December Trek to Matheran

Trekking and walking in the woods has been my ideal destressing mechanisms, being religiously followed at-least 4 times a year. An element of discomfort was creeping in my psyche. It was more than 12 months and no trekking done, the year 2010 already gearing up closing it's calendar with joyful blasting chritsmas holidays round the corner. Didn't knew what to do. My regular trekking companions were in Australia, enjoying their daughters graduation ceremony.

I got a surprise call from my swimming acquaintance, Sushmit Lahiri, a young athlete and footballer. Seeking my availability for the saturday (18/12/2010), for a trek. This was an opportunity i could not have missed and jumped on to details of the trek. We were on our preparations friday evening picking up bread, cheese, biscuits, water, lemon for the trek.

We decided to ride to the foothills at Dhodani village on my Bullet, which was also roaring to go. I had the bike serviced  and ready the previous week itself, as a part of my standard SOP of keeping the machine ever ready.

Our journey started with a kick of my 350cc bike at 06:15 hrs . With a backpack with each of us, the ride started from the misty lanes of Sector -9 CBD Belapur, Navi Mumbai. We encountered morning walkers enjoying the early morning chill at CBD Belapur, the chill had been little unusual for Navi Mumbai, with the temperature dropping to 15 degrees Celsius.

We hit the Mumbai Pune highway in 5 minutes, the bike was balanced with the pillion rider and roared towards panvel. After taking right turn from the kalamboli junction, we entered a fuel station to top up the tank, this fuel station being out of the octroi limits, has cheaper fuel compared to the Mumbai & Navi Mumbai. Topped up we started again, on the busy highway till the junction of New Panvel. We took a left turn towards the new panvel and said a good bye to the Pune higway. This part of town was still sleepy, we zoomed out of new panvel started moving towards, chiple and sukhapur. Heavy development could be seen with big construction houses involved in the housing and commercial projects.

Once out of New Panvel, we could now feel two differences, one the roads became narrow, feel was rural and could see the outlines of the shahyadri ranges, where we intended to do our trek. Almost 3 Kms from the new panvel we saw a smokey lake as if enjoying the chill and complementing the sun for the early morning tea. We took a short video  of location and moved further. As inched closer to our destination , village Dhodhani, we saw another lake full of white flower, we halted to confirm our directions with the locals. We were happy to know that we were on the right path. We touched the base village known as Dhodhani, just at the foot of the hill Matheran. Visiting this village always reminded me of the advantages they live in, with fresh air, moderate temperatures and natural surroundings; a dream to live on.

As we enter the village, met our old acquaintance. Asked him for safe parking of the bike. He was more than happy to have us there, showed us a corner and we parked our bike, settled down with a pack of biscuits and hot cup of black tea. Surprisingly the black tea has been always very tasty at this location.

Preparations for climbing up included removing our external jacket. Adjusting our rucksacks. Taking out the walking stick, Tightening the shoe laces. We navigated our way through the village and were out climbing first leg of hill at 8:20 hrs. The sun was still soft and kind towards us, however the first steep climb did give us the glimpse of further journey.

I have been very fond of this trekking track up on Matheran hills and have been doing this almost annually. Very effective track to loosen your joints and preparing you for tougher treks.

The first leg of climb made us little breathless but this hill and our breathlessness disappeared in the second range which had good green cover. This took us up further and we landed at a small unattended temple. Took some sip of water. My friend lahiri was already ahead eager to conquer the cliff.

Breath taking view of the sunset point of Matheran was visible from this location. The next climb was a steep one, we had to climb a vertical cliff. Short and sharp zig zag paths very taking us high &high. Narrow but well identified tracks were our companions other than once in a while some locals going up and down.

Touched the peak and entered Maheran ranges at 10:20 hrs, sushmith lahiri was already on with snacks. We moved around the cliff, located an edge and settled for our bread jam cheese sandwich. Relishing taste. It was tasting much better than other regular days. Other than two of us we had the company of huge trees and shrubs on the edges with strong breeze making a loud sound as if they were the voice of matheran and telling us to keep the area clean and behave responsibly. We did exactly as expected, we took all our trash in our ruck sack and decided to move towards the market area of Matheran. It was a cool 4 kms to and fro walk in the company of  15-20feet tall trees. The moment we reached the market place, all the peace of Matheran was seen and heard shattering as the day was progressing and tourists oozing out on lanes and bylanes of the hill town market. Ponies and horses demonstrating their presence by making all sorts of noise as if competing with the intruders (tourists).  Personally I have never liked to spend time in the market area. Which has all the characteristics of a Hat Bazaar.

