“16 kilometres” of OUTRIGHT fun!!!!!!

Title might have made you think-HOW SOMEONE CAN COUNT AN ABSTRACT NOUN IN TERMS OF KILOMETRE?!?!” This guy is insane. But believe me. This is what you will say once you follow same patch of wood I followed last Sunday(15th July, '12).

Apurva, Hitaishee, Ashvin, Hemant dada, Shaunak, Kartik, Swarali, Advait, Ojas and Me!

I guess in the traveling rulebook it is the unwritten rule-Make any plans; you are going to be late whatsoever you predict! This time credit goes to Kartik. :

So intro part. This time we had a mixed-age group personalities. Me, Ojas, Kartik, Ashwin, Adviat, Shaunak, Swarali, Apurva, Hiteshee (still not sure about pronunciation neither spelling), Kedar dada and Hemant dada.

WWOOWW!!! This time girls were with us. Adrenaline level went high at same instant. म्हणून आम्ही चहा नाही घेतला! ;)

Advait, our organiser cum cashier cum guide cum a very nice and humorous friend booked a Tata Sumo for our by-road journey. It was 10 seater. And we were 11. So, one was extra. Someone popped with idea that the one with least weight has to place himself on one with the strongest leg limb. It was found that prior one was Advait(50 kgs) and counter one was Ojas.

शेवटी आमच्या प्रवासाची सुरुवात झाली. Earlier it was bit awkward for me, कारण सोबत असलेल्यां पैकी फक्त  Ojas आणि Kartik ओळखीचे होते. बाकीच्याना पहिल्यांदा भेटट होतो, so was feeling a bit awkward. Being an extrovert it was nice opportunity for me carry my extrovertism!

Meantime in journey I came to know folks i.e. Advait, Kedar dada and Hemant dada were don in their respective field. So, felt privileged being with them.

And Advait was simply hilarious. Even his topics were in no way concerned with me but they were making me go leaps and bounds. He let us know his some very humiliating-embarrassing-awkward trek experiences including sugarcane and white sweater incidents and then unintentionally me and Ojas also came with ours. But contrary to trek it was a college incident (for which I can never gather courage to explain :D)

In all this jabbering we reached our destination-Makhla.

पोहचल्या-पोहचल्या मी मस्त माझा camera काढला. छान  scenario भेटट होता. 1-2 photos काढलेत. मागे वळून पाहतोतकाय, each and everyone was having their digital cameras. I felt like. शीईईई!! Why I brought one then?!?! The worst drawback of having your own camera is that you get the least space on your own memory card. :D

And the best revenge is to place yourself in theirs. B-)

We headed-off to Makhla rest-house. Enroute Kartik (indeed a very great photographer) taught me some basis lessons of photography.

मी, Kartik, Ojas आणि Swarali photography मध्ये मग्न. In which Swarali and Ojas were completely disappointed with their bridge cameras. :D But suddenly rain started and we rush to rest-house for shed. Not cause we don’t like rain; but we love our gadgets.

There we done with our introductory part. Had our brief introduction along with small photo session. In-between Advait went to take permission for trekking [Thanks to Surabhi.. OOPs!! Sonali.. Aww..aww.. sorry-Swarali and group for this new rule here! ;)]

Plan was annulled!

We didn’t get that permission. Which surely dashdown our vigour. पण आमचे back-up plan तैयार होते.

Now Bakadari was our new destination.

Departed from Makhla to Bela(a small town from where we were supposed to start our trek).

Reached Bela.

गाडीतून उतरलो आणि सरसावलो आमच्या destination कडे

अरे काय मज्या आली सांगतो, मस्त एका lineनी सगळे जात होतो.

धूसर अशी पाय वाट दीसत होती. एकदम दाट जंगल. खाली सूखलेल्या पानांचा आवाज. इकडून-तिकडून झाडे लोंबकळत होती. पक्षांचा आवाज(and later on Advait or Kartik telling us their scientific name). मधात काटे. सापांची भीती. आणि मग एक नयनरम्य द्रुश्य.

