Prologue: I was in my 10th standard and a child, both in terms of age, maturity and trekking. Had completed 3 treks only; to Mahuli, Rajgad and Shivneri. Heard a news at one such trek that a doctor, in his 20’scommited suicide at Konkan Kada, Harishchandragad. The reason after 6 unsuccessful attempts to descend from Konkan Kada, he decided to end his life in Kada’s vicinity. I was unable to understand, why this Konkan Kada is ‘Aparajit’ or insurmountable to get down, but it definitely made an impression on my mind. After my 10th standard, I moved out of Kalyan and missed further opportunities of trekking.
The Trek: After completing my formal education & settling down in career, the trekking bug started buzzing in my mind. Started off with Raigad, which was very easy. One day my friend from Dombivali called up and said that his group is planning to go to Harishchandragad the Christmas weekend (25 and 26 December 2010) and asked me if I am interested. My instant reply was yes, I will. I was very excited about the idea and at the same time was nervous, with doubts about my physical fitness, especially after reading some blogs on net. With my friend Vaibhav’s help a lot of preparation work started. It mainly consisted of shopping of things like backpack, trekking suit and many more things. I was still not believing that I am going for treks after a period of 10 years and that too Harishchandragad. On the night of 25th December, I was busy partying on occasion of Christmas; Vaibhav called me and updated me that the plan has changed and now its 26-27 December (Sunday Monday). The reason behind this, he expected a huge crowd of trekkers up and it will be problem for sleeping. I don’t had any problem as I was expecting to have my night shift on Monday, but that definitely meant that I would have to wait for one more day to be on top of Konkan Kada. I said OK, but somewhere in my mind, I was thinking, that whether we will go or not. The next day I called Vaibhav and our plan was fixed. The outline was to meet at Dombivali at 9:00 am, go to Khubi/Khiravare village by a prebooked Xylo by 12:30 pm, reach the top of Harishchandragad by evening, go to Konkan Kada for Sunset view, stay in the caves overnight, get up in the morning, revisit Konkan Kada for sunrise, move to Taramati, have lunch and get down, reach Khubi village by 5:30-6:00pm in the evening and get back to home by ST bus. All the eatables were already bought and we were set to go.
26th December, Sunday, I woke up 6: 00 am in the morning and started off for Dombivali. I called up Vaibhav, who picked me up from Dombivali station. I was expecting 6-7 people as a Xylo was booked, but I was shocked to hear that only 3 guys. Myself Vaibhav and Vaibhav’s friend, Prabodh. Vaibhav’s packing was still pending and I helped him to do that. The items which we got from Vaibhav’s place were boiled potatoes, 2 big utensils, ¼ kg sugar, tea powder, milk powder, 3 loafs of bread and many more things to eat. I put some of the things in to my bag, including the utensils. We moved from Vaibhav's house and I was hearing a tak-tak sound from my bag, initially I thought it was of the utensils, but later I realized that I am losing grip of my bag. As soon as we reached Prabodh’s house (10 am), I checked my bag and noticed that the stitches are getting loose. It was my new bag and I was felt like being cheated. Being superstitious, I considered it as a warning of not continuing the trek. Still with optimism filled, I decided to move ahead and consider this as weakness of bag. We helped Prabodh to pack his bag and it was 11am by now. We were still waiting for the Xylo. After 4 phone calls, the cab came and we were moving out of Dombivali by 12:30 pm, after repairing my bag. The driver was irritating and his driving style was more irritating. All over the journey of 100 kms, he never crossed 60 kms/hr on speedometer. Even vehicles like M80 and Maruti 800 were overtaking us. The only vehicles which were unable to move ahead of us were bullock-carts and cycles. The result, we reached Malshej Ghat by 2:00 pm. Evn after this pathetic driving the guy was reluctant to drop us at Khiravare and was insisting us to get down at Khubi Phata. The excuse for this was, he is not carting his Stephaney with him and the road is kachhi sadak. Prabodh literally reprimanded the guy to drop us at Khiravare. The plus point of this was that we were able to get some really good snaps on the road. Finally we were at the base of Harishchandragad. After tying the carpet and utensil to the bag, we started our trek. Time was 3:30 pm and the sun was harsh. We were walking for a distance of 8-10 minutes and then taking a break for 5 minutes. The reason of break was different every time. No one was ready to