One thing i have always loved is loafing around the station, going through the train schedule and the upkeep of the toy trains.  I had the opportunity to ride up the hill one time on this toy train, very fascinating but not more than walking up in the woods. Which explains my experience for toy train ride only being once. After some time we took a call amongst us to quit the market and start back.

I was also eager to get out of the entire noisy scenario, but still could not resist another black tea before we were on to the sunset point descending the hill. The time was 12:30pm. As usual the climb was very relishing as we were going down with the memories of a successful climb. We did promise ourselves to do more treks than what we were maintaining till now.

Returned and retired for the day after a heavy meal at home relishing the tiredness of every muscle of the body.
       

 

       
         

Bullet Ride to Malshej Ghat

Date of Ride: 19th July 2009

Destination: Malshej Ghat
Height: 2750 feet
Total Distance: 150 kms from Mumbai

The Route taken from Mumbai to Malshej Ghat

With the weekend approaching, there is a scramble to make best use of the time; and during monsoons it is an open invitation to experience the beauty of Sahyadri Ranges. When I received an invitation by InddieThumpers ( the bullet bikers club, having largest membership) for a ride to Malshej Ghat, I started gearing up my bike and myself. Got the clutch wire changed, topped up the engine oil, cleaned the spark plug, and test drove the bike around Navi Mumbai to check the preparedness. The assembly point was Mulund Toll Naka and assembly time was sharp 7:30 a.m on the sunday morning.
Got up early morning 5:30 a.m checked the weather, there was a heavy downpour at that moment, packed the backpack kept the tools in the bag, took my Wireless VHF handy along with the quarter wave magmount antenna. Wanted to test the matheran repeater from Malshej Ghat but the thrill of riding and activities within the group never gave me the time to use the wireless.

Was in two minds, will the bullet ride in monsoon be good during the heavy downpour, should I wait for the next ride ! , but the thrill of riding and thumping in flock of fellow bullet riders evaporated all the doubts. This led me packing off additional pair of shoes and clothes, to counter the effect of raindrops on my clothes.

With a cup of black tea, both of us (myself and my bike) were roaring to go. Kick started the bullet at 6:35 a.m only to have a short break at Fuel pump around 2 kms from Sec-9 C.B.D Belapur. Topped up the petrol, updated the tyre pressure and the journey started alone from CBD. Took the route of thane belapur road via airoli creek bridge to mulund check naka. The unpredictability of mumbai weather was in favour of us, it was a pleasant clear sky till i joined a group of six more bikes from Navi Mumbai at the exit of airoli creek bridge at eastern express highway. Met the veteran riders Kaka. Chinky and others under the bridge, waited for a short while for a pillion rider then proceeded towards the mulund toll naka, where we were greeted by a group of riders and we all moved little ahead before the Octroi Gate towards thane. All of us parked our bikes in a formation, and before we started we had almost 55 bullet motorcycles lined up and roaring to go for monsoon climb. There were curious onlookers and other mumbaiites admiring our spirit and bikes. A brief session of spontaneous photography captured some of the moments, Kaka briefed the route of ride and signalled us to start the journey in a file of 2x2 ride. It was 5 minutes to 8 in the morning, the bikes had started roaring restlessly and we started off from this point towards Bhiwandi Nasik Highway, and zoomed past, cars and trucks on the way.

I kept following the group in a 2X2 formation, when ever the roads went on a see saw pattern the formation of bullets on the road used to be visible for a length of Half a Kilometer, it was a fascinating site, this is when i remembered my camera, but had no cells. Decided to pick two pairs of Alkaline cells, but it was early morning, hardly any shops had opened their shuters till then. It had drizzled a bit till now, we were all aiming to reach the Murbad turning near the Murbad Bus Stop. This was our landmark for the breakfast. As we neared the destination saw around 30 to 35 bikers already waiting for others to join them. It was 9:00 am and this was our breakfast time. We parked our bikes in front of the restaurant, straightened our backs and legs. Found a quiet corner to unload my back pack and helmets. An interesting feature of Inddie Thumpers (the bullet club), has been to prepare for the ride with the checklists of spares as well as dos and don'ts during the ride. All the riders followed the rule and discipline by book on the road till we hit our 1st breakpoint for our breakfast.

