Rajmachi - Preparations
Rajmachi is a beautiful place which is in between Lonavala and Kondana. The base village is around 22 km from Lonavala by foot. There is no level of difficulty as it is a bullock cart track. But due to the distance it requires decent levels of endurance.From the base village one can go to the twin forts of Shrivardhan and Manoranjan. There is a route from here that leads us downhill to Kondana via the waterfalls which we covered in the last adventure.
This distance cannot be covered in one single day. Hence we need to spend the night in the rajmachi village. As the organiser it was important for me to make everyone as comfortable as possible. We had to look for accomodation (either tents or a roof to stay under), food, if required the implements to cook the food, and sleeping bags etc. to spend the night in comfort.
We plan to visit this place on the 15th of August which happens to be the Indian independence day. It is also part of a long weekend. We look forward to a great adventure and fun.
But I was worried for everyone. I have trekked overnight on numerous occasions, but no one else had done it. Even I was going for an overnight trek after around 7-8 years. So I was not used to sleeping in alien conditions.
Thanks to the internet and my old trekking contacts, I could get the phone number of a villager who lives in Rajmachi village. I could arrange for food and a roof to stay for everyone concerned. That would mean everyone would have to carry that much less. We now had to carry only our bedding. More than half our load requirements were eliminated. Yet when it was communicated to the group there was dissonance in some quarters that we had to carry the bedding. Well, anyways I could not do more than this. So I let it be.
Human beings are so used to a certain degree of comfort that we expect these conditions wherever we go. We are ready to pay for it, but when it comes to organising voluntarily, there is no one to take the lead. Nor is anyone ready to lend a hand in the process. I guess it is because we have never faced a situation where we have been forced to meagre resources only to survive. Survival is the key. This is what dialysis teaches you. At least that is what it taught me. Live from day to day. Survive. Hang in there. There is truly so much in common between dialysis and trekking.
This distance cannot be covered in one single day. Hence we need to spend the night in the rajmachi village. As the organiser it was important for me to make everyone as comfortable as possible. We had to look for accomodation (either tents or a roof to stay under), food, if required the implements to cook the food, and sleeping bags etc. to spend the night in comfort.
We plan to visit this place on the 15th of August which happens to be the Indian independence day. It is also part of a long weekend. We look forward to a great adventure and fun.
But I was worried for everyone. I have trekked overnight on numerous occasions, but no one else had done it. Even I was going for an overnight trek after around 7-8 years. So I was not used to sleeping in alien conditions.
Thanks to the internet and my old trekking contacts, I could get the phone number of a villager who lives in Rajmachi village. I could arrange for food and a roof to stay for everyone concerned. That would mean everyone would have to carry that much less. We now had to carry only our bedding. More than half our load requirements were eliminated. Yet when it was communicated to the group there was dissonance in some quarters that we had to carry the bedding. Well, anyways I could not do more than this. So I let it be.
Human beings are so used to a certain degree of comfort that we expect these conditions wherever we go. We are ready to pay for it, but when it comes to organising voluntarily, there is no one to take the lead. Nor is anyone ready to lend a hand in the process. I guess it is because we have never faced a situation where we have been forced to meagre resources only to survive. Survival is the key. This is what dialysis teaches you. At least that is what it taught me. Live from day to day. Survive. Hang in there. There is truly so much in common between dialysis and trekking.
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