Katraj-Sinhagad Night Trek

Katraj-Sinhagad Night Trek
Sunday 18th June 2006

Trek-kars
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Paresh (leader)
Vishal
Shankar
Me, Dhaval





Here we go…

We alighted at Katrajcha ‘bogda’ in pitch darkness. The hands of my watch showed
8 pm, and the surrounding… 2 traffic policemen patrolling the ghats. A quick thanksgiving to the conductor of the S.T. and we immediately turned to the mountains. The police glares followed the four of us as we made our way up the white steps and walked straight into the arms of the mountains.

“Aaila payarya” was how the trek began. It was Vishal who broke the silence of the night while mischievously wondering if there were steps all the way to Sinhagad. Alas, that was not to be. Our torches were already out by the time the white steps paved way for the 7 ½ hrs of mountain journey ahead. The last of the steps is immediately greeted by a modest climb. It gives you a taste of what’s to come and what you should be prepared for in the long journey. Paresh, our guide for the night, promptly informed us that the climb in the beginning itself gives the feeling that the trek ahead will be a tough one. While in actuality it’s not.

Soon there were four torch beams piercing the darkness in full gusto. Shankar and Paresh had LED torches while Vishal and I had the ‘jaundiced’ yellow light torches. After a short climb we were at a height from where we could see the magnificent snarl of vehicles winding their way up the Katraj ghat. The steady line of headlights was indeed a sight to savour. As expected, my mobile camera couldn’t do justice to the magnificent night view. A bit ahead and an even more spectacular sight greeted us. In front of us stood the ‘Oxford of the East’, Pune, glittering in all its splendour. A gigantic cluster of lights, each a cosy home, offering shelter and warmth for someone out there.

Feeling good about the great city we hailed from, we moved on. On our way we met quite a few life forms, but not one of them was human. Our first encounter was with a centipede. Paresh’s torch brought it into light. I was left wondering whether his torch automatically searched for life forms around or what? Because, while I was having difficulty negotiating the rough ground beneath my feet in total darkness, he had managed to locate a barely 2-inch wide centipede! My mobile was out in a jiffy and I managed to click two photographs.





The night adventure had just begun, and so had our long walk in the dark. And that’s precisely what we did. We walked and walked and walked. From 8.00 to 10 we were simply walking, passing one hillock after another, negotiating one slope after another, one step after the other. One thing that surprised me and was a learning experience was that even during night, in a non-humid city like Pune and with a cool breeze blowing on and off, I was sweating like a pig. Sweating this profusely at night was the last thing
I had expected. Even my water supply was according to my myth. (I had just one 1 litre bottle). I found solace in Vishal, another sweating member. So I was not abnormal after all! On our way while descending a slippery rocky patch, Vishal suffered mild cramps. But being an experienced trekker he soon was back to his normal healthy self.

At 10 pm Paresh finally gave a call to halt for dinner. We promptly squatted down on two legs so as not to get our bottoms wet sitting on the wet grass. Apparently it had rained in the mountains. For the next 20 mins. all four of us hogged on some mouth watering ‘neer dosas’ and ‘batatyachi bhaji’ that Vishal and Paresh had got. After washing our hands on the grass we got off the ground.

Burrrrp… that’s how the second leg of our trek began. The dinner had deposited enough fuel in our tummies and was expected to last throughout the night. Almost immeidatley we came across a steep hillock. By the time the equally steep descent began I was already panting. As soon as we were down the thought struck me like lightening.
Lo behold, such a descent was bound to be followed by an equally steep ascent again. No sooner had I echoed my fear and desperation the valley burst into laughter… of the four of us. Getting down, while Shankar had a fall or two, Paresh stumbled too… on a nocturnal creature. This time it was a mouse, dead though. Surprisingly its eyes were still open when we came upon him. That suggested that he had been freshly killed, maybe by an owl or a snake and sensing us approach it simply left the kill and escaped. We also spotted another snake but it was too quick for us to capture it in our camera. It simply slithered away into the thick bushes.






It was almost 12.30 am now. No sooner than we had wound past one mountain, another would confront us. Every now and then we could see the red Sinhagad Tower light flickering at a distance. And every time we spotted the light hope rose in our hearts, only to be squashed by yet another hillock. Then it happened. Paresh, our guide, declared that it would take just another 15-20 minutes till be break on the road. Whoa! What a relief that was. After 4 ½ hours of following the constant beam of a torch light, we were to finally hit the hard tarmac. Shankar, though, cautioned us that the road was not so near and it would take another 2 hrs to reach there. But we were not in a state of mind to listen to him. What sounded sweet at that moment was considered true! A folly in the unforgiving mountains.

The truth soon dawned upon us as we cleared yet another hillock. Another hillock stood in front of us. The red light flickered at the same distance as it was earlier. Our hearts sank as deep as the valley below. But there was no escape or short cuts. Walk it was, and walk was what we did.
On our way, we spotted a dark green snake nicely curled up, as if waiting for us to discover it. As always, Paresh located it and soon the snake was basking in the collective glare of four torches. It was a beautiful snake, thick, dark green, its skin a perfect camouflage in the green surroundings. Fortunately for us it stayed on the spot for quite some time, at least till we could click him. Satisfied we moved on, knowing little of the little drama that lied ahead of us.

