Harishchandragad Trek - 2-3 Oct 2009

This trek was planned in a very short time. Atul and Milind from John Deere showed interest to join. Mukesh told he will be joining along with his friends from Fluent. Then this detailed plan was made for the trek. But unfortunately, Mukesh had an accident (funny one though.. He stroked to one of the electricity poles while walking) causing severe pain in his already troubled knee. He had taken pain killers, but not of use. So he opted out from this trek at 10:00 pm Thursday and so did his friends.
Finally, we three were remaining. After doing a small sms chat, we decided not to cancel and to proceed further.

First Journey
I was not sure about my (oops.. Its BILs(1) bike) bike, but no option than to take it. It had been serviced recently, so no issues. We met at the Nashik phata at 7:15 AM, late by 15 mins than schedule. Milind had already reached at that point. Then we started towards AaLe phata, our next milestone. The target to reach there was 8:30 AM, but it was quite sure that we were going to miss it out because of wrong estimation. Distance from Nashik phata to AaLe phata is around 75 kms. We had our breakfast at Narayangaon at 9:30 AM. Atul did not have a torch. He got a good quality 1 LED Evereay make torch costing Rs. 95/- which was OK. We reached at AaLe phata at 10 AM. We reached at Khireshwar when the clock was showing 11:30 AM.. 30 mins ahead of the scheduled time. After parking our bikes and refreshing, we ordered Pithale Bhakari for our lunch. It took a little long time to get it prepared.
When we were having the beautiful lunch, a group of 5 reached there and they were tired at time. They neither knew anything about the trek nor any plans of stay. 2 guys from that group demoralized with our preparation and info of the trek. I did not see them anytime anywhere for next two days. Surely, they had gone back.
Herbie(2) & Drum beater
We started towards the fort at 1:00 PM. (It meant, we were on time !!) Seeing the past performance and growing age, I was quite sure that I'll be Herbie in this trek. Usually I was Herbie in all treks, but due to other novices, it was not so prominent. This was Milind and Atul's first trek to Harishchandragad. I was the only one, who knew the route. So I asked Atul and Milind to play the role of drum beater and to push me if I were taking more breaks than required. But surprisingly.. yes surprisingly.. I had not to play Herbie. Atul took that role. Milind and I were shocked.. Atul pointed that this was the post marriage effect on him. :)
I,then, had to beat the drum to keep him motivated. This time locating the marks were easy. Normally, we say, "TeJa (3), mark kahaa hai?" (TeJa, where is the mark?). But this time, it was different. We said, "mark idhar hai, magar TeJa keedhar hai? (Here is the mark, but where is TeJa?). We reached our next milestone, Tolar Khind (pass) at 3:00 PM.. not to mention, but again on time.
Final touch up
After a short break, we crossed the rock patch and we were on the top of the hill in less than 1 hr. Then we needed to cross 7, but small hills on the way. We had our bath on the way in a small stream of water. We reached to the caves well ahead of our planned time. There were 3-4 groups already present there. We got one of the caves for our stay at 5:45 PM and then we ran towards "Kokan Kadaa" - the most fascinating location on Harishchandragad. It was clear that we were not be able to see the sunset, but the view there was truely awesome. After sitting and enjoying the scene and the nature for more than 1 hr, we started back to our caves. Though we had torches with us, the full moon did not allow us to use them. The dinner (paratha and dashamya) was very delicious and best. At 9 PM, Atul and Milind were ready to go to bed, when I dragged them forcefully outside the cave. We spent 1 hr gazing at the stars and the sky.
2nd Day
We woke up at 6:30 AM, refreshed ourselves, had milk and biscuits and started towards Kokan kadaa at around 7:30 AM. Fog had filled all the surroundings and we were little nervous thinking whether we could get the view of kokan kadaa or not. But everything was started clearing slowly and finally we had the beautiful, wonderful view of the Kokan kadaa and the hills nearby. We had lots of photo shoot at this place. We started back at 9:00 AM. Nobody was interested to go to the highest peak, Taramati. So we dropped it from our plan. Last time also, we did not visit it. (TeJa.. we have one more reason to visit Harishchandragad again, right?)
We had bath followed by snacks and tea. We then packed our bags and went to visit the Harishchandreshwar temple.
Harishchandreshwar
This temple is marvelous example of the fine art of carving sculptures out of stones. It is about 16m high from its base. Near the temple, the river Mangal Ganga originates. There are three caves near the temple. The cisterns near the temple provide drinking water. Here another temple called Kashitirtha is located. The fascinating thing about this one is it has been carved out from a single huge rock. There are entrances from all four sides. On the main entrance there are sculptures of faces. These are faces of guards of the temple.
Kedareshwar
Going rightwards of Harishchandreshwar temple, we came across a huge cave. This is the cave of Kedareshwar, in which there is a big Shivlinga, which is totally surrounded by water. The total height of the base only is five feet or may be more, and the water was waist-deep. People were going there to make a round to the Idol, but we, after lots of "Ayes and Noes", decided not to go.
Descent
We started to descend at 11:00 AM, setting a target to reach Tolar Khind at 1:00 PM. We were little delayed.. delayed by 10 mins from our goal.. courtsey to our photographical adventure. We had our lunch break here. Few villagers who were travelling thru that khind accompanied us for lunch. By 2:40 PM, we were back to Khireshwar, our base village. We decided to refresh ourselves in the dam water, so we started quickly from Khireshwar and haulted at the dam. At 4:00 PM, we started back to Pune. There were no rain in our entire trek, but we were welcomed by rain in Pune. We reached our home at 8:30 PM, making a successful end to this trek.

