Yet another trek this monsoon season & this time a rather special one. It was our first overnight trek & that too on the day of our 1st anniversary. Independence Day trek to RAJGAD was our dream trek & we all were eagerly waiting for it. The journey being a long one we decided to leave the bus at night only. The excitement began even before the trek started when we lost our way in the darkness at around 4.30 a.m. Finding our way back through the narrow village lanes & taking much needed help from some awaken villagers, we reached our destination finally-Gunjavane (base village). Quickly getting ourselves freshened, we all got charged up for the real excitement to begin.
The trend of loosing our way continued even in the trek when we took a longer route instead of the simpler path. This time we hardly had any fresher along with us. So the regular ‘constant encouraging’ part was being missed. But we had a very diverse team on board right from a 9th std. girl to a 58 yr old professional trekker. Rajgad is a photographer’s delight with all its greenery & misty atmosphere especially in the monsoon. So the shutterbugs just wouldn’t stop. Especially the view of ‘Suvela Machi’ from our 1st halt spot is simply breath taking.
We entered the fort through ‘Chordarwaja’ after an exciting 10 min. climb through rocky patch at the final frontier. People from the last batch were given a grand welcome in the Padmavati temple. A small tea break of 15-20 min. & all were again geared up to march towards Suvela Machi. It began with a photo shoot at the Sadar, where the strong cold wind was just blowing us apart. A brief walk through the misty, cloudy atmosphere brought us to the Nedha. This was the best & the most exciting part of the trek. ‘Nedha’- a small cavity few feets above- provided that much needed challenge. Not everyone climbed it but those who did had their trek worth. Some cotrekkers also went ahead to see the entire Suvela Machi while some hungry trekkers just wanted to come back to Padmavati.
When we came back to temple, it was almost full. We had to drop our visit to Sanjeevni Machi right there & by the time we finished our lunch, we had to take that tough decision to abort the trek. This was not what we had planned & before the situation would go out of control we had begun our descend. It was a rather disappointing end to our dream trek but that one hour spent in the waterfall in the evening just made up for the loss. Apart from Nedha, this waterfall had brought smile on everyone’s face.
The evening & night was spent in the temple at the base listening to some of the ghost stories which were rather hilarious instead of being scary. The next fresh morning began with the flag hoisting ceremony conducted in the village school. A feeling of pride for nation gripped all of us as we stood saluting our tricolor singing our National anthem. Morning breakfast was followed by a surprise gift for all. We distributed our badges to celebrate our one year completion. A group photo & we all left Rajgad with a promise to come back again & conquer it entirely.
On our way back, we went to The Rajiv Gandhi National Park, at Katraj. It was a nice relaxing walk in the zoo watching all different types of animals & reptiles. I am sure everyone loved this part of the trek also. As always the return journey was a smooth & quick one back to Ruia College.
At the end of the day, the dream had come to an end with many more memories to cherish upon. But now its time to see more dreams ahead. It’s been one eventful year for HYBRID TREKKERS & the journey has just begun. Here we thank all our trekkers for their active support for all our events.
“Bulanda hauslon se shuru hua hain ye karavaan,
Apni manzil ki ore badh raha hain ye kafila,
Musafir to bahut jud gaye iss rah par hamare,
Unko bhi yaadon mein samette chal raha hain manchala”
HAPPY TREKKING
V.A.S.K.O.
