Trek to One Tree Hill

I was pretty excited for my first trek of winter vacations on 27th December 2015 to "One tree hill point" at Matheran.

The plan was made instantaneously over a conversation with one of my friend named Neet. We decided to join a trek group and while searching found a trek group "Wandering Soul Riders(WSR)" on Mumbaihikers website and then we immediately enrolled our names for the trek event.

The day started at 4:30 am in the morning with packing the trek stuffs and so on. I boarded the Churchgate fast local from Goregaon at 5:52 am IST and Neet hopped into the same train at Malad. We reached dadar at 6:20 am and then as per the event schedule the plan was to board second last coach of 6:24 am Karjat fast local.

We were out of the scheduled plan timings and a near miss was about to happen for the trek event if we couldn't board the 6:24 am Karjat local, so we ran as fast as possible towards Dadar central platform number 3 after getting down from Churchgate fast local at Dadar where the Karjat fast local was expected to halt.

Neet and me(Left to Right)

Photo Courtesy: Sahib Saluja a member of trek team.

The platform was heavily crowded as fast locals towards Karjat have very less frequency, finally we reached on time and boarded the second last compartment of the train and felt very relieved as there was a strict guideline by the trek leaders that "Missing the train was missing the trek event".

As there was too much of rush inside the train we were not able to make out where the trek group was inside the compartment so we decided to call the trek leaders after getting down at Karjat station.

Luckily we got a seat after boarding into the train compartment so we were just having some conversation and suddenly over the time till we reach Karjat station the atmospheric temperature inside compartment of moving train dropped suddenly and we were shivering with cold and I guess the temperature was around 18 degree Celsius, I wasn’t expecting such extreme coldness but as the time passed the temperature started rising back again with sunrise and till 8:30 am it was same as in Mumbai that is somewhere around 28 degree Celsius and the portent for the weather seemed to be good.

Base Village-Ambewadi

After getting down at Karjat station we then met the trek organizers were they quickly took a note about the attendees for the trek event by calling names of the registered participants. We then started walking towards the Karjat auto stand were a tum-tum (a 10 seater 3-wheeler) was arranged to drop us at Shitai hotel. 

We had our breakfast over here which consisted of Upma, Poha, Tea/Cofee  and had some sandwiches packed for lunch time. We left this place at 9:00 am and reached base village(Ambewadi) till 9:30 am and started our trek followed by a quick introduction of each participant.

Trek Route

Trek Route

The scenic view of Morbe dam backwaters on the left side with various points of Matheran visible on both side of the trek route are enough to provide a kickstart to the trek journey ahead. The cool breezy winds act as a catalyst for the trekking  thus the entire trek proved to be much of fun given the climatic condition. The trek organizers Deepak sir, Lavanya maam, Sahib Saluja(Manu) sir were very helpful. As per the plan the lavanya maam was heading as our front leader marking the path of our trek route,Deepak sir was back-lead and Manu sir used to be in center of the participants.

Well water

The village fresh water well acts as a source of water if one does wish to refill their bottles. We saw a couple of locals pulling out water from a well by the roadside. There were around three such well spotted on our trek route. Water was very less in these wells due to low rainfall this year even the Morbe dams water level were alarming the lack of water resources.

A view from trek route

Participants who were trekking for the first times were not asked to climb fast and were supported to take on their natural speed even Deepak sir ensured that the participants will never be left back no matter how slowly they climb.

The first few kilometers of trek route were through the mud patch route followed by boulders and rocks. It was a steep climb over boulders till the very top. One had to slowly climb these rocks, as some of these rocks were wet and slippery.

 

Trek route

A view from trek route

We started the trek at 9:40 am and reached one tree hill point at 01:30 pm after taking three time-breaks on our way. After reaching we had some rest for 10 minutes before climbing the hillock of one tree hill point, it took around 40 minutes for all of us to climb this hillock.  

The hillock was separated from where we were standing by a very thin path of around 4 feet that leads to the bottom of the hillock. The narrow path was not only exposed to the valley on both sides, but the climb up the hillock was vertical, making it extremely risky. Only a single tree atop the hillock makes it quite unique. Hence the name, One tree hill.

