Bhairavgadh - My First Trek

This was my first trekking experience. It was one day trek in Sahyadri hill. Exact place is called "Bhairavgadh". It is a place in between Pune and Nashik. It was month of February. Saturday night, I along with group of other trekker, started travel from Pune via bus to reach the base village. On Sunday early morning 4'o clock, we started to trek from base village to reach the mountain peak. Then descend back to base village and we returned in evening back to Pune via same bus.

The first experience was very good with many learning. I hope to do many such trekking in future and learn new things from nature. I enjoy team outings, family travel and picnics. But I never got chance to do trek like this before. I am thankful to the "friend", who suggested me to spend some time in nature. In a week or so, I decided to trek this one. I was excited and nervous both at the same time. Excited, because it was my first Trek. Nervous, because the Trek level was difficult and was not meant for beginners. But the trek manager had told me that I can do it. So I had some self confidence.

Travel to Pickup Point

Saturday evening around at 9:15 pm, after taking blessing of my parents and Lord Krishna, left for Deccan bus stop. Started riding bike slowly since bus was supposed to start at 11 pm. It was 40 minutes ride from Wakad to Deccan bus stand. It was after so long time, I was driving in evening towards Pune. Traffic was less. It was bit cold today may be due to winter evening.

Fuel in bike was under reserve, so had stopped once for refill in between. Post that stopped at Deccan parking lot. It was just near to main road. Guy sitting next to table noted down the vehicle number. I parked vehicle there itself and went ahead. After parking need to walk a bit to reach Deccan bus stop. In couple of minutes, around 10 pm, I reached to Deccan Bus stop. I reached too early, no one was reached yet. Made phone call to Trek lead. He said, he will reach in sometime and asked me to wait near Bus stop.

One of the chair in front of the Bus stop was empty. I sat there and was observing people around there. Since it was night, very few people were there. There was one couple sitting on one side, next to my chair. And one guy sitting on other side on another chair. There was bus stop behind me, people were waiting for their buses. In front of me, there was Deccan R-mall. I could see people eating and talking in Octant pizza on opposite side of road in Deccan mall. Some auto guys were talking to each other in group. Some people coming to them and hiring auto. Some crazy people were fighting. It was calm environment with vehicle making noise.

Kick Off

At around 10:30 pm, some folks started coming with backpack. Trek lead also came. In few minutes most of people were reached. Bus also came in few minutes. We get into bus and started travel to base village.

Once bus started, Trek lead came in front, introduced himself as Trek leader. He told that only last 5 feet of this Trek is difficult, otherwise it is all easy. I felt bit relief. But next second he asked if there is any first time trekker in the bus. And it was only me in whole bus. To give me comfort, he said he will get each of us to the peak, it is all safe and nothing to worry. That gave me some confidence.

Now since we need to get up early in morning at 4'o clock, immediately after sometime I tried to sleep. Idea was to get enough sleep, so Trek would be more enjoyable. The bus was going through rough roads and was difficult to get any sleep. Kept eyes closed and was changing position every few minutes due to discomfort. Finally at 3:45 am itself we reached base village. Bus stopped and lights were on.

Trek lead asked us to get up, get fresh and take some breakfast. It was just 3:45 am still. I was reluctant to get up. Many people didn't woke up yet. So I also sleep few more minutes. Good thing was, I had some good smaller nap in few hours sleep. So I was feeling good. In sometime, I woke up and get out of bus. Got fresh and had breakfast. At breakfast, got introduced to some folks and made some friends. This friends were there with me, helping and supporting me during the whole Trek. I felt myself lucky I got some good friends.

After breakfast there was small group introduction session. There was one another bus came from Mumbai from same Trekker group. All folks from both bus were combined and we created a big circle in open ground. Then each one of us gave short introduction about themselves.

There were many people from different profession. Some from engineering, some from medical, some from film industry and some were still studying. So nice to see so many people coming from different background with common goal to climb the mountain.

Get Set And Go

Finally nearby 5:40 am, after counting total number of 38 trekker, we started climbing up in a row. It was very dark, so torch light was must. I started mine and was walking behind others. There were 5 trek leaders and 38 of us. One leader was at start, three were in between and one leader was at the end. We were given instructions to remain in between the first and the last leader. If anyone had to stop for any reason, should inform one of the leader before stopping.

I was wearing winter jacket and had good amount of weight in my backpack. That's because, I bring almost all item they asked for 🙂. In the list some were optional items, but I got them all. After trekking a bit, it was all sweating inside. One the way found that my torchlight is faulty. It was stopping in between and then I had to slightly hit by hand to get light again. Hitting techniques worked for good amount of time. But after some time, touch light stopped working completely. So then I had to start my mobile phone's flashlight now.

While climbing up, one thing, I observed that trekking needs a lot of focus, physical stamina, art of balancing body weight and mental strength. If single step is missed or placed foot on wrong and slippery stone, it can be problem. While ascend, I slipped at few places, but not much. Some techniques which I had seen in Bear Grylls TV show "Man vs Wild" on discovery channel, which helped me while climbing up.

After a while, following techniques I learned from experience and followed

1. In ascend, bend down a bit and use hands to hold rocks. This helps to balance body weight.
2. Use stick to cleanup the unwanted things coming on the way.
3. If it is slippery, use stronger stick, fix it on ground and then use it to get some better grip. This trick may not work in rock climbing. Only in some place it would be helpful. Also it is bit risky to put body weight on stick. Unless any other option, this should be last one to prefer.

