The night dawned on me

Completed first successful night trek. Thanks to Petcy who was keen on having me on this trek with Outdoor Adventure Management.

The trek as such is simple since it is easy to hold the rocks or step on it or climb over it. Except for one 100 degree horizontal turn on one particular rock patch, is something I found risky and scary. It is similar to being on the 40th floor ledge with the heavy bag and you try to move from one edgy side of the rectangular building to the other edgy side with your face towards the building. The vertical gravity force on the heavy bag, the breeze, your fear, your courage are all in action at this point. At times like this, you wish you were a spider man who gets stuck to the walls as easily as a lizard does.

Lots of brown monkeys and big black ants on this mountain. I was trying to make sure I did not step on the ants. They were just too many in the path. The ants were looking like an army that could conquer your delicate body very easily. I am very scared of everything that is non-human. So ants and monkeys are no different either. The monkeys would fight with each other for food. At times they try to pose for camera like humans. They probably have been staying up the mountain for a very long time and probably seeing humans pass by everyday. The funny part about monkey and myself was, whenever we saw each other, we both jumped away in fear .. 'mammaaaa !!! ..' ;-)

At around 100 ft below the top of the mountain is a temple cave which became our resting point. We could not rappel from the top of the mountain because of aggressive breeze. The team leads took a very wise call to abandon it. So we descended down the mountain where there were no breeze issues. We did 2 short rappels at two different descend spots. Many were first timers, some got scratched a little bit during the rappell but it was overall exciting. Full length, full sleeves clothes are mostly preferable to lessen the hurts caused by scratches or even insect bites, especially on a night trek. Imagine you are unknowingly walking through a spider web or a snake is under a stone that you step on. Usually every animal stays away from light or a group of people, unless ofcourse it has become habitual for them to live with the humans or they are confronted unintentionally.

We had a good team. It all ended well with spicy Vada Paavs, Lemon juice and lovely old Marathi songs sung by a melodious singer ( this one voice was heavenly..I almost thought I was hearing an angel sing.. it was not sounding like a human voice at all.. I just felt blessed). I was accompanied with people from various profession like journalist, actor, psychologist, software programmer, lawyer, fence seller (this one sells fences that are used to divide boundaries like that of a country.. amazing ah..), etc. Invariably couple of them funnily kept calling me 'Uncle' during the trek because Petcy occasionally kept calling me 'Uncle this, Uncle that..' .. ;-) Ha ha.. I am fine with whatever anyone calls me but I feel nice when Petcy relates with me so well.. par meraa Dil tho bachaa hi rahegaa (but my heart will always be like that of a child ..) .. I was safely transported back closer to my house in Borivli. So there was no stress on the travel part.

At the end of the journey, I was glad Petcy did her trek and I was glad everything went well. That is how the night dawned on me ..

Leadership, Fun, Adventure !!!

I am back from Sandan Valley weekend trek and my legs still ache a bit. ooh maa ... :-) It is probably because of the heavy bag that I carried. Sandan is different because of its repeatitive ponds, streams, rappells, boulders, rocks and narrow passages. There were a few times, we had to move like a snake through one to two feet opening between rocks to get to the other side.

We were led by experienced team of Nilesh Patil, Harsh Bharati, Rahul Barve and Jayesh. We were in all 22 people and it was a fun group. I especially loved Saajan Dhiver. He was so spontaneous with his comic timing that it reminded me of Kapil Sharma from Comedy Nights. Some of his dialogues in the midst of the junglee mountain were "Hi. Ab idar mile. Ab udhar mat milnaa .. (you met me here. now don't meet me there .. ) .. "Hum aaye hain. Swagat nahin karoge .. (I have come. Will you not welcome me?)".. He has a collection of songs, shayaris and jokes.. He would invariably call Koyel Ghosh, "Gabbar" and keep asking me "Hi James Bond. Where is your Bond girl?" I had a good laughthon since ages.

What I liked most about the trek was, it had elements of leadership, fun and adventure. When the task at hand gets difficult for the team, good leadership and endless fun makes all the difference between fear and success. Within 15 minutes of trek initiation, we came across a narrow passage between two cliffs filled with water as high as my chest. I was very worried about my camera and my bag was around 8 kilos. We were suppose to carry the bag above the head and walk through the water body. Nilesh Patil, the trek lead, realized that I would probably drop my bag in the water. So he immediately carried it for me till the depth of the water reduced until waist length. I was very touched by his gesture as I was literally down by the load. Nilesh keeps ensuring that no one suffers on the trek and fun is constantly on. That is what TrekMates India are good at.

The experience of carrying a heavy load on my head shook me a bit though. What happens in reality, is that the pressure of the heavy load hits right on the neck portion. The pressure that I felt on my neck made me feel a little dizzy and I remembered all the poor labourers who carry heavy weight on their head. Going forward, I can never see these labourers in any other way but with much greater emphathy and respect.

Though I managed saving my bag this time from getting wet, it would never be the case. We crossed multiple ponds, streams, boulders and rappelled at multiple locations. But it was the last short rappell that shook me. I was held with the help of a rope by Rahul Barve on top and had to trust that he will hold me tight and believe that the rope will never break. There was a big stream of water flowing during my rappell and I had to get through it, holding the rock crevices (if I find), with a heavy bag on my back. Can you imagine that.. a gush of water is flowing over you with a force, while you are trying to get down the big boulder with no idea where or how you should grip this boulder which is as huge as a tusker elephant. You can grip a stick, a rock but boulders are a little different. At one point, I almost slipped my grip and Rahul held me like a puppeteer holds a puppet. When my grip was loosening, I remembered death and I was yelling 'I am falling..I am falling..." . I wonder if anyone heard me amidst the pouring gushy water. But the leads had ensured that even though we lose our grip, they would hold us with the 1200 kilo bearing rope. It is scary but safety measures are always in place. It was an adventurous experience of nearly 4 minutes over a 12 feet rappel. My bag and me, both were drenched at the end. I was worried about my camera.. :-) But I had fortunately wrapped the camera in the plastic within the bag and my bag prevented a lot of water from sipping in. My camera and me, both were fine.

We spent the evening in the open jungle. This time around I had a proper sleeping bag and mat to sleep in the open night under the million star. I woke up a few times in the night. As I opened my eyes, I saw stars welcoming me. What a sight! The next day, we walked a few hours and later we were dropped by jeep to Asangaon.

I returned safe and felt great that my dream once again came true. Everytime I think of these experiences, I feel blessed and tell myself that this is bonus life that I am living. I never thought of doing these stuff. The only dream that I had when I was small was to see snow. Many of you know that I got much more than that. God has been good to me. Life has been cruelly exciting and beautiful.

I have learnt something. Problems will always be there. But there will always be something to be happy about. India is in good times where various sports are available now since last decade or so. TrekMates India are making India proud by making all these dreams possible. Thanks to the experienced leaders who are doing real excellent work.