There was a huge commotion in the restaurant and all the discipline on the road went off with loud roars and laughters of the riders, many of us started greeting, meeting and introducing one another. I was riding with the group almost after 5 years, but the warmth and bonding with the group was same as before. Suddenly there was an annoucement for all the riders to deposit the contribution for the ride, which again created a wave of activities which settled down with the hot pohas served with fresh lemon. A steaming cup of tea was apt for the weather, which had started telling us, this is a monsoon ride. Strong breeze with heavy downpour accompanied our hot tea. Almost all the riders and their pillions were roaring to smash the rainsdrops with our bikes.

Put on my windcheater cum raincoat, helmet, backpack and before we could touch our bikes we had four to five photographers asking us to pose in the group, the moment had its own level of dramatic moments when our photo guys almost blocked the road for few moments to capture the event.

Again in the formation of 2X2 the bikers started off the ride towards the hill ranges. The roads were clean lashed with the rain water. We were almost 55-60 kms from our start point, we went past beautiful countryside having various shades of greenery, the fresh crop had a lemon green touch, but the trees and grass had a deeper green color. It was amazing to see the variations in the green shades, which kept propping up all the way as we progressed on the ride. Almost after and hour of ride from our breakfast point we had started riding amongst the early rise of hills. Amazing curves of the road along will the climb kept us engaged, but could not deviate us from appreciating the beauty of mountains and the road. Many place you could see the roads dissapearing in the hills visible in the front. Some of our riders including myself did get down at couple of places to capture the nautral beauty embbeded with the man made created serpentine roads.

All along it had been pouring on and off, which added to the thrill of ride, once we were through with our photoshoots, we used to rush to catch up with the group who rode past us towards the mission "Malshej Ghats". While riding up the hills before the Malshej tunnel, the clouds were romancing with the peaks. Many places you would feel the heat of romance as you could see smoke coming out of the ranges, which turned out to be a wandering clouds suspended very low. It was still an ealry morning for the site but we encountered some other groups enjoying the water fall and the weather. We were greeted at most of these encounters we rode past the tunnel, which was dripping with water as the rains were lashing the ghats. The riders went ahead of the tunnel and started decending the hill towards our resort where our destination was. By the time we parked our bikes and settled for the next moves, it was 12:00p.m. We had travelled till now 151 kms from our destination. Some of us could spot a huge lake behind resort, and it was decided to take a ride to the lake, while our lunch gets ready.

This was an interesting part of the ride, here we rode on the non metal road of the dam which was holding this water in the lake form. Intelligently mankind has used the natural resources to their best advantage, this was visible even here, as the three sides of the lake were natural mountain ranges and only one side the dam had to be erected. We continued the ride our speed was 15 to 20kms per hour, the ride was bumpy and the wind pressure was high. Thanks to the weight of the Bike we were more stable than other 100 cc bikes but still had to manoeuvre our bikes carefully and firmly.
We parked our bikes on the edge of the dam when some adventurous bikers went down on foot to take the feel of water. At least a dozen of us decided to test the depth of the lake.
In the meantime i was there up on the dam road along with few other bikers, who were first timers with the InddieThumpers on the ride. Some of whom i could interact were Ashish(recently moved to mumbai), Maitri (from capgemini), Anirudh (a budding enterpreneur in logistics and warehousing solutions) and Vivek. There was one thread common in all of us including the first time riders, the thrill of riding the thumping enfield bullet.We exchanged the numbers and promised to keep one another informed of any short rides as well.

We were informed by a fellow rider about a path little ahead from where we could ride our bike down to the lake edge, and we rushed for the spot which was around one KM from our spot and decended down to meet Behzad, Rajiv Shah and a couple of others who had parked their bikes next to the lake for the photoshoot. Sensing a great opportunity changed into swimming trunks and decided to test the depth of water in the lake. The bed of the lake was rocky which had sharp edges and did have some steep slopes on one end, that served as good pool for me to float for some time on back. Could see clouds smiling from above enjoying our antics. The chill of lake freshened us up and after a round of photos were were up on bikes to ride back to the resort for our hot lunch. It was 14:30 hrs when we landed at the lunch venue. All the first time riders were asked to introduce themselves and glimpses of modeling amongst the newcomers could be seen with the girls being the judge. But the process had to be interrupted for the lunch to get organized on the table. This was everybody's time for fill and refill. The process was over by 15:20hrs, and the ride back to mumbai was announced.

