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 ..
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 ..