काढलेत फोतो आणि झालो सूरु.

तिथे परत intro part झाला. आणि खर्या अर्थी आमची trek तिथूनच सुरू झाली. खाली एक छोटी नदी आणि धब-धबा वाहताना दीसत होते. असे वाटत होते सगळे इथुनच एवढ सुंदर आहे, मग तिथे पोहचल्यावर काय असेल?

WOW!! Then I geared-up myself for a backbreaking journey. Till now we were in the suburbs of a small village. Now-on we headed towards the lower altitude of Melghat plateau.

The aisle was very narrow. Stony. No grass. Slippery. Lose soil. And crooked.

For few seconds I feel like-HAVE I GONE MAD? AM GOING ON THIS ROAD. AM YET TO FULFILL MY DREAMS.

But road were only leading to downstairs! There was no return back.

So, I decided to stay in last and try some hand over photography.

By 12 pm we were mid-way to river bank. And I don’t think anyone was left to slip-off through the aisle. Some even enjoyed it for many occasions. One with the fatty bum realised at last their bum has some use. ;)

Female homo homo sapiens were quite slow. So, I decided to move-on faster and do some rest.

I landed-off well on river bank and had some eye-sighting. It was indeed splendid. It was more than I expect it would be.

Amidst the green dense forest. Water flowing with the gushing sound. Birds tweeting. I was enjoying these mos.

One by one everyone was there by now.

थोडी पेट-पुजा आणि मग सरसावलो पुढे. आता पर्यंत जेवढ झाल त्यात मी normal days मध्ये थकलो अरतो. पण या वेळेस मी एकदम वेगळ्या वाटावरणात, वेगळ्या आणि वेगळ्या लोकांन सोबत होतो। म्ह्णून कदाचित माझी पूढे जायची इच्छा झाली।

Now the road was quite easy. The local officials constructed okay-okay type concrete roadway to our destination.

But it too wasn’t that easy.

It was just 10 minutes by now and we faced an issue. Apurva got cramps. Everyone at the front-frontier was moving steadily, unaware of what happened behind. But we can’t. Thanks to Kedar dada. With the magic of experience he asked her to do some stretching and did some massage; she was okay then.

Kartikत साला आतला हाडातला photographer. एवढ सगळ चालू असताना पण तो photographyमध्ये व्यस्त

बस ह्या गोष्टीला 20 min होत नाही कि धूढूममममम...!! असा आवाज आला.

For few second we thought it’s a landslide or earthquake. We all panicked. But then realised it was Ojas who was checking gravity there. He slept in muddy puddle. Silly boy, don’t even knew with altitude only air pressure changes. Not gravity. Though he learned it in a very good manner. :D

With each step our muscles were paining due to cramps moreover we neither had our lunch yet.

But we kept moving!

It was 2 pm.

One wrong step!! And you are gone :P

Route was okay till now. But there came an obstacle! An obstacle; which from my perspective was end of trek. Till now parallel roads were available with river. It wasn’t the case here. There was a pool surrounded by steep rocky surface. Only option was to swim and reach the other region. But then we all gathered our courage and creep along walls of big mountains. One wrong move and directly in deep muddy water. Unaware of even how to flap hands in case of drowning; but we kept moving. At some places space in cracks was just enough to fit-in leg thumbs.

We all were feeling like spider-man for few minutes and then Bear Gryll for another few minutes!! :D :D

Husshhh..!! A sigh of relief. Everyone by now was on safe side.

Finally, we were at our destination.

AWESTRUCKED!!!

Slow flux of air was blowing. Trees were gushing. Stream was impressing.

Far away there was a huge waterfall. Bakadari waterfall. Around 250-300 high. The water from waterfall was crawling towards us. A beautiful scenario it was.

