Rajmachi to Kondivade

Normally we carry a lot of glucose powder and ORS products when we trek. This time I was trekking overnight after a long time and the others for the first time. We were not having sacks big enough to take everything. Hence our stocks of these important supplements were low.

Our hosts told us that the way down would take us around 2 and a half hours. We started. The starting of the route itself was mucky. We were scared after the scare the previous day. WE kept to the rocks. It was taking time but we were ok with losing time. Losing our legs in that muck was definitely more scary.

The rocky patch started. There were luckily nice arrow marks made by trekking groups to make life easier for all of us. That was a really nice gesture from someone. This route as I remember was full of diversions and it was very easy to lose our way.

The rocks were slippery. It wasnt raining as heavily, but the way was quite dangerous. One slip and it would have become the slip of a lifetime. I had a fistula on the left hand. I had to guard it very carefully. Hence the levels of concentration required for me were much higher. The way was very steep as well. Thankfully there was no muck now, but there were rocks.

We would have trekked for around 2 hours. We reached a huge opening and met a group of trekkers ascending. We exchanged pleasantries and chatted as if we had known each other for years. It is so surprising that in the city when we meet anyone we know we dont have time to even shake hands, leave alone have a meaningful conversation. And here we were chatting with guys whom we had never even met, never even imagined that we would meet.

We asked them how long it would take us to reach the base. Pat came the answer ...3 more hours............we asked the same question again. We thought we had heard wrongly.

Maybe the villagers have a different benchmark of time. Maybe their watches run slowly or their feet move faster.

We continued the trek. It was like one steep descent followed by an opening with some beautiful scenery and then another steep descent.To add to the confusion were some insects which on the outside looked like mosquitoes. They were all over the place, in our face, stinging our legs and making the effort to concentrate even tougher.

Tough it was. My limbs had started aching. We stopped by a nice rivulet and had a bath. I actually lied down along the flow of the river and it was so refreshing, something that needs to be experienced more than expressed.

Maybe the photograph says more than words anyways.

We started from here refreshed and energised with some biscuits. Somehow, we managed to reach the village and had lunch at Vanvihar and pulled our weary legs back home.

I had managed to do an overnight trek. Yes, I ended up with aching thighs and red dotted designer legs (courtesy the mosquito like insects) but it was all worth the effort.

What an end to a most eventful and memorable trek!