Re-visiting the Kanheri Caves.  (Krishnagiri: the black mountain)

06/07/2013

As the saying goes,” You cannot decide where to go; its destiny that does the business, and we, the mortal shave to follow it whole heartedly.” This weekend also something like this happened. Until Friday night, me and Sweta, as per our plan, were under this implication that we would wake up at six the following day and go to Bhivpuri, as it’s quite far and might take more than 3 hrs for us to reach. But, morning didn’t welcome us from our dreamland before 9:30 am, as we slept late the previous night. So what? Plan cancelled!!! Hmm.

Then I started searching for some nearby sights, and my eyes fell on ‘Tulsi Lake’ and ‘Vihara Lake’ on the Map, which were the fresh water lakes, that supply part of Mumbai’s portable water; both located within the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, where we went last year. The eagerness to see the two large lakes and the mugger and crocodile said to exist there, we decided to have our brunch and go for the adventure.

Deepali also agreed to join us. And three of us went with so much of excitement in our tummy. But then, destiny had something else in store for us. The park authorities told us that the entry to the lakes is banned, and we cannot go up there. A little disappointment rose in our throat, but we made it up soon by visiting the Kanheri Caves, which last year welcomed us with full warmth. Moreover as Deepali hadn’t been to the caves before, we promised her that it would be an awesome visit.

Visiting the Kanheri Caves is like visiting my own homeland, as the Caves had been carved by Buddhist Monks in and around 1^st to 8^th century, and had been used as teaching, learning and meditation centre in the past, and during Mauryan and Kushan empires. The rock carvings of Avalokiteshwar and Buddha bring in me a sense of Belongingness to the place. I can easily associate myself to the place as being a Buddhist myself; I have heard tales and visited caves quite often with my family. Kanheri had more than 100 small and big caves, but we limited our visit to some of the caves only, as except for few caves, most were same in structure and carvings.

And instead, this time we went to the nearby waterfall, which looked quite appealing and thrilling along with the falling rain. And without any hesitation, we also ran into the water and let the pressurized water fall on our lean bodies, and it was quite a fun.

 After fully satisfied with our drenched bodies, we decided to trek to the topmost part of the caves. And it wasn’t a hard one, because beautiful and easy stairs from different directions had been carved on the rocks. The view from the top was quite amazing, and we were face to face

with the dense forest of SGNP, which is known as the ‘lungs of Mumbai’ and which absorbs a big part of Mumbai’s pollutants, thus making us breathe fresh. In a sense it’s’ a ‘life-giver’ to the Mumbaikars.

Going up and up, when we finally reached the topmost part, from where there was a valley, and on the other side of the vale were two ‘beautiful waterfalls, which were quite eye-catching and refreshing. We loved the view up there, which appealed to our senses. As we were already drenched with water, so we put off the umbrellas, to let the rains directly hit and play with us. And it was fun-filled and hilarious!!! ‘Wow’…!!Hmm.

Sweta was already tired and wanted to go back home early. As usual, an outing with her, always ends with her mood swings coming to the fore  after some times, due to her fear of Water, Jungle, Dark and late hours. LOL

After spending a good amount of satisfying time up on the top, we descended down for our return journey. As the queue for the van was quite long, we decided to walk, instead of standing there for hours, waiting for the vans, which were quite few in no. The walk was all the more refreshing, as we enjoyed the ‘walk along with the greens’ and came across many running and attractive streams. We enjoyed the sight of different flaying birds, as well as a bunch of deer’. It took us one and half an hour to reach at the gate of the park. The distance from the caves to gate was 6 kms. And we were so excited to have walked that much. Wow! But as usual Sweta made a ‘not so good face & mouth’. But it’s ‘O.K.’ we are used to it now. LOL

Overall it was again an A-Awesome’ outing.

Smiles J J J

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A Memorable Trek to Karnala Fort.

A Memorable Trek to Karnala Fort.

