The unsuccessful trek

It had been more than 7 months that I had been for a trek. The last one was when I was back in Bangalore in June 2008 to Kodachadri. In Bangalore I was lucky enough to be on 6 treks in a span of 16 months that I was there. I had expected that once I return back to Mumbai I would be able to go for treks more frequently.

For the last few months I have been keeping bad health due to which I had to miss out on 3 treks. On Saturday, 31st January, when Ram called to enquire if I would accompany them to Peb I readily agreed. With very little background info (unlike me) I moved out on Sunday. I boarded the 5.19 am Karjat local from Dadar. It was me, Mandar, Ram and Sumedh. It was nice to meet up with college friends after more than 2 years.

The following is the link to some of the snaps I managed to click:

http://picasaweb.google.com/cjagtap/Peb#

We got down at Neral station at around 7.30 am. It was not as chilly as I had thought it would be. We ventured into a nearby hotel to have snacks and ran a bill of Rs. 258. This included 10 idly’s we had taken for lunch as a parcel. In addition Sumedh was carrying rotis and egg omelets, while I was carrying upma.

After getting down at the station we have to cross the tracks to get on to the west side (Platform no. 2). From the station we have to walk for about 5-6 kms to reach the base of Peb mountain. We have to pass villages named Mamdapur and Mohachiwadi on the way. While walking towards Peb we see the mountain of Matheran on the left and Peb on the right.

Once we reach the base of the mountain we have to follow the electric poles to keep track of the correct route. But based on our experience I would strongly suggest that you take a guide along. We did not take one and the following is the account of what followed:

In the very beginning itself we were lost for about 20 mins. After getting onto the right track (scraping ourselves through thick shrubs), we started to ascend fast. After about another one hour, we reached a huge but dry water fall. This fall continues right upto and beyond Neral station. Here just ahead of the fall you can find drinking water, which gets collected in a small pond from an underground stream. We asked a couple of villagers the way ahead. They told us that we could continue along the waterfall uphill, and that it will ultimately reach the pass (khind). Actually we had lost the path along the power lines in the excitement of reaching the top and in-between the lot of criss crossing trails. So we were supposed to reach the pass by climbing up the waterfall where we would again join the trail that we missed. Since both the locals advised us to take the waterfall route we did not bother going back where we had lost the route. Some time back the path split into three routes, the extreme left brought us to the waterfall, the extreme right goes along the power lines. But this one too splits after some time and one of the "pathlings" will take you towards Panvel.

So after replenishing our water stock we started climbing up the water fall. This way we had to climb huge boulders. Soon we reached a point where it was very difficult to climb. We backtracked a little and went on another adjacent path. This one had huge wood trunks laid on it which were termite infested and very slippery due to the crumbling wood under our feet. We crossed this patch and soon were greeted with a wall of stone and mud about 9- 10 feet in height. After some difficult climbing we were on top of it. Again after covering a short distance we were facing open rock faces with thick shrubs having thorns. We climbed a couple of such hurdles about 7 feet in height. In the end there was one which was 10 feet in height and no proper support to climb up. Here Mandar had a fall. He hurt his chest, arms and stomach. Fortunately it was just huge scratches and superficial bruising with no internal injury or fracture. In the end he did climb up this hurdle. But soon after Sumedh and Ram announced that the way ahead was too risky and possibly we will not be able to make it. We were just about 100 feet from the pass we were trying to get to. But before any of us had any serious injury we decided to back off. Now that the climbing up was so difficult the downward journey was jittery. By Gods grace we came back unhurt. At around 3.30 pm, when we were done with the hard task of getting back to the start of the waterfall, we thought that we should have some food. Nobody was in a mood to eat, but nonetheless thankful for the safe journey down. We still had some distance to go before we reached the base village.

A lot of credit goes to Sumedh for helping Mandar get down the patch of rock where he had fallen while climbing.

At around 5 pm we were down and started our journey back towards home. Once in a while each of us looked back at the mountain which we could not surmount. It was not the usual gaze with which we trekkers look upon the place we have just been too. There was some dejection, some sadness and a feeling that when would be the time when we come back here again and actually climb up to the top. I am sure the next time around we would hire a guide.


At the hotel where we had our morning snacks, we had tea/ coffee. It could not revive our spirits. We boarded the 6.53 pm CST local which comes from Karjat. Once in the train my mood became a little better. I reached home at 8.30pm.

We should have taken a guide, done more checks on the fort before starting on the trek, been a little more alert. These things could have avoided the disappointment we had in the end. I t was my only trek in the last 7 months, my first one after getting back to Mumbai, after missing out on 3 previous treks.

I hope the next one brings a smile on our faces.