were 3 people who were charging their phones and many slot were available. So, we put our phones for recharge. 5 minutes after i plugged in my phone, there were more people rushing in and the slots were filled. Then the 'typical' indian - adjust karo bhaiee - thing cropped up.
One person, had a multiple pin holder and he freed one slot to plug the multi pin and put chargers into it. There was another guy, who took out a spike buster! When will this adjust karo thing go off man. Remember, this early morning. I wonder what the scenario would have been if it was any of the other parts of the day.
The train time was approaching. 'I' start walking towards the platform. By the time i had got there. the train was already there. Got in, caught one of the seats that was meant for us. Spoke to few and then retired to my usual self. The train started to move. There were around 6 of us in this section and the rest went on to the other side. 'I' was given tepala and chocolates to survive on for 2 days of trekking. I have always had trouble catching up a conversation with people, exception would be when i meet like minded people. I really mean when i say- Like minded people. It's not just a phrase i prefer using in the same tone as other do. It's been a rare occasion for me, ending up meeting people with whom i would love to catch up a conversation where the word pretension doesn't exists, as far as action is concerned. I watched these people cracking jokes, through out the journey, which were so childish and the only word i could attach to them was - Douche. I understand they have this -light lelo bhai - kinda attitude but i personally find it so 'stay away from them' sort. It's happening so often that i find solitude better than being amidst them. Anyway, i do have the attitude of - adjust karlo bhai - with people. I think this comes from my IT background.
The train was on the move. It was going through khandala and lonavala. I stood at the doorway to get a glimpse of the rain and the surrounding picturesque view and i thoroughly loved it. There was one point, the first tunnel the train passed. The part i loved was when the train exited the tunnel. Imagine this. The train enters the tunnel - it's dark and when it gets out, you see white clouds - its totally white - all around. Does it give you a feeling of heaven? I have never experienced this thing before and have never seen anything like it so far. Whiteness around. At one time i felt like jumping straight through it, not knowing what's below or where i would land.

The train made a stop at our destination - Rajkat. The plan was to catch a tuk-tuk to some place and start out trek from there. The place where the tuk-tuk or what in hyderabad are called 'shared-autos', dropped us at a point where tar road or 'pakka' road ends. The ground was wet and there was greenery all around. People decided to have their breakfast. Ended up finding a small house-cum-restaurant where poha and tea was ordered. Everyone introduced themselves and got into a conversation. I as usual, recoiled to myself, preferred to walk around and see the dog which was tied up. I ended up getting few shots of the dog. People had their breakfast, got out and started the trek.

The trek began with walking through farmlands and plain surfaces. Farmers were working saying 'haiya-haiya' to the animals. We found a guide, in the form of two kids - brothers - who decided to lead us to rajmachi village. Few kilometers of walk, the plain lands gave way to elevated and turny routes. There was rain. Getting wet in the rain is altogether a different affair. I always get a felling that the world has stopped and is going in snail's pace and its NOT a rat race out there. You are what you are! There were tress all around and lush green surroundings. The first 'I' made was at the waterfall. Water was gushing. The group decided to climb to the top - walking against the gushing water. I was IN. I started my ascend. The water was hitting all the time - cold water. It takes hardly a minute to get used to the temperature. I climbed, slipped, floated, hurt myself, put my head against the water. THIS was adventure. Few of us reached the top and were standing under the gushing water. we were watching others climb to the top. There was one moment where i slipped and slided down. This was pretty extreme fall. It was like falling from level 4 to level. Luckily, it was not VERY grave. I was told that it was grave. Someone, held my hand and stopped me from falling further. Wow! that was one fall, i would say. 'I' spent some time playing in the water. The rocks were slippery so had to be careful while descending, having experienced a fall! Lot of leeches, small ones, stick to the clothes and skin. Had some time for that as well, to remove them and clean up myself. 'I' resumed my walk. The rain was harder now.
The monsoon trek has its romanticism and i'm a rain-loving guy. The hills were getting steeper and there were kilometers to go before we reach the village. 'I' made frequent stops on the way to look back at the view the sahyadris had to offer. The rain was hitting my face and it was getting colder as i was getting drenched in the rain. Was it time for tea? We found a shop at the top of the hill which was selling tea, corn, fried groundnuts et al. The tea rejuvenated my trekking pace. After a 2 km walk from the place where i had tea, 'I reached RAJMACHI village!!! yippee.

The village was like.....a village. Few people, fewer houses, peace. Most of the people i saw were trekkers. 'I' dropped my back at the place where we were supposed to stay and headed to the fort. There are two forst in rajmachi - Shriardhan and Manaranjan. 'I' went to one of the forts.

The walk to the fort is amazing and even more amazing is the fact that you are over the clouds all the time. I stood at one of the places at the fort and watched the rain drop hit perpendicularly. It was like in the movies as you see the bullets hit. After a brief stint, i headed to the top of the fort. I couldn't see anything, it was totally covered with clouds. When i reached the top, i looked down and guess what? I couldn't see anything, it was totally white and this nothingness was the one of the beautiful things i have ever seen. I sat on the edge and tried to feel it all. Looking up - nothing, looking down there is nothing. Say the same for left and right. It was simple brilliant. At times, the clouds made way and i was able to see something but soon filled the space.

