Karnala

Karnala was my very first trek. I had been there with the students of Nature club of Wilson college when I was studying there. I have been to Karnala twice thereafter, but everytime I felt nostalgic. This was the beginning of a beautiful journey which took me to so many beautiful places so near to the concrete jungle where I stay and yet so cut off from civilisation. Its an amazing experience.

Karnala is located in the midst of a bird sanctuary. Hence it is a nice place for bird watching. Well I am referring to the birds that can fly.......It is located around 15 km from Panvel and the trek route starts from the apiary at the bottom of the fort. There are 2 routes to the top. One from the right of the tar road and the other from the side of the gate of the apiary.

We had a lady with us and hence we chose the easier one. We wanted to reach the top.

The road was not so tough as it was well defined. I had my dialysis the last night and I was quite dehydrated. My lower back started complaining just 5-10 minutes into the trek and I had to take a seat and rest it for a few minutes. I was not able to understand the cause of the back pain. Then I took some fresh lime water which we were carrying. I had a glass full and I felt better. I got back that energy that is required while trekking. The view of the fort was spurring me on to move ahead.

We were resting in between as it was quite sunny and humid. We were losing lots of fluids from the body. I knew there were water cisterns at the top, but had also heard that the area around the cisterns was now infested with honey bees. Hence it was extremely dangerous to go near these water sources.

But we were losing water and we needed the same to move up. The view on the way was nice to say the least, but maybe was not comparable to the one on the way to Bhimashankar.

The last stretch started. One of our members was too tired and was unable to manage the steepness of the climb. A couple of us decided to give company to the weaker person and let the remaining go to the top.

I missed the nostalgia of reaching the fort, however it was important for us to be with our group member as she was also the lone lady.Plus we had come to trek and not reach the top.Reaching the top was only a threshold from where we could go no further.

We had some snacks as they returned from the top. And then made our way back.

The way back was too slow again. Our weaker member was finding it difficult to take every step.

Finally we reached the base and checked out the apiary as well. We took a mini bus run by a driver making extra money after dropping his hosts somewhere. We started for Mumbai after a sumptuous meal in Panvel.

It was a nice feeling after losing all that sweat. Well urine is something that I am not able to pass. Hence any detoxification is anyways welcome.

Maybe this post should have read Why I trek 4!!!