Trek to Manek Gadh
When you wish for some thing truly from your mind; it manifests in action soon. This is what the book " the Secret" says. I was sitting in my office looking at post shared by some of my friends regarding a trek they went to Rajmachi and the fun they had.
I wished that had not it been a hectic schedule next week, I too would be able to go to a trek with some of my friends. Probably so intense was my wish that the almighty granted it soon, My dear friend and an avid trekker called me asking for breakfast options near panvel. He was looking to do a solo trip to prepare his team for a 2 day trek at the spot. To his innocent question - "If I would like to join in" . I said Yes. I had forgotten that the GST preparation has kept me busy and will keep me busy next week as well, So I could not afford to miss office due to any injury of trek.
But I too was excited to the core. The plan was an overnight stay and long trek ahead to Manekgadh. I left office on time that evening in order to prepare myself for the trek. I used to be a average trekker in my college. Usual office monotony has robbed me of all external activities. It has set us the wisest of beings and in laziest of human beings. I was sure of having a stretched muscle or a sprained knee after the trek. However in these times one of my trekker friend dialouge comes to my mind "why go with the expectation of a sprained knee, why not think about rather enjoying the view"
Like scheduled my friend came to my panvel house for overnight stay at 10 PM. We were still to decide on the actual location of trek. It could be Manekgadh or Prabalgadh. As I had done Kalavintinicha Sulka. Prabalgadh was not of much interest to me. We got up in the morning and went to the ST stand. We had let the choice of our trek on the ST mahamandal. :-) :-) There was an ST going to washiwali gaon, we hopped on it and decided to do Manekgad today. Washivali is a small hamlet near Rasayani town. It takes around an hour from Panvel ST depot.
We got down at washivali and enquired about the route to Manekgad. The local told us that the route is from vadgoan which is 3 Kms from the vashivali by a local road. Thinking that we will find some one who will drop us to the village - we kept walking. But nothing of that sort happened. The morning Sun had just started its daily chores of making temperature humid. So we were able to scale the entire distance on the foot quite comfortably. the sights of morning walkers looking suspiciously at us was a little troublesome, but its like a regular feature on any trek in Maharashtra.
We reached Vadgoan. At first instance, i was smitten by this village, small and quite, The village looked well planned and self sufficient. at first go it looked very clean. It is advised that people going to manekgad start trek from here. As there are many more routes but it can get very confusing. We were to meet Rahul, who is a trek guide himself, his credentials are available on many other trek sites, We were a bit early as some group of 50 people had booked him for the day. He was going to combine them with us. but because we were early, He offered us another dedicated guide. This guy was an old man. -S. Dalvi or Dalvi Kaka.
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| The famed Dalvi Kaka |
Dalvi kaka''s age was hardly any match for his agility and steadfastness, I am always amazed by the stamina of these old age people who live in villages, Due to so much of outdoor activity they remain so fresh and young even it this age. I have seen this at Matheran trek also. Dalvi kaka took a dagger and stick. We proceeded at 8.30 for the trek . As soon as we left the village, I could see the pinnacle of Manekgadh looking at us from an overreaching angle.
This trek is an endurance test right from the word go. There is a pleateau like structure which needs to be surmounted. Dalvi kaka was kind enough to cut some dead shoots and branches so that we could use this as trek pole. in the trek, there is very few strech of land which is flat. We had decided that we will take this trek at our pace. Dalvi kaka also told us the same. To comfort us, he played some great abhang from all poets. this continued for the whole of the trek.
The trek was becoming a little tiring, the humid sun was now burning skin. There was a point after which the rain started and we felt relieved. but this was shortlived. One mistake I made was not to wear full sleeves T shirt. There was lots of bugs and insects, but after some time I was not bothered. But for future trekkers it is a must.