But in-between waterfall and us there was a big water-pool. Roadway to other side was literally tough. But many of us managed to go other side. I and Ojas can’t. We were having our gadgets with us! :(

So, we decided to step aback.

Then it started drizzling and rock wall became wet and slippery.

Folks on our side were safe in shelter. But those on other side were in haste to reach safe side.

Suddenly all heard the sound of big splash!!! We all rushed to see what happened.  Swarali was drenched with water. She fell in water and was quite lucky that it was shallow place. Meanwhile Ojas got this gag once-in-a-lifetime-to-laugh situation. And he utilised in very great manner.

After all this we had our lunch. Everyone bring his share; except me! Being a tenant it was impossible for me though. But I enjoyed sandwich, थाली-पीठ, jam, चटनी and चीवडा. Everyone was very hungry and attacked the food like in the whole world for 7 billion people only that much food was left. If they don’t get that then they are going to die.

Clock struck 5pm. We were supposed to mid-way in our return journey!

Our next destination-Aand Nadi.

नीघालो कसे-बसे. वाटल सरळ-सरळ आहे रास्ता. पण कोणाला माहीत एक मोठा item होणार होता.

In search of an optional road Hemant dada climb the hill. But ill-fate was that in all this he lost his road. But we all decided to keep moving on. With the ray of hope that they might be on the other side.

Advait with his trekking experience kept giving a call like-

A...OOOO...!!!

A...OOOO...!!! [As per him this is the universal call all trekkers use over the world]

When he was tensed under these circumstances me, Ojas, Kartik and Swarali were chaffering. In turn Shaunak, Ashwin, Hitaishee and Apurvaa were silent. May be they were more mature to understand the situation.

And then Advait took a firm decision. He divided our group into three. He was like अंग्रेजो के जमाने का jailer- दोघे मागे जा, दोघे इथे थांबा आणि उरलेले माझ्या सोबत या! :D

Thus our group was divided into three. I was in the group which was stand-still, accompanied by Kartik and Ashvin. But in no time Ojas and Kedar dada flashed along with Hemant dada. Hussshh..!! Again a sigh of relief. जान मे जान आयी.

Bakadari Waterfall

ह्या सगळ्यात अजून उशीर झाला होत. Therefore, now everyone was concentrating more on walking. Everyone was feared of dark.  त्यात दोनदा नदी पार करावी लागली. मग कधी Apurvaचा shoeच वाहून जायचा त कधी Hitaishee आपले guts दाखवत मोठ-मोठालेउड्या मारायची तर कधी Ojas घसरुन पडायचा.

शेवटी पोहोचलो नदी ओलांडून. समोरून Kedar काका येत होते. त्यांना पाहून खूप आनंद झाला. जस Bear Gryllला कोण्ते habitation पाहुन आनंद होतो तसा आनंदच समजा. गड-गड पाणी पील आणि नीघालो Amravati साठी.

Contrary to full of vim in morning.  Everyone was completely drained. Stinky. Fagged out. Sweaty.

We finally reached Amravati. First Apurva then Hitaishee then Shaunak, Ashvin everyone were dropped at their respective localities. Remaining buddies were landed at the bus - stop. Done with some formalities.

And with this our adventurous, thrilling, exhaustive and refreshing trek was over!!!

It was a dream for me to have an adventurous trek in monsoon; irrespective of venue.

मी तूमच्या सगळ्यांचा मनःपूर्वक आभार की तूमच्यामूळे मला हा दीवस पहायला भेटला-Kartik, Swarali, Shaunak, Ashvin, Apurva and Hitaishee. More thankful of Advait, Kadar Dada and Hemant Dada for organizing it.

पण सगळ्यात जास्त आभार Ojasचे. Cause of him I get to know about You guys. So, thanks Ojas. :)

Hope we will have our next trek very soon!!!

Till then asta la vista. :)

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Keywords: amravati, bakadari waterfall, bela, chikhaldara, makhla, trek, trekking, waterfall, amaravti, sanket thodge