Hillock at One tree hill

Only few of the participants decided to climb this hillock due to its risky and dangerous steep climbs. Some choosed to enjoy the scenic view from the bottom of the one tree hillock itself while first time trekkers were happy to reach the top point of their first trek successfully.

A view from the hillock at One tree hill

A view from the hillock at One tree hill

A view from the hillock at One tree hill

It was around 2:00 pm and everyone was hungry, so without wasting any time we decided to have a lunch under the shade of trees near one tree hill point. There is a small shop where you can get packed chips and water bottles. The packaged foods such as chips and cold drinks prices are 50% more than the MRP. There are group of monkeys over here trying to snatch eatables from you so keep eatery items safely tucked away considering the population of monkeys that reside all over this region. Be calm when they are around you and don’t try to hit them else they may strike back, just be sure to handle eatable carefully. During our lunch time they snatched a packet of bread which we brought to prepare some sandwiches.

Photo Courtesy: Sahib Saluja a member of trek team.

It was almost 3 pm and the heavy lunch made us more lethargic at the same time it was a state of bliss about reaching the top successfully. The route for descending was pre-planned and was the normal road route of Matheran which passes through the Matheran market and is also adjacent to the Neral-Matheran toy train route that leads to Dasturi Naka. There are no vehicles allowed on the roads up there, but surely you could hire horses for a leisure ride within the small town. We saw a lot of people there unlike our trek route where there was none other than us. The best part is that it’s pollution-free as no vehicles are allowed in the hill station.

In matheran market you will see many small shops which sell eatable items such as star fruits, java plum, roasted sweet corn, raw mangoes and berries sprinkled with chillies and salt. The price is Rs.10-15 on average for chopped pieces of these fruits.

Route while descending

While descending the region was glowing in a shade of white due to the sun’s heat. After reaching dasturi naka there are Share cabs from the main gate to Neral available in plenty. It’s a 20-25 minutes downhill cab ride covering 14kms to the Neral station. The scenic views from the cab while moving to neral station are  just awesome.

 After reaching Neral Station we boarded a train to Karjat which then turns back to CST so as to avail a seat. It’s difficult to get a seat if you are planning to board the train at Karjat Station due to heavy rush specially during evening times.

The trek experience was an unforgettable memory and provided an opportunity to meet some trekkers and spend a good time with them marking the journey of our friendship ahead.

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Trek to Raigad fort

The travel destination this time was Raigad fort at Pacchad in Raigad district with one day one night plan.

I left my home at 8:00 pm to reach Panvel and was accompanied by some of my colleagues on the way.

We were group of seven and decided to assemble at Panvel station at 10:45 pm on 29^th June 2015 and then reach Panvel ST depot to board a bus towards pacchad. The bus originating point was Borivili ST depot and its estimated time arrival at Panvel ST depot was 11:40 pm.

We reached Panvel ST depot at 11:25 pm and were waiting eagerly for the bus. Generally the bus to pacchad halts on stop No. 4 at Panvel ST depot for 5-10 minutes approximately, sometimes it may halt nearby this stop if some other bus occupies its halting stop.

In the mean time we had light snacks; bus arrived at 11:50 pm and halted for five minutes. We couldn’t enjoy much of the views from scenic drives across the route as due to night journey. The bus reached Mahad at 2:40 am and halted here till 4:00 am before continuing the journey ahead. This bus halts here till 4:00 am and is the first bus towards Pacchad from Mahad. 
Check the bus route below.

We got ample of break time here and had refreshments in the early morning mist. There is a canteen facility available at the bus stop.

Signboard placed at the divertion of main route

We reached Pacchad at 4:40 am, the bus dropped us in the midst of road and there was complete darkness with a small sign board visible on the other side of road indicating the direction to Raigad fort, with conductor stating that start ascending after some time as there was darkness and roads were not visible. The bus dropping point on google maps is 18°14'11.04"N,73°25'12.66"E which is at an altitude of 1047ft. Do take a torch if you plan to reach early.