There are 2 ways to the pinnacle, one longcut which is relatively easy and one shortcut which involves a lot of vertical climbing, We requested to see the shortcut to the pinnacle. Dalvi kaka suggested that we can take the shortcut while coming down. the wise old man (that dalvi kaka was) sensing that if rains come while on we are on descent, it would be a bigger risk. He changed his mind and agreed to take us to thru the shortcut on the way up,
Now began a series of many tapering precipe of land. Almost overcoming my fear of heights I walked with much caution on it. We came on a point where there was only bolders and more bigger boulders staring at us. kaka quickly climbed on the biggest one with relative ease. He also made me comfortable - advising me how to climb the difficult boulders. A little foot here and there and a good 2 hours , we took to climb the edifice that was the face of manekgadh.
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| The fearless Dalvi kaka |
Dalvi
Once after reaching the top where a relative flat land was there, almost like a premedicated sequence of some dramatics act, the thnder cloud suddenly descended with full rain. Staring down from the roof -there was a magical scene happening. I could see rains drops falling perfectly in symetrical shapes on the villages beneath. It was a great reward for our ardous journey up. I must admit climbing those boulders was the most intresting thing that I will take away from this trek. I was reminded of Walt Disney's immortal words - "Sometime its fun to do the impossible".
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| Sun refraction Services :-) |
Now that we were at the top, we were relishing with the view manekgadh had to offer. We had a commanding view of the villages beneath. There was peak of karnala on one end. on the other- we would see the glimmering water stored in Morbe dam. The Clouds like some gigantic army was waiting for none and progressing regardless. one chance look below and we got a view of gods great refraction services - The rainbow sighting. It was all too magical.
We clicked some photos and settled for some lunch. by this time the rain had disappeared and bright sun started to shine again. We decide to keep our drenched backpacks in the sun and started to eat. We had got some bread butter and theplas. We relished on it. as such on a trek it is advised to keep the stomach relatively empty. After eating we were shocked to see that the bagpacks were completely dry. You can imagine how much the sunshine was. Because of rising temperature, we decided to start our descent.
Dalvi kaka's now spoke to us about the history of this killa. He said when he was little, he has seen Shivaji Army here. He was explaining us about the now non existant walls. As per him this was a great rajwada once. Dalvi kaka was also an environmentalist in his small way.He planed some seeds in the open area. when asked about it he said, he would feel nice when he will see a tree growing there.
To our suprise his family also had come up on the manekgad. He had lunch with them. While descending it was decided that we will take the long route. Well now that I think of it. This meant a long walk of almost 4 hours. As mentioned earlier, this route is not difficult but long by the time. it was small steps and long walks across the face of all the plateaus. if while ascending we climbed on one side of manekgadh. while going down we were going on a circular route. we were able to see the killa from all sides. at one end, it looks like a 3 headed structure. the likes of Ajanta statue, the deity which resides in gharapuri islands off mumbai coast.After tumultous walk where we took innumerable breaks we reached a hanuman mandir which is like a landmark in this trail. It is mentioned in many trek travelouges. 
1 thing I forgot to mention about dalvi kaka. He was cutting many shrubs and dead trees on our trail.he said that such growth usually hides the paulvat. Out of sheer joke, We estimated that off the full forest of manekgadh - Dalvi kaka had destroyed 0.5% of forest to save the paulvat. by now Dalvi kaka's mobile was silent. it was replaced by loud cacophony of us singing old songs. One song led to another and We were actually trying to suggest songs on demand to each other. Rain had like till now vanished fully. Those ardous 4 hours journey was very tiring for us. whereas it was like a regular day for Dalvi kaka.
we reached base village by 4pm Dalvi Kaka and his family was very kind to us. They instantly prepared chai which was like an energy drink to us. My friend was carrying his routine back pack which was almost like another human being heavy. I tried to lighten the load. I voulnteered to carry it for him for some time. We again did the 3 Km walk from vadgoan to washiwali. At washiwali we were infored that the ST for Panvel would be after 20 mins.
To our great luck. This ST was originating from washiwali and was very empty. we quickly got 2 seats and had a great nap. the one and only great long comfortable rest I got that day.
A day well spent.
