The Peb misadventure and lessons learnt.

The Peb misadventure and lessons learnt.

(15^th March 2014)

The Holi weekend, when I realized that we had three holidays at a stretch including Saturday, Sunday and Monday, I thought of making a good use of it. I called up Ruchi and Kapila, the beautiful newly married couple cum my friends, and asked them to plan out for the weekend. They agreed immediately, and after a lot of speculation over where to go, on the night of Friday, we ended up taking our decision for the Peb fort trek. Now if I ask my Marathi friends, as well as my office colleagues about Peb, they raise their eye brows,” Peb, where the hell is this place?” But never wonder, it is a lesser known hill fort, where very few people, especially the mountain lovers go. I got it from the website of some trekking groups, when last year after almost finishing exploring Mumbai, I was looking for places around Mumbai. And a mountain lover I am, and from the last few treks to some of the places at Western Ghats, I got really tempted to explore more of it. So here goes the account of our trek to Peb fort, which is also known as Vikatghat, and the final destination of it, is a temple dedicated to Pebi Devi, at the topmost point of the hill.

We set out from home at 6:30 am, with well packed food and 3-4 liters of water. We boarded the 7:15 am Karjat Local train from Ghatkopar, and reached Neral at around 8:45 am. We hired an Auto from the Station, which drove us from the interior of Neral for about 2 Kms and dropped us at the point from where we were supposed to trek. Everything seemed quite good and the mountains quite alluring. Unlike my earlier treks, this trek took us to the dry mountains and de-forested land through dusty village pathways. We kept walking till we found a well, where we rested for a while, before taking the upward journey. We enquired from the locals about the way and time it takes to go up. As per their information, we guessed that we will be up at the top in 3 hours. One of the village man offered to accompany us as a guide, but the over-confidence we had in ourselves made us reject the proposal with a huge grin.

 The initial trail was smooth. We kept following the electric poles, from the third one of which we were supposed to take a left for the trek. We didn’t mind to make our own ways in between, wherever we found something tempting in some parts of the jungle. The de-forested barren mountain, with few shrubs and small trees was just full of peace, and there was no trace of civilization there. Only three of us in that wide barren mountain, trying our luck to get on the right trail, as there seemed multiple ways, some of which would have been just used by wood-cutters and out of them one would be the right way to the top.

 We had been walking continuously for 2 hours, when we saw a man coming with logs of wood on his head. We asked the way to the fort, and he gave us direction, telling us to follow some Nallah/Stream (dried of course) and then walk straight. As per our calculation we were on right track, until we reached the end point of Nallah, where there was a dried waterfall, which I imagined as a beautiful, full of life waterfall, surrounded by greenery in a rainy season. We heard some noise and looked up towards its source. There were two trekkers, who said that they have lost their way, and they were taking some other way. I asked Kapila if we could follow them. But he said that we might be mis-led, so better find our own way. We all agreed. By that time our bellies also started making noises, so we decided to find a shady place and have our lunch. Till here everything was just perfect. We all were full of excitement and energy. And wherever we liked, we didn’t mind to pose, especially Ruchi and I, Kapila being the photographer of the day. :P Ruchi’s specialty; She packed everything, from bed sheet to tissues, not to speak of food, onion, cucumber, pickles, lemon and a knife. After the food, she made nimbu pani, which was the most delicious of all. We couldn’t stop admiring her for all that. So, up till here everything was like a perfect family picnic. The real story starts now. : P

So, after satisfying our hungry bellies and quenching our thirst, we followed a trail, which seemed to have been walked over earlier, and we guessed that we were on the right track. But suddenly, that trail ended, which would have been used by the woodcutters. Then what? We looked at each other, and then looked up. It seemed from below that a steep rise of 20 minutes could lead us to the top of that layer of mount, from where we could walk on the hill behind, where lies the trail towards the destination.  And in a state of excitement, we decided to take that un-walked, steep track to take a shortcut. We ignored the lessons our parents had given us as children, “Never take the short cut, for short cut means ‘death.’’” Hmm

