Trek to Prabalgad: Part II

At the start of the second leg of our climb, Sallu some arrow like marks and took the leaders hat from me.

KKs job here was to pray so that it doesnt rain when we ascend and descend. We started a near vertical climb and competely ran out of water. We then filled up on a narrow waterfall. Initially we just freshened ourselves and there was no good place to rest on the way up. There are huge boulders everywhere and we got a little cautious. Feroze first drank from the virgin stream. "Sahi hai", he said. Hurriedly, we all except KK quenched our thirst and filled bottles. Carefully, taking one step at a time and praying that we dont get lost, Salu took off. It was getting tougher for me and took brief pauses so that I catch my breath back. Boy, it was damn humid and since, we were ascending from behind a hillock there was no breeze. Yet we went ahead. After 40 minutes or so, we saw remnants of the Prabalgad fort. There are around 4ft high or less walls at the periphery of Prabalgad. Seeing this we got a ittle relaxed. As we reached at the top what we saw was....................... NO FORT! :(. Lush green trees everywhere with some open green patches and some dangerous ooking ant hills. Thats it! No fort, no wals, no pillars, no cannons and no shit. So, I decided to give something back :D ha ha..

We were disappointed... totally. No signs anywhere. There has to be something. Suddenly, Sallu spotted an arrow on a rock. We got it. We decided to head in that direction. Here we go... After another 10 minutes we spotted a water resorvoir and again got disappointed as we reached closer. It was hardly anything. But wait a minute, as we looked around, we realised that we have reached at the edge of the Prabalgad. And the view of the surrounding hills was simply breathtaking.


Towards, north-west we could see Arnala, Matheran towards south, Kalavantin peak towards east.

Ah.. Nature at its best. At 2300 ft above mean sea level, KK and feroze sat right at the edge. Wow.. Me and sallu stayed back. Slowly, the clouds were ascending Prabalgad and we could see and feel this natural phenomenon. A walk in the clouds.
The breeze was strong. What a wonderful experience we had man. This brought smiles back on our faces. But we were yet to see any fort like structure. It was time for Salah and lunch. And trust me it was one lavish affair. Rajmah Masala, Aalo Parathas, Cheese Spread, Curd, Sauce, Pauha.. One heck of a meal :D

After a while we started our descent. We thought we could reach at the base by Asr. But thanks to Sallu and a beer can, we lost our way our descent was no less tough then our climb. Trekkers, bastards, have littered this entire place with plastic bottles and beer cans. And Sallu thought he'd seen only one. And it started raining cats and dogs. All the trails were washed and turned into muddy water ways. After a long time, we reached at a spot which I felt we came across before. I led the way and slowly but steadily we reached at the balcony near Thakurwadi. Phew.. we made it down and safely. An hour from here, we made to a point from where the pathe flattens. We took a bath in a small stream. It was here a white devil appeared in the form of feroze. Ha ha... good there were no villagers around else they would have surely worshipped him as a white god. Dude, be careful when you visit such isolated places next time. lol.... Quickly changed our clothes and offered our Asr here.

Salman gets Polka dotted(King of the mountains) jersy and KK gets Green(Sprinters).. ha ha.. Tour de Prabalgad!

As we looked back at the peak, we thought in our minds that at one point we were on top of the world and now we heading back to a miserable world carrying our bruised and broken bods. And slowly we saw a hot chick appearing from nowhere heading straight towards us.. I wondered, where did she came from. And indeed it was a female but she wasnt hot. She was part of a group who had come for some team building activity and all. Feroze asked one fat female if they would be leaving anytime soon so that we get a lift. Desparatley, ghar jaana tha. Could walk no more... We were so damn tired. And the rickshaw wala who dropped us at this same point, never took our calls since. A drunk local appeared from nowhere and advised us to hold fort coz it was time for a last ST bus.. Hurrah.. But we were fast losing patience. So, we decided to take a rick to Shedung Fata and ST from here. Eventually, we took the same ST bus and lucky feroze this was supposed to be the last trip of the bus and hereafter, it was to park at Thane Depot.

