Trekking with pals

Recently i completed a trek to Bhimashankar which i wanted to share with all. Below is an excerpt from a freind who has captured the moment beautifully.


Trek to Bhimashankar


Nature Knights had organised a day trek to Bhimashankar on January 8,
2006. I wanted to visit Bhimashankar for a long time. Asif, the
founder of Nature Knights, would always say that a climb up to
Bhimashankar is a trekker's dream and, that, if we have to enjoy the
topography, we have to be there for at least two days. Nature Knights
is planning to organise a two day trek to Bhimashankar and wanted to
check out the accommodation and the food facility available there. So
this one day trek was organised. The idea of this trek club survey
visit was to make arrangements for overnight trek to Bhimashankar and
also have a one-day trek upto Bhimashankar Forest.

Nature Knights arranges for vehicles to travel upto the base of the
camp. This time it was a 25 seater bus. The Bus started form Andheri
at 5.45 a.m. and reached sion station at 6.15 a.m. I usually board
the bus from sion station as it is the nearest station to my house.
Nature knights had given an order for caps at a shop near Crawford
Market and Asif had requested me to collect them from the shop. I was
carry 50 caps with me that morning.

We had to reach Khandas, a small village at the base of Bhimashankar.
We took the expressway which goes to Pune. From the expressway there
is an off road which is now known as the old Mumbai Pune highway. The
village is accessible from this road. After around two hours we
stopped for tea at a `Tapri'. The tea was not so good but the wada
pavs were excellent and I relented to the mouth watering smell and
bought one for breakfast.

We reached the village after around 30 minutes from our tea break.
There Asif went to look for locals who know the terrain well and can
guide us through the forest. We were enjoying the view of vast
Bhimashankar when we saw a snake skin lying near a hole in the
fields. I went and picked it up. The skin was approximately 8 ft
long. I carried it to the bus to keep it safely. Meanwhile, Asif
returned with Mr. Sakaram, he is already know to Asif, as Nature
Knights have done around 5 treks with Sakaram and more with his
famous father (Vaman Ainkar).

There was a well in one of the fields and those who had not carried
enough water or those who wanted to refill their bottles, went to the
well to fill water. And from that well our trek started.

It had been decided that there would be one guide in the front to
lead us and the other at the back incase the group split into two and
the latter group lost its way.

There are three paths to reach the top of Bhimashankar. The fist one
is known as `Sidi Ghat'. This is the toughest route of all three. One
has to climb rock face to reach the top. There are creaky wooden and
Iron Ladders on the rock face to help a person ascend the hill, part
of it also involves climbing rock face, a tough climb. We selected
the second route, the intermediate route via "Gully"; the term used
for a deep saddle between two hills. This route is filled with water
falls during the monsoon. But at this time of the year, it was dry
and easily accessible. The third route is known as Ganesh Ghat. This
route gets its name from the Temple of Lord Ganesha on the way to the
top. This is the easiest of the three routes.

There are three plateaus to be covered to reach the top of
Bhimashankar. We had decided that we would reach the forest, halt
there for lunch and start our return journey after lunch. This was
the initial plan.

The trek to the top is through forests, dry land and over rocks. The
forests are very cool and you can enjoy the breeze while walking. The
rocks are the trickiest as you can twist you ankle if you don't tread
them safely. We took a short break on one of the rocky terrains of
Bhimashankar. It looked like it might be a water fall during the
rains. We could imagine what fun it would be if we were sitting on
those rocks with water falling from all sides. Everybody got their
snack boxes out. There were tasty carrots, oranges and cucumbers for
snacks. Asif had got Monaco biscuits. It was fun eating from
everyone's boxes.

After 15 minutes of rest and snacking we started the trek again. We
reached the second plateau covered with forests at 12.00 noon which
was pretty fast then we had expected. The locals said that it would
still take an hour to reach the top. This was encouraging news for
all of us. And seeing the team spirit, we decided to go all the way
upto Bhimashankar Temple and come back to the base camp by evening.
But before we started on our upward journey we all had butter milk
from a villager. The last patch was a little tougher than the rest of
the trek as it was a steep climb.

We had to climb against rock faces and walk on the ledge for over an
hour before we reached the top. The view from the ledge was
breathtaking. We could see a range of Mountains and the far away
landscape. The villages looked like tiny toy houses. I felt like on
the top of the world being there.

At the end of the climb, it was a relief to reach the top. At last we
had made it to Bhimashankar. The few of us who reached to top first
decided to visit the temple of Lord Shiva. As legend goes the ling of
the lord in this temple is one of the `Jyotirlings' i.e. the lings
have emerged from the earth themselves and are not manmade. We were
the last of the devotees who could enter the temple as the temple was
closed for an hour after we left. The rest of the team could not
visit the temple as they were far behind.

After our visit to the temple we reached the site decided by our team
for lunch. Everyone had their lunch boxes out and we feasted ling
kings and queen on the top of the mountain. The whole team was
exuberant on having reached the top and was celebrating it with a
feast.

Soon after the lunch we started our journey to the base at 4.00 p.m.
We had to walk very fast now as it was a long way down and it would
become dark soon. We decided that we would all halt at 5.15 p.m. take
a head count and remove our torches before we begin our further
descend. By the time it was 5.15, we had reached the hutment where we
had stopped to drink butter milk. Our group of 10 trekkers was the
first to reach and we decided to stretch our legs while we waited for
the rest of the team to arrive. It was only after 15 minutes that the
whole group gathered at that place.

Everyone was given strict instruction to stick to the group and not
wander alone as it would to dark soon and it was easy to get lost in
the jungle.

Half way through our descend the sun set and we had to walk in the
moonlight as there were only five to six torches in a group of 25.
This made the descend difficult as we could not see our path and
didn't know where we were stepping. We had few skids and crashes in
the darkness but the only casualty one minor sprained ankle.

By the time we reached the base everyone was very exhausted from the
trek. Two of the group members went and got the bus while the rest of
the team slept on the rocky path.

To be back into the bus was a relief.

Once settled into the bus we started singing songs, but after half an
hour everyone was silent. The energy of the team had suddenly
disappeared and half of the bus fell asleep.

The trek had been successfully completed and everyone was happy that
they had made it to the top to Bhimashankar and back all in a day.