I was particularly grinning on the way back home as Padargad fort felt like one big embrace. Each time I have climbed up a mountain, the breeze has made me feel like the mountain hugging me. But, Padargadh feels like the mountain has embraced and crunched you so hard that you are almost trying to escape it from the middle.
I have never felt so close to a mountain before. We pulled ourselves up from in between rocks that are strongly held from two huge mountains on both sides. Could receiving a hearty embrace from a mountain have any other physical meaning?
The second weekend of January, and I am on the way for the second trek for the year, dream or what? The day did feel like one. I wasn’t expecting it to be a trekking day at all, and it turned out to be one of the finest…
Saturday was heavy workwise, I came back home and yet was working till late afternoon. Finally, brain drained and I slept for a while. I got up to realize I had a school reunion to attend and work was incomplete still. In a fix what to do, I got ready and left.
I love the school I belong to. It has given me the basis of my being. But I am also a person who doesn’t live in the past. I learn from stuff and then let go, try to make the now better. Clearly whatever I had to learn from school was done and reunion in my process system is something I could easily skip.
Yet I had a feeling I should go for it, just to know and feel that we are all sailing in the same boat, struggling, figuring life out. And that did happen, each person I met had chosen paths and were onto their own journeys of figuring life out.
I had fewer drinks so as to be able to be on the trek the next day. Yet, I was tipsy. I came home, completed my work in hangover and slept. Head aching and spinning I headed for the trek.
I love Mufasa rides. (Sanish’s Royal Enfield) I have had a certain heart for bike rides and it has only grown since Mufasa came into our lives about two and a half years ago.
As we rode till this amazing Mirchi Vada Pav place on the way, the ride made my head spin more. But the vada pav calmed me down. I haven’t had a better Vada Pav ever. It had the usual groundnut chutney, the green theccha, along with mirchi bhaji as a compliment with the Vada Pav plate. Mirchi Vada Pav in Neral is the place to be for any foodie or specific Vada Pav lover!
We reached the base village Khandas, parked all rides and began our trek. My head wasn’t still stable, I hate the way my body functions after each drunk night. It makes me regret drinking. But, as usual, the mountains made me feel better.
The first few minutes of the walk up was quiet. It was weird because the trek mate I was walking with wasn’t the one with whom I ever walk quietly. Perhaps both our nights before were immensely hard and our bodies were trying to adjust being in the mountains.
Soon through trial and error, we reached the first chimney patch of the Padargad fort. I don’t know how to explain it rightly – the chimney is a tiny passage to move up where you have to pull yourself up with a few grips only. It requires mental ability to decide which grip to hold on to and of course some physical capability to pull oneself upon such tentative grips.
There is a way to climb up a chimney pass, you can check so on many videos available online. But that is not how I climbed it up. Thanks to my smallness, it turned out to just another pull myself up kind of passage.
If for me my smallness helped, for Sanish his hugeness helped. He used this lower body strength to secure grips and climbed up. I have no idea what the right way to climb up a chimney is, but all five of us climbed the passage up in our unique ways.
Soon, we reached the next chimney passage. This was even tinier with slippery mud below. I climbed up first like the last patch and took the bags of everyone up. Looking at how thoughtfully each one of my trek mates came up I realized how there is no right way to climb up a mountain ever.
Now, the next hurdle was a curvy rock patch. It has all grips on the right side and has the steep side to the left. It isn’t difficult or risky, just the curve makes it look like it’s an invitation to death.
Five of us climbed that up quickly, reached the top of the fort to the caves. Ate there finally and had a good nap. Post which we began to descend. Since we had seen the struggle on the way up, we thought it would be a task to get down. But, to our surprise, we descended all patches soon.
I think this was by far the finest efforts by our group to manage a trek as such with difficult patches. We used a rope while getting down effectively. It helped us and didn’t eat up our time. It felt like the full day was written down precisely and all group members knew their roles by heart and just followed it all step by step.
If only each trek would give such a precision feeling! But, at least this one did. On the way down, I walked with the same trek mate I began the trek with. This time we couldn’t stop jabbering. We met after a long time and there was so much information to be exchanged.
We reached down, rode to Kasheli village ate and left. I still couldn’t believe that it was my second trek for the year already and Mufasa ride was making it feel more dreamy. I reached home and had one of the most peaceful bedtimes for the year so far.
some feelings are hard to express and even harder to write down. this hearty embrace was a full day of such feelings. @nisha_navgire anytime to exchange more stories.