When 'I' was getting down with 2 others, we noticed a 'stone tank' filled with water. We decided to sit down and spend sometime. We had a long talk and started splashing water with our feet like school kids and all of us thoroughly enjoyed the moment. We talked all the way back down.

The night had set in. People spent their time singing while i went into my shell, sleeping. It was dinner time. Roti, a curry, rice and dal was served. It was so good that i couldn't stop asking for more, besides the hunger calls were severe.
'I' retired to bed immediately post dinner. Had to get up early next day. 'I' had to walk from rajmachi to lonavala all the way. It's 40 kms of walk!!!

It was morning, the next day. I got up , brushed my teeth like everyone else. For breakfast, poha and tea was served. Had it quickly and it was time for us to leave. The walk began at 7. On the way, stopped to see waterfalls and took few pictures. It was a good walk, had to be. It was around 1 when we reached lonavala. Had a cup of tea on arrival and went for lunch. After the lunch, went to the railway station. The train for hyderabad was at 3:30.

I reached hyderbad the following morning. No sleep and had to rush to the office.

Trek to Bhuvangiri and Yadagirigutta.

Wee hours of saturday, 27th of June 2009, the members of hyderabad adventure club 'journeyed' to Bhuvangiri Hills, situated at around 50 kms from hyderabad. First stop was this. Next stop, invariably, in mind was yadagirigutta. All in all 15 people made it to the peak of both the hills. The rest were never there :-). The energy and the synergy made this a memorable one. Read on the text describing the events of the day that made people embrace good company of......people.

People were picked up from different points of scheduled route of the excursion. Travel time to Bhuvangiri? 45 minutes. What did we do on the way? Talk and talk and talk. We reached somewhere close to 0715hrs. It was time we had our breakfast before moving on for the trek. Breakfast time had a little surprise. Introductions. People, introduced themselves to others. Good to have people from different fields of profession. The breakfast was one interesting affair. The sound decibels raised by this group would have raised the eyebrows of the hotel guys who served. Hmmm. a noisy morning to start with.

We reached the foot of the hill and the group began its ascend. As we moved up, the wind hit our face. A cool breeze in the early morning with the clouds 'clouding' the sun made the environment perfect for an adventure, a tireless adventure. The weather helped us till we made it to the top. The sun rays made ways through clouds. Thats an image, i believe, one would love to see from the hill top. The clouds shadowed the surface. The adventure was quite adventurous, one of 'em trying to imitate spiderman. Hmm. he couldn't use his web! Not a great height.
We spent quite some time at the top. It was time to get on and move to the next stop for 'the climb'. Yadagirigutta.

Yadagirigutta, at first sight, seems quite easy owing to its i-can-climb-that-hill look. What adds to the climbing task is the presence of lot of rocks and unlike Bhuvangiri they are not meant to be an easy walk, relatively. The hills offer some difficult path for the out-of-the-path-trying people. People chose different routes to make it to the topmost point of the hill. With frequent stops made, water gulped and foods munched on the way. The sun was coming out. The one thing that trekkers usually do not like when they are trekking is the sunshine. What's more annoying? The afternoon time but that's inevitable. We had the wind in the morning and the sun now for the rest of the day. A good trek that took a good amount of time. One observation was that people were quite happy with the difficulty the hills offered. Why do i say this? When people got down and looked back at the hills, they were elated. What made me happy was the frozen water in the bottle.

It was time for lunch. We had our stop near the temple area, at one of the restaurants. After the food was done, few wished to visit the temple and went ahead and few who didn't went ahead as well.

We still had time to make it to a place where people could sit down and talk, something like a park and it was decided, i don't know who did but eventually there was an agreement on visiting the deer park, shameerpet. I knew it only when we reached there. The deers were shy [thats what i always think of animals who run away] albeit they offered few glimpses to our waiting fellow photographers. We were taken into the park, which i was told, was not usually allowed to people after a particular time but thanks to Mr. Ranjan Sood who arranged a visit inside for the benefit of the group. After having a round in the park, we gathered at a point and sat down for a talk- on the experience of the days' outing of the group in the hills. People shared their candid thoughts and shared humor.

The final stop for any day long excursion has to be a tea shop or any decent restaurant that offers decent tea. Sorry! for coffee lovers its coffer shop. A quick 10 minute stop and it was time to head back to hyderabad.

All in all, a good trek with fantastic people who shared a common thought for the day - 'Have fun. You have worked for 5 straight days. Tomorrow i.e Sunday, you can give loud cries when your muscles ache'.

Araku Hills.

A travel to a place surrounded with hills and picturesque views, my weekend was made by this trip albeit i wished, secretly, if i could continue my stay for few more days. For those of you who missed the experience, here's a breakup of the entire journey.

