The Mystic No-mad!

by Dhammaratna Jawale (India)

I didn't expect to find India

Shares

What, according to you, is the best outdoor trip or time you ever spent? I know the variety of answers like an expensive foreign tour or dinner at high-end Hotels or partying with friends etc…of course the list will go on and on but for me the best outdoor time is that in which you totally forget that there exists something called as Smartphone and Cameras which otherwise keep you constantly engaged. Such things, by default, keeps you away from the actual closeness that you could have enjoyed with nature. When it comes to New Year celebration some of my friends have thought why not start the new year with some wild-adventure, rocky-challenges and closeness to nature? What it would be like to witness the first sunrise of new year before all of your 'Party-Friends' and that too from the point which is highest from all of them? Then the name comes 'Kalsubai peak' – the Mount Everest of Maharashtra! That's how we decided to conquer the highest peak of Maharashtra- Kalsubai peak. Kalsubai situated in Akole taluka of Ahmednagar district. Kalsubai crest situated at an elevation of 5400 ft. i.e. 1646 meters. It was an early morning when we caught 'Kasara-Fast Local'. It took around 1.5hr to reach Kasara station. Then luckily we got a shared jeep to the village 'Bari'. 'Bari' is a small village situated at the base of Kalsubai from where the actual trek started. We reached Bari at around 11:30 in the morning. We had light snacks and started heading towards Kalsubai. It's about 9-10km to reach the foot of Kalsubai. The people were nice to travellers and were very helpful. There is also a temple of local deity Goddess 'Kalsubai' at the small flat surface on the peak from which the mountain range known as Kalsubai. We planned to stay at night over the peak hence we were carrying the tent bags, mats and cooking material with us along with our individual's rucksack. We started our trek around 1:30 in the afternoon. At some stages there are iron railings with the rods and small metal strips to go from one rock to another. This was the most difficult part of trek for us because of the weight with us in one hand. At a point, we started to climb a steep hill one by one with pace matching to one another, there were no other group before and after us. And exactly at this point a gang of 20-25 monkeys gathered around us and started snatching our bags and sacks. We were frightened because we can't afford to loose anything from our luggage. We took some wooden sticks and started beating the metal railing to get them away from us. And we can't even stop at that point, so we're maintaining our pace and watching the Monkeys. That was really a goosebumping experience for all of us. We reach around 7:30 in the evening. It was dark-night already. We found an infiltration-well at the peak. After seeing the clear, starry sky and drinking sweet water collected directly from the internal seep of the well, all our tiredness and fatigue was gone. Some of us started setting the tent, some went to collect water and remaining went to collect the firewood for chulhas. Meanwhile, tent was set up and we cooked Biryani and Barbeque. Then after cooking, we sat around a campfire swapping stories and jokes and so on. Absolute silence, warmness of campfire, goosebumping breeze and with this long cosy conversations with your best friends...this is 'inconceivable'. Next day we woke up early to witness the new year's sunrise. After memorable sunrise we started wrapping our tent and started descending. In the whole trip of 2 days we all completely forgot our smartphone. We even barely touched the DSLR, no one wanted to disturb the moments. These feelings and experiences lift you above our daily tiny little problems of which we often make issue. Therefore take the nature's challenges, go into the wild, push your limits, don't over-think about the precise plans, nature is unpredictable and there is a beauty lies in the uncertainty.