Siddhagad

Siddhagad Trek ....................... Feb 27th 2005 ....................

The success of the previous trek to Bhimashankar, inspired us all to do one more. The time was chosen to be the weekend after the midsems. The sun had started to burn down the remnants on the earth. There was a trek conducted to this place by the institute sometime back. But those guys messed up by going to the wrong place. This time surprisingly, guys like Srujan, Vamsi and Priyanko turned up for the trek. Later I found out that these guys will be ready for treks in general. The batch was nerdier with Sandeep too being present. The entertainer was of course Hari. We left by the usual 5:24 train to Kalyan.

Had breakfast at some useless hotel at kalyan. Hired a taxi to take us to the base of the village, Narivali. The journey was smooth. We stopped at a place to have some breakfast comprising of vada pav. We packed some. We hit the base village by 9 am. The trek started soon. A few snaps were taken here and there. The surroundings were dry. Hari and I were the last two and Manish and Vamsi led the group. This was later a feature in almost all the treks. After an hours trek, we took a break. We came across the famous fourier transform hill. Later we encountered a rock face and the monkey in Vamsi became evident as he did things which was not to be tried.

In some time we hit the entrance to the village. The entrance comprised of Arch made of stones. We climbed atop the arch and took some snaps. The path from here to the village was a simple one. We hit the village. Dogs were barking and running helter skelter. We went to the house of a man. He offered us some water. He also told us that he would prepare lunch for us. We all took a nice break sleeping on the floor made of dried dung. Then after the refreshing break, we set forth to the peak of Siddhagad. We left most of our bags here. We took one bag with vada pavs. On route we encountered the cave of the Sadhu baba. We spoke with him for a while. Then we started our ascent. The climb suddenly became steeper. WE hit a dead end. We took directions from the baba to get to the right path. The climb was much steeper. There was hardly any place to keep your feet. The inclination was about 70-80 degrees. We had a clear view from out here. We also took great care not to fall down. A fall would mean that one would go straight up. As we climbed, it became tougher. Adding to the woes, the soil was loose. The grass along the hill was non existent. There was hardly any vegetation along the hill. The summer heat couple with our timing of venturing here at 1 pm didn't help us. As we were about 50 feet from the top, a couple of guys queried the necessity to carry on. But Manish and Vamsi were determined to go on. By the time we were about 20 feet from the top, the mental condition of certain guys ( u can figure who it is from the snaps J ) got to a point that they refused to carry on. They had broken down. So we all decided to stop. We ate a bit, some photo sessions. We then started the descent. The descent was slow. At places we crawled down. WE were really careful. This probably is my toughest experience till date. To break the monotony, Hari and I threw stones and calculated the time we would be alive if we fell down. Meantime we cursed Vijayanand. Yes his name has to come up. When we had almost reached the sadhu baba's cave, hari stepped on a stone, which gave away. The stone moved, and Hari lost his balance. He used his hand to gain control. His left hand landed on the rock. This resulted in a hairline fracture. As Hari fell down, I was looking at him. I then stepped on the same stone which gave away. This time the stone was pushed sufficiently enough for it to move down the cliff. But I did not lose my balance. The stone weighed a lot. On its route down, it missed Vamsi's head by a few meters. We were lucky, otherwise it was Ram Ram Satya hai. There were franctic calls by us when the stone fell down. We reached the Sadhu baba's cave with no further incident. At the cave, Hari's hand was attended to, while the rest listened to the musings of the baba. Soon we left the place and headed for the village, where a great lunch in the form of Bakhar and sabji awaited us. It was nearly 3 pm and we were all really hungry and ate whatever was given to us. Though the man did not ask or expect any money for the services provided, we paid him a small money for the gesture shown by him. We left the village refreshed. Apart from a few photo sessions, there was nothing special in the downhill route. We were quite quick while descending. On the way back we lost our way for a while, and almost headed off to some other village. But once again a villager came to our rescue. WE were shown the right path by him. We soon hit Narivali. Then couple of jeeps took us to Kalyan. During this journey most of us slept like logs. Then at Kalyan we got off , took a train and then soon hit IIT……

There are some details that I have missed coz I am writing this after 18 months. So the memory has vaned.

Still a great trek nevertheless ……………………