Sahyankan 2015 - Part 1 (Mangaon-Garjaiwadi-Konkandiva)

Part 1 (You are currently reading this)
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

Unexplored and offbeat trails where some confusion can make you lose your orientation; hiking for about 110 kilometres over the five days to bring out the best hikers inside us; battling the scorching heat of the afternoon while tackling the steep ascent and descent; experiencing the pin drop silence while descending Thipthipya Ghat so as not to attract attention of honey bees; experiencing the sheer bliss of walking through the dense forest of Andharban; quenching thirst with the pure water of the streams which would pale the bottled mineral water; motivating the weak members in the team to help them keep going; stretching sessions by the elite marathon runner; battling the intense cold with the warmth of the sleeping bag ; some interactive and informative sessions on the first aid and survival techniques by the veterans in the trekking field; capturing some breathtaking landscapes despite being burdened with heavy rucksack and finally the ecstasy of coming out of this ordeal unhurt – Welcome to Sahyankan 2015, the flagship event of Chakram Hikers.

Much awaited event Sahyankan 2015 was announced and within few days of announcement, our combined group of Pune and Nasik trekkers led by Sanjay Amrutkar (Nana) booked their seats in the first batch. Few of our members from Nasik did not get the seats in the first batch and so they were pushed to the second batch. Nevertheless, everyone was excited to be part of this unique event to trek in Sahyadri mountains for 5 consecutive days. After completing the formalities like acquiring the fitness certificate, signing the disclaimers etc. we were all set to participate in the event scheduled from 19^th Dec to 24^th Dec, 2015.

Milind Kulkarni, N D Gaware and Tushar Kothawade were other trekkers from Pune group and we assembled at Sus Road, Pune in front of my home around 11.30 PM. We waited in front of Pashankar Auto on Mumbai-Bangalore highway. It was odd yet pleasant to chat through the midnight till bus arrived from Mulund. Highway was swarming with vehicles leaving the continuous and beautiful trail of lights.

Finally the bus arrived at 1.30 AM. After exchanging pleasantries with other members from Nasik and Mulund, we proceeded towards our destination. In the wee hours of the morning around 4 AM we reached to Mangaon village in Pune District surrounded by Bhor Taluka towards East , Mulshi Taluka towards North , Haveli Taluka towards East , Mahad Taluka towards South. 

Temple was our halting point though we only had 1 hour to rest. Quickly we settled into the temple and tucked inside the sleeping bags for the much needed rest. Hardly after 1 hour of sleep, we were given the wake up call. Reluctantly we came outside the sleeping bag. After finishing early morning chores, we had breakfast of Pohe and Tea.

After breakfast, it was time for small introduction and instructions for the trek. Mr. Vinay Naphade fondly known as Lamba Sir started with his introduction and to his credit he had attended all 17 Sahyankan events in last 34 years. An amazing feat! His humour and joviality lifted the mood of the whole camp. Youngest member was Atharva, 11 Yrs old kid (great grandson of Pt. Bhimsen Joshi) and eldest member was Athavale Kaka aging 57 Yrs. To break the monotony, there were two brave girls - Aishwarya and Sayali intended to match each step with male counterparts.

Three jeeps were arranged for us to take us to starting point for the trek. Unfortunately, one out of three drivers did not turn up. Seeing this, Rahul Sonavane volunteered to drive one of the jeeps and we started our drive.

Two jeeps went ahead assuming third jeep driven by Rahul would follow them. But third jeep started slightly late losing the trail of first two jeeps. As a result, even when other jeeps reached to the desired location, there was no sign of our third jeep. Then one of the drivers went back to locate the jeep. Apparently, Rahul had lost the way and had gone to some other route. After about 15 minutes, we were happy to see Rahul’s jeep coming our way. A small adventure had already started before starting the trek.

Without wasting further time, we started our hike. Right at the start, we had to climb a small hill.

Everyone was swift and we quickly reached to top of the hill. Route was supposed to be mapped correctly by the earlier teams who did the pilot treks of the same route earlier but confusion started when we saw multiple trails. Our local camp leaders along with our trek leaders went ahead in search of the correct route. Being only the participants, we did not interfere and let the leaders search the route. We took this opportunity to take some rest and crack some jokes.

Finally the correct trail was found and we resumed our hike. After walking on a small plateau, there was a descent and after end of this descent, we came across a lonely hut far located in the remote area.

After crossing this solitary hut, there was again a steep descent. Front members had already descended and their figures were appearing very tiny as against the landscape emphasising the man's place in nature.

