5 upvotes, 6 direct replies (showing 6)
View submission: Weekend hike options
I had gone to Rajmachi earlier this year. Let me tell you how it was.
There were two of us. We started from VT around 6.30 in the morning. We took a local at Karjat and reached the station around 8 in the morning. Even though it was the end of February, the place was freezing. From Karjat, we walked a kilometer to the national highway from where we caught a rickshaw to Kondana (I think that was the name of the village, don't remember). There are share autos but since it was starting to get hot, we decided to pay 80 bucks for the 8 km trip. There is one bus which is very infrequent.
We reached Kondana by around 9.15 and immediately started the ascent. The sun was already high up in the air and we were sweating lyk nything. The terrain for the initial one hour of the climb was easy to conquer. There were multiple waterfalls we had to cross except there was no water in any of them. We soon reached a Buddhist cave which had beautiful ancient inscriptions and sculptures. We rested there for about an hour before continuing the climb. The terrain kept getting tougher as we climbed higher. The sun was unrelenting too. Every now and then we had to sit down and breathe some air.
About three hours into the climb, we reached a plateau which looked like a crater. There were cattle grazers all over the place. We walked through the plateau for about 15 minutes and soon reached the base village. Most of the houses in the village serve as pitstops and allow you to spend the night there. They also provide awesome home-made food. If you're lucky, you may even get chicken curry.
We found at least three other trekking groups there already. Two had come by bikes from Lonavla through a jungle road. We had lunch and rested for a couple of hours there. Though we had the option to spend the night there, we decided to borrow some blankets and a couple of mats so that we could sleep in one of the two nearby forts.
There were two forts. One was quite big and the other was moderately sized. We chose to trek to the bigger one first. There was a Hanuman temple right at the point where the paths to either fort diverged. The temple is open to anybody for boarding. There already was a group of ten staying there. The place was filled with our simian cousins too. You really gotta be careful with those motherfuckers, trust me. The climb to the fort from the village was quite easy. After a while there we even had the luxury of traversing through properly laid out stone steps that were part of the fort itself. It was evening by the time we reached the top-most point of the fort. We roamed around the fort and finally found a place to camp outside a man-made cave. We tried gathering twigs and shit for the campfire, but most of it was moist. There were loads of dry grass which exactly wasn't useful.
After multiple failed attempts of started the fire, I turned to google for help. I got hold of some tissue paper, crushed it to make a ball, sprayed some deo on it and threw it inside the twigs that we had gathered. By this time we only had some seven match sticks left. The two of us could have escaped the freezing cold if only I was successful in lighting one match stick, but I crumbled under pressure. It was like facing Malinga in the the last over of a match with just two runs required and you're the last wicket. Pressure, bro. Ravi Shastri should have been there.
The night was dark and full of darkness. Thankfully it was a beautiful, starry night. We also had direct view of the distant trains passing through the ghats between Karjat and Lonavla. My only regret is that we didn't carry an alcohol. Would have been some respite in the cold.
The next morning, we woke up and climbed down from the fort after roaming a bit. We ascended the smaller fort. There was a huge tank where you could swim. Unfortunately the sight of middle-aged men in chaddis wasn't particularly enticing for my female friend. So we soon left the tank and the fort. We got back to the village, had some food, returned the blankets and started exploring the plateau. The best part was the villagers were super-nice to us. They refused to name a price for the food and the blankets. They just asked us to pay whatever we saw fit. Ended up paying them some 300 bucks for everything.
We decided not to go back to Karjat and instead make the 20 km trek to Lonavla by the jungle road. That was quite a trek, phew. There were again many seasonal water-falls on the way. We reached Lonavla around 6 in the evening and took a train back to Bombay.
Comment by cpt_lanthanide at 17/06/2013 at 18:39 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I've done this exact route. People who climb up from Lonavala side and go down Karjat side are missing out on some good fun, most seem to do that.
We forgot to carry enough water on the way up, the village at the top saved our lives! :P
Comment by umma_gumma at 17/06/2013 at 11:44 UTC
2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Want to do the trek again?
Comment by reddit_kk at 17/06/2013 at 18:57 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Awesome
Comment by coldcoldnovemberrain at 17/06/2013 at 16:21 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
They refused to name a price for the food and the blankets. They just asked us to pay whatever we saw fit. Ended up paying them some 300 bucks for everything.
I would be so uncomfortable and awkward in this situation. I would feel bad if I came up short.
Also one more question --> What are the sanitation facilities on this trip?
Comment by thetuxracer at 18/06/2013 at 04:49 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Lets do it again. Lead the way, sensei!
Comment by almostabot at 19/06/2013 at 20:34 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Nice description :) I've done this route thrice, with different sets of friends. We discovered these meadows near the village(sufficiently removed from it too) overlooking the valley, that was a perfect place to spend a night. I've got a 3 man tent and we were all ents. Blissful times.