Saturday, July 19, 2008

SagarGad : 13-07-2008

Hands and legs are aching. I am literally dosing. But dont have any other option to stay awake than writing this post about my yesterdays' trek. Right on the first day of my new job i m sitting idle on my desk with no work since my TL is onleave today.
After a long break of 7 months, we managed to go on a trek. The monsoon drops have already hit the floor last month and have gone for a vacation now. Even though the Mr. Bright was pouring heat and rays over the entire week we were hoping for heavy rains
atleast on this Sunday. Unfortunately, it dint turn up. Started early morning 630 am we gathered with old memories of last Harishchandra gad trek but as fresh as a rose. Every one was excited to meet eachother and more than that about the trek. Every
one turned up on time. We took a Dadar- Panvel ST from Dadar. Few of them were first-timers out of the total bunch of 13 with only 2 girls :((... Neways, neva mind.. We got down @ Panvel stand @ around 8 am. Just to fuel up the engine we did lil bita
nashta-pashta @ the Visawa hotel opp. Panvel ST stand. The best item was KANDE-POHE. it was too good. But i cud jus eat couple of spoons from my frnz plate since i dint want ti have the weekly sunde special breakfast on this trekky sunde. But i regretted
after i tasted it. The canteen guys took out as much info from us as he can about where we are going and when weel be returning back so that he can have a pretty handsome bill in the evening as well but unfortunately it dint happen for him, u l come to
know the reason later. From there we took a local Panvel-Alibaug bus to continue our journey After loads of maara-mari and smartness of reserving our seats by pusing our bags inside from the bus windows we managed to reserve around 10 seats. BTW, this style of reservation is call as Desi booking that too on current ticket. lolz... You just kwwp any of your belongings on the bus seat thro the window and that seat is wours before you get into the bus. THere is another way as well, u can also get into the bus using the emergency backdoor. Cool isnt it?? One of our teammate who was the last person to get into the bus told everyone that "Khandale" our destination is just 20 mins far. So few of our smarties gave their seats to other ppl who were standing.. But that was a sheer misunderstanding since he mispelled "Khandale" as "Karnale". "Khandale" is 2 hrs from Panvel. So all those smarties had to travel standing. At around 1030 we reached "Khandale". The road from "Khandale" to base point of Sagargad was a typical village road which is half concrete and half mud. You notice this when start heading deeper into the village. With my Sabbon ki tikiya (digicam) in my hand and along wd two photographer frnz of mine we started clicking snaps of the local kids, the farmers in the field along wd Sarja-Raja (Cow-pair) and their wife assisting them. It is a delight to see this view. Apart from this, there was a lot in that village to click... beautiful butterflies hoping around from one flar to another collecting nectar. Some of them were ready to pose for the photo shoot, some shy and some of them very proud of their beauty who made us run behind them to get thir best pose. There were crabs (tiny one) trying to get outa the mud. All we were hoping see a big one so that we can have a big round of photo shoot over him and luckily Atish found one big yellow crab. All of three of us (so called pohtographers) clicked as many stils of that crab as we can and his killer looks were cursing us as if why the hell did u catch me and how dare u to do that?? Enjoying the nature and trying to percolate it in our eyes we kept on moving. After walking almost 5kms we reached at the base point of Sagargad, where the steps start. This point actually is the base of Siddeshwar temple which is around 1000feet high from sea-level and there is a big waterfall @ a height of around 700 feet from sea-level. We started marching but Sun was shining so bright that he had decided to pull out as much glucose as he can from us with the support of these monsoon clouds who have taken bribe from Sun and have gone for a vacation. Since it was almost 7 months back we had went for a trek all out stamina had gone for a toss! Initially i thought its happening only wd me. But everyone started feeling it slowly. Somehow taking small halts we reached Siddeshwar temple. That temple was looking like a dharmashala or a pre-primary school of secondary students. Yep around 100 ppl of all age groups had made it as their base-camp. They had come for a picnic . We did a lil bita photosession even over there of the almighty God who was quitely sitting inside his cabin with no electricity. Load Shedding had affected God as well.. Huh!! I didnt know this.. ;) Shekhar took three bananas from there and came out. He said its "Prasad", but guess what our ancestors (monkey family) saw this and snatched those bananas from his hand immediately and started teasing him. That moment was hillarious. After a small break, we started our rest of the journey. Marching through the tiny tops and small(Adivasi) villages we started getting closer to our destination. In those villages, we saw a different life. Those kids did not have teddies, remote control toys to play wd but still there was 100 times moew happiness and contentment on their face. Their toys are grass, trees, goats, dogs, hens. I ma sure these kids must not be knowing there is a world outside their village. Their faces had a charm which we cant have even after applying the costliest of the cosmetics or having everyday the best of the tonics. These people dont need anything they are happy with what God has given them.
Finally we managed to reach at the topmost position of Sagargad we did our lunch over there. By that time it was 3.30pm. We were already late by an hour and half. At Sagargad, there is a point from where you can stand at the tip of the mountain and you can see another spike which is actually part of the same hill but its slightly isolated. Its a delight to see that spot. We did lotta photography at that point. No one of us was willing to leave that spot. But there were ppl waiting for us @ our home and more importantly our boss in office after the weekend.
While returning, right from that point we got split into two groups unfortunately. I was in the first one. Singing along, pulling eachother legs we reached at a point where we noticed that we are moving in a wrong way. Just to get everyone together we called the other group. Yhanks to the mobile networks. The groups told us that they are near Siddheshwar temple and will wait for us. We didnt wanted to inform them that we have lost our way since they ight go in a panic mode. With the help of village people, we somehow came back on track. Everyone met @ Siddeshwar temple. After a halt of 20 mins we started marching towards the waterfall. Few of us also tuk a bath under it. We were late by 2 hours by then. It was already night time. Sun onccle had signed off for the day. Thanks to moon uncle who was showering his limelight over us and guiding us. At 2020hrs we reached at the Panvel- Alibaug road. Everyone was worried since none of the vehicles were ready to drop us @ Panvel. ST buses were crowded and none of them stopped. We went to Alibaug so that we can catch the bus from starting point itself. Few of them decided to stay back at Panvel at their relatives place. Some went through other buses. I took a Bombay Asiad bus. Lucky enuf to get a seat in the crowded bus.
Reached home safely @ 01:15hrs. Ouch! my legs are aching like hell. But now finallly i have got some work to do right from fresh installation of XP. Guys wish me luck on this first day of new job.

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