As per instructions, Alok Kakatkar, second leader of the batch was supposed to be the last member walking behind all the members. As I was walking along with him, sometimes I requested him to walk in front of me so that I can include a human figure in the landscape and sweet by nature, he readily obliged breaking the rule temporarily.

After another descent, we were elated to come across a water stream. We spent some time on the banks of the stream, had some light snacks, drank and filled the water bottles with the fresh water from the stream. Instantly, we felt refreshed and got the energy to march forward.

Though it was the month of December, there was no respite from the heat. Not a single leaf of the tree was rustling and air was absolutely still. To add to our woes, we had to negotiate a continuous steep climb for about 30 minutes. Some of the members who had not practised for this trek were found panting and it was difficult for them to sustain the pace. Sayali, one of the two girls participants was carrying a heavy bag pack and slowly lumbering at the last. Heat along with the heavy burden of backpack took its toll and she took considerable time to join the other group members who kept on waiting for her.

I gathered the pace and overtook exhausted members and joined Nana who was taking some rest by perching on a rock.Though Nana generally doesn't talk much on the trail, his presence is so much assuring, so much motivating. As I am relatively new to the field of trekking and photography as compared to him, I try to learn as much as possible from him whenever he is around.

First group perching under the tree and waiting for last members - Sayali and Alok to join:

Aniket and Alok distributed some of the items from Sayali’s rucksack making it somewhat lightweight and we proceeded further. We came across another hut where we were greeted by the Camp leader from our next camp. Though our camp at Garjaiwadi was still far, leader from that camp had hiked for long distance to greet us and show us the correct trail. He gave us further instructions on the route and we proceeded further.

For some distance, I was hiking with other trek members but sights of gigantic mountains made me wait a bit longer and I did not resist temptations of doing some photography. By that time, the group went far ahead and I remained alone on the trail. I spotted Vikram Balajiwale coming from behind and waited for him to join me. He was also happy to see me as he was also worried about walking alone. Buoyed by each other’s company, we decided to walk further instead of waiting further.

Breathtaking layers of mountains with a large plateau of Raigad at the back:

Intense heat along with humidity had sapped our energies and after walking for about 20 minutes, we perched on the rock for some time. Till this time, we were following the directions indicated by arrows drawn at regular intervals. We were able to see a small cluster of houses at the base of the hill and

Our camp was somewhere located in the tiny houses located at base of the hill. Assuming that our camp-site would be somewhere near these houses, we started descending the hill.We lost their sights once we entered the woods.

At the start, trail was clear but after some time, it started confusing us as we spotted multiple trails. But we kept on taking the trail which was taking us down but after some time, we seemed to lose the orientation and trail seemed to take us away from the village though we were not able to see anything from the dense woods. We got really worried when we had to crawl under the bushes on the trail indicating that the trail we had taken was not much frequented. We shouted to check whether anybody was in hearing distance but without any success. We kept on descending and descending and finally heaved a sigh of relief when we came out of the woods and joined the dirt road at the base of the hill.

Vikram Balajiwale, whom I was meeting for the first time, runs his own training institute for Commerce Students in Nasik. Really a simple and smiling fellow! One of the real benefits of trekking is that you get to know people from different walks of life!

There were two dirt routes when we reached to the base and at first, we took the wider dirt route but seeing few houses on the narrow dirt road, we turned back. This proved to be the right decision and after coming to the houses, we spotted our camp. Our trek mates were surprised to see us coming from altogether different route as we seemed to have taken a longer route. Nevertheless, we were elated to join our group members.

Entering Garjaiwadi:

Gradually last members of the group joined us. After a quick rest, we proceeded towards our next destination Konkandiva. I was planning to visit it since a long time with my trek group but plan never got realized. So I was pretty excited and looking forward to take on the much heard steep ascent with full of scree, climb on the thrilling rock patch with exposed valley on one side and witness some majestic views of surrounding mountain range from the top.

Walk towards Konkandiva seen in the background:

We had to trudge for more than 30 minutes to reach to the base of Konkandiva. Route went through woods protecting us from the sun’s rays.

Paresh Amrutkar - one of the brightest and fittest young men around posing on the backdrop of mountains on the North side of Konkandiva!

Fun moments with Aniket Rahalkar, our trek leader:

After waiting for 5 minutes on a small plateau, we entered the woods and experienced the really steep ascent. Steep ascent along with forced us to be extra cautious. 