Beautiful Morning

At 6:40 am, after walking for almost one hour or so, we reached open ground place. There we stopped for about one hour or so. It was still a cold and dark. Sun was about to rise and it was a beautiful place. We could see our target mountain peaks. There were only mountains we could see in all directions.

We took some photo, but they were coming all dark. In sometime, daylight increased and photos were coming clear than before. It was calm, cold and pleasant morning, which everyone would wish to experience it every single day.

At 8 am, after taking some rest, eating snacks and taking some photos, we were ready to climb it again. Now the distance was less, we could see our target mountain peak. Now climbing has become very steep than before. We could not just walk like before. There were many big rock coming on a way. It was like a rock climbing to some extent. After trekking for about one more hour, we reached base of mountain peak at around 9 am.

From there, last part was to be climbed with the help of rope and safety gear. And come down by rappelling. In safety gear we had one helmet and one climbing harness. Tech lead explained how to wear safety gear. Explained about different kind of harnesses and one we were using. And also told some do's and don'ts.

Traffic Jam in Mountain

Before we reached, there was already one another trekking group from Mumbai of 60+ people were there. Since there was only one way to go up and come down, people needs to wait. Also enough harnesses were not available, so we just needs to wait, till some folks goes up and come down. It was like traffic jam on mountain 😊

Almost 1.5 hours, I need to wait. Finally around 10:30 am, I got my turn. Immediately I wore the safety gear and attached harness. Then started climbing up with rope. Due to safety gear and rope, it was not that much difficult to climb up. After sometime, reached difficult part of 5 feet rock. Trek manager was there to support. Seeing him, my confidence was doubled. And I did not find much difficulty to climb that last 5 feet as well. Then we kept climbing up and reached mountain peak around at 11 am.

Reaching mountain peak gave me a sense of achievement. It was beautiful place, we were surrounded by mountains from all side. Air was blowing with high speed. It was calm, cold and pleasant atmosphere with just a sound of air. Sun was on top, but due to winter season and lot of air blowing, it was hardly feeling hot. We took lot of pictures from there and had snacks. I also got chance to see nearby mountains with my binocular, which I bring along with me. We seated there for 15-20 minutes, talking and enjoying mountain ranges. It was perfect place for self realisation. May be in older times, people might have came here for meditation.

Challenging Descend

After some time, now we had to start going down. I took first step down and got slipped. Some folks supported. I went slowly, but it was slipping so much. The problem was with my running shoes. There was not enough grip. Good thing was, Trek lead was nearby. Trek lead provided help and took my heavy backpack for sometime till we reached rappelling place.

Now there was big queue for rappelling, we waited again for almost 1.5 hour on stairs to get turn. Finally my turn came. Guy connected my harness with the rope and asked me to go down. I was very scared at first as the rope was slipping in my hands. Finally with some courage, I asked guy to loosen the rope. Then slowly managed to came down to base.

At 2 pm, I reached peak base. Took only 2 minutes rest and started going down. Since my shoes were not supporting and water bottle were also empty, going down as early as possible was better idea I felt.

In between there was natural water source. From there I re-filled the water bottles, which helped me a lot, along a way till we finished Trek. Every step going down was a challenge. I was slipping on every rock. To go down, I was not walking but crawling with hand support for good amount of time till we reached open ground place. In between, I was holding smaller tree branches to get support. Stick was also there. Good thing was, mentally I was becoming more focused and was going very slowly. My whole focus was to balance body weight and do not slip, but still many time I got slipped. In someway it was my fight with myself.

Descend was very difficult for me for 3 reasons

1. Due to non-trekking shoes, it was slipping
2. Sun was on top
3. Fear of falling was constantly hitting me from inside

After a while, we reached a place where we stopped for sometime for lemon juice. Then again started going down. Folks were doing chit-chat while descend. May be it was so easy for them. I was mostly quite all way,  my full focus was on balancing and to ensure not to get slip. Many times I slipped and hold trees to get back control. Around at 4:40 pm, I reached base village, a place from where we started in morning, safely with some minor scratches.

Goal Accomplished

Reaching base village gave me a sense of achievement and a relief from fear of falling down. I took sometime to clean up my face. Re-filled drinking water bottle. Then took lunch with group. Lunch was quite spicy for me. I can eat spicy food. But this was above my level. Eat some rice and chapati to fill stomach. Mostly was drinking water.

After lunch, seated there for some more time. Doing chit-chat with friends. Everyone were telling their own experience and past stories. We took some more solo and group pictures. Finally at 6:30 pm, we started back to Pune.

Many new things learned in this one day Trek:

1. Difficult times makes us more stronger and focused. As it happened to me while in descend
2. Difficult time doesn't last forever. Once we find the solution and keep following it, problems would slowly get faded and we no more feel it difficult.
3. Pushing limits or going out of comfort, gives lot of struggle initially, but it pays off later at the end. It feels good when done.
4. Our difficult time becomes easy, when experienced and expert people provide their help and support
5. Never fear to try something new just because of thinking of failure. More failures, will give more experiences and will get us closer to success.

And as popular Vivekanand's saying goes "Keep trying until goal is accomplished"

At the end, I would like to say Thank you to everyone to make this Trek memorable for me. It was wonderful experience. It will be in my memory for a life time. 

Hope to see you guys again soon in another Trek.