Panchgani Trek - Day 1

Luqman uncle planned for this trek alongwith Faraz and Taha.
Started from Mumbai on Friday night to goto Pune to join my relatives for trek.

Mumbai --> Pune --> Wai --> Panchgani Ravine Hotel --> Paragliding spot --> Electricity substation --> Dhom Road

We trekked from Panchgani electricity substation to some village near Dhom along the banks of river Krishna.

We were 8 people. So using 2 cars, started at 8.00 am from Pune. Reached Panchgani at about 11.00 am.


Celebrity Nano

My uncle (Munazzir) had newly purchased a Nano. Since that car is still a novelty, I decided to travel in that.





That car deserves the heck of a praise.
Feels very light.......cruising along smoothly on the highway........easily climbed the two ghats on the way..........and gave a mileage of about 19 km per litre.

I did see that the Nano made heads turn even on the way, but what we witnesses in Panchgani was nothing short of a celebrity experience (Celebrity Experience for the car, not us).

The Nano just didn't make heads turn around........people staring at it.........taking pictures and videos.........commenting as to how it climbed up..........posing with the car..........some even coming near the car.........and "searching" inside it.

Since this was a 2 day trek and we needed to park this car........parking turned out to be a big security problem for Nano. As Faraz rightly mentioned, "Even if there's a Benz next to Nano, the latter requires much greater security." Fortunately, there was the car cover inside to hide it safely.


Panchgani

Since we were scheduled to begin trekking at 14.00, there was some time to kill. Visited a table-land and an adjoining cave.

Never seen monkeys bonded this way:

Had lunch, performed prayers and set off to the base point. The base point is about 2 km before Panchgani police station (the right turn near Ravine Hotel). It is an electricity sub-station, a little ahead of the para-gliding spot.




The Descent

Started at about 14.00. Initially a flat trail which later descended sharply.



Since it was nearly summer, the thick grassy vegetation had dried out. Navigating through it was fun although a lot of the dried stuff clanged to your clothes.



Some like me kept falling and slipping along the way.



We had to scale and descend through three hills before reaching the bottom. Also with the sun shining on our heads, a lot of breaks kept happening.

It's time that I give some introduction of people (left to right): 
Kerosene Ifraheem
Navigator Faraz
Cowboy Luqman
Coolie # 1 Ismail




Sheikh Munazzir gazing at his territory:

Views from the hills:





Nearly at the foothills:


The most hardworking Taha:



Sallu bhai Israel:



Reached the bottom at about 16.30 passing through dried bajra fields.





The Village

Passing through the fields, halted at the first house we came across. We were in dire need of water since all of it had got exhausted. The family was very helpful and provided us with water as well as tea.
Later we even got wood and dung cakes from them.

We started nearly from that tower:



A tar road ran thought this village, so it was well connected with Wai (This was going to be useful tomorrow).


Setting the campsite

It was 17.30 when we reached the campsite which was just next to the river. The river no longer flowed because this part had become the catchment area of the Dhom dam ahead.



We choose a flat clearing along the bank as the site where there was no grass and the soil soft due to silt deposits.



Since sunset would happen early bcoz of the mountains around, we immediately started preparing for lighting a fire. The fire would be used for light, heat, protection, cooking.

Faraz, Ismail and me went back to the village to get logs, bamboos. Ifraheem, Israel and Taha went around to collect twigs.



Started the fire initially with twigs, cowdung cakes and kersosene. Then added some wood and finally coal.

Taha with cowdung cakes (just posing for the camera, Faraz really carried it all the way.):


Briefly, we did try to setup a tent but gave up the idea bcoz of lack of time and energy. Also since the weather was just perfect so we didn't feel any need to do so.




Night time

We had bought marinated chicken to be roasted. Israel just wrapped the same in aluminium foil and added to fire with Taha continuously fanning it. Roasted chicken tasted so much tastier after a hard day's work.



We played dumb charades for quite sometime (complete with the accusations and falsification between the 2 brothers).

Water was exhausted again and the Krishna river's water was not flowing hence not so palatable.
So at 22.30, Faraz and I headed back to the village to get some water. It was nearly a full moon night, but still dark enough.

The immemorable photograph:




Since we were sleeping in the open, decided that we would need to employ watchmen's for the night. Starting 00.00 to 06.00, there were 2 hours shifts in pairs. Israel and I took the first shift, ensuring that the fire stayed burning enough and driving away and animals coming close.

But by the time our shifts ended, almost everyone had woken up. It had started becoming very cold now and hence everyone except Ifraheem and Faraz woke up. Even I couldn't sleep for long bcoz of the cold.

Based on my assumption, that the cold was penetrating from the ground much more than from the air; and all we had used as bedding was one bedsheet; I added newspapers below. Thus I was one of the few who slept comfortably.

Panchgani Trek - Day 2