29^th June 2013

For a pleasant change and beyond our expectation, it was Dev, who gave us wakeup call at around 5:45 am, so that we could get ready for the trek as per the schedule. It was too early to get up on a weekend, when on our weekdays we are forced to get up so early. But it was a trek, and we all knew ‘It’s going to be a “Wow” one, and more than ‘Wow’ it was. Moreover, the late-riser, Deepali also got up on time. lol

So, three of us, set out from home at 8:00 am after filling our empty stomachs, and we took the 8:30 am train to Panvel, from Andheri Railway station, and it took us more than two hours to reach there. From Panvel, we hired Auto Rickshaw for the fort, which charged us Rs. 170. The drive from Panvel to karnala fort was just ‘Awesome’; Beautiful, straight as well as winding roads with full of green views on left and right. And to add to the enchanting beauty, was the beautiful tune of a beautiful weather; with feathers of clouds, playing mischief with the sun and the cool air and breezes flirting with our not so beautiful cheeks and tresses, making my eyes, my mind and my heart follow my dreamy world. Wow!!!!

It was a 14-15 kms drive, and we reached at the base, from where we got entry tickets worth Rs. 20 each, followed by Rs. 15 to the gram panchayat fund.

The moment we entered the gate of the karanala Bird sanctuary, its fresh air welcomed us with full warm embrace. Its’ friendliness and warmth was so touching that we couldn’t resist to show our excitement and happiness by our crazy fun-filled gestures.

After a whiles’ walk ahead, we came across the bird sanctuary, which had a variety of birds, like; pea-hen, Rose ringed parapet, Himalayan parapet, Parrots, Rabbits etc. I saw a pea hen dancing, for the first time, from such a close distance and my heart tickled on the sight of such an adorable dance. Hmm. We couldn’t explore the sanctuary beyond some limits, as soon we saw the board on left, giving direction to the Fort. So, since the fort was our prime purpose of visit, we took our path following the signboard. Moreover, there were other trekkers, so it wasn’t that difficult to find the way.

The start of the trek was smooth, as it was just a normal path; less steep and bump. Moreover, the weather was at our guard. We started eating the few slices of bread we got along on the beginning of the trek itself, along with the only bottle of water I got, assuming that there would be some hawkers selling tits-bits to eat. And a big cost for that assumption we all had to bear with later on. Lol

Then soon the real trek began, when we came in front of a steep rise of land, with strong, black rocks, blocking our way, through which we had to climb. And also due to rain, the path had become quite slippery and swampy, so we had to take a good care of our march, as a sudden slip could lead us to some dump. After climbing a good distance and crossing a huge rock, we decided to take rest for a while.  I was quick to grab the Tiffin box in which Dev has brought some Chaney and peanuts. Funny incident; while we were resting on the rocks, a group of 4 boys came trekking up, and one of the guy at front commented, saying,” Such a hard trek, I wonder if girls can climb it too!”

“See, two of the girls are already up there.” Another boy in the group commented, on seeing us, and they all couldn’t control the grin. Lol.

That was quite funny as well as complimenting. We were all silent after that and our ears were all on the sounds of cool breezes and the light soothing music by the rustling leaves. It was heavenly.

After 15 mnts break, we started our upward movement, which got steeper and more exciting to climb to. The most interesting thing I noticed there was the roots of the trees, which had grown long and come out of ground to form a ladder like structure, which we used as steps, and to hold while climbing, for the support. We took rest at three more places, before we reached at the top. And, oh wow! The view from top, it just left me speechless. I mean, I can’t express in words the beauty I saw from there, but the happiness and contentment I felt from within speaks a lot for the beauty of some parts of the Western Ghats.

 The never ending dark green patches of trees below, the cloudy sky with different shades of clouds above and the huge cone shaped green cistern in the front, around which the remains of the forts stood intact, showing its past glory. I could imagine how Shivaji Maharaj would have stood on the top of the hill, and how the armies of Aurangzeb and British east India Company would have crept into the fort. That was quite an imagination; nothing to do with my interest in history though. Lol

We stayed there for hours together, climbing up and down of the fort, viewing the beauty of Ghats from every angle and clicking the pictures to carry along the memories.  It was my first trek after coming to Mumbai, and it turned out to be ‘just awesome’. Thanks to Dev and Deepali for the great company.

And one important thing we all learnt here was- ‘ Carry along some eatables and enough water with you, while going for a trek’, though we could endure our hunger and thirst, the whole day, and once we climbed down, we grabbed some tea and pakoras, just at the starting point of the trek.

Overall it was again an ‘A-Awesome’!!!!

Smiles with satisfaction. J J J