This was the second time I was going to be with the mountains with only one trek partner. Like the last time, I was prepped to feel like I’ll miss people, but to my astonishment, I didn’t.
I have grown as a person and as a trekker. Though 2019 didn’t give me enough treks, it gave me all unique experiences. It was a year with only one trek with my dearest trek mate, so many without the souls I would have loved to trek around. I even had a few treks with unwanted crowds. Each of them bit by bit moulded me into a patient being, into a better trekker.
‘This year, one two or many, whoever is free, goes and visits the mountains, end of story’ I said to my brother just before he called and cancelled for this trek. I was in a fix as to what to do, but nonetheless, I had one trek partner, a plan and decided to visit the mountains, no matter what.
Till 2 pm at night two of us were planning what to do, where to go. I had a long day and was dead tired. I didn’t even think I would wake up sane to be able to pull out a trekking day. But I did get up and reached in time as we took Indrayani Express from Kalyan.
We got to sit at the door. Jabbering with my only trek partner for the day, I didn’t realize when we reached Kamshet. We ate breakfast and took our bus to Tikona fort. It was a typical state transport ride as we felt each and every bump on the road.
My trek partner had been to this fort last Sunday itself, if we had more time, we would have planned to visit some other place. He said that we’ll see some spots he missed last time. In my head it didn’t fit well, I wished his day to not be a duplicate like last Sunday.
There was little I could do about it until I heard a local say that there is public transport to Tung if we are able to finish Tikona in two hours. Challenge accepted, we started this trek with a little extra effort to try and finish it within the set time, plus not missing anything.
Tikona fort feels touristy like any other accessible fort, yet it had a spark that made a special place in my heart. There is an aura in its structure that made me ignore the madness of the tourists around. The remains of the structure are well maintained which helped my imagination of life back then.
We reached the top and sat on a spot peacefully. I soaked the sanity for a few seconds when someone tapped us and said: “Who will take the responsibility of your death if you fall off from here?” I had no answer to that, I got up, and we walked to a different place and sat. I observed the man who asked us this question.
He was a caretaker of the fort. He and his friend, make sure that they have a count of the number of people that come to this fort and make sure they are safe and don’t do any stupidity that could cost them their lives.
Talking more with my trek partner I realized, these two are from the village nearby and do this for an extra income over their farmlands. Nobody asked them to do it, to take care of a fort in their vicinity, they started doing it and now someone pays them to do it too.
“I don’t intend for my child to get into protecting this fort, it will be his wish, but until I am alive, I’ll make sure the beauty of this structure doesn’t witness the death of a soul” is one of the many inspiring things this man is being quoted saying.
I and my trek partner weren’t even that much close to an edge, yet he came and fired us. He doesn’t care if people feel hurt or whatever, he believes to do his part for preserving a historical structure and humanity at large.
When was the last time you did something out of the sheer passion to do it? When was the last time you removed time from your routine to do something that would impact the society at large? Or did you ever even think of doing something for you know it is right and the need of the hour?
This man, made these questions arise in my head to which I had to answers to. I mean in a world where we are slowly moving to complete devastation, in a new year where #worldwarIII gets trending, I met a man –
– who has made a living out of task he decided to do to improve something.
– who could have stuck to his work at the farm, perhaps left to some city nearby to earn better like the many other villagers, but instead, he decided to do this.
Feeling inspired, I walked quietly to the actual entrance of the fort which got ruined. My trek partner had missed this last Sunday. The caretaker had made me think so much that my jabbering had stopped, my trek partner kept guessing why.
We finished engraving all parts of the forts in our minds and the memories of our phones. We now realized that if we rush a little, we can actually reach in time for the bus to Tung. And so we did, we finished Tikona in two hours and were back in time.
The same local who said we would get the bus now said that don’t wait for it, walk ahead and began to hitchhike. We walked four kilometres ahead to a junction where one side goes to Tung and the other goes to Pune. Once we reached, we realized that there is not a bus for two hours straight.
Disheartened, we sat at the junction. My trek partner’s plan was to come and try for a mode of transport from here, if not head back home. My head wasn’t ready to process and accept it. I asked him what is the biggest challenge if we do Tung. He said to find a ride back and we might be home later than expected.
Something in me said, let’s go for it. By the time we did all this thinking, an hour had passed. I said, “We have an hour in hand, let’s eat lunch, take the bus, finish Tung and hope for the best.” The tone I said it in made my poor trek partner to just give in to my idea.
What if this bus we are waiting for doesn’t come? How would the hitchhike back from the fort be? How much risk are we talking with deciding to do this? And many such queries made us eat like breakfast at lunch. But, I am glad we ate something, it helped.
The bus did arrive. The one hour drive was even bumpier than morning yet I managed to take a nap. We reached and began our trek. If Tikona made a special place in my heart because of the structure and the caretaker, then Tung made me fall for it in other ways.
Thanks to my smallness, I was almost hugging each stone while climbing up. It is a continuous walk up through huge rocks. I was at this fort for the pure love of mountains and this climb was as if this mountain made me hug each rock of it. It was physically demanding, yet something in the both us kept us going.
When we finally reached the top and checked the time. We did it in half hour. We thought it would take an hour. It made us smile to think about how our bodies surprised us. Finally, we sat in peace for a while beside the temple at the top.
It was the moment of sanity I was wishing for the entire day. Tung is difficult and far and hence less touristy. After some quiet time, we realized, we were the only two people at the top of this fort. After the chaos of Tikona we had seen, this made our souls smile.
We took pictures to our heart’s content. I sang as usual out of the joy of actually making it here. I couldn’t stop singing, grinning. We both sat and engraved this beautiful Tung memory before we headed back down.
We almost ran down. I couldn’t stop grinning but a part of me was worried too. What next? Phase one done, now what? How and when will you be home? I sort of made my mind ready for a lot of walking and a hard time for phase two of this ‘let’s do Tung’ decision.
At the base of the fort, there is a beautiful banyan tree, we had decided to click pictures of once back. This tree is so huge, you almost take a round of it to begin the trek. As we were in awe of this beauty, two people walked and asked if we wished to eat. We said no but described our transport situation.
He dialled up two numbers and said, you don’t need to worry, we know this company vehicle, it will drop you till Lonavla. He asked us to go down and sit at his hotel while he joins us back in a while.
We found his hotel, ordered some tea and lime water. While we sipped our drinks quietly, we couldn’t believe what just happened. Are we really sorted? That’s it. I thought we would walk for hours, nothing, I couldn’t believe we were being so blessed.
We took the card of the owner, thanked him a trillion times and left. The ride was beautiful at the back of a small truck. It was full of clothes. We settled our bums on soft clothes and leaned back.
I played music on my phone. We sang and had a relaxing ride until Lonavla. It felt like a reward for the efforts of the entire day. It was so relieving and made me so unbelievably happy, I was dancing within!
The driver was as generous as the owner of that hotel. He refused to make money. Since we had a whole train journey back home, he even insisted to keep the money and not pay him at all. We paid him whatever we thought was good enough, thanked him and left.
We ate an early dinner and headed to the platform. We got Indrayani Express again as if this train only wished to end what it started for us today. It bought us safely back home. Thank you Indrayani Express for existing!
This day was passion-driven. Two passionate trekkers, mountain lovers created a beautiful adventurous memory. We met two passionate men, working towards the betterment of humanity.
I would end this post with a request. A request to think about what is it that you are truly passionate about? How much of you are you really investing in for this passion? This post clarifies the true meaning of passion. I hope that it gives you a good thought-provoking kick start for the year. @nisha_navgie on Insta to talk anything further.