Let me first tell you what is youngsterz, it is group of passionate trekkers which organize treks for other and help them to enjoy it without any problem. You must have realized by now that I am in a "habit" to follow the wrong track and then getting exhausted in searching for right route :-). So this time I decided to go with some group and to save my energy.
(@ 28th May) To my bad luck rains in Mumbai has still not started and I really wanted to go for some trek. On orkut community “youngsterz” (all in capital :P), planning was going on for Rajmachi trek. This was a one day trek and I saw lots of people showing interest. I was willing to meet some enthusiastic bunch of guys, so I decided to go with this group. They were charging 200 bucks for this trip, which I thought was on the higher side. I hated this idea, but I had no other option!!!
(@ 30th May) Planning was very strange….they had planned to leave on Saturday late night (to board the last local to Karjat) and wait in Karjat Station till morning. This means no sleep on Saturday!!!! But I was ready to experience this. Start was very disappointing for me...as per trip leader Prasad, 4-5 guys were about to board from Kanjurmarg, I waited for about 40-45 minutes but no one showed up. At last when train arrived, in contrast to my thoughts it was full packed. I couldn’t believe how such large no. of people were travelling at 1 am in the late night. Somehow I entered the train, after few stations found a place to sit and was trying very hard to take a nap, but my experience says when you need it the most it will never come on time :)
One group was travelling in the same compartment, they were headed to Matheran. One of the guy from this group was very funny and was imitating a blind begger with a old song. Everyone from this group was enjoying it to the fullest. He was so funny that even I could not stop myself from laughing loudly, he repeated it many times but he was making all of laugh everytime. My trek group was in same comp. but was away from me. One thing I noticed was most of them was looking localities, talking in Marathi and were having fun. They were playing “Hide n Seek” in the train :D, can you imagine doing that…but it was very emotional (and funny ofcourse)watching them act childlike.
At last train reached Karjat, we all got down and gathered at one point. It was dark and all were new faces, so everyone was confused. I had to say first impression of the trip leader was not good. Who is the leader of the group was not even clear to me for a long time. Anyways this group had 5-6 experienced persons (let’s call them group X) , they were the people who was taking the decision. All new guys were following them quietly. The way of passing 2-3 hours in station was very unique, we all went to ticket counter and laid down between the grills (a good choice of location as all fans in that place were running). I also found a place and again started trying to get some sleep. I guess I must have slept for 1 hour but suddenly loud noises and stupid mosquitoes waked me up. The group X was all awake and talking very loudly (basically disturbing others…).
According to the plan, we were supposed to take breakfast and leave early. Shops were still not opened, so we all were waiting. One guy found out a shop which was open and was ready to serve breakfast. We reached their and again it was a disappointment. We ate “kanda poha” which was like “OOT ke muh mein ‘aadha’ jeera :D “. Shopkeeper clearly made us fool, but no one was protesting so I also kept mum. After breakfast we left for auto stand, which is located near Ram pul (I think so it was Ram pul only) By autos we reached the base village Kondivade. Before leaving leader asked all of us to gather in a circle and to introduce ourselves. I was waiting for this long, as this is the rite way to start a trek. But leader didn't describe about the trek and the precaution needs to be taken. (Which should be always done)
It was a very young group and everyone had different level of experience. We started our trek rite on time. Everyone was very excited and cameras started clicking all over the place. I guess we must have walked for half an hour and to our left we found a dry waterfall rocks. No water but still beautiful!!! Out of group of 19, 5 of us decided to climb the steep rock. It was fun, I was leading others. After this climb we reached old Buddhist caves. I thought we were ahead of other group but to my surprise they were ahead of us. They must have missed the caves and went ahead. We started following the trail and caught them very soon.
One thing which was very irritating was HEAT and the SUN. I was drained in sweat all over, it was itching badly and getting uncomfortable. Some of the guys of our group took out their shirt like sallu bhai, I was not comfortable to do that so I keep bearing the heat. Luckily we got a chance to take a rest for half an hour (waiting for slow guys...Group X remember.... behind us) under big shade and cool breeze.
I think we were only 15 minutes of walk away from Rajmachi village and we found mango trees and one more famous “maharashtrian” fruit. (I am really sorry that I forgot the name :( ) We all ate a lot of both, believe me it felt like heaven…
After crossing this mini “fruit” jungle we reached Rajmachi village. I thought that we will be served lunch before climbing the forts, but our leader was in the mood to finish the trekking part first. Leaving our bags in a house we all climbed one of the fort (either it was Manoranjan or Shrivardhan….see I still don’t remember which of the fort we climbed :D...seriously what has happened to me :O). I think group X joined the trek not for usual stuff of challenging mountains, but they were there just to enjoy. They were really very slow and because of them only we got late and we had to drop the idea climbing the second fort :( .
I believe if one subgroup is not willing to do sth that doesn’t mean that you should make others pay for it. Leader should take decision and not the team. If someone is slow (intentionally) then the group should be divided into two and then they can follow different routes.
Anyways the climb was good and I thoroughly enjoyed it. While climbing I was in conversation with our trek leader Prasad. It was really fascinating, he told me about his earlier treks and about other guys of youngsterz group. He also showed me the best point of Rajmachi trek. It was really beautiful; the view was of a dry waterfall from a post just opposite to it. It was huge and made me curious to know the way to reach at the bottom of the fall. I have kind of decided to go back to this place in monsoon and to get wet in this waterfall ;-).
After returning from fort we all had a nice lunch, I had “chawal ki roti” after a long time and overall it was a good vegetarian food. After lunch most of us was looking for a nap, some of “over enthusiastic” guys went to the lake….I wanted to but I thought to leave it for next trip :D.
After taking rest for 1.5-2 hours we started descending. We were late again because of “experienced” group X. Some of them wanted to go through Lonavala route and our leader was not commanding enough to ask them to follow his commands. We left in parts and out of 19, 13 were on their way, 6 guys were behind. While descending, one patch of the trek was little risky and a difficult one for the first timers. But everyone reached safely and we reached the base village before 7 pm. While returning we saw villagers collecting “jamuns”, tempted we started doing the same :). Just to give a courtesy gift to those villagers I bought jamun worth Rs. 10 from them. At the end of the trek no one can imagine a better ending than this.
We walked little further and caught autos till Karjat. Train was scheduled at 8:40 pm. Before leaving we all had bada pavs and burji pav. I couldn’t believe I am returning so early, I want to spent more time in mountain……but this is the way it always end :(. I reached Kurla and boarded a bus till my home.
It was a good trek in terms of mixture of terrains it provided. The trail had plains, plateaus, climbs, rocky patched, forests and everything you want in a trek. Anyone can go for this trek in a group. Just be patient and looks for arrows. You can even hire some villager from base village as a guide. The best thing is that you can stay there in night as it is a residential village, so everything is available at the top. A must visit in winters and in full moon nights(According to a gentleman whom I met in village..... he is a regular visitor of this place)
I am eagerly waiting for monsoon to come and it seems in the nest week after this I will not be disappointed :)
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