Click here for photos of this trek.

JAY SHIVAJI, JAY BHAVANI !!

- Mahesh Masurkar

Note:
1 - BIL - Brother-in-Law - Ankur Tade
2 - Herbie - Slowest moving guy in the trail in 'The Goal' by Eliyahu Goldratt
3 - TeJa - Tejas Jadhav - our regular trek member

Harishchandragad Trek - Final Plan

All,
This trek is now finalized. Plz be preapred for the trek.

Trek Dates:- Friday 2 Oct 09 to Saturday 3 Oct 09
Meeting place:- NASHIK PHATA on Old Pune-Mumbai Highway
We are going on bike. So make a pair beforehand and join at the place
Meeting Time:- 7:00 AM on Friday 2 Oct 2009

Final Plan:-
Friday 2 Oct 2009
1) Meet at Nashik Phata at 7:00 AM
2) Start towards Aale phata. Reach there at 8:30 AM
3) Breakfast time for 30 mins
4) Reach Khireshwar (base village) via Otur at 12:00 PM
5) Rest for 1 hr and then start for the trek at 1:00 PM
6) Reach to Tolar Khind at 3:00 PM
7) Reach the fort at 6:00 PM
8) Temple visit
9) Rest, enjoy, dinner and sleep

Saturday 3 Oct 2009
1) After Tea (??) & little snacks, start towards Kokan Kada at 6:30 AM
2) If time permits, go to Taramati (Topmost point)
3) Start for descend at 12:00 PM
4) Light lunch on the way
5) Reach Khireshwar at 4:00 PM
6) Return to Pune

Individual Items to bring (MUST):
1) A haversack to put in all the things to be carried. So that one hashands free while trekking.
2) Good trekking shoes (& enough pairs od socks)
3) Sleeping bag/mat
4) Enough clothing
5) A good Torch, candle and match box
6) Minimum two water bottles 1 ltr each.
7) Cap (optional)
8) Camera (optional)
9) Wind cheater (optional)

A) Food:
Everybody has to carry
-- food items for Friday dinner and Saturday lunch
-- Snacks items (plum cakes, biscuits, wafers, cream rolls, jam and bread etc)
-- I'll get mosambi (2 per head)

B) Other items:
All:- Plate & spoon
Mug/Glass, knife (optional)
Paper roll, napkins (optional)

C) Medicines:
Mahesh:- First Aid Kit
All:- As per individual requirement

More info of the fort at http://www.trekshitiz.com/
Last trek Photo: http://picasaweb.google.co.in/mahesh.masurkar/Harishchandragad#

HAPPY TREKKING,
MAHESH MASURKAR
9881 499 213

WI-FI Home

Hi,
My friend, Manoj, calls me as a tech-savvy person. I have a passion to have new gadgets in my personal folio. I had a BSNL boradband at home. For past few months, I was eying for a wireless router. I had a dilemma between D-Link DIR-615 and Linksys WRT54G2. One month back, I saw Linksys WRT54G2 at Akki's (My sister) house. I asked more info and performance of the same and Ajit dada told me that its good and working fine. Then I zeroed in on Linksys WRT54G2. One more advantage of WRT54G2 is that it dont have external antennas, so it looks great on a wall or on a table.
Now, its purchasing part. I had $30 in my paypal. I sent that to Suji who bought the router for me. The final cost was $46.95 from newegg.com. Suji handed it over to Swaroop/Sneha and finally Digambar carried it to India (from USA). When I got it, I was very happy, anxious so tried to install it immediately. I tried it for 3 hours (till 1 pm), but was not able to make it work. Then I thought to give a try the next week end.
Today(31May09) morning, when I was about to do the settings, I remembered Ajit dada told me that he had lots of problems connecting it and now he knows how to do it. So I called him and luckily, he was free. Then he was on support for me (on telephone) for almost 1.5 hrs and finally we were successful to make the wireless work at my home. This was indeed a great achievement for me.
If you need any help for wi fi configuration, do not hesitate to contact me. :)

.... मै तो बाप बन गया ...