"that dangerously risky point, after which we couldn't dare to take out our camera..." :P

And bingo! They were right. We soon realized it, when after 20 minutes trek upward, the slope did not end, and instead from there we were face to face with same top with same distance which we saw from below. All our assumptions proved wrong. We were breathlessly climbing through rough, bushy terrain, literally crawling on our knees. The loose soil made the climb even more challenging, as we had to struggle hard to catch hold on the dry bushes, pulling ourselves up to prevent every slip. And a point came, where there was nothing to hold our hand to and to balance our steps below. Then kapila jumped over to the nearby tree and pulled us up turn by turn, my feet slipping out of my floaters, when I realized that I am supposed to inculcate a habit of wearing shoes, which I avoid a lot. That was the most difficult climb for us all. We rested there for a while, drinking water, and resumed our trek. We had been climbing for almost for more than an hour now, but the mountain was just never ending. One point came after another endlessly, but our resources ended. Ruchi was on the verge of crying, when she said that she can’t climb further, still we were climbing with the hope that may be a little more and we might be lucky to get through. Before deciding finally, I said that I will walk up one more point and check if things are going to work or not. I climbed briskly at a stretch to reach the top of a black rock, taking it as the last point, but disappointment rushed through my head to toe when after reaching there, I was face to face with yet another layer. I sat and lied there for a while gasping for my breaths, then Kapila called, asking for the situation. Later he also came up, and when I pulled the water bottle out of my bag to offer it to him, we realized that only few drops of water we were left with. He denied it, and told to save it for Ruchi and me. But I realized Ruchi needed it more, as being born and brought up in plains of Rajasthan, Delhi and Mumbai, I felt the kind of pain she had been going through then, which kind of became unbearable for a mountain dweller like me too.  And since there seemed no way to reach the destination, and the scorching heat of super-shining sun falling straight on our eyes, penetrating deep into our heads, making it swirl, and the dried boiling mountain which seemed to be waiting for its beloved Monsoon, made us feel as if we were being fried on a hot pan, we finally decided to give up and save our lives to visit again in rainy season to finish the unfinished trek.

 

"wanderdust rose outa wanderlust, but the feeling was great..."";-)

Ruchi had the last drops of water, and then we started our climb down, dragging ourselves through the hot loose soil, struggling through same dried bushes, the gift of which we all got in the form of scratches, bruises and mud all over our bodies. Throughout the way we were worried about that point where we climbed dangerously, feeling apprehensive of how to get down of that point. But when we reached down, we realized that we came through yet another way and missed that point, and we felt glad.

We had no water with us, and we were walking back facing sun straight, Ruchi chanting,”Pani, pani, pani…” but there was no trace of water, and we kept walking with the hope of reaching up to the well, where we would quench our thirst. On the way we met four college boys, aiming the destination ‘Peb fort’, asking for the way. We told them our tale, telling them to be careful. We asked for water, and gulped few drops each. It was around 3 pm when we finally reached the Well. But disappointment rose in us, when we saw little black fishes, so many of them in the well. Without drinking water we walked ahead. Then we met few village girls, from whom we asked if we could get some water. They pointed to a house and told us to go there. We did likewise, and the woman of the house came out with a pitcher full of water, with a jug. We drank the water like anything, finishing more than half of the huge pitcher. Kapila offered them some cash out of courtesy. Really it was worth anything. That water made us alive again and we could resume our journey back.

 

"Dear Peb, we gonna come again. till then good bye...."" :-)

We reached home at around 6:00 pm, and we were full of mixed feelings. Everything just felt like a dream. But overall it was awesome and memorable. One lesson before every adventure,” Be prepared & don’t use short-cut, esp. when it looks chocolaty tempting.””

(Waiting now for monsoon to walk up the 25% of the unfinished trail, till then all smiles. J)