accept that he is tired. The breaks were for taking photos, tying shoelaces, changing bags, drinking water, looking at the scenery, giving way to the trekkers who were going home, etc. Enroute, we saw many fellow trekkers going down. They were in groups of 10-15. We were happy that our decision to postpone the trek was good. The path was difficult and changing everytime, sometimes a pagdandi, sometimes through bushes, and mostly rocky. It was the road the rain water has made for itself, and hence was very rough. Only Prabodh was the one experienced one amongst us and hence he was bugged by my question every time, ‘kitni door hai?’ and he used to reply in percentages, 5% covered, 10% covered, and so on. The trekkers coming don were more generous and their reply was ‘you have almost reached…’ with a smile on their face. Somehow by 6 pm we have reached Tolar khind and there we were surprised to see a small makeshift hotel. We had lemonade there and believe me, it was the tastiest drink I ever had. There we met fellow trekkers from Pune, who updated us that since last two days, there was a huge crowd gathered there up and even thefts of things like shoes, cameras have occurred, and advised us to be careful. They also updated us that there was a group up, who is in complete Party mood and has created havoc up. Their daily activities included drinking, singing, dancing, etc. After Tolarkhind, there is a rock phase, which is a steep climb of 60 ft and we decided to clear before sunset. We moved quickly after having a break of 30 minutes and a photo session at Tolar khind. The rock phase was interesting, especially because it gave a beautiful view of the surrounding mountain ranges and the Pimpalgaon dam. After the rock phase, Prabodh told us that now there are two ways of going to the top, one regular, by crossing 7 hills and the other lesser known, in which we will be having a tough climb initially, but will be reaching the temple 45-50 minutes earlier. To save time we decide to go by the lesser known path. This was the second mistake which we did, the first being, carrying too much things to eat. Prabodh was unaware of the way whereas me and Vaibhav were first timers. So, it was a trial and error road for us and we were searching for the road every time. After every 20 minutes walk, we were lost and were searching for road, unable to find road or way ahead, we used to turn back at the nearest junction and then looking for a new way out. The cycle continued for at least 5 times and after having a small discussion, we decided to go back and take the regular route. By the time we reached the rock phase, it was 10 pm and we decided to have our dinner and stay for night there itself, get up early morning and start on the regular route and reached the Harishchandragad temple early morning and go at Konkan kada for sunrise. We stayed in a makeshift hotel, which was like a hut with no walls. After having our sumptuous meal of boiled potatoes, pickle, bhakris, apples, we slept. The winds were blowing very fast and the air was also cool. Thanks to the lantern we were carrying, there was a source of light. The temperature was around 7-8 centigrade and we lit a fire in the chulha of the hotel. Earlier it was decided that one of us will be awake and be a sentry, but later, all of us decided to sleep. The next day’s plan was as to wake up at 4:30 am, get ready to move by 5: 00 am and start the remaining part of journey, so that we will be at Konkan kada for sunrise. We woke up and started our journey on time. There were 7hills to be crossed. The air was cool and climate was pleasing. We were enjoying the weather and were not feeling tired. After crossing the third hill within 30 minutes, we again lost our way. We were unable to find our right path and as per our guide Prabodh, he instructed us to keep left and walk, and we were doing so. This time we were o the right path within 1:30 hrs and did a lot of obstacle crossing, to do so. We crossed water bodies, made our own way through the bushes and wild plants. Finally we were on right path, but the sun has already risen. The other thing which happened was my bags belt once again came off and I have to tie it and treat my bag very delicately. Finally, at around 8: 30 am we reached the Harishchandragad temple and were greeted by some foreign and Indian trekkers who had just woke up. We secured our luggage, got fresh and immediately moved to Konkan Kada. The way to Konkan kada was comparatively easy, with no ups and downs, just plain rocks to walk on. It took 35-40 minutes to reach on the top of Konkan Kada. After looking down, and sides of the Kada, I was spell bound by its beauty and the word which came of my mouth were, “Aaicha gho, kay aahe hey?” A cliff going 3000 ft