You would hear the sounds of birds chirping during morning time it’s awesome enough to break your sleep inertia, the most beautiful sound I ever heard was that of Malabar Whistling thrush.

We then followed the route that leads to the steps and slowly the daylight made the roads ahead visible. It is 2km route from pacchad bus stop till the steps that lead to the fort. The steps are well carved and provide you a good grip even during rainy seasons. The steps location on google maps is 18.237939, 73.427539 which is at an altitude of 1370 ft. ASL(Above Sea Limit). The Raigad fort is at an altitude of 2800ft. ASL so you just need to ascend 1430ft. ASL through steps. The base village and the nearby area is a hilly area with an average altitude of 1300 ft. ASL.

The ropeway service is available if you don’t want to ascend via steps, but you would miss the  waterfalls that are adjacent to the steps that lead to the Raigad fort.

View from around 2000 ft.

During our journey most of the time fort was covered by clouds. There is a waterfall that you can enjoy on the way it’s almost after 700 steps and we had lots of fun over here at both times while ascending as well as descending. While descending the waterfall was at its best as it was raining heavily during this time. The day was awesome with waves of rain throughout the day and the climate was exquisite.

 

Mahadarwaja (Main Entrance)

Statue of Shivaji Maharaj

Houses of warriors

We started at 5:00 am and reached the fort at 9:30 am. The fort is very big and it’s great to explore the various points over here. Various points were tak mak point,rajgad killa.

View from takmak point

View from takmak point

View from takmak point

View from takmak point

We had an hour rest at tak-mak point which was completely covered with clouds during our visit, later while departing some of the clouds disappeared giving a glimpse of the scenic views from above.

We then started descending and took an off-route from the tak mak point instead of going through the long way route to steps. It was thirty minutes off-way route that later connects to the steps.

There are around two to three waterfalls that you can enjoy if you plan your visit during rainy seasons, we had hours of fun in the waterfalls and reached the base village at 3:00 pm.

We expected some private car services at the base village while descending and were lucky to found it till Mahad with Rs. 40 per head. The car dropped us at Mahad ST depot at 3:50 pm. If you don’t find the private service then you need to walk back 2 kms till the bus stop which is on the main road.

There are buses from Mahad ST depot towards Panvel, Borivili and Vasai these all are interconnecting buses halting at Mahad. There is only one bus that originates from Mahad ST depot for panvel and is at 6:00 pm, Later there are many interconnecting buses till 1:00 pm.

You can also avail the train journey from Mangaon to Mumbai, there are many buses from Mahad to Mangaon. If you are travelling from Mumbai it’s better to avail a bus service as the bus directly drops you at Pacchad. The train journey is tiresome as train drops you at Mangaon station then you need to travel to Mahad ST depot and then again board another interconnecting bus to Pacchad.

We boarded a bus towards panvel at 4:00 pm from Mahad ST depot, it was bus originating from Chiplun towards Thane. The bus had many unoccupied seats   and ticket cost was Rs. 140 till panvel and 175 till thane. There are also private car services available outside Mahad ST depot till Panvel at  Rs.180 per head.

The bus dropped us at Panvel ST depot at 7:30 pm thus ending the overnight trek and the last trek of this summer vacation.

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Visit to Elephanta Caves

Today on 13^th day of June 2015, I was excited to visit the Elephanta caves  with my colleague.

We decided to meet at Andheri station at 7:00 am in the morning and board a train towards churchgate from Andheri,I was eager for the excitement more than usual as it was a journey with my colleague whom i was going to meet after a year.

All the excitement and the plan delayed!(was in so deep sleep that the alarm just didn’t ranged for a dead person like me!  Got an where about call from friends at 6:50am)

So the day begins with a wake-up call and with no preparations, due to procrastination of packing the required material for trip and the haste of trip in mind moved the things faster than usual, Just got ready within 20 minutes and left to Goregaon station to board a train for Andheri.

