Bhimashankar

I have been to Bhimashankar a couple of times earlier. Every time it has been a memorable experience. It is quite a tough trek. The route to take in the monsoons is the Ganpati ghat route.

This route is most beautiful with several divine galleries along the way. We get to see what a tropical rain forest is all about. Yes, it is a dense jungle all the way.

The last year we had planned this trek. But because I was not feeling upto the mark, I cancelled my participation. After completing the trek, my friends (definitely in good intention) remarked that the trek was so tough that I would not have been able to complete the same. It was good that I had not joined them. That really hit me where it hurts. It was me who had planned the trek, told them the route and also went to the extent of telling them landmarks in the forest where one had to take turns in order not to lose the way.

It was a challenge to me. Yes I agree that Bhimashankar needed a lot of endurance. There were some stretches which were scary and extremely trecherous. If we miss the route, then we have to climb rock to make it back. And with my fistula it is really tough. But yes, it was not impossible.

As a dialysis patient, we see death very frequently. I have seen so many of my fellow patients ending their innings and that has sort of diluted the fear of death in my mind. So the trecherous rock was just another part of the same story.

This time we kept the group very close. We were only four of us. We dissuaded the less fit from joining us (I guess fitness is in the mind otherwise how would I qualify). And we set out...............I had taken the challenge......the challenge to set new benchmarks for myself