Everyone's heart skipped a beat after seeing small rock patch with the exposed valley on the left side. Key to negotiate such rock patches is not to look down and climb it with normal technique with proper gripping of your fingers and toes on the holds. After negotiating the rock patch, we reached to the cave and water cistern.

Photography was last on my mind while overcoming the rock patch; so I did not click any photo of that rock patch.

Water cistern:

Cave:

After resting in front of the cave, we started our final march towards the top. We negotiated one more rock patch. Vikram was finding it difficult to haul his body up on this rock patch but with proper guidance he finally overcame it. Just before reaching the top, there was a thrilling hardly a foot wide traverse with exposed valley on the right side. We had to keep our weight on the left side to negotiate this last traverse.

Scary looking vertical fall few feet away from Nana!

Majestic vista of mountains was unfolding in front of us as soon as we set our feet on top of the fort. As the top of the fort was small and there was nothing to explore further, we just soaked in the great views. Apart from our group, there were three more members on the fort. They really had to struggle hard to reach top of the fort as they had taken the wrong route and lost in the jungle.

I didn't resist temptation of getting myself clicked and handed over my camera to Sanju Nana.

Whole group rejoicing on top to celebrate success of conquering Konkandiva:

There was still some time for sunset. Considering our large group, we decided not to wait for the sunset as it would unnecessarily put us at risk in descending through scree in the dark. We cautiously descended all the rock patches. Descending steep slope with scree put a lot of stress on the knees but we all came out of it unscathed.

As we reached to the small plateau, sun had started its westward journey making the sky crimson and we lingered on the plateau to witness the spectacular sunset. 

Finally the first day of the exhausting trek was coming to an end as we took our final steps towards our base camp.We had hiked for more than 23 kms as per the reading from Fitness App from Paresh’s mobile. Hearing this, already aching legs started aching more. This was just the first day and there were four more days to go. Narayan Gaware Sir (fondly known as ND), elite marathon runner and my regular trek mate conducted the stretching exercise for the group. Everyone followed ND’s instructions for 15 minutes and we all felt a lot of relief in our aching legs and stiff shoulders and backs.

Hot tea was served to us once stretching exercise finished. We soon gathered inside the temple and senior members of Chakram Hikers shared their immense knowledge regarding first aid, honey bee bites, snake bites and survival techniques.

We all were famished after the exhausting day of trek and we gorged on the hot dinner of Zunka-Bhakri and Dal-Rice. Soon after dinner, we retired inside the temple. As temple was small and could not accommodate all the group members, some members opted to sleep outside in the freezing cold trusting the quality of their sleeping bags.Luckily I found a place inside already crowded temple and tucked inside my sleeping bag. Fatigued mind along with the calm mind helped me to drift off to sound, dreamless sleep oblivious to the snoring around.

Click here to read Part 2

Kondnaal - Trekking in the Kingdom of Boulders

Kingdom of unforgiving and hostile boulders making the descent arduous and time consuming; a cramped trek mate who is seething with pain; camera taking an unholy dip in the water ; guide along with other trek mates not in the range of shouting distance; darkness embracing the hostile terrain and end of the trek nowhere in sight! Welcome to the inhospitable world of Kondnaal - one of the toughest ghat routes to descend from Satara district to Ratnagiri district!

Plan of Kondnaal-Hatlot was brewing since last few months after completing a trail trek of Vadgaon-Kudpan-Pratapgad. Finally weekend of 5th and 6th Dec, 2015 was finalized after discussion with Nana (Sanjay Amrutkar). Since last few months, Pune group led by me and Nasik group led by Nana have been meeting on such offbeat treks. Considering the hostile terrain, I only invited experienced and long distance trekkers for this gruelling trek. 

From Pune side, we formed a group of four - myself, Tushar Kothawade, Mailikarjun Shirshetty and Santosh Kulkarni. Mallikarjun had contacted me on Facebook and shown keen interest to trek along with me. As he himself being a long distance hiker, I did not hesitate in adding him in my core group of trekking members. He suggested to add his childhood friend Santosh Kulkarni for this trek and as Santosh also seemed to be a regular trekker, I included him as well.

Considering the unfamiliar terrain, to avoid any risk and to get the ample time to descend Kondnaal, I changed the plan of starting from Pune early morning on Saturday 5.30AM. Instead, I proposed the idea of starting at Friday night. All trek-mates co-operated even after getting reprimanded by wives since it was effectively making trek duration longer. Finally we started around 8.15 PM from Sus Road and reached to Mallikarjun's home at Katraj by Santosh's car. We shifted our backpacks to Mallikarjun's swift and started our journey towards Par Village. Ram Vardayini temple was our halting point for the night.