Reached Andheri and a small talk with friends happened on the way while boarding the next fast local towards Churchgate from Andheri.

Boarded the train from andheri at 7:50 am don’t remember the exact time of train, reached Churchgate at 8:30 am and loaded some snacks at the Churchgate station to for our journey.

We then went to board a taxi for gateway of India at the taxi stand, decided to take a shared taxi with charges of Rs.10 per head, which took 10 minutes to reach the destination.

After reaching gateway of India at 8:55 am, we purchased a ferry ticket to Elephanta island which was Rs. 160 for round trip, the tickets were sold by the agents standing to the left side of gateway of India there were 2 agents in the morning but while returning time there were around 4-5 agent selling tickets. No need to find them they keep shouting like "boat ka ticket boat ka ticket" or "Elephanta ka tickets".

The first ferry to Elephanta island is at 9:00 am and the ferry from the island to gateway of India is at 12:00 noon and the last ferry is at 4:00 pm and 5:00 pm respectively. These ferries are at interval of 1 hour as per officials timings, but we observed that there were ferries at interval of 10 minutes maybe the frequency got peaked due to increased number of tourists.

After purchasing tickets it was sharp 9:00 am and the boats were ready for their first trip to Elephanta caves, the crews were anchoring the boats so as to make it convenient for everyone to board on the boat. The distance from gateway of India to Elephanta island is 14km(8.5 miles).

We all in haste were the first to board it to manage a seat on upper deck by paying Rs.10 extra to the boat operator but it’s worth the view. There were around total 50-60 persons in the boat with most of the people as tourist and some were local vendors transporting cold drinks and other stuffs to island.

A passenger boat

The enthralling ride through the Arabian Sea started leaving the hustle and bustle of Mumbai to a journey back in time, the ferry gives view to gigantic Naval Ships anchored to the base at various docks such as Mazagaon, Victoria, Pirpau Jetty and Butcher Island.

View of Mumbai

Mazgaon Dock

There is no roof for the upper deck of the boat so as the rain started heavily it was difficult to prevent from getting wet even with an umbrella as the sea winds were too harsh in the middle of the sea added the bobbing of boat makes it difficult to balance yourself, so we just got on the lower deck and the view from there was not bad as we thought and it was a pleasant experience to enjoy the view from the lower deck too.

The color of water resembles the color of mud and the water is completely polluted with the waste in it which you will see throughout the route.

View from Upper deck

View from lower deck

Genmar Phoenix- Crude Oil Tanker

AHTS Excelsior

After travelling for 50 minutes we reached The Elephanta island at 10:00 am, The coolness of the breeze, dense fog and harsh winds of the monsoon season made the footfall on island an pleasant experience.

Elephanta Island

There is a ticket counter that charges you the entry fee for the island (entry fee for the caves is excluded) it is Rs.5 for adult, Rs. 3 for children, Rs.1 per head for children’s who come for picnic arranged by schools. The charges are same for NRI.

The island has 3 temples Shivji, Gaondevi and Someshwar, a Dam and is home for 2000 people inhabiting across 3 villages on the island. The people here depend on the business from tourism, agriculture and most of them come far from the island to Mumbai for education, work etc. The local people have no facility on the island except the electricity which is provided hardly for 4-5 hours, generated using a diesel generator. The island has an Elephanta dam which supplies drinking water to the locals here.

These local people use the boat for travelling to and fro from the island. So these boats are running throughout the year and stops only when the water route for the island experiences harsh winds of the monsoon seasons, But when the last of the wooden ferry boats leaves at nightfall for the mainland 14 kilometres (8.5 miles) away, the villagers who live permanently on the island are plunged into darkness.

After passing the ticket counter there is a toy train available which is hardly 400 metres train journey. Its ticket cost is Rs. 10 and till the time it starts you would reach the train destination point. When we reached at 10:00 am the servicing of train was been performed to make it operational for the day. So we decided to walk along the way so that we could enjoy the scenic view.