15:30hrs we were up and roaring again, till we crossed the tunnel and 2 kms of the stretch of Ghat, it was bit jammed due to the picnickers parking their four wheelers haphazardly. Thankfully we were out of this situation in 30 minutes. We zoomed back. We encountered some traffic as we were entering Thane, but was usual weekend return traffic and we could navigate our bikes effortlessly back to our home. The day ended with a hot bowl of soup and biryani. The fingers and legs were reminding me of the thrill we experienced and the rest needed for the night. As night descended, the thought of another ride started taking shape.

Total distance traveled this day: 300kms

Palm Beach Road

A late and lazy saturday afternoon in the monsoon induced two opposite thoughts in me, first one to take a nap after lunch and go out for dinner late in the evening, and the second one brings beautiful picture of rain lashed greenery and Palm trees along the Palm Beach Road. My adventurous and outgoing currents force me to get my wife and kid ready for a prompt movement after a late lunch.

The movement triggered quick organizing of basic resources, the camera, umbrellas, windcheater, my wireless VHF/UHF Handy( Yeasu FT-60R). I love to carry the handy to check the trigerring of repeaters from these locations.

The palm beach road starts with an Old Fort build by portuguese dating 16th century, now only few remains are there over shadowed by the skycrappers in and around the vicinity.
The belapur for was built by Siddis in 1560-1570. This was captured by portuguese, then marathas, finally by britishers in 1817.

The palm beach road is a strech of 11 kms connecting Vashi to C.B.D Belapur in the satellite township. It is a six lane beautifully landscaped by skycrappers on the right side of it and beautiful mangroves on the other side eventually leading to the creek.



The drive was smooth and pleasant. The maximum speed permissible is 60kms/hr, however we could hardly find any vehicle within that speed limit. If fact if start driving at that speed, other motorists start honking to ask you to go to the left lane or getting out of their way. The road has sharp curves along the stretch from NRI complex to Sanpada signal, and has witnessed accidents ever since it has been open to traffic.

While returning we had a short stopover at the Lake next to the Palm Beach Road. We saw a flock of black water birds enjoying their swim as well as hunting. Almost all of them were able to catch fish and enjoy on the live catch, my camera could capture some events although not a brilliant picture. In the night time the road is well lit and reflection of the city in the water looks amazing.

This was a short ride ending at my CBD Belapur residence with evening tea. This part was over and we started planning for the evening activities

Sinhgadh Fort

Visit to Sinhagadh crystallized on the night of 26th June 2009, at Kalyani Nagar, Pune. With Sandwiches in breakfast we started for Sinhgadh Fort.

The route

The route out from Kalyani Nagar, took us through swargate via khadakvasala, the place known for NDA (National Defence Academy). We navigated out of busy traffic of pune towards the foothills of Sinhgadh.

As we progressed up, the road was getting narrower. The drive is an experience interwoven with sharp turns and steep climb, had all the reciepe for the thrill and excitement. Around mid of the hill we faced a truck coming form opposite direction, we had to reverse a bit to make room for the truck to passby.

We rolled down the windows to enjoy the clouds and breeze as we were driving up the hill. We encountered loads of youngsters zooming past us on their bikes and strenghtening their riding skills.



Entire drive up the hill gave us breath taking view of the Sahyadris (the mountain range dotting the western ghats of India). We took the liberty of stopping the car and taking a walk amongst the cloud.

History of Sinhgadh Fort
The present day Sinhgadh Fort was known as Kondhana Fort, when it was first constructed in 14th century. While the fort had been of strategic importance since it was built, it is now best know in Indian History as well as folk lore, for the "Battle of Sinhgadh".

Chhatrapati Shivaji was the founder of great Maratha empire. The greatest guerrilla fighter of his days, Shivaji formed an empire bu winning territory from his enemies, who always outnumbered his forces by atleast 5:1.

Shivaji's trusted lieutenant, Tanaji led the attack on Sinhgadh to take the control. Heroic rock climbing, surprise element of the attack led to the victory of forces of Chhatrapati Shivaji. However he lost Tanaji in the battle.

On the receipt of information about fort falling to his forces and the loss of one of his greatest lieutenant, Shivaji lamented " Gadh aala pan sinh gela" , meaning The fort is captured but lion is gone. Since that day the fort came to be known as Sinhgadh (The lions fort)

Trekking info

Elevation: 800 meters above sea level
Distance from pune: 25 kms

One can trek from Donaje to top of the fort.