Soon, ice was broken since I and Tushar were meeting Mallikarjun and Santosh for the first time. After having tea on the highway, we proceeded further. Finally, we reached to Par village in the wee hours of the night. Whole village was sleeping and surprisingly, much to our relief, there was not a single dog barking at us at night. Gates of the temple were open and we settled in one of the small temples in the premises and tucked inside the sleeping bag to get some sleep necessary to be fresh for the next day morning.

When we got up, it already had dawned outside. A lone snacks joint outside the temple was just opened and we requested the owner for tea. Till the time, tea was prepared, I ventured into one of the fields to click this frame.

Ram Vardayini Temple:

After getting the much needed energy from the hot tea, we proceeded towards Hatlot village. Soon, after reaching to Hatlot village, we parked the car in front of a house - the same house which had given shelter to us during unseasonal heavy rains in March 2015 when we had to abandon hike to Makrandgad . There was no sign of Nasik team yet. Till the Nasik team arrived, I arranged for the guide. Initially our guide "Chandrakant More" was reluctant to come as he had some work to finish. I asked him to finish his work quickly and he agreed to join us within half an hour.

I felt relaxed once guide was arranged. Soon, Nasik team too arrived and we ordered Pohe and Tea from the house where we had parked our cars. 

Stacks of boxes used to collect honey were arranged in front of the house and house owner gave us fresh honey to taste. This specially designed box is kept in the forest with some residue of honey and honey bees get attracted to it and start collecting more honey inside it. Once the box is filled with honey, it is removed from the forest, honey is extracted and sold in the market. Only registered members in the village are permitted to put these boxes in the forest.

Drinking tea inside the house:

After breakfast of Pohe followed by Tea, we started our hike around 9.20 AM. Our first aim was to reach to Ghonaspur, base of Makrandgad. 

Nice pattern of fields during start of the trek:

Nana always making sure to shepherd the team by staying last:

It was a steep ascent through the woods. At one point, we spotted a Giant Malabar Squirrel (called as Shekroo)  briefly. It disappeared quickly before we could take a photo. Instantly, memories of my Bhorgiri-Bhimashankar trek came flooding back to me.

 All seemed to be good in maintaining the pace and we reached to Mallikarjun temple quickly.

Madhu-Makrandgad was looking very tempting in the background of azure sky. 

Mallikarjun Temple:

Guide's confidence to descend Kondnaal in 3 hours made us overconfident and we decided to hike on Makrandgad first as we still had many hours of daylight available with us. Except Paresh who preferred to rest in the temple, we started our hike on Makrandgad.

(L to R) Tushar, Mallikarjun and our guide while ascending Makrandgad:

Going towards water cistern:

Ancient Water Cistern said to be from the era of Pandavas:

Shiva Temple on top:

Tranquillity inside the temple:

It was close to 12.30 PM when we reached back to Mallikarjun temple. I was of the opinion to directly start descending Kondnaal and have lunch around 2 PM but majority of the members were hungry and we decided to have lunch at Dhangarwadi as per suggestion from our guide.

Dhangarwadi hosted a single hut and I decided to click few pictures of the kid. Initially he was hesitant and scared to pose for the photo but after seeing himself in the photo in the camera, he became cordial to me and I got to click this natural expression of innocence.

We traversed the whole backside of Makrandgad on the trail. 

After walking for about 30 minutes, entrance of Kondnaal became visible. To reach to the opening of the Kondnaal, we had to negotiate a lot of scree.

Looking at the mighty cliffs of Sahyadri mountains made us awestruck as well as scared at the same time. We knew immediately the enormity of the task in our hand. Being in the unfamiliar terrain made the things looked more ominous. Having guide with us was the only comforting factor.

Finally, we started our descent. First descent was quite tricky where there was nothing to much to hold your hands or have firm grips of your feet. Utilizing the friction of body and the earth below, we somehow managed to overcome the initial descent.

The next part of descent was done taking the help of branches and stems of Karvi. We were losing a lot of time upfront. Also, rocks were rolling down and we had to be careful in maintaining safe distance among the groups.

Once the initial difficult part of the descent was over, we relaxed a bit on rocks. We were assuming that later part of the descent would be easier but we were so wrong. There were few rock patches which were difficult to descend and we had to be utterly cautious to avoid any injury. On some rock patches, there were hardly any holds and again using the friction by touching maximum part of the body, we made sure to arrest the slide and descend the patches without any injuries.

