"Eat, sleep, work, repeat"- all these days passed with the same routine. Being a corporate slave, there is nothing much to do other than that. Many weeks passed, many weekends passed. We are always bounded by rules, expectations and compromises. The idea of breaking them and doing something adventurous had been a myth until then. But not anymore. Travel is always my thing. Unfortunately that was also been earthed by over caring parents and over work load from office. I just don't want this weekend to be the same way. I just want to explore.. Something unique and something adventurous. And that's how i found this. "KALAVATIN DURG"- one of the wolrd's most dangerous treks. To achieve the success one has to cross many ups and downs, rocky paths and slippery climbs so do this trek. The idea of going to that trek is so thrilling. And the big day has finally arrived.
How To Reach? Kalavatin Durg is very near to Mumbai. Its friday evening and we got into Mumbai express and reached Karjat which is the nearby station. From there we reached Thakurwadi village and that is where our hiking starts.
Day 1 - Trek to base camp Its never too late to start anything. Age is never a matter to travel. Travelling is all about breaking the daily routine, crossing the limitations and hiking to find the real "US". From Thakurwadi it took almost 2 hours to reach the base camp. Lush green forests, birds chirping, traveler talks and beautiful sceneries, time has passed so fast. Little drizzle welcomed us to the base camp. And the two peaks Prabhalgad and Kalavatin durg are a treat to watch from there!
Afternoon - Prabhalgad We dropped our luggage at the base camp and started hiking to Prabhalgad. Breeze seemed to have deserted us at the start of the hike but started caressing our faces; the slight drizzle invigorating us as we climbed higher and higher. We have to be very careful with the path we choose - "In Life as well as in this hike", you never know you could miss out the right path but remember "Do not give up". Keep moving until you reach the height. We missed out the path yet we made it to the top and the view from their is spectacular.
Night Camping From the top of Prabhalgad you can have a breath taking view of Kalavatin durg. It was absolutely stunning to watch Pinnacle of Kalavantin piercing the sky. The whole pinnacle was visible from top to bottom with all the zig-zag steps clearly visible. As it is getting darker, we started descending. And all of a sudden it started raining. Real fun starts then. Finding the path, holding the grip in that slippery way and finally we reached back to the base camp. As we are starving the whole day, we just fell down at base camp for dinner. The hot and delicious dinner they served is one of the best meal I had till date. We slept and woke up to another astonishing visual from our camp site.
Day 2 - Kalavatin durg Its 5 in the morning, we got freshed up and started our hike to Kalavatin durg. Down the path the rain is playing a hide and seek with us. After reaching the half path, the real fun started. One needs to climb a rock before the start of the steps. Cuts on the rock were made to make the climb easy for the people. The steps were 80 degree inclined and were about knee height. After reaching the top you have to climb the rocks using a rope. Far from the concrete world, robotic humans, expectations, rules and limitations, here we are amidst of the lush green forests, surrounded by dark clouds, standing on the top of the world.
Afternoon - The Descent Coming down is never an easy thing. One wrong step, you are gone. And then hide and seek wala rain striked again. This time bigger and it continued for almost an hour. We just stood like a rock all this time as it was slippery to climb down. One can see nothing but clouds all around. The gre en cover has been masked by white fog. When the intensity of rain got low we started descending. We had to pass through the slippery rocks and just born waterfalls. After walking down slowing we had a spectacular view of Kalavatin and Prabhalgad with hundreds of water falls here and there.
Travelling gives us time to find our-self, courage to cross the rough patches in life, confidence to reach the top.. And "LIFE" to relive again. So #TRAVEL