At the entry there are many small shops which sell eatable items such as star fruits, java plum, roasted sweet corn, mangoes(seasonal based fruit), raw mangoes and berries sprinkled with chillies and salt and rates are normal and are sold at the same price as what you would get it at gateway of india.

The price is Rs.10-15 on average for chopped pieces of these fruits. The packaged foods such as chips and cold drinks prices are 50% more than the MRP. The charges above MRP are due to the transportation cost to the island.

There is a garden and 3 restaurants adjacent to the stairs which leads to the Elephanta caves. The average meal cost will be between Rs.300 - Rs.400 and the quality is normal and not that cheap.

These stairs are neatly carved and provide a stronger grip so you can walk or run on them easily, there is also a chair service available for persons who have difficulty climbing the stairs. There are troops of monkeys on the first few stairs maybe due to the availability of food items in nearby shops. If you purchase an eatable item here from these shops keep it in your bag before leaving the shop else the monkeys will follow you if they find something interesting in your hand.

Monkeys sitting on a tree

There are around 200 stairs just a guess didn’t made an attempt to count those, finished climbing in 12-15 minutes. There are around 100-150 stalls lined along the sides of these steps selling beautiful artifacts, paintings, jewellery, Indian traditional souvenirs, bags and much more and if you climb on by looking the interesting items that are been displayed by these stalls it would take much more time.Just remember to bargain before purchasing anything.

As you finish climbing the steps you can see the board of Elephanta caves been displayed on your right side this is starting point of caves and you would not see a single vendor or any kind of shop ahead this point.

You need to buy the entry ticket to cave from the ticket counter over here. It’s Rs. 10 for adult and Rs.5 for children it’s free for children below 15 years of age and for NRI it is Rs. 250.

Board put up by ASI near the main cave

I don’t remember the minute details about the carved Hindu and Buddhist sculptures explained by the guide wish I could note down all of them.

The first cave is the main cave with nine carved structures and a “Shiv Pind”, it will take probably 60% of your cave's viewing time. The structure of the carvings is severely destroyed and one could barely understand what they depict by observing it.

The Main cave

Shiva as Mahayogi

Nataraja

Ardhanarishwara

Maheshmurti

It’s better if you avail the guide service for understanding them. The guide service is generally free but we didn’t found a free guide and we paid Rs. 150. The guide explained it well for about 30 minutes in detail and was a bit boring in between to remember the list of names of the people associated with the history of these caves.

One point which stunned me was the excellent craftsmanship of the people who carved these rocks beautifully even before the discovery of metals, they were carved completely using a small hand-made piece out of hard stone and took 120 years to complete it, the geometric aspect of the caves and the angles of the pillars in which they are carved out is amazing.

The main cave is carved with a precise geometrical calculations in such a way that the first ray of sunlight that enters the cave touches the "Shiv Pind" inside this cave, the pillars are constructed in an angle that if you view from any corners of the main cave you will see the face of at least one carved idol.

There is a booklet of ASI(Archaeological survey of India) available at the ticket counter which you can purchase, it contains much detailed description of the caves.

There are security guards protecting these structures from people who write their names on these beautiful historical monuments while some people even climb on these carved structure just to take the close view of the carved scenes around them, No these climbing people are not monkeys these events happen and were described by the security guards when we interacted with them.

Left subcave

The left sub-cave of the main cave was under the probability that the rocky entrance of this cave may collapse and thus you can see the six pillars on which the rocky entrance is reinforced for supportability.

These are the pillars that were built by the Govt. of India later with the permission of UNESCO. As it is a World heritage site the changes here can’t be done directly by the government of India and if there are any changes to be made then the change request is sent to the UNESCO(agency of United Nations). The request is then inspected by the UNESCO officers and if the change is utmost necessary then the request for change is approved.

UNESCO needs that these monuments be maintained as they were left by the Portuguese after destroying and not alter anything as it represents the precious historical details.

The way to Canon hill was closed during our visit for unknown reasons, so we couldn’t see the Canon at the Canon point which is the highest point of island. The trip to Elephanta cave was an beautiful experience and it’s the must visit place for historians.

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