I have seen so many countdowns। Many of them are in seconds like launching satellite or starting marathon. Some are in days like new vehicle launch or start of Olympics, IPL etc.

This time, it was a bit longer। Yes, it was in months and precisely speaking 9 months. We were counting down from 9,8,7.... to 2 and then 1. Then we came to days for counting. The wait was slowly inching forward from days, to hours and then to minutes. I was never so anxious and impatient, even in the exam time :) . And after waiting, waiting and waiting, finally the time came, the clock was ticking at 1710 hrs on 25th March 2009, when the new baby angel entered in my life॥ in the life of Anagha and me... in the life of "Life Ho To Aisee". I warmly, heartily welcome the new angel to the family of "Life Ho To Aisee". Thats the time, when there were 3 births, one of the baby, one of Anagha as a mother and one of me as a father. I am so happy at this time that I am not ableto get good words to write.

I'll try to keep you all posted on the updates.
- Mahesh Masurkar
=======
Best wishes and warm greetings of Ugadi / Gudhi paadawaa to the readers of Life Ho To Aisee from Mahesh, Anagha & baby
Photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/mahesh.masurkar/NewAngel?locked=true# (Sign-in required)
=======

Sinhgad Night Trek

The Katraj Sinhgad night trek was cancelled. Everybody was asking me why and I told I may not able to make it. So the trek was reduced to only Sinhgad. At that time, I was in different mood and waiting for a call from Kolhapur any time.You 'll get these from my next post.

We decided to gather at Santosh Hall at 10:00 pm, but I was late and joined the group at 10:30 instead. We were total 8 together Milind,TeJa,Nikhil & his wife Revati, Jo, sarika, Sneha and I. This was the first trek for Revati and first trek for Sneha in our group. She always complains to Bob that I never take her to treks. So this time, she was in. We reached the base of Sinhgad at 11:30 pm. We parked our vehicle and started for climb. We took 2 hrs to reach to the top. It was a nice experience to go to Sinhgad in night time. Then we put Nikhil's tent at one place. Everybody except Milind, TeJa & I decided to stay back in the tent and we three went to roam around the Sinhgad fort. TeJa had done lots of treks, but this was his first to Sinhgad. So I showed him all the places. At round 4:00 am, we came back for rest.

After sleeping for 2 hrs in the cold wind, we got up at 6:00 am, freshed up and went to Balu's dhaba for the brunch where we had pithale bhakri, bhaji and dahi. At around 9:30 am, we started back to descent.

You can see the photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/mahesh.masurkar/SinhgadNightTrek#

Fun outing - Plan

Don't be surprised after reading the title.
It's still a trek, but fun outing too !!!
This time, we are going to Sinhgad in night.

So here is the final plan for it.
Date:- 14 March 2009
Meeting place:- Santosh Hall, Sinhgad Road
Meeting Time:- 10:00 pm

We'll start from Santosh hall at 10:00 pm. Park our vehicles at the base of Sinhgad fort.
Start to climb the fort. It will take around 2 hrs to reach at the top.
There are many huts on the top where we can stay/take rest.
Next day, get up early, have the break fast (झुणका भाकरी + भजी) and start to descent.
We should be back to the parking place by 9 am.

- Mahesh Masurkar

Dream treks

Hmm.. title looks interesting, isn't it?

Yes, there are few treks which are very interesting and they are my dream treks.

Some of them are in India and some outside.

So here it is:

1) Trek is Himalayas:

There are quite a good number of treks in Himalayan region and full of challenges.

These are really exciting treks. Two important factors in these treks are height and snow.

Youth hostel India arranges these treks and their feedback is very good.

I am planning to go for one next year.

You can get this information at http://www.yhaindia.org/program_bookings/index/national

There are good treks in Ladakh region also.

2) Norway trek:

As many of you know that my sister and brother in law in now in Norway. So why not explore the treks there? So I googled and found few interesting places. One of them is Preikestolen.

Near Stavanger in Norway there is a mysterious rock that rises 600 meters above the fjord Lysefjorden and to get there is not a climber's dream!
The Preikestolen (literally “Rock Pulpit” is perhaps the most famous attraction in Stravanger. Once you've arrived at the parking lot at an elevation of about 270 meters, you're at the beginning of the trail that leads to the summit of the rock terrace from which in a little less than two hours and another 600 meters you will get to the peak of the fjord.
This is really a amazing place. I am planning to go to Norway in next year or the next next year.

I am adding few snaps here so that you can admire its beauty.

Hope you have enjoyed my dream treks. The descriptions are not so elaborate.. why??

Cause I have not yet gome to these treks.. How can I write then?

So plz plz plz wish that I can complete all my dream treks and give you all the information.

After all, its "Life ho to Aisee" ....