A Dream come True Journey

College days, friends are most memorable in everybody life’s. Like every one, I also had a nice group of friend who were full of enthusiasm. We did many one-day picnics. However, night outs were strictly prohibited coz as being a girl; it was difficult to get permission. It says that after college, the group get scattered. In our case, this was partly true. We still meet but not all, few of us are in touch till date. When we were in college that time we decided to visit Rajgad - the king of fort. We were dieing to visit this fort but that time finance was the problem and more than that a one night stay at fort was the big issue.

As said by Paulo Coelho “when you want something, the entire universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” Our dream is also on its way to fulfill after 4 yrs. Abhijeet, Pranav planned the picnic, and I immediately said yes to it. In the excitement, I committed to them but now the problem was there, how to take permission from family.

First, we decided everything like when to go, how to go etc etc. Then I asked my mom in presence of my younger brother. Because I was aware of the fact that once, he said yes then mom will not argue much. Moreover, my guess was right. I got the permission for night out, but I did not tell her that we are going on bike.

Oct 18, 2008 was the decided date for the trek. It was two days trek, so we have to collect food, shelter etc. I took the responsibility of food and Manasi decided to bring sleeping bags. Abhijeet and I did all the planning. We were very much excited. Abhijeet took the responsibility to be a leader for this trip. He used his leader ship skill in every step. “Excellence is not a skill. It is an attitude.” Moreover, Abhijeet has this attitude.

Pranav, Manasi and I met at Karjat station on Friday night. They went to pranav’s place and after that, I joined them. Pranav came to pick me up from my house. We did the packing and after little talk, we went to bed. However, because of excitement I was unable to sleep. After sometime, I do not know when but I slept. I woke up when I heard some noise from kitchen. Pranav woke up before us. It was 4.30 am in the morning. Then Manasi came, we took our bath and got ready for our trek. Abhijeet came at 5.30 am. We loaded our baggages on both the bikes. Pranav did all the hardwork. Finally, we were all set to leave. Abhijeet remembered the MTV Rodies show…we were actually looking like that.

We left from Pranav’s place at 6.30 am and took first halt at Palasadari- Swami Samartha matha. We did our prayers and moved ahead. The highway was as usual amazing to drive. It was always a fun on bike with Abhijeet but this time excitement was more as we had companion Pranav and Manasi. We were driving safely overtaking each other.

We took halt at lonavala and then did not wait for anything. We reached at Vajeghar- the base village, at around 12.15 pm, freshened up at nearby well and had our lunch in Hotel Suvela. It was hard to climb after a meal. The fort was very much stiff. Nevertheless, we were making the efforts to climb. Manasi was becoming restless as she was suffering from cold. The route was very confusing. We were breathing like dogs. It was difficult route. However, giving –up thought did not touch us as we made our minds already. We kept moving ahead. Meanwhile, when we took a short break, I lost my fastrack sunglasses. This disturbed me a bit but it was time being. The Sahyadri Lines were amazing. It was challenging, tiring, sometimes scary, crazy, and very historic trek, all the way to the top, nearly. Nearly because even though we climbed the fort, there was a small fort (Bale Killa) inside Rajgad fort which is even higher and it involves rock climbing.

We reached at Padamavati machi through Chor Darwaza at around 4.30 pm. It was a short cut and toughest route among the three. We quickly kept our luggage at Rameshwar Mandir, took a glance at padamawati Machi which includes Padamavati Mandir, Rameshwar Mandir, Sadar, Darugola Kodar and moved ahead towards Sanjivini Machi. We heard that, Sanjivini Machi is the Sunset point. We were rushing towards it, as we have short time in our hand. The road was very narrow, there was wall of Balekilla at one side and other side was open- deep valley. We saw few monkeys over there, huge honeycomb. This gave us a double thought, should continue towards the Machi or return. Because in sunlight it is quite safe but while returning, it would be our testing time. Abhijeet asked us to return but I wanted to go and see. I wanted to take a risk. So we moved ahead. After a long walk we reached at Vaghra Mukha, this was not exactly Sanjivani Machi but still able to watch sunset. There are many rocky seats on the hills, from which calm and charming scene of the setting sun could be conveniently seen, on the plains beyond horizon. It is awesome! In addition, the sunset is quite pretty! Abhijeet was little upset because of me. Still we all enjoyed the sunset. We did photography. We returned to Padamavati machi and rested on the rocks for a while. It was only 7.00 pm but darkness had covered the whole fort. Humming of bees was very rhythmic. Some clouds had roofed the moon still the climate was awesome. We were waiting to see the Moon out. Finally, it arrived; the moon light spread all over the place. We were listening gazals of Gulam Ali Sahab, Jagjit Singh, Pankaj Udas, marathi-hindi soft songs. It was like a live concert, all of us were very involved in all the songs. The silence took hold of the place. Nearly two and half hours we were in that state only. In addition, guess what, it was a surprise birthday party on fort for me. I cut the cake; they sung Happy Birthday song for me. I was very much grateful to all of them. It was marvelous night at fort. We cracked jokes on anything and just blast into laughing. At last, we put alarm of 5.00 am to see the sunrise and went to bed.

Next day we got up at 6.00 am, like previous morning, he was the one to wake up first. At last, we woke up, finished our morning stuff, had breakfast, and moved towards our next destination- Mission Balekilla. It was little difficult trek coz it involves rock climbing. Abhijeet warned us previous day only, that Manasi and I have to climb. The rock climbing was astounding. This rock climbing gave us full satisfaction of trekking. It was thrilling experience. The nature divinity has given all his blessing to this fort. It was flooded with different coloured flowers. The surrounding had different shades of green colour. We waited there for some time, roamed around, and had our breakfast. “It is safe though climbing but will it be safe at the same time as coming down,” this thought just cross my mind while climbing. However, this is a fraction of second’s thought. We enjoyed the rock climbing and came down in 15 min.

Then we moved towards the Suvela Machi, this is bit easy coz of parallel road. After one-hour walk, we reached at our destination. From that point, one can see Balekilla and Padmavati machi at a time. This gave you the proof of expertise of those people who build this fort. The fortification is amazing. After this, we return to Rameshwar Temple. We freshened up at Padamavati Lake, had our lunch, and got ready to walk down. It took only one and half hour to reached the Vajeghar- village. We gave last glimpse to the fort, saluted its owner- The Great Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and went towards our bikes.

We again tide our luggage on both the bikes and Rodies were ready to rule the roads. We reached at karjat at around 8.45- 9.00 pm. Beyond doubt; it was a Dream Come True Journey for all of us.