My First Outdoors Experience
I had never heard the word trekking till quite late in life..being a laid back guy who was not very much interested in outdoor activities, it was quite by chance that I got hooked to trekking and backpacking...which has now become one of my major hobbies.
It was first in Hindustan Lever that I heard about trekking. Dr. Siddheswaran used to lead quite a few people and go around the Sahyadri visiting the innumerable forts and spots and enjoy the outdoors. One such monsoon weekend around 13 years back, we had all planned a "trek" to Ajoba or Aja Gad near Asangaon. It was also supposed to be a nite trek, where one could specifically see bioluminosent algae on the trees which used to glow in the dark. Being a lover of birds n gardening in general (we had umpteen potted plants in our terrace), i pitched in for the trek.
We left late evening by train and reached Asangaon by around 8.00 pm to catch the last bus to Dhene, the base village of Ajoba. "Ajoba" mean granpa in the native language and the hill looks like a grandpa lying down on his side.....literally. It was pouring badly and we reached Dhene at around 10.30 pm .. Our guide Dr. Siddheswaran knew quiet a number of people in that village and that helped us get a few sq.ft of dry space to have our dinner which we had packed up along with us. Then the real fun started. The trek started at around 11 and we reached the first plateu of Ajoba where the Valmiki Ashram is situated at 1 at night. It was an amazing experience in itself. We changed to warm clothes, pulled our sleeping bags and went to sleep. The next morning, all refreshed, we made tea, and drank it along with the biscuits and bread and then took up the challenge of climbing to the top......took us an hour and half of touch climb to reach the col which is named Sitecha Paalna which is the place where Sita is supposed to have put her sons Luv and Kush to sleep in the swing. There are numerous water tanks cut into the rock for water and the scene from there is superb.
This was my first trek......and it hooked me alright....have been trekking since then for the last 13 years
Ravi
It was first in Hindustan Lever that I heard about trekking. Dr. Siddheswaran used to lead quite a few people and go around the Sahyadri visiting the innumerable forts and spots and enjoy the outdoors. One such monsoon weekend around 13 years back, we had all planned a "trek" to Ajoba or Aja Gad near Asangaon. It was also supposed to be a nite trek, where one could specifically see bioluminosent algae on the trees which used to glow in the dark. Being a lover of birds n gardening in general (we had umpteen potted plants in our terrace), i pitched in for the trek.
We left late evening by train and reached Asangaon by around 8.00 pm to catch the last bus to Dhene, the base village of Ajoba. "Ajoba" mean granpa in the native language and the hill looks like a grandpa lying down on his side.....literally. It was pouring badly and we reached Dhene at around 10.30 pm .. Our guide Dr. Siddheswaran knew quiet a number of people in that village and that helped us get a few sq.ft of dry space to have our dinner which we had packed up along with us. Then the real fun started. The trek started at around 11 and we reached the first plateu of Ajoba where the Valmiki Ashram is situated at 1 at night. It was an amazing experience in itself. We changed to warm clothes, pulled our sleeping bags and went to sleep. The next morning, all refreshed, we made tea, and drank it along with the biscuits and bread and then took up the challenge of climbing to the top......took us an hour and half of touch climb to reach the col which is named Sitecha Paalna which is the place where Sita is supposed to have put her sons Luv and Kush to sleep in the swing. There are numerous water tanks cut into the rock for water and the scene from there is superb.
This was my first trek......and it hooked me alright....have been trekking since then for the last 13 years
Ravi
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Merwyn
http://merwynsrucksack.blogspot.in/
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