Misty mountains, waterfalls and the jungle

Well, does the title suggest anything? Hmm, to experienced sahyadri hikers and trekkers that is just the description of most of the trekking spots in sahyadri in the rains. Here come the rains and the entire sahyadri range changes its color from pale yellow to lush green. Shades of green soothing your parched eyes. Water gushing from evrery stone that it finds on the way. And then comes a tall high rising stone and here we see the waterfall attracting all kind of people. Some spoiling the natural beauty by the garbage of drinking bottles, some enjoying the flow of the chilling streams. Mountains are covered with fog. Clouds are rushing down to earth. A trek in this season to a new place is like a walk in the clouds.
And hence 4 enthusiasts decided to go and trek the sahyadris. After a long discussion about the best place to visit, it was decided that we would go to Bhimashankar. The trek starts from a village called 'Khandas' near Karjat. Think about this geographically. 4 of us from Pune travel in the opposite direction to Karjat by Sinhgad. And then we are supposed to go to Bhimashankar which comes after Manchar on Mumbai-Nashik highway. Well well, that is fun. Go to the Konkan level and then climb up to reach Bhimashankar. So we started, went to Shivajinagar station, aboard the Sinhgad Express we headed to Karjat. Even the short train journey is fun. We see so much greenery and clouds and rains around.
We got down at Karjat station discussing about how the climb is going to be. One of us had already trekked there twice and hence we were pestering him with questions. From Karjat ww managed to catch a rickshaw till a place called kalsa. From there one has to catch a six seater. Your bargaining skills can be used here to cut down on the cost that the six seater driver will charge you to take you to the place called 'Khandas'. The six seater will drop you near a 'tapri' called 'Dnyaneshwar'. We had garam garam kanda pohe and chaha. After refreshing ourselves for the trek, we started walking towards the destination. There is good road till a bridge over a small 'oodha'. After that the road starts getting narrower and then very small by the time the climb starts.
Rains gave us a warm welcome as soon as we reached Khandas. It continued till we reached the narrow road and actually started walking. Believe me, the wind cheaters and the rain suits are not of much help in the rains there. The rain was hitting hard. It was a great feel to start off a trek with loads of rains. We were all drenched by the time we reached the base. A nice walk till the base. One can see waterfalls all over the fortress that is seen while walking. Its an awesome site. With the hillock behind the front fortress hidden behind clouds, you can see the waterfalls coming down directly from clouds. Hundreds of waterfalls and I am not exaggerating here. We could not count them. Water was flowing from every little creek. It was a beautiful sight.
Slowly but with constant pace we started climbing up. The road started getting narrower. The road was also full of mud. It looked like a climb through a continuous flowing water. Though it was not a climb through a waterfall, it was a wonderful feel. With shoes and socks all wet, you can imagine how wonderful it must be !! :-)
After a climb of an hour or so, we reached at the Ganesh temple- the reason why the road is called as Ganesh Ghat. After paying our regards to the Shri Ganesh, we started another climb up. After climbing for a few minutes, we reached a plateu which was all green due to the incessant rains. The rocks on the way had become slippery because of therain water. It was difficult walking on a plane ground. My shoes (which were RBK's joggers) were slipping of from anything that was wet. Making the trip more enjoyable. :-)
A brisk walk away was another lovely waterfall. The water was cold and the force was enormous. All of us got fully drenched in the fall, somehow withstanding the force of the water. After the fall was a walk in the jungle. The trees had become fluroscent green because of the hycinth. The jungle on the way to Bhimashankar is simply amazing. It was raining heavily and we could hardly feel the water drops falling on us. Its a dense forest. Unfortunately or fortunately we did not come across any wild animals. Not even snakes. :-( . All we saw were lots n lots of crabs which scare the hell out of me. Another half an hour walk through the jungle and we reached a 'tapri'. We could smell the tempting 'Kanda Bhaji' and hot tea. Since we were fully drenched, we really needed a hot tea with 'Kanda Bhaji'. But I had managed to get my stomach upset just the same day morning, and hence decided to be content with the 'bananas'. Believe me even the bananas were really tempting at that time. Everyone else hogged on two plates of Kanda Bhaji.
On a trek, you will usually meet all kind of people. One of the kinds is those, who are natives of the place and keep on telling you stories of the bad road ahead, the steep climb and similar things. We met such people again here too. The climb was supposedly really steep ahead, the road bad. But this time, it was really the case. I was already told by a friend of mine that the climb ahead was really steep. The road had become muddy and slippery because of the rains. so again, it was going to be fun climbing up. Again my shoes showing their true self, made me touch the ground almost twice. Terrified by the frequency with which I was slipping off the stones on the way, I could imagine myself slipping off the rock patch and getting nirvana. It was not hilarious anymore. The steep climb led us to a horizaontal path to be covered which had slippery rocks on the way. With support only on one side, and slippery shoes I somehow made my way through the patch and gave a sigh of relief after reaching a plane surface. Standing on the rock patch one can get a lovely view of the path from where we climb up. The hillock which looks really tall while climbing up starts looking smaller and smaller. We finally reach at a level above the hillock. With everything around painted in green colour and the clouds forming a mystrious air around the mountains around, it surely is a lifetime experience. All the efforts put while climbing up seem to vanish in a moment. All the tiredness is gone.
When we reached the top, I expected a crowded village with decent population. All I could see for a while was clouds. And could hear the bell of the Bhimashankar temple. It seemed to come from nowhere. It was a really soothing feeling to hear the bell in the atmosphere that was so amazing. We headed towards the market place in order to find a room where we could get into something dry and clean. To my surprise I could find shops only selling the 'pooja' material. And a few hotels. We got lucky and found one hotel where we could dump our bags and get fresh. As usual, I had forgotten to get an extra pair of chappals. I was at the mercy of my fully drenched shoes and socks. So I decided to be religious and went bare feet till the temple. The temple a little far from the market. One has climb down a few stairs, a little fewer than 60. All through the stairs, there are shops selling the prasad. The most favourite among the visitors being the 'Kunda'.
We took some and went to take the darshan of the almighty Lord Shiva. Its an old temple and believed to be one of the 12 'Jyotirlingas' in India. Carved in stone its a really nice monument. this place is also the birth place of the one of the most significant rivers in Maharashtra - Bhima. Well this is about the historic place - Bhimashankar.
After visiting the temple, all we wanted to do was to get back home in dry clothes. The thought of getting into something warm and dry itself was really reliving. But soon came the thought of wearing the wet shoes and the wet socks. :-(. But there wasn't another choice. We rushed back to the hotel and enquired about the bus timings for Bhimashankar -Shivajinagar bus. It was after a long time that I was going to get inside the State Transport bus often referred to as 'Lal Daba'. We hogged on to hot 'Wada Pav' at the bus stand. Yes, I did ignore my stomach upset thing as the sight of wada pav was too tempting in that chilled weather and misty atmosphere. We got into the Lal Daba and waited till it started. I was all set to take a nice nap. The driver had some other plans. I was sitting on the second last seat which is just on the tyres and the driver was driving as if he was driving Ferrari. In short I was swinging from left to right and back all the while till we reached Manchar. Then we decided to chit chat till we reached Pune.
The site of misty mountains, gushing waterfalls, the jungle was disappearing. We were entering the life of everyday chores and problems. The crowded Mumbai-Pune highway added all the more to the gloomy feel that I got while coming back. The trek did refresh my mind with memories of the picturesque surroundings, the dense jungle, the clouds coming down from the mountains, the bell of the temple and much more.