The morning was pleasant when we reached vizag but soon the pleasantness was to be taken over by sun god's powerful heat rays. I could feel the temperature climbing when we started off from vizag in the mini bus. Sad for me as everyone had taken the left side of the bus escaping the beams while i had to settle on a seat on the right. The griping was on for sometime but later on it switched to jovial mode when i with other people, started sticking our heads out of the window to have the rushing air hit us. The road, as far i remember, had no potholes and with few vehicles on the road, we were free to stick out as long as we could [though on the responsibility of self]. The only thing i missed during this enterprise of mine was a good song in my player which could sync with the mood and the experience for that time. The initial part of the journey had fields on either sides with small hills in the background. A momentary thought would project the fact that you are far away from the cramped, gaging and high decibel city side. The first stop was borra caves.

Borra caves: primarily contains stalactites and stalagmites, varying from small to large. There are legendary stories associates with this places. The caves, through out, imparts an arty thought with yellow lights illuminated at spots to produce a beautiful image of natural limestone carvings. The cave has small worship spots of lord shiva, who is associated with the legendary stories of the borra caves. The cave gave a low temp. conditioned air for people who wanted to escape the heat. Fews yards of walk and you hear bats crying from some dark corner giving a sense of adventure (if you remember brady barr's episode in a bat cave). Additional point to end the paragraph, lot of pictures [with you in it] to take and arty people would get the best out of it.


Next stop: After the view of the caves, it was time to head to our destination. The journey now was full of stops! Not the check posts but the forceful stops by the tribal inhabiting the region. There were plenty of such stops where we had to give them some money. At certain stops, we saw people getting into fight for not letting them pass through. Arguments flying from both sides. It was alright at first but was nerve wrecking when it went on frequently. I was told, this kind of stops happen only twice a year. Lesson: Validate if such events happen before the tour is chosen.


Reached our place: We reached our destination sometime in the evening. An isolated place with few people which was just right. The place had a hill behind and it was decided that we refresh and trek the hill. So, there it was. A night trek. Four teams were formed and the team reaching the top first received chocolate bars from the organizer. In fact, every team got a bar in the end. How nice is that! The hill was quite steep covered with small bushes. It was fun trekking in the twilight hour. Yes, few scary thoughts of creatures lurking around. Thankfully, none showed up! We reached the 'summit' and waited for all to be there for the awards ceremony. Awards handed out, pictures taken, merry talk and the cool night under the moonlight was something to embrace. After a while spending atop, it was time to descend. We reached our stay place and were awaiting dinner time. We spent sometime relaxing and headed out for dinner. The dinner prepared there was excellent but was marred by delay from the vendor.

Next Day: It was the day to trek a steeper hill. We started out in the morning, again a pleasant one, to the hill. The entire group was split into teams and were free to choose their path for trek. The initial segment was filled with dry plants which left few light scars on teammates arms. Then, followed the muddy and slippery slope and few found it tough to walk over, opting to crawl instead. As we headed front, we got better looks of the hill. Mostly, covered with dry plants. Having said that, there were trees around as well to take shelter and if someone wanted to be mowgli. After a good climb to the top [coupled with exhaustion and panting] and spending sometime there, it was time to get down. The climb down was exciting as we chose to go through the dense trees. The ground here was covered with dry leaves. In spite of a neat path that lay ahead, people opted for random path selection by which they could find their way down. The climb down ended and we headed out to cool ourselves in the small stream of water that was flowing at the foot of the hill.

It was time now to pack up and head to vizag.


We had our packed lunch in the bus, on the drive, after which most of them had a good sleep. When we got up there was vizag. We visited the rama krishna beach. We stepped in for 30 minutes or so as time was running out. After the sand-coated-feet visit, it was time to catch the train back to hyderabad.


All in all, a fantastic journey that i'll remember for a long time to come.

My Trip.

not the stumble, not the experience with pot [that was back in college], not the broken sentences which i have a problem with. Its the journey, a trek to Gopalaswamy hill and Edakkal Caves. yeah yeah. Wait. i havn't received the confirmation mail yet, why am i talking about it?

Now, the most hated word under these circumstances and the word, correction, 'THE' word of an optimist has been thought by the blogger [he thinks he has to be realistic] before typing in the content. Say, i get the confirmation, which should happen tomorrow, I will have to leave hyderabad on friday morning and get directly to the spot mentioned for pick-up in banglore. Why wouldn't i stay at a place for sometime before heading out? Apparently, its so happened that the friend with whom i used to stay, whenever i go down to b'lore, is turning up in hyderabad to attend a wedding ceremony. urghh. at this time? and another of my friends, is in chennai, for a long time and another won't be there even for help! that's why i need to go straight down to the spot. Is that all shishir. 3 friends in b'lore? Think yes, i know people there but wouldn't wish to stay.

The plan would be to catch a train which would reach b'lore atleast 2 hrs before the actual time of trek team pick-up. i would get enough time to talk to people i know and roam b'lore a little, here and there and then move. The trip is to last for two days. On my return to b'lore i need to catch a train to hyd. Work makes me do this and I say work SUCKS and it FUCKS too.

Hope the 'if' clause is removed from the code. I'll post the fotos as well if i'm sure of getting my new batteries for my digital camera (always forget to get it).