Rajmachi Trekking

Sprots Team had organized a trekking to Rajmachi, a small village situated at the height of around 800 mtrs from the sea level. It all started with a pleasant morning on 31st March when most of people who were ready to take the challenge had come to Kanjur Marg station at 5.50 to catch a particular train to Karjat. It was crucial for everyone to arrive at this time because the next train to Karjat was after 1 hr and members who will miss the train have to simply forfeit the trip. But, fortunately no such instance occurred. It was a lengthy journey and most of us were chit-chatting and enjoying the enchanting view through the train's window. It took approximately 2hrs to reach the station, and then all of us had their breakfast. We first started out to Khondana, a small village which is situated in the base of Rajmachi by auto (tum-tum). We had reached there by around 8:45 AM and started our real trekking. Initially we had to walk in a flat land for about 20 min and that was the time when nobody knew what is yet to come. Everybody was merrily enjoying the walk and was simply awe-struck with the looks of the mighty mountains. We were heading towards Shrivardhan and Manoranjan forts located at the top of the hill.It was an awesome and first time experience for most of us. As we were gradually progressing, most of us found it tough to climb. After a little while, we realized that trekking in this hill is not everyone's cup of tea. It was too exhausting in the scorching heat. None of us, including the coordinators knew the exact direction it would take to go up. For directions, we were simply following the arrow marks made by the villagers. Apart from all these, one of the toughest things that we overcame was thirstiness. We all went to trekking fully equipped with water bottles, but soon came the time when these bottles became empty. Everybody was yearning for water, but we were only left with Glucose packets and some biscuits. It got so worse that two of our colleagues had even threatened that they will not climb until they get some water. But, finally they had to climb without a single drop of water. It was a tough time for everybody, but we confronted it with our determination. None of us felt intimidated by the mountains and it was our adventurousness and encouragement by our buddies which made us move on. Although we took frequent intervals we were not able to cope up with the fatigue. To add to all our woes, it also happened that we had lost our way in between and felt stranded in the middle of the jungle. Later relief came from a villager who showed us the directions. We were told by him that it would hardly take ten minutes to reach to the top, but the hard-hitting fact was that we took nearly forty-five minutes. All of them who had gone to this trekking would never forget this word called "dus(ten) minute". This motivational word was ultimately the biggest source of encouragement for all of us who were about to faint. But at last we safely reached the village by around 2pm. The first thing we all had was water and later came the lemonade which was served as refreshment. It was so good that we hade even nick-named it as amrut. Everybody liked the serenity of the village and some had even reminiscence of their own villages. We had our food which was of Maharshtrian cuisine and it included an item called Bhakri(equivalent to a Roti) made of rice. Then we just lied down in the verandah and had a little nap. After a while, it was time to pack our bags. Initially we had a little bit of discussion considering the alternative route to go back to Mumbai i.e. via Lonavla. But we finally decided that we would get down in the same route as we had come. Everybody again started off with the same vigor and thought that this should not be a big deal. But as we all know that life is not as easy as it seems to be. While getting down, we parted ourselves in groups of three according to our speed. The idea was to help each other and get down easily. We were very much confident this time, as we felt that it would not be a daunting task to get down. We started our next expedition at 4.00 pm thinking that it would hardly take one-and-half hour to come down. But as we took few steps downwards, we found that getting down is much tougher and riskier than climbing. We had to face steep slopes and sliding ways in the route. It was quite risky as a single mistake by any one of us would have made the entire trip a night-mare. There was quite a good possibility for careless person to fall down. But this time too we supported each other well and made careful moves. Naturally it took long time than expected since most of us were not skilled in trekking. The first group was quite fast, but the problem they faced was of directions. They couldn't exactly make out the reverse way and again got stranded. But finally anyways, they were the first to get down safely at approximately 6.00pm. Now comes the tragic and exciting part of the entire trip. It was 6.00pm and the sunset has occurred. Darkness has started to creep in and the first group was the only group which could make it to the destination. They had no clue about the other groups and the network service was not available. The other two groups had a real tough time. They had to get down in a minimum amount of time and also they had this constraint of visibility. As I have already mentioned, the paths were not easy to find even in the full sunlight. The other two groups had this disadvantage of not making it within the right time. None of them had a torch and it was quite freaky to take steps blindly. They had even used the mobile flash lights which is one of the most significant things that had happened in the trip. Ultimately, they had to take the help of a villager to show them the right way. As a kind gesture, they had even paid him for his timely help. Finally they had made it with no difficulty at the right time. Thus came the happy ending of our trekking.

--Satish