Two of our guide's dogs were following us since Hatlot village. They were truly faithful to their master and entered Kondnaal along with their master. As our guide was leading the way, these dogs were accompanying the group behind. At one stretch when there were difficult rock patches, these dogs just gave up and started crying loudly. We asked our guide to stop and bring them down but he did not listen. After some time, whining and cries of these dogs stopped indicating that they were no longer following us and must had turned back. Our guide was not worried and assured us that they would return to his home safely on their own.

As the gorge was descending straight and there was no question of missing out on the trail, few of the members who were fast movers went out of sight. My toes were getting bruised during the steep descent where I had to control my balance using the toes. I was cursing my bad luck as I was wearing Action Trekking Shoes on this trek which I find very uncomfortable during descent. This painful descent made me slower and I remained with the last group.

Worst thing of the descent was that gorge was wide and many times, we had to continuously think of the best way to descend. It costed us too much time.

It has getting harder and harder for the knees and at a juncture, Santosh's right knee started hurting badly and he just refused to walk further. At this point, except Nana and me, everyone had gone far ahead and out of reach. After sprinkling Volini Spray, Nana graciously provided his knee cap to Santosh and after a lot of cajoling, Santosh started moving further.

Gradually, we picked up the pace as sun had started moving rapidly to the west. GPS location in the map was moving very slowly and it was indicating that we still had a lot of height to descend. Definitely, it was not auguring well as we had a member who was hobbling. Still, there was no option but to keep moving forward.

Whenever Santosh took the break, I and Nana took the opportunity to click few photos. 

Though the goings were tough, I had managed to click photos considering that I wouldn't be visiting this hostile part again in the near future. I had kept the zips of my camera bag open to have easy access to camera whenever I felt like taking the photo. All was going well when the disaster happened. As I was helping Santosh to descend at one rock patch, my camera bag toppled making the camera nosedived on the hard rock. If that was not enough, it ricocheted from the rock and took a dip in a small pond. I acted instantly and pulled the camera outside. It was totally drenched to my misfortune. Next 15 minutes went into drying the camera, taking the batteries, memory card off and repenting the mistake of keeping the zips of the camera bag open.

Disappointment of damaging camera was weighing on my mind. And with that disappointment, we started our further descent. I had heard the presence of many water ponds at the last stretches of the gorge but they were nowhere in sight and that made us really expedite our descent. We really wanted to descend the gorge before dark and we hurried. As I didn't want to leave Santosh alone, I asked him to be ahead of me.

At one point, Santosh placed his foot on a big rock and to his misfortune it toppled and brushed his calf. He shrieked in pain for a while. But as this rock had just brushed his leg, he escaped with minor injuries. He was urging me to stop as he wanted to check the extent of injury but we hardly had any time left for sunset. So I urged him to check it later to save some time and reluctantly he moved forward.

I was slightly flustered as except Nana, no one was available to help in times of crisis. As no mobile range was available, I was really getting the feeling of stranded in the wilderness without the team's support. Had 2-3 members were available to support the weak member, it would have been easier. But there was really no time in dwelling on the negatives and we kept on marching forward. Finally the darkness started enveloping us as we finally started crossing few water ponds. Presence of these ponds one after another heralded that we were close to the base but as these ponds were right in the gorge, we had to take few bypasses through the jungle to cross these ponds. Again it costed us a lot of time to find the exact route and again I thought that team in front would have been of great help.

Finally, shouts of Tushar from below rang in the ears. Apparently Tushar had decided to wait for us at one point as he also realised that it would be very hard for us to find the route in the darkness. His voice felt so comforting and finally we reached to the point from where he was visible perching in the rock. He guided us to cross one of the water ponds and ultimately we were united with the other members.

Finally, the ordeal of descending Kondnaal was over. But the Birmani village was nowhere in sight. We had lost of fluids during the day and feeling a lot of weakness. So some of us just lied down when we came across a plain terrain. Innumerable stars were twinkling in the sky as if someone had thrown the white diamonds on the black canvas. Combination of this spectacular display of stars and the fatigued body made me lie down for a while and reluctantly I had to haul my body up to start final march towards the village. We again had to trudge on a trail for 2-3 kms further to reach to the village.