So, where are we headed next time guys.. some place but at half the altitude of Prabalgad. ha ha.. Bastards all those who said it is a 2hr climb and an easy trek. But hey I forgive them all for a good trip that we had... :D

Trek to Prabalgad: Part 1

Prabalgad, standing 2300ft. above sea level, is a forgotten piece of Maratha history located just 12 kms from Panvel Railway Station and in the vicinity of Matheran, the famous hill station.




We were planning a trek somewhere for a long time. We zeroed on this place since KK wanted to go to some place thats closer to Mumbai with lots of greenary and waterfall. Not much is written on this place on the internet except that it is a forgotten cousin of Matheran and ignore by Britishers, a fort is built here by some Umaji Naik and all. But frankly speaking most of them are written by some extra smart bastards who think that trekking is a childs play. Yes, u read it right. Most of them will surely misguide u. And we were.

We were a group pf 4.. feroze(Bawa), KK, Sallu bhai(not he aint Salman Khan) and myself.
The day was Sunday and time early morning.. in fact very early. I set my alarm to blast at 3:45 am. A few minutes before it rang.. there comes a message.. from feroze that said, "Wake up, rise and shine". And I rose up. I quickly removed stuff from my fridge.. Al-Kabeer Aloo Parathas, Amul Curd and started getting ready. At 4:30 am, I was ready. KK, Sallu and myself initially planned to meet at Santacruz at 5:00 am so that we can catch a fajr jamaat somewhere at Kurla before we head towards our destiny. As I took off, i thought of calling up Salman. "Salman, u ready"?? And guess what he said, "Are yaar mein abhi utha.". "Bastard", I said. Then I called up feroze and I told him that Sallu aint ready. "Bastard", said feroze too. After exchanging many phone calls we all finally met at a Kurla mosque offered Salah together in a jamaat and all set to conquer the conquered. ha ha..
Prabalgad.. here we come.

We caught a 6:14 local to Panvel from Kurla terminus and reached Panvel in an hour. From here, we took a ST bus to Shendug fata(marathi for intersection). This place is located on the Old Mumbai-Pune national highway before Karjat. Karjat is 11kms from here. We decided to take a rick to Vardoli-Thakurwadi, a tiny hamlet located on the foothills of Prabalgad. Its here that we found out a hidden talent in Sallu Bhai.. hes Marathi speaking abilities. Sallu started negotiating with rickshaw drivers in an unheard of dialect. It was more like a bhaiyya speaking in Marathi. Luckily there were no MNS guys around. We warned Sallu to not to speak in Marathi ever. The rickshaw dropped us at the foothills. And we started our trek towards Prabalgad. You can see this mountain from Shendug.

Prabalgad is plateau that again has another plateau half way down hill and Kalavantin pinnacle as a neighbour. Kalavantin is a match stick like thin peak rising from this plateau. It is difficult to do both in a day... possible for pro's which we arent. Anyways, as we headed towards our second base, the lower plateau.. i mean.. we saw tiny pug marks all on the way. We were scared as some writers on the internet had mentioned that this place is surrounded by wild animals and all. (First reason for calling them "Bastards"). Feroze actually removed out a Khukri and me a swiss army knife. After a while we met a local, walking barefeet on a stony muddy track and asked him if this true. Guess what.. he laughed at us. We shook our heads and started walking little faster. Feroze started the pace-making. The climb towards the second base was good. We began seeing more and more locals wondering if there is a temple ahead or something or a reservoir. We reached this place in just over an hour and almost exhausted. The weather was not good at all.. very humid but the lush green surroundings compensated for that. We halted at a stream on the way and washed ourselves off sweat and dirt and quenched our thirst. Bawa made a nice filling
Chesse Sandwich. There is tiled balcony in pink half way which can serve as a good halting point for all.

Re-juvinated we started our mission only to bump into a village with brick houses, wondering how on earth did they get stuff all the way here to build pucca houses and at 1400ft with no motorable road. For the second time, we shook our heads. Not because we were jealous of the villagers lifestyle but the fact that the stream passed through the village. And Im still praying that they dont let out their toilet pipes in it.. Shits man..

