Thursday, March 08, 2007

Sinhagad Trek

Background:

When somebody proposes an idea of going to trek that too on Sunday morning (read dawn) @ 5:30 AM, You are bound to have zillion frown lines.And if you have slept at 4:30 AM, your answer right away would be "Forget It!". BUT I still managed to say 'Yes' and I am quite surprised at myself :-).

Preparation:

P called up and woke me @ 5 AM ...$#$#$@@# ;-)...Got ready in 15 mins, munched few bourbon biscuits ( yup @ 5:30. Bliss! Try it.),put on the shoes and was all set to go.

Journey:

When you zoom through uncrowded silent roads , feel the breeze that run across your face, get a chance to watch lunar eclipse and its transitions, are involved in animated conversations and cracking jokes; "Was journey enjoyable?" becomes a redundant question.

We stopped in between to purchase 'Lays' and biscuits. So in the end, we nullified all the 'health' benefits of the trek by consuming the junk food :-)

Trek (Start) :

We parked the car on the side of road and started off to reach the base (paytha) of Sinhagad.Our calculations went wrong and we ended up walking too much even before the start of actual trek.
When we were about to reach the base, N took a lift (thankfully) and then brought the car to the base.

Trek (Actual) :

We started off at around 6:15 am. The terrain is not very tough but is reasonably long.

There were hordes of people (to my surprise) climbing up the terrain with us. What was more surprising was the fact that majority crowd consisted of aged people and children.

It is amazing to see the zeal with children do the things. There spirit is infectious.

I expected the trek to be physically stimulating, but it turned out to be mentally stimulating too.
People around were discussing on politics (kalmadi-isms, pawar-isms, etc.), film reviews, actors, cricket, business,family matters, friends, absolutely any topic under the sun(literally!).

It was fun to hear people's views.

We had almost reached the top when N had dehydration; hence we rested for a brief time and then I and N started descending back.

Trek (End) :

The return path was much easier. Also, we had curd, lime juice (yummy) on our way down. We were still hungry hence went to a restaurant and had 'poha'.

I observed that rates are not written anywhere; be it restaurant or parking. You come to know you are exorbitantly charged only after you consume the things and at that time you can't revert back.

A great business gimmick I must say! (though it works only in tourist spots as people are in picnic mood)

Others came after having 'bhajji' and curd at sinhagad top ( I missed those :-( ).

It was time to return back.

After Trek Effects :

Slept for 5 hours on Sunday afternoon :-).

On Monday, friends and relatives cracked jokes on us, pulled our leg courtesy rave party news :-)

All in all, a very enjoyable and happening trek.