Having the local guide really helped as he took us to a big house of his brother-in-law. Gulping the water, lying down the floor for some time, getting fresh with the cold water somewhat made us refreshed but still the legs were aching. So much of energy was drained that I found it hard to even do the stretching to free up the legs.

A hot dinner of Potato Vegetable along with Chapati and Rice replenished some of the energy levels. A good night's sleep was beckoning as soon as we finished our dinner. We were given 2 rooms of the house and the extended area outside of the house and everyone lay down as per one's preference. I chose the kitchen to sleep away from the snoring people and immediately tucked inside the sleeping bag. After chatting briefly with Paresh Amrutkar, I drifted off to a sound sleep.

Next morning dawned with the croaking of the roosters. Birmani village nestled in the lap of Sahyadri mountains  really looked beautiful in the morning. Soon realization dawned to me regarding my camera being damaged. In stead of dwelling on it further, I decided to click few pictures with my mobile camera.

After having hot tea, we paid the amount for previous day's dinner and posed with the family for the picture. As we had to climb the whole Hatlot Ghat, we didn't linger too much in the village and started our hike early in the morning.

We walked for about half an hour from Birmani village to join the intersection of Kondnaal. Covering the same distance had looked so much exhausting last night. Only difference was yesterday we were covering this distance after 8-9 hours of arduous hike and today we were covering it right at the start after good night's rest.

We couldn't resist to give a triumphant look towards Kondnaal. Really it had tested our endurance, put us into the great spot of trouble but provided a feeling of accomplishment, feeling of jubilance.

After talking to the villagers, I had imagined a proper dirt route nicely wide and comfortable to ascend Hatlot Ghat. But I was so wrong. Again, there were rocks and boulders strewn across though the number was minuscule as compared to the ones in Kondnaal. Ascent was steep but our bodies were fresh and good night's rest was helping us to gain the altitude at a fast pace.

On the way, we halted at a water cistern and made sure to drink a lot of water before proceeding further. I was maintaining the good pace and today I didn't want to be in the last group. Still, shouts of Santosh, who was the last one made me to give up the leading position and I waited him to join. We (Nana, Santosh and me) reached to the top at the very last position and Santosh was over the moon to see the top. 

We all were really ecstatic and relished the moment of our achievement by gorging on snacks, joking and lying down on the ground. Still, we had to reach to Hatlot village which still seemed very far. But as it was only a walk on the plain trail, we were not bothered and quickly gathered the speed.

Photo Courtesy: Sanjay Amrutkar

A gurgling sound of water made us stop at one point and we spotted a nice stream getting converted into a small waterfall. Bapu Pagar Sir urged all of us to stop and proposed the idea of having a bath under the waterfall. Our bodies were already stinking and we immediately accepted his proposal and headed towards the waterfall.

We had a nice time in the water getting massaged under the heavy force of the waterfall. Pandit Dhondge Sir even had a quick shave by sitting beside the stream. This bath lifted our energies, washed away all the bad smells from the bodies and appeared to give us a fresh lease of life. Really an indescribable feeling!

With newly found energy, we covered the remaining distance quickly and reached to Hatlot village. After paying to our guide, Paresh clicked a selfie of our group. We bid adieu to Nasik group and headed towards Pune. We were dwelling on the idea of lunching at Mapro but seeing the heavy traffic of the cars in front of Mapro, we decided to skip the idea and instead lunched heavily at Bandu Gore Khanavaal at Wai. Feasting on the great food and ending the food with the delicious desert of Sitaphal Rabadi culminated the trek on a sweet note.

Experiences that don't kill you make you stronger and this was really such an adventurous experience! You can imagine the amount of workload legs bore for these two days as even with the experience of regular trekking, legs ached almost for more than 2 days. This trek has really set some benchmark for the stamina and I am sure this experience will definitely set the tone for more gruelling hikes in future.

Trekkers: 

Pune Team: Prashant Kothawade, Tushar kothawade, Mallikarjun Shirshetty, Santosh Kulkarni

Nasik Team: Sanjay Amrutkar, Paresh Amrutkar, Shrikant Patil, Bapu Pagar, Pandit Dhondge

Guide: Chandrakant More, Hatlot (9421435992)

Date: 5th and 6th Dec, 2015

Special Thanks: 

• Jeetendra Bankapure whose blog helped planning this trek meticulously.
• Ninad Bartakke for providing GPS map for the trek route. Though we had the local guide, GPS helped to check the progress and location at any given moment.

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Happy hiking!

Appeal: No litter; no plastic; no wrappers; keep the mother nature clean!