With the rainy season at its best in Mumbai, I was keen to going for a short trek some weekend. On the websites, I came to know about a group going to Kothligad, which interested me. I asked Ankit whether he's be interested in joining me for this one. Ankit (as busy as he always is) checked his schedule and gave me an immediate positive reply. Along with him, I also had Franklin joining us. I communicated the all details to them and we were all set to start off from my place @ 4.45 am sharp !! Guess what...??
My alarm didn't ring, but somehow Ankit & Franklin managed to come to my house to wake me up. 5 mins gone and I was ready to leave. We were to meet the group @ Karjat bus depot near the station at 8.15 pm. For that, we caught the Karjat fast local from Dadar @ 6.30 and after a short nap in the train, met the group @ Karjat bus depot near the station. It was a small group of about 8 - 10 guys. The ST bus already waiting for us to leave to the base village - Ambivli.
A 1 hr drive from Karjat to Ambivli and we were all set to go. With greenery all around and the freshness of the air, it felt good. All three of us excited, we started walking towards Kothligad. It was raining profusely. The first pit stop was after a 1.5 hour trek to the hotel that we planned to have our lunch. We were all drenched but were enjoying the moment - trekking in the rains.
I had done a few treks during summer and this did not seem to be that exhausting. We had a nice hot cup of chai and rested a little. After some time, we resumed our trek. All three of us were together throughout, while a few group members lagged behind.With the heavy rains, we came across a lot of waterfalls. In fact, one of our steepest climbs on the top was through a waterfall. It was risky and exciting, both. All this while, I was itching to remove my camera (Cell phone) to click few pictures. However, with the constant heavy rainfall, I couldn't. Was hoping that the cloud / fog get cleared, by the time we reached the top. And it did !!
As we reached the top, after about 5 - 10 mins, slowly, we could see a scenic view, something I haven't seen before (I hadn't trekked during the rainy season before).The clouds cleared and made way for some amazing views.
The view was breadth taking. After capturing that scenic view in our memories, we headed back. One lovely delicious lunch at the same place where we halted initially, and we were set to go. Ankit, Franklin and me separated from the bunch and took the shortcut to reach the base village. A 1 hr bus drive back to the station and we were hoping to catch the 6.41 CST local. We reached the station at 6.45 and were sure the train must have left. Still, as optimist as we are, all of us were running towards the platform. While crossing the railway lines, we saw out train leaving. A few of the guys were waving hands and request the Motor man to stop the train since the next train to CST was after an hour.
Surprisingly, the motorman stopped the train midway and we climbed onto it in a flash. This was the icing on the cake. We reached home late night around 11 pm, tired, all drenched but with fond memories of an awesome day. Hoping to have more such treks soon.
Until then,
K.G
Keep moving !!
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