A Trek In The Clouds. Review on Kalsubai

I know that many of us have gone to places that have taken our breath away. But I have never seen any place till now as pretty as Bhandardara. Its simply exquisitely beautiful. We had planned on going to this place for a long time but it kept getting postponed as it was quite far away and it was peak rainy season in Pune. That is, it was end August and it was raining like hell. I was supposed to go to Mumbai and then Hyderabad for 10 days and so decided to definitely see this place before that. So August 31st, at 11 pm in the night I set upon motivating my friends. After about 2 hrs we managed to get 2 more guys to go with us. We started off at 4 am, Sept 1st, 2002. It was simply superb, with the adrenaline flowing through our veins even as the chilly monsoon winds struck us. Bhandardara has many places to see.

There is the Wilson Dam, the Arthur Hill lake, the Randhwa falls and of course Maharashtra's highest peak ''Kalsubai''. This was supposed to be the object of our conquest, though we wanted to see the other places too. Bhandardara is 180 kms away from Pune and we made the mistake of going on bikes. I would advise anyone to go in a 4 wheeler or at least not try this trip in the rainy season. The reasons you will soon find out. All along the way we saw beautiful scenes. Lush green fields, blue mountains, greens of every hue and shade. The fields were teeming with golden and red flowers. It was really a riot of colors. Then there were small rivulets, formed by the rains, which flowed under bridges and fell as small waterfalls. There were shepherds and goatherds and it seemed picture postcard all the way. I really cannot put in words the beauty of the ride. We stopped thrice to view the huge reservoir called the Wilson dam, once at a beautiful lake with a small wood beside it and once in a field. Initially we also took a wrong turn towards a fort in the mountains. But after a lilttle distance we turned back. The reason was that the dark rocky hills were covered in greenery and had clouds floating over them. It loomed on all sides of us seemingly insurmountable. And we knew that the fort was on top of those hills, in clouds somewhere and we could never see the fort and Kalsubai on the same day. So we carried on and reached a small village. Towering over this village was Kalsubai. Lost in the dark clouds that floated all over the place. We kept our bikes at the base and took a guide for 100 bucks. He told us the history of the place. Kalsubai, I’m sure would have been an easy climb in any season but rainy. We were blessed with verdant greenery but we undertook huge danger. Cause there was mists all round us, the path was steep and treacherous and slippery. There was a temple dedicated to Kalsubai devi at the base. Unfortunately two of my friends dropped out. They thought the trek was too dangerous. For my other friend and me; this was it. We would get to the top whatever it took. There were streams flowing all along the way. Sometimes we climbed through them we sank into the mud and the loose rocks made us slip all the time. But I’ll say it was all worth it all along. We knew we were doing something amazing. The guide moved with a thick “kambal”on his head made from sheep wool. And he had slippers on. And moved as if he was walking on MG road. In fact we saw the villagers farming at a height of 1000 ft and they all seemed so easy with the climb. As we kept on going higher the the clouds got thicker. There were places where we crawled, as we had to surmount rock faces, at gles of 60 degree and if we slipped or fell it was ure death on either side. There were iron laders , but only in some places. And these too swung over deep chasms, as you climbed over them. We drank from mountain streams. Once I slipped and fell. My spine would have been broke into two had it not been for my backpack. 100 mts from the top we could not see anything because of the thichk mists surrounding us. whenever the mists cleared we saw white, violet and pink blossoms all around us!! it seemed like heaven. There was a small ''kund'', the water of which was considerd sacred. I was wet and cold. But I loved it. There is a temple of kalsubai at the peak. From there you can see as far as Nashik. We rested there for a while. The only food we had had since last night was a pack of biscuit which we had there. The trip down was more dangerous but slithering and falling we made it to base. We felt like conquerors. It had taken us 5 hrs for the whole climb and back. We decide d to see the Randha falls too. The falls is supposed to be where mandakini posed for the “Ram Teri Ganga Maili” movie. The Falls were in all their splendor and there were a lot of tourists. We left at 6pm. From there hoping to reach pune by 11. But the trip back was a nightmare. The bike I was on had an accident, at 60kmph. My knee was in a mess. I lost my gold watch (which I was stupid enough to wear) and the bikes headlight was smashed.

My friend who was driving thankfully was ok. We stooped at a small town. Had the bike fixed, I got a tetanus injection and had our first meal of the day. But our trouble had just begun. The other bike got a puncture right in the middle of a dark highway. We somehow found a dhaba where the puncture was taken care of. My knee had stiifened and the blood was caked all over it. The chilled wind froze us to our bones. I have to give credit to my friends who rode the bikes, through darkness, blinding headlights and exhauastion. We reached Pune at 4 am. Could hardly move our stiff bodies an were oblivious to the pain. But I still felt great in my heart. Totally contented. I just slept for 5 hours and started off for Mumbai at 12 noon. You can view some of the photographs at this link:https://mobilewizard.tripod.com/saurav/id9.html