down (2000 straight and 1000 slant), 1700 meters in length, that too in C-shape. This was one f the best things I had ever seen and I was staring at it for approximately 25-30 minutes. All the adjectives like marvelous, awesome, amazing, mind-blowing, will be short t describe the enormous beauty of the Konkan kada. For nearly half an hour, I was lying down and enjoying nature’s beauty, enjoying breeze, sun and birds. My mind was just willing to stay there and keep only looking at the place. A small thought crept in to my mind, suppose, an earthquake comes or a land slide happens at the place where I am laying down, what will happen? It made my hairs stand up. But the beauty of Mother Nature removed this though and I was again looking for birds, wind and cliff. It’s not an experience, which cannot be written down, typed on a keyboard, nor can it be explained to anybody as the words fell short. Somethings in life are to be experienced by ourselves like clearing a critical exam, passing in the interview of the job of your choice, the thrill to ride the bike at 90+ speed on a chilly winter night and experiencing your fingers getting freeze, your first kiss to your girlfriend and enjoying the scenic view at Konkan kada. Everything is magnificent there. Vaibhav and Prabodh were also enchanted and experiencing the same feeling. We can see Taramati, Rohidas and adjacent mountain peaks from there. To save time we decided to skip Taramati. I was really feeling sad of missing the sunset and sunrise at Konkan Kada. We had a quick photo session here and moved back to the Mandir at 12:30 pm. There we had our lunch which consisted of different types of sandwiches like achaar sandwich, kakdi sandwich, normal sandwich and many more variations. We decided not to make magi or khichdi, so as to save time. We had a chat there with other group and came to know that these are the guys who came from Sangamner every year on 24th December with a view of Picnic. This was the same group, which we had heard of creating nuisance here. They were packing up and in process of leaving. We were shocked to see their baggage which included small inverter, stove, big utensils, etc. After having our lunch, we moved on and started our home journey. The time was 2:00 pm. I was on the lead. On our way back, we decided to follow the arrows which are made on rocks to show ways. However after walking 20 minutes, we again lost, we were unable to find out our way in the rocks. After meandering for 25 minutes, we came to know that the path, we had initially chosen was the correct one and laughed at our stupidity. Vaibhav was going to lead us from now onwards as we have already lost twice under Prabodh and my guidance. The home journey was simple, except the rock phase, which took more time. It’s easy to climb, but difficult to descend and we were experiencing the same. When we were negotiating the final rocks, an old man of 65+ years came from back, he was a local villager. He went down comfortably, without any support and that shocked us. Apart from that, what he told us was to “Be Careful, else we will fall down the cliff!!” The whole concept of trekking was shaken in my mind and I completed the remaining part with that shock. By 6 pm we were at Khiravare and were planning to get fresh by having some tea and snacks. There was a tractor transporting sand, towards highway and we decided to ask for lift. We had to choose between a cup of tea and 1hr walking. Tea lost. The tractor guy gave us a lift free of cost till the school, which was halfway. We completed remaining two kilometer by walk. We reached Khubi village. After reaching the highway, we observed that not even a single ST is willing to stop and take us, even though they are going empty. We got lift in a truck who dropped us at murbad. We reached Murbad at 9 pm. The next bus for Kalyan was at 10 pm. In the bus I sat in the seat just behind the driver. I closed my eyes and decided to have a nap. The road was of Ghat turns and when the bus turned, in my mind I was at Konkan kada, having a ride in rollercoaster along its curve. My dream was incomplete as bus reached Kalyan. Time was 11 pm. caught the 11:37 pm Dadar slow local from Kalyan. Prabodh and Vaibhav left at Dombivali. I reached my room at Malad at 1:30 pm. Had a nice bath and slept. Next day the same old routine life was to be started with morning shift.
Epilogue: I completed my dream trek. Harishchandragad is worth going again and again. The beauty at Konkan Kada and Harishchandragad is mesmerizing. Now planning to go to Harishchandragad in rainy season. Meanwhile, I have started googling for institutes who organize rappelling camps at Harishchandragad. If you know any, please let me know.
PS: Adding some photos
PS: Adding some photos
