My First TREK : HarishChandra Gad(Unforgettable)

I was planning to write blog for my 1st trek. n here i got opportunity to do this.

Lear group had planned trek on  27 May'2011 Friday.
We left office at 6.00 P.M. n reached at Kalyan on 7.30 PM by office bus.
We had some snacks n biryani at Prashant house (heartly Thanks to prashant ).
We left Prashant house at 9.00 PM and reached Kalyan ST depot.We did some time pass at Kalyan ST depot as Kedar Tambe n Dinesh were going to come. (latecomers)
We caught bus at 12.30AM i.e last bus or we can say 1^st bus of the next day, bus from Kalyan-Nagar.
Khubi-Phata is d stop where we alighted. we reached there around 3.00 AM (morning)
Khubi-phata is 90KM away from Kalyan n ticket fare is around 85RS.

Khireshwar is d base village which is 4KM away from Khubi-phata

Khireshwar Village

it took us 1 hour to reach d base of d fort. we reached the village at 4.00AM. There were small typical villagers’ houses, in front of these houses we put bedsheets (nothing but newspaper) n took rest for 2 hour.
We started climbing the fort at 6.30 n our 1st point was TOLAR khind (9.00 AM)

Tolar Khind

steep



 We managed to check-in into some of the caves where we took rest, n then started preparing Lunch (all time fav. food ) i.e. maggie.

Santosh Tea

Harishchandra temple

We also made tea at 4.00PM. (Don’t need to carry any twigs/burring material for making fire, Coz Vivek was carrying firewoods with him n we found firewoods on the top)n then we moved towards Kokan kada on 5.00 PM n reached there around 5.25PM

camp fire

tent on the rent

We arranged some material for camp fire.

then we started the camp fire, then we ordered dinner from TUKARM (who is a villager living at d fort.

Tukaram was goin to come at 8.30 but he came at 10.15, till then my condition had got very bad due to hunger. (So for breakfast we back calculated .. and told him to come much earlier … considering his reputation)We played a game “horror Stories” around the camp fire, where each person was telling a Horror story when suddenly we heard some odd terrifying sound…. A Kodak Moment .. worth capturing our horrified faces….

Finally we consoled ourselves saying that it was some animal (wild goat or Shekru)that was making such a noise

We slept at 12.00AM, that means on next day.

Tukaram came on Sunday morning getting Poha n tea along with him.
After breakfast we started our climbing down from d Konkan Kada
12.00pm START from top at 3.00 we reached base village n then some delicious food at Aishrya hotel (after an hours wait): DAL ,khichdi, maggie

n  luckily we hitch-hiked a truck at 5.00 PM towards khubi-phata
on reaching khubi-phata we didn’t get any transport towards kalyan hence we took a bus in the opposite direction and reached AALIPHATA (40KM) at abt 6.30, from Aaliphata we got a Nagar-kalyan bus( at7.30) n reached kalyan on 11.00 PM

This was my 1st trek in which i experienced rock patch climb, camp fire. It was really superb experience.




Trek-members

                                                                                                                                                                Vivek Dalvi                       

Abhishek Bavkar       

Kedar Tambe

Dinesh Badkas

Sourav

Santosh Kandarkar

Rasmiranjan Nayak

Abhijit Khadtare

Lohgad Trek

Trek: Lohgad
Location: Malivali, near Lonavala
Elevation : 3450ft
category (Difficulty): Easy
Total Member: 21
Route: Dadar to Lonavala
Best Time: Rainy/Winter season

We recently went for a trek to Lohgad . It was just superb.
Lohgad trek (Near Lonavala, Malivali )

How to reach ?
We caught Indrayni express from dadar (5.51) which departed on time (fortunately). We were 21 people for trek.
We alighted at lonavala and caught the local train towards pune which is on 8.15. Malavali is just next station to lonavala.
at 8.25 we were at Malivali.
We had some snacks (IDLI ) and we moved towards base village of Lohgad which is BHAJE village.
There is a direct road to BHAJE village, In rainy season it is little muddy at some places otherwise
you can go by vehicle to BHAJE village. We preferred walking. It took us 2 hours to reach BHAJE village (9.15 to 11.15).
During travel towards BHAJE village, we came across the beautiful rains 3-4 times. We placed the order in BHAJE village for lunch in advance.

From Base to the top, it took us near about 30-40 min. During this journey, we came across different DARWAJA
like Ganesh darwaja,Hanuman darwaja,Narayan darwaja, Maha darwaja. we encountered monkeys too on the fort.
on the top of the fort, there is a Dargah & a shiva temple. We actually saw WaterUpFall..hehe
I mean it was a waterfall but due to wind, its water flying upward.

Afterwords we moved towards Vinchu Kata the most fascinating part of the fort.It took us 20 min. from Dargah.
Vinchu kata is just awesome.after spending much time on Vinchu kata we started moving down at 2.00PM.

We reached at Base village at 4.00PM, where we had lunch It was too good.
Also planned for Bhaje caves but due to time constraints we skipped the plan as we wanted to catch train from malivali to lonavla at 5.40 as the next train was too late.

We were goin to Dadar by indrayni express which arrives Lonavla at 7.25PM.
We took enough rest at Lonavla plaform as most of the people were in pain.
Train was on time & we reached dadar at 9.45.

Lohgad Info

Top view

VinchuKata

                                                   

A nice article by Swami Vivekananda….

A nice article by Swami Vivekananda….

I once had a friend who grew to be very close to me. Once when we were sitting at the edge of a swimming pool, she filled the palm of her hand with some water and held it before me, and said this:

“You see this water carefully contained on my hand? It symbolizes Love.”

This was how I saw it:

As long as you keep your hand caringly open and allow it to remain there, it will always be there. However, if you attempt to close your fingers round it and try to posses it, it will spill through the first cracks it find. This is the greatest mistake that people do when they meet love…they try to posses it, they demand, they expect… and just like the water spilling out of your hand, love will retrieve from you. For love is meant to be free, you cannot change its nature. If there are people you love, allow them to be free beings.

Give and don’t expect.
Advise, but don’t order.
Ask, but never demand.

It might sound simple, but it is a lesson that may take a lifetime to truly practice. It is the secret to true love. To truly practice it, you must sincerely feel no expectations from those who you love, and yet an unconditional caring.” Passing thought… Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take; but by the moments that take our breath away…..

My 1st blog

Hiiii to all,

This is my 1st blog,
I hope i'll add content frequntly.