We traversed thru the village whose paths were lined with human faeces and dung everywhere. It was already 10:00 amd and we decided to speed up a little and we did as it was a plateau and easy with me doing the pace making this time. After a while, we asked the locals for directions and trust me they are very helpful. We looked the peak covered with dark clouds, we knew that this will be one heck of a trek. The slopes on Prabalgad are near vertical and for a moment we thought that reaching the top would be impossible and it nearly was. The climb was breathtaking and dangerous and almost vertical surrounded by dense forests. And if you ar watchful, there are signs (while arrows on rocks and trees) to guide you towards the summit. "Bastard" bloggers(2nd reason). We decided to skip the Kalavantin pinnacle for Prabalgad fort expecting to catch a glimpse of the forgotten fort. Futher ahead, we filled our water bottles hoping and praying that there were no more human settlements ahead. And our prayers were answered. The water in the small waterfalls is quite pure and
drinkable.

Now starts the second part of the climb and the toughest and the third reason for "Bastard"....

Cecil Hotel, Matheran

Okay let me not talk about how to reach Matheran from Mumbai and all. Instead, let me talk about this wonderful hotel located just ahead of Monkey Point at Matheran. The hotel is Cecil Hotel, owned and run by a Parsi Couple, The Iranis. There is not much on the internet about this hotel. So, a liitel help from my side to all fellow travellers.

We headed to this place only because most other Hotels were booked and there were many rooms available here. The month was December 2007.. supposed to be a peak season and rooms available. Hmmmmmm.. So, as we started on a cold Staurday morning from Mumbai, we had our doubts and plenty of them about this hotel and that it may be "chalta nahi hai". How else would you explain the availability of rooms and of choice in a peak season?

But all our doubts were laid to rest the moment we stepped inside the Hotel. We reached at 9:30 AM and the very friendly staff advised us to have our breakfast first before we actually "check-in". The breakfast was amazing and delicious. Like most Parsi hotels, this one too is well maintained and has a unique old world charm and set up. The rooms in large row houses are scattered throughout the huge estate. We were a group of 18 and so we booked 5 rooms with very basic amenities.

Rooms:
The rooms were clean and very well maintained and huge in size. A standard room with four beds will cost you 800 bucks per person per night inclusive of food and taxes and 1000 bucks for a room with A.c and T.V. per person. The Bathroom is as big as a room. The rooms are not apartment style but row houses type. The space outside rooms is also decent and you can spend time reading your favorite books or playing chess.

Food:
The food is pure vegetarian and delicious but for the sweet gujrati dal. Non-veg is not allowed. Food is served in a huge dining hall and in a fixed time slot. So, people are invited by the staff by ringing a bell(not door bell.. temple wali ghanti).... loudly from the dining hall and you know that food is served. I must rate 9/10 for food. The food is somewhat Gujju style thali but not entirely and the variety is pretty good.

Facilities:
Ideal for travellers who are not looking at modern and five star comfort. There is no swimming pool, no gym and other frills but it does have a huge lawn and plenty of open spaces. There is a TT table, carrom board and such other games. Then there is a full size badminton court as well. You can play cricket... lot of space for it. There is a disco too but it is opened only by request. Generator facility is there since the power supply is very erratic in Matheran. The cellphone coverage is also poor here.

If you need anything from the staff at any point then all you have to do is ring a bell(temple wali ghanti) which is placed on the table inside the room and the staff will come running at your door step. There is no hot shower and they provide hot water once during the day, in the morning. So, when u ready to take a bath, ring the bell and a person will bring a bucket full of Hot water in no time and place it in the bathroom from the back door. And if you have any doubts(i am sure you will), he cannot enter from the backdoor. You have to open the backdoor from inside, he enters places two buckets of hot water and you take a bath.

It is an ideal hotel for people who want to spend quality time with loved ones or by themselves.. totally isolated. You can start a bonfire at night... thats what we did and got lost in our own world. You stay here and you will surely feel in a different world. That said, this set up may not appeal every traveller but i enjoyed every moment there since it was a different experience all together. It was like going back in time.