How to Reach

Sinhgadh can be accessed from Pune Bus Station

Nearest Railhead: Pune Junction Railway Station.

Cultural capital "Pune"

Start Point : CBD Belapur, Navi Mumbai
26th June 2009 a very pleasant morning, i could see a cosy forthcoming weekend and also a trip to the cultural capital of Maharashtra. Yes your guess is right i am talking about Pune. By the time we organized ourself it was already noon time, hence decided to have the lunch and take a stroll on Mumbai Pune EXPRESSWAY. A wonder which has reduced the distance between Mumbai and Pune.


Checked the windscreen water level, engine oil level and tyre pressure. And we were on the highway at 13:15hrs. It as cloudy and pleasant as i peep out of window, on my left see a big board of Mcdonald which was 10kms from our start point.

As we enter expressway, the feel of road through the tyres of my car is ecstatic. I go down the memory lane few years back when this expressway had attracted lots of attention of environmentalists. It is true any human intervention in the natures creation has issues to be addressed. Development and Destruction seem to go hand in hand. I jerk out of my thoughts with the first sight of clouds kissing the sahyadri hills around 20 kms from CBD Belapur on my left side of the highway.

The first tunnel named BHATAN Tunnel came after 24.5 kms of drive, the tunnel is 1.1 kms long. Beautifully lit, still gives a feeling of blankness, as you enter, however before my feelings settle we emerge out of the tunnel in bright cloudy day on the highway. The speed limit is 80 kms/hr but vehicles zoom past us as if challenging us for a race. We did'nt get tempted and contuinued our journey when we encounter 2nd tunnel MADAP tunnel at 36.3 kms from CBD Belapur.

The is no free ride in this life, we realized this when we encountered 1st Toll at 44 kms from CBD Belapur. We took the receipt for Rs 140/- to Pune. This was the place from where lonavala was 19kms. This is a picturque getaway for most mumbaiites.

We did'nt take the exit to lonavala and zoomed on the serpentine road towards pune, the old mumbai pune highway keeps reminding us of its existence many times on the way. We saw the old highway crossing us at 90 degrees overhead at around 45kms from CBD Belapur.

While crossing Khandala Hills saw some of the monkeys enjoying the sight of expressway. They live here and we come there for some moments. The sight of highway was beautiful. Nicely maintained highway.



We checked up at 1st food mall to refill our coffee quota and tit bits. There is HP fuel pump for the vehicles needing to do the update on fuel.

Started our journey to pune crossing two more tunnels on the way and finally exited the expressway around 100kms from CBD. Then merged seamlessly into the crowd of Pune.

Our night happened at a friends place in Kalayani Nagar, near Koregaon Park, Pune.


Total Distance Travelled. 180 kms from CBD to Kalyani Nagar Pune.

Travel in the first rain

The opportunity to move from one location to another is the thrill attached with my job of consulting. This journey was from Navi Mumbai, C.B.D Belapur to Vapi. C.B.D Belapur has been established as a 21st century Satellite town of Navi Mumbai. Surrounded by sahyadri hills, during monsoon the beauty of these hills soothes the nerves fried by preceding summer. This day was special one. We started at 6 a.m for the destination Vapi. The serpentine Thane Belapur road was surprisinglysmooth and helped us exiting to Mumbai Ahmedabad highway. We slipped out of town amongst the greetings of rain drops brielfy drizzling on the way as if welcoming and motivating us to go further.

The journey till our breakfast joint at Kamaths near Manor on the Ahmedabad highway was bit snoozy, but could'nt miss the striking white clouds smiling on us hanging very close to earth suspended effortlessly. I was amazed at the might and softness of these clouds who move from one corner of this earth to another only with one agenda, cooling down the temperature and returining the water received during the summer.

It took us four hours to reach the destination, with a little traffic jam near the border of Maharashtra & Gujarat.

The highways were in good shape and running four lane all through as if inviting us to embark on the journey to next learning.

One of the captions written on the fuel tank of the Truck still reminds us of saving the fuel for our next generations. The caption read as

" IRAQ ka Pani,
Kam piyo meri rani"

Which meams
The trucker is requesting the truck to consume less of the fuel from IRAQ symbolizing petrofuel from gulf nations.

Was back to my home at CBD Belapur by 21:00hrs.
Total distance traveled = 460 Kms.
(CBD Belapur Navi Mumbai to Vapi and Back)