By 2 am we had circled past two more hillocks. And the sight that greeted us made our spirits rise as high as Sinhagad. We could see the glare of vehicle headlights winding down the Sinhagad ghat, though at a distance. Finally we were at striking distance.
We kept walking in its direction, only to realize that we had missed a turn somewhere behind. Paresh, though he had done the trek once before, was not quite sure that the path we were on led us to our destination. According to him the path looked like cattle path and not the usual path used by trekkers or villagers. For some time we trotted around, flashing our torches in all directions, looking for a certain route. The arrows markings had deserted us long back and we were now guided by our instincts.
We decided to go back as Paresh and Shankar suspected the turn to be behind. After a good 20 min of walking back we again came to a standstill. Torchlight once again danced on the mountain all around.
There was a mountain on our right and Shankar suggested that we climb the mountain and descend from the other side towards the road. A suggestion that was instantly shot down by me and Vishal. Another climb was an unbearable thought for our tired limbs. And so was losing sight of the vehicles coming down. It was more than 6 ½ hours that were walking.

After some searching around for the right path, it was decided to go further back. And so we went. We could see a dim light in a solitary house at a distance below us. After another 10-15 mins of retreating down the trodden path we finally gave up and decided to head down the slope. Paresh did a quick reiki and signaled us to follow though there was no route visible. We decided that, way or no way, this the way we were going to take down, quite out of desperation. Soon we found out that we were going down a stream, as we jumped over one rock after another. After 20 min of descent we finally came to ground zero. We knew we were en route when Vishal came across a well. Surprisingly Vishal instantly ran ahead, the reason we understood later. Suddenly our feet felt something smooth and hard. We looked down and it was the rooooooooooad! The next moment we were down, lying bang in the middle of the road at 3.30 am. A speeding vehicle and it could’ve easily mowed us down. We were sure we won’t be moving an inch come what may!






By now we had run dry of the last drop of water. I was dripping wet from the sweating. So was Vishal. Surprisingly Paresh and Shankar were not as sweaty. They seem to harbour different kind of sweat glands beneath their skin. Lucky them!
A pretty early breakfast followed then and there. The food? Khajurs. The sweet khajurs were good energy boosters and we felt rejuvenated in a jiffy. After some 20 min. chatting on the asphalt we proceeded. So far we were eager to reach the road. We had no inkling that the journey on the road was to be the most difficult and boring one!

The road sign said Sinhagad was 6 km. from where we stood. Good enough. Bad enough. The journey began on a steady note. I would say pretty monotonous. That’s when I realized the beauty of the mountains. No step there is boring unlike on the road. On our way we came across a solitary hotel building that had come up at the base of Sinhagad. We even thought of parking ourselves there itself. But we continued up the road.

A funny incident worth mentioning here. On a turn, at 3.30 in the morning or night, there was a white Maruti parked. Outside a person was sitting on the wall. I casually thought aloud that ‘let’s take this car and go up’. No sooner had the words escaped my mouth that a pretty damsel emerged out of the car. We were taken aback. Of all the spots what on the earth was a couple doing on Sinhagad road in the dead of the night! On second thoughts, why not?! We had a hearty laugh later. 30 min. on the dead road and we realized the futility of the operation. The walk was painfully boring. We had covered just 1 km in half an hour… 5 more to go i.e. 2 ½ hrs more… NO WAY! The road led us to an intersection where there’s a chai tapri. Prudence guiding us, we decided to camp there for the night. By the time we were in sleeping mode it was 4.30 am and we could feel the cold.






It was there while chatting that we found out the reason why Vishal had ran away from the well on our way down. Bhoot! He was afraid of ghosts. As he narrated, supposedly his real experience, the story goes like this. One night he was sleeping at his house in Pune. When he woke up in the middle of the night he suddenly saw a white figure gliding in the air. Rubbing his eyes when he went closer he realized that it was a white dog who was flying in the air, going from his room to the other. Paralysed with fear he didn’t move the whole night. Couple of days later, his friend mentioned that a dog had died in the same room and some friends had seen a ghost dog in the room. That’s when Vishal realized that he had seen a ghost. Even today, he makes it a point not to sleep in the room even in the afternoon. What a story! Worth a hearty laugh by all, except Vishal 

Thankfully for me, Shankar had his sleeping bag spread out so that we both could comfortably sleep. I was all wet due to the sweating and could barely manage to sleep with a wet Tee on. Vishal too couldn’t sleep. By 6.30 am we all were up. We thought of taking the Jeep down to the base village. But we dropped the thought as they demanded Rs.200-400 for us four. We thought we’d better climb down. Just then we spotted a cargo rick coming down. We waiting in expectation and sure the rick halted and we struck a bargain for just Rs.5/- per head. And the ride in the back of an open rick, with the cool morning air in your face, was just the refreshing start one would desire.

We were back in Pune, Swargate, by 7.30 am. After a quick tea at Swargate we parted ways, with bright memories of a wonderful trek in the dark. To sum it up, the Katraj-Sinhagad reminds me of Johnny Walker (Keep Walking). You just walk and walk and walk. Looking back, I realize, the night was well spent!


Dhaval :)